The Prepared Mind Discussion about designing human interaction.

This is a topic that was touched on in the Certification thread and it also popped up on some other forums. I thought I’d toss it out there formally.

I just started reading Thomas L. Friedman’s “The World is Flat” — which is excellent so far, BTW — and it raises a lot of interesting issues, to say the least.

The technology field, particularly the software industry, has seen — up close and personal — the effects of globalization as tens of thousands of software jobs have been moved to cheaper labor markets like India over the last 10 years. Few objected during the 90’s, when it appeared that there was something for everyone in the land o’ good ‘n plenty but since the bubble burst, many have noted that the off-shoring of jobs previously held here has sped up. (more…)

I just read a pretty disturbing entry over at Design Observer. It’s entitled “The Designer as Buffoon” and chronicles how in two major advertising campaigns in the UK for IKEA and Ford, designers are being lampooned and portrayed in an unflattering light.

Now I’m all for laughing at ones self and would be the first to admit that we designers do a lot of things that are pretty darn funny. How could someone who depicts the industry in the form of the See-no-evil, Hear-no-evil, Speak-no-evil monkees NOT concede that we can be a humorous bunch?

But I agree with Adrian Shaughnessy, the author of the entry, that the appearance of not one but two major campaigns at the same time are far from accidental and are indicative of a huge perception problem of designers on the part of the public in general and design buyers in particular. It leads one to two inevitable questions, the second more difficult to answer than the first:

1. Why is there such disgust for designers?
2. What role, if any, do WE play in the presence of this disgust? (more…)

In writing the entry calling for the GD industry to stop eating its young, I was reminded of one of my earliest experiences in the industry.

The interview from Hell!

Young, ambitious, head-strong and not just a little cocky, I set out after graduating from University of the Arts in Philadelphia to big bad Gotham City to take the New York City design world by storm.

My first interview was with a designer whom I had read about in Print magazine. Although she wasn’t hiring at the time, she agreed to meet with me, look at my book and give me advice as to how to proceed with finding a job in New York. The plan was to meet with her in the morning, get her sage advice, then have lunch in the city and continue on to an interview with another small design firm that had hired a couple of UArts grads from the class two years ahead of mine.

Of course what I had secretly hoped would happen is that she would meet with me and love my portfolio so much that she would fall all over herself in an attempt to woo me over to her firm. That is, of course, if she could win out in the bidding war that would undoubtably take place, pitting her against a half-dozen award-winning design firms in the city! What actually DID happen is not the stuff of dreams or fantasy. (more…)

Yesterday, over at my site, I posted the following:

I’ve just read the most concise definition of brand over at A Clear Eye. To quote:

A brand is the expectation of someone or something delivering a certain feeling by way of an experience.

– end of original post.

Well, 24 hours have passed, and I’ve had a chance to digest this. I had one of those a ha! moments in the shower, and nearly cut myself shaving. Two separate ideas suddenly clicked, and my understanding of each deepened as a result.

I’m in the process of reading a book called On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins (the fellow who invented the Palm Pilot, amongst many other things). In it, he proposes a new model for understanding how we are smart. In essence, he states that we hold models of experiences in our memory, and that we compare incoming stimuli against those models to determine, well, everything. In turn, each incoming stimulus affects the shape and content of the memory model – it’s a dynamic relationship.

(more…)

I just stumbled onto a GREAT article on the Icograda website written by Geoffrey Roche which was also published in Applied Arts Magaizine.

It’s entitled “The Danger of Hiring Juniors” and it implores design firms and agencies to stop shutting our talented young designers and design graduates OUT of the industry!

How does one get experience if nobody will give them a job?

The greatest paradox in our industry and the most cruel joke in the biz. Kids save their money, their parents mortgage their homes, they take out student loans, attend prestigious design schools for 4 years, finally get their degree and what do we tell them? “You need experience for this entry-level job that pays a little more than a waiter earns!” (more…)

I was on the Graphic Design forum discussing the issue of GD Certification and we were trying to figure out next steps beyond discussion. One of the steps we came up with was an online petition. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, there are 212,000 graphic designers in the United States.

So here is the petition. Please sign it and let your friends know about it as well. Post it to other GD discussion boards and tell your co-workers over the water cooler.

Support our industry’s standards!

.chris{}

We all woke up this morning and saw the news of this while reading our morning coffee. Adobe is buying Macromedia.

The question is, what does this mean to us? The GD Industry is almost totally reliant on products distributed by these two software companies, soon to become one. And what is to happen to programs created by Macromedia that currently compete with similar Adobe products? Buh bye Freehand? Seeya later Fireworks? (more…)

Graphic designer is already a strange term but that’s a topic for another entry. I don’t design graphics. I also don’t design webs either. Maybe “web interactivity designer” or ”interactive communication designer” might more accurately describe what I do on a daily basis but now I’m getting ahead of myself.

Junior Designer. Designer. Senior Designer. Art Director. Senior Art Director. Associate Creative Director. Creative Director.

I’ve held many of these titles at one point in my career. What’s amazing is the level of overlap between them. Now I get that a Senior Designer at a big huge agency could probably be the equivalent of an Art Director with a 3 person firm. But there has to be a little bit more cohesion and clarity in these titles. Aren’t we the folks who try to bring clarity to our clients’ communications? (more…)

As a child I remember waiting for my mother to leave the house and then sneaking into her album collection. One of my favorites was an old Bill Cosby album where he did an hilarious exchange between a wise-cracking Noah and God.

God told Noah to build an Ark and went through pains to give Noah very exact measurements as to the dimensions of the Ark. “I want you to build it 40 cubits by 60 cubits by 80 cubits” said God. “Do you understand this?” God asked, to which Noah replied “Riiiiggghhht! What’s a cubit? Har-har-har-har!” An irritated God replied “NOAH! How long can you tread water?”

Years later, during my first week of sophomore year in college, one of my graphic design instructors tried to explain to us an assignment. He told us the parameters of the project and explained that the exact requirements were that the assignment had to be contained in a square so many picas high and so many picas wide and so many picas from the top, bottom and sides.

“Riiiigggght! What’s a pica?” I cracked, thinking surely my instructor would catch my Cosby allusion and see the humor in the situation. He didn’t. (more…)

Growing up, I was constantly scolded by my mother for sitting too close to the television set. I’m sure we were all told the same thing sometime during our young lives. “It will ruin your eyes,” she would yell at me from the other room. Today, as I type this, I sit with a 20-inch monitor positioned less than a foot from my face. It is a key component of the primary tool used by today’s commercial artists and it allows me the opportunity to be both creative and put food on the table each day. My monitor is basically as big as the TV set I used to watch. Only now Mom’s proud. She doesn’t yell anymore. Her son makes ads and designs things and is getting paid well for it. However this was never my intention. I never believed that I would be sitting so close to a radiation-spewing box anytime in my career. I’m sure in the back of my mind that mom was right and man, do I have a love/hate relationship with the beast in front of me.

Why? Because after 4 years of art school studying typography, colour, life-drawing, layout and the like to get into this industry, what do I do everyday? I punch keys. Now don’t get me wrong, I still love what I do and wouldn’t change my choice of career for the world but the computer is definitely not my first choice of tools. (more…)

Recently there was a discussion in the forum from which Creative Latitude was born, the About.com Graphic Design forum, with regard to whether it is better to do for a living what one loves or do what makes for a more practical career. It’s really the classic conundrum. Should one choose a career for love or money? Go with one’s head or go with one’s heart?

Something to fall back on?

Graphic designers, and other arts professionals, are faced with this riddle as soon as they enter high school. While their artistic talents may be encouraged and lauded while they are children, by the time college is on the distant horizon they are encouraged – sometimes bullied – to choose a more conventional path in life or at least have something to “fall back on”. So it should be no surprise that many of us struggle with this decision into adulthood. Do what pays well and maybe you’ll have an easier life financially. Do what you love and maybe you’ll actually look forward to waking up Monday through Friday. (more…)

It shouldn’t come as any surprise to us but a study by the British Design Council has concluded that “the more businesses use design, the more successful they’re likely to be.”

The Design Council’s study, which feautred 1,500 interviews with chief executives and heads of design, was a national study of how businesses benefit from the use of design.

• Design in Britain reveals a link between the use of design and getting new ideas to the market. Nearly seven out of ten companies who see design as integral have launched a new product or service in the last three years, compared to only 32 per cent of companies overall and just 3 per cent of companies where design plays no role at all.
• While only 30% of UK businesses are investing in design, the research suggests they are getting good value for money. On average, they expected a 50 per cent return on their most successful project, but they actually got a return of more than 75 per cent.
• 11% of companies would be more likely to use designers if they were professionally accredited

Interesting stuff! I encourage all of you to download the PowerPoint document.

.chris{}

Some time ago, I started to write a series called Does Blog Design Matter?. I made it through the first 3 of 4 parts, then the wind dropped out of my sails. Why? It was depressing.

I was making all kinds of arguments for design, saying things like “while this site is high ranking now, it won’t be in the future unless it improves its design”. In reviewing the top 10 blogs, I made this argument 6 times. Well that’s all fine and good, but it leaves the distinct impression that blog design doesn’t matter. At least not now.

As a designer and passionate believer in power of blogs to help businesses, I find this disappointing. (more…)

Every graphic designer has to, at one time or another, have wondered how to perform the simple every day tasks that are necessary in any business. How do I market my design services? Where do I find an independent contractor agreement? Where do I find a graphic designer’s copyright agreement and what should a good one look like? What kind of staff does a design consultancy require?

At many points I’m sure we all have wondered “wouldn’t it be great if someone wrote a handbook on how to be a professional graphic designer?” Well guess what? Someone DID!

The Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario are now on their second edition of their handbook “The Business of Graphic Design: A Professional’s Handbook.” (more…)

Uh oh! The monkeys had better cover their eyes and ears now! Yesterday I posted an entry where I referenced information chronicling the state of the GD Industry in the UK. At that time, I wondered where such an analysis of the GD Industry in the U.S. was. Well I’ve found a study that was released late in 2004 by Strategies for Management, Inc. that profiles the U.S. GD Industry. Here are some snippets from the report but you can feel free to download the entire report for $2,875 from the Yahoo.com store.

Some of the report’s findings, based on historical and forecasted data include (all figures in 2004 US dollars):

– Total industry revenues for both graphic-design businesses and freelancers in 2004 is estimated at over $11 billion, which is expected to top $13 billion by 2009

– Individual design establishments are expected to generate average revenues of $491,000 in 2004, and over $550,000 in 2009

– Industry-wide equipment purchasing by design firms and freelancers is expected to grow from $211 million in 2004 to $250 million in 2009

– Graphic design firms currently employ about 60,000 people, a level that is expected to reach nearly 68,000 employees by 2009

– Nearly 75% of design businesses employ 1 to 4 people, and almost 90% have less than 10 employees

– The 50 largest firms comprise less than 1% of the number of establishments, but account for over 16% ($1.3 billion) of the industry’s total billings

– 15% of the industry’s graphic design firms are newly created each year

– Freelancer gross revenues is expected to increase from over $3.4 billion in 2004 to over $3.8 billion in 2009

– The industry currently has over 74,000 graphic-design freelancers, and this is expected to grow to well over 86,000 by the end of the decade

(more…)