WISECRACKS

Communication: Obviously, It’s Not So Obvious

Written on Tuesday,
May 17th, 2011
at 06:10PM

It seems pretty obvious that people communicate in a way that they understand, but what isn’t obvious is that our communication isn’t interpreted the same from one person to the next. We all apply words in different ways based on context. Words like strong, bold, expressive, bright or elegant, while descriptive, are utterly meaningless without context. Communication brings context to words that otherwise are open to interpretation. Your duty as a designer is to eliminate any possibility of misinterpretation by exhausting all manner of definitions for any given word or phrase. It seems daunting (and yeah, it really is), but the quickest way for a project to fail is to assume that our words mean what they imply. Don’t take for granted that something that seems obvious, is actually obvious. Perhaps the word “bright” means color, but bright may also mean sunshine, light, glowing, full of life or effervescent. If bright is about color, than what colors are bright? Yellow, sky blue, red? One word contains hundreds of pathways to visual and verbal solutions. Without clearly pinpointing the intention of a word, you can never successfully create a solution. Instead of blindly walking without a map get the directions you’ll need to find the intended destination of your design. Every person comes from a certain preconceived set of verbal vernacular–usually a vernacular that applies to their specific industry or even personal perception. This verbal palette, while understandable to those inside the group, is meaningless to an outsider. Within any corporate … Continue reading →

The Fight For Worthy Ideas

Written on Tuesday,
May 10th, 2011
at 06:15PM

Your research is done. You have all the keywords, all the content and criteria. You’ve sketched and browsed, you’ve poured through magazines and books and scrapped dozens of ideas, but finally you feel you have some solid concepts and it’s time to show them to your client (or art director). You confidently present your idea which you feel fully communicates the message with originality, creativity and impact. There’s a long silence. Some head nods. A few notes scribbled into a notebook. Then you get the feedback that every designer dreads, the not-really-feedback feedback: “I don’t like this. Can we start over and see something that we’re used to, like this (shows you WordPress blog theme).” “Hmmmm, that’s not at all what I had envisioned in my mind. I don’t know what I was thinking about specifically, but that certainly isn’t it.” “It doesn’t speak to me. I don’t feel it. Could you just use this design (shows you CNN)?” “It’s missing something, I don’t know what, but why don’t you keep trying. I’ll know it when I see it.” “Can we make it more grungy looking, you know what MTV would do, or what (fill the in the blank of the corporation you’re attempting to mimic) does.” (Cue the sad Charlie Brown theme) As you shuffle back to your desk. Dejected, confused and angry; but mostly confused. All ideas — whether they’re new, uncommon and unexpected, or simple, obvious and clichéd — will encounter some sort of resistance and questioning. … Continue reading →

The Art of The Critique

Written on Thursday,
April 21st, 2011
at 12:05AM

Any good designer will tell you that their designs have no personal attachment to them. This may be partially true (though honestly, it’s a complete lie — the act of creating is always personal, at the start; it takes a concerted effort to strip-away any fingerprint, and at that, there will always be a bit of ourselves in anything we do). All designers infuse their personality in all their work (unless it happens to not be their work; but that’s an entirely different matter). When working in a studio or multi-designer environment the work that you poured your thoughts, time and (sometimes) heart into can come under attack in The Critique, and that because many (of us) designers have no idea how to critique, the process can be horrific. Why Critique? I would hope that it’s obvious why the practice of critiquing is important to the design process, but perhaps it’s not. In an ever growing market of “companies of one” (of which I was once a part for a long long time — I also will not use that vulgar “f” word) and people entering the field without formal training, I feel there needs to be a reminder of not only how to critique, but why to critique. Critiquing isn’t an opportunity for you to tell someone how you would design something — that’s like telling someone the issues you have with their height — but an opportunity to explore alternate ways to come to a solution. The goal of … Continue reading →

The Formulation Of Non-Visual Ideas (Or How To Justify Your Decisions)

Written on Wednesday,
April 13th, 2011
at 01:40PM

In order for any design project to come to a successful solution, there needs to be an understanding of your decision making process — before anything visual is executed. The process involves both the designer and the client — a dance that determines needs, wants, unspoken preferences to formulate solutions. It seems like a lot of work, because it is a lot of work. While design is perceived to be merely a garnish, it is more precisely a logical series of subtractive layers in a hugely expansive conceptual lasagna. For a design to succeed, a designer must know how to justify their choices non-visually, rather than relying on the results themselves. There are (at least) four core groups that collectively formulate a foundation by which you develop visual solutions: 1) criteria, 2) mission, 3) audience and 4) history. The Criteria The most obvious place to start is the criteria. Sadly, it’s the place most designers stop. While the criteria encompasses a large amount of the logic put into your concepts, it’s only a part of what can help support your visual solutions. The criteria are the parameters of the project (a logo design, a brand upgrade, a website revamp, a multi-platform marketing campaign, etc) provided by the client. Among the parameters should come likes and dislikes (where the client provides websites, print pieces, commercials, any visuals they like which help to determine their desires for content, structure, functionality and visual preferences), keywords (where the client provides a list of words related to the product or service … Continue reading →

You Never Work Alone

Written on Sunday,
April 10th, 2011
at 05:19PM

So you have all the tools necessary to be an effective, even good, designer (aside from the basic skills like being creative, knowing what kerning and baseline and rivers and grids and balance and who’s Massimo Vignelli) — you’re confident (but not too confident because no one likes working with an arrogant jerk), determined, communicate clearly and have healthy boundaries. But you forgot one very important thing. Perhaps the most important tool of all: Teamwork. Maybe you’re the only one in your “department” or maybe you’re a “freelancer” (and let’s not go into how much I despise that term, aside from the implication that you’re either unable to work for someone or that you’re young, unskilled and will work for free drinks at TGI Fridays), but regardless of the situation you’re in, there are more hands at work in communicating your design ideas and concepts than just you. In many ways your job is to communicate the vision of your client (or your bosses interpretation of what your client wants — but let’s not get into that either). Communicating that message is a team effort, and thus you have to use all your tools to work together as a team. The amount of work you do with others (in a team) varies greatly from studio to studio (office to office, company to company, firm to firm, organization to organization, van to van, you get the picture), but you never work alone. Teamwork doesn’t mean just doing what someone tells you … Continue reading →