Design Rot

Art in secret !!!

2011-06-24T11:22:00.000-07:00

The city’s newest art gallery is a well-kept secret. And if Netherlands native Emmelie Koster has her way, only a handful of people will ever know where it exists. The globetrotting law student has pioneered the concept of the travelling pop-up art gallery, a three-day-only exhibition of upcoming
photographers and artistes from around the world.

“Keeping the venue a secret creates curiosity for such art,” Koster explains. Available for viewing by selection only, she has made it a point to take her project from country to country. She’s been living Mumbai since April this year.

“We organise a pop-up art gallery once every three months in a different city in a different country. We organised two in the Netherlands, the third in Germany, and now we will have one in Mumbai,” she reveals.

Her nomadic lifestyle is attributed to the fact that she travels to a different country every three months as part of the Erasmus Mundus programme for law and economics.

Ask her why she picked India and she responds, “The only other countries outside of Europe that were part of this programme were Israel and India. So I just picked the farthest option.”

Koster also carries her exhibits with her, and when the participating photographer can afford to, they travel to the country to personally witness the exhibition.

“We also invite local artistes to be part of the programme. This time, we organised a photography competition in Dharavi because the basic point of the pop-up gallery is to give young artistes a chance. I wanted to find someone here who was a really good artiste and realised the best way to do that would be to have a competition,” she explains.

To finance the competition, Koster spread the word among family and friends, collecting 45 cameras for the young lensmen. The cameras will remain with participating NGOs, so that the campaign can continue. The winning photo will be declared next week. “All the artworks are for sale. In Hamburg, we had tremendous response. And being an affordable art gallery, I don’t think anything will cost more than 700 euros, though that’s not a promise,” she grins.

We organised a photography competition in Dharavi to give young artistes a chance.
—Emmelie Koster

10 Golden Rules for Designers in the Commercial World

2010-10-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

http://designrot.blogspot.com/search/label/Client%20Point%20of%20Veiw

1. Never engage in an argument or oppose the person who holds your cheque; he/she is probably more concerned about the outcome of your design than yourself.

2. Things are not design oriented; your design will first and foremost be used to deliver a message to the market for your client, before it is an item of personal artistic expression.

3. Communicate patiently with your clients. Remember, they are not designers, so use their language to get your idea across.

4. I believe there is meaning and a story behind your designs and works, but if you don’t put effort into telling me, how will I fully understand?

5. Respect the deadline; meeting it improves your credibility and will impact your career development.

6. People prefer to talk to someone who is presentable, meaning clean and tidy. Stylish doesn’t have to mean unclean and untidy, do you catch my drift?

7. Punctuality is important, it is important to anyone who is professional, which includes designers.

8. Never get angry during the price negotiation process, it’s just business and nothing to do with insulting your work. There is no reason for them to do so anyway, if you really think about it.

9. Your reputation can be proved by business references or winning awards. Don’t forget to win more awards, because it is what customers believe in.

10. Never, ever, attempt to copy others’ designs for any reason at all. It is a death sentence to any designer.

What to Include in a Graphic Design Contract

2010-07-18T03:21:00.000-07:00

Graphic design contracts are important to protect the designer and clearly spell out the terms of an agreement and project. Below is a list of what to include in a graphic design contract. It is important to remember that this list is not exhaustive and parts of a contract may vary from project to project, so always consult a lawyer when completing a new agreement to use in your design business.
Outline of the Work

Part of the purpose of a graphic design contract is to describe, in as much detail as possible, the work to be done. This way both parties are in agreement regarding what is included for the cost of the job. Include any information gathered in preliminary meetings, such as:

    * Type of job
    * Size of the final piece
    * Number of pages
    * Sections and features of a website

Additionally, include how many initial versions of a design you will be presenting, and how many rounds of changes are included.
Source of Materials

List the materials that will be supplied by the client that are needed to complete the job, such as:

    * Photos
    * Final, edited copy
    * Corporate logo

Credit and Promotion

A great way to promote your business is to have your credit line on as much work as possible, so include it in your graphic design contract. You should discuss this with a client first, as sometimes they will be opposed to a credit line or it may not apply (like on a business card). Along with the credit line, state in your contract that you have the right to use the project information for self-promotion after completion, unless it is confidential.
Fees and Schedule

Set up a payment schedule that corresponds to milestones in the design process. This insures you get paid during the design process, and gives the client a project completion date. For example:

    * Start of project – 25% due
    * Concepts presented – 25% due
    * First round designs presented – 25% due
    * Project completion – 25% due

Be sure to also mention any additional costs not included in a rate in your graphic design contract, such as:

    * Stock photography
    * Printing
    * Web hosting
    * Updates (with hourly rates) beyond the scope of the agreement
    * The cancellation fee (also called a “kill fee”)

Copyright Use

If applicable, include in your graphic design contract guidelines for the use of the work, including where it can and cannot be used, how long it can be used for, and in what ways it can be used. This is important because the more a work is used, the more valuable it is. An illustration created for the cover of one issue of a magazine is worth less than one to be used in every issue of the year.
Legal

Legal issues need to be addressed in case a dispute should arise, such as indemnity (protecting you or the client from third-party lawsuits) and the responsibility of legal costs. Consult a lawyer for help in writing these portions of a graphic design contract.
Signatures

Today, people often rely on email for communication. However, a graphic design contract is most effective if actually signed by you and your client. If you cannot see the client in person, fax or mail a signed copy and asked for a signed copy in return. This will insure that you contract will serve its purpose of protecting you and your work.

How to Create a Graphic Design Project Outline

2010-07-18T03:10:00.000-07:00

Before beginning the design phase of a job, it is helpful to create a graphic design project outline. It will provide you and your client with some structure when discussing and creating the pages and elements of a project.
Format of a Graphic Design Project Outline

How you format and present your outline is up to you. Make sure it is clear, to the point and easy to follow. You don’t want there to be any confusion as to what is included in the project, as that can lead to problems later on in the process.
What to Include in a Graphic Design Project Outline

What you include in the outline will vary depending on the type and size of the job. Remember that the idea is to get in writing what you, as the designer, are responsible for creating. This will give the client peace-of-mind as well, since they will know what is included in their project and that it is headed in the right direction. Here are just a few examples of what to include for different types of projects:

    * Website design: For a website project, include each section of the site with a detailed description of the content and pages. It is important to know how many unique designs and layouts you need to provide.

    * Book design: Include an approximate number of unique page designs and standard page layouts you will be providing, as well as additional elements such as the cover and jacket. If you have discussed it in more detail, include the chapters and sections of the book and what is required for each.

    * Postcards, Business Cards, and Posters: For one-page jobs, the outline will be fairly simple. It should include what content needs to be presented and in what format.

    * Package design: For packaging, include each element to be designed. For a CD package, for example, you would include the liner notes, spine, back cover and CD label.

    * Brochures: For brochure and other foldout designs, include the number of panels and what content will appear on each.

How to Use the Outline

The graphic design project outline has several uses, including:

    * Help to determine the estimate and timeframe: It is often a good idea to get an outline approved before quoting a price, as it will help you determine the time necessary to complete a job.

    * Include it in your Proposal: Once approved, the outline can be part of your final contract or proposal so the scope of the project is officially agreed on.

    * Keep the project on target: As you work on the project, you can refer to the outline to stick to the original plan. If the amount of content changes, this may affect the budget or timeframe.

Get into the habit of creating outlines for your graphic design projects, whether they are personal, for school or for clients. This will help to insure that the design process goes smoothly.

Graphic Designing: The Very Base of a Website

2010-07-18T02:50:00.000-07:00

Graphics are all about adding beauty, attraction and appeal to your website. Just by having a look at a few websites, you would be able to make an idea how website owners are spending huge amounts on their website graphics so as to get that perfect look. Custom graphic design services agencies those assist clients in both standard and personalized graphical works can also be extremely helpful for you in making you enjoy the best of creativity.

Now the question is why graphics are so important? Taking this point into consideration the importance of graphics for websites, it can be said that if a website has to be catchy enough it needs to be designed with the best graphical works in such a manner that it succeeds in winning the attention of its visitors at their very first clicks. In an online world, it is still a fact that the look and feel of your website matters a lot in bringing people to you. Even if you deal in the best services or products, you won’t be able to make it big if you fail to use the most captivating graphical representations. That’s why everyone who is into web business making needs to give proper focus on using the best graphic design services.

A graphic design agency can be contacted for any form of graphic oriented project. The agency will help you get attractive and impressive designs to help you meet your business goals. The service range of such an agency extends from simple logo designing to custom logo creation, banner making to movie and intro making and so on. As per you business requirements, you could ask for any of these graphical works from such an agency very easily now. Graphic designing company also handles website revamping works where the graphics used in the site needs to be modified or completely changed.

Many graphic design firms have now gone offshore to best handle clients’ needs. By setting up offshore units, they area also able to best handle international clients’ demands well. The developing countries’ contribution in the offshore graphic design activity has been the maximum among all today.

What to Ask Graphic Design Clients

2010-07-18T02:40:00.000-07:00

At the start of a project, it is important to know what to ask graphic design clients to gather as much information as possible. This will often occur before you have landed the job, as it is necessary to have a meeting to help determine the cost and timeframe of the project. Once you have answered some or all of the research questions below, you can provide an accurate estimate in your proposal, as well as have a solid understanding of what the client is looking for.
Who is the target audience?

Find out who you are designing for. This will have a great impact on the style, content and message of the project. For example, a postcard aimed at new customers will be completely different from one aimed at existing customers. Some variables that can impact design include:

    * Internal (i.e. employees of the company) or external customers
    * Age
    * Geographic location
    * Gender
    * Depending on the project, factors like economic status and religion may also come into play.

What is the message?

Find out what message your client is trying to get across to the target audience. The overall message can be something as simple as thanking customers or announcing a new product. Once that is established, go beyond it to find out the “mood” of the piece. Is it excitement? Sadness? Compassion? Gather some keywords that will help with the overall style of your design. If you are in a meeting with a group of people, consider asking each person to come up with a few words that they think describe the mood of the message, and brainstorm from there.
What are the specs of the project?

The client may already have an idea of specifications for a design, which is helpful for determining the time involved in the project, and therefore the cost. For example, a 12-page brochure will take much longer than a 4-page foldout. If the client doesn’t know exactly what they are looking for, now is the time to make some recommendations and to try to finalize these specs. The amount of content to present, budget, and final use of the design may all affect these decisions. Determine:

    * Dimensions
    * Number of pages
    * Black and white vs. 2-color vs. 4-color printing
    * Paper stock
    * Size of print run (the number of pieces to print)

What is the budget?

In many cases, the client will not know or disclose their budget for a project. They may either have no idea what a design should cost, or they may want you to say a number first. Regardless, it is usually a good idea to ask. If a client has a specific budget in mind and tells you, it can help to determine the scope of the project and your final cost. This is not to say you should do the project for whatever the client says they can pay. Instead, you may alter some parameters (such as timeframe or the amount of design options you provide) to fit within the budget.

Whether they reveal a budget or not, it is ok to say you need to review the project and will get back to them with a quote. You don’t want to throw out a number that will have to change once you’ve had more time to think about it. Sometimes, the client budget will be much lower than you were expecting for a project, and then it is up to you if you want to take the work below your costs for the experience or your portfolio. In the end, you should be comfortable with what you are making for the amount of work, and it should be fair to the client.
Is there a specific deadline?

Find out if the project needs to be done by a specific date. The job may coincide with a product launch, or another important milestone, for your client. If there is not a deadline, you will want to create a timeframe for completing the project and present it to the client. This, much like your estimate, can be done after the meeting. If there is a deadline and you feel it is not reasonable, it is not uncommon to charge a rush-fee to finish it in time. All of these variables should be discussed prior to the start of the work, so everyone involved is on the same page and there are no surprises.
Can the client provide creative direction?

Whenever possible, it is helpful to get at least a little creative direction from the client. Of course, you will be creativing something new and unique for them, but some ideas will help you get started. Ask if there are any designs, design elements or other cues they can give you, such as:

    * Colors
    * Fonts
    * Works of art
    * Other designs
    * Websites

It is also important to find out if there is an existing brand that you need to match. The client may have a color scheme, typefaces, logos or other elements that need to be incorporated into your design. Larger clients will often have a style sheet you can follow, while others may just show you some existing designs.

Collecting this information, and any other ideas, from your potential clients will help the working relationship and design process go smoothly. Be sure to take detailed notes when asking these questions, and include as much information as possible in your proposal.

How graphic designers should tackle difficult clients

2010-05-17T10:42:00.000-07:00

Isn’t it just frustrating to hear blunt criticism after weeks of toiling and sweating over a design project? You may be thinking “all the trouble I’ve been through and this is what I get?” But dread not, as criticism is normal and graphic designers are prone to criticism from their clients. And why not? After all, it is the client’s right to express their opinions. But sometimes, client criticism can be harsh, severe and at times downright fuzzy.

Right from my very first client, I have encountered about dozens of clients who just love to criticize just for the sake of it. But these are the provoking things that graphic designers should be responsive of in his career. One must always remember the maxim “client is always right”; and if he isn’t …there are ways of making him understand.

1. Keep it cool – Don’t lose it:

The first and the foremost thing that graphic designer need to make sure is to stay calm while handling client criticism. Graphic designers need to realize that clients are paying for their work and would demand the best possible result. Hence, when faced with design criticism, never lose your cool and stay focused on the project rather than disputes.

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2. Talk less – Listen more:

Every client wants to be heard. Whenever clients toss out criticism on designers, it is because they want their requirements to be perfectly heard. The best way to handle clients with fussy approach is to listen more and speak less. Hear out what your client wants to convey to you and then clarify your position.

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3. Cut the jargons – Be simple and sweet:

Graphic designers must always remember that their clients may not be graphic designers themselves. Hence it is useless using tough graphic design jargons with them. We may think that using terminologies and graphic design lingos may impress the clients, but it is not always the case. Many clients are layman when it comes to graphic designing and might not like hearing difficult terms such as “filtering”, “saturation”, “Rendering”. Always try to use simple words and try to make sure the client understands.

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4. Less attitude -more aptitude:

Often when graphic designers finish with a project, they feel a sense of pride in the completion. This develops an “I can’t be wrong” attitude within the graphic designer. After showing the design to the client, designers believe they cannot be erroneous and thus head out for a clash of words with the client. One must always remember when dealing with client criticism, that aptitude is more important than attitude. You can never battle criticism with a sore attitude. To persuade the client, aptitude is more useful than attitude.

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5. Use your head, not heart:

The golden principle of handling design criticism is not to take any reproach personally. Graphic designers must remember that the client relationship is a strictly professional one and taking things personally is not a healthy thing to do. When encountering cynicism, designers should use their head more than their hearts.

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6. Avoid blame game:

Playing blame games always lead to aggravating the matter. When a client points out a mistake, graphic designers should acknowledge it rather than blaming the clients for it. This in turn will ignite a blame game and intensify matters even more. So whatever you do, avoid the blame game.

10 Keys to Growth as a Designer

2010-04-30T11:02:00.000-07:00

One of the most significant challenges that designers face is the need for continual improvement and development. The industry and technology can change very quickly and staying on top of things and working to improve your skills is necessary in order to have a successful career in web design. Fortunately, learning and improving will naturally occur to some degree as you continue to work on different projects and in different scenarios, but there will be times when you will have to make an effort to work on your own development.

In this post we’ll look at 10 keys to growth as a designer. This list and discussion should serve as a reference or guide for any designer that wants to improve. Focus on these areas and you will become a better designer. Please share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments.

1. Solid Foundation of Knowledge

There are plenty of different things for aspiring and improving designers to learn, and more than enough resources and tutorials to make it happen. One of the temptations is to jump ahead and try to learn too many specifics before having a firm grasp on the essential fundamentals of web design. Some tools, such as Adobe Dreamweaver, can lead designers to think that they don’t need to be proficient in HTML and CSS. However, having a solid knowledge of HTML and CSS, plus basic design principles, is necessary and trying to learn too many other things at once can lead to confusion. If you have not already reached this point, make it a priority to attain the foundational knowledge first before you try to build on it.

2. Tools for Learning

Many designers are completely self taught, and even those that have a formal education in design will have the need to continue to learn on their own. Fortunately, there are plenty of great resources and tools for learning. This includes countless books that can be purchased or borrowed from a library, and of course the huge number of tutorials that are posted on websites and blogs that cover all aspects of design and development.

The tools for learning are readily available, it is just up to the designer who wants to learn to choose an area for improvement and to find the appropriate resources and tools to accommodate this.

3. Priority on Learning and Development

Most designers are extremely busy with client projects, finding new business, networking, and managing their business. Unfortunately, scheduling time for learning new things usually gets sacrificed. Designers who want to continue to improve their skills and stay on top of the industry will need to prioritize their own development, even if it means giving up some time that could be used for other purposes.

Fortunately, there are a number of different ways that you can learn and work to improve your skills. It may involve simply setting aside some time to read books occasionally or to work through online tutorials. Also, taking projects that will stretch your abilities and give you the opportunity to learn new things is another option. If taking paid client work isn’t an option for you, there are always opportunities to do volunteer (or discounted) work for non-profits that will give you the opportunity to work on something specific. Another option, and one that I like to use, is working on projects of your own. We’ll discuss this topic more in just a moment.

4. Feedback from Clients

One of the best ways to learn about the work that you are doing is to listen to feedback from your clients and see how they feel about your work. Ultimately, the client’s opinion is what matters the most, so make sure that you take the time to get feedback from them about your work, the process of completing the site, and the service that they received from you. Feedback from clients can help you to identify your strengths as well as areas that you could possibly improve upon.

5. Constructive Criticism

Taking criticism isn’t always easy, but it can be key to improvement and growth as a designer. Constructive criticism will not simply say that a piece needs work or isn’t very good, but it will point out specific areas that could be improved, which helps you to see what you’ll need to do in order to be more effective. Constructive criticism can come from clients, from visitors, or from other designers. Andrew Follett wrote a post a few weeks ago for DesignM.ag, 10 Rules and Resources for Better Design Feedback. That post includes several excellent resources, including Concept Feedback, that will be of great help to you if you are looking to get some constructive criticism.

6. Effective Sources of Inspiration

Designers rely on inspiration for helping to improve their creativity and spark their ideas. There are tons of resources available for online design inspiration, such as CSS galleries and design blogs. Additionally, designers should have some variety in their sources of inspiration. Rather than relying strictly on getting inspired by other websites that you find at design galleries, take the time to look for inspiration in other sources like magazines and other printed works, photographs, nature, and anything else that is around you. I wrote a post a few months ago at Vandelay Design that covered the topic of maintaining an inspiration notebook that you can turn to in times when you are looking for some creativity.

7. Experimentation on Your Own

Earlier we looked at the need to prioritize learning and development. One of my favorite ways to work on learning something new is to set aside time for personal projects. If you want to learn something specific but you don’t have any clients who are looking for this type of work, why not just do it on your own?

This could apply to just about anything. If you want to learn how to work with Drupal you could start a blog or website powered by Drupal. If you want to learn more about a specific shopping cart or e-commerce CMS, you could take time to work on designing and developing a theme to use for yourself or to give away. With personal projects you can pick and choose what you want to learn. The things you learn will be applicable to real-world situations, and you’ll probably have fun doing it.

One of the biggest challenges is just finding the time to do this type of experimentation. For me it helps to build this in to my schedule rather than seeing it as something that I will do in my “free time,” because if that is the case it probably will never happen.

8. Mentors to Follow

I believe that having mentors or designers that you look up to can also be a help to your own development. In some cases your mentor may be someone that you know personally or that you even work with, but in other cases it could simply be a designer that you like to follow. You can find a designer whose work you appreciate and respect, and make an effort to follow them closely.

One example of how you can follow someone is graphic designer and blogger David Airey. I’ve followed David’s blog for a long time and one of the great things about it is that he covers his design process for client projects in detail. He’ll post his sketches of logo designs and explain the thought process behind the decisions and gives a general overview of how the project progressed (for one example, see Vissumo brand identity design). This is very valuable insight into the logic of a talented designer, and it can be helpful for your own work. I believe that having some successful designers to follow can be a resource and an encouragement for aiding in your own growth as a designer.

9. Taking Risks

Particularly when you are experimenting or working on personal projects, I think it’s good to try new things and take some risks with your design. What I mean by this is that you step outside of the box of what you are comfortable with. Many designers have a particular style that usually turn to with their projects, but making an effort to break from the norm and try something completely different can be a great exercise for learning new things. Practice is great, but if all of your working is taking the same path and leading to similar results, mix it up and try something new. You may come up with some things that really don’t work very well, but you’re also likely to surprise yourself at times with results that you didn’t know you were capable of.

10. Focus on Improvement Rather Than Perfection

All designers, even those who have years of experience, have new things to learn and room for improvement in their work. Rather than expecting perfection in your work, focus on continually improving your skills and becoming a better designer over a period of time. As long as you are improving, you are moving in the right direction. Expecting too much at once can lead to discouragement and a lack of confidence in your abilities.

10 Ways to Lose a Client

2010-04-30T10:46:00.000-07:00

roviding quality service and retaining clients is critical to the success of any freelancer or design agency. In this post we’ll look at ten common causes for clients leaving designers. The intent is to provide some clear examples of things that should be avoided if you want to keep your clients happy.

1. Don’t Provide Quality Work

Clients will always have a certain expectation in terms of quality of work. It might seem that these expectations will correspond to their budget (high budget = high quality, low budget = low quality), but this is not always the case. Failing to live up to the quality expectations of a client can lead to a lack of repeat business, no referral business, and even the loss of a client before a project is completed.

2. Don’t Provide the Services that They Need

Most clients will need a variety of different services. Maybe they need web design, WordPress theme development, SEO, and copywriting. If you don’t provide these services yourself, outsource them, or have someone that you can refer to handle the services that you don’t provide, you could lose the client.

Most freelancers offer some variety in the services that they provide, but there will always be some clients that need services that are outside your area of expertise. For these situations, it is good to have an established network of contacts so that you can outsource the work or help the client to find someone for a particular aspect. Doing so can help you to meet the needs of the client, which is necessary for client retention.

3. Overpromise, Underdeliver

Making promises to clients that you cannot keep or failing to deliver on the commitments and promises that you have made will cause your clients to look for a new designer. Making that big promise may help you to land a certain client, but being able to live up to it is equally important if you hope to keep the client happy.

Underpromise and overdeliver is often used as a key to keeping clients happy. That way the clients don’t have unrealistic expectations and they are not disappointed or let down, instead they are pleasantly surprised when you overdeliver.

4. Don’t Meet Deadlines

Almost all projects will have deadlines of some sort. While there may be situations where it is ok, or even necessary to push back a deadline, in general it is a good way to upset clients and to cause them to lose trust in you. Deadlines are there for a reason, and when clients really need something to be done by a specific date it can have a significant negative impact on their business if the designer does not come through.

If you want to keep clients happy and avoid losing them to other designers, meeting deadlines is a great start. Always be sure that the deadlines you are agreeing to are realistic and set your schedule so that you will exceed them with some time to spare. That way if you run into complications you will still have time to work through them without missing the deadline.

5. Don’t Dedicate Time to Planning

If you want to produce poor quality work that will not be effective for your clients, don’t allow adequate time for planning. Getting to know the client, their business, and their customers is an essential part of the design process. Taking the time to understand their needs and to develop a plan that will work for them is necessary for quality results. Rushing into the project without proper planning is a great way to ensure that you are not doing your best work and not creating something that is truly effective for their business.

6. Don’t Handle Your Business Professionally

Clients expect to have a professional relationship with their designer, so if you want to lose them, treat your business like it’s a hobby and don’t provide them with the appropriate amount of respect.

If you’re aiming to keep your clients satisfied with the work that you are doing for them, demonstrate professionalism in your work and they will have a great deal of confidence in your ability to get the job done.

7. Don’t Respond to Calls or Emails

Customer service is a major concern for clients, so a lack of response will often lead clients to look for a new designer. This applies to the initial period of the design project as well as any on-going requests for maintenance, updates or support.

If you’d like to keep your clients happy with your services, always make an effort to get back to them as quickly as possible. In situations when you are busy and unable to help them right away, they usually appreciate a quick message to let them know that you will be able to help them and an estimate in regards to when that will happen.

8. Don’t Allow Clients to See the True Value of Your Services

Many clients will at some point evaluate the services that you are providing to determine if it is worth the cost for them. They may even be comparing you to a less-expensive option or someone else that they are considering hiring. By not letting them see everything that you are doing for them and demonstrating the true value of your services, you will be making it easy for them to feel like your services are overpriced.

Most clients don’t really understand everything that is involved with the work you are providing, and unless you break it down for them they may not appreciate everything that you are doing. If you’d like to show the value of your services to your clients, be complete and thorough in your estimates, proposals and invoices. Show them all of the phases involved, how much time is spent on each, on why each is critical to creating a successful end result. If you can help them to see everything that you are doing and the need for each step, they will not be as likely to choose to go with a lower-cost option.

9. Don’t Treat Them as a Unique Business

Each business has its own unique situation and requires an approach that is dedicated to creating something that meets the needs of that business. Treating each client as the same or taking a cookie cutter approach will lead to poor results and unhappy clients.

If you want your clients to get the most out of your services and to retain them long-term, remember that they are not exactly like any of your other clients and take the time to find out what is best for their specific situation.

10. Don’t Take Time to Answer Their Questions

Clients will frequently have questions about the design process, about their specific project, or just general concerns that they would like the designer to address. When they don’t get their questions answered or their concerns addressed they will often lose some confidence that the designer is doing a good job for them.

For designers who want to retain their clients and keep them happy, taking time to answer questions and get on the same page with clients is a good practice. It helps to show clients that you value the designer/client relationship, that you know what you are talking about, and that they are in good hands with you.

Adobe Creative Suite 5 (CS5) announced

2010-04-30T10:24:00.000-07:00

Focus of new CS5 creative & design tools is interactive content creation, collaboration, publishing and marketing.

The imminent release of Creative Suite 5 (Adobe CS5) has been announced by Adobe. The focus of the CS 5 updates is interactivity, especially with regard to marketing campaigns across different digital media. For example, Adobe have announced that, for the first time ever, CS5 applications will have access to Omniture technologies which can allow the capture and analysis of information generated by websites.

Adobe have also announced a brand new application called Flash Catalyst, which is designed at allowing the creation of interactive digital content, without the need to write code. The intention being to improve the collaboration process between creative designers and coders and technical developers.

The various tools and applications are available separately but, as with previous upgrades, Adobe's software programs have been bundled into various packages targeted at different creative industry sectors – design; web and interactive; and video production. As with previous releases of Creative Suite, there is also a Master Collection combining products from across the creative disciplines.

* What tools are in Adobe Creative Suite 5 Master Collection?

* What is the difference between Adobe CS5 Design Premium and Design Standard?

* What is in Adobe CS5 Web Premium?

* What programs are included in Creative Suite 5 Production Premium?

What's new in Adobe CS5?

With all the focus on the interactive and digital multimedia publishing features of the updates, it is worth noting that there are also some more basic additions and updates to the core design programs. Below are selections of some (but by no means all) new features which Adobe have added to some of their key tools for Creative Suite 5.

Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5

Brand new interactive design program to allow the transformation of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks designed artwork into interactive projects without the need to write code. According to Adobe, graphics from Photoshop and Illustrator can be transformed into interactive content for user interfaces and web pages, video portfolio websites can be created, and designers will be able to define behaviours and control interaction with menu-based commands.

New features in Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended

Adobe's (and the creative industry's) core photographic image editor, Photoshop CS5, gets some new features, including;

* New painting effects are possible with the Mixer Brush, which offers on-canvas color blending.

* Bristle Tips, allows the creation of lifelike, textured brush strokes.

* The new Content-Aware Fill tool can remove image detail or objects and automatically fill in the space left behind.

* Other new image editing tools in Adobe Photoshop CS5 include new methods of selecting intricate image details and a tool called puppet warp, which can stretch and warp image elements.

* There are also some enhancements to workflow and media management, including a customisable Adobe Mini Bridge.

* Adobe CS5 provides 64-bit support across both Windows and Mac OS X platforms (assuming hardware and software supports it).

Adobe Illustrator CS5

Illustrator CS5 gets a number of new features, including;

* Perspective Drawing which allows the drawing of shapes and scenes in accurate one, two or three point linear perspective to create a realistic look of depth and distance.

* Enhancements to multiple artboards. It is now possible to work on up to one hundred artboards of different sizes within one Illustrator file.

* A Bristle Brush to allow painting with vectors resembling natural media brush strokes.

Adobe InDesign CS5

The theme of interactivity and multimedia continues with some of the new features for Indesign CS5;

* Ability to add interactivity, movement, sound and video to InDesign documents and presentations and export them into Flash SWF format.

* Multiple page sizes is probably a feature that print designers would have liked in desktop publishing packages years ago. Before Freehand was discontinued, it used to have this feature. Now Adobe have introduced multiple page sizes into InDesign CS5. Something which may be very useful for designing magazine split-covers and promotional flyers.

* The InDesign layers panel has also been redesigned so that it more resembles the palettes in Photoshop and Illustrator.

Adobe Flash Professional CS5

Flash Pro CS5 also has some new and enhanced features, such as;

* If the print design tools are getting more interactive tools, then Flash has acquired a feature which, until now, has been more the preserve of traditional desktop publishing tools. The Text Layout Framework allows more control over typography using a new text engine.

* A new Code Snippets panel, aims to reduce the learning curve required to learn ActionScript.

Adobe Dreamweaver CS5

Not to be left out, Adobe's CMYK web development tool, Dreamweaver CS5, has some new features also, for example;

* Integrated Content Management Systems (CMS) support enables developers to test support for content management system frameworks such as WordPress blogs and Joomla and Drupal content management systems.

* CSS inspection allows developers to visually display the CSS box model in detail and toggle CSS properties, without reading code or using a separate utility.

Adobe Premiere Pro CS5

Premiere Pro CS5 is a video production tool from Adobe, which has also received some new and updated features with this release, including;

* According to Adobe, Premier Pro will allow some increases in work speed, due to the native 64-bit, GPU-accelerated Mercury Playback Engine.

* There is now support for Digital SLR cameras, with the ability to edit native video without transcoding or rewrapping.

Adobe After Effects CS5

After Effects CS5 also benefits from some enhancements in Creative Suite CS5, such as;

* Native 64-bit support allows for potential efficiency increases, say Adobe, as users can make use of all their systems' RAM memory.

* Color LUT support enables consistent color workflows by using 3DL and CUBE lookup tables.

* Digieffects FreeForm 3D mesh warp plug-in, enables turing flat objects into 3D shapes.

According to Adobe, Creative Suite 5 is due to ship within 30 days.

The Laws of Simplicity

2010-04-19T12:16:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I was given a copy of John Maeda’s book “The Laws of Simplicty” and it synthesized a lot of my previous design philosophies. The first law that he talks about, the law of reduce, is one that I have long believed to be one of the most important rules for designers. Design is about subtraction more than addition. This is one of the hardest things to teach because designers are creative and make things, but unless it solves the design problem, adding things to a design is more about ego.

Well, if you don’t own the book already you should snag a copy because I think it gets to the essence of how designers, technologists and business people should be approaching problems.

Logo design basics: The five types of marks

2010-04-13T10:19:00.000-07:00

Logos come in all kinds of shapes and sizes however they typically are one of 5 different classifications. Designing a logo is about much more than an exercise in aesthetic. A logo must be a positive depiction of the product or service it represents. When designing a logo, knowing which type of mark would be the most appropriate for the application will help you achieve a stronger solution.

WORDMARKS

A wordmark is a logo comprised of text only featuring a unique typographical treatment used to convey the brand’s message or positioning.

LETTERFORM MARKS

Letterform marks use one or more letterforms as a symbol to convey the brand message.

MARKS

A mark is a literal and often pictorial representation of a company or product. The image is usually a reference to the company or a brand attribute.

ABSTRACT MARKS / SYMBOLS

Abstract marks and symbols use visual form to convey a concept that is relevant to the brand message.

EMBLEMS

Emblems are a complex mixture of pictorial elements and type that are linked to the organization and its positioning.

Each of these different classifications of marks has its own design challenges and clichés. Using these marks effectively is a combination of experience and research. For more great examples of logo design be sure to check out faveup.com (where I collected these examples).

why are usability conventions a black and white subject?

2010-04-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

One thing that I have never quite understood as a web designer is the willingness to make something far less successful visually in order to gain a minimal increase in usability. For example, removing 80 pixels of vertical whitespace in the header of a homepage design. Yes, removing the whitespace would bring the content up higher, but at what cost? Why are usability and other functional concerns of such absolute importance? Is it not possible to design something that is usable yet not as far as it could be, and have aesthetics be considered a worthwhile tradeoff? I think so, let me explain.

USABILITY IS NOT BINARY
Somewhere along the line designers have created a set of conventions that supposedly determine if a website is usable or not. These “rules” have seen widespread adoption and are rarely questioned. Combine this with the web’s all or nothing mentality and you have a set of “rules” that if not followed precisely result in the having the label FAIL applied to it. But why are these conventions applied and followed so closely without thinking about why they exist?

Just trying to discuss these conventions online is often met with animosity. However, it is these conventions that have lead to the homogenization of design on the web. Lets be honest, 90% of websites have a navigation that runs across the top of the page, main content starts between 200 and 500 pixels from the top, and presentation is purposely separated from content. These are all fine, but why are they all of a sudden the basis from which we start every single project?

THE CHANGE IS COMING
Elliot Jay Stocks released the slides from his presentation “The importance of beauty in absolutely everything” a few months ago, and I can’t help but agree with his assessment. Most of the websites online right now are BORING. Unfortunately it is far easier to apply the same boring style to a website instead of thinking about the potential for concept or proper design research. We have all seen the various design trends over the years; pixel fonts, web 2.0 gloss, grunge, the list goes on.

But what if instead we actually stopped for a second and thought about avoiding those absolute rules that go untested. What if we were able push the boundaries of usability, what if we began using presentation to support content? Maybe we would discover that the unquestionable rules of web design don’t hold quite as much weight as we thought they did. Everything is in a state of constant evolution, and web design is no different.

What I am really speaking about is context, which is constantly changing. The context in which these “rules” were made is most certainly not the same after any significant amount of time passes. Need an example? In Chicago it is supposedly still illegal to eat in a place that is on fire. In what context was this law made, and who in their right mind would eat in a burning building? I know this is an extreme example, but in five years maybe our laws of good web design will sound just as ludicrous.

Right now we really see this scenario in relation to usability conventions, but what other web design conventions exist that go untested?

Source

45+ Unique Examples of Coming Soon Pages

2010-04-08T13:52:00.000-07:00

isablah

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foundationsix

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better blogger

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moses mehraban

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meal nation

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View more designs similar to this

30 More Essential PDF Documents Every Designer Should Download

2010-04-08T13:31:00.000-07:00

It has taken me almost an entire year to compile, but I have finally created a followup entry to the original “30 Essential PDF Documents Every Designer Should Download” Article. The original was the most popular article I have ever posted on this blog receiving well over 500,000 unique views – fueled by twitter referrals and stumble upon. I believe that this collection is even better than the first so please enjoy these links from some of the web’s most well respected authors.
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FREE EBOOKS & MANIFESTOS

Get a Design Job! – AIGA & IDSA

Taking Your Talent to the Web – Jeffery Zeldman

279 Days to Overnight Success – Chris Guillebeau

The Vignelli Cannon – Massimo Vignelli

The Bootstrapper’s Bible – Seth Godin

Testify: How Remarkable Organizations are Creating Customer Evangelists – Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba

The Design Funnel: A Manifesto for Meaningful Design – Stephen Hay

A Call to Arms: Twelve Proclamations of a Win Without Pitching Agency

Ten Tests of Your Positioning
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PRESENTATIONS

Icon Design – Jon Hicks

Design Control – Khoi Vinh

Writing Maintainable CSS – Natalie Downe

Improving Interface Design – Garrett Dimon

Close Your Browser: Finding Inspiration In The Offline World & I Care Because You Do – Elliot Jay Stocks

Pixel Pushing a Guide to Icon Design – Jon Hicks

Interaction Design for Web Designers – Eris Stassi & Jina Bolton

Wireframes for the Wicked – Nick Finck

The Importance of Beauty in Absolutely Everything – Elliot Jay Stocks
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RESOURCE SHEETS & PDF MAGAZINES

Typography Keyboard Layout – Smashing Magazine

Font Magazine

Online Graph Paper Collections (Dot, Cross, Grid, Perspective)

Copyright Explained: I May Copy It Right? (2nd in list) – Smashing Magazine
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TUTORIALS & BRAND BOOKS

How to Write a Wordpress Plugin – DevLounge

Creative Solutions PDF Tutorials

Skype Brand Book

Illustrator CS4 How-To Guide – Von. R. Glitschka
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WEB TYPOGRAPHY

Better CSS Font Stacks – Nathan Ford

Add Windows Vista Fonts to Your Stylesheets – Christian Montoya

SxSW Typography Panel

Web Typography Sucks SxSW 2007

Source

Fight Against Your Short-Term Rewards

2010-04-07T12:53:00.001-07:00

From a very young age, we are ingrained with a powerful short-term reward system. We are incentivized to eat on day one with the reward of satisfying our hunger. Such immediate gratification teaches us to always eat when we are hungry. As we began our education, we were rewarded to learn with grades. And grades, we soon realized, yielded the reward of approval (and love, we suspect) from parents, teachers, and peers. We would study non-stop for days to take an exam, with the assurance that we will receive a grade within a week. As we entered the job-market, a day's work was rewarded with a monthly salary. In many cases, an immediate commission was rewarded for each sale - or aggregated into a bonus at the end of the year.
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All that we do is governed by reward systems, and the most powerful reward systems are short-term. Short-term rewards keep society in full function. Short-term rewards are meant to sustain, to keep the status quo. It is during the pursuit of extraordinary achievements that traditional short-term rewards fail.

To make bold ideas happen, a short-term reward must be transcended and a long-term reward must be realized. This is called vision. Great companies are started by people who gave up their day jobs and made a tremendous sacrifice. Great organizations and societies are built over time through the long-lasting vision and fortitude of a committed membership. When near-term benefits do not exist, vision SHOULD BE the bridge that carries us along to the long-term rewards.

However, it turns out that visions are not powerful enough to overpower our short-term tendencies. It is no surprise that long-term rewards are so great - and rare. Society causes us to think in the short-term. Forces like risk and reputation encourage us to err on the side of short-term assurance. And who are we to think we can escape such a grasp?

Great leaders and true visionaries have found a way to manipulate reward systems for themselves and those they work with. Their strategy? Impose a sophisticated short-term reward structure overhaul - one that incentivizes us to make decisions that are long-term oriented but appease us in the short-term as well.

Creative leaders fail when they assume that they can work towards uncertainty without any rewards structure to get there. In reality, they must trick themselves. Long-term rewards are most effective when they are broken up and positioned as short-term rewards.

Sometimes this means setting celebratory milestones - even if they are not financial achievements - over the course of a long-term project. For others, it means finding mentors or other leaders that can hold you accountable to goals as you set them. Many leaders that have achieved long term goals reveal that they had partners that would pace them along the way.

The key realization is the powerful short-term reward system within us that keeps us comfortable in the near-term but gets in the way of long term objectives. Once you acknowledge it, you can start to play with it.

5 Ways to Market Yourself During a Recession

2010-04-03T03:28:00.001-07:00

Rather than suffer through a slow economy, creative professionals should seize the opportunity to market themselves. A recession just slows everything down. Clients act more slowly, fewer projects enter the pipeline, and we are left with a little extra time. Rather than fill this time with insecurity, we should use it to differentiate ourselves and build our own personal brands as more actionable, affordable, and innovative. Here are a few tips to consider in these uncomfortable yet opportune times.
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(1) Start re-engaging with your rolodex! During the high-flying times, it is easy to lose touch with past clients and colleagues. Now is a great opportunity to re-engage and strengthen your network. Spend some time fixing up your address book, go through that pile of business cards and enter them into your computer, and start connecting the dots on who you want to follow up with. Also, consider being a matchmaker - anyone you set up will feel all the more compelled to return the favor!

(2) Start a monthly email update. Every creative professional has some side projects worth talking about. Why not start a monthly email to your network with 3-5 quick updates on your latest and greatest? If you keep the email short and catchy, your network will likely forward it along to others. And when people need your services, you'll be top of mind.

(3) Start having breakfast (with whoever you can). Marketing your ideas and your own brand must also happen offline. Consider scheduling two breakfasts per week with a long lost colleague or an old client. You'll be surprised what potential opportunities and realizations can arise over breakfast. And besides, breakfast is the cheapest meal of the day!

(4) Slow periods in the economy provide some precious time to invest in your online presence. Whether you're still employed, a freelancer, or on the lookout, take advantage of the opportunity to update your personal website or online portfolio. One anecdote we can share is that the Behance Network has seen seen extraordinary growth among both full-time and freelance creatives that are taking more time to showcase their work online and build their professional networks (what we call "Inner Circles").

Regardless of you're employment status, you need to market your greatest works in order to build your network and gain respect. Potential clients, employers, and collaborators will search for your work online. Give them something great to find.

(5) Embark on a major personal project. Some of the most productive creative professionals we have met try to complete one major personal project every year. The process keeps their creative instincts sharp and serves as a testament to their forward thinking, unrestrained capabilities. Now is a great time to follow through on an idea you've always had - something that will differentiate your portfolio when the boom returns.

Questions All Young Entrepreneurs Should Ask

2010-04-03T03:18:00.000-07:00

As you approach your ideas as an entrepreneur, you’ll want to ask yourself three questions:
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With each venture, are you getting closer to your true interests and potential?
Of course, statistically speaking, most ideas never happen and most new business ventures fail. When you pursue a new idea, it is impossible to know whether it will be able to attract a team and become a viable business. However, at the very least, every experience you take should move you closer to your interests. Any move that accomplishes this end is a safe one to make; what you want to avoid doing is following an endeavor that fails to move the developmental needle (or worse, sets you back). A fledgling idea that is completely unrelated to your core interests is risky because if it fails, it will offer no circumstantial benefits. By contrast, if the idea is related to your passions in life, the experiential education gained in its pursuit will be valuable for future projects - whether or not the idea ultimately happens.

Can you be comfortable with the unconventional and mine the circumstantial?
While the conventional approach in business is to plan extensively, most entrepreneurs that we've interviewed - and even established companies that consistently innovate - take bold leaps and perform quick experiments in the pursuit of new ideas. These approaches require a willingness to mine the circumstantial opportunities that may present themselves along the way. New innovations like Twitter and others resulted from unexpected deviations in somewhat unrelated businesses. They succeeded because their leaders were comfortable going off-plan and exploring the unexpected when their gut told them to do so - even if they didn’t have a clear end in mind.

Can you let others own your ideas?
By sharing ownership of your idea, you can empower your team and increase their commitment. At the same time, shared ownership - and shared credit upon success - also serves as a form of non-financial compensation. When you embark on an idea, you won’t be able to afford great partners and employees unless you are able to share ownership. Ironically, if your idea is too sacred and dear to you, it may suffer as you try to motivate a team. The need for momentum in the early days of idea execution requires that you unleash control and, at times, compromise your singular vision to make room for the visions of others.

Why Public Speaking Is Good for You & Your Brand

2010-04-03T03:12:00.001-07:00

Most freelancers and small business owners are required – like it or not – to spend a substantive amount of time on marketing. To ensure that the jobs and the clients keeping coming, we are constantly hustling – pitching new projects, updating our portfolios and CVs, and taking exploratory meetings. Yet, one of the best ways to build and promote your individual brand or company is one of the most oft overlooked: public speaking.
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Though many of us might break into a cold sweat just thinking about it, public speaking can be an exhilarating experience. It can also be a great way to boost your reputation and your business.

Perhaps as a healthy reaction to the increasing amount of time we spend online, more and more offline events and conferences are cropping up – particularly within the creative community. These gatherings offer a significant opportunity for anyone with a niche area of expertise to become a part of the conversation – and not just for self-promotion but for personal growth as well.

Here are a few notes on the benefits of public speaking, and a quick primer on how to get started.

The Benefits of Public Speaking

1. Present yourself as an expert.
If you're highly knowledgeable about something, nobody will know about it unless you demonstrate that knowledge. By speaking publicly on topics within your area of expertise, you can position yourself as an authority within your industry.

2. Build your knowledgebase and connections.
In many cases, a good talk involves a significant amount of participation from the crowd. Attendees might challenge your viewpoints and offer valuable insights that, ultimately, will give you a more well-rounded perspective on the topic at hand. If you go into a talk expecting not just to teach, but to learn, you create an opportunity to really engage with the people at the event in a meaningful way.

3. Increase your visibility online and offline.
When you speak at an event, the content that you prepare is intellectual property with a value that can stretch beyond the roomful of people in attendance. By recording the talk and posting a video online (Vimeo, YouTube) or just sharing the slides (SlideShare.com), you take better advantage of the content you've created for your talk by making it accessible to a wider audience.

Getting Started

But what if no one is begging you to speak at their event yet? There are a number of ways to plant the seeds for public speaking engagements, which also happen to be good marketing tactics in their own right:

1. Identify your passion & what you would want to speak about.
This seems like an obvious prerequisite for public speaking. However, taking a critical look at where your expertise and your passions lie may reveal that what you think you want to talk about and what you're actually equipped to talk about are two different things. Often, it's better to give a talk on a very specific area of expertise than to present a more generic talk about a topic on which you have less to offer.

2. Attend the events that you would like to speak at.
If you want to speak at certain events, you need to do your homework. Pay attention to the kinds of people who speak and get to know the organizers. If you can establish yourself within that group, you'll be more likely to be invited to speak, or at least more likely to be accepted if you ask to speak. People are far more likely to pay attention to someone that they've met before.

3. Blog.
While blogging has taken a backseat to the Twitter and Facebook buzz lately, there are few better tools to establish yourself as an expert than a carefully curated, well-maintained blog. People who write about specific subjects consistently and intelligently will, over time, be increasingly regarded as experts. Once you have established yourself as a unique and vital voice, speaking opportunities will naturally arise.

4. Execute.
Nothing beats action. Do and build things that show you're good at what you do in a real, tangible way, and people will take notice.

But you're already doing that, right?

How to Get Motivated for Self-Promotion

2010-04-03T02:54:00.000-07:00

As creative professionals, we are constantly met with obstacles that challenge our motivation to market ourselves effectively. Whether it's lacking energy and focus, or believing that we are "not good enough" in the face of competitors, our drive to take action in promoting ourselves and the work we do can sometimes take a beating.
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Fortunately, there several ways to regain a sense of confidence and purpose, so that self-promotion doesn't feel like a chore.  

Here's a step-by step-approach for getting fired up and getting organized to market yourself in the short-term and the long-term – an essential task that too many of us neglect.

1. Write down five strengths.  
Physically write down five of the best elements of the work you do, including your skills and talents. Doing this will confirm how competent you are and will get you motivated to build on your current successes.  

2. What are your reasons? 
Think about your reasons for wanting to promote yourself. Really focus on things that excite you here. This could be landing a huge client, supporting your family, selling more of your creations, or gaining renown in your industry. Now write down five of the primary reasons.  

3. Define a single self-marketing goal.  
Think of the one thing you would like to achieve, in either the short-term or long-term, that is in line with your marketing reasons as above. This can be to book a new client, or to contribute a piece of work to an upcoming exhibition, for example.  

Having a realistic goal written down in your calendar in this way will put your brain to work on seeking ways to achieve it, motivating you in the process.

4. Write down the self-promotional activities that will lead to success.
For a self-marketing goal, identify all the activities likely to help you get there. Use past successes to help determine the most fruitful and necessary tasks. Write these out in a brief step-by-step list.  

5. Define your rewards.
Next to each major action step on the list you just made, as well as next to your self-marketing goal, write down a reward that you will give yourself on completing the step. Make the reward proportionate to the size of the step.  

6. Tell others about your commitments. 
Announce your goals to your friends and family or through an online announcement, such as a blog post or tweet, for example. Sharing your goals will add a little supportive pressure to your marketing commitments.  

7. Just get started.
 I'll leave it to leadership guru John C. Maxwell's quote to explain the value of this:

  "The whole idea of motivation is a trap. Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation. And then, guess what? After you start doing the thing, that’s when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it."

Web Page Design vs Magazine Design

2010-03-25T08:42:00.000-07:00

Web Page Design vs Magazine Design

Web sites are magazines. They are brochures. They are entertainment and they are informational. They are interactive. Designing Web sites is becoming easier and more efficient on a weekly basis. But in any area of design, and any other era of design , understanding present technological limitations leads to creative new solutions. The problems today is that the technology changes so fast, and nowhere is it changings as fast as in this paperless medium. Fortunately, the design and typography truisms that were applicable in the predesktop years, which remained true after personal computers became more common, are also true in web typography and design today. It is comforting to know that good design is still good design.

On-screen and print design share the same missions: clear communication. You are a typical Web user: do you surf looking for technical entertainment or for information, clearly and simply presenterd? Good design is clear, persuasive design, whether reflecting off paper or backlit on a screen.

Planning and designing a web site is a lot like creating a magazine. For example, like a magazine, a web site’s visual identity should remain constant while its content changes. On the other hand, electronic documents aren’t constrained to linear structuring the way magazines and other multipage printed documents are. You can be much more creative in the way you lead your visitors through or around your site. Unlike a magazine, page numbers are meaningless in a nonlinear environment. Other navigational aids must be used in their place.

Learning web page technology can seem just as impenetrable and frustrating as learning page layour software was several years ago. Nevertheless, guidelines exist for typography on the web just as they do on paper. After all, paper based typographic guidelines are applicable whether the design was produced in PageMaker, QuarkXPress or as a mechanical.

There are several good books available to learn how to make web pages and web sites. Designing a web page is a process that must be started on a sketch pad. It is a four step process, with the first three steps completed on paper.

1. Define the goals of your site. Describe the bits of information you want to include.

2. Make a branching diagram, or flowchart, to show page-to-page connections. The diagram describes how the site will be organized.

3. Sketch what each page will look like. List the hyperlinks you will build into each page. Begin creating and accumulating the elements necessary for each page.

4. Create the pages in FreeHand, Illustrator and PhotoShop and import into dreamweaver or other web publishing program as GIFS and Jpegs. Production issues at this stage include HTML tagging; making files small enough for efficient downloading, creating and testing hyperlinks; managing files in a directory structure on the server; and testing the site on all possible browsers.

Web design is not entirely under the designer’s control. An equivalent situation in a printed magazine would be if readers could change the typeface used for the display type and text, thereby causing every piece of type to wrap differently. It would be quite a challenge to ensure that every reader would see a thoughtful, well planned layout of legible, easy to read type. So it is in Web design.

Animal Planet: New Logo

2010-03-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

The Animal Planet channel recently revised its logo in order to match their new programs that now carry wild themes. The Discovery-owned channel decided to eliminate the globe and the elephant, replacing them with the "animalistic boldness" of a new identity. The new logo made its debut on February 3, 2008 during the channel's popular "Puppy Bowl". The new "jungle-like" design uses three shades of green to create the channelâ€™s name in different size fonts. A new tagline - "Same planet, different world" was added to reflect the changes. The intention of the makeover was to attract more adult viewers with television shows that emphasize animalsâ€™ feral nature â€“ a theme that blends in with the Channel's animal orientation. The network also talked about presenting animals peeking from the letters but this has not yet materialized. Many members of the logo design community were very disappointed and believed that the new design was a good intention gone wrong. The new identity was developed by London screen specialist Dunning Eley Jones with other UK-based companies - Lipsync, Duke and Milton Mordue. The consultancy's task was to create a look that expressed the network's values: playful, instinctive, emotional, immersive and entertaining. DEJ is also known for having created the identity of the new Military Channel.

Ten logo design tips from the field

2010-03-19T12:22:00.000-07:00

1. A logo doesn’t need to say what a company does  
Restaurant logos don’t need to show food, dentist logos don’t need to show teeth, furniture store logos don’t need to show furniture. Just because it’s relevant, doesn’t mean you can’t do better.

The Mercedes logo isn’t a car. The Virgin Atlantic logo isn’t an aeroplane. The Apple logo isn’t a computer. Etc. Etc.

2. Not every logo needs a mark  
Sometimes a client just needs a professional logotype to identify their business. Don’t be afraid to ask what they think.

3. Two-way process  
Remember, things might not always pan out as you hope. Your client might request something you disagree with. If that happens, try giving them what they want, then show them what you believe is an improvement, and why. They’re less likely to be so resistant if they already see how their thoughts pan out.

4. Picasso started somewhere  
You don’t need to be an artist to realise the benefits of logo sketching. Ideas can flow much faster between a pen and paper than they can a mouse and monitor.

5. Under-promise, over-deliver  
If you’re unsure how long a task will take to complete, estimate longer. Design projects are like construction work — you piece lots of little elements together to form a greater whole, and setbacks can crop up at any time.

6. Leave trends to the fashion industry  
Trends come and go, and when you’re talking about changing a pair of jeans, or buying a new dress, that’s fine, but where your brand identity is concerned, longevity is key.  

Don’t follow the pack. 

Stand out.

7. Work in black first
By leaving colour to the end of the process, you focus on the idea. No amount of gradient or colour will rescue a poorly designed mark.

8. Keep it appropriate  
Designing for a lawyer? Ditch the fun approach. Designing for a kid’s TV show? Nothing too serious. I could go on, but you get the picture.

9. A simple logo aids recognition  
Keeping the design simple allows for flexibility in size. Ideally, your design should work at a minimum of around one inch without loss of detail. Look at the logos of large corporations like Mitsubishi, Samsung, FedEx, BBC etc. Their logos look simple and are easier to recognise because of it.

10. One thing to remember  
That’s it. Leave your client with just one thing to remember about the design. All strong logos have one single feature to help them stand out.  

Negative space in logo design

2010-03-16T08:22:00.000-07:00

Yoga Australia logo
By Roy Smith Design
___________________________

USA Network logo
By Peloton Design
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Vanderbilt University logo
By Malcolm Grear Designers
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The Waterways Trust logo
By Pentagram
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New Bedford Whaling Museum logo
By Malcolm Grear Designers
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WWF
By Sir Peter Scott, modified by Landor
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Premier Catering logo
By Madhouse
Via Logolog
___________________________

Ogden Plumbing logo
By Astuteo
___________________________

Recycle Taiwan logo
By do you know?
___________________________

Ryan Biggs Associates logo
By id29
___________________________

Sinkit logo
By smashLAB
___________________________

Martin Newcombe Property Maintenance logo
By buddy
___________________________
Mouse logo
By Johnson Banks
___________________________

MyFonts logo
By Underware
___________________________

NBC logo
By Steff Geissbuhler while at Chermayeff & Geismar
___________________________

Nexcite logo
By Amore
Via Blair Thomson
___________________________

Hands On Network logo
By Duffy & Partners
___________________________

Hartford Whalers logo
By Cummings & Good (thanks, Jeff)
___________________________

Henri Ehrhart monogram (shameless, aren’t I?)
View the design process on David Airey dot com
___________________________

Human logo
By Social UK
___________________________

Knoll logo
By NB: Studio
Via Logolog
___________________________

Egg n Spoon logo (same day couriers)
By Thoughtful
___________________________

Elefont logo
By Logo Motive Designs
___________________________

FedEx logo
By Lindon Leader while at Landor
___________________________

FreemanWhite logo
By Malcolm Grear Designers
___________________________
Guild of Food Writers logo
By 300million
___________________________

Conception logo
By The Chase
___________________________

CultureBus logo
By Pentagram
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Dolphin House logo
By Ico Design
___________________________

Eaton logo
By Lippincott (thanks, Brendan)
___________________________

ED logo
By Gianni Bortolotti
___________________________
Carrefour logo
By do you know?
___________________________
The Brand Union logo
By The Brand Union
___________________________
Blade logo
By Subversive Design
___________________________

American Institute of Architects Center logo
By Pentagram
___________________________
A.G. Low Construction logo
By Rebecca Low

10 tips for writing graphic design briefs

2010-03-09T01:37:00.000-08:00

10 tips for clients writing graphic design briefs

1. Realise that any designer you hire is a professional (or should be) and must be treated as such.

2. Understand that designers are not mind readers — that class is still under development.

3. Before coming to a graphic designer, have your business model ready and your plan up to par. No design can save any business that is not well thought out.

4. Number 3 will allow you to fully understand the goal of your business, the ideas you want to convey and who your target market is for any design.

5. Understand your product or service and be able to explain it clearly – this ties in with number 4. It definitely helps the designer if you clarify exactly what (if it’s a logo) the design will be developed for. Knowing this ahead of time can prevent any future misunderstandings, in-effective design or troublesome production.

6. Understand it wont be free. When people post on a design forum and expect a design service for free it is frustrating and shows how little they think of the process.

7. Communicate with the designer — dont dictate. If you have questions or concerns, voice them, and return the favour of listening.

8. Don’t try to design for the designer — you hired them for their knowledge and talent. Let them utilise that to put your company in the best light possible. Of course the designer should also take your opinions into consideration, especially if it deals with an industry-specific issue. This is still very much communication on both sides.

9. For the designer: Do not assume you know the client industry! Each industry has its own specific requirements, quirks and expectations. LISTEN to the client, their concerns, what they want to play up, what they are truly selling and how they want to present themselves in the market. Ads that are pretty may win awards but they don’t always win market-share.

10. Set expectations up-front: Both the client and designer need to let the other know what they expect as far as materials, deadlines and communication. Will you be meeting on a regular basis? Phone? Emails? How are you delivering materials? Are you going to be there for press proofs? How far will you follow the completion of the project. Make sure there are no surprises.

Do you have any tips to share?

The ability to deal with designers (and for designers to deal with clients) is of paramount importance. If you have additional tips, or a question about the process, feel free to leave a comment.

The brand identity design process

2010-03-08T23:49:00.000-08:00

There are 9 steps of developing brand identity are as follows :

The design brief
A detailed design brief, compiled from a Q&A session with the client, ensures no time is wasted, and that clients receive targeted design options from the outset. The brief helps focus attention on the areas that best serve the business in question, producing a result that’s both relevant and effective.

Research and brainstorming
You shoult spend time studying the brief, then begin the research and brainstorming stage. Here you sholud take into account client competition, trends in the market, what sets the client apart, the history of the business, the future, the current brand, and the one aspired to.

Again, it’s vitally important that the client provides as much information as possible during the briefing stage.

Sketching
Sketching ideas helps you to generate a large number of possible directions. Most of them will eventually be made redundant, but the point is to think laterally and not rule out any directions in order to achieve the most effective brandmark.

Rendering / prototype design
you will normally narrow the design focus until you have two strong options for developing. The rendering stage involves taking these options and transferring them to Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat or something else you are comfortable.

Creative presentation / client feedback

Design options are supplied as PDF files. The work will be presented using contextual mock-ups and formatted in monotone, helping clients concentrate on the shape and form of the identity. Colour options are also shown, if required.

Now it’s over to the client to spend some time thinking about the designs and prepare feedback.

Finishing touches / revisions
Following client review, You should then either finalise the project, or make any revisions suggested and agreed upon. Your main aim is to create a brand identity that works for the respective business, and works for many years to come, and there’ll always be flexibility in your process.

File creation and supply
Vector artwork is sent via email, or made available for download.

Vector files can be scaled to any size without loss of quality, unlike a raster file, which becomes pixelated when enlarged.

Optional business stationery
The brandmarks I design are used for a wide variety of purposes — websites, corporate stationery, vehicle wraps, billboard advertising. Additional business collateral is an option.

Customer service
Your service doesn’t end once clients pay the final installment. You should be always on hand to answer design-related questions, offer your opinion on how the design has been applied, to help with print procurement, or offer design assistance in whatever way you can.

Tips to improve image sharpness

2010-03-08T11:55:00.000-08:00

If the light isn’t perfect, if you are shooting action – everything that might go wrong will go wrong if you aren’t prepared. Aim of this series is to give you understanding of the digital camera and how it interacts with photographer to produce images you like so much. In this article I will cover common photographer mistakes that result in blurry images, or lack of sharpness in photos. This is the basics of photography that will help you deal with tricky situations such as low light and action photography.
Have you properly sharpened photos?

Using proper post-processing technique can greatly improve quality of your images. Since many digital SLRs on the market incorporate mild in-camera sharpening, you might find this tip very useful.

Try to sharpen your photos with Photoshop. I use USM (un-sharp mask filter) with following settings: 300%/0.3/0 (Read more about my basic work flow here: Processing jpeg). If you don’t have Photoshop you can use software that came with your camera, almost all photo editing programs have sharpening feature.

Soft focus or motion blur?
It’s important to understand distinction between soft-focus and motion blur. While soft focus could be result of defective equipment, motion blur is strictly a user error. It can be a result of: camera shake during exposure.

There is a simple rule that will help you deal with motion blur. It goes like this; you have to keep your exposure setting higher than: (focal length of a lens) multiplied by (Size of sensor).
For example: If you are shooting with telephoto lens, let’s say at the long end 200mm, and you use crop 1.6 camera – then, to avoid handshake, you have to shoot at the exposure equal to 1/320 or faster (200mm multiplied by 1.6 = 320).

This is a handy rule, and personally I use it all the time. So make sure you remember it, in tricky situations it will save you a photo or two.

Are you shooting in the dark?
If you are low light shooter, get a tripod!

As I already mentioned in the previous section, slow exposure can be a serious problem if you want clean and sharp images. So, if you shoot predominantly in low light (clubs, events, inside house, sunsets) try to get a tripod. Tripod will minimize handshake, and will let you shoot even the darkest scenes. If you use tripod, long exposure isn’t a problem anymore, you can shoot few minute exposure and expect crisp images.

Is subject moving?
Tell him/her to stay still!
Fast moving subjects need higher shutter speed to capture images without motion blur. This is closely related to the previous sections of the article. If you are photographing kids that run around, or a moving car, anything that isn’t still, you need fast shutter speed (or quick exposure) to freeze action. Try to use higher ISO even in daylight to boost shutter speed.
What are you shooting?

Is your subject low in contrasts? Is it all one color? Camera AF system has problems grabbing focus in high contrast scenes. It also has problems when most of the frame is one color. For example if you are photographing white wall, focus will most surely get confused – in this situation try to find spot that stands out; in case of a wall, it could be a nail or something of diverse texture and color.

Do you know what is DOF?
DOF stands for depth of field. Increasing depth of field improves image sharpness, sometimes considerably. This is more pronounced when using cheap lenses. For example canon kit lens 18-55 IS that comes with entry level SLRs produce fantastic results when stopped down. Stopping down means increasing DOF. You can control this in your camera through aperture setting. Read more about this here: Depth of field explained.

Center focus point vs. Automatic focus point selection
There is reason why professionals prefer to use Manual mode of the camera. Modern digital camera is an advanced piece of technology, but it isn’t as smart as a human photographer – there are situations when camera can be fooled, focus point selection is #1 on that list. Camera doesn’t know exactly where you want to focus, so it’s better to give exact instructions. Besides giving exact instruction, I only use center focus point; it’s the most sensitive area of my Canon EOS 50D AF system.

Conclusion
Image sharpness is a critical element of photography. Camera manufacturers know this, and they provide excellent tools for us. So if there are problems with image quality, inconsistency of AF, etc. you can be sure that it’s due to photographer mistake. My advice is to stop blaming equipment and instead practice more!

Celebrating 20 years of Photoshop

2010-03-08T11:46:00.000-08:00

The photographic industry’s favorite image editing software has hit 20. It’s been a long journey, with humble beginnings, but these days over 90% of creative professionals have Photoshop installed on their desktops. It has become the ubiquitous photo and image editing software used in the photography, advertising, marketing, design and graphic industries worldwide.

Work began on Photoshop in 1987, but it took another 3 years before a version was launched to the public. I’ve personally followed programs development since 1998 v.5.0 and since then never missed an update.

Photoshop is a great tool, a bit expensive for my liking, but nevertheless the only comprehensive photo editing software out there.

Community Celebrates Software that Changed
the Way We View the World

AN JOSE, Calif., — Feb. 18, 2010 — Adobe® Photoshop®, the software product that redefined creativity in the digital age, turns 20 on Feb. 19, 2010. Around the world, Photoshop fans are celebrating the impact their favorite software has had across photography, art, design, publishing and commerce. In the United States, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) will be hosting a special Photoshop 20th Anniversary celebration for over a thousand attendees in San Francisco at the Palace of the Fine Arts Theater today. The event will feature Adobe’s senior vice president of Creative Solutions, John Loiacono, as well as vice president of Photoshop Product Management, Kevin Connor, Photoshop co-creator Thomas Knoll and famed Adobe creative director and Photoshop evangelist, Russell Brown. To be a part of this celebration and view the live Webcast, visit: www.photoshopuser.com/photoshop20th.

The festivities continue overseas in Japan, Southeast Asia and throughout Europe. In honor of the 20th anniversary, Adobe Germany will host a special 20-hour online marathon, featuring over 15 local Photoshop “gurus” demonstrating their favorite tips and tricks live for Photoshop fans. In India and France, digital imaging contests will be held to showcase the work of Photoshop users. A special Adobe TV broadcast will also air on the anniversary date at http://tv.adobe.com/go/photoshop-20th-anniversary, reuniting the original “Photoshop team” for the first time in 18 years, to discuss their early work on the software and demonstrate Photoshop 1.0 on a rebuilt Macintosh computer.

The Photoshop community is also sharing their favorite stories online, with the product and its over 400,000 fan-strong Facebook page, the hub for a worldwide look at the product’s impact. A new “Celebrate” tab directs users to a 20th anniversary logo, which many have already personalized with Photoshop and used as a replacement for their profile image.

“For 20 years Photoshop has played many different roles – it has given creative people the power to deliver amazing images that impact every part of our visual culture and challenged the eye with its ability to transform photographs,” said Shantanu Narayen, president and chief executive officer at Adobe. “It’s no exaggeration to say that, thanks to millions of creative customers, Photoshop has changed the way the world looks at itself.”

The impact of Photoshop is everywhere – billboard signs, magazine covers, major motion pictures, even the logo on the coffee cup you drink out of every morning. All have likely been touched by the software. Over 90 percent of creative professionals have Photoshop on their desktops and today Photoshop is used by professional photographers, graphic designers and advertisers, as well as architects, engineers and even doctors. Whether it’s bringing visual effects to life in the blockbuster film Avatar, helping save lives in partnership with forensics departments and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or challenging the human eye to determine if an image is real or fake, Photoshop continues to find new uses and advocates.

How It All Began
In 1987, Thomas Knoll developed a pixel imaging program called Display. It was a simple program to showcase grayscale images on a black-and-white monitor. However, after collaborating with his brother John Knoll, the two began adding features that made it possible to process digital image files. The program eventually caught the attention of industry influencers, and in 1988, Adobe made the decision to license the software, naming it Photoshop, and shipping the first version in 1990.
“Twenty years ago, Adobe predicted that it would sell 500 copies of Photoshop per month,” said Thomas Knoll, co-creator of Photoshop at Adobe. “I guess you could say, we beat those projections! It’s amazing to think that millions of people use this software today. We knew we had a groundbreaking technology on our hands, but we never anticipated how much it would impact the images we see all around us. The ability to seamlessly place someone within an image was just the beginning of Photoshop’s magic.”

Over its 20-year history, Photoshop has evolved significantly from a simple original display program to a wildly popular application that has over 10 million users worldwide. With each release, Adobe has introduced technological innovations that defy the impossible. Layers, introduced in Photoshop 3.0, gave designers the ability to create complex compositions easier than ever before. The Healing Brush, another groundbreaking feature introduced in Photoshop 7.0, allowed users to magically retouch images by seamlessly removing blemishes and wrinkles, while preserving lighting and texture. Photoshop tools like crop, eraser, blur and dodge and burn have become part of the creative vernacular worldwide.

The Photoshop team thrives off its rich beta tester program, with active and vocal users who have submitted requests and helped shape the development of features throughout the years. Adobe has maintained a strong connection with its customer base through blogs, user research, customer support, forums and feedback from Adobe “evangelists” who travel the world to engage with Photoshop users.

CV tips for graphic designers

2010-03-07T11:17:00.001-08:00

Lee Newham is a senior designer at London-based design consultancy, P&W. He receives around three or four CVs (resumés) every day, and here he details some tips on how graphic designers can get those CVs to the top of the pile.
CV tips for graphic designers

99% of CVs are poorly designed. It’s a struggle.

If your CV is good, and relevant to me, you have a higher chance of getting a response.

The creative director often isn’t the person to contact. Many times senior designers are the first port of call for interviews. There is no harm in sending a CV to more than one person at an agency.

Be creative, but don’t be pushy. Agencies find it very difficult to enlist good staff. That’s why most use expensive recruitment agencies.

Here’s my advice to graphic designers trying to get their CV to the top of the pile:

1. Brand yourself. Make yourself memorable. I know that some people may disagree with this, which seems to be a USA thing, but your CV is seen by a creative, not the accountants. ‘Wow’ them.

2. Be more than a sheet of paper. Most CVs are now sent by email. What can you do to differentiate yourself?

3. Don’t include things I don’t care about, like ’I once worked as a waiter’ or ’I got a qualification in chemistry’. I don’t care if you like swimming. I do care, however, if you saw the last lecture by Paul Rand before he died and what your thoughts were. Make it relevant.

4. Ensure everything is beautifully presented. Consider your kerning and double-check there are no silly mistakes — we all want to employ a safe pair of hands.

5. Follow-up anything you send with a phone call, but remember, don’t hassle, be polite. Ask them what they thought of your CV and how it could be improved.

6. Don’t try too hard. One student sent a mailer that was a fake bomb (with the tag line ’dynamite designer’. The bomb squad were called and the designer was contacted — by the police. He didn’t get the job. This raises another point — don’t boast, no-one wants to employ an arrogant designer. Never say you are the best. Leave that to Mohammed Ali.

Patience + time = job. Good luck.

Common client misconceptions in graphic design

2010-03-07T07:35:00.000-08:00

“It looks different on my screen.”

A client might ask for a specific Pantone colour from their Pantone swatch book. The designer sets the file exactly as is required, yet when the client sees an example on their computer monitor they are disappointed that the colour isn’t the same. Why is that?

Brightness, contrast, colour settings… all monitors have them. Unless two monitors are calibrating to the exact same settings then the colours will always appear different. The best way to colour-match is using printed proofs, and even then, your choice of paper can critically affect the colour of your printed product.

“Can you use the image from the website for our brochure?”

Sourcing images can be very time-consuming. Many clients will believe that an image they find online is perfect for their print job. However, in order to look clear, web images must have a resolution of 72 dots per inch (dpi). Print work, on the other hand, requires images to have a resolution of at least 300 dpi.

Anyone responsible for marketing material / printed promotions should be familiar with a design guide for print.

“Why does it cost that much? My neighbour only charged £200 for a logo.”

The client doesn’t often see the process involved when a graphic designer takes on a logo project. In fact, on most occasions the client will only see a few computer-generated designs.

A designer will only use a computer at the end of the logo design process. Beforehand comes clarifying the design brief, research, brainstorming and logo sketching (yes, lots of sketching).

What issues do you find cropping up again and again when dealing with graphic designers / clients?

6 Common Statements which clients say to Graphic Designers

2010-03-05T23:15:00.000-08:00

In your graphic designing career, you will have to deal with a variety of potential clients. For that reason, you need to be versatile enough to handle each and every type of client accordingly. Different and, at times, bizarre queries may come from clients that hire you. It is seldom that you will come across a client who is mature enough not to come up with silly questions. So in order to be prepared beforehand, I have listed some of the most frequent things that you might hear as a graphic designer from you clients and how you should tackle them.

1) “I want the best design, but this is all I can afford”
This is one of the most frequent things that you get to hear from your clients. Everybody wants the best results but never willing to pay the best price for it. While the decision to lower your prices is completely up to you, but if you are confident on your capabilities as a graphic designer, don’t compromise. Make them understand that everything comes with a price. Explain the quality of time, effort and research you put in, for which you deserve to be paid accordingly.

2) “What if I make the advance payment and don’t like your work?”
This is a very absurd question which most of the clients ask. Although your client hires you after a thorough examination of your design portfolio and claims to be satisfied with your design capabilities but still remains doubtful. Remember that it is your client who has chosen you to do his work, this means he is

content with you work beforehand. Just to avoid this mess, always work out the initial payment with your clients so that you may not get deprived of your hard earned money in the middle of your efforts.

3) “I want you to design something similar to this…”
Many a times, clients come to you with a design carved in mind (probably of a competitor) and ask you to make something comparable to it. The trouble begins when you present your design proposals on the same pattern and the client starts comparing it to the inspired resource. Now the mistakes that the client points out are not originally yours, but the faults are in the design that he wanted you to imitate. Guide your client

on an ethical level that imitating someone else’s work is not the best way to go. Convince them that they need to be unique and differentiable from their competitors.

4) “Is it an original concept?”
However this one may sound offensive to many graphics designers, but be prepared to expect all kinds of queries from your clients. Graphic designers should not get hurt by this question as it is the clients’ right to validate that the work isn’t copied or plagiarized. A simple approach to counter this query is to make a log of each and every step that you involve in while designing for your client. For example when using Photoshop, make sure you save the “psd” file as a proof of how you actually came about with the work that you have completed.

5) “What the…? This is not what you showed me there.”
This is a very common complain that you might hear from your clients when you send them the finished design. When clients open your design work on their computer screens, it appears completely different, so they argue that this was not the design you showed them previously. What actually happens is that the monitor settings of your client may differ from yours. Since every monitor or LCD has different screen settings, the result may vary. Hence it is better to show the design work to your clients on a hard copy.

6) “Hey I’ve changed my mind … I don’t need a design anymore”
This is the most frightening thing a graphic designer can hear from his client. Imagine you’ve sweated countless days and nights to build the project assigned to you and in the middle or the end of the project, the clients comes to you and says “I don’t need the design anymore, thanks”. Do you think his “thanks” is enough to compensate the graphic designer’s

endless efforts? That is why you should protect yourself with a contract, in case your client drops you in the middle of the project. Clarify beforehand that he will be billed according to the amount of work done. Irrespective of how much the project has been completely, you should be compensated for the efforts you have made.

Logos are dead

2010-03-04T23:36:00.001-08:00

Simon Manchipp, one of three creative directors and partners at London-based studio SomeOne, said on Twitter :

“Logos are dead. Yet we have been featured in the new book Logo Design Love as an example of how to do Logos.

“They are a hangover from old-school thinking about branding. There is no desire by the public for a new logo. They are simply an old-fashioned approach to differentiating products or services.”

Upon questioning, Manchipp explicitly meant, “…that symbols invented to accompany brand names are a waste of time, money and effort.”

I asked David Law, Manchipp’s partner at SomeOne (and the man who kindly submitted SomeOne’s designs for inclusion in my book), what he thought of his colleague’s statement:

“It’s something we have been debating internally for quite a while.

“When you look at brands like O2, its success lies in the richness and depth of its brand world (bubbles, blue grad etc.). This forms a flexible branded platform that is instantly recognisable — you could remove the logo and still know the brand. The logo in itself is not the ‘hero’.

“In the past, brands like IBM and FedEx traded on the logo as the ‘hero’. We see it even today.

“So while we all acknowledge that the logo is not about to disappear — and that it is still an important part of any brand toolkit — there is a case for applying more emphasis on brand worlds.

“The ‘favicon’ or ‘twibbon’ is now the equivalent of the ‘black and white fax’ that we all learnt (years ago) was the minimum requirement for a logo to be recognisable as. These are much smaller applications than we have ever had to deal with, and ones where traditional logos are struggling.

“Brands now ‘move’ as standard — being ‘Apple‘ implies all sorts of physics that lend attributes to the brand and do not rely on the logo to do everything.

“Lastly, the amount of platforms, media, applications (and now ‘experiences’) that need to be branded has multiplied significantly with technology. People simply get bored quicker and brand worlds allow the conversation to ‘flow’.

“Yes, the logo is the ultimate ‘rechargeable battery’ of the brand and is the final distillation of all the brand’s attributes BUT what we are debating (and we haven’t reached any conclusion) is that if the brand world is powerful enough, could the ‘logo’ simply be the company name designed in a simple, ownable way? Possibly, dare I say it, with no symbol to sit alongside it?”

Symbol or no symbol is a valid question, and one I talk about in my book:

“Sometimes your client just needs a professional logotype to identity its business. Use of a symbol can be an unnecessary addition.

“This is something you want to determine at the outset of the project. Ask your client if she has a preference one way or another. If the company is entertaining ideas about future expansion into other markets, it might be better to opt for a distinctive logotype, because an identifying mark or symbol might prove restrictive.”

What they don’t teach you about identity design in design schools

2010-03-04T23:01:00.000-08:00

One of the most often repeated refrains on design blogs, in the critique of a new logo, is “Any design student could do a better job.” This ubiquitous comment is especially amusing to me because, well, it’s mostly true. If you judge virtually every new logo designed today by classical design school standards, the kids in school are doing a better job. This is because of the way logo and identity design are taught in so many schools, and what that exercise is meant to accomplish.

In design school, identity design is all about the form of the logo. A student will be given the problem: “design a logo for such and such organization,” and then the student may spend the better part of the next six months refining the form of a mark (or a wordmark), and then they sometimes transfer that word mark to a piece of stationery, or a shopping bag, or some other item (often a truck, and regardless of what school they attend, they all seem to magically use the same generic truck drawing.) And after six months of criticism and refinement, a good student will usually produce a formalistically beautiful logo. There may be some discussion in class about the appropriateness of the logo for the business. But the main goal will be to make the logo recognizable, with strong aesthetic attributes that will enable the logo to “stand alone.”

The design school exercise is indeed a good way to develop craft skills, and hopefully when the student becomes a professional he/she will learn to get fast at it, and achieve that work in the course of a week as opposed to six months. And there, any similarity between real identity design and a design school exercise ends.

Identity design, for any organization containing more than three people, is the act of diplomatically negotiating personal egos, tastes, and aspirations of various invested individuals against their business needs, their pre-formed expectations, and the constraints of the market place. Making something formalistically beautiful, while desirable, is a more private part of the process, something that the designer needs to achieve incidentally, not something that can appear to be an overt motivating cause. (This is because form is subjective, and not an easily argued position when a designer is trying to get their client to feel comfortable assuming a new identity.)

When organizations are larger, their identities often need to be designed as systems (kits of parts) that allow for complicated organizational subsets to exist and therefore give organizations and corporations the ability to partially personalize departments or sub-brands. Systems often demand that logos become more neutral so they can more effectively accommodate all necessary secondary information. A complicated logo design, one that might “stand alone” in a design class may simply look too busy in this real-world kind of context.

Often the identity of an organization that has many subsets can best be brought to life by the use of its supportive materials within the systems (promotion pieces, packaging, websites, signs, merchandising materials). This is an especially effective methodology because it can allow for a logo or identity system to gain resonance and recognition over time in connection to materials that are capable of being far more expressive than logos. For example the Nike logo, which has evolved over time into its current form, became a powerful symbol to the masses because of its effective use in advertising campaigns. The “cool” of the logo happened in connection to some brilliant campaigns by Wieden & Kennedy, and the effective positioning of the mark on merchandising materials. As pure form, if the “swoosh” appeared alone in a design school critique (or on a design blog) it would most likely have been dismissed as too thin, weak, and pointy, looking like a checkmark and not really conveying motion.

Logos become iconic over time, through their use and in combination with an overall perception of a brand. They shouldn’t be judged purely as form and out of context, as they are on design blogs, because it takes a period of time for a logo to establish itself in the marketplace, just as it takes a magazine a year or so to establish its personality.

Another thing they don’t teach you in design school is what you get paid for. Right alongside the blog complaint that “any design student could do a better job” is the comment that the designer at hand got “hundreds of thousands of dollars to design that logo that could have been better designed by a design student.”

I never knew a designer that got hundreds of thousands of dollars to design a logo. Mostly, designers get paid to negotiate the difficult terrain of individual egos, expectations, tastes, and aspirations of various individuals in an organization or corporation, against business needs, and constraints of the marketplace. This is a process that can take a year or more. Getting a large, diverse group of people to agree on a single new methodology for all of their corporate communications means the designer has to be a strategist, psychiatrist, diplomat, showman, and even a Svengali. The complicated process is worth money. That’s what clients pay for. The process, usually a series of endless presentations and refinements, persuasions and proofs, results, hopefully, in an accepted identity design.

Some branding firms employ strategists and account executives to manage the process. I’m in favor of designers doubling as strategists, or at least working extensively with them. I think the designer needs to be involved every stage of the complicated negotiation between the clients, their expectations, tastes, aspirations, marketplace concerns etc. The designer needs to be ever present because, inevitably, at some side meeting, something will be suggested that will totally destroy the form of the logo. Something can be suggested innocently, with the best of intentions, that will scuttle all plans, compromise all standards, and destroy the integrity of the design. The only person who can know this and stop this is the designer. And the reason that the designer knows it is… well, they learned it in design school.

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Becoming a self-employed graphic designer

2010-03-04T03:12:00.001-08:00

Graphic designers often ask how I made the switch to self-employment. Here’s a quick overview of that period in my life in 2004/05.

I was working as publications officer for Myeloma UK, a cancer charity in Edinburgh. My responsibilities included print design, print buying, and managing the web content.

In 2004 I resigned in order to travel the world. At the time I had no intention of returning my previous role, and was in fact considering a life teaching English in Asia, but in 2005 after months of eye-opening experiences abroad, and when I made it back to Edinburgh, a replacement designer hadn’t been found. So I asked the chief executive Eric Low if he wanted to hire me as a part-time contractor, working three days per week and invoicing at the end of each month.

He agreed, and we worked that way for around 18 months — until the charity grew so much that a full-time designer was again a necessity.

(The self-employment hierarchy above was created by Tony Clark, discussed in a previous post: Are freelance designers really suckers?)

Starting out with a retainer client was vital to my success, and while those three days per week brought in just enough cash to get me by, they allowed plenty of time to work on the build of my website and blog (my main self-promotion tool).

My speciality has since changed from publications to brand identity design, and although it’s been a number of years since I’ve worked with Myeloma UK, I still keep track of how the organisation is doing. It’s fantastic to see what a difference it’s making to myeloma patients.
Don’t let the naysayers get you down

When I talked to friends about starting my business, there were one or two who said I wasn’t experienced enough, and that I should stay in employment until later in life. If you’re considering making the switch from full-time employment, you’ll probably find these very same people, but don’t let them bring you down.

With passion and commitment, you can make a success of anything you set your mind to.