Logo Trends

There's a wonderful article over at LogoLounge on trends in logo design. They've catagorized (entirely subjectively) a group of recent logos. It's really quite amazing how so called "original" design can be so similar and derivative of work that others are doing.

http://www.logolounge.com/articles/default.asp?Archive=True&ArticleID=607

Fear and Development

I've been thinking a lot recently, about fear. The kind of fear that prevents me from doing things that are beneficial to me. I guess I'd call it self-defeating fear.

When I was a student, the thought of approaching a professional designer, and asking them to review my work was terrifying. In fact, the thought of working as a designer scared the crap out of me. At one point, the fear of what my crazy brain thought the future might be like was so overwhelming, that I considered abandoning my design studies. It wasn't until a very emotional long-distance call with my mom, that I realized how much I love design. I was eventually able to focus on studying design, rather than the uncertain future of practicing design.

On a daily basis, I recognize this exact brand of thinking in design students. When an opportunity to network with other students is presented, a large majority of students chose, for one reason or another, not to participate. When an chance to be inspired by a legendary designer is brought to campus, most find something else more pressing.

This sense of not taking risks can be incredibly problematic in young professionals.

In my capacity as VP, Education for AIGA, The Professional Association for Design, I see a wide variety of students in all the Los Angeles design programs. It seems that this low self-esteem is not limited to CSULA students.

In my teaching practice, I encourage students to, "Find your passion for design. You should push yourself to go beyond your comfort zone, and expand your horizon. You will be amazed at what you can accomplish, if you allow yourself to trust the design process, and work well."

In order to "go beyond your comfort zone", students must take action that makes them akward, and uncomfortable. Putting oneself out in the world, and exposing oneself to situations and people that you would not normally, makes one a more well-rounded person. People who practice, putting themselves out there in the world, become practiced at this. It may never be natural, but it becomes much more familiar, and easier to do.

Identifying this self-defeating thinking, and taking action contrary to it, will be a beneficial experience for all young designers.

Adobe TV

Okay, so this email came from Adobe today. Adobe is a master of niche marketing. They have a great knack for getting me just the things I need and want, even though I didn't know that I needed and wanted them. Adobe TV is a very cool feature. Its an archive of materials targeted to Designers (as well as Photographers, Video Folks, Developers and Programmers).

I hope that they continue to develop and expand this service.

Below is an example of one of the "shows", that walks the viewer through Dreamweaver CS3. I think it's great.

Iterative Process

The diagram above is an illustration from a rant about design being an iterative process. After developing a series of sketches (A, B, C) a selection process occurs. One sketch (B) is selected for further development. The next iteration of the process occurs, as further sketches are developed (B1, B2, B3). From this iteration, or "round", another refinement is selected (B3), and developed and refined further (B3a, B3b, B3c). The entire process is repeated (B3c1, B3c2, B3c3) for as many rounds as are necessary and possible.

This process of selection, development, refinement, selection is what I refer to as an "iterative process", in that it takes multiple iterations in order to arrive at a successful, or innovative, or fully-resolved solution to a design problem.

Good design does not simply "occur", and most certainly does not happen with just a few clicks of a mouse. Quality design requires an iterative process that involves multiple revisions, decisions, and discussions. It cannot occur in a vaccum, or without the time being spent.

Okay, now I'll step off the soapbox.

J-out.

Brilliant BCAM

Friday, my friends Kellis ( http://www.neublack ) and Trina ( http://www.strangeandsavage.blogspot.com ) went to BCAM, the new Broad Contemporary Art Museum at LACMA.

It took us a good twenty minutes after arriving to actually enter the building. The work outside interested Trina and Kellis, but I was impressed by the architecture of the actual building. What an impressive example of architect Renzo Piano's work! Wow. It's gorgeous, and interesting. There are these stairways outside of the building, which rise and strap around the faces of it. On the East side of the building are these light fixtures hanging on long cords, gently swaying in the wind. It activates the outside surface of the building in very engaging way. The Beverly Center ( poor example ) and the Centre Pompidou ( good example ) have similarly considered exteriors, to BCAM.

The entire first floor is devoted to two Richard Serra pieces. I stood in the back of the room, and listened to people move through the interior of the pieces, as I soaked up the gently bending and twisting forms. What a trip!

The ginormous elevator is a central element of the experience. It's fun. It's huge. It's translucent. It's art ( I say so). The elevator shaft space is a commissioned work by Barbara Kruger, which spans all four floors of the building. You can only see it when the elevator car is not present. Children especially enjoyed the scale and playfulness of the elevator.

The Broad's believe in collecting deeply, when they collect. Each room in the new museum is dedicated to one or a group of two or three related artists, showing a number of pieces spanning the career of the artists. It's a distinctive quality that allows a deeper consideration of bodies of work from artists, rather than a sprinkling of one or two here and there, mixed in with a variety of others. Each room is a meditation on the themes and personalities of single artists.

Besides Piano's architecture, and the elevator (with a view of the Hollywood sign), my favorite part of the day was the room devoted to Robert Therrien's "Under The Table". A huge dinner table and chairs is in a gallery all by itself. Walking under and through the gallery brought a peaceful contemplation of days gone by, and reminded me of my insignificance in the world. Trina and Kellis had different experiences with this work. I guess that's what I find most interesting, is that each person, based on their own experiences ( particularly in early childhood ), and their ability to be comfortable in their own person, has entirely differing emotional responses to this work. More so, for me, than any other gallery in the place, the Therrien gallery left me with a good aftertaste, which I carried for hours into the evening.

Nuf said? Go to BCAM. Bring the kids.

Evolution of Language

I'm a big nut for words and language. Verbal communication. If design is an integration of word and imagery, then words must be an important part of the equation. The more comfortable that I am with words, as a Designer, the more comfortable I will be, as a Designer....(did that make any sense?).

My friend Raymond, the Special Projects Editor at Black Belt passed this along.

Here are new words, that have been added to the Merriam Webster's Dictionary, for 2008.

1. BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

2.SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves.

3.ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard

4.SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

5. CUBE FARM : An office filled with cubicles.

6.PRAIRIE DOGGING : When someone yells or drops something loudly in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's going on.

7. MOUSE POTATO : The on-line, wired generation's answer to the couch potato.

8.SITCOMs: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage. What Yuppies get into when they have children and one of them stops working to stay home with the kids.

9.STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed out and whiny.

10.SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered useless because magnetic strip is worn away from extensive use.

11.XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from one's workplace.

12.IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are Annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them.

13. PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it to work again.

14. ADMINISPHERE : The rarefied organizational layers beginning just above the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere are often profoundly inappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they were designed to solve.

15. 404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error Message '404 Not Found,' meaning that the requested site could not be located.

16. GENERICA : Features of the American landscape that are exactly the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls, and subdivisions.

17.OHNOSECOND: That minuscule fraction of time in which you realize that you've just made a BIG mistake. (Like after hitting send on an email by mistake).

So, as the old-fasioned saying goes, "Put that in your pipe and smoke it."

John Maeda: My Facebook Buddy

Many of you know that I teach design. I've asked my students to blog their thoughts, ideas, inspirations and any other critical thinking that they may have done. I was talking today about the nature of blogging, and the online world.

One of my students did some background research for a project about John Maeda. I happened to mention that he was one of my "Facebook friends".



In the "old world", I never would have called up John on the telephone, and said, "hey dude. i think you're an awesome designer, and thinker. would you be my friend"..or something to that extent. I would have had no opportunity or desire to initiate a one minute conversation with him.

I've never met John Maeda in the "real world" (flash back to the MTV series, season 1). I do feel that I know "about" him, and having seen his video at http://www.risd.edu/president , I have a brief sense of his personality.

We were born the same year.

I was at RISD from 1984-1988.
He's there now.

I was an undergraduate graphic design student.
He is the new President of the institution.

We were born in the same year.

I think that's wonderful.

We've had a few brief email exchanges. I've offered my support here from the left coast. I'm excited that he's leading my alma mater. Good luck to you my brother.