This week I brought in a book of cartoons done by Sam Gross, of The New Yorker Magazine fame. I have a decent size collection of comic/ cartoon type books; I have always had an affinity for toons. My favorite artist is Gary Larson of The Far Side, I have all of his galleries and he has greatly inspired my own drawing. I brought in Gross’ book titled: An Elephant is Soft and Mushy. It is a gallery of work published by Avon Books in 1982. Thinking about what to bring in for the assignment I found myself looking through my bookshelves. I knew I would find something cool there. My copy was pressed between a book on how to design Celtic Knot work and a book on pottery. When I read the binding I pulled it out and read the title. I quickly perused the pages and thought it would be perfect to bring to class, not just for the assignment but because it’s a really cool book.
Elephants aren’t soft and mushy. Everyone knows an elephant isn’t soft, I have never touched one but when you look at it you can get a good idea that the largest land mammal does not feel like hot mashed potatoes. An elephant is hard, an elephant is rough, an elephant is thick, an elephant is strong and an elephant is wrinkly. Could an elephant be soft and mushy?
While looking through the book, which is very funny, you will see the comic that relates to the title. It is a drawing of an elephant with several men feeling and grabbing different parts of the beast. The men are blind, this is evident because they are all wearing dark glasses, and each one has a word bubble above their heads. One guy is clutching its tail; he says, “An elephant is like rope” another is holding the elephants leg saying, “an elephant is like a tree trunk.” 5 blind guys, five separate body parts being felt and five different descriptions of what they perceive as an elephant. However, off to the side one of the guys is feeling a pile of the elephant’s poop and he says, “An elephant is soft and mushy.” Brilliant.
In a cartoon as simple as this, one page, no color, simple drawings, Gross makes an excellent point. Description has no specific answer; it is all about perception. This comic/title makes you think. Vision has an enormous impact on how we perceive things, obviously but what if you were able to see things differently? An elephant is not just a beautiful yet imposing creature, it is like a tree truck, it is like rope and it is his poop.
Another element that I found cool was the sunglasses on the characters. How does the reader know they are blind? Nothing says they are blind, it is not written or stated or anything, the dark glasses imply something to the reader and it is up to you to decide these are blind people. The subtly and cleverness of this comic are great examples of description for creative people. The message is clear, although it expects the reader to think, simple and fun to read.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Inspired by Beer
I look at the simplicity of the logo and I like it. The classic design
used in the early 20th century with a few colors, very straight forward
design and the addition of an icon, Mr. Boh. The design has not changed even
though the company has been bought and sold a few times. I find that
most inspiring, the idea that sometimes not changing an image works better
for a brand than changing your image every time cool is redefined. Mr. Boh
has always had the handle bar mustache; the weird one eye and he will
always think "Oh what a beer." The bottles will have the mysterious
pictographs under the caps and the drinker will forever be reminded that the beer
is "from the land of pleasant living‚" even though the beer is brewed
in North Carolina. Classic, unspoiled design, cooperation between easy brand
recognition and a likable spokes person in cartoon form. It is unusual
to find a brand with this sort of cult following, unchanged image and
really no media advertising except for word of mouth, tin signs in bars and a
really cheap price.
used in the early 20th century with a few colors, very straight forward
design and the addition of an icon, Mr. Boh. The design has not changed even
though the company has been bought and sold a few times. I find that
most inspiring, the idea that sometimes not changing an image works better
for a brand than changing your image every time cool is redefined. Mr. Boh
has always had the handle bar mustache; the weird one eye and he will
always think "Oh what a beer." The bottles will have the mysterious
pictographs under the caps and the drinker will forever be reminded that the beer
is "from the land of pleasant living‚" even though the beer is brewed
in North Carolina. Classic, unspoiled design, cooperation between easy brand
recognition and a likable spokes person in cartoon form. It is unusual
to find a brand with this sort of cult following, unchanged image and
really no media advertising except for word of mouth, tin signs in bars and a
really cheap price.
Colors.
Did you watch the Philadelphia Eagles football game on Sunday? While their performance on the gridiron was rather spectacular I was less than impressed with the throwback uniforms they sported during the game. I am an Eagles fan, have always been and I have seen those jerseys before but that only softened the horror of seeing them in action on the field. Was there actually a time when these uniforms looked nice? They certainly didn’t always invoke thoughts of vomiting and teams and fans took them seriously. I guess it is safe to assume that baby blue and gold at one time didn’t symbolize wimpy and sissy things. Real men wore powder blue. I have a hard time visualizing hard-bitten 1930s football players, wearing leather facemask less helmets, knocking the crap out of one another while sporting those colors. As hard as it is for me to imagine this it was certainly real. The Eagles did wear baby blue uniforms at one time and that made me think. As times change and trends come and go colors and color schemes evolve as well. I can think back to the early 80s when my parents had our house decorated with fallout inspired colors and designs that evolved from hippies and disco. Today those colors definitely evoke feelings in a person but those feelings are very different that the original intentions and hip-ness. When my parents decorated the house that way I’m sure their friends were impressed and they thought it looked great, today if you did the same thing people would think you might have been knocked on the head. How about pink? How and when did that become cool for guys to wear? How do these things happen? What powers in this world dictate to the public that pink is now cool or baby blue was once cool now it is lame. Are the fashion people responsible or is it the public who motivates them to bring a color in or out. Is it a reflection of the mood the people have? They say people living in the Northeast tend to wear dark colors while those in the Sun Belt like light colors. Is it the sun? Weather? Celebrities? I have no idea.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Gradients = Good?
When are gradients appropriate in graphic design? I sat never, sort of. One of the biggest hurdles in design is being able to avoid the easy way out or a simpler yet not as effective solution. Around my office non-designers will occasionally work on a project, in the hopes of saving time for others. The end result is some hideous design utilizing all of the major designer taboos. Weird typefaces, saturated backgrounds, random font sizes and gradients are splattered all over the piece. When this work makes its way to my desk I usually tell them to try to keep the design simple and clear and never use gradients: “they are an easy way out of complex design situations.” Good advice? I must admit that I am being a bit hypocritical when I say this, maybe more than a bit. I use gradients in my work and the regularity of occurrences is not important even though it is not often. I have reason to make such statement, I’m not just being jerkish, I think to be able to use gradients in your design you need to first master how not to use them. It is the idea of having a complete competence in the fundamentals and the skill level of a pro before you develop your own styles, then you may use gradients if you dare. Using gradients early on, in my opinion, limit your development and are usually used very poorly when wielded by an unskilled hand. Do gradients look cool in logos? Would anyone use them in a newspaper? Application matters most when using a gradient and I think most of the time there is a better solution. Another point I want to make about my anti-affinity of the gradients is that I am really impressed by designs that are clean, simple yet creative and eye catching, a gradient can increase the busyness and decrease the clarity of a design.
Friday, September 14, 2007
$100K Eyes
I’m not sure how many of you out there have noticed this same thing but my eyes are ruined. It is a slow process in the very beginning but once it is set in motion there is no regaining your former innocence. It typically takes a few years to develop; all the while you have no idea what transformations you are going through. As the years go by the metamorphosis becomes worse. Sometimes it will drive you mad but certainly it never goes away and has potential for ridicule. What the hell and I talking about? Not yet, thank you. Perhaps you would like some scenarios that led to my self-diagnosis to give you a hint? OK.
1.) I am driving down I95 from Philadelphia to Baltimore. It is approximately 100 miles on the highway to get home. Along those 100 miles there are countless things to stare at, gaze in awe and just plain set your mind into a numb, mindless, day dreaming mode. How many signs, notices, bumper stickers and billboards do you think you inadvertently read along that trip? I don’t know but it is a lot. All those letters staring at you, someone just like us doing their best to leave an impression but, what do you see first when glaring at one of these huge, static advertisements?
2.) Ahh, nothing like the relaxation of the summer. Besides the beaches, barbeques and cold beer what complements the best season of the year like a good book. So each spring I find myself in the usual haunt of the local mega bookstore. I have some ideas in mind of what I would like to delve into this year. It is the usual requirement- an easy read. Summertime distractions are many so a simple book is necessary. So, I am back at the bookstore searching the lengthy isles, but it is not the same as it used to be. The store is basically unchanged, shelves of text organized by some elaborate yet top-secret manner. My searching is through forest of titles that will help me make a buying decision but that is the last thing I notice.
Sound familiar? Well, a short one to drive it home, just for good measure.
3.) I am reading any magazine on any topic in the entire world yet I am not just interested in the articles, comics or pictures. Whether I like it or not I am doomed to throw my attention on something else.
All right, I drive down roads and look at billboards, I go to bookstores and stare at book covers and I browse magazines and pay as much attention to the non-articles as I do the articles. These are the symptoms; my eyes have been spoiled since final diagnosis. I suffer acute graphic designer’s eye or Hundred Kay Eye. Yup, it is horrible, chronic and progressive.
When I see these thing: billboards, books, magazines, newspaper, brochures, logos, I do not see catch phrases, bullet points, titles, etc. No, I see Helvetica 23 Ultra Light Extended Oblique, or ITC Avant Garde Gothic MM Oblique 455 RG 450 CN or, god forbid, Comic Sans. I see spot colors, I see stock photos used and reused, 4 color prints, Art Deco, Art Nuevo, Pantone colors, plotted vinyl, illustrations Photoshop effects and so on and on. Gone are the days where the impact of the dust jacket from a Chuck Palahniuk novel would present some insight into what strange story lay between the covers, now it is a body on the slab waiting for me to cut it open and dissect it. The type face in the title, sans serif and very modern, the author’s name looks to be Garamond, that background is some sort of abstract work created in Photoshop, inspired by some 1970s style pop art, etc. Yes my friends this is what life has become for me, I can’t just look around out there, I have to study stuff, figure out what the other guy was thinking, try to remember it and learn more and more because that is how this disease work,
Hundred Kay Eye is common amount people such as us, creative types that want to be or already are creative professionals. It is very contagious; most of you already have the early symptoms, I can tell, if nothing has surfaced trust me it will. Enjoy looking at nothing the same ever again!
1.) I am driving down I95 from Philadelphia to Baltimore. It is approximately 100 miles on the highway to get home. Along those 100 miles there are countless things to stare at, gaze in awe and just plain set your mind into a numb, mindless, day dreaming mode. How many signs, notices, bumper stickers and billboards do you think you inadvertently read along that trip? I don’t know but it is a lot. All those letters staring at you, someone just like us doing their best to leave an impression but, what do you see first when glaring at one of these huge, static advertisements?
2.) Ahh, nothing like the relaxation of the summer. Besides the beaches, barbeques and cold beer what complements the best season of the year like a good book. So each spring I find myself in the usual haunt of the local mega bookstore. I have some ideas in mind of what I would like to delve into this year. It is the usual requirement- an easy read. Summertime distractions are many so a simple book is necessary. So, I am back at the bookstore searching the lengthy isles, but it is not the same as it used to be. The store is basically unchanged, shelves of text organized by some elaborate yet top-secret manner. My searching is through forest of titles that will help me make a buying decision but that is the last thing I notice.
Sound familiar? Well, a short one to drive it home, just for good measure.
3.) I am reading any magazine on any topic in the entire world yet I am not just interested in the articles, comics or pictures. Whether I like it or not I am doomed to throw my attention on something else.
All right, I drive down roads and look at billboards, I go to bookstores and stare at book covers and I browse magazines and pay as much attention to the non-articles as I do the articles. These are the symptoms; my eyes have been spoiled since final diagnosis. I suffer acute graphic designer’s eye or Hundred Kay Eye. Yup, it is horrible, chronic and progressive.
When I see these thing: billboards, books, magazines, newspaper, brochures, logos, I do not see catch phrases, bullet points, titles, etc. No, I see Helvetica 23 Ultra Light Extended Oblique, or ITC Avant Garde Gothic MM Oblique 455 RG 450 CN or, god forbid, Comic Sans. I see spot colors, I see stock photos used and reused, 4 color prints, Art Deco, Art Nuevo, Pantone colors, plotted vinyl, illustrations Photoshop effects and so on and on. Gone are the days where the impact of the dust jacket from a Chuck Palahniuk novel would present some insight into what strange story lay between the covers, now it is a body on the slab waiting for me to cut it open and dissect it. The type face in the title, sans serif and very modern, the author’s name looks to be Garamond, that background is some sort of abstract work created in Photoshop, inspired by some 1970s style pop art, etc. Yes my friends this is what life has become for me, I can’t just look around out there, I have to study stuff, figure out what the other guy was thinking, try to remember it and learn more and more because that is how this disease work,
Hundred Kay Eye is common amount people such as us, creative types that want to be or already are creative professionals. It is very contagious; most of you already have the early symptoms, I can tell, if nothing has surfaced trust me it will. Enjoy looking at nothing the same ever again!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
2012- Already a bad image.
I want to talk about the logo for the London 2012 Olympics (http://www.london2012.com/). As a designer writing on a blog that other creative types will be reading I really don’t think I have to go into detail about how horrible this so called logo really is. The horrid design was released by Wolff Ollins, a NY and London based branding agency, in July of 2007. According to www.wolffolins.com they are “the world's most influential brand business. It helps its clients seize the opportunities presented by a changing world, by making them unique in their markets, and uniquely valuable to customers and shareholders.” I must agree with at least one of the claims they make here on their website, unique in their market. While traditionally the location specific Olympic logo is influenced by some general geographic or regional imagery, not the case here. For what equals almost $812,000.00 USD the London Olympic Committee has made a wondrous blunder. The logo does not relate to anything British or anything in athletics period. It more so resembles amateurish graffiti scribed on some wall back in 1988. Somehow someone along the way people with power from the agency to the committee felt this was “cutting edge” and an appropriate representation of London in the Olympic world. I read online this past summer that the animated Flash version, meant for the Web, was pulled because it potentially would cause epileptic fits! (http://www.360east.com/?p=763) I want to design something like that, hell, how cool would that be? He guys, check out my website and BAM they are all on the floor fishing out. Besides causing your friends brain problems where else would something that flashy and sparkly be appropriate? To me this is a classic example of those who don’t know a damn thing about design, designing good work and basically what looks good making the big decision, anyone with agency experience can relate first hand to this painful reality. I can see some highly paid stiff sitting in his leather chair, feeling totally brilliant, saying crap like: “this is the route we need to take, the youngsters will identify with this. It is totally hip...” I think it fails on all levels, the colors are odd, the design stinks and it is completely unclear what it represents. When I first saw the logo this past summer, I thought it was a map of England or London broken into pieces but I know for a fact that England is not shaped like that (I know what a map is, I’m not from South Carolina). My second thought was it looked like Pangaea, the map of the world like 100 billion years ago. Nope, it wasn’t until I searched further on the net about it that I found out that the random shapes actually formed out into the number 2-0-1-2. Oh, yeah, I guess it does. So does anyone have any other glowing remarks to make about this design? What were some of your original interpretations as to what it was?
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Show and Tell Made Me Think
This Show and Tell assignment is very interesting to me. Bring in something that inspires you. Hmm, well, that got me thinking about myself as a designer. What things in my life influence my work as an artist and designer? Immediately I think of the work I have recently done at my job and how I overcome complete BS while solving irritating design issues. My place of business is a great company to work for but, as is commonplace in my experience as a graphic designer, there are great flaws with my position. First of all I am the second member of the graphic design team, which falls under the marketing department. To make a long story short I am the new guy, the other designer has been here for 9 years and has been designing for like 400. The marketing director is an IT professional by trade, knows how to manage people but knows nothing about marketing or creative services, even though he wishes he did. The summary: I get the work that the other designer doesn’t want, nothing new except the monthly specials which consist of the same copy sans the specific ad and custom graphics for a direct mail postcard, a brochure and a PDF for email blast and a grayscale version for faxing.
So this month I am designing the October Equine Special, the company I work for manufactures, packages and distributes nutritional supplement products for humans and animals, this was the horse special. So the copy is boring, I don’t write it and we are only showcasing 1 product but 3 versions. What is the incentive to buy our stuff next month? Wow, it is a fantastic gift card to Lands’ End for 50 bucks, oh joy, spend two to four hundred dollars on product and you get to buy a pair of wool socks and a mock turtleneck for free. So, how do I get the distributors or vets to buy into this sweet special, not to mention even read the piece? I have to make it interesting; eye catching and it must stand out from all the rest of the junk mail the businesses receive. Well, I already did the consumer October special, with that one I did my usual Illustrator drawings of a background that reflects the time of the year, colors, themes, consistency; fall is fall. I wanted to do a Halloween theme but they are to conservative and weird Christian for that. My challenge to make a design creative enough to make people read and conservative enough to please the “know nothings” up stairs.
Let me describe the situation a little more deeply. The equine October special was not going to take place, now it is. The deadline on the job request sheet gave me 2 weeks until drop-dead date. That gives me some time, especially since the copy has already been through legal. Not so fast guy. The pressures from above have shifted; it needs to be in proof form ASAP, what else is new? Inspiration, imagination, magic, something needs to happen. I go online and do a search for some horse themed dingbats and clipart, a good way to start, I might hatch an idea while browsing through this stuff, mostly junk but guess what: things that give me ideas! I found a decent free horse themed dingbat aptly named “Yee-haw” and I downloaded it, it may come in handy. OK, I have exhausted this means of brainstorming, and what do I do next. Simple. I hit the “images” tab on Google with “leaves” in the search bar, my other theme. There it is, my perfect inspiration for a fantastic piece. It is a logo for a condominium development somewhere in the United States. Good typography, interesting color scheme, classy font selection, cool, I have ideas brewing. Someplace to start, sometimes the hardest part of my job, can I actually hatch every cool idea directly through my own brainpower without the influence of the rest of the world? Never. In this circumstance a great idea is born out of randomly searching the Internet and viewing any number of things that that were related to my original idea for the piece’s theme, fall and horses. So I changed the color scheme, I created the heading to resemble the logo, changing and subsequently making it better and my own. Once I laid out the heading I proceeded to fill in the remainder of the content with the horse theme, although it is inspired by some Old West style graphic design that I try to incorporate whenever possible. This time around it was a logo from a condo development, I have gained inspiration for pieces by looking at architecture, album covers, beer labels, store fronts, almost everything has an idea for you to incorporate into your work but it is up to us to find it and develop that idea into solutions. So that is it, I am inspired to create any number of thing by just keeping my eyes open, you never know what will strike that cord and set you off in a creative whirlwind.
So this month I am designing the October Equine Special, the company I work for manufactures, packages and distributes nutritional supplement products for humans and animals, this was the horse special. So the copy is boring, I don’t write it and we are only showcasing 1 product but 3 versions. What is the incentive to buy our stuff next month? Wow, it is a fantastic gift card to Lands’ End for 50 bucks, oh joy, spend two to four hundred dollars on product and you get to buy a pair of wool socks and a mock turtleneck for free. So, how do I get the distributors or vets to buy into this sweet special, not to mention even read the piece? I have to make it interesting; eye catching and it must stand out from all the rest of the junk mail the businesses receive. Well, I already did the consumer October special, with that one I did my usual Illustrator drawings of a background that reflects the time of the year, colors, themes, consistency; fall is fall. I wanted to do a Halloween theme but they are to conservative and weird Christian for that. My challenge to make a design creative enough to make people read and conservative enough to please the “know nothings” up stairs.
Let me describe the situation a little more deeply. The equine October special was not going to take place, now it is. The deadline on the job request sheet gave me 2 weeks until drop-dead date. That gives me some time, especially since the copy has already been through legal. Not so fast guy. The pressures from above have shifted; it needs to be in proof form ASAP, what else is new? Inspiration, imagination, magic, something needs to happen. I go online and do a search for some horse themed dingbats and clipart, a good way to start, I might hatch an idea while browsing through this stuff, mostly junk but guess what: things that give me ideas! I found a decent free horse themed dingbat aptly named “Yee-haw” and I downloaded it, it may come in handy. OK, I have exhausted this means of brainstorming, and what do I do next. Simple. I hit the “images” tab on Google with “leaves” in the search bar, my other theme. There it is, my perfect inspiration for a fantastic piece. It is a logo for a condominium development somewhere in the United States. Good typography, interesting color scheme, classy font selection, cool, I have ideas brewing. Someplace to start, sometimes the hardest part of my job, can I actually hatch every cool idea directly through my own brainpower without the influence of the rest of the world? Never. In this circumstance a great idea is born out of randomly searching the Internet and viewing any number of things that that were related to my original idea for the piece’s theme, fall and horses. So I changed the color scheme, I created the heading to resemble the logo, changing and subsequently making it better and my own. Once I laid out the heading I proceeded to fill in the remainder of the content with the horse theme, although it is inspired by some Old West style graphic design that I try to incorporate whenever possible. This time around it was a logo from a condo development, I have gained inspiration for pieces by looking at architecture, album covers, beer labels, store fronts, almost everything has an idea for you to incorporate into your work but it is up to us to find it and develop that idea into solutions. So that is it, I am inspired to create any number of thing by just keeping my eyes open, you never know what will strike that cord and set you off in a creative whirlwind.
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