Beyond Typography

Why design?

I saw this on Manhattanite via Design Observer and I thought, well, he's probably got a point. I've always thought that the line of work I'm in would mean that I would be on the "B" spaceship in the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, along with telephone sanitizers and marketing executives.

But where would we be without well-designed products and good graphic design? Still walking along hilltops trying to work out the next identifiable landmark. Funnily enough, soon after I saw the above statement I saw this. 

Normal service has been resumed: Updated Type is Art link

Well hello. Sorry for the lack of posts, I've been on holiday. Sunning myself in Cyprus.

I'm back at work now. Here's a quick round up of what's been happening...

Creative

For the next couple of weeks I'm working in the Creative department of the company I work for. Doing a sort of job shadow type thing. As I've been working mainly in editorial for the past 15-or-so years I thought it would be good to see how the commercial side of things operate (even though I've been doing this sort fo thing for a while). In our company there is(was?) a them and us attitude between editorial designers and the Creative designers. Each side thinking they were better. So far, I have not experienced this. As far as I'm concerned, design is design, regardless of discipline. We should all support each other. There is too much pressure and competition from the non-design community for there to be tension within.

Anyway, yesterday was day one and I spent a really useful morning with one of the web designers, who critted my work. I found it really useful as so far I have only had feedback from marketing and editorial people. Thanks Mark.

Sexy things

A few other things have happened. I bought a digital camera. I opted for the Canon Sureshot G9 in the end (see post June 25). I am really please with the performance and results.

I also got my iPhone! FANTASTIC! Friday was an interesting day in the search for a 16Gb version. Got one delivered from the Carphone Warehouse in the end.

Largest Apple customer

One interesting snippet of news last week. Axel Springer, one of Europe's largest newspaper publishers, is moving it's entire workforce over to the Mac platform. 10,000 employees worldwide!

Photography exhibition

I went to a viewing of some photography yesterday. It was one of three that I had been invited to. I thought that this one might be a little different, even if the quality might not be great (my own preconceptions). I was impressed by the quality of the work. Some work being better quality than the endless stream of graduates and new start-ups that do the rounds now, wither by email or in person. The one thing that I found refreshing was the originality of the work, not the endless (tedious) stuff trying to emulate the latest fashion mags. These were good. I have to mention that the work was not at some exclusive venue in London, but at the Treloar College near Alton in Hampshire. The photographs were the final displays for the A-level and City & Guilds photography students. The students are all physically disabled.

Cool

And finally, a bit of fun. Take a look at this. Type is Art is a cool project by Jose Rodriguez where you can create art from parts of letterforms. I originally saw it on the I love typography site.

Excuse me, officer

I was shown an article in response to my post the other day about the Metropolitan Police anti-terror campaign. The article appeared in the British Journal of Photography. I'm glad to say that a lot of people are alarmed and upset by the tone of the campaign. You can read the article here. I love the spoof advert, there are some more here.

Web design and typography

Business Week have compiled a 10 Commandments of Web Design, complete with an interactive poll and examples for the best and worst designed sites, there are some . I'm pleased to say that this was commandment number 6:

Thou shalt worship at the altar of typography.

At last! If a serious business magazine can recognise that good design and typography is valuable, then the people who read it might spend that extra bit to make their own offerings better.

The Terror of Photography

Well, it had to happen. I'm going to take the plunge and buy a digital camera. I currently use film, be it an SLR for the serious stuff or a trusty Fuji disposable camera which is always in my bag. I have recently been using the camera on my mobile phone (all my pics that appear on this blog were taken using it), but I feel the need to buy a digital point and shoot as both the battery and memory on the phone are crap. I've narrowed it down to two models, the Panasonic Lumix TZ5  and the Canon Powershot G9. I'll let you know what I get.

But taking the odd snapshot in the street can be pretty hairy these days. Today's fear is of a camera-wielding terrorist, whereas yesterday's was of the paedophile and before that it was of criminals "casing the joint" (try taking a photograph in a UK shopping mall and see what happens). There is even a media campaign by the Metropolitan Police asking members of the public to report people taking photographs in the street in case they are terrorists. Even the railway enthusiast is not safe in his pursuit of photographing the object of interest without some official asking what they're up to (as if holding a camera to your eye with finger on the "button" were not enough of a giveaway).

Here is an excellent article putting all this into perspective.

So where does Creative Juice come from?

This "documentary" explains all! 

You should Do it now

Some very good advice here.

Via Debbie Millman, and while you're there, check out the resignation letter from Stewart Butterfield, the co-founder of Flickr.

Love type

I found a fantastic site the other day. It's called I love typography. It has so much information about type. Written by someone who really does love the subject. While you're there, try the rather difficult Font Game. Look at the hall of fame – I'm no.7! Not bad...

Another great blog is by a woman called Mrs Eaves at for the love of type. Inspired by Stefan Sagmeister’s artwork for Lou Reed's album Set The Twilight Reeling, she produced this...

Have a good Friday.

A quick one today as I've got a load of stuff to do before attending day two of an Advanced Flash Course. Yesterday was day one and we covered a lot of ground. I hope to make use of a lot of it.

I downloaded the new Firefox on Tuesday night. Seems slicker than the previous version – although I had to change the browser theme from the default hideous Firelight.

But what is even better is the PicLens add-on from CoolIris and is available for most browsers. When you look at Flickr or YouTube, or search Google, Yahoo, etc, instead of displaying the results as thumbnails on pages, it displays them in a 3D wall (this feature doesn't work in Safari!). Makes searching so much quicker.

Also, Portsmouth is being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st Century (architecturally speaking, anyway) with the announcement of the new stadium for Portsmouth Football Club. So what? It's been designed by Herzog and de Meuron and looks fantastic. This adds to the already iconic Spinnaker Tower. I hope it gets the required planning permission. Portsmouth had some really nice architecture before being flattened during WW2, or demolished in an attempt to modernise during the 1960s and 70s. One really bold move was to commission the Tricorn Centre, which, when opened won an international design award. The problem was, the local council didn't have the courage of their convictions and the moaners started to knock it until it was voted ugliest building before being torn down to be replaced by an impersonal, identikit shopping mall with no character. The past few years has seen a resurrection of good design in Portsmouth.

And finally, this. Country tourism brands. S'funny how most adopt a "hand-painted" feel...

Food for thought

I had a conversation yesterday about design and the role of the designer and it got me thinking. I've mentioned before that everybody thinks they are a designer (or at least has a view on design). Well, this conversation verged on the "why do we need designers?" The equipment and software available means that anybody can design now. Templates are provided and it's easy.  This is a similar question that's been rumbling on for years about photographers: if cameras are no so smart and can, for example, correct lighting, camera shake, etc., why pay for a photographer to turn up with much the same equipment and take the pictures for you?

Well, if you went to Le Gavroche or The Fat Duck would you expect to cook the food yourself? (And don't get me started on the whole char-bar thing!) No, you'd expect some fantastically cooked and presented food from MIchel Roux Jr. and Heston Blumenthal respectively. The ingredients would be well-sourced and the menu put together in a well-thought out way. I would argue that a decent, professional designer (or photographer) is comparable. We have spent time training and learning, not just in using the tools of the trade – be it the Mac, the software or camera – but the stuff behind it. What the terminology means, composition, colour theory, type/design history, a chance to experiment and generally getting to know the subject inside out. We know what a baseline grid is and how to construct one, we know what kerning rules are. Most of us older ones know what knockout and overprint means. Some of us have even used a type scale.

A designer arrives at a decision through various conscious and subconscious factors. The decision we arrive at is (usually) better informed.

Going back to the chef/restaurant analogy: a design-led solution is like going to one of the restaurants mentioned above; a half-way house, where the client has a template but can vary the content within the framework such as add pics and change the length of copy, is like going to a fast food outlet such as McDonalds; and the final version where no designer is involved is like making a sandwich at home.

The point is, is that if you make a lot of sandwiches and visit fast-food restaurants a lot, you are really going to appreciate the visit to the Michelin-starred restaurant.

The client will also appreciate the higher quality as well.