“almost all graphic designers i’ve ever met will state up front that their purpose in life is the make the world ‘more beautiful.

so, when they think of those “publisher’s clearing house” mailers, they get angry and offended by them. they always say something like “oh, i wish they would DO SOMETHING about them!” as if they were an insult to the design profession.

the truth of those mailers (like the ‘house’ brand) is that they have studied it very carefully. few things in the advertising world have been studied as well as direct mail. those ugly packages WORK.

at one point, the PubClearHouse folks decided to ‘improve’ the design and ‘appearance’ of the mailer. they even hired a big shot design studio to do it. they cleaned it up and made it look real pretty. they were mailed out and the response DROPPED dramatically. it was a disaster. so, the next year, they went back to the old ugly look. sales were suddenly better than ever. lesson learned.”

Read the rest on Art’s facebook.

Michael: Is this your position:absolute ?
3 minutes ago ·

Me: Yes, this position IS absolute. It is not a position: relative. And it will NOT float: left or float: right.

Michael: Your points are clear:both of them.

Notice there are 6 columns here, 3 per page. The outside columns are left blank to serve as the margins. The gutter between the two pages is thin, as the 2 text blocks on either side are pushed together in the middle. What you start to see is that there are 3 designs occuring here: Each page has 2 text columns that are perfectly balanced on the page. Not only that, looking at everything together you see that the entire 2 page spread is harmoniously arranged.

The spread is not crammed full of information: at least half of the surface is untouched by ink. This allows the design to “breathe.” It makes the content on the page more important and eye catching. Even though you probably can’t read this language, you want to sit and look at it. That is perfect design: It needs no improvement.

Our books today traditionally have a single wide text column on each page. I wouldn’t mind seeing some of those broken in two like this. Of course, magazines make use of this extensively, using 2 and 3 columns per page. But magazines also tend to over-crowd.

These typefaces, the paper, the density, the uneven quality of the ink: All these elements come together to give us an example of lush typography from the 16th century.

Look how the margin notes wrap into the text column (especially apparent in the second image). We could apply this to current design projects just as you see it, or in other ways too. What other secondary or tertiary design elements could be allowed to “impede” on the territory of the top-level heirarchy?

Click each image to view a large version.

Source: Fromoldbooks.org.

]]> http://www.designartculture.com/2009/06/24/16th-century-typography-the-geneva-bible-london-1581/feed/ 1 http://www.designartculture.com/2009/02/13/designers-jail-break-your-freebies-and-let-the-community-use-them/ http://www.designartculture.com/2009/02/13/designers-jail-break-your-freebies-and-let-the-community-use-them/#comments Fri, 13 Feb 2009 18:36:56 +0000 Jesse N. http://www.designartculture.com/?p=336 One of my favorite websites is SmashingMagazine. Rarely a day goes by without them posting a great article on design or a collection of free downloads (fonts, photoshop brushes, patterns, icons, etc).

In a recent post, they had a collection of free Photoshop patterns. When I went to download some, I found the majority were rendered useless by pattern creators throwing attribution (“you must link to my site if you use this”) or permission-only (“email me before you use commercially”) clauses.

It reminded me of the rise and fall of the Stock.Xchng.. a photosharing site where photographers would upload stock-style photographs for free download and use. In 2004, Stock.Xchng was great… but then something started to happen. Photographers began putting these attribution and permission clauses on almost every good photo. The whole point of the website: If you give me some free photos, I’ll give you some free photos, had been lost.

Sometimes it is good to share just for sharing’s sake.. all of us designers post a few things here and there without restriction (except that someone doesn’t resale the collection), and we all have more tools to use in our work.

In 3 years, if I choose a pattern, font or photo out of the thousands on my computer and throw it over an element in my design, I won’t be able to dig around and figure out who I am ‘required’ to link back to in order not to violate the copyright.

Plus, what bank, corporation, government agency or business is going to allow the designer to throw “Random square pattern barely visible in background of contact form by [link]PhotoshopPWNRdood[/link]“? They won’t, therefore the pattern is completely useless for downloaders.

I quickly check the Terms of Use on each freebie I consider downloading, see if there is an attribution or ‘ask permission’ clause, and if there is, I have to skip it. When I post my own freebies, I un-cuff them and let the community use them, knowing others will do the same and it will benefit me. These designers should do the same. If you want credit and money, then please just sell your work.. but don’t tease us with a free download that is anything but.

If Budweiser was in command of funny, smart and memorable advertising in the 90’s, and Geico ruled the mid 2000’s, the crown has now passed to “The King,” Burger King’s new(ish) mascot. Most memorable from Budweiser were the “Bud-Wei-Ser” frogs, whom they followed with the “Wazzzzzup!” campaign. Geico’s Gecko transformed them from being the drab General Insurance Company to being THE Geico.com. They turned funny into an advertising art form with the Geico Cavemen, a campaign that was so successful it warranted a TV sitcom spin-off. Recently, that campaign has gotten stale, partly because of the sitcom’s flop, but also because it is showing its age and running out of jokes.

Burger King, on the other hand, has been taking a multi-faceted approach, with several funny TV campaigns running concurrently, supported by viral documentary-style videos (with supporting websites) and social networking campaigns.

The King

Always with that creepy, unchanging expression, The King wakes up in bed with men, or pops up like a stalker from the other side of a window, or delivers huge tackles on football players, among many other things. He’s the best at whatever he does, especially when it comes to being a memorable mascot.

The Whopper Freakout

The Whopper Freakout campaign was led with introductory TV commercials that drove viewers to online videos. Hidden cameras showed Burger King customers being given flagship sandwiches from competing fast food restaurants and then taping their response. There is no better way to illustrate “We have the best sandwich” then showing unwitting customers screaming at Burger King managers and cashiers over a Big Mac.

Burger King’s Flame Body Spray

Completely gratuitous and unexpected, Burger King released (or pretended to release?) a body spray that smells like grilled meat. Add a website with sultry 70’s style funk and you’ve got an email-link-to-everyone winner.

Whopper Virgins

The perfect taste test. Burger King flew in people who had never touched or tasted Big Macs or Whoppers before, filmed their trial, and put it on the web for all to see. Taste testing is a worn out form of advertising: with thousands of coffee, beer and food commercials doing the same thing over and over (usually with actors). However, the authenticity of this campaign cut through all that history and created something wholly believable.

And For the Win: The Whopper Sacrifice

This viral campaign was so hip, so hilarious and so successful that Facebook felt obliged to axe it on their system. Not only did the campaign successfully get the word out about free Whopper coupons, it poked snarky fun at the foundations of social networking. By deleting 10 friends from your Facebook profile, each of whom gets a message telling them a Whopper is more important than their friendship, you get a free Whopper coupon. Who doesn’t have 10 friends on their profile they could live without?

We all have favorite album covers. Sometimes, this affection leads us to look at the full range of design that composes a recording artist’s “brand.” Whenever I see interesting music design, I am always most interested in what that designer is doing when they aren’t working for a client. Almost all music designers have an expansive collection of fine art which is often just as interesting as what they are doing for bands. This is natural, because music graphics are a very equal blend of functional design with conceptual art.

In this gallery, it should be noted that some of these designers, such as Shepard Fairey and Idris Khan, are known primarily as artists, not graphic designers. But again, the line between the two in this industry is very fine.

Rob Sheridan, Nine Inch Nails
www.rob-sheridan.com

Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth

Headache

We Could Build a Better Robot, If We Only Had Arms

Eduardo Recife, Panic! at the Disco
www.misprintedtype.com
www.eduardorecife.com

Panic! at the Disco T-Shirt

The Truth

The Art of Losing

Lost Paradise

New Heights by Eduardo Recife

Shepard Fairey, Smashing Pumpkins
www.obeygiant.com

Smashing Pumpkins, Zeitgeist

Mujer Fatal Mural

No, I’m Vegetarian

Duality of Humanity

Big Brother City

Stanley Donwood, Radiohead
www.slowlydownward.com

In Rainbows

Amnesiac

United States

Residential Nemesis

Meteor Oligarchy

Glass House Disaster

Idris Khan, Editors

An End Has a Start

every…Page of the Holy Koran

every…Bernd and Hilla Becher Spherical Type Gasholders

every…William Turner Postcard from Tate Britain

Note:
Obviously, this is just scratching the surface of the vast pool of music designers out there creating great fine art. However, putting together a gallery like this takes a great deal of time. I plan on revisiting the subject again, and recommendations are welcome.

I don’t think anyone would argue that 2001-2008 was a rough patch in American politics and policy, regardless of whether you voted for George W. Bush. Because of this, the pendulum swings to the opposite of what Bush represents: Even 2008’s Republican candidate John McCain didn’t beat down the White House door to get Bush to campaign for him.

However, regardless of what these 8 years were like, something is amiss in the art/design community and their embrace of Barack Obama.

The above image, by Shepard Fairey, is the most ubiquitous. Fairey is the creator of Obey, a popular street art project/brand.

But Fairey isn’t the only painter or street artist making iconographic and emotionally charged Obama posters. Obama imagery, rooted in the style of Soviet and Chinese propaganda posters, have become commonplace everywhere from Street/Low Brow art powerhouses, like Juxtapoz, to popular graphic design publications, like Design Observer.

Despite individual political views, it can rationally be argued that Obama would provide better leadership than what we have seen recently. However, Barack Obama is still a politician. He is a politician that represents one of two extremely wealthy, powerful and deeply rooted political parties that have held control of US law and policy for the majority of this country’s history.

One of the most alarming aspects of the modern political climate is the recent growth of fervent political fundamentalism. This has created a polarization of the population, both sides of which earnestly believe that their views represent absolute truth while the other side is inherently subversive. Propaganda seeks to utilize this zeal in order to acheive an end, and in doing so, it pushes the masses away from reason and encourages blind, emotional adherence to political doctrine.

Regardless of how bad you feel the last presidency was, designers and artists should be universally suspicious of iconographic imagery that supports a major-label political player by pulling at the emotions of the audience, rather than presenting them with facts and logic. Those politicians have their own marketing departments that are already saturating the public space with emotional appeal in the form of TV commercials, billboards and viral videos. However, the  campaign machines just can’t do it as expertly as the sharp-witted independent artist, working for free without deadline or supervision.

Anyone who has studied art and design, whether in a University or on the streets and railroad tracks of a sprawling metropolis, should find propaganda inherently sinister, regardless of who it supports or what that person stands for. Yet some would argue that the last presidency was so damaging to civil rights, foreign relations and the general state of the nation/world that a change in leadership must be enacted by any means possible. However, when the thinking people of a nation lower themselves by seeking to sway the mob using hype, icons and emotional appeal, that nation has not changed or improved. Instead, intelligence and reason–those things that we struggle so hard to attain–lose yet again. The only winner is emotionalism, which, by simply changing the focus of its blue or red Pantone colored gaze, stays the course.