• Design is a tool for achieving specific results. Being responsive, we begin each project by learning exactly what results our client expects. This then becomes our communications goal.
• Establishing an appropriate, positive emphasis is the key. This, in conjunction with good graphic design, is our special skill.
• Our work exhibits a great diversity of styles and imagery. In an era of design specialists, we invariably believe that as varied as the messages are, so should the means of conveying them.

Posted by Megan

Posted by Megan

Posted by Megan

New York City has a population of approximately 9 million people in all five boroughs, plus the visitor influx. The average per capita annual use of agricultural produce is approximately 711 pounds (12). The combined per capita consumption of the entire population of New York City is nearly 3 million tons, which translates into 266,000 acres of cropland needed solely for growing produce for New York City. The total ecological footprint of food consumption alone for New York City, as a whole, is over 28.8 million acres. This is 1.2% of the total U.S. land area.

If the marketplace today has become alienating and disconnected, then buying something handmade, from another individual, rolls back the clock to an era before factory labor and mass production.

4. Avoid multiple concepts

Many clients like the idea of having the option to choose between multiple design concepts. However, although on the surface this might appear to be a good idea it can ultimately be counterproductive for design sign off. In a world of limited budgets it is unwise to waste money on producing designs that are ultimately going to be thrown away. The resources would be better spent refining a single design through multiple iterations. What is more, multiple concepts often cause confusion rather than clarity. It is common for a client to request one element from one design and another from the second. As any designer knows this seldom works.

via Swissmiss

Posted by Megan

Posted by Megan

Posted by Megan

Posted by Megan

Posted by Megan

Gather a team

When you work alone, without other people to tell you how you're doing, it can be difficult to see how you can improve. A friend of mine from the consulting firm Deloitte & Touche calls this syndrome "inhaling your own exhaust fumes."

Build a board of advisors who feel free to kick your ass when your solitude weakens your judgment. You'll need five people, with different backgrounds and perspectives. Your dream team might include:

• a longtime friend
• a mentor
• a marketing expert
• a colleague in your industry
• a former boss

My board of advisors includes Tad Smith, a one-time business partner of mine. When I was out of work and wanted to become the CEO of a major corporation, Tad told me to forget the big, prestigious Fortune 500 companies that I was targeting. Find a smaller firm that can grow, he said. Tad was right, and I soon became CEO at the game company YaYa.

Report to the board on your successes, failures and goals on a regular basis. Listen to their advice and criticism. If most of them give you the same advice, follow it.

Jonathan Paisner, brand experience director at CoreBrand, just posted an interesting piece about a lawsuit by Johnson & Johnson against The American Red Cross over the use of said cross on first-aid products.

It is one of the world’s most recognized symbols. It has become the de facto mark of disaster relief. It is almost universally associated with first aid. Yet this symbol is no mere generic icon signifying that help is on the way. The red cross symbol is owned by and registered to Johnson & Johnson, as it has been for over 100 years. And, for the American National Red Cross, this has suddenly become a problem – pitting one of the country’s most venerable corporations against one of its largest and most iconic non-profits.

Despite J&J’s ownership and use of the mark since the 1880’s, the American National Red Cross has the right to use the red cross by a 1900 Congressional decree in connection with the agency’s founding charter. The red cross has peacefully co-existed on Band-Aid boxes and rescue vans pretty much ever since.  However, in a lawsuit brought this week by Johnson & Johnson against The American National Red Cross, J&J claims that the Red Cross is overstepping its bounds and infringing upon the J&J trademark by marketing a range of first aid related products that carry the red cross.

In my mind, J&J is 100% right.

Posted by Megan

DESIGN 21 has announced the results of the organization's first-ever global design competitions, which asked designers around the world to submit ideas and directly address major social issues including global warming, natural disaster response and children's education.

"Child’s Play" asked participants to design an object that cultivates imagination and creativity by prompting a child to invent his or her own way of playing and interacting.  The winning design, Yo’Play by Barro de Gast (ITALY) is a simple yogurt packaging that doubles as a modular construction toy.  
 

"ShelterMe" was inspired by recent natural disasters and challenged participants to design a temporary, lightweight, strong and easily deployed emergency shelter.  The winning design by Patrick Wharram (US) is a foldable framework of polyester and aluminum, condensed into one unit making it easy to store. 

Stumbling around the internet this morning, I came across an interesting list of creative women. The list was compiled to help conference organizers find female speakers for their events, but it's also just an interesting list to peruse. There are designers, artists, writers, photographers and more.

via Neatorama

The famous cave paintings of Lascaux now have their own website where you can take a virtual tour of the world's first designs.

We've all been in meetings where it seems like some of the people just talk and talk and talk, while others hang back, saving their comments for later. Fast Company has a great story about these two different styles of thinking: some people talk out loud in order to think, whereas other people like to think long and hard before they open their mouths. Find out which style of thinking you favor and learn how to deal with the other.

There's an interesting discussion on the HOW Forum about how to conduct useful student critiques. Design educators, students and former students are welcome to add their insights.

We've been gearing up for the HOW Conference and working on a program for this year's Networking Lunch, so I was excited to see a great post on BoDo about how to explain what you do to people you meet. Apparently, it's all about the benefits. So I guess instead of saying "I'm an editor," I should say "I collect and share information that helps designers do their jobs better." Not bad!

Before you hit the beach for your summer vacation, make sure to check out the new book from photographer Richard Misrach called On the Beach. In this new series of 35 images, Misrach captures the vast scale of the ocean in juxtaposition to the smallness of humans. The images are both gorgeous and humbling. You can see more by visiting the Fraenkel Gallery site and clicking on Artists, then Richarch Misrach.

As we've been wrapping up our August issue, which is all about the future of design, I've naturally had the FUTURE on my mind. So I was drawn to a story in today's Fast Company newsletter called "The Future is a Mixed Bag," all about the upsides and downsides of what's to come. It's certainly worth a read, plus the author looks like a young Bill Murray!

via Oh Joy!

Handmade Nation is a documentary about "the rise if DIY art, craft and design."

While the film is right up my alley, it's also cool because HOW Books just published a book by Josh Chen called Fingerprint that's all about handmade elements in graphic design. You can read an excerpt from it in the February 2007 issue.

Here's an interesting story about the future of magazines from The Taipei Times.

It won't be long before buying a copy of the Economist at your local newsagent could become as niche an activity as buying a vinyl LP. Instead of leisurely flicking through a magazine on the sofa with a cup of tea, you will read it on the Web, download it on to a piece of e-paper or simply publish it yourself.

According to David Renard, author of The Last Magazine, in the next 25 years, only 10 percent of the European and US paper-based magazine industry will remain, kept alive by "connoisseurs, aficionados and ageing Luddites."

The rest of us will embrace the publishing revolution. Instead of nipping to the newsagent, you will download the day's news, sport or business pages from a vending machine and read it on a piece of e-paper. And when you finish, you'll put the e-paper in your briefcase and update the content the next day.

More.

Another entry in the MFA is the MBA of the future category, Ad Age columnist Simon Dumenco ruminates on the power of a good logo:

How much is a good logo worth? Oh, say, $800M
That's what I estimate YouTube's logo is worth -- that's how much value it added to YouTube's $1.65 billion price tag. Without that logo, without that simple, eye-catching brand mark, would YouTube have commanded even, say, $800 million? YouTube cofounder -- and YouTube logo designer -- Chad Hurley is still, when you get right down to it, a designer at heart. He designed (literally) a brand, and the audience followed. He's a (Steve) Jobsian. More and more designers like Hurley -- guys who can literally design brands and launch them virtually in real time -- are going to get obscenely rich over the next few years. Forget technologists. It's designers (those with just enough web literacy) that are really building the new new economy.