What is design? A manifesto

“Design should neither seek to impress through pretension nor condescend to a perceived baseline; rather it should use its powers of persuasion to reach new audiences. We advocate for design that translates specialized and complex knowledge into a form that is comprehensible to anyone who might be interested. Rather than vagueness, obfuscation, and visual rhetoric, this requires clarity and precision.”

“There are too many shoddy, unconsidered things in the world already. Given the widespread distribution of today's digital production tools, it's remarkably simple to make nearly anything, especially things claiming to critique design through the rejection of formal rigor. Making things well, making them beautifully, making them with craft, making them with an excess of effort, demonstrates a respect for one's own labor and an expression of love for the world that dissolves perceived categories of work and pleasure.”



Excerpts from WHAT IS DESIGN? A Manifesto for the Gwangju Design Biennale 2011

You will pay

“I will solve your problem for you, and you will pay me. And you don't have to use the solution - if you want options, go talk to other people. But I'll solve your problem for you the best way I know how, and you use it or not, that's up to you - you're the client - but you pay me.”

Paul Rand

Looks matter

“Business owners need to realize that their design is a reflection of their business even if it is not intentional. If you don’t care about your design then your design is telling people that you don’t care about your business.”

Marco Suarez*

* At the time of this post, I couldn't access Marco's website. So I linked to his Etsy store instead. 

Leif Skincare

I have to say, sometimes I come across something so good that I get this knee-jerk reaction, this tingling sensation around my jaw; like I want to make like a python and swallow it. I suppose that's why the word 'delicious' extends to more than just food and drink.
In any case, it happened just now when I saw Leif skincare line. I'm shameless for wanting their products when I still have new, nearly full bottles of skincare paraphernalia on my bathroom shelf. Leif is looking for stockists at the moment, so I don't have to worry about giving in to temptation. For now.

This is how I celebrate my 100th post

By Colin Harman. I need to get one for my studio. You can order a print here.

useful design

“There are some people who come into graphic design and find it a bit ephemeral and vacuous. People who like to do useful things are attracted to information design. There is something quite useful about designing traffic signs so people don't get lost or medicine bottles that people can understand. It's a way of making a difference. It's public service.”

David Sless

It's like he knows us well...

“We are a culture without the will to seriously examine our own problems. We eschew that which is complex, contradictory or confusing. As a culture, we seek simple solutions. We enjoy being provoked and titillated, but resist the rigorous, painstaking examination of issues that might, in the end, bring us to the point of recognizing our problems, which is the essential first step to solving any of them.”

David Simon; journalist, writer and producer

Talking Heads

If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, it’s too large.

Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder

Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?
Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder

source

Good, fast and cheap

A few friends seem to be frustrated lately with local service provides. If they manage to dodge expensive quotes, they're stuck with contractors who never seem to make any progress at all.
And while they managed to find someone who promised to design their business' website quickly and inexpensively, they were rather unsatisfied with the end result. After endless revisions, they managed to launch their website a few weeks behind schedule.

It reminded me of something I came across a few years ago involving a triangle and the relationship between Quality, Price, and Time. I looked it up and found the project triangle.
The idea is as follows: with any project, you can only pick two out of three items. So you have the following three options:

Price + Time/Quality  or  Fast, cheap and bad
If you've managed to find someone to work fast and cheap, chances are the quality of the work will be shabby and will fall apart in no time.
Eventually, you'll have to pay more for repairs, maintenance or re-design.

Time + Quality/Price  or  Fast, good and expensive
It has to be spectacular and it should be ready by tomorrow. No problem. As long as you don't mind paying extra to have done and delivered.
Being pressed for time means you haven't a spare hour to look for a better deal. Not to mention possibly covering rush job fees.  

Quality + Price/Time  or  Good, cheap and slow
It takes time to find the lowest bidder for high-quality work done on a budget.
Even if someone agrees to deliver excellent work inexpensively, they are likely to prioritize the higher paying jobs. Or it might require them time to search for ideas without sacrificing the quality or stretching the budget.

Small Studios vs Large Firms

“The only disadvantage of the small studio is that most very, very large branding projects tend to go to very large international firms. From my point of view, this is entirely misbegotten. If you look at the successful brands worldwide, almost all of the successful identities have been designed by single entities, from Nike to Apple to IBM. It's partly because they come from a time when Paul Rand or Saul Bass designed them.”

Stefan Sagmeister

Money, success, and the rewards of accomplishment

“I had a good friend who was a very good designer and was very indebted to the ideas of money, success, and the rewards of accomplishment. And then, like everybody, he began to fade, and he was so bitter about the fact that the world was no longer coming to him for what he had done all his life. And he became uninterested in working any more. He lost all his appetite for doing things. And I realized that the focus of his life was about the consequences of his work rather than the work itself. And I think that is a kind of sadness. Because it leaves you with nothing. Because eventually - particularly in an industry that deals so much with fashion - you are going to be out of favor some day.”  

Milton Glaser

Doyald Young books

I've been going through my (wish?)list, editing out items that I was no longer interested in buying, when I came across Doyald Young's page which I bookmarked months ago. They're a fine set of books, I'm sure. But a little too steep for me to buy anytime soon. I'm still keeping them on the list, for now.

Jack Spade display

This weekend was full of sudden plans and people popping in for visits. Which was fun but left me with little time to work. I'm glad I took some time-off from blogging tweeting.
I spent Saturday  morning looking at retail related design, and was rather taken with Jack Spade's paper art display, which works nicely with the tongue-in-cheek categories caption.

Currently reading

 Unfortunately, due to some delivery charge snafu, it cost more than it should. Hope I can clear that up. 

Covering: The Wizard of Oz

A while ago, Jessica Hische posted an entry in her blog on her students' work: designing a cover, end paper, title page and bookplate for a novelization of The Wizard of Oz.
The covers were so wonderful that I wouldn't have guessed they were students' work. Have a look see.

Puffin Classics Relaunch

A while ago, I noticed these lovely book covers from Puffin's Classics Relaunch editions while browsing around the bookstore. They've probably been around for a while, but all the same I think they still deserve a mention.

In denial

If I had their postal address, certain folks would be getting this as a gift from me.
"Everything is ok" poster, from Peach Beach.