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Quote of the Week:

Raising the visibility of the U.S. National Design Policy initiative

Read Allison Arieff's article on Design as Policy in today's Times and remember that every made thing you encounter in your life was designed by someone. And why can't things be designed to be more effective communication tools? The U.S. National Design Policy initiative wants to make that situation better. Check it out. You can download a PDF on Redesigning America's Future, also from the USDPI here as well.

Labels: advocacy, aiga, design, PSA

posted at 10:28 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

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2.05.2009

A Cause Close to my Heart

I first supported Project Angel Heart years ago, helping Ellen create some pieces for their fundraising events. And for 15 years, the Colorado chapter of the AIGA has been putting their heart and soul into supporting this worthwhile effort. I've bid on art at the auctions in years' past, and it's all great stuff! Come on by Feb. 11th and check it out. Deets are below:

AIGA Colorado Presents: The 15th Annual Heart Art Auction

When: Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Time: 5:30-9pm
Location: Colorado History Museum
1300 Broadway Denver, CO 80202
Admission: $20 (for both members and non members)

FOR THE LOVE OF IT

Please join us for an evening of exciting bidding on magnificent handcrafted artwork, live jazz by one of Denver's top jazz ensembles, delectable food, and drinks (open bar this year folks!). AIGA Colorado is proud to have hosted this truly unique event for the past 15 consecutive years to raise money for Project Angel Heart. So please, mark your calendars and come out to support this really great cause -- if for nothing more than for the love of it.

SPECIAL HONOR

Not only does this year mark the 15th year for Heart Art, this year also marks the 20th anniversary of the Colorado chapter of AIGA. To mark this special occasion we will be honoring the 23 founding members of the Colorado chapter and recognize their contribution to the Colorado design community. Many of our founding members will be present and examples of their design work will be on exhibit during the Heart Art event. Please join us for this special celebration as our chapter celebrates its 20th year.

WHO BENEFITS?

Project Angel Heart

Project Angel Hearts mission is to promote the health, dignity and self-sufficiency of people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-threatening illness by providing nutritious, home delivered meals with care and compassion.

AIGA Colorado

AIGA's mission is to advance designing as a professional craft, strategic tool and vital cultural force. AIGA Colorado is one of the most active and largest chapters in the nation. Our members are dedicated to raising the bar of graphic design through collaboration, communication and contributing support with fellow designers.

Special thanks to our event sponsors: Unisource, Spectrographics Printing, FOILS + DIES Vintage Pressworks, Urban Dwellers, Eye Candy Graphics and Tom Ema, of Ema Design for designing our event collateral. A very special thank you goes to Marian Halliday and Carrie Martin for putting their hearts and souls into planning this very special event.

SUBMIT NOW

We are still accepting donations of handcrafted artwork for the Heart Art auction. While the deadline to drop off your work is this Friday, it'll help us greatly if you alert us that you'll be submitting something. Enter our intent to submit form to let us know you'll be donating artwork. You'll also want to download our artist form ( http://www.aigacolorado.org/events_images/artworkartist.pdf ) that you'll attach to the artwork you'll be submitting so we know whose work we're putting on the auction block! Art work is should be submitted at one of our drop off locations by Friday, February 6th.

Please RSVP here.

For questions about the event or donating artwork, please contact AIGA CO President, Mindy Nies.

Labels: aiga, art, ebd, ellen, food, fundraising, nonprofits

posted at 11:22 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

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1.06.2009

Why working on spec and logo design contests and "tournaments" are bad...for designers AND clients

Saw this little ad on Facebook today:

"Excellent Results for only $250", the ad states. Hmmm. Let's explore the reasons why the client who engages in a logo design competition or tournament will not get excellent results. According to the AIGA, there are several reasons why such contests are bad business for companies looking for a brand. In its letter to a foundation that was soliciting design submissions for a logo competition, the Cleveland chapter of the AIGA asserted that:

AIGA strongly discourages the practice of requesting that design work be produced and submitted on a speculative basis in order to be considered for acceptance on a project.

AIGA cites many reasons for this position:

• To assure the client receives the most appropriate and responsive work...


• ...Capable and professional designers do not work for free.


• ...Requesting work for free demonstrates a lack of understanding and respect.

The letter goes on:

There are few professions where all possible candidates are asked to do the work first, allowing the buyer to choose which one to pay. Just consider the response if you were to ask a dozen lawyers to write a brief for you, and you would then choose which one to use and which to pay. We realize that there are some creative professions with a different set of standards, such as advertising and architecture, where billings are substantial and continuous after you select a firm of record. In these cases, you are not receiving the final outcome (the advertising campaign or the building) for free up front as you would be in receiving a communication design solution.

There is an appropriate way to explore the work of various designers.
A more effective and ethical approach to requesting work is to ask designers to submit examples of their work from previous assignments as well as a statement of how they would approach your project. You can then judge the quality of the designer's previous work and way of crafting solutions. When you select a designer, they can begin to work on your project by designing strategic solutions to your criteria while under contract.

The authors of the article have a good point: where else would you expect a professional to do the work first, then decide whether or not they would be paid?

But this is just the ecomonic issue. The more important issue for the business asking for the logo is this: Asking people to submit logos that you select a "winner" from won't allow you to get the most effective result. Here's what you will most likely get:

• a logo that uses a color or typeface the boss likes


• a logo that looks a lot like the other logos in your industry


• a logo that doesn't take into account the unique attributes of your organization


• a logo that is, in short, "safe"

It's not just small companies or nonprofits that can get burned by taking what they think is the easier, better way out: the Goverment of Spain had the exact same problem. Their logo contest winner's entry was amazingly similar to the German government's logo. I wish I was making this up. Check it out:

The German government's identity:

And the Spanish government's "winner":

The AIGA's position of spec work can be found here. As they say:

AIGA believes that doing speculative work seriously compromises the quality of work that clients are entitled to and also violates a tacit, long-standing ethical standard in the communication design profession worldwide. AIGA strongly discourages the practice of requesting that design work be produced and submitted on a speculative basis in order to be considered for acceptance on a project.

Labels: advice, aiga, branding, design, logo, marketing, nonprofits, work for hire

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12.08.2008

Great Graphic Design makes everything better

One thing I remind people about all the time: everything anyone has ever made has been designed by someone. Great graphic design makes products, companies, and ideas more accessible by more people. Bad graphic design just makes products, companies, and ideas more opaque.

What differentiates the good from the bad? Lots of things. Focus. Brand integration. Accessibility. Grokability.

Paying someone $150, or $400, to design a logo will almost always result in bad design. Does that mean the designer who made it is not a good designer? Not necessarily. What it does mean is they aren't taking the time to find out what the essence of that brand should be. The same thing goes for paying a similar amount to design a website. Or a brochure. Even if you think about that money in terms of an hourly rate, rather than the value the design has for you (which is really how you should look at it), what does $150 translate to, in hours? I'll tell you: very, very little.

Would you trust a lawyer to draft the articles of incorporation for your business for $50? Would you let a $400 doctor operate on your heart?

Labels: advertising, advice, aiga, b2b, b2c, branding, graphic design, illustration, information graphics, interface, licensing, logo, marketing, nonprofits, packaging, process, ROI, seo, typography, visual information, web design, work

posted at 9:48 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

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8.07.2008

Sean Adams of AdamsMorioka: the AIGA/Colorado talk

I went down to the Denver Art Museum last night and attended Sean Adams's talk on fear. Adams is a great speaker, and had a lot of interesting things to say--both in his capacity as president of the AIGA, and as half of a very successful design firm.

I took a few notes, and for those that missed his talk, you can get the gist of it here. This was the first of AIGA/CO's scheduled talks from nationally-recognized designers for the 2008-09 season, and I encourage you all to attend the rest of the season's talks.

...

So: Fear. Fear comes out of wanting to protect something. Your job. Your income. Your reputation. The status quo. Some designers or clients fear change. This is a big one.

...

When the work starts to suffer, it's time to let the bad clients go.

Adams had a good example of a client that accounted for a large portion of their business, and they had fun in the past doing the work, year after year, for this client. But eventually the client started to implode, and the effects carried across to their relationship with the design firm. After a while, Adams was greenlighting any change the client suggested, because they wanted to protect their relationship with the client. It resulted in a horrible design.

They realized that this was antithetical to growing themselves as a firm: a bad piece reflects badly on your firm, hurts future business, and is demoralizing to boot. So, they gave the client the "you and I aren't in the same place, baby. I think it would be better if we saw other people" speech. And they parted ways.

...

So what's worse: Foolishness, or Fearlessness? It's pretty self-explanatory:

Foolishness results from any decisions based on ego, and pride.

Fearlessness is making smart decisions, with guts.

...


Importantly, you should execute your work with a sense of joy. It comes through in the work, and the client can tell. And, as Adams says, "it plays much better than uptight and constipated" does with clients. It should not only satisfy your clients' aims, but your own as well.

...

What happens when you run out of ideas? Trust yourself. Go with your instincts. Adams showed a case study on this with the work they did over the years for the Sundance Film Festival. After several years of working on it, Adams truly felt like he had nothing new to offer (one of his later concepts included a cross-section of a snowball. Yeah, I know.). Fortunately, his client ( a certain Robert Redford) trusted his designer. He said "forget about what we want. What would you do if you were doing this with no input from us?" And Adams came up with something that broke him out of his block. He trusted himself, went with his instincts, and created a successful design identity for that year's festival.

...

Afraid of criticism? Who isn't?

Just do what you do. It leads to good things.

...

some resources:

AdamsMorioka's website

AIGA/Colorado's website

An interview with Adams from the Denver Egotist

So, As I said at the top, this is just a loose summary. I am sure others have more to add (and please do, in the comments, if you want!).

Labels: advice, aiga, design

posted at 12:57 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

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3.07.2008

No Sagmeister for me tonight....

...I've had baby duties come up that require me to be at home. But I've sent a note to the AIGA to free up my seat, so at least that means one of you other folks can get into this sold-out event. I'm bummed, especially since Mindy, Andy and the others at AIGA/CO HQ had made it possible for me to attend, but life has other plans sometimes. I'll eat a banana, in Sagmeister's honor at 6 tonight. And contribute this:

What I've Learned:

• You can never eat too many bananas.

Labels: aiga

posted at 2:19 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

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2.21.2008

Apparently, it was just a bruise on that banana

Yesterday's post about not getting advance notice about the AIGA/CO Steven Sagmeister talk prompted a timely, lovely response from AIGA/Colorado's President. Read it here. If you didn't get a notice, it might have been a bug in the system that sends e-mail info from AIGA/National to AIGA/CO's folks. If you've had an issue, contact AIGA/CO to let them know, as it might help them track down what happened.

Labels: aiga, bug, colorado

posted at 2:05 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

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2.20.2008

Rotten Banana

Member of the Colorado chapter of the AIGA? Thought you'd have a chance to RSVP to attend designer Steven Sagmeister's talk this next month? Well, too bad. Looks like it sold out before the announcement that reservations were even available. Shame on you, AIGA: not even an e-mail announcing when RSVPs would be taken, much less waiting to take RSVPs until the printed invite/announcements went out.

Usually, events like this are preceded by a postcard announcing the topic/date/other relevant info, and there's usually an html e-mail blast that goes out to members. Not this time, apparently. AIGA/CO is generally pretty good about promoting their local events, but this gets a D- for timely execution. wassup with that?

Labels: aiga, colorado

posted at 1:34 PM Leave your comments here: 2 comments

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2.11.2008

Easier voting through graphic design

A nod in this run up to the November elections towards the importance of good graphic design in everyday things. Like ballots, for example. We all remember the hanging chad debacle of the 2000 general election, right? As Alice Rawsthorn writes in her article appearing in the International Herald Tribune,

One glance at the [Palm Beach County] punch card explains why they did so: the layout is hopelessly confusing, as is the blizzard of text. Those ballots are such a (booby) prize example of lousy information design that it's a mystery how anyone managed to vote correctly.

Indeed.

Even before the 2000 election, the AIGA had begun an effort to make voting easier for voters and provide more accurate results at the same time. The crux of the problem lies in how to present a large amount of content in the small space of a ballot--be it paper or on-screen. AIGA Design for Democracy advisor, former AIGA board member and AIGA Chicago president Marcia Lausen wrote a book, Design for Democracy: Ballot and Election Design which outlines best practices for accurate, meaningful, and understandable graphic design of ballots.

The AIGA also created, with the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), Ballot and Polling Place Guidelines which can be immediately implemented for state and federal elections. By making ballots more easily understandable, good design best practices can help the will of the people be accurately and clearly heard.

Labels: aiga, design, graphic design, politics, visual information

posted at 8:45 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

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11.24.2007

Musical Artist of the Week: DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid

I have featured DJ Spooky here previously, but BoingBoing brought yet another great mix of his to my attention yesterday. Spooky is a thinking-man's DJ, with a deep understanding of history, both arthistorical and musicological (well, it seems like a real word...). I saw him speak at the AIGA conference in NYC in 2001, and he's one smart cookie, especially when it comes to looking at art and culture. Interestingly, most of what he discussed related to visual art, but after his presentation I could see how he has extended his sense of aesthetics into the aural world as well.

I would wager a lot of the best DJs have a hand or arm in the visual art world as well. One of my friends from SCAD is now a great DJ down in Atlanta, and I am sure she is not the only one to make the transition from visual to musical imagery. DJ Spooky has long brought cultural, social and political issues to bear on his mixes, and the latest effort, Ghostworld (Africa Pavillion Mix) is no exception. Check out what he has to say about it, and then download the eighty-nine minutes of soundscape and listen. If it doesn't move you, you aren't alive.

Labels: africa, aiga, djspooky, music

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11.28.2006

secure

I've been reading Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon over the holiday weekend, and it reminded me just how paranoid I can be sometimes. It's basically a sci-fi mysery thriller set in the late 1990s and World War II, and is about gold, codebreakers, nerds like Alan Turing, marines, and more nerds. But the thesis is this: encryption is a good idea.

So to that end, I've reviewed Notchcode's security practices, and made some improvements. All client data is now encrypted, as is all communication and data on our project management site. And all the backups and archives are encrypted. Never mind that they are already locked in a Fortress of Solitude-like structure, but now in addition to being physically secure, the bits are secure, too.

I've posted some queries up at Apple's Support Discussions database about this issue, too. The Mac has a mostly-useful feature called File Vault, which encrypts your "Home" directory, where, presumably, all of your documents are stored. Except when they're not. File Vault also has the added problem of being a bit slow, and buggy--at least in my experience. So there are a lot of people who have given me some other options to think about, including everything from general backup strategies, to specific products to use.

One thoughtful poster asked me what my industry's standard practices were regarding encryption and data security, so I checked: the AIGA, at least, has very little to say on the matter (this seems to be a theme with them: when it comes to some of the nitty gritty operative details of how to run a Creative Firm, they avoid all discussion, choosing instead to talk about the larger issues. Which is fine. But when you are getting pragmatic, it's a bit annoying for your professional organization to be so high-minded).

So, I solicit your opinions, gentle reader. Leave a comment for me using the Notchcode Contact Form, if you have any experiences to share or advice to give. Now excuse me, while I type in my new 4096-character password and get back to work!

Labels: aiga, encryption, mac, security

posted at 9:41 PM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

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