For anyone that loves to collect or look at business cards, this is for you.
Daily Poetics

Labels: Business cards, design

I recently came across this pdf on "Why Design?". It is a free pdf download and has some good writing on why we design. It also has a model to visualize the design process.

Once we start to see our role as catalysts in the process of designing, entirely new opportunities open up in front of us.
Not only opportunities where we can design objects-products, brochures, logos,
books, posters and the like. But where our approach to thinking can also play a huge role.

Labels: AIGA, design

Do you ever wonder where you will be in the future as a freelance designer? Thanks to Matthew Jordan with You Suck at Web Design, we have all the answers.

"No idea. Man these freelancers were hard to kill back in the day. They used to do agency quality work for like a quarter of the cost. Do – doll – dockers? Dollars? Something like that – it was currency." Jacobs explained.

Labels: design, Freelance, Web Design, Websites, You Suck at Web Design

Another year for the Salt Lake AIGA has come to a close with the 100 show award ceremony held last night at the Rose Wagner Center. It is always an inspiring event to attend. As a designer it gives you that push to create better work and a desire to be recognized as a "Copper Ingot" winner.
The judges for the competition were from the Seattle area. They included
Steve Watson - Turnstyle
Mark Popich - Hornall Anderson Design Works
Terry Marks - tmarks
Michael Strassburger - Modern Dog
and for the Interactive pieces, the judges were
Aral Balkan - aralbalkan.com
Jeff Croft - jeffcroft.com

All of the pieces were taken up to them to view and from what they explained last night, it was a very collaborative process. They were all impressed by the work and amazed at the many scrapbooking type entries. They didn't even know something like that existed and were intrigued by it, wanting to learn more. Since scrapbooking is such a huge part of culture, there were many winners, and they were all very well designed.

The evening went very well. It was held on the stage at the Rose Wagner Center and for being on a stage, the set up was very nice. It started off with some time to mingle followed by dinner. Unfortunately, the food was less than desirable. If I was a food critic, I would go into more detail about it. Luckily, it was the presentation and the design work that I wanted to see and my reason for going.

After dinner they announced the winners starting with the merit winners and then the 10 "Copper Ingot" winners. As they announced the winners their pieces were displayed on screen. It was very well set up so you could see the work and the people involved. The only thing that I would have changed is allow a little more time for the designers to pick up their awards before they moved on to the next one. I am always interested in seeing a face so I can associate it with the name, and I wasn't able to do that because they moved so quick. Plus, it gives the designer a little better chance to shine, which is there right to do.

Most of the work was brilliant and designed very well. Of course, design work is always subjective so there were a few pieces that I had to question. When you think of the 100 show, it just wouldn't be what it is without the firms such as, Axiom, Richter7, Axis 41, and Scott Sorenson winning awards. It's great that these firms, along with others, are consistently producing such great work. I would love to be able to list all the winners and show their pieces, but I didn't keep track well enough to do that. I'm sure they will put that up on the SL AIGA website for all to see.

Congratulations to all the winners and a big thanks to the board and all the volunteers who put this together. Also, there will be a new president for the chapter, Paula Airth. There are also many other opportunities to help so contact the board if you are interested.

The past year of events have been great and although I couldn't attend all of them, I was able to get to some and write up an overview of the events.

Labels: 100 Show, AIGA, design

I recently had the chance to interview some well qualified designers for a in-house design position. While the overall feel of the interviews was good, there were a few things that could've been better. I'm not saying the I know how to do a perfect interview, but some of the items were common sense and others were things that you need to do as a designer.
So, here is a quick list of things to remember when interviewing;

1. Bring a hard copy of your portfolio. There is nothing more frustrating than watching someone try to figure out how to get there cd or flash drive running on a computer. If you are going to do that, make sure you bring your own computer and have it ready to go.
2. When the person interviewing you is trying to finish up, don't interrupt them to show them more of your work -- it's over.
3. If at all possible, answer the questions with work from your portfolio. This is another good reason to have a hard copy.
4. Don't ask questions that are not relevant to the position your are applying for.
5. Don't make yourself seem superior to the one interviewing you. This ties in with not asking irrelevant questions.
6. And finally, send a follow up thank you letter. Whether it is an email or a letter you send in the mail, always send one.

Labels: design, Interviews

I'm sure this will be hitting a lot of blogs but the AIGA redesigned their website. It was designed by Happy Cog. I have to say that the new design is a huge improvement over the last one. I do hope that the bright orange "open" sign will be leaving soon.
There seems to be some confusion on the AIGA redesign, Andy Rutledge dislikes the design and brings up the point that multiple fonts are being use.
Quoted from his website, Design View, he states;

"The markup is certainly a vast improvement over the kludge they had before (even so, I've still not taken a hard look at it), but now they seem to have abandoned any reference to advisable graphic design. For instance, here are a couple of interesting stats regarding the new design (just on the main page):
- Fonts/Faces: 6 (plus italics and bold styles)
- Link Colors: 6
- Link Styles: 2 (decorated and undecorated)"

On the other hand, we have SimpleBits saying "using just two web fonts and a splash of Interstate".

It all goes back to personal opinion and if you want to know how many fonts are being used, you better go count for yourself.

Labels: AIGA, Andy Rutledge, design, SimpleBits

There is a great article in Business Week Online about the impact that design will have in the future for companies. It's titled "Design Gets Its Due in Davos". At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, there will be a lot more presentations on design or creativity. Design is starting to get its dues.

"The global management paradigm is clearly shifting from left to right brain thinking. The new management mantra of the 21st century is breakthrough innovation via creative-design thinking. It's replacing the old business-value proposition of incremental improvement through control that's still being taught in most B-schools and peddled by most consulting companies (sorry, but in this era of dramatic change)."

Labels: Business Week, design, Forum, newspaper

In response to an email blaming web standards for limitations on Design, Andy Rutledge sets a few misconceptions straight in his article Web Misunderstandards.

"Create the designs you want. Be conscious of the practical characteristics of the medium, but create anything you can conceive of and know that you’ll not be limited when you take your work online, even in a manner consistent with Web standards."

Labels: Andy Rutledge, design, Misconceptions, Web Standards

I have recently come across a great podcast that is worth listening to. It is called Tweak and is created specifically for the creative entrepreneurs. If you are a freelance designer there are a lot of things discussed that are very beneficial. The cast is hosted by Josh Iwatawho is a web designer based out of the Portland/Vancouver area. He also runs a small web design company called Fallout Media.
The podcast is short but has enough information to get you thinking. Right now it is on episode 4, so you have plenty of time to get caught up on past casts.
Go check it out.

Labels: Business, design, Freelance, Ideas, Podcast, Tweak

These ads aren't recent ones, but I came across them on Advertising/Design Goodness where it was listed as the 2nd best under art direction for 2006.
Being that I am a long time lover of Legos, I'm glad to see that they realize the importance of good design. The simplicity of the design makes a big impact. Legos are something you use your imagination to the fullest when creating things, as simple as they may be, so to take three or four blocks and have it be a dinosaur or a boat is what it's all about. For me these ads say a lot without saying anything at all. They even go as far as to help me recall memories from my childhood when I dumped out the legos all over the floor and started to imagine my own little world.
Click each one to view full ad.



Agency: Blattner Brunner

Labels: ads, Blattner Brunner, design, Legos

Studio 360 commissioned Pentagram to redesign Christmas.

Here's a few thoughts on the matter;

The purpose of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. After hearing about the redesign of Christmas (where Christ is completely removed from it) I knew the world is officially going down hill. More than ever is Christmas about making money as shown in some of the ".mas" examples. Besides the removing of anything sacred about this seasons, the design is not all that great. This is another example of the big name design firm getting away with something that no other firm could get away with.

I know that they aren't totally serious about this whole concept but why don't we put a little more time and energy into the "true meaning" of Christmas...Christ. After all, He is what we built our nation upon from the beginning.

Read more about it on NYTimes website and at Studio 360.

Labels: christmas, design, pentagram

Does a big "design firm" name do more for a brand then a lesser known design firm? I look at the new Saks Fifth Avenue logo and brand and think, could anyone have gotten away with this, or is it because Pentagram did it? The answer is, probably not. As a designer you hear "Pentagram" and for some reason it is automatically good. I don't think this is the case on this logo. It's not that it's bad and the cut up typographical elements are intriguing, but for a brand identity that probably cost thousands - it could have been better. As I read through the the article there were a few things that stuck out to me. The first being that they took the same logo that was created in 1973, "... one stood out, the logo drawn in 1973 by Tom Carnese, adapted from a signature introduced almost twenty years before." The second is that they got a font designer to make the same thing and put it on a black background, "... We took the cursive logo, redrew it with the help of font designer Joe Finocchiaro, and placed it in a black square." Again, could any design firm have gotten away with this?

Labels: design, logos, pentagram

There are times as a designer that you need to be able to get inspiration from other sources. Sometimes the ideas just don't flow as fast as they need to, but when a design it copied exactly then you run into some problems. Here is a great example of someone flat out stealing a design.

Any ideas on where they got this design from? Anyone that listens to music, which is the world, would know that this is the design from Apple iTunes.
The above website is ConceptShare, which caters to the design profession. Having said that, you would think they would design something a little more original. Plus, the reflection idea is now overused and it is going they way of the drop shadow - to the grave.
Even though I think ConceptShare made a bad desicision design wise, I have tried out their service and think it is great. You have the ability to post your designs online and get feedback from other designers or allow your clients to feedback on them. I could see this being used to stop the hundreds of emails with all the revisions and changes that clients are always making.

Labels: copying, design

Last night I had the opportunity to go listen to Nate Morley with Deutsch Inc. He was speaking at our AIGA Salt Lake event at the Salt Lake Art Center. Nate is a Utah born and raised designer who has worked with national brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, Target, and A&FTV.
Nate was a pleasure to listen to because he wasn't a typical "big Agency" designer. He was very down to earth and presented himself in a way that gave you a thirst for design in general and not the "look at me" approach.
Here are some of the items he spoke about;
The design business has some harsh realities. Here he was speaking about some of the creative briefs that designers get. The briefs are not always the golden opportunities, but you need to do the best you can on the project you have been given.
He suggested five ways to build this momentum.
1. You need to do for the client is give them what they ask for. This will help you build momentum with them and once you build momentum you can start suggesting new ideas that you think are more creative.
2. When giving them a new creative direction, make sure it is easy for them to understand.
3. Prepare ahead of time for all their concerns about it so all they have to do is say yes.
4. Learn to pick your battles. You can't always suggest new ways of doing something or they will loose trust in you.
5. Last but not least, make sure the idea is good. Don't let personal interests get in the way of helping your client.
Some other interesting points he talked about was motivation. What is our motivation. Is it impressing our peers, winning awards, personal reasons, or is it to help the client succeed. We need to make sure our motivation is correct. We need to be passionate about our work but our responsibility lies with our clients. We need to make the look like rockstars.

Labels: AIGA, design

Just when you thought that companies didn't allow out-of-the-box ideas, you see something great like this ad campaign and your faith is restored. Well done Denver Water.
see more at Sukle.

Labels: ads, creative, design

Here is a very creative ad campaign for Top Interior. The idea is great, the photos are great, unfortunately, the typography and placement of it isn't that great.
The ad agency is Duval Guillaume, Brussels.

Labels: ads, design

It's nice to see that newspapers are starting to brake out of the columns with there ads. Now that we have finally stop using tables to layout our design on websites (we'll, most of us) it only makes sense to get rid of the table based layout for newspapers. Doing it this way only makes sense. It makes the ad pop more, which would appeal more to an advertiser. Also, as a viewer, it makes the newspaper a little more entertaining to look through. I don't read the paper on a regular basis and I know I am a little different from others, put I like looking at advertising more than the stories in the paper. If our local papers started doing this, it would almost make me want to subscribe.

To view more, download the pdf.

Labels: design, layout, newspaper

Every day when I come into work there is a company close by that when I look at the logo I just shake my head in disgusts. Why? Because the of the kerning. (The term kerning refers to adjusting the space between two letters.)

This logo would be nice but I can't look past the bad kerning. This is a classic example of someone not knowing the rules of design. I don't even think you need to be a designer to see the awkward spaces in the logo. With a little more time and investment the logo could be a big hit. If there is one thing you should know as a designer, it is good kerning.

For anyone needing a recap on kerning or any element related to typography visit Thinking with Type. Here is also a nice little summary.

Labels: design, kerning, typography