The end of graphic design? Probably not.

Graphic designer’s really are a whiney old bunch. If it’s not the latest Olympic logo getting up their collective nose, it’s public consultation on an identity for the city of London. Last week’s topic of complaint; iStock’s decision to sell logos alongside it’s photographs. This is not a new idea, sites like this and this, have offered quick fix branding solutions for ages.

I’m not going to mouth off too much on this one because it’s been dissected very nicely and debated ad-nauseum in comment threads on quite a few blogs, here, here and also here. Eventual opinion seems to be leaning towards that despite the initial outcry, proper designers have nothing to fear.

Any designer worth their apple products knows that a logo is at best the wheel around which a complete brand identity turns, and is not a design solution in itself. Clients who would rather buy a logo off the shelf than have one created for them, well, I reckon we’re better off without them. Some designers even argued iStock might be presenting us, unwittingly, with an opportunity.

[comment link to Design O'Blog]

Now I love a good moan as much as anyone, in fact better than most people. You might say I’m never happier than when I’m grumbling about something; youngsters today, old people, young people getting older. So I’m not trying to get all high and mighty about how we should rise above these issues. Besides that’d be horrendously hypocritical of me. We need to debate and discuss these topics and everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter how misinformed/stupid they may be. However designers shouldn’t be so quick to leap to their Twitter accounts, fingers trembling with indignation, with each perceived attack on our profession.

Am I worried about my job? Hell no, but then I’m paid to do web design.

Design is a meaningless word

In a recent audio post on designobserver.com, William Drenttel said that the term ‘design’ has become “ubiquitous to a degree that it’s almost meaningless.” And he’s bloody well right. When I recently informed someone that I did web design, their response was “surely anyone can do that.”

I blame the internet. It used to be the preserve of a sort of cultural elite, the high powered creative, but now any pleb with a copy of Photoshop can “do design”. I like to think of myself as a sort of liberal minded person. I should be pleased at this leveling of the playing field, the idea that design is available to everyone to create, at the twitch of a mouse pad, the sort of effects that twenty years ago would have taken skilled professionals weeks to produce. You no longer have to spend years at university earnestly copying the styles of past masters, and then, inevitably, spurning their rules and striking out along you own creative path. A couple of YouTube tutorials and you’ve got yourself a career.

Architects don’t have this problem. No-one would ring up their best mate’s cousin and ask them to knock up some designs for an extension, just because they’ve got an iMac. I do feel that graphics is an under valued profession, too often it is dismissed as a last consideration, little better than a fancy embellishment, which inevitably means that people under-estimate how much time, energy (ie. money) it costs.

I feel this applies much more to web design than print, where the printed word still retains some level of mystique and reverence. I expect people from all other professions feel the same way about their jobs, but I bet they don’t have clients constantly questioning their decision making, as if simply looking at a computer screen somehow makes them better qualified to choose fonts than someone who works with type every single day, including weekends (geeek that I am). But I can’t imagine someone turning to their solicitor in a court room and saying, “actually I think I can take it from here”.

I’m all for would-be graphic designers taking the self-taught path up the creative mountain, I even applaud them. It’s not something I could have done; I needed university to give me some basic grounding in design principles and theory. Turns out I could have read it all on Wikipedia in one afternoon.

But unless people start to take web design more seriously we’ll never see the back of shite like this.

Also if you haven’t clicked on the picture of the kid at the top of this post, go and check out that link too.

This just in: shock tactics still effective

In the last couple of weeks the powers-that-be (in this case the UK Department for Transport) have released two very different videos about the dangers of young people driving. Or something to that effect. The two videos take totally opposite approaches in their attempts to scare us troublesome adolescents into “not doing really bloody stupid things whilst driving a car.”

The first was a PSA which implied that police-persons (who presumably have all been trained for long-range drug-detection) can spot a mile off if you’ve been getting all high and stuff, AND THEN PUNISHMENT WILL ENSUE. It’s a much more softly, softly tactic then the traditional spraying of children across pavements with family saloons.

The reaction has been pretty luke-warm from what I can gather. The responses over on the CR-Blog ranged from snorting disbelief to outright derision.

The other video was interestingly enough created with the help of students from the International Film School in Wales, which also provided the young actors. It takes what might be seen as the more traditional approach to road safety ads (and I’m not talking about David Prose, the Green Cross Code man either). The result is a 4 minute epic.

And the reactions were as opposite as the styles of the videos themselves. Here’s a comment wall from Facebook, which, whilst hardly being a broad cross section of the target audience, does seem to suggest that the way to get through to people like myself is to scare the shit out of them.

Motivation

There’s nothing nicer than an unexpected compliment and I’ve had two post-it notes left on my computer since starting my job. How lovely and both from people who don’t even work in the same office!

Makes me smile first thing in the morning, thanks guys!

Smile please, we’re designers

Today the Soak team went off to see the very talented Michael Harrington to get some photographs taken for the “About” section of our website. It seems to be an integral part of the design agency’s image, to have the faces of their employees grinning nervously online, I think in an effort to come arcoss as more friendly and approachable, which of course this industry generally is than your average small service industry business.

But I was wondering how other agencies display their profiles. So here’s a quick round-up of some other people’s sites I could find in about 5 minutes. First thing I’ve noticed is that many agencies don’t actually use photos on their sites, relying instead on the quality of their work and their salesman spiel to sell themselves. Here’s a few of my favourites of those sites that do feature mug-shots.

First up Pirata, a very nice looking site, with a nice group shot, but only bios of the company directors.

thomas.matthews have a nifty flash click through with close-up, outdoor portraits and bios of each member of staff.

Soup also use flash to create an elaborate, but very engaging page which features everyone of their thirty plus staff.

The lovely folks at Spring have used objects distinctive to each person rather than traditional portraits to make their site more quirky and interesting.

But the prize for most ridiculous “About” page must go to Saatchi’s CEO Kevin Roberts, who has his own website, which is pretty much just about him. Videos, blogs, photos of Kevin. Just we’ve always wanted to read about.

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I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the term “branding”. It always smacks to me of exaggeration and deceit. Possibly I’ve been reading too many books like the much vaunted/maligned No Logo by Naomi Klein.

Having just read Steven Kroeter’s interesting article on the history of branding (the word maverick comes from a cattle rancher, who knew?), my mind has whirred round once again to consider the points and purposes of the brand. Everyone knows these days that in the case of certain product groups there is very little discernible difference between one company’s product and the next. A good example of this is bottled water, no matter what people claim it’s still just mineral water, or in the case of Pepsi, plain old tap water. So why then do all these brand-savvy consumers still flock to Evian over the considerably cheaper own-brand waters on the market. Maybe they fins some sort of assurance in a well known name. Money can’t buy brand security like that. Or can it? Evian have sponsored the building of an olympic pool at Brockwell Park in London and just to make sure everyone knows they made sure the word Evian is painted across the bottom of it.

My point being that the pursuit of a successful brand seems, on occasion, to have over taken the desire to create any sort of useful innovation in the product. Look at flipping BP, they (partially successfully) rebranded themselves from a monstrous oil-guzzling petrol company to a concerned and public spirited business. I’ve got more links about this than you can shake a stick at (from my dissertation – I don’t collect them or anything, that’d be weird). But here’s a nice picture of BP’s latest UK billboard campaign. Or is it a subversion found on Earthfirst.com?

Perhaps morally worse than trying to tweak a brand’s image is the endless striving search for ‘cool’. The creation of a cool brand is the absolute top priority of clothing manufacturers and to those who achieve it comes rewards far greater than simply selling clothes. Brands like Converse have become by-words for young, trendy and cool. Converse aren’t selling trainers these days, they’re selling a lifestyle product. If you wear Converse, it immediately elevates you to someone who is fashionable and up-to-date; you are cool. When politicians start wearing your shoes in order to “get down with the kids”, then you know you’ve made it into the country’s conscience and created a symbol that’s as easily recognized and understood as a stick figure on a toilet door, or even the MacDonald’s golden arches. That’s the real power of branding. And to my mind it’s a bit scary.

Thanks for reading. This blog is bought to you in association with Apple and store brand Custard Creams.

Beggars and snake charmers

I wish I’d read this before visiting India. I only came across this wonderful blog trapped in a hotel in Delhi whilst outside people pelted each other with paint. It was the festival of Holi and I was using Andrew’s laptop to try and find out more about what was going on. The above link tot he blog of the lovely sounding Dave and Jenny gives an excellent Western angle on what it’s like to live in India in the 21st Century. It was the first of many surprises that this wonderful, manic country had in store for me.

Whilst filming in the Punjab, at a town called Fatigarh Sahib, the people I was with interviewed a very canny old chap about his stance on sex selection (the basis for the film). He was charming and liberal in his views, an instantly likable character, much given to expansive gestures with his long fingers and flashes of his brilliant white teeth. Later, as I sipped sweet tea, I chatted with him. “You are from England.” It was a statement rather than a question, but I replied that I was indeed. “Then you know,” he continued, “where Nelson beat Napoleon!” I quickly said that I did know where Nelson beat Napoleon and more that that, came from the county where Nelson was born. He wasn’t interested in this however; “Trafalgar!” he cried triumphantly, the fingers of his left hand splayed upward in gesture of emphasis. “I used to get all the English papers delivered!” I was really warming to this man. I admitted to him of my own surprise at finding the north of India to be so well developed and prosperous. “Of course,” he smiled again, showing off his gleaming grin. “You think we are all beggars and snake charmers!” He was absolutely right.

I only spent a week in India, and then only in relatively rich northern Punjab region, but even so I was blown away by what I saw and the people I met. I was expecting the whole place to be a ghetto like those depicted in Slumdog Millionare, and these do exist and are much, much nastier than I could have imagined, but it’s also a place of incredible beauty and sophistication. In South Central Delhi there are branches of Louis Vitton and United Colors of Benneton. I didn’t know whether to be delighted or outraged, delighted at the level of development towards a western style shopping district, or outraged at the vast and blatant gap between the have and the have nots. And in India you either have it or you don’t; there is no inbetween.

With general elections coming up very shortly, India is a country fast becoming a major world player and has long stepped out of the shadow of British rule, which I have to admit was about all I knew of India before I went there. The campaign to increase voting Lead India 09 have even spawned it’s own incredibly sophisticated subversion, Bleed India. The people there are as politically aware and interested as any Western nation (probably more so). I even bought a book out there to help me understand it better, India: From Midnight to the Millennium, by Shasshi Tharoor, which I have to admit is pretty heavy going. But I’ve only had a taste of this vast and diverse nation, I’ll be going back.

Back from my adventures – so many tales to tell

With a crashing anti-climax I’m back in the UK and it’s raining. I don’t really mind though, one of the things I’ve learnt over the last few weeks is just how lucky I am to have a solid, tiled roof over my head. For the past three weeks I’ve been traveling with film maker Andrew Martin, hanging around inner city schools, isolated villages, maternity wards and drinking endless cups of sweet tea, a mark of hospitality anywhere you go in India or Nepal.

Mostly I’ve been keeping my mouth shut, listening and absorbing, but I’ve also had the chance to talk to some truly amazing people. I’ve been quizzed on the Battle of Trafalger by an old man in a village in the Punjab and I’ve discussed Nepalese politics on the roof of a half built hotel in the Terai under a starry night sky. It’s a real shame that I didn’t manage to blog anything whilst I was out there because despite keeping a journal it’s hard to now recall the details. I wish I could recreate the musical crescendo played by lorries and cars as they charge at each other down Nepal’s (single lane) Western highway, each one a totally different string of notes and everyone seemingly determined to demonstrate them to all other road users.

Hopefully I’ll write up some of the more bizarre events that I’ve experienced whilst away and not get bored or simply forget what happened. For now I’ll just say that it was a trip of massive contrasts, of extreme opposites, moments of delight and horror. The Taj Mahal in Argra is a case in point. The Taj Mahal is done a great disservice by photography. For a start it’s so massive the only way to capture the whole building is through that shot up the garden over the ponds that everyone is familiar is.

The Money Shot

The Other Side

This cannot possibly do it justice, I’m not easily impressed by buildings, but this place is utterly breathtaking. Not only is the tomb itself vast, but the fortresses that flank it, the gardens that run up to it, the minarets at it’s corners and the gate you pass through before you can even see the main event, are all beauties in their own right. I was left dumbstruck, a commendable achievement some might say. But the flipside; as you walk beyond the outer wall of the Taj Mahal area, through the North gate, you enter a much more typical area of Argra, old cramped buildings, shops and people spilling into the street, scooters, rickshaws and pedestrians jostling for space on narrow, broken lanes. The contrast with the majesty of the palace beyond those high walls couldn’t be more stark. Where the Taj Mahal is surrounded by a reverential aura, a place of worship in death, this place is a buzz with life even if much of it is sustained by the tourist lure of the Taj. It’s difficult to describe – if you get the chance go!

The most important thing I’ve learnt (and it’s all about what you take away from experiences like this) is how unbelievably lucky I am. The last few weeks have taught me a lot about how the rest of the world works and I am very priviledged indeed to have witnessed it. More tales of my adventures to come.

Spare some design work?

I was reading on the CR Blog (really old but I like looking through archives) about Fontsmith’s new font designed for the charity Mencap and feeling pretty good about quality, ethical design work getting some recognition when one of the comments caught my eye. Written by the anonymous dan it read;

“Was a new typeface really the best way of spending charity funds? It’s not as thought there aren’t exceptionally legible faces already available.”

And this started all sorts of things spinning round in my head.

Michael Johnson on the ever readable JohnsonBanks blog described the process of helping the charity Save the Children to raise their public profile. This involved getting school children to redraw Gill Sans type and has created a very recognizable new font which was launched with an identity campaign across the UK. But was all this effort worth it?
Is graphic design the best way for a charity to spend their money? Surely they should be spending their hard-fundraised cash on supporting their target audience? As I see it there are two counter-arguements to this. Firstly the charity market is over saturated with different organisations all trying to make a difference. Whilst this is a fantastic example of how many people care about the rest of the world it does make it a very competitive world. The 2006 report for the UK Voluntary Sector puts the number of charities at around 170,000 and rising.

In order to stand out from the thousands of others a company, just like a business, needs to have a clear and strong style that represents it’s target audience, a service that is best delivered by a professional graphic designer. The designer, in my experience, is more than happy to help. In the case of Mencap a new typeface based on studies FontSmith undertook to get maximum legibility for the charities target group was the end result.

Charities are often a nice break from repetitive corporate work and give them a chance to flex their creative muscles. Finally, and key to my rambling argument, the majority of designers will work for charities at a much reduced rate, understanding that they have much tighter budgets and much more pressing concerns than most businesses. Some agencies such as Thoughtful have pledged to always work for free for charities.

At my most cynical I would argue that working for charities is simply a way of getting some pro-bono work onto an otherwise corporate portfolio of a design agency not really interested in helping the cause they’re designing for but just in attracting clients from the ethical end of the marketplace. After all the last decade has seen the rise of increasing accountability from businesses to their consumers and company’s want to be seen as doing the right thing, with the right people.

Luckily I’m not that cynical most of the time. I do believe that designers, like most people, feel a need to give something back and one way they can use their skills is to promote worthy causes. I’m sure there is an element of “if we do that it’ll look wicked on our website”, but it’s really a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Say it like you mean it

Not currently being with anyone means that I am feeling utterly indifferent and a little superior to all those love-struck couples who have been planning this day for ages. For me Valentine’s Day is up there with Halloween in the top 3 Non-Holidays (I really hate Halloween and everything it stands for, for crying out loud it’s a Pagan festival that’s most widely celebrated in the US, a staunchly Christian country).

Somewhere a greetings card manufacturing mogul is rubbing his hands together and cackling as he calculates his profit margins (inflated cost of spangely card less cost of pink-red ink and copywriting a shit poem). According to the US Greeting Card Association around one billion cards are sent world wide. That’s tantamount to ecological sabotage. This image sums up the lunacy of the day for me. Taken last night at Liverpool Street station on a phone camera (apologies for the quality) it shows a card shop besieged by males all shopping for that thoughtful and original message on their way home from work.

Who’d have thought that your individual expression of love could be bought off the shelf for £3.50 and wasn’t it lucky that the aforementioned manufacturer knew exactly how you felt about your beloved? It’s not the sentiments of the day that I have issue with, it’s the pressure that people seem to be under to do something special on this day of fully booked restaurants, wilting roses and heart shaped bakery goods. I thought romance was spontaneous and unpredictable.

Maybe I just need a girlfriend.