Notes from Notchcode

providing graphic design, branding, photography and marketing expertise to denver and the world

Quote of the Week:

All solitary dreamers know that they hear differently when they close their eyes.

-Gaston Bachelard

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Notes from Notchcode

10.05.2009

Soft vs. Hard in the Entertainment/Design mega-complex

My old school chum Jason Apollo Voss has some interesting things to say on the value of good design and art in business today over on his blog.

a snippet:

It used to be that good art and good design were the exclusive purview of the wealthy. Now good design is everywhere and accessible by everyone. Look at the packaging on products, look at the shape of the toilet, look at the lamp options at Target, etc. The public loves what they love. And that comes courtesy of an artist. In short, art is everywhere.

Check it out.
Labels: art, b2b, b2c, craftsmanship, design

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7.20.2009

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

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4.29.2009

Which workers spend the most time working at home?

Turns out it's arts, design, entertainment, sports, and media people. About 55% of our total weekly work hours are spent working from home (or from an office on a home-based property, one would assume). Not really a surprise, but still interesting to know that the Bureau of Labor Statistics is tracking such things.

A few takeaway points from this data: It looks like there's an institutional bias against letting salaried creatives work from home, compared to other service professions whose self-employed hours-worked-from-home is above 16%. Personal care, management, and sales-related workers who are wage-earners and salaried employees all get to work from home more than their salaried brethren in the legal, business & financial, and creative professions. I know that when I was a salaried employee there was strong resistance to allowing creatives the freedom and flexibility of working ex-office. Granted, that was in the late '90s, but it appears that trend has stuck around well into this decade.

The other point is how much time self-employed workers aren't working at home. Nearly 45 percent of the time, creatives are somewhere else. Where? Client offices, off-site meetings, research, and vendor locations are likely candidates. And I am wondering how many of these self-employed workers are in-house contractors, who, while self-employed, have to show up at a client's office and work there.

Here's my take on the chart from the BLS. You can also download a CC-licensed print-quality PDF of it here as well.

Thanks to Planet Money's Laura Conaway for twittering about this data!
Labels: art, design, information graphics, productivity, work

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3.03.2009

The official Recovery and Reinvestment Act project logo

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has a logo, which will appear on all projects funded by the Act:

It's nice, I suppose. One interesting thing I noticed is the upper left borders of the two stars that intersect with the blue background border (in the upper left quadrant of the logo) aren't there. These two stars look like they've opened up, blossomed, perhaps, into the white space of the circular inner border.

Another nit-picky thing: the "RECOVERY.ORG" typography is very small. If you're using it at the size you see on this screen, it's about 14 points in size (nice use of old standby Trade Gothic, BTW. Is there a subliminal message to be had there, in the use of a typeface whose name reflects commerce?). When this mark is used in smaller sizes, the type is going to become illegible. I could see this happening when the ARRA money is being used along with other funding for a large project, and promotional roadside signs, posters, and web banners have to fit a lot of logos into a small space (they become, in PR parlance, "bugs".)

The little reverse swiss cross that forms the center of the big gear in the lower right quadrant of the mark...it alludes to the health plan reform, perhaps, as being integral to the recovery?

[3/3/09 22:24] UPDATE: This emblem, along with one specific to transportation projects, was designed by MODE in Chicago. Um, if you don't know by now, they did the Obama "O". (I can't wait for a Denverite to be President: more branding work for us Queen City designers...).

Other comments? Post them below!

image via abc news

by the way: looks like the folks over at recovery.gov are using Numbers for their charting:
Labels: branding, bug, design, graphic design, illustration, information graphics, politics, typography, usability

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2.25.2009

M.S. Corley redesigns Harry Potter books a la Penguin Series Books

I've never been a fan of the book jacket illustration on the american editions of the Harry Potter series books:

The British versions are better:

But M.S. Corley's conceptual covers are the best:

Corley redesigned the books to look like the classic Penguin book series of days gone by. And the graphic simplicity is perfect. Tells a story without being too busy. Check all of them out, and order a print of one, if you want, here.
Labels: book cover design, design, illustration, whitespace

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2.23.2009

Now I won't have to wonder what that new store-brand orange juice is

...because Tropicana is dropping their bland, "looks-just-like-a-house-brand" orange juice packaging, and returning to their original, more distinctive design. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was confused and/or annoyed by the new look. The New York Times' Stuart Elliott has an article here.

A telling excerpt:

“We underestimated the deep emotional bond” they had with the original packaging, [Neil Campbell, president at Tropicana North America] added. “Those consumers are very important to us, so we responded.”

Among those who underestimated that bond was Mr. Campbell himself. In an interview last month to discuss the new packaging, he said, “The straw and orange have been there for a long time, but people have not necessarily had a huge connection to them.”

Reminded of that on Friday, Mr. Campbell said: “What we didn’t get was the passion this very loyal small group of consumers have. That wasn’t something that came out in the research.”
Labels: b2c, branding, clients, design, food, logo, packaging, typography

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2.09.2009

"If you can't get people to pay for what they love, we're all out of business."

That quote (in today's NYT article) from the Newsweek's chief executive sums up why they are redesigning their magazine and focusing on a core audience that is half the size of what it was.

The new rationale is to concentrate on the high-value experiences that a printed periodical can bring to a reader. This is by no means a bad thing. In fact, it's what publications have always tried to do.

The issue here is that the definition of "high-value experiences" has changed. We can get up-to-the-minute news online, and more often than not in-depth analysis (although critics of internet-delivered content rightly point out that readers "silo" themselves pretty quickly, filtering out tone, point of view, and whole areas of content that they don't want to hear or don't agree with; and that this is a bad thing if you are a critical thinker).

So, Newsweek will focus less on breaking news, and more on columnists and commentary, longer feature articles, and more photography and visual information. In the context of the internet and it's never-ending fire hose of information, this sounds like a little island of calm, reasoned content (whether it is or not will remain to be seen).

From a tangible standpoint:

The magazine will replace its thin paper with heavier stock that is more appealing to advertisers and readers. It will also put more emphasis on photography. Pages of a mock issue that Mr. Meacham displayed in his office on West 57th Street in Manhattan show a cleaner, less cluttered layout that has more open space and fewer pages that seem an uninterrupted sea of words.

The print designers at Newsweek must be doing a little happy white space dance right about now.

The Times rightly points out that Newsweek is reaching out to an audience that already has high-value, high-touch periodical experiences with such magazines as the New Yorker, The Atlantic, and others.

In some ways this moves in the direction I've discussed previously, and that others have mentioned in terms of what to offer when the "news" is free for the taking on the internet. You have to create a positive visual experience that relates to the reader on a personal, compelling level to get them to pay for it.
Labels: design, printing, visual information, writing

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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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12.10.2008

Six marketing ideas for a recession

Now that the recession is "official", why not use it as an excuse to tighten things up?

Not tighten your belt, necessarily, but tighten up the way you use your marketing? What serves you well in a recession will serve you well when times are good, too. So, to that end, I bring you:

Six marketing ideas for use in a recession (and when things bounce back):

The amuse-bouche.

Give your clients a little something extra, that you enjoy doing and also benefits them.

Nontraditional uses of traditional marketing pathways

Forget about the coupon in direct mail. What about a "secret word" that brings your customers a discount or access to special services...that only "select" people receive via your permission-based email blasts...or getting your clients involved in an online dialog that benefits all of them (on your site, of course)...none of these suggestions are groundbreaking, but think about how much they cost, compared to traditional direct mail, etc....

Redefine what "essential" is, in relation to marketing and brand expressions

What's more important: meeting someone face-to-face, or sending ten people a direct mail piece talking about your services? Getting new clients, or strengthening ties with existing ones? Or both? Having that nice rounded die-cut corner on your letterhead, or spending that extra $250 on overhead for an informational seminar for your clients?

Now is the time to think hard about what you really need, and why you are using the marketing strategy you currently employ.

Less is more, and now's your chance to prove it

Do you really need a fax machine? Need a fax number on your business card? When was the last time you actually sent a fax versus an e-mail? Use cost-trimming as an excuse to streamline your communication pathways, clearing out the chaff of old technology and ways of thinking and replacing them with methods and channels that are relevant to your audience.

An opportunity to enter new markets or new marketing channels

How about an iPhone app that pushes relevant info to your target market? Outdoor advertising to get someone's attention focused on your issue? Permission-based e-mail campaigns to build brand impressions? If you haven't thought about these options, now is a good time to do so. Why? Because approaching people from another angle allows you to catch them off guard, and hopefully even give them information or motivation that they really need in order to get your company in their life.

Redefine your brand

Why not? If things are really going down the tubes, take a hard look at your existing brand. Is it reflective of your organization, your product, and your culture? Does it address the relationship between your organization and the public at this moment? What about in five years? Time and money spent refining your brand right now, when things are down, will get paid back in spades down the road, as other organizations play catch-up.

What are some ideas you have? Let's hear about them in the comments!

photo by jtloweryphotography
Labels: advertising, advice, b2b, b2c, branding, clients, creativity, design, graphic design, marketing, nonprofits, process, productivity, small business, web design

posted at 11:27 AM Leave your comments here: 0 comments

12.09.2008

From the Archives: Design Versus Style

From January 2006, on this very blog:

For something to be well-designed, it must meet the functional needs and expectations of the user. For it to be styled well, it must live up to the aesthetic needs and expectations of the user. An important difference. Often, design and style influence each other, and good style often is just as important to a successful marketing effort, or branding effort, or architectural effort, as design. But a fun style doesn't always lead to a beneficial experience, at least in the funcitonal sense.

Check out the whole post on design versus style here.
Labels: advice, branding, design, marketing, visual information

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When are enough revisions enough?

The short answer is: when either your budget is exhausted, or your are satisfied that it's perfect, whichever comes first.

Why a set number of revisions in an agreement?

Some graphic design and web design clients may have trouble respecting your revision cycle. That's why designers have a set number of revision cycles for conceptual development and typographical edits built into their agreements. But it's up to the designer to keep the lines of communication open to make sure the client knows they are approaching the edge of the cliff that is The End Of The Revision Cycle.

What Happens if you don't tell them they have run out of time?

If you don't let a client know that they are nearing the end of the revision cycle, expect to pick up the tab of your client's extra revisions; it's unprofessional to let them keep revising and revising and then expect them to pick up the tab on a bunch of AAs without giving them fair warning. Additionally, it will help to keep the client's process tighter; if they know they only have a set number of shots at refining a concept down to razor-sharp accurate expression, then they WILL pay better attention. Trust me.

The end goal: a great design that does its job

In the end, the most important thing is making sure that the design clearly articulates the vision set forth by the objectives set forth by you and the client in the design brief. Keeping the lines of communication open, and having respect on both sides for each others' time and effort will go a long way to making this happen.
Labels: advertising, advice, branding, design, graphic design, performance, web design

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11.25.2008

Gröna Nyckerhålet = GOOD

The Swedes have a lot of things going for them: amazingly beautiful people, enlightened public policies, and--I am just assuming here--an IKEA on every corner. But as my old friend Jen Buley recently pointed out, that's not even the best thing about Sweden. the best thing about it is the Green key.

.The Green Key is a symbol you find on all sorts of food and household goods, and it basically means that a particular product ~~has been produced in a way that is environmentally-, socially-, ethically-, and consumer-friendly~~ is low-fat and/or high in fiber. It's a "green key".

As a graphic symbol, it's very simple: a traditional 19th-century keyhole knocked out of a black circle. Fits very easily on almost any space. And its visual density is great enough to set it apart from the visually gray blocks of text and bar codes that it will inevitably be placed near. Very nice example of good design for a good cause.
Labels: design, icon, illustration, information graphics

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Great Design Firms have Great Clients

A big slice of roasted turkey, heap of mashed potatoes and gravy, and a side of dressing for my wonderful clients and creative partners who have made this year so good (listed here in no particular order):

The Division of Reclamation, Mining, & Safety

the signage and exhibition display design projects, in particular were a lot of fun!

The National Association of Abandoned Mine Lands Programs

the National Conference branding, website, and print materials turned out great!

Leichtling & Associates

2 new websites and lots of book cover design

Gillingham & Associates

they were so successful that they were purchased by a larger firm--who kept the existing brand we developed for them

Walker Media

a new company branding effort and some product photography

Classical Public Radio Network

ongoing website support

Clear Creek Watershed Foundation

consulting with them on a branding effort, which helped them clarify their vision

University of Denver College of Law

work on a to-be-completed project, that is shaping up to be awesome

Colorado Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention

design and production of their annual report of pregnancy and prevention-related issues in Colorado [PDF]

Native American Community Development Corporation

an excellent website design, which is almost ready to launch

Whitman Interior Design

we're creating their website as I write this

Carl Socolow

we designed an excellent website for this Guggenheim-recipient photographer

Andrew Bale

a website design and subequent revision for another great photographer

Tamzin Architecture

notchcode did brand identity development and a website (in development) for this Evergreen-area architect

Rhombus CGI

a website design which builds on their existing branding and raises their profile
Labels: branding, design, graphic design, information graphics, web design

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11.14.2008

Product Booklet with photography--lots of fun from start to finish

Over the summer I worked with a great client in Golden on a product booklet for an industrial lighting fixture that they designed and engineered. I created the look of the brochure, with a design concept that fit the product perfectly.

As a bonus, I got to shoot photography for all of the product images in the booklet. I want to devote a longer post to the process, as well as show off some of the interior spreads that I think worked particularly well in terms of conveying information to the target market in an understandable and compelling way....but for now, I just had to show off the back cover shot. Shooting lighting fixtures is notoriously difficult, but I think we pulled it off (with a big assist on-set from one of the fixture's designers, who knows more than I will ever forget about the science and application of optics, refraction, reflection, etc. etc. etc.):

Labels: b2b, b2c, design, photography, print

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11.11.2008

New Book Cover Design

I created a new book cover design for my client, Ben Leichtling, who is an author of half a dozen books and audio recordings on how to deal with bullies in the workplace, at school, and at home. This one was for his soon-to-be-released book on Parenting Bully-Proof Kids.

I don't know about you, but I was terrified of the tetherball court when I was a kid.
Labels: book, design, typography

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9.17.2008

The FitBit: another great design, both on the industrial and on the web side

I am not one for "dieting", although by definition all of us are on one sort of diet or another. The most effective thing I've done is eat less, and exercise more. Sure, what you eat can make things easier, or more or less tempting to fall off the wellness wagon, but as a basic principle, Bloom County pretty much summed it up best:

I ran across an article about the FitBit, which looks like a great way to get thousands of people to become more aware of their fitness level, exercise, and quality of sleep. The great thing is how unobtrusive the design of the actual hardware is, and how intuitive the online interface is as well. Check it out:

The hardware design:

And a sample web page interface:

This overview screen is loaded with information, without being overwhelming. HIgh-quality and high-density infographics!
Labels: design, information graphics

posted at 1:39 PM Leave your comments here: 1 comments

8.21.2008

Colorado Design Firms: Send me your info!

I edit the Colorado Multidisciplinary Graphic Design Firms category for the Open Directory Project. It's a great way to get to know your fellow designers, since the position requires me to check out all sorts of design firms' websites--most of which are actually pretty cool! The Open Source Directory is used by all the major search engines in their "Directories" section listings, verbatim, for people who are looking for a particular type of service, company, or website. Needless to say, if you want to promote your firm online, a listing in the DMOZ Open Source Directory is an essential (and free) component.

I would like to have a more complete listing of graphic design firms in Colorado in this category. So if you or someone you know has a studio to suggest, submit their info using this form. I'll then check out the site, edit the description for consistency and clarity, and send it on up for posting within the directory.

I would bet that the majority of firms represented in the AIGA/Colorado membership would be excellent candidates for a listing in this section.

Here's a description of the category:

The days of zipatone, press-on lettering, and blue pencils are behind us; indeed, it is rare to see an established design firm practicing only print-based graphic design, these days!

Consequently: a category for multi-disciplinary graphic designers and firms. This category contains listings for multidisciplinary graphic design firms in Colorado. Firms in this category often offer services in print, web, brand identity, experience, and information design.

Business listings contain information on the types of design services offered, their location in Colorado, and a listing of what can be found on their site in the way of contact information, portfolios, company information, and so on.

Info for submitters: Please be brief! List your firm's areas of practice (print, web, experience, etc.), your location (by city), and the categories of information you list on your website (portfolio, contact information, etc.). We will edit your description for clarity and consistency with the other listings in this category; the goal is to be informational, not promotional--we know your site will do a good job with that ;)
Labels: design, seo

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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

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8.01.2008

Quark 8: Just like Shatner's latest Album

Quark just released it's long-awaited update to Xpress. From TUAW:

Quark 8, the William Shatner of page layout software (old, bloated, sweaty, and desperate to stay relevant), allows you to create content for the web using HTML and Flash without writing any code. This has been a feature of Quark since QuarkImmedia and Quark Interactive Designer, but now appears to be fully rolled into QuarkXPress, to the abject horror of web designers everywhere.

Also, a new feature: A measurements palette. That's right, it's 2008, and they're adding a measurements palette. Also: east-Asian language support and hanging punctuation. Wow. Well done, Quark

I am so psyched! Now that Quark has a MEASUREMENTS PALETTE I am definitely switching back from InDesign. And I think it's a great idea to create a tool that turns a print design into something that shows up on the web. Because, you know, people interact with print and online media in exactly the same way.
Labels: design, software

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7.28.2008

Site Refresh: eMusic

Looks like eMusic has updated their user interface. And increased the number of uploads for basic accounts from 30 to 40, too!

From the presser on 7/22:

Beginning today, eMusic customers will not only see album information and track-listing on the page, they will see imported content from YouTube, Flickr and Wikipedia for the artist whose music they are exploring.

eMusic’s “taste-making” customers can also now share their finds outside the eMusic community. They can bookmark the album page or send it to their social network feed on 18 of the most popular social media sites, including Facebook, Digg, Del.icio.us, Twitter, Stumble Upon and more. eMusic will add support for more sites over time.

Here are the old (left) and new (right) interfaces:

Definitely more "Web 2.0"-ish...glossy buttons (these are getting a tad overused, yes?), mixed with the Leopard-style njonmetallic gray rewind/play/forward buttons...it's a little confusing, graphically. But there is more content there, and it is slicker than the previous interface, which made it's debut about a year ago (according to the wayback machine, anyhow).

The logo and top navigation takes up less space, which optimizes the usable area for content, and the "25 FREE DOWNLOADS" isn't omnipresent everywhere, which also makes for a better experience. The overall navigational structure hasn't changed much, which is good...the browseability is retained, with some added context brought to the table by eMusic's integration with feeds from other content providers.
Labels: design, interface, web design

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What We're Reading Online

I thought I'd share some of the content that is informing our work, seeping into our consciousness, and making us smile.

The Big Picture. This visual blog takes advantage of the fact today's monitors allow us to see big images onscreen. Each Big Picture post presents several images with a common theme. It's a wonderful bit of online photojournalism, and a big inspiration. Some recent favorites: photos from the Tour de France, Xenophobia in South Africa, and Images of Jupiter.

The Denver Egotist. This anonymous blog shows and tells various design/agency projects coming out of the Denver area. it's occasionally juvenile and snarky, but lately has been growing up into something more than a space for ranting, trollbaiting commentators. They bring some interesting design and campaign news to our notice, and for that we'll overlook the occasional misfire.

Logo Design Love. It's all about the visual identity here. Good posts on good logos, bad logos, and occasionally similar logos.

Cool Infographics. A well-executed infographic is better than a good-looking piece of design. And it's more than art. It's a visual expression of hard data or process that makes the viewer come to a more complete understanding of that data or process.

In that same vein, there's Subtraction, the blog of nytimes.com's design director, Khoi Vinh. As the person responsible for guiding the interactive visualization of the New York Times's content, Mr. Vinh has a lot to shoulder, and he does it well. Not only does he have some great talent backing him up at nytimes.com, but his personal expressions of visual information design show he's the captain of the ship there, as well.

The Design Observer. This design blog is edited by three of the biggies in the design world: Michael Bierut, William Drenttel, and Jessica Helfand; and lists contributors that anyone who has picked up an AIGA annual in the last ten years would know by their designs, if not by name. Ms. Helfand's nostalgic post on the good old days of press rooms filled with make-readys made me remember my earlier days, and made me a little wistful for zipatone and rubylith, too.

So, there's your reading list for today, young blog-reader. Enjoy!
Labels: advertising, creativity, denver egotist, design, information graphics, photography, print, printing, writing

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7.18.2008

(Relatively) New work from us: 200 Essential Pieces in Classical Music Booklet premium piece

Last year, The Classical Public Radio Network, a consortium of classical public radio stations scattered across the country, asked us to design an inspiring premium print piece to send to higher-value donors. Their idea was some sort of listing of not just the 200 most important pieces in classical music, but the 200 most important performances as well. The list had to contain artist information, composer, featured conductors, soloists, and the recording's catalog number, enabling people to quickly find the recording and purchase it. We produced a key to the listings, featured near the front of the piece:

This is a lot of information, and pretty dry stuff. But it's the sort of list a true classical music enthusiast would really enjoy. The challenge was to present the information in a way that:
was easily accessible,

engaged the content with the viewer in a compelling way, and

had an enduring, lasting value that would make the user keep the piece around for a long time.

It was decided to present the pieces chronologically, arranged by date of composition. Below the list, we created a timeline showing the lifespans of the eras' major composers, as well as notable historic and musical events that took place. The dates of the timeline on any given spread corresponded with the pieces listed above them:

Throughout the booklet we also included features on some of the world's iconic performance halls and spaces: the Paris Opera House, the Tomaskirche, the Disney Concert Hall, and others. This helped to break up the list into more visually manageable chunks:

The client was an excellent collaborator, including a lead who knew her stuff, and what her audience would respond to: Karla Walker; and one of my writing pals from my University of Denver days, Jon Pinnow. We had amazing printing help from Tamera Rice-Ehrman at Sprint Press/Denver. They made the strike-through dull/gloss spot varnishes we used on the cover (subtly imprinting the composers' names over the front of the piece, and emphasizing graphic blocks and timelines inside the booklet), as well as making my 4-color quadtones look great (done in three colors of warm gray plus black).

By all measures, the piece was a success; it was a valuable draw when used in combination with other premiums at the $1,200 level and above, and both the client's stakeholders and recipients polled about the piece loved it. It's a piece that will continue to work for the client for a long time to come.
Labels: design, graphic design, information graphics

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5.01.2008

The Designer as Chef

Khoi Vinh's site, Subtraction, has a nice post about the virtues of smaller-sized design studios. He argues that it's impossible to have 100% excellence/creativity/wonderfulness in a large design agency, since
This craft, and whatever pretensions to art it can pull off, rests so much on the efficiency of transferring ideas from the brain to the hand. This means that in its ideal form, it works best when practiced by a single person. The perfect design staff is a single designer who can conceive of and execute an idea from start to finish—a straight shot from the right brain to the wrist—maintaining the same coherent creative vision throughout.

My comment on his post is worthy of cross-posting here, since it's a metaphor that I use all the time with my clients:
I always give clients who are leery of working with a small studio (or a lone designer) a metaphor for the small shop/single designer experience:

A designer is a chef. The client is the diner.

Diner tells chef: make me a four-course meal.

Chef and diner then discuss what they'd like that meal to be, what the diner's tastes are, how it meshes with the chef's style and competence.

Chef goes to buy ingredients (sometimes the diner comes along, or has already brought the ingredients with them. Interesting restaurant, eh?)

Chef retreats to kitchen. Cooks.

Presents meal.

Diner eats.

If the chef and the diner have chosen each other well, then the diner should leave satisfied.

Perhaps a strained metaphor, but for me, the content are the ingredients, and the designer is the chef who puts it all together to make something palatable.

And we all know the old saw about too many cooks. If you want a (perhaps) more predictable meal, go to the Olive Garden. Or Burger King. You'll get served faster, but your meal will taste a lot like the one served at the next table. And it won't be made just for you.

photos by ericmcgregor and katayun
Labels: design, small business, writing

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4.21.2008

Ask the Design Director of nytimes.com a question

Designers: ever want to know why the New York Times' website looks or operates the way it does? What decisions go into the user interface and information architecture? Khoi Vinh, design director of NYTimes.com, is answering questions from readers April 21-25. Questions may be sent to askthetimes@nytimes.com. from the Times article about Mr Vinh:

As design director, Mr. Vinh leads a group of 11 visual designers, information architects and design technologists in continually improving and extending the user experience at NYTimes.com. Mr. Vinh also writes and lectures extensively about design and technology, and serves on the national board of directors for AIGA, the professional association for design.
Labels: design, information graphics, interface, newspapers, web design

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4.01.2008

What Makes a Great Designer?

Adrian Hanft over at Be a Design Group has a nice post on the Five Uncommon Attributes of Good Designers this morning. It rings true not just for the designer in me, but the brand communicator, the photographer, and the marketing consultant as well. Hanft concludes thusly:
At the end of the day, designing a logo is relatively easy. Being a good person is the real challenge. I believe that it isn't enough for a good designer to just do good work. A good designer must also be a good person. What are some virtues that you believe help make a better designer?

Read the whole post. It's worth the time.
Labels: advice, creativity, design, graphic design

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3.28.2008

"Design is Dead", says Starck. Oh reeeeealllly?

Kottke turned me on to this little bit o' nonsense for the evening:

"I was a producer of materiality and I am ashamed of this fact," Starck told Die Zeit weekly newspaper.

"Everything I designed was unnecessary."

my favorite line is that "design is a dreadful form of expression." Yeah, you're totally right about that, o' design god/huckster. That's why, oh everything people ever made was designed, in one form or another. If you criticize design, you're criticizing a large chunk of civilization's accomplishments (large and, more importantly, small), and the people who made them.

Seriously, though, I think the point he is trying to make is that there are things more important than a well-made chair (although don't knock a comfy chair). The AFP article closes with him saying that the thing he needs most is the "ability to love." I would posit that any well made thing, whether a product of a designer, writer, artist, or sunday casserole-maker's output, contains love. And if you don't put a little of that in everything you do, you aren't making it as good as it could be.

Labels: creativity, design, soul

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2.16.2008

More great street art, and another well-designed (unauthorized) campaign poster

Steven Heller has a nice roundup of unauthorized campaign posters from past years (mostly the late '60s and early '70s) over at the New York Times this morning, in response to the Shepard Fairey "Obama" poster sensation. While he has some nice examples in the piece, he glosses over the phenomenon of Obama street art that has cropped up in the last few months. All sorts of folks, not just graphic designers and poster gods, have been designing campaign posters, graffiti, and other forms of what we in the business call "outdoor display advertising" for the populist candidate of the moment, Barack Obama. You can see some great examples of the genre over at GoTellMama.org.

Here's another example of a great campaign poster design, thoroughly unauthorized, executed very well. It's by Ray Noland. It speaks not only to the fact that Obama is the change agent, it speaks to him being eager to be in there, making it happen. It also shows off the fact that he is an unreconstructed street basketball player from way back. All of Noland's and others' work was on view at the GoTellMama! Show in Chicago this past week. You can see samples of work featured in the show here. A cryptic message on the site mentions that they may be taking the show on the road as well, so stay tuned.
Labels: branding, design, graphic design, politics

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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

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2.09.2008

Best. 404. EVAR.

A lot of other designers have talked about how kickass the Barack Obama branding is, especially regarding how their site pulls it all together. But in case you head on over there on a day where their servers aren't overwhelmed by donors and news-seekers, this is what their 404 page looks like:

"Thanks to your overwhelming support,
our servers are a bit overwhelmed right now...."

What's great about this is that for one thing, it's not just a generic 404 page (which any smart company will already have replaced with a custom one). For another, the language speaks to the essential brand identity of Obama, that is to say: "hey, we are the underdog candidate, right? We're happily surprised that our server is being hammered right now. Isn't it cool?"

That subtext, reinforced by the subtle silhouette of the masses of people above the text, makes this one of the best 404/error pages I've seen.
Labels: design, illustration, interface, web design

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2.06.2008

memo to clients providing art for your campaign: 72dpi images DO NOT PRINT WELL.

That is all.
Labels: design, humor, printing

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done, and done.

Here you go, mateys.
Via:
Be a Design Group
Form Fifty Five

and the Amazing Shape
But now what I really want to know is:

[cat photo from dark_mephi. Used under a Creative Commons attribution non-commercial license.]
Labels: design, humor, typography

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2.04.2008

What Party are Creatives Supporting for President?

The Huffington Post has a fundraising exploration tool that uses Google's API to visually map donations to political candidates, and it provided me with a whole evening of fun (which explains why it's a good thing I'm married and not out trying to pick up a future mate). After virtually stalking my neighbors to see who was giving to Mitt Romney and who was giving to Barack Obama, I noticed that I could search donations by occupation. I entered in a few occupations in the creative field: "graphic designer", "creative director", "web developer", and so on. It was very illuminating. More importantly, this query provided me with a nice little dataset to make infographics out of. And now you can enjoy them too. (Click on any graphic to enlarge to about 1280 pixels wide)

The first chart takes the raw amounts of cash donated to Democrat and Republican candidates for president, grouped first by party donated to, and segmented within those groups by occupation. You can see that creatives are donating overwhelmingly to the Democratic candidates over the Republicans. In raw dollar amounts, it's about two to one. And look at those photographers! Man, they (meaning, in part, me) must be getting paid way too much to be giving all that dough out (actually, it's due to the larger number of photographers that donate, relative to other occupations).

So, now we know that creatives seem to support Dems over the GOP. But that brought me to a finer point: if you are, say, an art director, are you more likely to give to a Democrat or to a Republican? Remember, the first chart simply shows the total amount given. Within each party's breakdown, you get a feel for total amounts given by production artists versus ad execs, for example, but remember, there might be just one or two P.A.'s giving money, and a whole lot of ad-men donating, skewing the relative data. That's what brings me to the next set of graphics:

The second and third graphics show the relative amounts given by each occupation to Democrats and Republicans. The numbers are standardized to the largest pool of donors (those profligate photographers)at a 1:1 ratio between Dem-donating shooters and GOP-loving imagemakers. Now we can use the data to estimate if you are more likely to give to Clinton or to McCain, if you are an illustrator:

The third graphic overlays the data blobs for each occupation's Democrat and Republican donors, to help visually compare relative giving preferences. Which do you think works better?

One analysis suggests that art directors and photographers tend to be the most split groups, with nearly equal likelihood that you would give cash to either party. It also shows that we need to pay illustrators and production artists a hell of a lot more money before they give some of it away to candidates (or they are just really smart and spend the cash on more important things, like beer and espresso).

One thing this proportional representation doesn't factor in are the total number of donors for republicans versus democrats. Obviously, if there was just one Republican donor for each occupation (and they gave a lot of money), the relative charts above wouldn't work. But in general terms, I think it's a nice representation (this is why I am an information presenter and not a pure statistician...if you can give me figures adjusted for total number of donors, send it to me and I'll make new graphics!)

So, that's my two cents before Super Tuesday. Now: no matter who you support, go and make your voice heard and GO VOTE!
Labels: design, illustration, information graphics, politics, visual information, whitespace

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1.08.2008

Xerox's new brand: something original, or just a copy?

The New York Times has a summary of today's most interesting branding news: Xerox has changed its look. Long gone are the days where Xerox called itself "The Document Company" (it ended that tagline in 2004); now it's young, plucky, chunky lowercase "xerox"! With a playful little 3-D red "x" ball next to it (to represent the connection of "customers, partners, industry and innovation", according to the article).

Xerox (or is it now "xerox"?) hopes to distance itself from its roots as a document duplication company, even though they still create hardware that is essentially document duplication (printers, imagers, hi-speed publishing devices, etc.) and focus more on this synergistic approach that the X-ball --oops, I mean "x-ball"-- embodies.

I will reserve judgement (mostly) for now, on the new look. An all lowercase name does have some benefits (more approachable, more casual), but it is somewhat of a trend, and don't know if xerox does itself any favors by moving with the pack. The 3-D x-ball is a little too internety, and reminds me of the AT&T death star ball that company just rolled out (designed, by the way, by the same company that just created the new xerox logo). Of course you can expect to see it animated online, and in commercials, too. Which is fine, up to a point. I worry that one can take logo animation too far, and overuse it to the point that it competes for attention when used in practice, taking away from the power of the other information and marketing elements that the brand image will share the stage with.

So what do you think? Is this a good idea for Xerox? Or just good money thrown after bad? And if that's the case, what should they have done instead?
Labels: branding, design, typography

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11.21.2007

Color

If you ever need some color inspiration, check out ColourLovers.com, an online community devoted to sharing ideas about color, color palettes, and trends. It's a great place for getting some inspiration, and if nothing else, an idea of what other designers out there are using.

Here's a particularly nice, cool, bold palette from deus that caught my eye this morning as I was searching for some inspiration.
Labels: advice, color, creativity, design, web design

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11.20.2007

iterative

Have you taken your design at least one step past where you feel comfortable with it today?

Iteration: it works.
Labels: advice, creativity, design, productivity

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9.14.2007

PMS 187 Runs Thru My Veins

Be an O.D.G, dogg:

Labels: design, humor, video

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7.03.2007

Happy Fourth

Happy Fourth of July, from the wonderful graphic designers of the Works Progress Administration:

Found on Shorpy, the lazy man's way to see the past.
Labels: design, holiday, illustration, wpa

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12.06.2006

To the Publisher!

My co-authors and I are about to send our baby off to the publisher. We did an inter-continental conference call (gotta love Skype) this morning (evening for them) and ironed out the stuff that needed to be completed. I spent most of this afternoon completing a few stray graphics, collecting everything into nice, tidy packages, and checking all the items off of my to-do list, one by one.

And now it's off to Alana and Margie for one last glance, then off to California to the publisher, where it will be copyedited, typeset, proofread, and then published. More info on the book as it comes closer to being a reality. In the meantime, here are a couple of the illustrations I contributed to the book.
Labels: alana, book, design, illustration, margie

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12.05.2006

finished

Just wrapped up a nice holiday card for a new client...Printed it at Wandel Press, where I have the good fortune to work with Dave Biondi, a print rep par excellence, and a good friend to boot.

Now it just needs to be trimmed right, scored and folded correctly, boxed cleanly, and delivered to the right address. For people who thing geting something "printed" is easy-peasy, remember there are about 40 steps involved, any one of which can completely screw up your job. Eeek. Fortunately, I haven't had that happen...too often; at least no more often than any other designer. But each time something goes to press, you cross your fingers, knock on wood, and avoid walking under ladders for a while, until the client gets the finished product.
Labels: clients, design, printing

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