The recent excitement about a Government U-turn over the abolition of the 10p tax rate had me reaching for my copy of the Art of Looking Sideways , sure that I had seen a precient quote about signs of intelligence and being able to change your mind. I know this reflects a certain nieve/optimistic outlook, but I’m a bit lost as to the problem with the parliamentary labour party listening to their constituents, pressuring the prime minister, and achieving re-evaluation of a policy by the government. Isn’t this how its suppose to work? Anyway, back at the book, of course I can’t find the quote I’m looking for (but had an enjoyable half hour searching through the joy that is the Art of Looking Sideways), however I think it’s similar to (if not the same as) something said by Daniel Gilbert…
April 25th, 2008
An interesting debate, (and I use that word loosly in relation to posting comments on blogs), rages on the Creative Review Blog, about Stefan Sagmeisters new book. The interesting criticism is that it is ’self-indulgent’ which says a lot about the mindset of designers and a continued difficulty when it comes to mentally traversing discipline boundaries (and their associated ‘codes of conduct’) - Of course this doesn’t necessarily mean it is good but it doesn’t necessarily make it bad either.
April 4th, 2008
Brand Next - The store of tomorrow is a Wolff Olins project proposing that Brands of the future will be platforms for action. An interesting project, but wonder whether the excellent Do project, which has been running for quite some time, was credited as a major influence.
March 11th, 2008
A week of new interviews at wodcast.org, talking to Andy Altmann of Why Not Associates, Deborah Szebeko of thinkpublic, and KesselsKramer.
March 8th, 2008
While generally nowhere near as bad as our artist colleagues at obfuscation and assumed elevation through weighty, complex and often impenetrable language, ‘critical design’ has so far eluded me as to its meaning and it’s purpose. This article provides a neat overview and questions whether graphic design is suitably placed, and suitably equipped, to join the party.
Following a link from there, via Marti Guixe, and we find ourselves at this site: an interesting lecture series curated by Erik Kessels on the subject of amateurism. There is a big role for what I’ve refered to in the past as ‘The Enthusiastic Amateur’ in an Off-Brand future. Quite what form this might take remains to be seen.
February 21st, 2008
February 15th, 2008
In that way that blogs have of being a depositry for half-formed and untested ideas, this concept is offered up for ridicule:
As someone who spends 37% of their waking life thinking up schemes to traverse the design value chain, I’ve been wondering about the concept of dimensions to design. A conversation with an architect friend got this going, as they felt they designed in 4 dimensions - the 3 normal ones of any 3D object, plus time as the fourth. So in that sense product designers might also design in four dimensions, and if not, then at least three. The perception is that visual communicators of old design in 2 dimensions, and in many ways this is true, designing the image, rather than the thing, and imbuing it with a transient throwaway quality (so not much in terms of a time factor). Visual communicators of new probably span the 3 dimensions already mentioned, plus with (amongst others) screen and web based work, start entering the fourth. To build on this premise, the 5th dimension I allude to is of course the human, the user, and the question to be asked is whether placing this 5th dimension at the heart of design projects, we’re further adding to the value (not necessarily monetary) of that project? Is this the 5th dimension of design, and are designers focusing on service, experience and interaction at the most complex, but most valuable end of the spectrum of design?
February 6th, 2008
While it’s easy to knock advertising, there are occasions where it becomes irresistable. One such occasion is the latest campaign for the newly formed University of West Scotland (formerly Paisley University and Bell College). Around a suitably vague new-wave tagline of ‘Inspired’ are several variations of shots in some kind of concrete bunker, of what look like people who have just wandered out of the nearest GAP store. We felt obliged to put the following questions to the University of West Scotland:
- What was the creative rationale behind the concept? What does ‘inspired’ stand for? What was the reason behind relating that word to the image?
- It strikes me that all the students featured are rather photogenic. On what basis were the students chosen? Could anyone apply to be part of the campaign or were they selected?
- Were the students dressed by a stylist or allowed to wear what they wanted?
The University felt obliged to not comment. I can only therefore assume that the students were handpicked as being ‘photogenic’, they were dressed by a stylist and there was no rational behind the ‘fashion’ image, it’s context or the link to the university.
Everyone does design jobs that for one reason or another don’t turn out as they would have liked, but the ‘thinking’ behind this seems so cold and heartless as to be completely cynical. The sub-text, when reading between the lines, is that the University thinks the students it is trying to recruit aspire to nothing more than dressing ‘trendily’, and the patronising notion that the students it traditionally recruits from certain social demographics, (whatever they might be), can’t comprehend anything beyond a pastiche of the simplistic fashion/brand marketing messages they are fed every day.
January 29th, 2008
In this LAB magazine article, David Byrne (writing in Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist) cuts to the core of the ‘on-brand’ issue, stating;
“Once you’ve been pegged with a signature look, style, layout or typeface, you may as well get someone else to do your work. An established signature style is read as something that’s already in quotations. That cool “Blue Note Records” look, that “50s-60s Conde Nast” look, that “pyschedelic record cover” look. Having a recognizable style relegates you to the status of quotable icon. And while being an icon is flattering, I imagine, once it happens, you become irrelevant.
Having a non-style is more slippery, amusing, and surprising than sticking to one nice recognizable look. It’s a way of staying half-awake, or noticing things, enjoying things and learning to love things…”
January 24th, 2008
Following our recent post about flexible identity, in this NY Times article, Wolff Olins CEO Karl Heiselman states;
“In the past, corporate identity was about control and consistency… With too much control, what happens is that people forget about the content.”
Ne’er a truer word spoken, though we’re going to have to get our thinking caps on to escape the zeitgeist, if the brand giants are slowly coming round to this idea… though I suspect that the title of the article perhaps reveals this as the wolf in sheeps clothing which it possibly is.
January 20th, 2008
An interesting version of the Land Rover UK Homepage here - sort of advertising the Range Rover 08, but is it trying to say something else? It is, after all, important for consumers to have the full story.
January 20th, 2008
With flexible identity becoming more and more prevalent in general design discourse, I had been intending on writing an inventory of the different types of flexible identity currently deployed, but this johnson banks thought for the week, from last year, covers it in far greater detail and with much better examples than I would have ever mustered.
In terms of the sub-genres of flexible identity, we’ve so far located the identity which is for a short lived event and the designers who originated the design have control over the flexibility, the type where a degree of flexibility is built into the ‘brand-system’ for others to use, and the type where randomness provides the flexible aspect - but not much as yet which is truly open ended. Could this be next?
Rather than paying an agency to construct a brand/identity system which they then hand over to others, might organisations start employing ‘creative directors’ who can work intuitively in a more fluid role, collaborating with other designers as and when necessary to oversee a visual identity that evolves, embraces diversity, and uses excellent design/designers but requires non of the ‘brand-guideline/rulebook’ stuff of the past. Perhaps, other than the AA (not the motoring organisation - the Architectural Association), there are other examples of this? Let us know. I imagine this is the kind of set up that would work best for organisations of a certain scale and with a certain outlook.
January 20th, 2008
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