Archive for the ‘Graphic Design’ Category
Just found this terrific “colour design” trends blog (love the Brits!) http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2009/04/02/lesser-known-color-vocabulary-m-through-r If this is one that Lidia already shared in her newsletter, never mind. But I don’t see it in my bookmarks or Delicious so I think it may be one we haven’t shared.
AIGA’s Design for Democracy submitted a posting to the Change.gov Briefing Book for President Obama’s transition team. The posting titled “Government communications should be helpful and clear” requests more attention be given to government communications. You may want to consider voting since only the suggestions with the most votes will be included in the Citizens’ Briefing Book. I voted and promise it is short and simple. Simply register with your name and zip code, then search for “Government communications should be helpful and clear.” You can also add comments.
Here’s an edited excerpt from an interesting blog item I saw today on Typophile, posted by web developer Nicholas Shanks (link to full post). While this is certainly old news to most on the (web) design front, I appreciated the reiteration of a valuable lesson in self-promotion 101: never lose sight of the potential client in everyone! How Not to Promote Yourself to Potential Customers I was looking around at the websites of typographers earlier today, and came across the site of one independent designer (whom I shall not name) which looked so broken on my computer I had to email him and explain what was wrong with his HTML and CSS, and how standards-compliant coding practices would rectify them. I am a professional web developer and like to educate others about web standards and accessibility, to help improve the web in my own little way. The response I got back, however, shocked me: “These are all visual problems caused by your settings. The site was meant to be viewed the way I designed it. I won’t tailor the site to meet every possible variable of every combination of browser customizations.” I reminded him that the only computer on which his site can “be viewed the way he designed it” was his own. I will no longer be recommending this designer to my clients.
Designers: want to get some (relatively) free PR? Crescent Hills Books, publisher of fine design books, has several calls for entries for upcoming books on design-related topics. I especially like the concept of The BEST Ads You’ve Never Seen — a book that will show off those great ideas that were nixed by the client. And if you have a hip or stylish office you want to show off… send in your photos for the upcoming book, Boutique Offices by HarperCollins Publishers. (thanks to the MarketingMixBlog for this posting)
I just found this website for potential project work. Firm seems to be Chicago-based. Looks kind of interesting. For the designers in our group (or who happen to drop by our blog), take a look at CrowdSpring. I just skimmed it but here’s the premise: a buyer who needs a logo, website, etc. can post the project, list what he’s willing to pay, and then designers submit their designs. The fee is set and from what I saw, you certainly won’t get rich. But if biz is slow, you’ve got the time, you want to build your portfolio, etc., it might be worthwhile. You do get to work with a worldwide audience! It appears that people can critique your designs and you also get feedback from the buyer (move this, tweak that, I hate that color, this needs to be redone — oh sorry, that was from one of my projects). I’m not sure how the winning design is selected but am sure it explains.
If you’re looking for a paper stock in a certain color (in my case, light grey), check out The Paper Mill Store’s page where you can search papers by color. They sell lots of paper brands so you should end up with plenty of papers to choose from.
If you’re a designer who specs paper — or just looking for creative ideas — paper promotions are a great resource. Visit the Must Haves section of the PaperSpecs website for quick links to ordering the latest paper swatchbooks and promotions.
You may want to consider this update I received from colleague and Kyle Shannon mystery series author, Linda Mickey. An excerpt: “Happy Spring. There is some big news in the publishing world that has a direct impact on me and thousands of other writers. Amazon announced that unless certain publishing companies (mine included) use Amazon’s printing company, Amazon will not sell the book. An article in Business Week points out that Amazon’s real goal is to print ALL the books it sells on a print-to-order basis. Why? Because warehousing is costly. If Amazon switches to a print-on-demand business model, it will save millions of dollars. It’s a smart business move on their part and they have the marketplace muscle to pull it off. There’s only one problem. Amazon’s print company, Booksurge, is not a good printer. iUniverse (my publisher) and others switched to Booksurge’s competitor because of quality issues. The Internet is full of complaints about Booksurge’s quality. (Some copies of my first book, Greased Wheels, had green pages that matched the cover.) Why am I telling you all this? Because I want to assure you that my books are available at www.bn.com and www.powells.com and many other book selling sites. If they order from Amazon, I cannot guarantee the books will ever ship. Barnes and Noble also has a $25 free shipping program. As always, thank you for your support. Keep reading!”
After one of my regular visits to the JohnsonBanks (UK design firm) website’s “Thought of the Week”, I was directed to this post in DesignObserver (that I somehow missed). It discussed the seepage of the title phrase into the client’s lexicon and the potentially destructive quality to encouraging this. Below are some excerpts, but here’s the full post. Today, the term has seeped into everyday usage, and it has become widely used by commissioners of graphic design. Why? Is it because it’s a piece of useful shorthand that emphasizes the importance of usability in modern strategy-driven communications? Or is it a babyish term that reduces the designer to the role of decorator — someone who gets asked to “color-in” strategic plans made by smart marketing wonks who think design is a no-brainer? British designer Michael Johnson … noted an increase in usage of the term: “Yes, people use it a lot,” he says. “I’ve always mistrusted it as a phrase — apart from sounding vaguely pornographic, I think when you succumb to ‘look and feel’ you’re only a hop and a skip away from mood boards, and that really is the end of design as we know it. It’s the kind of phrase that researchers love to throw around in focus groups, a process almost always destined to remove the last hints of creativity from a project.” Ever since W.A. Dwiggins became the first person to call himself a graphic designer, designers have agonized over the nomenclature of their trade. In recent decades, they have been dumping the word design as fast as they can in favor of more business-friendly terms such as corporate image, corporate identity, and most recently, branding. Does any of this matter? If clients are happy to refer to the output of graphic designers as “look and feel,” where’s the harm? Well, the harm is that it’s a euphemistic term that no better describes what good design can do that “nip and tuck” describes the work of a skilled brain surgeon. We encourage its use at our peril. Resist, I say |
