Personal Manifesto

Have a reason
Concept is the most important element. Without a thought behind the design it will not be useful to anyone.

Simplify
You want the ideas to stand out, don’t hide them in frivolous decorations.

Be consistent, but not predictable
Maintaining style through out multiple pieces to a campaign while still making them varied to continue interest.

Be yourself 

Laugh
Don't forget that design can be fun, often humour will help you get through the process.


Learn from others
You can learn so much not just from designers, but everyone you come into contact with. Use this to learn, and grow your designs.

Question everything
Be curious, you can never know too much. You never know when a piece of information will help influence a future design. Look at the world through as many different perspectives as possible to help you relate to different target markets.

Stop procrastinating
The more work you produce, the more you will learn

Procrastinate more
Sometimes however, you need to step away from a project to allow the ideas to percolate in your mind.

Don’t be afraid of white space

Read, re-read the brief
The solution is in the question, being familiar with what you are being asked to do will allow the answers to come more easily.

Save often and back everything up
Technology is great, but it will fail. Be prepared and it will save you a great deal of grief.

Find inspiration everywhere
Go for a walk, talk with friends, learn new things, and look at the same things in different ways. Inspiration is all around you.

Sleep on it
Sometimes the best thing you can do when you’re not sure what to do with a design is to sleep on it. Come back to it tomorrow with fresh eyes and a fresh perspective.

Do it all over
Sometimes mid-design I will have a completely different idea for a project that I realize is much better then the previous one. Instead of trying to salvage the work that has already been done (if time allows) completely changing direction can be a fresh new design that works.

Qualities of contemporary Designers

This semester class has been talking about contemporary designers. The four main designers we’ve looked at are Marion Bantjes, Bruce Mau, Stefan Bucher, and Stefan Sagmeister. These designers are all well known in their field; one thing they all do that is similar is only working on projects they believe in. This is an important moral to have both because it turns out better work as well as makes you more personally fulfilled.  

Marion Bantjes even did a TED talk explaining how she used to do work that was just that “work”. Then she switched over to doing only things that are more personal to her. She noted that she got a positive result from doing this, which I found very interesting. 

Stefan Sagmeister also uses very personal inspiration to produce his work. He gets insight from his diary or the many lists that he makes for his own personal reflection. 

Stefan Bucher follows suit by creating his monsters out of inkblots and creating a super bowl logo for nerds. Using a sense of humour, it is obvious that he enjoys these tasks.     

Bruce Mau has created a manifesto that outlines his personal beliefs about what should or shouldn’t be done in design and during the process of creating. These include advice such as taking field trips to experience the world around you rather then being cooped up indoors at your computer. He also says that he uses laughter as a barometer to see how comfortable his employees are working in his studio. This is a good indication that they are enjoying the work that they do. 

Another quality these designers have in common is that they are well organized. This quality manifests itself in different ways between the designers.  Stefan Sagmeister creates many lists of all aspects of his life for example he talks about a list he made of times when he was truly happy. This again he used to make billboards for a project. Bruce Mau in his manifesto talks about organization being equal to liberty. He says that all design happens within context. These are important qualities to mimic if trying to break into the graphic design field. Doing work that is personal to you will keep you interested and thus produce a stronger result. Marinating organization is important to help you stay on task as well as to produce designs that make the information more accessible. For instance when a grid is used to sort out the different elements in a design. This gives an underlying structure that improves the reader’s ability to absorb what is being presented.

Letter to Stefan G. Bucher

Dear Stefan Bucher,

This week I saw your presentation from the AIGA 2009 conference make/think. I found it interesting how you rated yourself closer to the think side but that you would prefer to be on the make side of the rainbow.  I guess we always want what we don’t have. I find that I go back and forth between the two sides depending on the project. Sometimes I just want to jump into a project, which causes it’s own problems. This can be problematic because it is important to have the ideas behind what you are creating or it will not communicate the proper message to it’s target. Sometimes I take a similar approach to you and let that instinct take over and tire it out then come back and think about why I’ve done the piece that way and if it says the right things. Sometimes it’s an interesting way to see what presumptions you have about a particular subject. Then you can see which elements work or which you would like to take a different approach to. Other times though I am closer to the think side of the spectrum and I make word charts, mood boards, ask questions, and try to get as much thinking in as I can before choosing a direction. Both sides have their positive and negative attributes; neither is better or worse just different.

Thank you for the inspiration,

Leanne

War Child

 

War Child Campaign

The campaign involved the posters seen above as well as a viral youtube video about people who were supporting war children but not in the conventional way, by sending guns and knitting ski masks for the children. This was to send the message that if you are not part of the solution, you are a part of the problem. This got a huge response through social media as well as helping to drive viewers to the war child site. As part of the campaign they also had a launch event at a gallery to gain attention.

Target market
The primary target for these ads is a Canadian adult age 35-50. Middle to upper class, as a great deal of the campaign was online, which suggests that the audience must have a disposable income to afford this technology. This makes sense for their company because obviously if you don’t have the money to support yourself you would not be able to help others.

Cultural Themes
John st., the advertising agency that created the campaign noticed that Canadians are not donating money or volunteering their time to war children. They decided to show an apathetic audience that if you’re not helping the problem you are contributing to it.

What you learned
I like how the posters aren’t your typical charity advertisement with sad pictures of children that while emotional don’t work because nobody wants to look at them so it’s that much harder to get someone to read the information. This gets your attention by being out of the norm (The bright red background doesn’t hurt either). Then when you read the ad, it forces you to think about the sad truth about war children. This ad increased war childrens’ volunteer base by an amazing 80%, and in a time of recession when most charities are seeing a decrease in donations war child received an increase of 50%. This shows that using a smart creative approach you can completely change how an audience sees an issue.

This past week we kept track of how much media we used. This is the result of a typical week of media use for myself.

Design Is...

Design is finding a visual solution that can be universally understood.

Design Developement

The design process varies slightly from person to person. For myself the evolution starts as soon as I receive a new project. Sometimes I have ideas swirling around in my brain instantly, other times I have to think harder about what I want to accomplish before a solution becomes evident. Here is how I go through the process of getting a design completed.

Getting the initial ideas:
- Read the brief
- Make notes about any ideas that happen off the bat or about specific requirements the client has
- Do thumbnails of concepts ( I like to make thumbnails before I do any research so that I can get these ideas out of my head before I am influenced by other designs)
- Research the subject and look at related design pieces
- Make more thumbnails

Designing:
- At this point I proceed to the computer to make a rough digital design
- Refine design
- Do test prints
- Walk away from the design for a day or two if possible
- Refine design
- Print (assuming it’s print work)

If I hit a creative road block:
- do other projects and come back to it later
- go for a walk, or do yoga (some sort of physical activity)
- research both similar and completely unrelated design for inspiration
- Go out with friends to distract myself from the problem at hand