It is finished. DONE.
I went to ge tthings printed and bound yesterday. Of course, the colors were atrociously dark so I had to do some last minute lightening. Unfortunately, even though I went in for test printing a week ago, the prints came out beautifully but darker than expected and a little blurry. So while it is "over" and I've completed the project for due date's sake, I am not fully pleased. But printing aside, I think the project is GREAT. The photography came out much better than I thought it would and my client was very happy indeed with the outcome. In fact, we may go on to work further on the book proposal and make it a reality. That would be WONDERFUL. I already have a couple of design projects lined up so it really is on the up and up.
Back to the project. I am turning it in and my heart is singing about a million lyrics of joy. I would definitely say I have grown in my design capabilities, although, there is plenty of room for improvement. I already have my next design goal in mind [learning Flash and gaining a better understanding of the RGB and CMYK relationship... the discrepancy between what I see on the screen and how things print is honestly the bane of my existance...]. Anyway-- Forward, march!!!
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
It's Been So Long
AH! I completely left my blog untouched for 2 weeks. But, not to worry, it was with good reason. I have been terribly busy with photoshoots, editing, and designing. Whew! So let's cover what I've completed...
Photography. It's allll done! We have themed shots, and icon shots. About 800 photos to choose from in all. [I finally understand and appreciate when they warn the models they only have 50 frames on America's Next Top Model! That many frames only produces 3 or 4 perfectly worthy shots...] Some of them are seriously lacking in inspiration, but others are breathtakingly gorgeous. I'm so excited for my final publications.
The logo. It looks so sexy with it's juicy color and high resolution. We're talking professional quality here people. And the "client" has seen it and loves. 3 cheers for getting it right!
The Look Book is DONE. That's right, I have put it all together and it looks fabulous. Now it just needs to be edited, and printed. It's been a fairly tricky process in that my client is VERY self-concious [which isn't a bad thing in terms of PR...] so picking photos that speak to the cohesiveness of message and ddesign has been difficult. She wants to feel pretty [can you blame her] but sometimes fails to see the beauty in particular photographs. Alas, that is the purpose of such a project... learning how to work with a subject and produce something more than satisfactory for both the client and the public or whomever it is inteded for...
That's well and good, you say, but what all is MISSING and queued up to be completed? Well, my good friends, I must complete the book teaser for starters. I need to finish the content and layout examples. It won't be very large, but it still needs to be sharp as a tac in terms of design. After all, it's basically a proposal. Also, I need to finish putting together all of my research. It is currently scattered like a broken string of pearls. Finding and picking them up is easy enough, but they are all over the place and will take some time getting back in order. Yikes.
With that, I must leave you so that I may continue working on my project. But you need some visual munchies to hold you over [I know, words are not enough] until the finished product. So I leave you with a few particularly gorgeous photos of the lovely Ruby Randolph. [My amateur photography skills are gonna leave you jealous and wanting more... I know.]
Photography. It's allll done! We have themed shots, and icon shots. About 800 photos to choose from in all. [I finally understand and appreciate when they warn the models they only have 50 frames on America's Next Top Model! That many frames only produces 3 or 4 perfectly worthy shots...] Some of them are seriously lacking in inspiration, but others are breathtakingly gorgeous. I'm so excited for my final publications.
The logo. It looks so sexy with it's juicy color and high resolution. We're talking professional quality here people. And the "client" has seen it and loves. 3 cheers for getting it right!
The Look Book is DONE. That's right, I have put it all together and it looks fabulous. Now it just needs to be edited, and printed. It's been a fairly tricky process in that my client is VERY self-concious [which isn't a bad thing in terms of PR...] so picking photos that speak to the cohesiveness of message and ddesign has been difficult. She wants to feel pretty [can you blame her] but sometimes fails to see the beauty in particular photographs. Alas, that is the purpose of such a project... learning how to work with a subject and produce something more than satisfactory for both the client and the public or whomever it is inteded for...
That's well and good, you say, but what all is MISSING and queued up to be completed? Well, my good friends, I must complete the book teaser for starters. I need to finish the content and layout examples. It won't be very large, but it still needs to be sharp as a tac in terms of design. After all, it's basically a proposal. Also, I need to finish putting together all of my research. It is currently scattered like a broken string of pearls. Finding and picking them up is easy enough, but they are all over the place and will take some time getting back in order. Yikes.
With that, I must leave you so that I may continue working on my project. But you need some visual munchies to hold you over [I know, words are not enough] until the finished product. So I leave you with a few particularly gorgeous photos of the lovely Ruby Randolph. [My amateur photography skills are gonna leave you jealous and wanting more... I know.]
Tuesday, 4 August 2009
Uhhh. Ya.
I know. I know. It's Tuesday. You have been biting your nails all week and there wasn't a post to keep you updated. I'm late. But I wanted to have more to tell you lovelies...
So in the past week I have been working on the more artistic bits of my project. Titles for the client's first book as well as content. Flourishes and secial touches for the book design. Logo design. You will be pleased to know that I am in the process of transferring sketches to photoshop and making them suitable for design and layout work. I like them and so does the client. How did we get there?...
Well I took her out to look at fabrics, colors, and patterns. I took pictures and notes on her ideas and loves for colors and textures and prints. So I have arrived at different elements of designs and sketched them out so they can be pieced together and used for different flourishes and layouts on the book. Instead of copying patterns I had already seen or just copy and pasting, I decided to go ahead and just create my own. So not only are they unique, but they meld together her different inspirations and emotions to be shared with her and her adoring public. Fabulous.
The logo was actually fairly easy. I had an original idea that seemd very basic and possibly done before, but the further I got sketching out other ideas and possibilities, the further away from the brand I strayed. The original idea was the most true to the client, and the brand. It was organic in the sense that it was something that any person might come up with it as their logo or insignia, but everything about breathed the essence of the client and her brand. So I'm sticking to it!
I know that plenty of people would say that I need to branch out and try different things, etc. But I am taking a hint from Paula Scher: If it works than it works. When she designed the Citibank logo after their merger she did it in all of 15 minutes on, like, a paper napkin!!!! She discussed how clients like it when you take your time because they want to feel like they are paying for something but when you are good you are good, and when it's right it is right. That is the way design works. The best design doesn't always come from hard laborious thought and work. Sometimes it is just a random spark-- a synapse out of millions. And Citibank got what they paid for-- great design. Their logo is PERFECT in every way that a logo should be: simple, recognizable, memorable, and usable.
This logo happens to be one of my synapses out of millions. It just works. Disagree if you will, but I've made my design decision. [But you don't get to see it yet, HA!]
This week, we go shopping! Oh yes. the client and I are going hunting for the looks. Since this brand is about a personality, she has to have a "look." I've decided that it's not going to be too brand heavy. This personality may be about "fabulousness" but what is unique is how personable and reachable she is. It's nto about lording greatness, wisdom, and beauty over everyone else. It's about reaching people from where she is to were they are. What she has is unique, but you can get there too. The idea is to be your own original and be just as fabulous... not some New York skalking designer glamazon afraid of a polyester dress or an item off the sale rack.
Also, I will be putting together content for the brand guidelines as well as the book teaser. And as for the research, I am basically there. Survey analysis will be done next week, and I will be putting together a couple of short case studies of other self-made brands. And, unless my eyes deceive me, there is a photoshoot on the horizon... :)
So in the past week I have been working on the more artistic bits of my project. Titles for the client's first book as well as content. Flourishes and secial touches for the book design. Logo design. You will be pleased to know that I am in the process of transferring sketches to photoshop and making them suitable for design and layout work. I like them and so does the client. How did we get there?...
Well I took her out to look at fabrics, colors, and patterns. I took pictures and notes on her ideas and loves for colors and textures and prints. So I have arrived at different elements of designs and sketched them out so they can be pieced together and used for different flourishes and layouts on the book. Instead of copying patterns I had already seen or just copy and pasting, I decided to go ahead and just create my own. So not only are they unique, but they meld together her different inspirations and emotions to be shared with her and her adoring public. Fabulous.
The logo was actually fairly easy. I had an original idea that seemd very basic and possibly done before, but the further I got sketching out other ideas and possibilities, the further away from the brand I strayed. The original idea was the most true to the client, and the brand. It was organic in the sense that it was something that any person might come up with it as their logo or insignia, but everything about breathed the essence of the client and her brand. So I'm sticking to it!
I know that plenty of people would say that I need to branch out and try different things, etc. But I am taking a hint from Paula Scher: If it works than it works. When she designed the Citibank logo after their merger she did it in all of 15 minutes on, like, a paper napkin!!!! She discussed how clients like it when you take your time because they want to feel like they are paying for something but when you are good you are good, and when it's right it is right. That is the way design works. The best design doesn't always come from hard laborious thought and work. Sometimes it is just a random spark-- a synapse out of millions. And Citibank got what they paid for-- great design. Their logo is PERFECT in every way that a logo should be: simple, recognizable, memorable, and usable.
This logo happens to be one of my synapses out of millions. It just works. Disagree if you will, but I've made my design decision. [But you don't get to see it yet, HA!]
This week, we go shopping! Oh yes. the client and I are going hunting for the looks. Since this brand is about a personality, she has to have a "look." I've decided that it's not going to be too brand heavy. This personality may be about "fabulousness" but what is unique is how personable and reachable she is. It's nto about lording greatness, wisdom, and beauty over everyone else. It's about reaching people from where she is to were they are. What she has is unique, but you can get there too. The idea is to be your own original and be just as fabulous... not some New York skalking designer glamazon afraid of a polyester dress or an item off the sale rack.
Also, I will be putting together content for the brand guidelines as well as the book teaser. And as for the research, I am basically there. Survey analysis will be done next week, and I will be putting together a couple of short case studies of other self-made brands. And, unless my eyes deceive me, there is a photoshoot on the horizon... :)
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
I've Been A Bad Girl...
As can easily be noted, this blog has fallen into a state of disrepair complete with cyber cobwebs from lingering spirder-bots betwixt the last post and the gaping space up to now. Tsk tsk.
But no more! To keep myself accountable as a designer with a client to answer to [as opposed to a nutty creative person with answers but no explanations] my goal is to provide an orderly weekly update on my final project as well as tidbits of other design I am working on to fill the mean time. So here goes...
I have had a few meetings with my "client" and I have given her homework. Since I am branding her "personality," it is key that she plays an active role in the process. I have assigned her homework such as creating her own catch-phrases and quotes that embody who she is and wht she stands for. She loves the idea of performing but I have brought the brief back to reality by deciding on promoting her as more of a "lady's feminist and kitsch writer" instead of an all-around character and peformer. She has so many poignant ideas and things to say that are much more realistically introduced to the market through "fabulous literature" instead of an on-stage variety show.
The personality has also been greatly whittled down to key messages and insights. So my research is headed in a different direction than I had originally considered. I'm looking more into communicating "fearless feminine feminism" as opposed to glitter and general performer fabulosity. Hopefully, my research will be completed and analysed by the end of next week. There is much designing to be done, but I can't really get started until I know exactly what to communicate and HOW.
Interestingly enough, my research and work with the client has led me to a different realization of the outcome. I intend to produce brand guidelines as well as a book teaser for what would be her introduction to the market...
In other design news, I have been working on a couple of logo designs for anotehr brief. The logo is for a media team handbook. I considered goign the bland businessy route, but decided that a theme would be much more fun and representative of the media team. I am designing an "academy patch" logo. The idea revolves around high school handbooks and yearbooks/annuals. The magazine/handbook would be a publication given to newcomers to the media team to introduce them to the different teams, their work, and jsut a general handbook to joining the team.As a member of the team I have seen them to be a fun-loving and creative bunch and it's more liek an after-school club than a boring corporate team. So that is a bit of the background. It isn't finished yet, but I thought I would give you a little peek as to how it is coming along...
[The colors and depth haven't translated terribly well but you get the general idea..]
But no more! To keep myself accountable as a designer with a client to answer to [as opposed to a nutty creative person with answers but no explanations] my goal is to provide an orderly weekly update on my final project as well as tidbits of other design I am working on to fill the mean time. So here goes...
I have had a few meetings with my "client" and I have given her homework. Since I am branding her "personality," it is key that she plays an active role in the process. I have assigned her homework such as creating her own catch-phrases and quotes that embody who she is and wht she stands for. She loves the idea of performing but I have brought the brief back to reality by deciding on promoting her as more of a "lady's feminist and kitsch writer" instead of an all-around character and peformer. She has so many poignant ideas and things to say that are much more realistically introduced to the market through "fabulous literature" instead of an on-stage variety show.
The personality has also been greatly whittled down to key messages and insights. So my research is headed in a different direction than I had originally considered. I'm looking more into communicating "fearless feminine feminism" as opposed to glitter and general performer fabulosity. Hopefully, my research will be completed and analysed by the end of next week. There is much designing to be done, but I can't really get started until I know exactly what to communicate and HOW.
Interestingly enough, my research and work with the client has led me to a different realization of the outcome. I intend to produce brand guidelines as well as a book teaser for what would be her introduction to the market...
In other design news, I have been working on a couple of logo designs for anotehr brief. The logo is for a media team handbook. I considered goign the bland businessy route, but decided that a theme would be much more fun and representative of the media team. I am designing an "academy patch" logo. The idea revolves around high school handbooks and yearbooks/annuals. The magazine/handbook would be a publication given to newcomers to the media team to introduce them to the different teams, their work, and jsut a general handbook to joining the team.As a member of the team I have seen them to be a fun-loving and creative bunch and it's more liek an after-school club than a boring corporate team. So that is a bit of the background. It isn't finished yet, but I thought I would give you a little peek as to how it is coming along...
[The colors and depth haven't translated terribly well but you get the general idea..]
Thursday, 21 May 2009
Pull Your Skirt Down! [Your Briefs Are Showing...]
I feel the title is quite appropriate considering the subject of my project ["walk feminine, talk feminine..."]. I have spoken with my "client" and from our discussion and a creative brief I had her answer we worked on the content and foundation of this project. So I have worked on a brief to communicate exactly her desires, and my practical objectives for this final project.
THE BRIEF
Ruby Randolph: Identity Branding
Create a quantifiable representation of Ruby Randolph as a recognizeable and marketable brand.
Brand Objectives
To change perceptions of women in reference to standards of beauty, enjoyment of life, promote an attitude of optimism, and to affect day-to-day confidence of women to rise above optimism reserved for special occasions.
The brand will...
Inspire young and middle-aged women to better affect their world by improving their self-confidence through self-acceeptance and embracing their identity as feminine attractive women of substance and character as opposed to hard feminism or blatant sexual objectification.
Affect and shift the perceptions of women held by young to middle-aged men from chauvinistic tendencies to masculine and gentlemanly respect and appreciation.
Target Audience
PRIMARY: women 24-44- career women, busy women, love life but have or take little time to enjoy it, finished high school, desire to be/are highly educated
SECONDARY: men 27-50- career men, desire to be/are highly educated
TERTIARY: young girls 13-17- urban, suburban, looking for a feminine role model
Desired reaction of target audience...
Women will embrace their femininity with confidence. They will learn to exude femininity and appreciate it as a character trait and not a flaw.
Men will change their perceptions of women as sexual objects, the lesser gender, or simply as "other". They will change their own behavior from chauvinistic and appreciate their masculinity as it is complimentary to femininity and vice versa.
Young girls will look up to and aim to achieve their goals through their personal identity as women of character and beauty as opposed to whatever the next young starlet appears to be in tabloids or any other form of media.
The brand will promote...
Compassion
Glamour [appreciation, embellishment, acceptance, and delight of inner beauty translated to the surface]
Exuberance [passion, joy, optimism]
The brand¹s personality
Feminine, strong, energetic, and intelligent.
Tone of Voice
Feminine: soft, attractive, and bold
Intelligent: well-informed but not inconsiderately loud
Design Elements
- Name and logo
- Typographic style
- Colour palette
- Tone of voice
- Brand guidelines
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
The Final Proposition
Is it just me, or does the title of this post sound like the name of a Harrison Ford movie? Anyway... I have been thinking about the topic for my final project since the first day of courses in September. I pretty much had it narrowed down in February as to what I wanted to do. As I am interested in branding, I have decided to take on a business project.
I have a friend who has this "alter ego." She's a public personality. This persona isn't just another marketable name, rather she is very unique and powerful while being incredibly "feminine." I have always found it interesting and she has always talked about actually having a stage name and promoting this character. So I am in the process of researching and gathering background on not only creating this identity, but building it as a marketable entity and setting down some definite guidelines on how to publicize and use this identity from putting on a show to designing a coffee table book.
I am fully aware that this is a Goliath project, but I'm eager to get a bit messy and figure some things out about branding and identity building and management.
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
I Makes Lists To Organize Lists
For the sake of orderliness, I am deviating from my normal method of labeling coursework. Usually I jsut give it funny title that probably only makes sense to myself, but is still clear on the topic at hand. This time, there are 2 assignments, so I have labelled them according to the assigned prompts. Boring, I know, but also effecient.
8.1 Sustainable Design
My thoughts on sustainable design. Wellllll... It sounds like a good idea. I say it "sounds" because I do not believe it is currently an often enough reality. I say "idea" because not enough people have cottoned on to ACTUALLY doing it. Sure you can buy recycled paper, but that's been around since, what, the 80's? Suppliers of the appropriate materials are few and far between. At this point, it should 't be this difficult to get your hands on green materials. They are out there, most certainly, but how accessible are they? I think that the sustainable elements need to be within the reach of the public, and not just designers with the inside scoop. It's lovely to see designers create cheaper, recycled products and packaging that looks AND does good, but it's all just a passing fad if the public has to buy the finished product. It's like we've left all the cleaning up to designers... major designers.
Besides that, I also think that sustainable design isn't just about eco-friendly products and packaging... What messages are we sending as designers? The t-shirt may come in a recyclable wrapping that requires 30% less energy to make than traditional wrapping and also has a really cool graphic design... but who made the t-shirt and it is it costing? If the shirt came from a sweatshop inVenezuela, then we are still supporting whatwe aim to destroy. Sweatshops are not following shiny new eco-standards. Let's be serious, they don't even count when it comes to sparkling social responsibility [or any responsibility for that matter]. Sustainable design isn't jsut about how you promote a product, or how you make a product more efficient and eco-friendly, it's about the bigger picture. I care about the dumps being filled with toxic and non-biodegradable waste. I care more about the impoverished people playing and rummaging through it, living amongst it.
My goal as a designer is to run around that circle as much as possible. Ethically speaking, I can't design an ad or logo for a company's social responsibility campaign knowing the company sells sweatshop clothing in their stores. Nike ran a campaign to promote sports for kids in less fortunate socio-economic areas. It was a pretty big deal. But rum or on the streets, was that all of the promotional t-shirts and products for the campaign still came from sweatshops that already produced some Nike products. What kind of sense does that make? I am not saying it's all or nothing, because then nothing would get done BUT sustainability can't teeter on the fence. Sustainable design is not sustainable unless it comes full circle.
8.2 Ten Things I've Learned During Critical Debates...
1 Progress is a fancy way of looking behind you.
The most progressive designers know how to appreciate a good classic. The proof is in their design. They either have a gift for, or have learned to manipulate the classic principles. Too many people focus on the future of their field, and how they can be the next big thing. Progress isn't about invention. Believe it or not, none of us are creators. We're just people with plenty of raw material and imagination. There's this shirt that says "Bad Artists Copy, Good Artists Steal." So true. Either you will just carbon copy what you've already seen [and, hey, that works for some people but it's hardly monumental], or you will disassemble the parts and manipulate them into something entirely new. Regardless, it all comes form the same stuff... How well can you make you audience believe it doesn't?
2 Experiment.
So if progress is just a new way of using old things, then how else will we arrive to new conclusions other than experimentation? Every inventor was only manipulating the world around him. Edison did not just magically cough a light bulb. He just found a million ways "not to make a light bulb." The operative word being make. Edison had an idea and he worked it over like a fallow potato field in Ireland. The only difference, is that he yielded from it. As designers, we can't just assume every idea that looks good in our minds is going translate perfectly to the real world. Progress in design is about not leaving waters uncharted, and not giving up when it looks like failure. Test your ideas, and if they don't work then you have discovered another way not to design.
3 Who cares if it's just pretty?
Design has to be more than a nice combination of colors and interesting techniques. They have to come to a point. Design is rendered utterly ineffective if things just look good for the sake of looking good. Doritos and Kettle Chips both look tasty but for very different reasons. If the designers were only out to make the chips look good, then either brand could have easily ended up with each other's design. But the packaging says something. Doritos are punch-packed with flavor, exciting and edgy triangles of crunchy satisfaction and delight: faint-hearted tongues need not apply. Kettle Chips are down-to-earth savory potato crisps direct from the ground. Why mash up the potato with chemicals before baking when you can just slice up a fresh potato and lightly dust it with flavor? Sophistication in a slaty snack if I ever saw it. See the difference? Know what you are saying and to whom you speak. Design accordingly.
4 You are never merely a designer.
If you are in this for the making of pretty pictures, then modern art is down the hall, please leave my classroom. As a designer, you have to learn to say more than "Ohhhhh, I look good. Buy me." There a million products, and you see just about half of them every day. I went to a little shop on the corner to buy a soda, and I noticed that the place was FILLED wit color. All of the packaging on those products said a million things, and quite well, because I noticed the vast majority of them amongst all the clutter. But that is exactly why choosing a midnight snack is so hard... all of the chips look good! Well, if we are only designing to make things look good, we're just a piece of straw in a haystack. Welcome to the club. Design is about the total package. We ascribe to different roles in life: I am also a daughter, a sister, a friend, a Christian, a recycle-nut, a mostly vegetarian, a science nerd, an 80's freak, etc. How else can design affect these parts of me? As a designer, I have to see and address these ascriptions in my work. If my work is only telling my audience one thing, then I'm only reaching one target on one level, and that isn't much. Which brings me to my next point...
5 More than words can say...
My English teachers in high school used to always say "Show don't tell." Most of the kids in my class didn't get it. [Or maybe they did but didn't care enough to always follow the advice.] They wrote some okay papers, but my teachers were tired of hearing regurgitated information and ideas. If you can't manipulate words to say more than their superficial definition, then you will never be more than a mere journalist: reporting as is. Well the same goes for designers.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious, I know what it is but what is SPECIAL about your product? There are ten fizzy juice drinks. Why on earth should I buy your brand?"
"Well those guys are 100% juice [HA, from concentrate...], and those slender bottles over there are just overpriced 'lightly carbonated' water with an infusion of flavor [total rip-off]. But MY fizzy juice drinks are NOT just fizzy juice drinks. They are an experience for your taste buds. We don't lightly infuse anything, rather we have perfectly balanced some new flavors using only organic ingredients and fresh water and we've carbonated them just enough so they are light and refreshing and not, well... frat-boy belch inducing. And for this price, darling, we are so much more sophisticated than our price tag would have you believe. That's why."
Design shows. Use all of your elements, including the copy to show. Just by using a different typeface, the words will say something completely new, especially in combination with the color and form of your design.
6 Ethics are not nebulous.
Many people would have you believe that ethics have to be black and white while others would have you thinking it's just one big gray swamp. Well ethics are both. While ethics are not rigid, they have much more form than a dissipating smoke cloud. For people like Michael Moore [you can just guess as to how I feel about his dubious character], you get to pick and choose because ethics are here to serve you and make you look good. Well, ethics don't work like that. No one likes being lied to, and no matter how many ethical issues you address and land on the side of good, it comes down to your heart. If the heart of your words, and your work are not wholly honest and pure, your audience WILL find out, it is only a matter of time. If you don't prescribe to traditionally held ethical values and morals, then be honest about it. But do not pretend to be an ethical champion because you will find soon enough that some will blindly worship you, some will reject you for your betrayal, and the rest will put you on the back burner and ignore you. If you enjoy, even thrive, off of blind worship then proceed as you like. If you value the intrinsic nature of your work and want to share it with others, then respect the sensibilities of your audience. Ethics are not an accessory.
7 You can always do more than your part.
In terms of ethics and, more specifically, sustainability, you can always do more than your part. You are not just a designer. To only uphold ethical values in that part of your life and nowhere else is pointless. I love champions of global warming and climate change who couldn't stop tooting their self-righteous horn for one moment if it would save their life. Martyrs. I don't care if you want to reduce CO2 emissions by designing a hydra-car because you are a fabulous eco-warrior engineer. If you take 10-minute breaks to chain smoke between interviews for your ground-breaking new design, then you diminish the value of your sweat blood and tears. Sure you reduce the amount of poison puffed out by cars, but your addiction/habit is just another way of polluting the air. Again, ethics are not an accessory. If design is just something you do, then it isn't relevant to who you really are. But a responsible designer recognizes the implications of their work: If it is worthy of your hard work, then it is worthy of your personal life too. Do you part as a designer. Do your part is a son or daughter. Do your part as a commuter. Do your part as aconsumer. Do your part as a friend. Do your part as a human being. Do what you can.
8 Design rules the world!!!! [Insert diabolical laughter here]
People would be sad little schmoes walking about aimlessly in this world if it wasn't for design. Our world is beautiful because nature is the ultimate in design principles, and we had nothing to do with it. We get to work in the morning because a group of people designed a freeway or a commuter train to get us there. The only reason I can find a place I've never been to is because someone assigned and address, and another group of people created a system of signs so I could be given understandable directions. Save art in schools, because designers [engineers, and science geeks included] are glorified artists. Design rules the world. It makes our world beautiful, and without it we wouldn't be able to understand the world around us much less communicate in it. [That goes for you to laissez-faire, and capitalism. Business would be pointless if there was no artistic way for consumers to distinguish you from the competition.]
9 Don't let design become your business, it's a lifestyle.
There are two core reasons for this. First, if it's just a business, then it lacks real meaning and carries only the value assigned to it and that's just sad. If there is no feeling behind what you do then it becomes just another entity traded on the NASDAQ [or whatever, I don't get all that econ mumbo-jumbo]. Second, when you own what do as a part of who you are, you'll make more discoveries. As you experiment and implement your design work in your life, you will find news perspectives and ideas that would have otherwise been beyond your realm of understanding. Ingenuity would be limited, and design would suffer. Progress would be slow, and the visuals would just be terribly boring, and therefore rendered useless after awhile. Own your design work! It's beautiful.
10 Don't let design become your lifestyle, it's a business.
You call this a contradiction and I call it "balance." Don't take yourself too seriously. At the end of the day there is a client, and there are consumers. This isn't about you. That kind of design is for your spare time and for experimentation and expressing yourself. Don't forget the purpose behind each task, because your design will also suffer if you are always the only motivation behind it.
8.1 Sustainable Design
My thoughts on sustainable design. Wellllll... It sounds like a good idea. I say it "sounds" because I do not believe it is currently an often enough reality. I say "idea" because not enough people have cottoned on to ACTUALLY doing it. Sure you can buy recycled paper, but that's been around since, what, the 80's? Suppliers of the appropriate materials are few and far between. At this point, it should 't be this difficult to get your hands on green materials. They are out there, most certainly, but how accessible are they? I think that the sustainable elements need to be within the reach of the public, and not just designers with the inside scoop. It's lovely to see designers create cheaper, recycled products and packaging that looks AND does good, but it's all just a passing fad if the public has to buy the finished product. It's like we've left all the cleaning up to designers... major designers.
Besides that, I also think that sustainable design isn't just about eco-friendly products and packaging... What messages are we sending as designers? The t-shirt may come in a recyclable wrapping that requires 30% less energy to make than traditional wrapping and also has a really cool graphic design... but who made the t-shirt and it is it costing? If the shirt came from a sweatshop inVenezuela, then we are still supporting whatwe aim to destroy. Sweatshops are not following shiny new eco-standards. Let's be serious, they don't even count when it comes to sparkling social responsibility [or any responsibility for that matter]. Sustainable design isn't jsut about how you promote a product, or how you make a product more efficient and eco-friendly, it's about the bigger picture. I care about the dumps being filled with toxic and non-biodegradable waste. I care more about the impoverished people playing and rummaging through it, living amongst it.
My goal as a designer is to run around that circle as much as possible. Ethically speaking, I can't design an ad or logo for a company's social responsibility campaign knowing the company sells sweatshop clothing in their stores. Nike ran a campaign to promote sports for kids in less fortunate socio-economic areas. It was a pretty big deal. But rum or on the streets, was that all of the promotional t-shirts and products for the campaign still came from sweatshops that already produced some Nike products. What kind of sense does that make? I am not saying it's all or nothing, because then nothing would get done BUT sustainability can't teeter on the fence. Sustainable design is not sustainable unless it comes full circle.
8.2 Ten Things I've Learned During Critical Debates...
1 Progress is a fancy way of looking behind you.
The most progressive designers know how to appreciate a good classic. The proof is in their design. They either have a gift for, or have learned to manipulate the classic principles. Too many people focus on the future of their field, and how they can be the next big thing. Progress isn't about invention. Believe it or not, none of us are creators. We're just people with plenty of raw material and imagination. There's this shirt that says "Bad Artists Copy, Good Artists Steal." So true. Either you will just carbon copy what you've already seen [and, hey, that works for some people but it's hardly monumental], or you will disassemble the parts and manipulate them into something entirely new. Regardless, it all comes form the same stuff... How well can you make you audience believe it doesn't?
2 Experiment.
So if progress is just a new way of using old things, then how else will we arrive to new conclusions other than experimentation? Every inventor was only manipulating the world around him. Edison did not just magically cough a light bulb. He just found a million ways "not to make a light bulb." The operative word being make. Edison had an idea and he worked it over like a fallow potato field in Ireland. The only difference, is that he yielded from it. As designers, we can't just assume every idea that looks good in our minds is going translate perfectly to the real world. Progress in design is about not leaving waters uncharted, and not giving up when it looks like failure. Test your ideas, and if they don't work then you have discovered another way not to design.
3 Who cares if it's just pretty?
Design has to be more than a nice combination of colors and interesting techniques. They have to come to a point. Design is rendered utterly ineffective if things just look good for the sake of looking good. Doritos and Kettle Chips both look tasty but for very different reasons. If the designers were only out to make the chips look good, then either brand could have easily ended up with each other's design. But the packaging says something. Doritos are punch-packed with flavor, exciting and edgy triangles of crunchy satisfaction and delight: faint-hearted tongues need not apply. Kettle Chips are down-to-earth savory potato crisps direct from the ground. Why mash up the potato with chemicals before baking when you can just slice up a fresh potato and lightly dust it with flavor? Sophistication in a slaty snack if I ever saw it. See the difference? Know what you are saying and to whom you speak. Design accordingly.
4 You are never merely a designer.
If you are in this for the making of pretty pictures, then modern art is down the hall, please leave my classroom. As a designer, you have to learn to say more than "Ohhhhh, I look good. Buy me." There a million products, and you see just about half of them every day. I went to a little shop on the corner to buy a soda, and I noticed that the place was FILLED wit color. All of the packaging on those products said a million things, and quite well, because I noticed the vast majority of them amongst all the clutter. But that is exactly why choosing a midnight snack is so hard... all of the chips look good! Well, if we are only designing to make things look good, we're just a piece of straw in a haystack. Welcome to the club. Design is about the total package. We ascribe to different roles in life: I am also a daughter, a sister, a friend, a Christian, a recycle-nut, a mostly vegetarian, a science nerd, an 80's freak, etc. How else can design affect these parts of me? As a designer, I have to see and address these ascriptions in my work. If my work is only telling my audience one thing, then I'm only reaching one target on one level, and that isn't much. Which brings me to my next point...
5 More than words can say...
My English teachers in high school used to always say "Show don't tell." Most of the kids in my class didn't get it. [Or maybe they did but didn't care enough to always follow the advice.] They wrote some okay papers, but my teachers were tired of hearing regurgitated information and ideas. If you can't manipulate words to say more than their superficial definition, then you will never be more than a mere journalist: reporting as is. Well the same goes for designers.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious, I know what it is but what is SPECIAL about your product? There are ten fizzy juice drinks. Why on earth should I buy your brand?"
"Well those guys are 100% juice [HA, from concentrate...], and those slender bottles over there are just overpriced 'lightly carbonated' water with an infusion of flavor [total rip-off]. But MY fizzy juice drinks are NOT just fizzy juice drinks. They are an experience for your taste buds. We don't lightly infuse anything, rather we have perfectly balanced some new flavors using only organic ingredients and fresh water and we've carbonated them just enough so they are light and refreshing and not, well... frat-boy belch inducing. And for this price, darling, we are so much more sophisticated than our price tag would have you believe. That's why."
Design shows. Use all of your elements, including the copy to show. Just by using a different typeface, the words will say something completely new, especially in combination with the color and form of your design.
6 Ethics are not nebulous.
Many people would have you believe that ethics have to be black and white while others would have you thinking it's just one big gray swamp. Well ethics are both. While ethics are not rigid, they have much more form than a dissipating smoke cloud. For people like Michael Moore [you can just guess as to how I feel about his dubious character], you get to pick and choose because ethics are here to serve you and make you look good. Well, ethics don't work like that. No one likes being lied to, and no matter how many ethical issues you address and land on the side of good, it comes down to your heart. If the heart of your words, and your work are not wholly honest and pure, your audience WILL find out, it is only a matter of time. If you don't prescribe to traditionally held ethical values and morals, then be honest about it. But do not pretend to be an ethical champion because you will find soon enough that some will blindly worship you, some will reject you for your betrayal, and the rest will put you on the back burner and ignore you. If you enjoy, even thrive, off of blind worship then proceed as you like. If you value the intrinsic nature of your work and want to share it with others, then respect the sensibilities of your audience. Ethics are not an accessory.
7 You can always do more than your part.
In terms of ethics and, more specifically, sustainability, you can always do more than your part. You are not just a designer. To only uphold ethical values in that part of your life and nowhere else is pointless. I love champions of global warming and climate change who couldn't stop tooting their self-righteous horn for one moment if it would save their life. Martyrs. I don't care if you want to reduce CO2 emissions by designing a hydra-car because you are a fabulous eco-warrior engineer. If you take 10-minute breaks to chain smoke between interviews for your ground-breaking new design, then you diminish the value of your sweat blood and tears. Sure you reduce the amount of poison puffed out by cars, but your addiction/habit is just another way of polluting the air. Again, ethics are not an accessory. If design is just something you do, then it isn't relevant to who you really are. But a responsible designer recognizes the implications of their work: If it is worthy of your hard work, then it is worthy of your personal life too. Do you part as a designer. Do your part is a son or daughter. Do your part as a commuter. Do your part as aconsumer. Do your part as a friend. Do your part as a human being. Do what you can.
8 Design rules the world!!!! [Insert diabolical laughter here]
People would be sad little schmoes walking about aimlessly in this world if it wasn't for design. Our world is beautiful because nature is the ultimate in design principles, and we had nothing to do with it. We get to work in the morning because a group of people designed a freeway or a commuter train to get us there. The only reason I can find a place I've never been to is because someone assigned and address, and another group of people created a system of signs so I could be given understandable directions. Save art in schools, because designers [engineers, and science geeks included] are glorified artists. Design rules the world. It makes our world beautiful, and without it we wouldn't be able to understand the world around us much less communicate in it. [That goes for you to laissez-faire, and capitalism. Business would be pointless if there was no artistic way for consumers to distinguish you from the competition.]
9 Don't let design become your business, it's a lifestyle.
There are two core reasons for this. First, if it's just a business, then it lacks real meaning and carries only the value assigned to it and that's just sad. If there is no feeling behind what you do then it becomes just another entity traded on the NASDAQ [or whatever, I don't get all that econ mumbo-jumbo]. Second, when you own what do as a part of who you are, you'll make more discoveries. As you experiment and implement your design work in your life, you will find news perspectives and ideas that would have otherwise been beyond your realm of understanding. Ingenuity would be limited, and design would suffer. Progress would be slow, and the visuals would just be terribly boring, and therefore rendered useless after awhile. Own your design work! It's beautiful.
10 Don't let design become your lifestyle, it's a business.
You call this a contradiction and I call it "balance." Don't take yourself too seriously. At the end of the day there is a client, and there are consumers. This isn't about you. That kind of design is for your spare time and for experimentation and expressing yourself. Don't forget the purpose behind each task, because your design will also suffer if you are always the only motivation behind it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)