Illustration by Von Glitschka

History itself is replete with examples of human ingenuity showcasing it’s creativity when faced with restrictive resources. So much so that a popular saying has survived a millennium and is still in use today to describe such situations. You have probably heard it.

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

When I first started out in this industry I thought the most creative assignment you could possibly have is one that had a huge budget affording you to do anything you wanted. You know, the sky’s the limit and all that. Unfortunately that didn’t prove itself to be true. (more…)

Steven Heller and David Womack (more or less)

Steven Heller and David Womack are two of the most important and knowledgeable writers, thinkers and talkers on design today. They recently collaborated on the book “Becoming a Digital Designer: A Guide to Careers in Web, Video, Broadcast, Game and Animation Design”, which offer an insightful overview of the contemporary digital design industry, as well as interviews with top designers. We thought it would be interesting to get their take on the good, the bad and the ugly in digital design today. So we gathered one afternoon in Steven’s office, as they unleashed their opinions and expertise (along with some friendly banter). (more…)

Brockett’s first interview suit, worn with the sales tag tucked in the pocket.

Inspired by Chris Costello’s post.
I’m uncertain if sharing my career pitfalls with intimidating, unidentifiable readers is threatening or liberating (in the same way that launching my thesis document from the 9th floor of the design building was thrilling). But Chris, you’ve inspired me, so here goes:

Yearn to kern:
During the first day at a dream job, the creative manager introduced me to team members as Miss Home (rather than Miss Horne). The kerning on my resume was so poor that the “r” and the “n” fused together, generating for me a new last name. It was an embarrassing error to correct, for both of us.
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By Kate Andrews

Over the past week, I had the pleasure of meeting the multi-talented Graphic Designer Alex Ostrowski. Alex, a 2008 UK Graphic Design graduate from Bristol’s University of West England, recently won the RSA Design Directions and NESTA’s competition ‘Engage!’.

Tagged to “catalyse social change through design-led citizen participation”, the Engage! project, aimed to encourage social responsibility in young designers. The 2008 RSA Design Directions brief asked student designers to consider how they could best use design to bring about positive change within a community and instigate a project solution of this nature. (more…)

By Brockett Horne

New graphics at the airport made my recent trip through security much more pleasant. Good design makes all the difference!

At Baltimore International airport, gorgeous graphics and cool colors brought down my blood pressure before entering the checkpoint at Gate B. An attractive holographic display of x-ray goods marked the threshold into the checkpoint (pictured). I zoomed past illuminated graphics with clear, well-considered typography because the line was moving quickly. An “organization” counter complete with recycle bins helps travelers with lots to manage, and posters were displayed along the walkway with portraits and profiles of the security guards. The walk through security was efficient, organized, trustworthy and friendly. (more…)

By Eric Benson

Part III: Sustainable printing and the graphic designer

“The single most important problem is our misguided focus on identifying the single most important problem.” – Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography at UCLA. (From the book “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed.” Penguin Books. 2005.)

It is fairly simple to call a few printers in your local area and find one that gives you the best price on paper and printing and also meets your busy schedule. It’s a job well done as soon as you drop off your CD packed full of files at your chosen printer and take a breather before starting your next big design job. But what if price and deadlines weren’t the only variables that led a designer to choose a printer? What if we paid more attention to the printer’s business practices? Could this improve our overall quality of life? In general, when we design something the idea is to make things better. Whether we are improving the economy (through advertising and sales) or making things easier and simpler to accomplish (via products or better designed instructions/communications), the design intention is to create a catalyst in our society for positive economic growth or social change. (more…)

Want to get a glimpse of what’s going on inside the heads of some of today’s most interesting designers? The exciting new online video series Designing Minds lets you do just that. In three just-long-enough installments, the videos deftly mixes interviews with shots of past and present works and voice-overs. First out is the prolific graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister who shares the story of his life and work with typical humor and candor in his inimitable German accent. The first two episodes are already online, with the third and final chapter going up next week. See Stefan discuss his early years in Austria, his move to NYC, the beginning of Sagmeister Inc. and how he was able to combine his two passions: design and music.

Zoom In is planning to do more videos with other designers that will be posted throughout the year. Next up will be rising graphic design star Julia Hoffmann, with world renowned industrial designer Yves Béhar following later in the summer. For fall we can look forward to Vivian Rosenthal of the multidisciplinary studio Tronic and towards the end of this year photographer Ben Watts will get ready for his close-up.

By Brockett Horne

Design Goes All Conceptual

Beau Bergeron’s video (link via swissmiss)

I used to describe the objects I make as a graphic designer as “artifacts.” I really enjoyed the sound of it: verified and notarized with the word “fact” wedged right in there. And of course, it had connotations of being museum-worthy, since all museums are full of artifacts. In fact, I imagine the graphic design canon (of paper objects, mostly) displayed in well-lit gallery vitrines with labels underneath, for all to behold. But I believe the reason I most identified with the word “artifact” was because design both responds to and changes culture. And I still believe that. Firmly. (more…)

By Mike Weikert

Sipping coffee in the Birmingham Airport, I reflect on the past thirty-six hours in Alabama and my third time as an advisor to Project M. For those not familiar, Project M is an initiative founded by John Bielenberg whose purpose is to “inspire graphic designers, writers, photographers and other creative people that their work can have a positive and significant impact on the world.” Project M 2006 was in Baltimore, Maryland working with the community of East Baltimore, and 2007 in Hale County, Alabama working with the residents of Greensboro. (more…)

Image from Trollbäck designer Paul Schlacter’s short film.

When I was in second grade, my teacher once asked the class what our favorite activities were. Most of us came up with typical 8-year-old answers like playing, drawing or eating ice cream, but my best friend Ulle replied “sleeping”. I remember being completely befuddled by this. Sleeping was a state of nothing. How could that be her favorite thing to do? Now I realize that Ulle was just ahead of her time. With every passing year, I treasure sleep more and more. Now it is without question my favorite thing to do. And, to my great dismay, it also seems to be something I do less and less.
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