I confess: I don’t normally have time to read design magazines. Maybe I should do so more often, because in the July 2005 issue of Graphic Design USA, my letter to the editor talking about BLANK is printed on page 16. A very pleasant surprise. I hope this will encourage those contributing to B L A N K that folks are listening and give us the courage to explore design’s heart and soul....... Keep reading

After spending 14 years in the federal government (the Department of Defense to be exact), I’ve suffered through thousands of poorly designed Power Point presentations (several of them my own). Many of you may remember when Power Point became the ubiquitous presentation software of choice for anyone trying to sell anything to anyone. We’ve all endured spinning thingies, flashing text, blinding color schemes and obnoxious sound effects. And to what end? Often the presentation fails to communicate due to poor design, and we find ourselves in a room full of sleepy heads going up and down like oil pumps on the Texas plains. I wondered if anyone would ever figure out how to present information that was visually precise and helped the boss/client/whomever make an informed decision. Then I stumbled across Xplane, “an information design firm that develops visual maps and stories to make complex business issues easier to understand.”

Xplane shows the power of design to communicate complex issues visually. They take hordes of ugly Power Point slides and background papers and transform the information into a visual story that gets the point across in half the time with twice the power. Check out the before and after shots. Stunning. And who said illustration is dead?

I love what they do. Why? This type of ...... Keep reading

Last week, in a galaxy far, far away, I went over to the dark side of design. You know the dark side…where design is driven by clients who need it fast and cheap. Where multitudes of designer droids bid for projects they have no passion for or interest in other than to churn out the next money making hipster logo in less than an hour. Where the connection between heart and design has grown cold. I took a walk on this side of design, and made some startling discoveries.

First, let me tell you why I did it, especially after writing so much about the evils of the dark side. I was fed up. Tired of clients who don’t appreciate what I do. Disgusted with the paltry sum designers are paid for hours of heart wrenching work. I just wanted to give people what they are clamoring for—meaningless design. Fluff as my friend Paul calls it.

What I did was bid on logo and identity system design projects through an online service. These services are not bad, but you do feel like you’re in a lowest-bidder-wins meat market. Potential clients post a project request for a logo, brochure or whatever. Designers duel with each other to provide the fastest, cheapest design to the client. So, I spent about an hour or two per bid developing a logo or set of logo concepts based on the name of the client’s company. Sometimes it was obvious what the company did (like Betty̵...... Keep reading

You know the drill. Two weeks before opening, a friend starting a new restaurant comes to you in a panic. He needs a logo. Fast and cheap. What do you do? How do you respond? Or maybe you’re more familiar with the start-up that wants a complete identity for their business…”make it chic”; “make us look modern but with a nod to the traditional”. Or possibly the client who already has the design “in their mind” and needs a “professional” to make it reality. Or try some of these actual client requests on for size:

“I would like the design to be simple, yet refined (don’t want to have to pay a lot each time for reproducing). This logo will reflect our passion for the business, and our willingness to provide excellent customer service, and our team spirit.”

“We are looking for a designer to create our company logo for X Consulting. How quickly can you deliver?”

“Looking for nice logo design. Have design in mind. Should be easy.”

“We are not looking for logos that are just font styles we actually want a logo, a picture or sketch design preferably with a door or something that would just be distinctive even something to incorporate our name, a mock sketch or quick rough sample designs would be appreciated and would help narrow down the people that are going in the direction that we are interested in. Total freedom on this project i...... Keep reading