I point you to Erwin Kho because, first, his illustrations are beautiful, and second because his illustrations are absolutely unique. I just haven't seen anything like them and it's exciting when someone, out of the blue, takes you somewhere you've never been.
In case you're curious, trom what I've read, the tool he uses is Cinema 4D, a program we talked about last year.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
It doesn't happen often, but occasionally I see something that surprises my mind — such experiences are, to me, creative sustenance. I hope these images by photographer and artist Murat Germen have the effect on you that they did on me. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Murat Germen's Muta-Morphosis...
Asif Naqvi's Living Design offers a less complete but easier to access showing of Germen's work...
An earlier post about Living Design...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Imagine you are Gerardus Mercator, the cartographer who produced the world map in 1569 that forever changed the world of navigation. The map was the Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigantium Emendata: the "new and augmented description of Earth corrected for the use of sailors".
Now take a few minutes to watch the video below. It is a composite of a series of time lapse sequences of photographs taken by the crew of International Space Station expeditions in 2011.
A composite view of the Earth from NASA images edited by Michael König...
Next, take a look at Mercator's map.
Gerardus Mercator's 16th century map...
My point is this: The video reveals the amazing details of the terrain Mercator was attempting to map. By comparison, his map was, in large part, inaccurate.
It got me thinking about how much I think I know and how potentially inaccurate and uninformed my efforts could be. I mention it because I think it's occasionally necessary to step back and acknowledge the limitations of our experience and knowledge. And to make a renewed effort to dig deeper and do better.
Mercator's work, of course, was genius. Maybe your's is too. But let's not forget that we all have much to learn, and even more important, that we don't know what we don't know.
An indepth, fascinating Wikipedia article on the Mercator 1569 world map...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
In the early 1900s, Russian chemist and photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii conducted a photographic survey of the Russian Empire. Between 1909 and 1915 he captured images from eleven regions of, what is otherwise, a thinly documented area of the world. What makes the images so unique is that he photographed them using an elaborate system that allowed him to reproduce the final images in color.
What I find instructive is how eerie they seem. Though they were taken 100 years ago, these vivid, high resolution photographs of people and places look as if they were taken on a movie set last week. Eerie, perhaps, because I'm just not used to seeing images from this long ago in natural color and my brain has a hard time finding them believable.
It's somewhat analogous to how the filtering effects applied to Instagram images inflence our perception of photographs folks are taking today. In that case, the effects remove the images from reality. (In case you're interested, here's a look at some new filters Facebook plans to offer now that they have acquired Instagram.)
Thanks to Russel Lacy for pointing us to it.
The complete gallery via the Library of Congress...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York is a book by Karla and James Murray, two photographers who have made a hobby of capturing the design of the one-of-a-kind storefronts that make New York City and the surrounding boroughs so distinctive.
When you think of it, a storefront is much like a page design: the store name is the headline, the store tag line is a subhead, the windows and doors are shaped like text boxes, and the myriad of logos and other imagery used as signage act as illustrations.
I find these photographs are a good reminder of the importance of distinguishing your client's brand from everyone else's. By that I mean, when you drive by a 7-Eleven or a Target or a Panera, you have a fairly good idea of what you're going to find inside.
As the world is homogenized there's a movement to homogenize design along with it. To create liquid layouts and non-specific designs that readapt themselves to the devices they are shown on. I want my client's website to work on a tablet, a smartphone, and a desktop, but to relegate the layout to a canned application surrenders a lot of what makes your branding unique.
There's a place for elasticity, but don't make the mistake of allowing your client's information to be interpreted as nothing more than data. Their "storefront", their unique design, creates some mystery and says and shows what they're about in ways others do not.
Here's an example of a liquid layout...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Are you a search expert? You should be. Search engines are a critical tool for a designer in 2012. They are the gateway between you and the vastness of digital space. If you're not using Google and other resources at an expert level you're conceding one of your most powerful design tools.
I realize it might seem as if I'm stating the obvious but I hear plenty of designers (and other professionals) who seem to ask questions that could easily be answered with an informed search. If that's the case, you can imagine all the other information goodness they're missing out on.
Searches can be as complex as you want them to be. To me the key has always been about putting yourself in the place of the person who produced the information you're looking for. It's about word order and "operators" and context.
If you're wondering if you know what you need to, take a look at this gem of a webinar from Stephan Spencer, author of Google Power Search published by O'Reilly.
The blurb about the webinar, Become an Expert Google Searcher in an Hour, explains it like this, "Do you use Google every day? Mastering Google's powerful search refinement operators and lesser known features could, over a year's time, save you days scouring over irrelevant results. Even more enticing is the promise of elusive nuggets of market research and competitive intelligence out there waiting to be discovered -- IF you know how to wield Google."
Stephan Spencer and Become an Expert Google Searcher in an Hour...
Spencer is an author of Google Power Search...
An archive of Spencer's articles...
Here's the big list of Google Search features...
A consolidated list of advanced operators for web search...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
When you're designing information, you've got to articulate the message, gather the facts, and present it in a way that enhances the understanding and appreciation of it.
Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking by Nathan Myhrvold, Chris Young, Maxime Bilet is a mind-bending six-volume, profusely illustrated set of books that reveals science-inspired techniques for preparing food. It has been touted by some in the culinary world as a work destined to reinvent cooking.
I point you to it because I think it is an extraordinary example of information design.
In his spare time, author Dr. Nathan Myhrvold is the CEO of, what is arguably, the most famous invention capital system on the planet: Intellectual Ventures
As its website defines it, "We build, buy, and collaborate to create inventions. We supply those inventions to innovative companies through a variety of licensing and partnering programs. We believe an active market for invention and ideas will energize technological progress, potentially changing the world for the better."
You may also recognize his name as being the former chief strategist and chief technology officer of Microsoft...
An introduction by Nathan Myhrvold...
An illustrated PDF: The Story of This Book (5MB PDF)...
Nathan Myhrvold talks about the use of cutaway photography...
The Modernist Cuisine website...
Dr. Nathan Myhrvold is the CEO of Intellectual Ventures.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Yes even graphic design is, at its core, as much science as it is art. Those who see design as a pursuit of style miss the point. Design is about solving problems, communicating ideas, moving people to take specific actions, immersing audiences into new experiences, and so much more.
If you want a sense of what a broad, important discipline design is, take a few moments to explore these links. They are both inspirational and challenging. Lots of us flounder around in an attempt to find our place in the wonderfully rich profession of design. I have no doubt there is a place for anyone with a passion for the creative process and an open mind.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
The Test Tube with David Suzuki is a rich, interactive experience produced by the National Film Board of Canada to promote The David Suzuki Movie. Follow the link, answer the question: "If you could find an extra minute right now, what would you do?" (any answer) and you're on your way.
I was particularly taken by the vibrant, film image of Suzuki on a bold black background. It's a particularly powerful example of combining photographic imagery with type and graphics.
The Test Tube with David Suzuki...
A further look at The David Suzuki Movie...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Nate Williams is a well-know, prolific illustrator and letterer — but he is also an idea guy — his bread and butter is generating ideas and he appears willing, even anxious to share his secrets to doing it (and he'd like to hear your ideas too).
First, a wonderful article he wrote about generating ideas, then the blog that grew out of that idea, followed by examples of his work.
Idea categories is a brainstorming framework for creatives that grew out of the article...
Nate Williams' main website...
Williams' "alter ego" is Alexander Blue (huh?)...
How to start your illustration career...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Shaun Usher has done us the great favor of finding and curating a collection of interesting letterhead designs used by the famous, the infamous, and the organizations they represent. It's a fascinating look at how people and organizations perceive their brand.
(Ironic, Paul Rand's letterhead has no logo.)
Bride of Frankenstein promotional letterhead (1935)...
The Bauhaus letterhead (1927)..
Abraham Lincoln's letterhead (1860)...
Shaun Usher's Letterheady website...
His other website, Letters of Note, Correspondence deserving of a wider audience...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I point you to Structural Graphics because I think they are "jolt thinkers". Jolt thinking is the opposite of formula thinking. It challenges you to examine your mission, strategy, and execution of a project. How? By answering three basic questions. What is the purpose? Why is it done the way it's done? And how can I do it most effectively?
Structural Graphics defines its staff as, "Experts at providing sensory-stimulating, emotionally engaging print materials". They dream up and produce all types of paper structures for use as everything from countertop displays and promotional packaging to presentation aids and brochure-substitutes. Looking at their track record and client list, it appears they are a leader in the field.
You might use them as a source, but more than that, next time you sit staring at a blank sheet of paper, these examples might get you thinking less about two-dimensions and more about potential.
A catalog of design ideas (exclusive)...
A listing of product ideas by category...
Once a week they publish a solution of the week via YouTube...
Structural Graphics' YouTube channel...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Startup Weekend is a weekend-long, 54-hour, hands-on experience for designers, developers, and aspiring entrepreneurs — a forum for sharing ideas, forming teams, developing products, and launching startups.
The organization's web FAQ says that all business ideas are eligible but that approximately 95% of all ideas are mobile- or web-focused, and given the short time-frame, it is recommended that even non-tech ideas focus on tech-related deliverables such as mobile apps and websites.
The program, started in 2007, now operates as a 501(c)3 non-profit and is funded, in large part, by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the world's largest foundation devoted to entrepreneurship.
Thanks to my friend Owen Zanzal for pointing us to this very interesting resource. If you're in or around Virginia, there will be a Startup Weekend event held in Charlottesville March 23-25 and I am told they are in need of more designers.
It could be your chance to come out and get something started.
First, a brief introduction...
The Startup Weekend website...
An article about the program from TechCrunch...
Startup Weekend's page of Resources for transforming an idea into a reality (quickly)...
The Startup Weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia takes place March 23-25...
The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation's website...
WillItBeYou.com is a website launched by the Kauffman Foundation to promote entrepreneurship...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
What were you thinking Ron Johnson? Why would you go from Target to Apple just when the Target brand had caught fire and Apple was at $25 per share (January of 2000)? Then from Apple, the world's most successful brand, to JCPenny a conventional, old-school department store? The answer may surprise you -- it surprised me.
On February 1st JCPenny, America's 25th largest national advertiser ($1.32 billion ) and its new CEO Ron Johnson (November 2011), is going to attempt to redefine retailing.
I'm not going to even attempt to explain the strategy, just understand that, as designers and marketers, we need to track how this experiment unfolds (I call it an experiment, but as Johnson describes it, it's a sure thing).
It's ALL about remaking a brand, revolutionizing the retail marketing model, and infusing everything with a new look and feel. I encourage you to watch at least the first 20 minutes of the hour-long launch video, I guarantee you won't regret it.
The press release with details...
The new TV spot: it sure got my attention...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Two reasons to watch this video. First and foremost, I really like the way it tells the story of its subject. The juxtaposition of a person with type and illustrations is effective and the scene us use to build the story drew me in and made me want to sick around for the outcome.
The second reason to watch the video is to learn about Hyper Island, a school of sorts for students and a continuing education source for working creatives.
It sounds as if, one important aspect of the experience is to get you up to speed on the digital world -- as one attendee, Kathy Hepinstall a former Creative Director at Martin Agency, put it: "It used to be charming for a creative in advertising to be a technophobe. Not so anymore so climb out of the tar pit, Dino".
I don't know enough about it to know just how relevant it all is, but the testimonials by attendees reads like a who's who of advertising agencies so there must be something cooking.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Graphic designer and farmer's son Peter Buchanan-Smith understands branding and the storytelling that transforms a product into an experience people want to be a part of.
He started the Best Made Company to sell high-quality, sturdily-packaged, American felling axes. Yes, it does sound a bit strange, but once you hear the story and see the products you'll understand what he's about.
As they tell it, "A Best Made axe is a tool for survival and productivity and at its heart it's a symbol of many admirable virtues." Paola Antonelli, the senior curator of architecture and design at the Museum of Modern Art describes the axes as "the ultimate antidote to life on the high-broadband lane."
A story about the "Urban Ax" from the NYT...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
How do you make a better map? Ask cartographer David Imus. Mapmaking is not only about measurements and data, a great map is a feat of graphic design.
David Imus recently won the Cartography and Geographic Information Society's (CaGIS) annual Map Design Competition, Best of Show designation for his acclaimed new map: The Essential Geography of the United States of America.
Seth Stevenson takes a look the making of the map and explains what makes it significant in a piece he wrote for Slate.com.
Many thanks to Wendy Hersh for pointing us to it.
The Essential Geography of the United States of America...
An insightful piece about the map by Seth Stevenson for Slate.com...
The Imus Geographics website...
The Cartography and Geographic Information Society's (CaGIS) website...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in New York have co-organized an international exhibition titled Graphic Design: Now in Production — what is being called, "an ambitious look at the broad-ranging field of graphic design".
As the exhibit's website describes it, the exhibit "explores how graphic design has broadened its reach dramatically over the past decade, expanding from a specialized profession to a widely deployed tool." The work featured, "explores design-driven magazines, newspapers, books, and posters as well as branding programs for corporations, subcultures, and nations".
Whether or not you are able to visit the exhibit, I encourage you to order a copy of the exhibit catalogue, a 225-page book that includes hundreds of examples plus twenty-some opinion pieces on the recent history and current state of graphic design by the exhibit's curatorial team and others.
The irony is graphic design, as Ellen Lupton puts it, is "about doing something in the world" or pragmatics — and the very nature of such an exhibit is to look at the work and describe it (for the most part) outside the context for which it takes action. It will fascinating to see how well the exhibit is able to bridge that divide.
I'm anxious to see it — here are the venues:
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis through January 22, 2012
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York, May 16, 2012
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California, September 30, 2012
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas, July 19, 2013
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC, Oct 24, 2013
About the exhibit catalogue...
Purchase the exhibit catalogue...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Some folks write books because they're talented at researching and organizing ideas and communicating them in ways that make them entertaining and useful to readers. Some people write books because they are compelled to share the subjects they live and breath. Maggie Macnab's new book, Design By Nature, Using Universal Forms and Principles in Design is clearly a book that is as much about the heart as it is about the mind.
What I come away with is a new sense that nature does not merely provide ideas from which we can draw inspiration for design, but rather that it is nature that forms the context and framework from which much of design emanates. That to understand these concepts — the origins of patterns, shapes, and other elements of nature -- will help the designer find new ways of discovering intuitive, "gut-level" solutions to design problems. Solutions that our audiences will absorb on a different, deeper level because of their scientific truth.
The book is well-designed and beautifully illustrated. I particularly like the lists of "Key Concepts" at the beginning of each chapter and the "Guest Designer Studies" — explanations of how other designers use the concepts described in their own work.
I suggest buying Maggie's book as a gift to yourself for the new year. If you're like me, you'll soon be understanding and experiencing design on a whole new, natural level.
Design by Nature: Using Universal Forms and Principles in Design By Maggie Macnab
New Riders, October 2011, ISBN 978-0-321-74776-1, 312 pages
Some links...
An interview with Maggie Macnab...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
If you're a fan of House Industries — designers of all things having to do with lettering — you'll want to see this interview from Gestalten.tv.
An interview with Ken Barber of House Industries...
Ken Barber's blog, Type and Lettering...
Bios of the entire House Industries crew...
The House "Trailer" (don't blame me for that, that's what THEY call it)...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Graphic design is, in many cases, the re-expression existing ideas. In most cases, re-casting a visual metaphor you've encountered or using a combination of typefaces that seem to work well together would seem to be acceptable practice. But when does inspiration become imitation?
Jessica Hische tackled the subject recently and I'm using her thoughts as the catalyst for a continued discussion on the subject.
Jessica Hische on Inspiration vs. Imitation...
Visual plagiarism: when does inspiration become imitation ?...
Bob Caruthers offers some examples of "Similarities"...
One of my earlier posts about copyright infringement...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Graphic design is, in many cases, the re-expression existing ideas. In most cases, re-casting a visual metaphor you've encountered or using a combination of typefaces that seem to work well together would seem to be acceptable practice. But when does inspiration become imitation?
Jessica Hische tackled the subject recently and I'm using her thoughts as the catalyst for a continued discussion on the subject.
Jessica Hische on Inspiration vs. Imitation...
Visual plagiarism: when does inspiration become imitation ?...
Bob Caruthers offers some examples of "Similarities"...
One of my earlier posts about copyright infringement...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
There are plenty of theories about where interaction design is headed — the trick is to separate hyperbole from true vision. Why should you care? Because, as designer and engineer Bret Victor puts it, we shouldn't, "...just extrapolate yesterday's technology and then cram people into it."
"Technology doesn't just happen." Victor says, "It doesn't emerge spontaneously, like mold on cheese. Revolutionary technology comes out of long research, and research is performed and funded by inspired people."
He knows what he's talking about. Among his many accomplishments Victor, "...designed the initial user interface concepts for iPad, iPod Nano, and half a dozen experimental hardware platforms. Initiated, designed, and prototyped over seventy concept projects, including radically reinvented interfaces for video editing, animation, drawing, learning, collaboration, mail, photos, and much more. Invented features for Mac OS X Lion. Worked with designers and engineers from all parts of Apple. (And) Routinely presented to top-level management."
If you're anything like me you'll find his insights and predictions fascinating. Thanks to my friend Monique Larsen for pointing us to it.
A brief rant on the future of interaction design...
Victor's information graphics bio...
Thinking about user interfaces in very different ways...
Magic Ink: a revolutionary approach to UI...
Victor's website: WorryDream.com...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Technology can be a little overwhelming sometimes. We're moving so fast, it's difficult to know which ideas to adopt and when to adopt them. Just when you settle on a content management system, for example, someone invents a new system that makes the one you just adopted looking kinda lame.
But it's inevitable. Hardware and software companies are like sharks, unless they keep moving forward, they drown — so they relentlessly invent and re-invent devices and tools in the hope that they'll maintain and grow their audience.
The good news is the creative options are ever expanding, the downside is it's almost a full time job separating the necessary and valuable from the gingerbread and hype. I love Adobe, in my lifetime they have played a major role in transforming my profession from a craft to a way of life.
I know it has become the industry way — but the Broadway show stuff makes me uneasy. I'm beginning to feel less like a partner and more like a member of the audience. Honestly, given the forces at work, I don't know that it is a problem that can be resolved, I just feel compelled to point to the obviousness of it.
You be the judge: Adobe's next big thing -- the creative cloud.
Adobe Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch's keynote presentation at MAX 2011...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Do you know the terms "custom content," "content publishing," and "content marketing"? They all center around the idea of producing editorial-like content to promote brands in print and online.
A simple example is a magazine sponsored by a mobile device manufacturer that points to ways of using mobile devices to conduct business.
Following are some examples and resources (tip of the iceberg).
The Custom Content Council (CCC): A professional organization that represents custom publishers...
The Content Marketing Institute and 10 Must-Have Templates for Content Marketers...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
So if you could explore any subject you wanted, what would it be? And if you could book any expert in the world to speak to you on that subject, who would they be?
When the folks at Facebook decide to bring someone in to talk to them about creativity, I make note of it. Here is Dr. Robert M. Bilder, Chief of Medical Psychology, Neuropsychology at UCLA and one of the directors of The Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity.
Robert Bilder on Creative Brains in the Post-Facebook Era...
The Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Last week, on his Facebook page, Bob Bly (the copywriter's copywriter), pointed to a service that is developing technology that, "...Generates news stories, industry reports, headlines and more — at scale and without human authoring or editing." As they characterize it, they are working to "turn data into stories."
It's one more step in the struggle between art and science. Faster than we could ever hope of adapting to it, science marches forward attempting (with a fair amount of success) to automate all manner of human interaction, thought, and effort.
I wonder if the media will cover this or if the story will be written by its new competitor?
An article on the idea and the organization...
And just for fun, Bob Newhart's wonderful bit, An Infinite Number Of Monkeys...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
If you're enamored with Dieline.com, you'll love Boxvox.com. How do I explain the difference? Let me put it this way, I've come to think of Dieline.com as a fashion show and Boxvox.com as a sewing machine. Randy Ludacer's blog looks at the fabric of packaging: the current state of packaging, the history of packaging, the technical side of packaging, and all threads in between.
Chained Polyhedral Portion Packs...
Geografia's Polyhedral Planet...
Randy, who is also a musician, even writes songs about packaging (bottom of the page)...
But don't miss Dieline.com either...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
In October, Fast Company publishes its annual look at "Masters of Design" and "The United States of Design". I say "kinda" because we all recognize that the state of design changes hourly. A design in development this afternoon will likely sway our thinking shortly.
But it's fun to see who the design establishment — the educators, editors, pundets, curators, and organization heads — recognize as the current leaders in the field (I fear it will be another generation before the effusion about 3M and Post-It Notes finally dies down).
It's well worth a look.
The United States of Design...
Fast Company's 50 most influential designers in America...
A few examples of those cited...
Ji Lee, Facebook's creative director...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
David Friedman is photographer who, as he explains it, "...Sometimes gets ideas for photos, designs, gadgets, and other projects." Ironic Sans is where he writes about such things.
You got your picture in my logo...
They don't make computer manuals like they used to...
Idea: Pre-pixelated clothes for reality TV shows...
Idea: A new typography term...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Attention, in particular, managers. Here's a rare interview with one of the co-founders of Adobe, John Warnock where he discusses innovation and the manager's role in it.
On the future of computing, Warnock tell those students contemplating a career in computer science, "...There is so much more room to innovate now than there was when I was growing up with computers — and there's so many more inventions to make, and there's so much more to conceive of and build because of the capabilities of the machines, that the opportunity now is greater than ever — and the returns are greater than ever..."
No business lasts forever (except PostScript)...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
One of the things my wife and I did on our vacation recently was tour the Charles W. Morgan, an 1840s wooden whaling ship that is being restored at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard in Mystic Connecticut.
As we climbed through the narrow doorways and rooms I couldn't help but think of the long dead souls who had manned that ship and sailed it to faraway places.
So my reflections were fresh when I came across a wonderful new website titled Dear Photograph. It captures, through photographs, the idea of matching up images from the present and the past.
It is, in and of itself, a fascinating, touching way of drawing memories from the current reality but the designer in me wants to think of ways of using the same idea in other ways. It's easy to think how the same idea could be used to demonstrate the differences between old products and new products, to document the before and after of a location, and so on.
Any other ideas of how this concept could be used?
Dear Photograph was created by Taylor Jones...
An article about Jones and his idea...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Line By Line is a 12-part New York Times series on learning the basics of drawing, presented by the artist and author James McMullan. As McMullan explains it, "During the 12-week period of this column, I will be working on posters for Lincoln Center Theater as well as on a children's book, and I will share with you sketches from those processes if they seem to illuminate an aspect of drawing being discussed."
My friend Jessica Jones pointed me to the series and shared this critical insight...
"For those of us who are not artists/designers, it is actually quite comforting to see the many, many iterations that get discarded, but also disconcerting to see the nimbleness of the artist's move from one approach to several quite-different approaches.
"I've just thought about what it reminds me of: long ago, when I was doing linguistics (the course was, 'The Theory and Practice of Writing,' a terrible title for a vivid and wonderful course), I came across research on the differences between fluid writers and plodding writers (or 'good' vs 'bad' writers). And it had to do with this 'nimbleness.' Both the fluid and plodding writers will produce, say, a draft or drafts of an essay/poem/novel/article. The plodding writer will go back and tweak a word here, a phrase there, move this paragraph from here to there. But the fluid writer will step back, scrap the lot, and rewrite from scratch.
"In A. Scott Berg's wonderful biography of Max Perkins, the famous but reserved Scribners editor of Hemingway, Wolfe, Fitzgerald inter alia, Berg writes of Perkins' editorial process. Perkins would, say, receive hundreds and hundreds of pages from Wolfe, read them thoroughly, and then write to Wolf something like, 'There's a character who emerges in Chapter 2. I suspect that this character is the real voice of your book.' And Wolfe would dash off and rewrite, to much better effect, the whole caboodle. So the 'fluid' writers don't tweak; they rework, rethink, take a different approach.
"I am better at this 'reworking' with my own (infrequent) writing, but in my wee forays into design,' I know I am definitely a plodding tweaker. I don't do what a journalist teacher once said: 'Don't agonize over your lead paragraph; write SEVEN different lead paragraphs, and go with the one that most energizes you.'"
Someone who understands the processes that well cannot, in my opinion, claim status as a "non-artist/designer." Jessica points to one of the most critical talents a designer can possess — the ability to explore at will. A good designer (or writer) develops an ability to dig into a topic deep enough to find the treasure but no so deep that they can't climb back out of the hole.
The first in the series: Getting Back to the Phantom Skill...
James McMullan's Line By Line — all twelve parts...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
This design got me thinking. Though it appears the designer had the back of the sheet printed with a white on black pattern, I was thinking it might be kind of cool to add a second, decorative or informational sheet to a standard stationery package.
Maybe it's a rich, deep color embossed with a pattern of logos. Or maybe it's a color sheet with a collage of photographs of your product or plant. In either case, it's a sheet that folds around your letter — kind of like stationery wrapping paper. What do you think?
This handsome letterhead was created by Felix von der Weppen...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Lenticular printing is the process of reproducing two or more images on a single surface to create the illusion of 3D. As you view the surface from slightly different angles, the images change.
I've certainly seen them before but hadn't considered designing a job using one. From what I read, the cost of production is less expensive than it once was. I'm you pointing to these resources with the thought that you might want to add the idea to your toolbox.
The effects as explained on Big3D.com...
A good overview of the process on Wikipedia...
Simplest Method of Making Anaglyph Images with Photoshop...
Choosing the Right Lenticular Sheet for DIY Lenticular Printing on Inkjet Printers...
Converting a 2D picture to a 3D Lenticular Print - Theory and Tutorial...
The ViCGI (Visual Creative Graphics Innovations) website...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I guess the reason I find ephemera so fascinating is that it freezes ideas in time. Advertisements, specimen sheets, instruction guides, product labels, and other forms of printed matter that were never meant to outlive their immediate purpose, provide a snapshot of the producer's intent and reveal a designer's approach to solving a problem.
Below is a brief tour of a new book the folks at publisher Thames & Hudson sent along: Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design's Golden Age. It's a collection of elegant and eccentric examples of script lettering — French, British, German, Italian, and American — compiled over a thirty year period by authors Louise Fili and Steven Heller.
If you know the work of Fili and Heller, you might expect they'd have amassed a rather substantial collection of ephemera over the years. Heller, a former art director for the New York Times and well-known lecturer on the history of graphic design, has authored over 100 books on design and popular culture. Louise Fili, formerly a designer for Herb Lubalin and art director for Pantheon Books, has authored another twenty titles, many of them in collaboration with Heller (they are husband and wife).
Fili is among my favorite designers. If you have no idea why you'd want a book of this type, take a look at her portfolio of work. Though she offers a fresh and modern approach, you can't help but see the influences of 19th and early 20th century graphic design and typography.
Discovering, digesting, and deconstructing the work of others — finding the essence of how disparate elements are arranged in order — is part of the design mind's blessing/curse. Whether it's a conscious effort or gut-level assimilation, you can't help but absorb the layouts, typefaces, colors, and imagery that pass through your vision each day and mentally store them away. The beauty of this book is that it captures some of the best of what these two experienced designers have found and distills it in a form we can easily access.
The book is virtually all images — there are brief introductions to each section and footnotes, but just enough to supply the necessary orientation. The wonderful cover design was created by Louise Fili and John Passafiume. (I'm told that another favorite of mine, Jessica Hische, worked on the early stages of the interior design.)
I have hundreds of design books on the shelves around me. And, though I love digital, I love print too. I get some indescribable sense of satisfaction knowing that the thoughts of so many good designers and tens of thousands of their designs are by my side.
Scripts: Elegant Lettering from Design's Golden Age by Louise Fili and Steven Heller, ISBN 0500515689, 352 pages, published by Thames & Hudson, 2011
Some links...
Thames & Hudson, the publisher...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
If you're a writer, designer, illustrator, photographer, editor, developer, or marketer, the obvious answer is yes. The proof is in the many new studios popping up to specialize in the development of content for the new generation of phones and tablets.
Electric Type, for example, bills itself as a digital book foundry. Here, they provide us with a taste of how some of the aforementioned players have collaborated to reinvent a storybook.
A video tour of their first project: The Jungle Book...
Illustrator Nigel Buchanan's portfolio...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Watch how the folks at Design Bridge show a project in story form. The illustrations of some are more elaborate than others, but among them you see information-rich compositions shot using a broad mix of angles and distances — establishing shots, medium shots, close-ups, high-angle, low-angle, and so on — many captured with a touch of drama.
Most show marks and packaging and then, depending on the project, show how the brand is applied to clothing, signage, accessories, collateral, and so on. In some cases, they also include a shot or two of people and places where interaction with branded materials is taking place.
It helps, of course, to have stunning work to show.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I'm just back from the aforementioned conference and I thought I'd sit down and share some impressions. My hope is that, if you don't normally attend these events (I don't either), that you might be interested in the goings-on...
First impression: It's a global thing.
Roughly 400 folks attended the conference from 33 states and 11 countries — I believe it was a sell-out. I heard mention of Australia, Hong Kong, Serbia, Belgium, United Kingdom, Guatemala, and others. I know that kind of diverse participation is no great revelation to people who move in design and software circles frequently, but to someone who doesn't, I am particularly aware of the privilege it is to be a part of this type of international event.
It's a community.
Equally as interesting is the sense of community I felt. Designers, geeks, authors, and designer-geek-authors have much in common. Many of us are most comfortable in designing our world and staying within its bounds — so it's particularly exciting to be with other folks who spend so much of their lives on the same layer. I love my wife, but she couldn't care less about which device and software I use to calibrate my HP ZR30w monitor (thank goodness). Occasionally, it's a good idea to sit with people whose brains are trying to solve similar problems and attain similar outcomes.
There is no single voice.
For some reason I had the expectation that I would hear one side of things. Yes, that sounds silly in hindsight, but that's what I was thinking. The reality of it reminds me that there are as many workflows, approaches, and opinions about design and production as there are people doing it. For example, I sat in a session with the InDesign development team who all seemed to think that it should be the printer's responsibility to produce final production PDFs from native InDesign files. That was followed by the "Long Live Ink" roundtable with Design Tools Monthly editor Jay Nelson and prepress troubleshooter and Adobe Certified Instructor James Wamser both of whom seemed to think the opposite — that most jobs are best prepared for printing by the user (using the printer's guidelines).
E-publishing is in its big-bang stage.
There are MANY ways to create and view e-publications and MANY devices and platforms on which to view them. That's about all anyone agrees on. Which software and software settings to use (including InDesign's EPUB export) will be dictated by the device you're preparing your publication for, the complexity of the document, the intended distribution channel, and so on. As conference organizer David Blatner pointed out, you can't, for example, produce PDFs to sell through Apple — not because you can't produce them, not because the iPad can't read them, but because Apple doesn't yet allow you to distribute them through iBooks.
There are also significant design considerations to be tackled. When you convert page layouts for different devices and orientations, you'll need to design different layouts for each setting or create simplified, "elastic" layouts that adapt to multiple uses. I heard someone refer to that conversion as changing your layout into a Microsoft Word document.
Software developers and designers alike are in the very early stages of figuring out how to recast information in ways that are compatible with the new devices yet as aesthetically pleasing as print and conventional web page design. I think even the folks at Adobe would agree that (for now), that InDesign's EPUB export is not for creating e-versions of complex layouts.
Chris Kitchener, Senior Product Manager for Adobe InDesign, "Meet my extended family," 2011 InDesignSecretsLive Print and ePublishing Conference (doctored image)
The best early tools are expensive.
It's not surprising that the tools that allow the most control over page layout and effects are being developed for the upper echelon of the publishing trade. James Fritz, another respected author and trainer, discussed some of the many platforms used to create digital versions of magazines — Adobe Digital Publishing Suite, WoodWing's Digital Magazine Tools, Mag+, and others — and the fact that the new pricing models require both upfront fees (most in the thousands of dollars) for the initial content management systems and ongoing monthly or per-piece publication fees. (The good news is that by the time you read this [a couple of hours after I write it] everything will have changed.)
Much of what I learned was from the audience.
I went because of the featured speakers but I learned lots from the audience too. Questions, suggestions, and comments from audience members were every bit a useful as those from the assembled experts. For example, in one session, Eddy Hagen, the managing director of VIGC in Belgium offered some excellent insights on the production of PDFs and pointed us to his own Flemish Innovation Centre for Graphical Communication and the Ghent PDF Workgroup. There we're lots of high-powered users and experts in the audience.
Technology is a moving target.
No revelation here, but it is impressive when a presenter changes her slides in the hours just preceding her presentation because of some new tidbit of information. From his view inside Adobe, the Lead Product Manager for Adobe InDesign, Chris Kitchener, explained the perplexing process of gathering suggestions for new features, fixing bugs, and working with engineers to update a program as complex as InDesign. It's easy to forget the divergent pressures applied by users, reviewers, stockholders, partners, marketers, and so on to influence the decisions about which features or fixes to produce when and why.
BTW, the Adobe team was particularly impressed by and thankful for this blog post which explains that InDesign is a database and why, for example, files are not backward compatible.
There is a modicum of tension between Adobe and its community.
One of the most intriguing revelations of the experience was the respectful tension there is between the product producers and their users. All of it was friendly and in good humor, but it's obviously, a real issue. Adobe wants everyone to like its products and users are great at pointing to flaws. None less than Michael Ninness, now the VP of Content for Lynda.com, formally the Senior Product Manager for InDesign, rose to ask the current Senior Product Manager when certain features (such as charting) would be added to InDesign. It was all good-natured (especially when Ninness pointed out that he, himself, hadn't added the feature when he could have), it is a complicated dance.
There are few better venues for meeting the people you want to meet.
I had the pleasure of meeting, face-to-face, some of the many people I communicate with online and introducing myself to others I would not have otherwise had the opportunity to meet.
First and foremost I got to meet and speak with one of the conference organizers, David Blatner. My only complaint about the entire conference is we didn't hear more from David. He is a smart, personable guy who knew as much or more about InDesign (from a user standpoint) as anyone in attendance.
If you don't know Blatner, he's the editorial director of InDesign Magazine, wrote Real World InDesign (and 14 other books), teaches courses on InDesign at Lynda.com, and co-hosts InDesignSecrets.com with Anne-Marie Concepción.
Their combined experience with InDesign, the InDesign community, and Adobe corporate made David and Anne-Marie uniquely qualified to pull together this wide and deep gathering of designers, technicians, and developers.
If you don't know Anne-Marie Concepción, she too teaches courses on InDesign at Lynda.com, does the InDesignSecrets.com thing, plus rules her own creative empire at Seneca Design & Training.
This was also an opportunity to sit with Jay Nelson and Lesa Snider. Jay is the affable publisher of Design Tools Monthly, the only industry publication I read cover to cover, every issue. It was a real treat to spend some time comparing notes with someone else who is as interested as I am in finding and sharing the the best of design and publishing ideas. Lesa is a writer for Macworld, author of numerous books, chief evangelist for iStockphoto.com, and host of graphicreporter.com
I also had the good fortune to have one-to-one discussions with conference speakers Gabriel Powell, InDesign and Photoshop author and Senior Solutions for Typifi Systems, Ron Bilodeau, the Production and Design Specialist at O'Rielly (who once worked for the beautifully designed Cooks Illustrated), Chris Kitchener, Lead Product Manager of Adobe InDesign, Nigel French, the author of InDesign Type (who spoke about designing with a grid), and Cari Jansen, a technical writer and print and publishing consultant who spoke about the challenges of this new medium.
And I gathered some great insights from Keith Gilbert, a brilliant tech- and design-savvy guy who spoke about XML and data publishing and who showed me an impressive project he had just finished. It's a beautifully designed iPad-based catalog/brochure his client's sales force will use at an upcoming trade show.
All that and, of course, all of the good stuff I learned (I just downloaded a 344-page PDF of conference slides that Anne-Marie Concepción made available to those who attended.)
Finally, most happily, I got to meet a few folks who subscribe to my newsletter at ideabook.com and who read my blog at PagePlane.com. Thank you all for introducing yourselves. (If I didn't get your business card please send me an email so we can stay in touch.)
So... where's the 2012 conference?
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I rarely point you back to the same place — once you've seen it I assume you'll look again if you're interested. But in case you missed it, Kelli Anderson has, again, demonstrated her passion for different.
An invitation in the form of a paper record player...
Her description of the project...
My original post about Anderson: This is why I want to be a designer...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I'm fully involved in the digital world but I haven't lost my love for paper. My first book, The Desktop Publisher's Idea Book, was all about designing and outputting interesting and useful products on paper. These paper-based resources are a reminder that lots of folks still rely on print to stay organized.
And the original idea book still sells...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
If you need pure inspiration, print advertisements are hard to beat — each one reveals a different architecture for drawing a reader in and communicating a message through an abbreviated set of words and imagery.
If you learn to distill and combine and deconstruct those ideas, you'll have an endless stream of ways to kick-start your thinking. How do you create something new a fresh? Get a sense of what's already been done.
Here are some good sources to track.
For deep international coverage, Ads of the World...
Lürzer's Most seen ads this week...
For some history: Duke University's 30,000-plus advertisement collection...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I find this interesting. I think it's safe to generalize that, in 2011, more people than ever before have the time and resources to spend on design appreciation. So it does not surprise me that all-things-food have captured so much attention.
Which brings me to Marije Vogelzang, dutch artist who bills herself as an "eating designer." It is interesting, yes, but what intrigues me more is how much more important design is becoming to our lives. With less time necessary for basic tasks, the focus changes. It is a good time to be a designer.
An example of Marije Vogelzang's "eating design"...
Vogelzang's restaurant, PROEF...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I like how Carnegie Fabrics uses typography as a window to its products — simple, effective, purposeful.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I mentioned this on Facebook last month, but I want cover the subject in greater detail. If you're making this mistake, it could be a costly one.
Some time back I pointed you to some wonderful illustrations of characters from the Mad Men series created by the talented Stanley Chow. Recently he posted the message about being ordered to cease selling posters of the characters...
A formal definition of "Right of Publicity..."
Jonathan Faber's RightOfPublicity.com, a website dedicated to the subject...
An example of how one retailer, CafePress.com, explains right of publicity to its users...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
It's easy to lose track of that simple fact but Keetra Dean Dixon, kindly, reminds us of it. She got me asking myself when I last designed something, primarily, for the purpose of expressing myself — its been a while.
Dixon is as much an artist as she is a designer. I'll point you here, to some examples of here work that include typography but be sure to explore her whole portfolio of work.
Dixon's website: FromKeetra.com...
A profile of Dixon from the Designing Minds series...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I think it's important to be aware of what I don't know. By that I mean, it is important to acknowledge that there are many possibilities outside my current field of vision. To me, continually expanding one's vision is a critical part of growing as a designer.
For example, I never would have predicted my clients would have the opportunity to advertise their products and services by sight — twenty miles out and 10,000 feet above.
Yet that is precisely what MondoWindow, a new service now in beta, offers to airplane passengers. They define it as, "A platform for online, in-flight, location-based content and entertainment," and explain it as "A map that tells you where you are and what you're looking at as you fly." It is an outgrowth of the Window Seat book series written by one of MondoWindow's founders, Greg Dicum, about reading the landscape from the air.
An article by CNET's Geek Gestalt (below) explains the commercial application as follows: "Dicum thinks that there is a lot of advertising opportunity when dealing with a captive audience onboard planes, especially when the advertisers will know precisely where the users are going."
A overview by Daniel Terdiman, the Geek Gestalt at CNET...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Fifty and Fifty an fascinating project curated by designer Dan Cassaro. It offers a "...new way of looking at our country. Fifty designers, one per state, will illustrate their state motto, creating something steeped in history but completely modern and unique: a kind of designer's atlas."
I have two reasons for pointing you to it. First, the illustrations/designs are excellent, and second, Cassaro's choice of designers is out of the ordinary. He has tapped the talents of several designers I was not yet familiar with and that are well worth knowing.
Three of my favorites. First, Meg Hunt's Connecticut: He who transplanted sustains...
Second, Josh Brill's Maine: I lead...
Third, Micah Smith's Louisiana: Union, justice, confidence...
And the list of the contributors...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
The burning desire of the search engine heart is to understand "intent". It wants to understand what the user is really after.
Enter Quora. As they explain it, "Quora is a continually improving collection of questions and answers created, edited, and organized by everyone who uses it. The most important thing is to have each question page become the best possible resource for someone who wants to know about the question."
"Anyone can add questions and answers to Quora. They can also categorize questions by adding topics to them, summarize answers on a question page, and edit any question or summary. Duplicate questions and topics are unified so that the content on the site keeps getting better instead of getting fragmented. Users can follow questions, topics and people, which creates a stream of relevant questions and answers for each user. The site is closely monitored and maintained by its users so the quality of questions and answers stays high."
I've only been using Quora for a short time so I can't vouch for the quality of the information, but what I've seen is promising. I have used it enough to know that if you're interested in staying abreast of fast-moving technology, Quara should be on your radar.
Want to see it work? Sign in and ask, "What is Facebook's architecture?" You'll see the many options for discovering answers and leads to other related topics.
Quora questions and answers search...
Some analysis coming from BBH Labs...
More discussion of Quora on TechCrunch...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
As Creative Director and Designer Richard The explain MIT's new identity, "The logo is based on a visual system, an algorithm that produces a unique logo for each person, for faculty, staff and students. Each person can claim and own an individual shape and can use it on their business card a personal website. The design encompasses all collateral, business cards, letterhead, website, animations, signage etc. A custom web interface was developed to allow each person at the Media Lab to choose and claim an own individual logo for his/her business card, as well as a custom animation software which allows to create custom animations for any video content the lab produces."
The design is billed as a collaboration with TheGreenEyl, designers Richard The and E Roon Kang, and programmer/designer Willy Sengewald (of TheGreenEyl).
Nice idea.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Wow. There are so many good ideas here: The floating navigation that gives you access to everything everywhere. The combination of graphics and video — watch how the vessel circles and shines light on the round badges. How various layers flow at different speeds to create a sense of depth. And the gradual, fluid movement of the line that leads you down the page.
And that's just what I like about the first page — gorgeous design.
Firstborn, the design firm that created the site, is cutting a new paths in website design...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I think there's much to learn from designers such as Grant Achatz, the founder and chef of the renowned Chicago restaurant, Alinea. Though I am told the tastes he creates are extraordinary, I am also amazed by his imagery and story lines.
As a student of molecular gastronomy, his menus have both an aesthetic and scientific side. I surmise that his success is due to his talent for balance the two.
Keep an eye on his new project: The Next Restaurant. It looks to be as interesting and exciting as any of his ventures thus far.
Ideas are unfolding on Facebook...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
The reason I am pointing you to James Geary's TED Talk on the subject of metaphors is because it reminds me of how important it is that our designs don't simply replay the same old, tired messages. (As I was writing this, my first thought was to use the phrase, "break new ground" — it doesn't get much worse than that.)
Geary mentions a George Orwell essay in which he offers six rules for improving the writer's use of the English language including: "Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print."
That's quite a challenge. Doubt me? Try writing a few paragraphs without a "well worn" metaphor. Imagine too if we, as designers, were to rewrite that rule in graphic designese — something like, "Never use a marketing approach, page layout, or color scheme which you are used to seeing in print."
James Geary, Metaphorically Speaking...
George Orwell's 1946 essay, "Politics and the English Language"...
Geary's 7 Strange Places to Meet a Metaphor...
Roger von Oech breaks my tired, old lightbulb...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Kickstarter is a web platform for funding creative projects. You articulate and propose your idea — investors buy in... or don't.
Thanks to my son Jeff for pointing me to a new project proposal from Frank Chimero (a designer I've pointed you to in the past). Within just two days, funding of his project is almost twice what he was asking. Interesting project, interesting platform.
Frank Chimero's The Shape of Design...
More projects from the design category...
My previous post about Frank Chimero's work...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Before I can design something — a website, a logo, a brochure, whatever — I've got to understand what needs to happen. What my client's purpose and motive is, and the action they want their audience to take.
Once I understand what I am being asked to accomplish, I can design with purpose. I'm not a decorator, I'm a designer — my job is to determine the combination of elements — the images, typefaces, and user interface — necessary to communicate messages in a way that makes them interesting and accessible.
Teaching that process is what John McWade is so expert at. Through the pages of Before & After Magazine, he has been teaching what others don't, in ways that others can't, since the days when the first version of Aldus PageMaker was in beta testing. He parses, deconstructs, and studies a design problem, then packages a solution in a form that is easy to understand, digest, and reproduce.
I've written for B&A and I can testify that there's nothing easy about making things simple. I have pointed you to John in the past, but there is some new news worth sharing: John McWade has begun a series of wonderful short stories about design — video snippets that once again have me thinking about what is possible.
One in the series, How to design without graphics...
The beginnings of the new collection...
Plus, for the first time, the entire Before & After collection goes digital...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Intercommunipackastratapromotising™ is a catchy little, easy-to-remember term Grip Limited devised to plant their ideas in your head. Once you see their work, you won't need a device to remember it — the work is brilliant.
So is their website — in fact, it works so well, on so many levels that it's difficult to know where to start.
A few things that caught my eye:
1. The "top down" menu at the top of the home page screen.
2. The fact that the layout would appear to work well on just about any device.
3. The adept choice and use of typefaces.
4. The fact that whether you scroll, drag, or click, you quickly see what does what.
To me, this site makes lots of other sites look like yesterday's news.
And as if that weren't enough, a blog: The Big Orange Slide...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
If you play your cards right, the design profession can buy you a lifetime of discovery and a platform for making worthwhile contributions to others. To do it well, you've got to love learning, experimentation, and craft.
Kelli Anderson's web and work demonstrates a passion for all three. Her web site incorporates lots of interesting interface ideas and project examples.
THis is imaginative: click the image and watch...
I really like this "Kelli Anderson" idea...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I like the way the Francesco Franchi the Art Director of IL, Intelligence in Lifestyle magazine uses illustrations, information graphics, symbols and so on, to create, not only a unique visual style, but a rather interesting infrastructure for presenting ideas.
The magazine is filled with inform...
I like the way the designer fits all of the cover information into one module...
A collection of the designer's work...
Francesco Franchi's Twitter feed...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Here's something for entrepreneurial photographers, illustrators, and designers to think about. Photodeck offers a full blown e-commerce platform (for a modest monthly subscription) that allows you to display, license (in a variety of ways), and sell images.
I like the fact that it moves control of the work back into the realm of its producer. I can't see why the same idea wouldn't apply to illustration and design work as well.
I like the convenience and variety the big conglomerates offer, but I also like the personalization and access afforded by sites that are handled by the people who do the work. I hope, as technology packages such as this become more widely available, that we'll see a better mix of both.
PhotoDeck is a fully customizable, brandable e-commerce platform for photographers...
I found PhotoDeck through a photographer who uses it Toasto.com...
Another implementation of PhotoDeck — KennedyStock.com...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I doubt many would argue that Kevin Kelly is among the most interesting folks on the planet. I think of him as a "designer of understanding." If you do a little digging you'll see just how deep and grounded a man he is.
His long awaited book, What Technology Wants was released this week and if you subscribe to the importance many designers put on the concept of intellectual stimulation and lifelong learning, you'll want a copy. More on this later.
Kevin Kelly's What Technology Wants...
A few of Kelly's blogs--Street Use...
Kelly's wonderful story of religious conversion from This American Life...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
You may have read recently about an upcoming study that reports how video game play can speed up reactions in other real-life situations—"Improved probabilistic inference as a general learning mechanism with action video games".
It got me thinking about how important it is to exercise your mind. To explore areas of interest and pursue paths simply to get you thinking more creatively. An engaged designer is a more creative designer.
I want to point you to two resources that are certain to spark fire. First, the home of IdeaSPOTTING author Sam Harrison. In addition to his thoughtful books he offers some actions to take that will improve the creative process.
And second is a site called Lumos Labs, a "cognitive neuroscience research and development company that builds software tools for improving brain health and performance." I have played around with their iPhone App for a couple of months and, though it is difficult to connect it to a specific improvement in my creative problem solving skills, I've have seen a marked improvement in my scores.
I'm curious to hear if you have experienced creative spurts you can attribute to some type of neurological or intellectual stimulation.
It's Your Move from Sam Harrison's zing zone...
Lumosity's scientifically designed Brain Games...
The aforementioned study on video game play and its effect on reaction time...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I was talking to a fellow designer the other day and we were discussing the horrendous state of marketing in certain quarters—where unscrupulous marketers put forth products and services that are clearly meant to do nothing more than part people from their money. It's an old problem, the tactics of which, I hope and believe will become less and less viable in the years to come.
Though their approaches are very different, I want to point to two men who really do seem to have a finger on the pulse of that change—Seth Godin and Tim Girvin. They are both passionate advocates of honesty, clarity, and style.
The "honesty" part insists on worth and value. I doubt either of these guys would even consider selling a product they did not believe in. That would be antithetical to their nature.
The "clarity" component is what they are about. Though they are both great teachers (and prolific bloggers) their passion seems to be that of students. You simply can't understand and articulate foundational ideas if, from time to time, you don't shut up long enough to listen.
And "style" is their mantra. They both preach that the story you tell and how you tell it is what distinguishes you from everyone else. I can't help but think, as the world amalgamates, that greater and greater value is going to be placed on the positive things that make each person, place, and thing unique.
I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. But these gentlemen will.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Some time back I pointed to the tried and true idea of creating illustrated headlines by sizing lines of text to fit a set width.
Watch how this designer applies the idea in various ways to an entire series of elements. It's a good reminder of how using a similar technique on many elements produces a design that is greater than the sum of its parts.
A PDF of the blueprint (421KB PDF)...
My simple tip about "Illustrated Headlines"...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
A deck of playing cards could be easily be pigeon-holed as a tired, old product. But watch how the designers of this site and the featured deck of cards make playing cards a 2011 product. Powerful stuff.
And now the page dedicated to presenting it...
More deck designs. I don't even play cards and I want a deck...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
When I think of graphic design I don't normally think of heraldry. (Heraldry, as one definition puts it, is the "the art or science of blazoning or describing in proper terms coats of arms.")
It sounds like a rather archaic subject but when you take a closer look you see how strong the ties are between the many forms of heraldry and the design of logos and other symbolic imagery today.
What I will share here are a few of the many interesting resources stumbled across as I researched the connection.
An illustrated atlas of French and English heraldic terms...
Many listings lead to a detailed illustration and explanation..
About the origins of heraldry...
The symbolic significance of one seemingly simple graphic element, the fleur de lis...
A few examples of how heraldry is used in fashion design...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
If you lived near Mainz, Germany in the 1450s, you may have heard of the machine Johannes Gutenberg was working on. I doubt Gutenberg had an inkling of how profoundly his printing press would effect mankind.
Today we are witnessing a similar phenomenon. Just down the proverbial road, great innovation is taking place. Yet we are so inundated with advancements, I think we tend to miss the advancements that move into our line of sight in a more subtle way.
Inkling (below) is one of the many new ideas born out of the development of the iPad. It proposes a new way of producing and navigating textbooks. I have no idea if it will be one of the ideas that catches on, but it's exciting to watch it sprout.
Which leads me to a point I continually remind myself of--don't miss this opportunity. All of these new technologies, devices, and ideas are new to ALL of us. I, you, we can contribute to their advancement. We have an opportunity, like none of those before us, to change the world for good. Pretty exciting.
A press release about another quiet step...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Do me a favor, come over to my Facebook page and help me with a little experiment. I'm curious as to which of these wristwatch designs you like best.
No, I'm not selling watches. I pose the question specifically to "designers only" because I'd like to see which design a designer selects when they are asked to choose something they did not design themselves. I'm using watches because (to me) they so clearly represent distinct design styles. Why explore? I'm guessing, if we get a decent sample, we will learn something significant.
To vote, choose "Comment" and give us the number of your choice and if you'd like, include a link to one of your designs so we can better understand your perspective. Have additional comments? We'd like to hear those too. One proviso--You don't need to love the design you choose. Just pick the one that most closely represents your aesthetic.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
The term "tradigital" art refers to art that is created by combining traditional and digital media. Jim Leggitt's presentation (below) shows you how he employs conventional drawing techniques to produce textured, warm, and visually interesting architectural drawings using digital renderings from, in the case of this class, the SketchUp 3D program.
I show this to you because it provides two important reminders for the graphic designer. First, is that we should continually try to find ways to humanize our work. The more we use digital tools, the more we need to sketch and visualize and brainstorm. The world is not a perfect place and making everything pixel-perfect is not believable.
And second, as a practical matter, it is often preferable to present a client with a sketch-like idea versus a nailed-down solution. A sketch allows you the freedom to refine the solution as you get into the detail of it.
Jim Leggitt on Traditional Imaging...
Tradigital imaging allows you to turn a finished image into a work in progress...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
In twenty-five years we've gone from clunky slide projectors to graceful walls of high resolution LED video blocks. Twenty years ago the limitations of media (I believe) made our job as designers far easier.
I show you this new technology because it is yet another barrier removed. With each barrier removed, the creative focus sharpens another click. You'll need a more creative strategy, a better idea, and an innovative style to distinguish your client from their competition.
The future of graphic design is, at once, challenging, exciting, and unpredictable.
An introduction to Microtiles...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
My friend Sabu George points us to an interesting example of how a logo concept can be used for multiple purposes.
This is an extreme example, but it might help you conjure up ideas about how to make your next logo design perform more than one trick.
An article about the makeover by its designers...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
This is one annual report I look forward to reading--the 2010 logo design trends report by Bill Gardner for LogoLounge.com.
Bill Gardner's logo design trends 2010...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Time to stretch your brain. Meet inventor and artist Steven M. Johnson. While many of his ideas sound silly, Johnson offers a serious message about innovation--primarily that there is too little of it.
What I hear him saying is this: In an age when the barriers are fewer than ever before, it is disconcerting to think how many of us are willing to accept the same old solutions. Everyone has a capacity to innovate but few of us use it.
Makes you wonder how much better a place the world would be if we devoted as much time to learning how to generate, parse, and pursue positive ideas as we do in figuring out how to accumulate money.
Allison Arieff's original piece on Johnson for the New York Times...
Another, more recent article including an interview with Johnson...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I was thinking the other day, how important it is that our client doesn't center their entire marketing strategy around their competitor's marketing model. Just because a competitor, for example, does some radio advertising doesn't mean radio advertising makes any sense for our client. The same applies to print materials, a web presence, social marketing, premiums, and everything else in the realm of marketing.
I say that because I think it is easy to lose sight of the fact that every organization is unique. That an organization's particular mix of products, services, expertise, experience, style, location, pricing, and so on, distinguishes if from any other organization on the planet.
Follow the leader marketing and mirror-the-competition tactics ignore that all-important fact. The best marketing approach (we all know) is one that is invented for one specific organization and its unique circumstances. Ideally, it even includes some elements that competitors are not using at all.
Our job as communication designer's is to discover and deliver unique solutions. Sure, there are smart, conventional approaches that work for most of the organizations you apply them to, but we shouldn't recommend and produce materials because that's the way we've always done it. I'm guessing "That's the way we've always done it," has killed as many businesses as any other single reason.
Do you want more clients and more work satisfaction? Use your talents and experience to devise a better approach. Dig into the market, find out what people are doing in other areas and see what might apply. Invent something new! I find clients are almost always open to dealing with the reality of the market and will experiment with you if you are able to make a compelling case for your idea.
A designer who has a wonderful sense of style and the technical expertise to create a compelling layout should maintain a pretty consistent work load. A designer who is an inventor and problem-solver will have to turn clients away.
Tell your client this: Every organization is unique—the sooner we identify your organization's unique advantages, the sooner we can begin telling the world about them.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
The great gift of the digital age is shared knowledge. Technology makes it possible to document levels of information that, until recently, were just too costly and difficult to capture and maintain. In the case of writing and design there is a repository of information, much of it freely available, that provides us with an extraordinary opportunity to dramatically improve the quality and effectiveness of communication.
It provides a foundation of ideas, expression, and practical information on which to build the next, better solutions. Want to write better documentation? Create a better web menu? Understand why people interact with messages the way they do? It's all there for the taking. Here's a taste...
Introduction to Apple Human Interface Guidelines...
Apple Publications Style Guide (1.14MB PDF)...
Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
This is a fun design that offers a valuable lesson. You can command a lot of attention when you apply a common solution to a situation in which it is unexpected. Thanks to Paul Butt for pointing us to this.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
My friend Daniel Will-Harris was kind enough to give us a heads-up about this unique offer from French Paper. What they are offering is the free use of a host of black and white images from CSA Images when the project they are used for is printed on French Paper. You'll need to read the small print but it looks like a pretty interesting offer.
The occasion of this offer also gives me an excuse to point you back to CSA's substantial body of work. I first wrote about Charles S. Anderson and the CSA Archive Company in Clip Art Crazy a book I wrote for PeachPit Press back in 1995. Even then, Anderson had compiled close to 1,000,000 twentieth-century line art images that were being used on prominent projects such as the Turner Classic Movie Channel and for licensed products for Paramount Pictures.
The beat goes on. Listed below, for example, you will find a gallery of book cover designs created in recent years using CSA Images.
The offer from French Paper...
Another collection and purchase option...
A gallery of book cover designs created using CSA Images...
The French Paper Sampler Room...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
My first thought was: Why would anyone put a portfolio of static print and web design on video? Here's why. MINE, the design office best known for it's "Everything is OK" campaign, has a bright, upbeat vision. I'm a big fan.
MINE's "Everything is OK" campaign...
I must have a roll of that tape...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I got this question from another designer recently: "My client requested a logo design. She filled in my design brief questionnaire, I presented a few concepts, and we went through three rounds of concepts, variations, and tweaking. They were not sure of any of the designs and finally backed off. Though I did get an advance, it did not come close to covering the time I invested in the project. How do you handle this type of situation?"
Whether you charge a few hundred dollars or a few hundred-thousand dollars, the great conundrum of logo design is this: If you can't provide the client with a mark that they are excited about and invested in you haven't done your job. It is that simple.
Designing a logo is a responsibility that should not be taken lightly. Remember, we're asking the client to build their organization on a framework that we provide—to adopt our ideas, our style, our palette, and to identify themselves with that brand for years, even decades to come. If we ask for that type of commitment from them, it seems entirely reasonable (to me) for them to be excited and energized by what we design.
That type of commitment does not come cheap. You cannot learn what needs to be learned and do what needs to be done in a few hours. I have no idea how many hours my friend budgeted to create the logo, but my advice to him is this: Charge what is necessary to deliver a compelling solution or turn the job down—you owe that to your client and your client owes that to you.
Logo design requires a commitment from both sides to see it through to its end. That means you need to charge enough to do the research necessary to understand the client's industry, their competition, and to clearly understand where they fall within that landscape—enough to create a design that not only speaks to those issues but that aligns with the aesthetic and intellectual sensibilities of the people within the organization who will be living with it. That's a lot of people to satisfy, but that's why logo design is not for the faint of heart.
How do you avoid my friend's problem? By making everything crystal clear up front. Some designers prefer a formal contract, some a letter of agreement, others just a few paragraphs in an e-mail before the job begins—whatever you choose, choose something. If you wait until you are in the heat of the project to address difficulties, you're going to get bruised.
Here are a few examples of such agreements.
The Graphic Artist Guild's Contract Monitor—about reading and writing contracts...
The AIGA's Standard Form of Agreement for Design Services...
Of course you can't beat seeing what a real working document looks like...
You might also be interested in my Design Constitution...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Pattern Tap is an invention of Matthew Smith at Squared Eye. It is (loosely) similar to other pattern libraries (Yahoo has a notable one) in that it presents the what, how, and why of user interface. The value is, instead of searching through a thousand sites for interesting and innovative UI ideas, you can discover designs someone else has found to be particularly notable.
I think you will find that Matthew Smith know of what he speaks. His company site, Squared Eye, is nice to look at AND easy to use—I have long admired it.
The Pattern Tap Twitter page...
Matthew Smith's Squared Eye...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Graphic design is a quirky business. You can explain what you do to relatives and friends, but no matter how hard you try, only about 10 percent seem to get it. The say, "Yeah, ____ is a graphic designer. We're, uh, real proud...real proud."
So when I meet someone who speaks my language I appreciate it. Jeff Gamet and Jay Nelson do a podcast hosted by CreativePro called Design Tools Weekly--they speak my language. It's nice to sit down once a week and hear a discussion about the hardware, software, and the general state of our business. I recommend it highly.
The Design Tools Weekly Podcast...
AND, as always, you can checkout a free sample issue of Design Tools Monthly here(1.9MB PDF)...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I first read about the OKRA identity on Fontshop's Unzipped blog--they referred to it as "flexible design". As you'll see, OKRA landscape architects is an agency specialized in making plans and designs for public space in city areas and city related areas. It is a service that lends itself to this idea of creating multiple versions of a logo to fit the purposes for which they are used. It reminded me of another very successful execution of the concept for Tate.
It is certainly an idea worth considering when you tackle your next design project.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
This is a great reminder of the problem solving aspect of design. It got me thinking about the many techniques we use to solve problems and how important it is to our work as graphic designers and marketers. My curiosity led me to an excellent page on the subject by Robert A. Harris, Ph.D.
Thanks to my friend Cathleen Rittereiser for pointing us to this.
So you need a typeface—start by choosing the project you need the typeface for (center)...
The designer, Julian Hansen...
An excellent, in-depth page on problem solving techniques...
If the subject interests you, you might like this too...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
A recent article in the New York Times points to a simple list that is making a rather profound difference in the world of medicine. "...A year after surgical teams at eight hospitals adopted a 19-item checklist, the average patient death rate fell more than 40 percent..."
A list is certainly the most rudimentary type of design structure, but it's easy to forget how important such "first principles" are. The information contained in the checklist at the center of this story is not new or unknown, it is that the way the information is organized and presented makes it accessible in a new and important way.
Stephen Sondheim says that, "Art, in itself, is an attempt to bring order out of chaos." Here is proof of the power of order.
The New York Times article on surgical lists...
The World Health Organization's Surgical Safety Checklist (450KB PDF)....
A wonderful discussion of lists on Edward Tufte's site...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Sleight of hand is the technique used by magicians to manipulate cards and coins. This is a wonderful example of how a designer and writer can use words and a design framework in an unexpected way.
Thanks to Diane CookTench for pointing us to it.
A variation titled "Lost Generation" appeared on YouTube in 2007...
The latest incarnation is here...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Jack Schulze, the Director of New Product Development at BERG, offers yet another example of how it is possible to re-invent things--even something as literal as a map. This map puts the viewer simultaneously above the city and in it--both looking down and looking forward.
A more complete explanation...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Scott Belsky, the founder of the Behance Network, poses that What the Creative World Needs Now Is Organization. I think he has a point.
"The sad truth is that most of our ideas will never see the light of day." Why? Because, "Creativity, it seems, is not only the catalyst for new ideas. Creativity is also the greatest obstacle to seeing our ideas through to the finish."
Why do we need organization? "Organization," Belsky theorizes, "is a major force for making ideas happen."
Enough said. If that intrigues you as much as it did me, read these 12 brief pages from ChangeThis.
What the Creative World Needs Now Is Organization...
Looks as if there is more to come next week...
Follow Scott Belsky on Twitter...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Ideabook.com, jumpola.com, and pageplane.com have afforded me the opportunity to communicate with many thousands of talented folks like you over the years—graphic designers, developers, marketers, writers, illustrators, photographers, and so on.
I created this Facebook page in the hope you will have the opportunity to meet some of them and that they will have the opportunity to meet you. Calling it a "fan" page is a misnomer, if anyone is a "fan" here, it's me.
Meet the friends of ideabook.com...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Humble Pied is an inspirational project created by designer Mig Reyes. The idea is simple. He is asking one question of some of the design industry's top creatives: "If you had just one bit of advice to share with a young creative type or someone early on in their creative career, what would that one bit of advice be?"
The answers are funny, interesting, surprising--a few even, down right brilliant.
Jim Coudal says, "Rip something off"...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
When I see something like FontShop's bigger-than-the-browser page, it reminds me that doing something a little unconventional can make a big difference. Is there a law that says all web pages have to be optimized for 1025 by 768 pixels? Absolutely not.
I must constantly remind myself that taking the same path as everyone else is going to get me to the same place as everyone else. That good design, in many cases, takes you on a different path to a new place.
Don't think small. FontShop's anniversary page...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Here's another elegant idea born out of a passion for a subject. The DailyLit divides a book—fiction or non-fiction, classic or contemporary—into a series of easily digestible pieces and emails them to you at a rate you prescribe.
I'm showing it to you for two reasons—first, because it is a great service, but primarily because it is such a good illustration of a powerful idea. It addresses a serious human dilemma—we promise ourselves we will do something that we never seem to get around to doing. In this case, reading a book we always meant to read.
The take away is this: There are countless human needs and wants that can be addressed by coming at problems from the new angles the World Wide Web and computer technology afford. It excites me to wonder about those next steps. What is truly worth doing? What is the best expression of it? How will it be made accessible and to whom?
I want to play.
An interview with CEO Susan Danziger...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Clay Hayes' GigPosters.com features posters used to advertise music shows and events. As you might imagine, the subject matter allows the designers and artists great creative freedom—so you're going to see some exciting and interesting uses of type, color, and illustration. (The examples I link to are tame, but I'll caution you that if you wander around, there's also material some might find offensive.)
Example 1 by Gwenola Carrere...
Example 3 by Matthew Fleming...
The GigPosters Twitter page...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Here is some great insight into icon design from someone who knows a fair amount about it. Before starting his sole proprietorship, Felix Sockwell was the Design Director and co-founder of the Ogilvy, The Brand Integration Group—not bad credentials. As you will see, he has an amazing talent for condensing ideas into icons and illustrations. Be sure to see his portfolio, it is wide and deep.
Sockwell's show and tell about the development of icons for Real Simple magazine ...
Another project for The International Herald Tribune...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Eric Baker started out spending 30 minutes each morning finding and sending odd and interesting images to a friend online—a good idea soon draws a crowd. If you need an occasional creative nudge, check out Eric Baker's Today, it just may do the trick.
Baker's first post from October 2008—Today on designobserver.com...
Baker is one of the principals at The O Group. Their portfolio...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
What I like so much about Fred Showker is that he sees the graphic design industry from more than one angle--he's is a working designer, an experienced teacher and presenter, a bit of a technoid, and the creative mind behind one of the top marketing and design resources on the Web--the Graphic Design & Publishing Center.
Not only does he stay curious about what's next, he has amassed a huge archive of insightful articles and tutorials on design, photography, typography, marketing, and the business of graphic design.
He recently did a major reorganization and re-launch of the site so, if you haven't already, I urge you to take a look.
The Design & Publishing Center...
Example 1: Visual Proofreading: 10 Rules...
Example 2: Designing Spaces...
Example 3: Throw Your Press Release in the Trash...
I've been a subscriber to his newsletter, DT&G NEWS, for years...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
In December The New York Times published this diagram under the Opinion banner. Nice organizational idea.
Phillip Niemeyer's Picturing the Past 10 Years...
Phillip Niemeyer and Dana McClure head the Double Triple art and design studio...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
YouWorkForThem.com is a shop founded by two talented designers--Michael Paul Young and Michael Cina. Their eclectic collection is certainly worth adding to your list of resources.
Example 1: Stock Images > Oils & Ink...
Example 2: Stock Vectors > Flowers...
Web of founder Michael Paul Young...
Web of founder Michael Cina...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Copywriter Jessica Hagy explains ThisIsIndexed.com as "...A little project that lets me make fun of some things and sense of others. I use it to think a little more relationally without resorting to doing actual math."
Her big collection of little diagrams is well worth a look.
Explanation of a Venn diagram (relations between groups)...
An interview with the author and copywriter Jessica Hagy...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Paul Overton explains DudeCraft.com like this: "I think it's great that there is so much DIY going on these days and that access to techniques and advice is fairly universal, but I'm bummed that there aren't more guys out there making things. Enter DudeCraft."
DudeCraft.com includes many idea starters that could be applied to graphic design as a well. Great for men AND women.
Paul Overton's DudeCraft.com...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I happened on a post by Grant McCracken, the author of Chief Culture Officer. He says, "At year's end, I have an unhappy thought, that some of the creative professionals who rose to prominence in the first decade of the 21st century will be eclipsed by the end of the decade coming, that the first decade of the 21st century will be, for some creative professionals, a brief moment in the sun."
Some perhaps, but overall I pose that consumers are becoming more sophisticated about the quality of design, not less--and that, contrary to riding into the sunset, designers are just now seeing the dawn of a new day.
My propositions:
1. Markets are multiplying.
The Web provides for conventional worldwide, regional, and local markets as well as an entirely new class of specialized markets that were not previously feasible. The proliferation of products, services, organizations, and ideas that make up those markets point to a virtually endless stream of work differentiating one from the next.
2. More markets mean more stories and more frequent story cycles.
For most organizations, the design of all types of communications is not an end, it's a cycle. As markets become more competitive and design becomes more of a distinction, it stands to reason that more designers will be needed to cast and recast the messages.
3. Core design skills cannot be automated.
There is no such thing as an organization that is exactly the same as its competitor--location, timing, finances, and personnel are just a few of the many factors that make each organization one-of-a-kind. A smart designer is able to see an organization and its products and services in ways that the organization itself cannot. You can't replace the need for, or automate the creation of, intelligent analysis and vision-casting.
4. The definitions of design, communications, and marketing are ever-changing.
Certain approaches to design run their course, but no one believes that design can be confined to any one course. Those who are able to effectively identify, define, and communicate organizational, product, and service distinctions are more in demand than ever before.
The future of design, I believe, has never been brighter.
Grant McCracken's post, Creativitys brief moment in the sun...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Don't know if you caught this. Pranav Mistry, a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT's Media Lab, invented a wearable device that demonstrates one possible direction for future user interface. I am less interested in these early prototypes than I am in his broad vision for how we might integrate the digital with the physical down the road.
Though you certainly don't need a crystal ball to predict it, it would seem that the future of graphic design, likewise, will be more about 3D than 2D.
Thanks to my friend Wayne Belvin for pointing us to this.
Pranav Mistry discusses his ideas...
More about Mistry and SixthSense...
More projects from the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
My interest in the aspects of graphic design that can be "proved" continues to grow. By "proved" I mean visual and informational structures that are actually based on some type underlying formula.
I thought this article was particularly intriguing: "The mathematics behind the Droste effect." It poses that when M.C. Escher drew his Print Gallery, he was, without realizing it, following a rather complex mathematical formula.
It reminded me of our discussion a few months ago about whether there exists some type of "design DNA" that we do not yet understand.
Seb Przd's conformal mapping imagery...
The mathematics behind the Droste effect...
Our earlier discussion, "Is there such a thing as design DNA?"...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Next time you are brainstorming an advertising or marketing piece, consider the idea of using an illusion to illustrate your point. I'm thinking, if you find just the right illusion (something somehow related to your topic) and write a thoughtful tie-in for it, you'd have a built-in reason for people to stop, look, and get interested.
Thanks to my brother Jim Green for sending me this link to the 2009 Finalists of the Best Visual Illusion of the Year Contest.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I wish more of my work reflected the confidence and restraint this design does. So nice.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I was in a local convenience store a few mornings ago and the manager mentioned how significantly their business increases as the weather turns chilly--the coffee drinkers return. Sales, she explained, will remain significantly higher throughout the fall and winter. (I would have thought cold drinks in warm months would balance sales out, but evidently not.) In any case, it is another example of just how much I have yet to learn about specific marketing applications.
So my invitation is this: Share a practical marketing and/or design idea that the rest of us may not have thought of. Doesn't have to be your idea or ground breaking, just something a little off the beaten track.
I'll lead off with one of my own--a "web card:"
Share your idea in the comment section here...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I got a question this week that led me to believe that the writer did not fully embrace that fact. They asked, "Is creating a direct mail piece more effective than using something like Google Adwords?
My answer: I would have no way of knowing unless I knew your marketing DNA--what you're selling, who your prospects are, the options for reaching them, what your offer is, who you're competing against, what the current market conditions are, and so on.
My point is success is circumstantial. You should run in the opposite direct of anyone who offers generic yet "foolproof" advice, formulas, or solutions that do not acknowledge the importance of understanding and addressing the many inherent differences in each situation.
Its the old problem of the client who spends 95 percent of their budget on the phone directory ad space and five percent on the message. Whether you're creating a brochure, a web site, a direct mail piece, a radio spot, or whatever else, you need to understand the brand.
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
The My Moleskine 2.0 Exhibition challenged Moleskine users to do things better, faster, more creative and innovatively with the popular Moleskine Pocket Notebook. The results are sometimes frivilous and fun, and sometimes serious and practical. In any case, if you are a Moleskine fan, you'll want to check it out.
The list of finalists...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
360 Cities presents an interesting dilemma. It is a gateway for visiting places on a map and viewing them in 360 degrees--an example of the type of virtual experience that has become increasingly prevalent in recent years.
My first question is this: As a vacationer, if you can go to a place and experience it virtually, do you need to travel there to experience it physically? "Well of course," you say. "To really experience a place, you have to be there." True--but what if, having experienced it virtually, you don't deem it significant enough to merit a physical visit? How many destinations that currently trade on mystique and discovery can survive that type of virtual scrutiny?
Now let's explode the question: Can your client's product, service, or idea survive virtual scrutiny? When it is illustrated, diagrammed, and dissected--revealed for its true self--will it continue to command the audience it commands today?
Here's an example of what I mean: I recently visited a city and had no idea where to find a good meal. A few years ago I would have found something that looked appealing and given it a shot. But now I look up restaurants on a site such as Yelp.com and see what people who have eaten in places nearby have to say about them. It is a helpful development for the consumer but a potentially worrisome one for the seller (especially one that relies heavily on mystique and discovery).
How does this relate to graphic design and marketing? It seems to me that our key challenge going forward will be to help clients achieve or retain significance. Not conventional significance but uber-significance--a type of honesty, clarity, style, and consistency that can survive the conclusions of those who view it through the virtual microscope.
The days when clever copy and gauzy photographs sell inferior products are numbered. The days of building brands on story alone are numbered. The days of predictable public relations are numbered. Assuming an organization can find a way to reach a prospective audience, I'm guessing the quality of its product and the honestly with which it is presented will have to be (in many cases) light years ahead of where it is in 2009.
Our success as marketers, graphic designers, copywriters, illustrators, and photographers will be wholly dependent on our ability to help clients re-invent and re-brand themselves--to help them see the world from all 360 degrees.
Another amazing example of 360 technology...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Designer Richard Smith kicked off something he calls the The Dollar Redesign Project a while back. The idea, as he puts it, is to rebuild, rebrand, and revive currency design.
The Dollar Redesign Project...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
A couple of days ago I wrote a post on the design of street fashions, T-shirts, caps, and such (When the brand is the product). I understand the value of it, I like to look at it, I am intrigued by the designs.
But for some reason I have trouble with sneaker design. My mind does not recognize the same connection between design and footwear that it does between design and shirts and caps. I see people walking around with what looks like little sports cars on their feet and it looks weird to me.
So, in the interest of facing your fears, I sought out and sampled a site devoted to sneaker design--sneakerfreaker.com. I still haven't totally overcome my lack of interest in sneakers, but I do have a better appreciation for the craft of sneaker design.
An article about profiling Keep and Una Kim...
More interviews with sneaker designers...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
True passion is rare.
Much creative energy and expertise is expended moving value from one hand to the other. That's not a criticism--commerce makes lots of good things possible--I am a card carrying member of the commerce thing. But I can't help but take special notice when I encounter expressions of interest and involvement that appear at least, to have grown out of a pure devotion to its subject.
I see that in a new publication--UPPERCASE magazine (2009). A magazine? Are you kidding?! Who starts a magazine in the year of Twitter? People with passion do--their names are Janine Vangool and Deidre Martin and they've enlisted the help of an eclectic collection of talented contributors--designers, illustrators, photographers, typographers, writers, and others.
The purpose of UPPERCASE is to take a look at the creative process from all angles: profiling creatives, peeking into work environments, pointing to examples of styles and palettes, uncovering interesting ephemera--they even devote a section of the magazine to brief profiles of five or six of their subscribers--an approach that (to me) demonstrates something important about their thinking.
Enough with the accolades--at this point you probably think these are relatives of mine--they aren't, I have no connection with them whatsoever. But I can tell you the first thing I did after closing the last page was to go online and subscribe. I figure that when you find a passion you share, you should support it.
UPPERCASE Magazine: Issue 2 preview...
The magazine is just part of the mix, their web includes lots of interesting material...
You can buy the current issue or subscribe here...
Once you've seen it, I'd love to hear your comments below...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Photograph 1 is fascinating. Photograph 2 is shocking. The difference is not that both animals are strange, the difference is that the second animal is shown in a totally unexpected context--surrounded by a pristine white background.
Makes me wonder how I better communicate a message by taking something people are used to seeing in one context and showing it in another.
See more of these wonderful creatures...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
Back in February I mentioned that Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California was doing a retrospective of Kit Hinrichs (my all-time favorite designer) titled, The Storyteller's Art. Now that it has closed (and in case you missed it) here is a look.
Who is your favorite graphic designer?
New to Hinrichs? Buy this book...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I like the way David Pearson used asymmetrical illustrations to create these unique, decidedly symmetrical book cover designs.
The use of symmetry in design has long intrigued me. I guess it is some deep psychological attraction to the foundational balance and order of nature. It pays to recall how profoundly we are influenced by design.
Have you seen any other good examples you can point us to?
David Pearson's Great Journeys series for Penguin...
A passage from The Elements of Graphic Design by Alex W. White on Symmetry and asymmetry...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Subscribe to the newsletter
I recently read an excerpt from Adolf Loos essay, Ornament & Crime (1908). He posed that, "The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornament from objects of daily use." He believed that "style" and "ornament" was "wasted manpower."
One-hundred years hence, to what I am sure would be Loos' great dismay, we are awash in graphic design--some ornamental, some practical, much of it both.
Skidmore, Owings, & Merrill, one of the world's leading architectural firms, offers some good examples of the degree to which graphic design is integrated into every level our lives. Their web site features everything from articles detailing the design of multi-million-dollar buildings to an article detailing the design of carpet: "Three individual carpet patterns derived from the random graphic appearance of landscape, traffic, and water."
It got me thinking, what ARE the best purposes of graphic design? Is our best work ornamental? Functional? Essential? Instructive? Timeless?
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Find this useful? Subscribe here
Here is the 2009 installment of Bill Gardner's excellent logo design trends report for LogoLounge.com. As always, it is a must read.
Bill Gardner's logo design trends 2009...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Find this useful? Subscribe here
The older I get, the less I seem to know about the story I am a part of. By that I mean I have come to believe that we are a part of a system we know very little about--one that continues to reveal itself to us in unexpected ways.
Take the example of DNA. Imagine how profoundly the understanding of this code (now in its infancy) will ultimately effect life on our planet.
So here's the, "is Chuck a crackpot" question: Do you think there could be such a thing as a design equivalent of DNA? Some type of underlying blueprint that map non-visual information in visual form? Is it possible there is some hidden structure to all things that design is, in a clumsy way, trying to reveal?
At first blush it sounds nutty, but consider the fact that many folks have attempted to identify just that--a formula or approach that breaks design down to some "true" or "correct" combination of dynamics--white space, grids, form and color selections, and so on.
But, I digress. All that leads me to Stefanie Pasavec's Writing Without Words. Don't get me wrong, I do not equate it to some type of literary DNA, I simply find it fascinating to contemplate yet-to-be-defined alternatives for envisioning the world around us.
Love to hear your thoughts on this--I think. Use "Comments" below--I answer every entry.
An excellent article on Pasavec's work...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Find this useful? Subscribe here
Let me make a simple point using a site in a language I do not speak--French. That way, it will be a tiny bit more difficult to find words that help to explain the significance of the imagery. As roughly translated via Google Translate, the first link shows a list of organizations and their logos associated with a creative media contest. I chose it because, you would expect that this type of organization would be particularly interested in branding.
My question is, what do these logos tell you about the organizations they represent?
Do they reveal anything about the organization's product, service, philosophy, derivation, purpose, or industry?
Or, from another angle, are these logos distinctive, versatile, memorable, durable, timeless, or symbolic?
My intention is not to ridicule--you have only to look at any random grouping of logos to see the prevalence of this type of white noise. I just wonder, if a client doesn't have hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars to imprint its brand on its audience, shouldn't the logo at least tell some part of its story?
I have had my fair share of communication failures--my point is simply, when we don't fight for meaning, we haven't done our job.
Do you have a good definition of the purpose of a logo? Share it with us using "Comments" below--I answer every entry.
See the stack of logos down the left side of the screen...
Paul Rand's thoughts on logo design...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Find this useful? Subscribe here
On his blog, you can view the photograph of Daniel Will-Harris--hands clasped across his forehead--as an artsy portrait of an urbane intellectual, or the final attempt of a defeated soul to keep his brain from exploding. Whichever you presume, I encourage you to read this laugh-out-loud design review of what Daniel crowns the worst of all hotel web sites.
Bad design at a design conference...
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Find this useful? Subscribe here
Our local newspaper (The Richmond Times Dispatch) laid off 59 employees yesterday. One in a long series of recent reports that would have you believe that nothing can save the newspapers.
Nonsense. To my way of thinking, the reason this and so many other newspapers are struggling is not simply from "a loss of advertising revenue," "changes in the classified market place," and "the difficult economic environment." What is killing newspapers is an extraordinary lack of creativity. Extraordinary because unlike other institutions that continually reinvent themselves to remain relevant to their audiences, city newspapers (generally speaking) seem to be paralyzed by their legacy.
The lords of news and knowledge need to wake up. We are in the midst of a fundamental shift in the control and distribution of knowledge. A kid with a computer in a remote corner of the planet can monitor a lecture at MIT. And I can sit in my chair and navigate my way, block by block, through the streets of Paris. To imagine that a publication, designed, written, produced, and delivered in much the same way it was 20 years ago, can continue to flourish, is not short sighted, it's blind.
Shutting down creativity is a destructive reaction to success. Instead of continuing to innovate--the very thing that lead to our initial success--we often cling to our original notions. Instead of devoting the research and resources necessary to take the next step we opt to carefully, cautiously, incrementally dabble around the edges of the old ideas--at times, beyond all good reason.
I have no doubt innovators in the newspaper business will survive and thrive. The resulting product may have little resemblance to the newspaper of today but a reinvented model that capitalizes on what works and lets go of what doesn't will surely emerge. It will come from those who, rather than fight the profound technological shift we are witness to, recognize how lucky we are to be living at such a seminal time in history and jump in head first.
The pursuit of making the world a better place is what makes life such a blessing. I find a real glimmer of hope in discussions such as these:
From a recent talk at TED: Can design save the newspaper?...
About reinventing newspaper classifieds...
The local story. Could this web site be any more nondescript?
Visit the Ideabook.com Store | Find this useful? Subscribe here
I got a plea for help the other day. A designer who frequents this blog had shared a recent post with an engineer friend and the reply was a bit condescending. The post, "The talent that makes a good designer great," points to an engineer who I thought was particularly innovative. My purpose in drawing attention to him was to emphasize the importance of the same type of innovative thinking to the field of graphic design.
The essence of the engineer's response was they saw little correlation between the skills of an engineer and those of a graphic designer. How could that type of innovation, they posed, have anything to do with a designer's sense of style, their ability to choose typefaces, their knowledge of color, and so on. After all, the subject of my post, the engineer asserted, was a PhD candidate.
I laughed out loud. Every designer has had (or will have) this conversation. At its root is the implication that devoting one's career to the design of communications and an interest in the aesthetic is somehow less of a calling than some other, more significant field of endeavor.
My response is this:
The ergonomics and aesthetics of design are to engineering what taste is to food.
Remove the aesthetic qualities (style, organization, presentation) of the clothing you wear, the book you are reading, the automobile you drive, the room in which you spend your time, and so on, and all you have left is...function.
It is important for every student of design (and engineering) to recognize and appreciate the importance of form to function and vice versa. And it is equally important to understand that to be a exceptional practitioner of either discipline requires out-of-the-ordinary instincts, curiosity, knowledge, craft, and so on.
Lots of people view art and science as a comfortable coexistence. But for those who are particularly attuned to one or the other, it is good to remember that the most debilitating form of blindness is to minimize the way in which others see. It is not only a sure way to limit your potential--it is a certain and swift strategy for diminishing your influence.
An example of substance without style...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Templates for InDesign, QuarkXpress, or PageMaker...
Last week I heard filmmaker Ken Burns say something that I think applies to every communications designer.
In the process of discussing his reverence for the stories and imagery he uses in his films he said, "...We, in the present, think that because we've survived we're somehow smarter, or better, or different from those who went before us--and it's not true. For ten thousand or more years human beings are the same, the conversations they have...are no different, the degree of understanding, the glibness of rhetoric--whatever you want to call it--is the same: we love, we hate, we feel jealousy and passion, in the same ways that other people did and it is the responsibility of those of us who labor in these historical vineyards to remind people of that."
So I am asking myself and you, to pause and think about what we can learn about going forward from what has passed. How do foundational concepts such as top to bottom, left to right, and beginning, middle and end dictate the borders of our creativity? How can we avoid losing simplicity in sophistication?
NEW in the Ideabook Design Store: Tintbook CMYK Process Color Selector...
As we go through this rough spot on the financial road, I'm sure there are plenty of folks in the job market who are considering going out on their own.
That fact reminded me of a rather profound (to me) insight I learned years back from Michael E. Gerber the author of The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It.
The crux of it is this: being highly skilled at what you do does not necessarily translate into being successful at running a business based on that skill.
That's all I'll say—the book was written in 1995 so you'll have to determine for yourself how relevant Gerber's solutions are today. I just point you to it because, as a business owner, I think it is an important point to consider if you are contemplating starting your own business or if you are trying to figure out how to make your existing business more successful. Hope it helps.
Reading Chapter 1 with get you right to his point...
In the Ideabook Design Store: FontHead Typefaces...
I happened across this site recently and got to thinking about how profoundly non-designers have embraced the design world in the last decade. There has long been an appreciation for the design of clothing, automobiles, architecture, and such but we're seeing something different here aren't we?
More and more people seem to appreciate design, understand it, and want to try their hand at it. I makes me think the market for professional design is going to continue to expand, perhaps far beyond what we now see.
The general appreciation of and desire for good design is expanding...
Love the design of this site and its crisp, bright photography...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color...
Why does a client hire a designer? For our sense of style? For our ability to choose and use typography? Our knowledge of color? Sure, all those things. But first and foremost, they hire us for our ability to innovate. For our ability to see the problem so clearly, to analyze it so comprehensively, that we are able to discover something about it that they themselves may not have even seen.
Here is a wonderful demonstration of that talent. Johnny Chun Lee has an amazing gift for taking something that is already "understood" and recasting it in a whole different light.
A brief presentation of two ideas...
Johnny's "Poor man's steadycam"...
Lee is now working with the Applied Sciences group at Microsoft. His blog...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Templates for InDesign, QuarkXpress, or PageMaker...
ReCourses, Inc. is a management consulting firm that specializes in working with advertising agencies, design studios, PR firms, interactive companies, and the in-house marketing departments of large corporations.
I recently stumbled upon their generous collection of free position papers. A few examples:
Saying "No" and Caring Too Much
Changing Client Perceptions
Common Struggles in Firms
Don't Always Listen to Your Clients
Navigating a Downturn
Hobby, Job, or Company
Raising Your Prices
Recognizing Growth Pains
Promoting Timekeeping Compliance
In the Ideabook Design Store: The Copywriter's Handbook...
Time for the 2008 installment of Bill Gardner's excellent series on logo design trends for LogoLounge.com. Mark it "must read."
2008 logo design trends from LogoLounge.com...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Templates for InDesign, QuarkXpress, or PageMaker...
If you have not been to an Anthropologie store lately, I encourage you to stop by. It is all about design--they offer an eclectic mix of woman's clothing, tableware, books, and furnishings all accentuated by truly creative, one-of-a-kind displays and fixtures.
I'm guessing this is at least one direction of future retailing. This approach (versus a conventional department store) sells one point of view, a certain set of tastes, a particular mindset—something approaching a lifestyle. I really love the place. For a chain with many stores nationwide, it is amazing how unique they are able to make each.
To get the idea, you'll have to take a field trip—what you do not get from the Anthropologie web site is the importance of the store displays and fixtures to the experience. They are, in some cases, the best part.
They have some great letters...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Design-It-Yourself: Graphic Workshop...
Do you call yourself a designer? Graphic designer? Communication designer? Commercial artist? Art director? Creative director? I believe this is a worthwhile discussion. As I began researching an article on the subject I found someone had already started the conversation--Errol Saldanha. Take a look here and tell me what you think.
A discussion about communication design...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Becoming a Graphic Designer
In case you haven't tried it, twitter is a good place to get to know folks in a slightly different way. You post brief thoughts and ideas (to be exact, 140 characters or less) and people who are interested in checking in answer back, make derogatory remarks, and so on. While some folks use it to answer the question: "What are you doing?" I am using it to answer the question: What are you thinking? Interested? Take a look.
In the Ideabook Design Store: The Color Harmony Guide...
Maybe a more apt headline is, "the hidden value of smart thinking." If you study the list of the "Latest News" headlines on the cover of cnn.com, you'll spot a tiny t-shirt icon next to one or more of the listings. Click it and you are whooshed off to CNN Shirt where you can order a t-shirt emblazoned with the headline and stamped with the date and time it was created.
The idea is the work of The Barbarian Group, the folks who designed the site. I point to it because I think it is worth noting the little things that go into building big successes. As you'll see in a brief story about the project, it has created lots of buzz and (not surprisingly) sold some shirts. Dual-cool.
Look for the t-shirt icon to the right of the Latest News headlines...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Templates for InDesign, QuarkXpress, or PageMaker...
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT: the most recent post was number 400 (yes I realize, relative to events such as upgraded your favorite software, this is not even on the radar).
It is a great encouragement to discover so much great work by so many talented folks. I hope my seemingly endless blather about it all has been of some interest and encouragment to you. As always, you are invited comment on the posts (click comment at the bottom of the post) and to introduce yourself via email (click Contact Chuck at the top right).
500 here we come. Chuck
NEW in the Ideabook Design Store: Becoming a Graphic Designer
I happened across the web of The French Laundry recently, one of 14 restaurants awarded the Mobil Five-Star Award in 2007. As I was browsing through it, it struck me how analogous graphic design is to dining. Both disciplines use a basic set of ingredients to prepare a product using a fairly well-defined set of tools.
So what distinguishes fast food design from five-star design?
1. The quality of the ingredients
2. Attention to detail
3. An understanding of consumer expectations
4. A balance between price and perceived value
5. The level of designer's training and experience
In the Ideabook Design Store: Before & After: Graphics For Business...
There are many, many folks who join us here but who do not chime in—now is the time. I showed you my favorite web site, now tell me yours. Think hard, of all the web sites you have visited, which one struck the most profound chord with you? You think it is exquisitely designed, it has some emotional meaning for you, or it led you to some pivotal thought—whatever the reason. Show me where it is and tell me why you chose it.
I'll even add a small incentive—my favorite of your favorites wins a copy of The Business Side of Creativity by Cameron Foote.
To add your site and explanation, post a comment by clicking “>>Comment” below or click the red box here and e-mail it to me.
What is the URL ? Why did you choose it?...
In the Ideabook Design Store: The Desktop Publisher's Idea Book...
I have seen many thousands of web sites in the initial years of the World Wide Web—to date this is my favorite. Not because of the design (its plain), not because of the navigational structure (because of the use of frames the links are difficult to share), and certainly not because of the information (I vehemently disagree with much of what is set forth).
This is my favorite site because it is a crystal-clear example a foundational principle: that design is opinion. Yes or no. Left or right. Light or dark. The calling of a designer is to determine the source and meaning of truth and to use that knowledge to improve communication and perfect systems. If you're good at it some significant number of folks will agree with you. If you're not, you dig deeper.
Here, unabashed and in depth, is one designer's opinion and his expression of it.
Rearrangement of tables in the laundry room...
Plan for USA regional designations...
NEW in the Ideabook Design Store: Tintbook CMYK Process Color Selector...
This simple example, to me, represents the best of design. These folks are experts at designing wine labels—a fairly narrow niche. But they studied their subject and found room to innovate.
The idea is “Wine Find”—a loose, perforated portion of the label that can be removed by the seller or customer as a reminder of the exact brand and vintage of the bottle they purchased.
That's the type of jolt thinking that gets me pumped—I can immediately think of several ways to translate the same concept to other media and formats.
The Wine Find label (450KB PDF)...
Stellar label designs and a better photograph of a Wine Find label (1MB PDF)...
New in the Ideabook Design Store: Creative Advertising...
It would be difficult to overstate the importance of restraint in communications design. It is so easy to add elements to a layout that it is often difficult (for me) to know when to stop. I have struggled with it every day of my career—in print and online. Much of great design is brilliantly complex, much is brilliantly simple—at both extremes the key is knowing when enough is enough.
Here are two sites designed by Blue River Interactive Group. To my eye, both reveal a keen understanding of this art of restraint.
The KP Public Affairs cover...
In the Ideabook Design Store: The Desktop Publisher's Idea Book...
The first link is a great example of my rule of miniatures: Showing an image at half its size makes it twice as interesting. I think the actual demo of this template is beautifully designed, the point is, I like it even better shown in miniature.
The second example proves my rule of multiples: The more images you show, the more interest you generate. Each image is interesting in itself, but show a grouping of images and the whole becomes more interesting than the sum of its parts.
New in the Ideabook Design Store: Creative Advertising...
We expect to see type in two dimensions—flat on the page. The proliferation of type shadows in recent years has had a profound impact on both print and web design. Today we regularly see words that are animated, distorted, made transparent, and so on. Here is yet another basic idea that needs pointing to: the technique of recasting words as objects. The purpose of these 3D posters is to recruit designers. I can't imagine anyone, who happens on them, missing their message.
