Hi all, short n sweet this one, just want to apologise to those who have posted genuine comments that haven’t been approved. The blog is being bombarded by spam comments and it’s taking me a while to get the filters running properly. Bear with me 
… and thanks for reading!
My wife and I were recently in Sydney (sans kids fortunately, otherwise their vocabulary may well have been extended in directions not so pleasant) when we encountered a Sri Chin Moy cycle-a-thon in progress. A worthy endeavour perhaps, but created for us something of a nightmare. As non-Sydney residents, driving through the maze of inner-city one-way streets and no-go lanes (forgive so much hyphenation) is ever a ‘fraught’ exercise. This time, on the way to visit some friends, we thought we were well prepared. We had memorised the route from previous trips, and were confident! But things had changed; the way forward was different, familiar roads were closed! Pedal power had thwarted our progress. No matter, trusty GPS to the rescue, we can navigate our way thought this maze… but poor Jane (as we affectionately refer to our electronic route guru) was as lost as we; blinded by high rise buildings and loss of signal.
This combination of lack of direction and bicycles put me in mind of when we bought our son his first bike as a christmas present. Being newly-ish-weds (those damned hyphens again) and not so flush, we opted for the flat-pack budget bicycle. “Some assembly required” the box said. Some?!
So, christmas eve (there’s nothing like eleventh hour –literally– panic), kids packed forcibly off to bed under threat of a santa no-show, and it’s time for assembly. My wife, somewhat sensibly I think with hindsight, disappeared to tend to other wrapping and sticky tape battles. With the theme to the Good, The Bad and The Ugly running through my mind, I approached the as yet unopened box. “Ah, a doddle” I think, grinning, “I’ll be in bed by midnight”.
The box disgorged its several thousand components over our dining room floor and my grin faltered, just a little. “Perhaps not midnight”, I amended, “but not too much after.” By 1:30am Christmas day morning, amidst chaos and confusion, I decided to resort to the heretofore ignored and disdained instruction manual… “I’d better just check this…”
3:00am, peering through runnels of grease and tears of frustration, it dawns on me that the instructions provided were for a completely different bicycle, perhaps a penny farthing for all I know and the resemblance to reality it bore. You see, there were no diagrams, and the text had frustratingly been translated from Cantonese to Mandarin, to Swahili, ancient Sanskrit and Klingon, before arriving at “English”. There were tantalisingly familiar words, like ‘wheele’ and break kabel, to ensure perseverance, before realisation hit. Reaching for solace in the only thing close by, I sipped on a glass of sherry (sorry Santa, my need was greater than yours). After lobbing the instructions across the room, I spied Rudolph’s treat, and dearly wished the translator of said instructions was close by to act as the deserving receptacle of so large a carrot!
Which all leads in a roundabout way to some of the problems encountered by people and businesses who opt for some of the really cheap offers around now for graphic design services, especially logo design. Make sure you have all the information, instructions and files you will need as the proud owner of a brand new identity and logo. To avoid the headaches and frustrations (and extra costs) that will inevitably follow if you don’t have all you need, ask the designer or developer of your projects some key questions (and whether the options will cost extra):
There are other questions that should be asked for different types of projects, ie print products and websites, and I can address these in a future blog if you think it’s useful… let me know! It would also be good to know if anyone has experienced any problems along the lines of the questions above, or if I’ve missed anything that you may have experienced. I aim to collate a list of these issues encountered and put them onto our website as a resource.
PS: Over five hours to construct a bike, over five hours to get out of Sydney, round, and round, and round…
Well, perhaps didactic is too overblown a term, but what has Neil Diamond got to do with a graphic designer’s blog I hear you ask? (and I’m hoping someone will ask!).
At the risk of rambling too much (something a certain staff member accused me of recently–she hasn’t seen her pay check this week!) let me set the scene…
I was recently listening to a radio phone-in session, the topic being “iTunes shame”, ie what songs did you have in your iTunes library that perhaps you weren’t so proud of. That did make me cringe somewhat (more on that later), but after hearing the DJ’s discussions, and the samplings of shame-worthiness from listeners, it made me think about how much we like to poke fun at our predecessors, with the benefit of ‘progress’ and hindsight. One recording artist that (I think) received more than his fair share of derision was of course Neil Diamond. Despite the fact that I attended a Neil Diamond tribute concert not so many years ag
o, I’m not a dedicated fan of the Cracklin’ Rosie Crooner. However, the level of disdain I heard on the radio that chilly morning sent extra chills down my spine.
He was clearly a popular song writer and musician, or he wouldn’t have been so successful, with such longevity of career (and tribute bands!) and with so many of his songs so widely known and making their way into our culture. I have no doubt that his works influenced future song writers. Yet he was reviled. Why? Too soppy, too cheesy, not hip and so on, yet no-one accused him of being formula driven as so much of today’s ‘synthetic’ music so clearly is. I think he was to a degree a product of his times, yet he also created his own sound and style, rather than simply rehashing the other popular stuff of the times (think Beatles). I remember reading once that he ended up singing his own material, not because he was a singer or even wanted to be, but because he couldn’t find anyone who could sing his tunes in the way he wanted.
So times and music styles have moved on, but why do we feel the need to ridicule or revile highlights of yesteryear (with apologies to Mr Diamond, whose 2008 album was a chart topper in the US)? His creations still have relevance for us today, even if you don’t like his genre. There is always something to learn from successes (and failures of course) of the past. Which brings me to the world of graphic design, where I see a similar trend: disdain of what has gone before.
It’s easy to forget about the origins and history, and there is the danger of looking too far forward and the reliance upon the technology at hand. I’m a computer addict and wouldn’t like to go back to the ‘dark’ days of doing everything by hand (I really get a chill down my spine when I recall my battles with the old wax machines and their propensity to eat my artwork! nb: NOT a hair removal technique. More on this topic in an upcoming post). However, I do see designers ignoring some of the successes and failures of past design styles, as well as ignoring some of the more useful techniques and procedures, in favour of new trends and software. The thought processes that led to past great design movements seem to me to be lacking, and we’ve fallen into a habit of expecting the ‘puter to do the cerebral stuff for us, letting Photoshop filters (for example) generate the ideas instead of bending the software to OUR will and goals. What we end up with is, like our music industry, a plethora of formulaic, less than satisfying design, rather than individually tailored design solutions. So what? So, it can mean a website, book, whatever, can become a part of the already enormous visual blur and simply be lost. No deep emotional connection is ignited, no appeal, no message transmitted. Is this formulaic approach (as per the music industry) being driven by budgets? If (supposedly) there’s no money to spend, do we simply repurpose things we’ve done before for others, that we know work?
Which then begs the question, what’s more important: professional, individual and effective communication and marketing, or dollars?
ps: exactly why did I cringe when I first heard the iTunes shame discussion? There was NO WAY I was going to ring in, and admit to *gulp* having a Bay City Rollers song in my collection… somewhere.
Please join the conversation!