Like Forbes noted, here’s to bringing democracy to a… snooty business. 
Have an extraordinary 2010!
Glaser once noted that looking for ethics in the field of design is like looking for cabbage in a butcher’s shop. And if you’re the kind of person who looks for cabbage for a living, yes, that make sense.
But clients, for instance, they hate cabbage. Figuratively, of course. All they want is grilled cheese, fries and a large coke. And can you blame them. Read More
‘Like bears, beating on tin drums, trying to move the stars for pity’. That’s Flaubert at his finest, right there. Though he didn’t exactly have designers in mind, when he wrote it.
What he did have in mind, however, were frauds. Well, not just frauds. Everybody. There were no designers back then, mind you. So all he had to go on was our passion for the extraordinaire.
And, in many ways, design is just that: a passion for the extraordinaire. For making things stand out, somehow. Read More
Whenever I need to laugh at the absurdities of life, I just think ‘Twitter’. By that I don’t mean Twitter is useless. Or deconstructive. Or pure garbage. No.
In this case, absurdity is more than just living with an iron rod in your skull for a good 10 years. More than the equivalent of ‘miraculous’ in medical terms. It’s thinking your job as a graphic designer is going places.
Check this out:There’s this guy over in Japan, who designs the 7 $ Twitter logo. Obviously, the logo is now presumably worth more than 7 $, what with the the free publicity and the hype—plus everybody joining in like rats leaving a sinking ship. But he (Simon Oxley, graphic designer of Japan based fame) really got paid just the 7 $. That’s because—as you may already know—the Twitter logo is stock illustration.
Oxley has argued that Twitter is mostly using his illustrations in lieu of key visuals. That it’s not really their logo. And, more importantly, that they’re not selling items (i.e. making a solid buck) branded with his work. Poor, poor Simon.
So I guess this goes out to all graphic designers reading this. You may work hard, and get paid good money for it. But in reality, some random guy will get 7 $ for something far more successful than your best designs. This is how it works.
That’s right, I said it.
Not only is speculative work (spec) not evil—it’s here to stay. And people in new media, advertising, or, for lack of a better term, the creative industry, better get used to it.
For those of you just joining us, spec work is when you submit your visuals or copy to a client—without signing a contract or agreeing a fee for your work in advance. While, sometimes, it pays off, sometimes it doesn’t. Most of the time, though, (as you probably know) it’s not looking pretty at the end.
Your apples. Know them.