Good reading

This is really, really good.
Ad-man Dave Trott waxes lyrical about all manner of topics.
Insightful, observational and engaging.
Worth a read.

(And written in a tight, concise manner befitting of the author's occupation - plenty of good stuff to muse over).

No. 5 Quote of note

"There is hope in honest error. None in the icy perfections of the mere stylist." I'm liking this quote by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Courtesy of 1977, thanks Paul!

Makes me think of the philosophy of Inky Finger Prints and the much respected logo of Minale Tattersfield

Beauty in imperfection, ideas over style, 80/20 rule, the human touch etc, etc. Maybe I'm missing the point but all that microscopic overanalysis of mundane details slows things down and delays the arrival of a solution. maximise the time you spend on generating ideas, bosh out the options, be pragmatic and save the crafting for the final chapter.

A funny old year

It’s been a funny year so far. Having written about keeping it simple six months ago I now revist those words with the benefit of six months hindsight.

I can remember rumblings of discontent this time last year but paid little attention to them, for the past ten years I’d been in steady and reliable work since I graduated in 1999 – so why should I worry? I’d worked for myself, as a freelancer with agencies and representing myself and two years ago ended up in a full time job.

And then January arrived and work became painfully slow. Clients stopped calling, projects were put on hold and the directors at my company started to spend more time behind closed doors. What was even more surreal was that in a company of over 100 people only part of our business seemed to be affected. I work on Employee Engagement projects and even though our work load dropped off, the other offers in our company had more work than they could handle. Eg. In previous years I’d seen digital designers suffer, this year saw them travel unscathed through the financial meltdown. An example of learning from past mistakes of over employing and over stretching oneself.

In mid February the thirty or so people who make up my team were called into the board room and told we would now be entering a ‘redundancy consultation process’, ie two weeks to to justify your existence as an employee. It was probably the most stressful period I‘ve had to go through and I regret that it meant my troubles at work spilled over into my home life. Thankfully my partner was good listener, an intelligent adviser and extremely understanding.

The benefits of talking to partners, friends and family I can’t stress enough. Through talking about it I learnt a lot of my friends were or had gone through similar processes – for better or worse. And these aren’t just designers, every industry was/is being affected. It was a thought provoking time.

And when your standing on the edge, not knowing how things will fall one is forced to think hard and think fast about what one wants to do and where one wants to be. I’d long been thinking about pursuing a different direction (photography, printmaking, interactive design, writing, carpentry, cookery, travel, etc) and these interests started to form the basis for my next steps. I was all but convinced that my time at this particular company was over so mentally I was well prepared to move on and by investigating alternative occupations it showed me that there are always solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems. It even made me realise what I liked (and to some extents had taken for granted) about my current job; I valued the interaction with my colleagues, the opportunities to work on large scale projects and the lifestyle presented by the location of the office.

As it turned out I wasn’t made redundant. Several of my friends were though and I can only guess that it must be a terribly shocking and frustrating moment to be asked to leave a job you’d grown used to working in. The theft of financial security in these days of high consumption can only equal fear and trepidation and a destruction of one’s own confidence. And for those of us remaining I detect a conflicting and complex set of emotions. Gratitude from having been spared the axe, resentment at having to be dragged through the process in the first place, caution that the entire episode will be repeated.

So what have I learnt from this? I now know the importance of having a grand plan, a goal or a destination to aim for. Just like a lighthouse, in times of trouble it’s reassuring to have a marker to steer towards. It’s important to be constantly prepared, to have a safety net to fall back upon and a well stocked locker to get you out of trouble should the need arise. So I guess it’s all about being aware of what’s happening around you and recognizing the warning signs when they start to appear. And being in as flexible a state as possible so as to be able to adapt to changing circumstances with as much personal control as possible.

Footnote: this is very much an employee’s viewpoint. I am under no illusions employers undergo as tough if not tougher set of emotions and experiences. If I could offer advice to them it would be this: make the process of redundancy as quick and transparent as possible. Doubtless hard to do under the employment laws but perhaps less damaging in the long run.

No. 4 Quote of note

Alice came to a fork in the road. "Which road do I take?" she asked.
"Where do you want to go?" responded the Cheshire cat.
"I don't know," Alice answered.
"Then," said the cat, "it doesn't matter."

Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Jimmy Carr twitters away

I’m unconvinced by the whole Twitter thang but at least Jimmy Carr’s manner of delivery seems to suit the medium.

Here are his latest ‘tweets’ from Dundee, pure comedy genius.

• i'm still on a train. it would appear someone's put Dundee right up in the north - presumably so they don't bother anyone.
• "i think of Dundee as the 'Paris of the north' because its covered in dog shit and nobody washes." Good idea for an opening line tonight?
• just been told Dundee is 'the city of discovery'. Presumably because the Discovery Channel made a wildlife documentary about the locals.
• just in the interval of the show in dundee. i feel a little guilty cause i've been slagging the place off all day and i'm really enjoying it
• what now? according to one twitterer earlier Dundee has only one night club 'Fat Sam's' named after the local beauty queen..i've got to stop

No. 3 Quote of note

"Walking these New Zealand Mountains stimulated my memory. My need for this strange landscape was profound. Travel, which is nearly always seen as an attempt to escape from the ego, is in my opinion the opposite. Nothing induces concentration or inspires memory like an alien landscape or a foreign culture. It is simply not possible (as romantics think) to lose yourself in an exotic place. Much more likely is an experience of intense nostalgia, a harking back to an earlier stage in your life, or seeing clearly a serious mistake But this does not happen to the exclusion of the exotic present. What makes the whole experience vivid, and sometimes thrilling, is the juxtaposition of he present and the past – London seen from the heights of Harris Saddle."
Paul Theroux, The Happy Isles of Oceania

Lights, Camera...Action

Good collection of ideas from film director Jim Jarmusch. Several things of note here that seem as applicable in the world of design as that of the silver screen, eg Rule #4: Filmmaking is a collaborative process - “work with others whose minds and ideas may be stronger than your own”. Rule #5 is also relevant but I’m sure I’ve heard that one before….

Here is a link to his golden rules of movie-making

Reminiscent of a good piece of design advice I learnt at college. My tutor - a short, energetic chap called Ed - would relate design to the editing process of a film. He believed the quicker one got to the bare boned, basic structure of a ‘product’, the quicker you’d be able to make key decisions. Ed’s point was that until you’d reached the rough-cut stage students would more often than not get bogged down in the details (the ‘fluff’) and progress at a slower pace than that of someone who could step back and view the project as a whole (the ‘meat’). Basic flaws became exposed whilst strengths and virtues could be amplified and refined.

A year to remember

For me 2008 became the year of ‘just doing it’. The label came from my Dad who in answer to a query about a moral dilemma, he answered by saying ‘just do it’. His view being don’t worry about the future, worry about the present and stop faffing around. Mind you, this is my interpretation and therefore may not be what the wisdom my Dad intended to pass on.

But it worked. 2008 was a really good year, and among things of note:

• I met a fantastic women who at the present moment of writing seems happy to describe herself as my girlfriend (I know – I can’t believe it either!).
• A photo of mine was shortlisted by Tate modern for a companion exhibition to the street and studio photography show. This ended up in a lovely book produced by blurb.
• Work became more stable and I’ve enjoyed making a load of new friends and feeling part of an organisation that seems to be moving in the right direction. It hasn’t been a walk in the park but it has proved rewarding, and some of the work I've produced I'm pleased with.
  
• I visited Copenhagen for a long weekend, had a great time at Latitude festival and visited several countries in SE Asia over the Christmas period. I saw this last destination as a small victory as it required a degree of negotiation to get the time off. A case of ‘if you don’t ask, you won’t get’ or perhaps even ‘just do it..’
• My front room now has a fresh lick of paint, a new floor and a lovely sofa. And how much nicer an environment it is.

So what about this year - what will 2009 be the year of? I’ve been musing about this whilst slumming it around the cheap hotels of Vietnam and Cambodia and I think in line with the cheery outlook predicted by the media – ha ha ha – this year is going to be the year of ‘keeping it simple’.

But what does this mean? In short it’s about concentrating on the important things and cutting out the extraneous guff that gets in the way, costs too much, never gets used, complicates, clutters....you get the picture. I realised whilst living out of a bag for four weeks that we in the west live very complicated lives and often the a little bit of room to think and breathe can make a world of difference.

Practically I see 2009 as being a chance to exercise the following processes:

• Cycle to work four times a week (minimum)
• Eat smaller meals, waste less food, cook more from scratch, consume less chocolate.
• Spend quality time with those people who matter, cooking meals at home as opposed to patronising restaurants and pubs.
• Think a bit more about where my money is spent - £4 a pint? Get real, I’ll take my business elsewhere. Bye bye snappy snaps, I’m going to get my photos developed via post in Hampshire where for less money I get a CD of scans and a free film in addition to a quality set of developed and printed photos.
• Appreciate what I have in the immediacy – England has lots of great locations to visit and at long last this must be the year that the sun returns to our shores.
• Get more sleep and get to bed earlier. Last year I seemed to be rising late and therefore losing precious day time hours, this will change.
• Spring clean. Spring clean. Spring clean.
• Simple entertainment - read more books, watch less TV and stimulating conversation.
  

No. 2 quote of note

"I came to Tibet hoping to find answers to all my unasked questions, but I have discovered that even when the questions are clear, there are no clear answers. I am sick of traveling. I need to hold onto something familiar, even if it is just a tea cup. I cannot survive in the wilds - nature is infinite but my life has bounds. I need to live in big cities that have hospitals, bookshops and women. I left Beijing because I wanted to be alone and to forge my own path but I now know that no path is solitary, we all tread across each others beginnings and ends."
Ma Jian, Red Dust

No. 1 quote of note

"There are still many white mountains to cross but I am on my way home. I am leaving the wilds and returning to the dirty crowds of the city. But I am not afriad of them any more. They cannot hurt me now. I have changed."
Ma Jian, Red Dust

The search for inner peace

Thanks to Phil C for this approach to better karma:

I am passing this on to you because it definitely worked for me, and we all could probably use more calm in our lives. Some doctor on tele this morning said that the way to achieve inner peace is to finish all the things you have started.

So I looked Around my house to see things I'd started and hadn't finished and, before leaving the house this morning, I finished off a bottle of Merlot, a bottle of shhhardonay, a bodle of Baileys, a butle of vocka, a pockage of Prunglies, tha mainder of bot Prozic and Valum scriptins, the res Of the Chesescke an a box a chocolets.

Yu haf no idr who fkin gud I fel.

Loving this song at the moment

Fake Empire by The National

word power

JK Rowling delivers graduate commencement address at Harvard.

I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

Interesting speech, i like the following points:

(On failure) You might never fail on the scale I did, but some failure in life is inevitable. It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.

Ultimately, we all have to decide for ourselves what constitutes failure, but the world is quite eager to give you a set of criteria if you let it.

(On imagination) One of the many things I learned at the end of that Classics corridor down which I ventured at the age of 18, in search of something I could not then define, was this, written by the Greek author Plutarch: What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

That is an astonishing statement and yet proven a thousand times every day of our lives. It expresses, in part, our inescapable connection with the outside world, the fact that we touch other people’s lives simply by existing.

In my year Sunscreen was a popular song, (appropriatley subtitled class of '99) which all sounds a bit sentimental now but guess there is still a lot of truth in those words. Words like these:

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idel Tuesday.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Reminds me of a really good last summer in Newcastle. Feeling of being on the cusp of a wave, very energised and excited by the next footfall in life. Sad to be saying goodbye to a way of living that would never repeated, to bid farewell to friends one would see all too randomly. Suddenly realising we were adults. More accountable, more vulnerable and yet also more independent and more intelligent. I miss Rothbury Terrace, I miss the time available to think about things. Don't miss the car crash in the kitchen though.

It will be ten years since those heady times this time next year. So much has changed, so little is different.

Talk is cheap

And words are wasteful.

But they can be rewarding; In the 1920s, Ernest Hemingway bet ten dollars that he could write a complete story in just six words. He wrote: "For Sale: baby shoes, never worn." He won the bet.

Now Smith magazine is asking its readers to sum up their own lives in just six words. Great stuff. As a man of few words, one who prefers silence to vulgar, casual banter* this concept makes perfect sense.

Thanks to my Mother and the Today programme for bringing this to my attention.

*ie small talk. Deep and meaningfuls can be short and sweet or long and lasting – quality will always slay quantity.

Where are you Miss Muse?

Found this on Ffffound.com

Probably part of a commercial exercise by I do like the heartfelt nature of the writing. Reminds me of this piece of street poetry in Glenelg, Adelaide.

You want to be a designer?!

I was recently asked by a family friend how one becomes a graphic designer. She is presently an occupational therapist but is considering a career change.
This is what i wrote:

How did you become a designer?
The common route into graphic design as a designer is this:

- One year foundation course. A practical introduction to all the different art and design specialties, eg. fashion, sculpture, illustration, product, interior, etc. It's a good way to ensure that everyone starting a degree course has the same basic set of skills.

- Three year degree course. In my case i chose a graphic design BA hons at University of Northumbria. It was one of the more general/varied courses, had good facilities, very good links to Industry and was a brilliant place to live. On your degree course you develop your own visual language. Some concentrate on letters (typography) some on pictures (photography or illustration) others like me tried a little bit of everything because the art of communicating ideas and messages was more important than the process that they are delivered in.

Plus...(and this is only my view)
- Your first year in Industry is essentially an apprenticeship, you learn what is really required to get the job done. Pay will be low and hours long. Before you are offered a job most graduates are expected to do placement work to see if everyone gets on with one another, very, very low pay (if any) and even longer hours.

What makes a good designer?
Good designers are good problem solvers. They must be able to analyse abstract information and come back with a solution. From a graphics point of view this means listening to what a client wants, researching the project, the client, the competitors and presenting back to the client a logiocal progression of thoughts that should answer the problem at hand.

For example "I want to expand my law firm but people think i am a one man band stuck in the provinces and consequently the clients I want, won't work with me". The design solution here might be to update the law firm's visual identity - starting with the logo and then working outwards across different media, eg stationery, literature, website, office environments. This shows the broad nature of graphics and why it is important that flexible thinking and the ability to work with specialists in different fields is critical.

Good Communication skills (written, verbal, visual) is of course vital and it has by default got to be better than the client's. Beautiful design does not sell itself.

What do you think of it as a job?
I think it is a good career but as with anything creative it is very hard work and you can't switch off from it. You also have to be very thick skinned because every one has an opinion about what you've produced. Some comments are constructive, some are not. Look at the Olympic logo saga as an example. But you need to be able to deal with whatever flies your way.

However I like the fact it is thought of as a 'cool' job and that there are different ways to work and places to work in. To take advantage of this you need to be very proactive.

Of course there are not only designers working in the design world. Project managers liaise between clients and designers to ensure everything runs smoothly. Marketeers have been known to start the ball rolling and then hand over to designers to add some visual styling...whether this is the right or wrong approach is another topic entirely.

A fair assessment?

2012 London Olympics Identity

I like it. Well done to Seb Coe and Wolff Olins for daring to be different.
I think the approach is spot on and i'm pleased that the London Olympics have so far avoided the cutesey character approach.

The good people at Coudal do a good job of summing up why it's a good thing

A few insightful comments at Speak Up as well

Give it time and I think more people will come round to the idea. And they'll start to see it in use and not as a mark in isolation.

The only thing i'd change is the crafting of the individual letters so that 2012 was more distinctive/recognisable. And perhaps 'London' could do with a less tricksy typeface.

Can we stop the logo bashing and put the knives away now?
And move on.