Typeradio | James Bull
James Bull, together with two friends from college, is founder of Moving Brands, which is a branding and digital agency with offices in London, Tokyo, Zurich and San Francisco.
Designers don’t know better. James Bull said, because we are so caught up in design, sometimes we do not know what is better and the none designer does because they react to the things that we don’t. Sometimes they know better simply because they know what communicates easily to them and what makes them feel a certain way.
I liked this statement because I feel like this happens to me. Sometimes I get caught up in how something should be according to what I know as a designer as well has how things have already been done successfully. I often forget to make sure the design communicates well and create something that actually works, then I have to go back and re-evaluate half way through a project. I think we can sit around all day and try to create things according to rules and guidelines, but things really happen when we experiment and work to create something that actually sparks a certain reaction. I know personally I struggle with this, especially as a student when there are so many requirements and grades involved. It makes one hesitant to step too far outside the lines. I need to remember that I don’t know what’s better any more than the next person, but I have the skills to experiment and figure it out.
TED Talks | Marian Bantjes
A couple weeks ago I posted some comments about a Typeradio conversation with Marian Bantjes. I had also looked at her portfolio briefly and then her name came up at the SEEK conference as someone who is a source of inspiration. I decided to see what else was out there in terms of lectures given by her and I found a TED talks lecture.
In this lecture Marian talked about her shift from a graphic designer to a graphic artist. She said her goal now is to create things that inspire and delight people, and that she enjoys adding her personality to the things she creates. As designers we are taught to separate ourselves from our work somewhat. Marian has taken an opposite approach in that she makes everything personal and is then able to make more inspirational work.
She said that just as her inspiration comes from books, magazines and conversations around her, designers have the opportunity to be other people’s inspiration, and that “truly imaginative visual work is extremely important to society.” “You never know who will take something from what you created.” I think this is an excellent thing for designers to remember. It is easier to create good work when you know you are creating to make someone else happy or inspired.
Marian also said “we tend to undervalue what we can’t measure”. This made sense to me as an explanation for why people do not always appreciate or understand what graphic design is. It’s difficult to put a number or measurable value on delight and inspiration and as a result many don’t understand what graphic design does for our world. However design is everywhere and does have a huge effect on all people everyday, even if they do not realize it. I think designers always need to remember this, and not fall prey to the feeling that what we do isn’t as important as the things others do.
I enjoy listening to Marian Bantjes and I admire her way of thinking as well as her detailed and very personal work. I consider her a source of inspiration for my work and myself.
AIGA Chicago Trip 2011 | Steve Liska
This past weekend I was in Chicago, visiting Liska and Associates, attending the SEEK conference and soaking up tons of design inspiration. There were so many amazing speakers at SEEK. It was great to hear them talk about and reinforce everything that I have been learning these past four years. As students I think we sometimes forget that our teachers do know what they are talking about so it’s always good to hear an outsider say all the same things, and bring us back to the truth.
While visiting Liska and Associates we got the whole truth and nothing but he truth from Steve Liska. He said, “I look for people who are smart and can explain to me why they solved a problem the way they did; if you can explain why you did something your already ahead. I might not agree with you but you thought about.” This really helped me to realize how important purpose is to design, and in the coming months as I design for my portfolio I can guarantee I will constantly be thinking at least two things, “Why did I do it like this?” “What’s the purpose for that?”
Steve Liska also said another thing, which was taken with mixed feelings. He said, “Go somewhere that is big and scary and work it out.” The best way to get started is with a go big or go home attitude is basically how I interpreted this message. He said it’s easy to go back to a small studio if that’s what you want, but much harder to move up.” I have to say this was a little hard to hear, because the thought of leaving everyone and everything that is safe and comfortable is something that most people would rather not think about. However I completely agree with him that most likely it will end up being a rewarding experience, because usually the things that are most difficult and terrifying to us, are in fact the things that make us feel the best about ourselves in the end. This was a great discussion with Steve Liska, one in which I felt as though he was genuinely interested in sharing the truth with us to help us all succeed.
So one thing I learned this weekend: aim High and move to a big scary place.
Typeradio: Marian Bantjes
In this typeradio discussion Marian Bantjes starts out by answering the religion question and them moves on to discuss her work flow, her education and her type oriented career.
During her discussion, she talked about how her days have no structure to them, no rituals and overall she says she works when she wants and doesn’t work when she doesn’t want to. This sparked a thought about my work habits.
I like the lifestyle she describes, where she does not have the same schedule or pattern of events each day. She says she works based on deadlines mostly and has the flexibility to work on multiple projects, but also to stop and visit if someone stops by or answer the phone when a friend calls. I asked myself though, could I work like that and get anything done? My life right now is quite structured, a large part of my days are planned out structured and the same everyday. There are times that are set aside for specific things and many many deadlines. I came to the conclusion that I work better with structure and especially deadlines. I only hope that when I get into the real world to work as a designer I am able to have a balance between a structured career life and a relaxed family and friend based life.
My ultimate hope is that I can find a job where I can be structured and organized and get good work done, and then because of that structure be able step away from work and have a family too, and also time to do personal design work for fun. I have recently experienced a week where the days ran together because of a lack of structure and planning to reach a deadline. Instead the deadline quickly approached and the design work needed to be done no matter what. It was exhausting mentally and emotionally to put myself in that position. I know that in order for me to do good work and have a sense of reward from my design work, there is going to have to be structure, balance and somewhat of a separation between work and life. I do not want to ever again have to tell someone that I do not have time to have a conversation with them because I have too much work to do, ignoring friends and pulling an all night work session is no way to accomplish good work, and it is not a healthy balance. I know that this balance is attainable and necessary, and can only be reached with better time management. I am going to work on this and sorry Marian, but for now structure is the answer.
Thursday’s Advice
Wow, this week was filled with a lot of advice and inspiration from people in various areas of creative work; type designers, environmental graphics designers and a designer who has done a little of everything. They all had great things to say about what they do and perhaps hearing why they do it was what left an impression.
Mike Morris was Thursday’s speaker. He is from Creative Displays and Marketing and he works with environmental graphics for various customers and designers in west Michigan and across the U.S. In my opinion environmental graphics seems like a very exciting area of design as you are creating things that are on a much larger scale than usual, and things that are able to create an experience. The most inspirational part of Mike’s visit was seeing his passion and excitement for what he does.
Mike described how much fun he had talking with his customers and figuring out how he could make what they want happen. He said things work out the best when they come to him early with any and all of their ideas for a particular project. This is why Mike is so good at what he does, because he loves it. It is a very obvious thing to figure out, yet each time I get to see a designer or creative person who proves this fact it inspires me to find my area in design where I will do good work because I enjoy it.
I chose this profession for the same reason many other designers have, because I like to make things and I like to make people happy and help them out with my creative abilities, whether it’s making them personal things or helping them out with the design of something because they don’t have the time or skills to do it for themselves. My only hope is that I can find my niche in the market where I can do my best work and make people happy.
Another thing Mike talked about was never being afraid to put an idea out there and have confidence in that idea. This is also an obvious concept, yet one that is sometimes hard to grasp. I know that I have talked previously about working on that confidence factor and really throwing more ideas out there. Hearing how Mike talked about it was helpful. I was able to distill the whole thing down for myself into this: It’s worth the risk of a few bad ideas to gain the reward of finding that really good idea, and it’s easier to fix a bad idea than to not have an idea to work with.
Typeradio: Chester from Village
Chester is from Village he is a type designer and typeradio interviewed him asking many of the same questions that ask everyone else. However this time when Chester was asked the question, “do you have rituals?” he commented on the question being new and he had an interesting answer to the question.
Chester’s answer to “Do you have rituals?” was: Not that I notice or would admit to, but I do always put my left sock on before my right sock and my left shoe before my right shoe. It’s not that it’s a superstition I just do it that way and I feel strange if I don’t. He also said I think as a designers it’s normal to have certain obsessive-compulsive actions and this is mine.
I thought to myself while listening to this that he is right. I know I have certain things I do the same way every time even though it doesn’t really matter how it’s done or what order it’s done in, but it’s like Chester said, it just feels strange if it’s not done that way. I think it actually lends to the designers role because we have to focus on detail and how things are executed, not just getting things done. Therefore it is natural for designers to have obsessive-compulsive tendencies and this is also most likely where the stereotype of the eccentric designer comes from too. I think rather then labeling ourselves as obsessive-compulsive it’s just an eye for detail and emphasis on process along with results.
Typeradio: Mario Feliciano
30 questions and answers from Mario Feliciano including questions about life, work and design.
I recently listened to a typeradio conversation with Mario Feliciano. The conversation was conducted through a series of 30 questions. In the course of answering these 30 questions Mario discussed so many topics and ideas about life and design. A few particular answers stuck out to me including, how do you feel about competition? Who do you trust? and How many people have the key to your house?
Q: How do you feel about competition?
Mario: I don’t like competition; I am not competitive and I feel like even though it’s a part of human nature it’s unhealthy. There should be no competition only cooperation.
Me: This comment surprised me. Since the design world is so competitive I would expect a designer to admit to some level of competitiveness. Then I asked myself the same question; the answer was no and I sort of liked Mario’s response.
It brought me to thoughts of ongoing group work; and the overwhelming need for cooperation rather than competition and opposition. The ability to work as one and create a powerful design rather than 3 or 4 less powerful designs is the goal of group work and sometimes one of the more difficult tasks to learn. I like the idea of always aiming for cooperation.
Q: Who do you trust?
Mario: My Parents. You. Everyone. In fact I generally trust anyone until there comes a reason not to trust.
Me: This is how I think too; and I think this is especially helpful when working in a group. Trusting someone seems like a really great way to boost someone’s confidence, thus giving them the chance to do great work; and the number of times this plan succeeds, far out-weighs the times it fails.
Q: How many people have the key to your house?
Mario: Three. (Which apparently exceeds the national average of 2.2)
Me: I just thought this question was enjoyably random; but then it also makes you think, who in your life will have the key to your house and does this apply to your design career? In other words, who will be in the inner circle, who can you share design with, collaborate with, work with and trust? It made me realize yet again, that I would like to work with the kind of people who I would give my house key to; and I feel like if you can create a good, dependable connection with people then you can create good work. After all, if you look at all of the great things ever created, they were never built by one person and most likely, not by people who couldn’t collaborate with each other and trust each other.
Typeradio: Autobahn
A design collective of three guys in Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Jeroen Breen, Rob Stolte and Maarten Dullenmeijer focus on experimental typography, most often for the sake of experimentation and discovery rather than a purpose. They set out in their type ventures to have fun and discover knew ideas and design possibilities through happy accidents. They even said, the worst thing you can do when begining an experimental type project is to ask the question, “what will this be used for, who is looking for something like this.” They said just make things and figure out if it is useful for something later.
I think this is great advice for design students especially, but also creative people in general. It is so easy to get caught up in creating to fulfill requirements or always wondering who is going to like this or want this. The fact is there will always be someone who will like something and someone who won’t and if you focus on creating for those who like, forgetting to experiment and play, you could miss out on a great idea. As a designer I know that often it’s the happy accidents that turn out the best and the guys at Autobahn mentioned that as well; that happy accidents do exist and are often worth as much as the planned things. Personally I can say that sometimes more things result from random creativeness than do the planned out ideas. I often tell myself, especially when creating things by hand, “just try it.”
Another thing Autobahn talked about was their close knit design team. They are very small; three guys, who work in a very small space and do not assign roles. They said they all do everything from design to office work to getting clients coffee. When they sign things they write Autobahn rather than their individual names and they described their work space as “so close our talents often leak to the other person anyway, so there is no need for specialization of skills”. To me this would be the ideal situation; to work where everyone does a little of everything and work and talents are shared. I would say a small close knit firm would be my ideal situation as well.
#7 The only rule is work.
John cage offers 10 rules and hints for students and teachers. It’s amazing how helpful and relevant these are to my day-to-day life. They seem like excellent rules to live by. I especially made a connection to rule number seven:
The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something.
Yes, this seems like a simple concept, but in practice, especially as a designer, it is sometimes a difficult rule to remember.
All too often I find myself struggling to get a start on a project. There seems to be ideas and thoughts going through my head, but how should I get them out? How can I sketch this out? Will this make sense to someone else? What’s the concept? Is this a “good idea” that should be written down? These are all questions I ask myself upon beginning a project; while also knowing that it’s only the beginning; WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN!
So how can I get past this? I like John Cage’s rule because it will remind me to just start; just write anything down that comes to mind and not worry about what will come next, or how someone will react or interpret. I tend to think too much about a project rather than sketch and the result is lost thoughts and ideas and I think a delayed process too. It only makes sense that you will have work to show and discuss if you write it down. People cannot read minds or discuss the thought process you had in your head if you do not document it.
I think this rule pairs nicely with number 8:
Do no try to create and analyze at the same time. They are different processes.
Personally I can say that this happens to me frequently, and it goes back to just quickly getting things on paper and not trying to analyze or explain. I think learning to separate these to task will be so helpful in producing a larger volume of ideas and visuals to work with; rather than only writing down the solid thoughts.
I know I have been taught to work this way in the past, now it’s time to actually work this way, which adds to my list of goals for the year: write everything down and work, work, work.
Carter + Wheeler
Rob Carter and Sandy Wheeler visited Michigan for a weekend at FSU and Kendall. Our discussions with them were great; very inspiring and comforting to hear especially as we get closer to graduation and entering the design community. They had a lot of helpful hints and also told us that from their perspective our program is preparing well in terms of a business oriented design career.
Rob and Sandy are both professors and I have to say, I would love the opportunity to take a class with them. They made our discussion with them so relaxed and comfortable. I also enjoyed hearing about their design philosophies and teaching methods from the fine art side of things. While I greatly appreciate how I am being prepared for the business aspect of design, I think a class or two that just focuses on creating and worrying less about the business of creating, could be a breath of fresh air. Rob and Sandy said that many of their students also minor in business, and that they do see their students being less prepared for a business environment. I don’t think I would rather be in a liberal arts design school and I am thankful for what I am getting, but the experience of that kind of education I think would be enjoyable.
Sandy had mentioned how design is rule, and goal and deadline oriented and how fine art is do whatever, whenever and she has both experiences in her life. She mentioned how she could imagine that a lot of us missed using our hands to make things because today we are so immersed in computer designs. I definitely agreed with that statement. Then later when they were showing us their work and explaining briefly some of the manual processes they used to create things, I found myself completely unable to imagine what that must have been like. I thought about it more and decided that’s another experience I think it would be interesting to have. Learning the manual techniques would be much more hands on and probably makes us appreciate what we have to work with now a lot more. I think it’s so important for us to really remember that the computer is just a tool, and we would see that more clearly if we had to design more things by hand.
Personally I find myself missing creating things by hand just because I can. I find it difficult to make something if I can’t explain why I did it or if it really serves no purpose. I feel like that part of my creativity has been stifled a little because we have to focus on purpose and function. I get really excited and find it the easiest to spend hours on detail and craft when I get the chance to cut and glue and make a tangible item. I like the kind of design that requires a large pile of tools and paper and ends up spread half way across your living room floor. One of my goals when I get done with my education is to regain that part of my creativity, and I would love nothing more than to find just the right job where I can do this kind of design as well. Thank you Rob Carter and Sandy Wheeler for inspiring this thought and giving me another clue as to where I would like to be when I graduate.
