Noisy Decent Graphics

“The world is fucked… We’re not going to kern our way out of this one.”

"But he knew there was a fight to be had, and that designers had to move away from self-satisfied ‘smiles in the mind’ or the obsession with type as fetishised object. Or, as Nic once put it to me so eloquently:

“The world is fucked… We’re not going to kern our way out of this one.” "

From My favourite Flatlander: remembering Nic Hughes by Matt Ward.

 

 

Action 5

There are 13 others. 

"what you need isn't graphic design it's whatever else. Or maybe nothing."

I love this and I also love Michael Bierut's quote in the previous post. "...beset with factors with have nothing to do with design excellence. You know, real life."

The thing that annoys me most about most graphic designers is their inability to think outside of their own sphere of reference. The client, or customer, user, human, whatever, will have many things on their mind, graphic design is only one of them. A problem that requires graphic design to solve it will seldom ONLY require graphic design to solve it. It's just one weapon in the amoury. As Ken says, what you need may be less graphic design, or maybe even no graphic design at all. Something else. Or as Michael says, "you know, real life."

This also references (at least) two our Design Principles. Do less and Do the hard work to make it simple.

I guess the crux of what Ken is saying here, is that the problem with graphic design and graphic designers is that they aren't willing to say "You don't need this." And this is more than just making design simple, it's about questioning whether we actually need to do this project in the first place. User needs, if you like. 

And there's loads more I could write. But, you know.

Picture taken from Richard's Instagram which is a picture of the new Unit Editions book on Ken Garland. Ken Garland, not Kenneth Grange. Both good.

 

Michael Bierut on Design Criticism as a Spectator Sport

"And like any business situation of any complexity whatsoever, that process may be smothered in politics, handicapped with exigencies, and beset with factors with have nothing to do with design excellence.

You know, real life."

Good. Worth a read (although I wish Design Observer was easier to read.)

it's not complicated; it's just hard

A good blog post from Russell. He's right.

 

Back Good Night Lamp on Kickstarter

When I wrote about Good Night Lamp last year it got a lot of postive reaction on Twitter.

You can now back it on Kickstarter.

Good Night Lamp on Kickstarter from Good Night Lamp on Vimeo.

 

New message style for Little Printer

There's a fab new message style available on BERG Cloud for Little Printer. Sadly it's not called Wham! it's called Poster.

I don't have a Little Printer, but I do like sending my friends messages via BERG Cloud. Like this one.