More disagreements with Massimo

How can one not love kitsch? I do not embrace it in my design, but I appreciate it as a cultural artifact. Yes, the gold seat is unnecessary, but doesn’t it make you feel special?

OK, sarcasm aside, I do believe that ignoring preconceived notions may be important in the formation stage of design. However, we must reference it if we expect people to understand. We do design for people, right?

Take, for example, the trash can. We don't literally have a trash can on our computer, but the Mac designers understand that throwing away our computer files is pretty much the same as the paper ones. Although, I do appreciate that Windows has a recycle bin.

I guess even Mac can't be perfect. The point, though, is that people need references so that we can understand in our tiny little brains what people like Mr. Vignelli are actually trying to say. If, as a by product, we get a little kitsch in the mix, I can't say that I would be all too ticked off.

Modernism speaks of timeless values, but does it actually exist? What can be more timeless than a trash can? Certainly not this.
This design also contradicts one of Vignelli's favored points - functionality. Yes, these chairs have multiple positions, but can they actually reproduce?

Massimo Vignelli is a very disagreeable designer

I can never agree with a person who disagrees with market research. One of these people is Massimo Vignelli. I also disagree with the idea that red is the only useful color. I go through phases with color, but only when I am too lazy to take risks.

I do agree that people do not know what they need. Ask Henry Ford. However, they do have interesting ways of telling you what the problem is. Much more interesting than just observing the situation from your own, limited perspective.

How could I design a chair for a paraplegic. I am not a paraplegic, and I do not think, move, act or live like one. Trying to do so and investing good money on wrong assumptions would be a disastrous thing to do.

I do believe that some people hide behind research and fail to make that creative leap beyond the figures and data that come out of the process. But that is a separate issue.

I also enjoy Vignelli's take on the design versus art issue. According to him, “Artists are lucky; they can work by themselves. They don't need a problem.” Although, for me, working without a problem is much more daunting than working to resolve a problem.

Resolve a problem, this is what Vignelli says he does best. My question is, how can you solve a problem if you don’t fully understand it. Sounds like fine art, not design. Yes, as he says, you can get at the essence of the problem, but how do you know this is the right problem?

What about the finer details? The Manhattan subway map is a great example. Yes, it is simple. Yes it is lovely. But what does it tell us about the stops? What is left when you arrive at your stop? Where are the landmarks, the people, the references? Where is the humanness?


Take, for example, this plate

No, the blossoms do not add to the functionality of the piece. No, they are not in red. However, this unexpected bit of charm adds interest and makes the piece much more approachable than the typical, perfectly white and perfectly bland dish ware.

Sometimes I think it is ok to be “vulgar” and sometimes it is ok to use an extensive color palette. I also think that it does not diminish your credibility to admit that you do not know everything, and that sometimes the people who work in the factory have just as much to say as the existentialist, highly-schooled designer. Asking questions is humbling, and it is necessary.

Semper Paro

I have learned many things in life that I have yet to implement into my daily routine. First of all, I learned that procrastination is not a virtue. That being said, my journal entries will be very last minute, I guarantee.

I also know from experience that nothing comes from being unprepared. To me, being prepared as a designer is always having a sketchbook and a camera. Always.

Some of the most amazing shots happen when you least expect it. Walking in the woods, would you expect to find such a haunting image? No, which is why we must prepare for the unexpected.
The unexpected nature of human nature is another reason why it is so important to have that camera.

I do not believe that the first-hand experience is necessarily better when you have a camera, which is why it is ok to put it down every once in a while and see the world through your own lenses. However, sharing that experience with everyone you know can be like experiencing it over and over.

I say this not because I like to take pictures of people in embarrassing situations, though I do. I say this because the formal relationships and interesting geometry that spring out of these moments are priceless. As Jim Krause said in his essay “Photo Idea Index,” “With eyes wide open, your day becomes a stream of photo opportunities.”

He shows examples of how spontaneous or unexpected photos can give designers interesting studies on color, form, texture, symmetry, repetition, framing, details, movement, and looking at things from another angle.

I have always wanted to take better photos. As I have learned, practice, and preparedness, make perfect.

Things I Learned from Stephan Sagmeister

1. No matter what great feats of design one creates, an Austrian accent makes him or her very personable.

2. Clients have a pretty good bull shit detector.

3. Design can be more than sales and promotion.

4. Overcome your fears.

5. Show only one comp to your clients (see #2)

6. Think about designing things from the perspective of other things (eg: design a podium from the perspective of a converse shoe).

7. Shame yourself into thinking.

8. On a side note . . . I still did not learn why I always get lost when going to the plaza.

What am I? (#2 - resumé style)

I think we all grapple with identity issues from time to time, so it becomes very strange when we need to present it to a future employer. Yeah, our work speaks for itself andyadda yadda, but they want to know about our process, our personal history, how we visually define ourselves and even our credentials.

For most students, it is perfectly acceptable to print out a list of bulleted, impressive aspects of our past and our present abilities and experiences. But no, we are designers! We have the luck, and some would say obligation, to express ourselves creatively through the content as well as the presentation.

I appreciated the above resume from merilynumboh.com/portfolio.html because she described it as unwrapping a present. This sounds cheesy, but what if we all considered our resumes, our visual identity, our leave behinds and our portfolio/portfolio books as present for our potential employers. We really are giving them quite a lot. We work for four (or in my case, five) years to build up our portfolios and make ourselves employable.

We have a lot to offer. Although we will be scrutinized and picked apart by many employers, if we think of it as a gift and a privilege, maybe it will be all the more effective.

Sheep go to Heaven

I'll be honest, I still don’t understand the deeper meaning behind Eric Spiekermann’s book Stop Stealing Sheep & find out how type works. But I think I get the concept. Bad typography is just unethical.

I tend to agree, though I am still struggling with my battle to not steal sheep. Every day for my job I set type on Microsoft Word, the most dreaded of all programs, and I struggle with the idea of what good type actually is.

Cut to : image of the high and mighty inscription on the trajan column. For the time, this was the most beautiful type setting (or chiseling) imaginable. The Trajan font is still considered one of the most elegant - and as a result, institutional - fonts available today. Which is why, in their elegant wisdom, The University of Kansas decided to have our basketball team go from wearing the left . . . to wearing the right














No one seems to care that both the circus and the trajan lettering is OUTLINED! This is a disgrace on the KU community, whether it knows it or not.

But really, that is not the point. The point is that a change in typeface doesn’t automatically add credibility. It just means a change in typeface (or is it “font”? I never know).

Spiekermann goes into a short, honest rant about the abuse of good, credible design to deceive shareholders and customers in annual reports and brochures. The company’s words look ethical, even though they are lies. They look credible, they look austere, and they all look the same.

I have studied public relations and marketing. These fields taught me to realize the importance of truthful words. Even if you think you got away with your lie, you are wrong. Look at Enron and what happened when they tried to lie with words. Content is important. It must be genuine and it must be truthful.

The truth in words doesn’t stop with the actual combination of characters you choose to use. It also lies in the face you give them. Would you believe a woman who is talking to a bunch of high-school students about inner beauty if she looks like she spent at least two hours on her hair before she came to talk to you? Does it fit for an AP stylebook to have typos?

The point is, don’t lie to your viewers/readers. If you sell children’s toys, don’t use Bodoni in your logo. If you are a stock broker, please avoid comic sans. Actually, if you are a human being, with a heart that beats, pleas avoid comic sans.

Every day, on Microsoft Word, i set ugly type. I admit, I have used Comic Sans, and I have used two serif families in one document and I usually send documents in pt. 12 font. I know it is wrong, but sometimes you have to conform to your situation. I consider it my way of keeping the brand consistent.

I work for an office that has a low budget. They cannot afford a designer, and they certainly cannot afford color prints for every marketing material that I push out. Most of my co-workers are kind, intelligent, hardworking people to whom “good design” is a very unfamiliar term. To advertise ourselves with a tight-looking brochure, in full-color, produced with actual design software would be a lie. To use humble, friendly, Word-processed material is just honest.

This may sound like a selfish justification of why nothing I make in that office is going in my portfolio, it is. Let’s leave that aside so I can get to my real point: design should be honest. If you are advertising for an office, it should feel like the office does and work the way the employees do. If it isn’t, than why would we even make it?