Noisy Decent Graphics

Why The Guardian didn't go tabloid

yIt's a well known fact that I don't like the Guardian redesign.

I still don't like it and in fact I like it less and less. There aren't enough columns and David Hillman doesn't like it either.

Still, as people keep pointing out to me, it won a D&AD Black Pencil - so what do I know?

Last year I met someone who used to work at The Guardian and this post the other day reminded me of a little tale.

One of the things that annoys me most about The Guardian is the size. It's neither tabloid like The Independent or The Times or a full broadsheet like The Telegraph. Apparently when they were working on the redesign, the editor used to have a presentation where he explained why they didn't go tabloid.

He took the front page of the tabloid Indy and the tabloid Daily Mail and swapped them around. Then he asked people which one was which.

So, let's play a little game.

Question A: Is this an Independent front page or a Daily Mail front page?

You see, he's got a point hasn't he?

Question B: Which one of these is a Daily Mail front page?

Question C: Which one is the real Independent front page?

Makes you think doesn't it? There you go - why The Guardian didn't go tabloid.

Apologies if you live outside of the UK and that post doesn't make any sense.

Tesco's Compostable Packaging

I was surprised and pleased to see this in Tesco the other day. I shouldn't really have been surprised. Morrisons launched compostable packaging back in January and Sainsbury's introduced it in September 2006. I can't find any info on Tesco's compostable packaging but they announced degradable plastic bags in May last year.

I thought it would be fun to watch how this degrades over the weeks on my compost heap, on my blog. Does that sound like fun to you? Thought not.

Project Tomo

Tom bought all of us these out of date disposable cameras. The out of dateness means we'll get weird and wonderful colour combinations. We've all got to take some pictures and report abck to Tom. Simple rules; no family pics.

Sounds great. Expect to see some of the results here.

Graphic design education is failing students

"If graphic design is a vocational subject, we are teaching too many students. But it isn't - it is a worthy academic subject. the trouble is, few degrees in graphic design come close to the intellectual rigour we should be demanding. Students deserve better."

"The graphic design programme I ran had around 300 students on it. No more than around 40% of them will ever become graphic designers."

"We need to ask serious questions in graphic design, if not in HE as a whole."

Interesting, relevant and valid even though it's from 2004. Take a look.

All the front pages from September 12th 2001

You might have seen this before, but if you haven't take a look. It's fascinating.

I KEN

Last Monday April and I went to visit the 3rd and 4th year Graphic Design at the Glasgow School of Art. It's a four year course because they include the foundation year.

What an amazing building to study in. (Actually Graphics aren't in here, Interior Design and Fine Art are, but still...). We were given a tour of this amazing Mackintosh building (sorry photos prohibited) which is still used as a working art college today. It was lovely to see the building still used as it was intended, not wrapped in cotton wool.

We hooked up with Glasgow at the D&AD Clinic thing last year (as we did Cardiff) and I'm really enjoying these little trips. I remember when we were at college and you were grateful for any outside visitors at all. Contact from the industry is vital. So we're trying to do some of these things to 'give a little back'.

We set the 3rd year a live project. That means a project from the 'real' world. I won't say what the project was because we're hoping to do it with some other colleges.

The studio was really well set up. A nice mix between a real studio and an art college. All the students worked brilliantly and really quickly. When they presented their ideas to us at 3pm there was nothing we couldn't have presented to the client. If that makes sense. Not bad for 5 hours work.

At Glasgow they have the most amazing case room full of lots and lots of lovely letterpress and some old Heidelbergs. Including some foot high wooden letterpress. I'd never seen letterpress that big before. Beautiful stuff. No photos, sorry.

At the end of the day we did a presentation on us. They seemed to like the work.

Lots of stuff painted on the walls and the floor, like Cardiff.

There are some more pictures here, if you like.

Something to remember about meetings

Just a little note; when you're moaning because you've got too many meetings, remember that it's infinitely preferable to not having any meetings.

Remember that. Thanks.

Sooner or later... everything digital becomes real.

As someone once said...

As some of you may have already noticed, Creative Review have published the Design Disease post in this month's issue (page 21, available in all good newsagents for just £5.70).

Patrick (the editor) contacted me a few weeks ago and asked if he could publish the post as an article. They've done a good job considering the way you structure a blog post is different to how you would structure a magazine article. They've even corrected the grammar.

If you've arrived here via Creative Review, welcome. The original Design Disease post is here and this is as good a place to start as any. You'll find some helpful FAQ's here.

Good afternoon.

Feeds

Does anyone know of a good ad-free widget or html thing that can display RSS feeds on an html page?

Something simple and editable. I don't mind paying for it.

"First we design the buildings, then the buildings design us."

Ace post, ace brief, ace photos

There are so many good things about this post from Richard. Have a read.

A decent car design

I saw this car at a thing I went to the other day. I fully intended to give you an in depth NDG review, but I kind of forgot.

No bother, Beeker was there and she will explain all.

 

Duck comes back from dead, again

The Design Disease Flickr Update

When I started the Design Disease Flickr group I wasn't really sure what would happen.

Over 200 photos and 80 members later we've got an amazing collection of images. Every single one of them fits the brief perfectly. Every single one of them taken by people who have the Design Disease.

Good work team. Keep it up. (If you haven't had a go, then dive in.)

Is this sustainable design? Discuss.

"All structural elements, switchgear and trim are made from fully recyclable materials. Better still, it is highly unlikely that your car will ever need recycling at all. After all, more than 60% of all Porsche vehicles ever produced are still on the road today. This exceptional longevity is fundamental to the Porsche philosophy and, in particular, our approach to the environment."

More here.

Only one weekend left

Posters, logos and stamps

There is a weird and wonderful interview with Michael Johnson over on BBC Radio York. Slightly surreal.

Michael is interviewed by Dr Rock. Yes, I said Dr Rock. He talks about graphic design and plays his 20 all time favorite tracks (Michael Johnson, not Dr Rock).

If I tell you that every time a computer is mentioned Dr Rock describes it as "space age" you'll get an idea of what the show is like. Well worth a listen. Michael also says that when taxi drivers ask him what he does he replies, "Posters, logos and stamps."

You have to listen before Sunday, so get clicking. Follow the ‘listen again’ link and click Dr Rock.

Alan Kitching at St Bride Library

(Before you get started, there are no apostrophes.)

I wasn't there, but a fellow Conspirator was, so here are some pictures. Even when I'm not around I strive to bring you the very best in Graphic Design news. Good eh?

 

Corrrr, isn't that lovely? A few more pics here.

Apparently it was packed and Alan was brilliant. Lots of lovely tales, he even got quite emotional at one point. He also said that print wasn't meant be perfect. Nice.

Did anyone else go?

 

 

"People don't want quarter-inch drills. They want quarter-inch holes."

Professor Theodore Levitt. Nothing new, I'm just storing it here. From this via Pink Air.

Green Tea

Here's some tea in my local supermarket. I can count 11 packaging designs that use green as the predominant colour.

This reminded me of a few things. A studio manager I once worked with told me his tutors had always told him never to do packaging in green. Never. I can't remember why, but think how much packaging is green these days. From Birds Eye frozen peas to all this organic stuff. Funny eh?

And secondly the term green. If your packaging / product is organic (as much of that tea is) or fair trade or recyclable or sustainable, does it have to be green? What stands out on that shelf. Nothing?

Williams Murray Hamm (of course) have designed the brilliant Clipper Teas which break away from the organic / green packaging standard.

Nice aren't they?

So is green out? Green would certainly communicate all those things (organinc, fair trade etc) to most people. Maybe the cliché needs to be stroked until it purrs like a metaphor.

Or do we just resort to nature's own brilliant colours as Jeffre suggests?

Again, I offer no answers. Just more rambling questions.