Things To Look At posts a lovely selection of graphs and charts from some old Graphis annuals.
Whatever happened to Graphis? Someone once said to me that it always felt as though the magazine had sat on the work for 2 years before they published it. Still, I've got some issues from the 80's which are cool.
All a bit last minute, but we've announced our first ever official placement scheme. Quite exciting really. The full details are down below.
When we moved into our new studio one of the things we wanted to do was start a proper, organised, placement scheme. This is it.
On Monday night we'll be at the D&AD New Blood Private View. We'll be walking round with a diary and some of these cards. If we like your work we'll book you in there and then. No messing around. No waiting. No bullshit interviews.
Don't email and don't ring, the only way to get a placement is to be at New Blood on Monday night. Placements will be for one week and you'll get travel expenses.
See you on Monday.
10 years ago the four designer founders of The Design Conspiracy were at the very same exhibition, so there's kind of a nice symmetry to it all.
When this launched I was on holiday. But, these days you can access the world media anywhere. Email on the move, internet on the train, news on the go, the Daily Mail in the hotel lobby.
I didn't blog about it at the time and I kind of thought my views would change with the hindsight that a few weeks gives you. I don't think my opinion has changed, nor has that of anyone else. I was actually invited to the launch event and lined up as a media commentator, but I couldn't make it due to the holiday pictured above. Given what I'm about to say, I think I'd have been on the TV all week.
I like the logo.
As Bono said, "there's been a lot of talk, maybe, maybe too much talk". He was talking about a song, I'm talking about a logo. For my money the best commentary on the whole thing was written by Mark over at the CR Blog.
So let's recap a little. David, really, really hates it. Claire Beale hates it. Beeker's receptionist is worried, Michael Johnson is crossing his fingers and Coudal Partners like what it isn't. Armin likes it and Bowbrick loves it. The Government isn't for turning and Wolff Olins don't ask to be liked. Which is just as well really. There's been a lot of talk about what could have been with, really, the only elegant suggestion being Daniel Eatock's. Although I doubt very much they'd let you do that with the rings.
In the Dead Tree Press the Daily Mail suggested it might grow on you with that special Daily Mail cynicism, the Tory Olympic spokesman called it "hideous" and asked "what do the rejected ones looks like?". Stephen Bailey (yes you read that right, Stephen Bailey) called it a "puerille mess, an artistic flop and a commercial scandal".
Before we continue I think that everyone agrees the 'london'' type is horrible. It is.
Mark's article is called, "Well, at least it doesn't have Big Ben on it". That's a valid point. How many 'British' 'Cool Britannia' 'London' logos have we seen in the Blair Years that have relied upon hackneyed, dated imagery of Big Ben, the Union Jack or Tower Bridge? Likewise how much Gill Sans has been expended in trying to recapture Beck's brilliance? To the rest of the world (and I mean the rest of all the world not just Europe and America) London and the United Kingdom do not mean Tower Bridge and Big Ben. Get over it.
Happily the logo also doesn't feature any jumping, ambiguous androgynous eunuchs like these terrible, lame things do. How the hell these 'bent hairpin designs' convey Olympic spirit is beyond me.
Suitably in this user generated world, hundreds of logo's have been sent in to the media. Most, if not all of them including jingoistic symbols and bent hairpins.
But it's not just the amateurs who are having a try, here's Tyler Brulé on BBC Breakfast slagging off the logo.
And here he is displaying (on very weak looking A4 foam core boards) some ideas his team had "knocked up" the night before. They were shocking as well.
Which brings me on to a wider point. Whether you like the logo or not the way our industry has responded to this has been dreadful. Using terms like "knocking up" on BBC air time don't help designers win more boardroom time. Not liking the logo is one thing, but comments like "£400k? My kid could have done better..." do every working designer a disservice. We all know that it's not a case of emailing Seb an eps and an invoice for £400k. We all know it's a poisoned chalice of a brief, we all know that £400,000 will include miles of implementation and we all know that the ad agencies and the management consultants are charging twice that.
London's Mayor Ken Livingstone even said he'd ask for his money back. If that's the case Ken, I'd like to have a word about a few elements of my council tax bill that I'm not entirely happy with.
A friend of mine used to work for a large accountancy practice in the north of England. He used to audit the books of several Premiership clubs and he reckoned that almost all football transfers were worth about a third of what the press had claimed the fee was. I've always thought it was the same for branding agency fees.
I haven't seen (and I may have missed it) anyone begin to defend the industry and it's processes. Next time you're working with a client who demands his money back after months of hard work, or disputes your already small fees - you've only got yourselves to blame, I'm afraid.
History is not a helpful reference point either.
Sure, the Munich one is gorgeous and so is the Mexico one, but that was 1972 and '19 something I can't quite read'. The thing that worries me is that left to most of the London based, Guardian reading, ironic tshirt wearing design community we would have ended up with another, yes another, HelveticaMunichWankFest, lauded by the design press and irrelevant to everyone else. Meaningless, stylistic rubbish. Graphic design at its worst.
I think it's important to remember, but not essential, that logo is aimed at a younger audience. Generally, the younger you get the less you hate it. For the purpose of this post I asked my 16 year old niece what she thought of it, "Err, it's OK. Not that bothered, really. Why? Did you do it?".
So, I'm pleased that we don't have any Helvetica. Pleased that we don't have any
Tower Bridges or any Big Bens. Pleased that Gill Sans hasn't been used again and pleased that some people don't like it.
What we have is the bravest Olympic logo in decades. A logo with an undeniable energy and an anti-establishment feeling that would be refreshing for any brand but is like an intravenous 10,000 volts for an Olympic logo.
Last, but not least, take a look at Terence Conran talking about the opening of the Royal Festival Hall in 1951. Another big public design project, another huge amount of money and another set of shocking headlines. I bet most of the people who hate the logo would enjoy a glass of wine on the balcony of the RFH.
OK, OK, that's a building and not a logo, but the point is that these huge design projects will always get negative press.
So there you go, I like it. Special thanks to all the people who have written in asking what I thought of the logo, I was strangely touched by all of that.
Remember Sky Magazine? Nothing to do with the TV channel but a magazine aimed at 16 - 21 years olds that was started in the late 80's. It went off the boil around '94 and died in 2001. April brought these old issues in for something we're working on. The covers are great aren't they?
Look at those covers. Not a pair of breasts on show! Decent (but not brilliant) portrait photography! Men and women! Real stars, as opposed to semi-naked Big Brother stars! Sky also featured decent articles about social and political stuff that didn't read about elsewhere it you were 15. It was brilliant.
Those covers have a nice, simple, strong graphic style that stood out on the news stand.
Great dps' like this Lisa Stansfield one. Simple and distinctive. Confident.
Ever listened to a phone call over and over again?
Looking through I stumbled across this ad. I loved that ad. It seemed to make so much sense, it was so true. I guess it wouldn't be the same now with txt messaging an all. But at the time I guess that's what you call an insight?
Anyway. Sky Magazine - bloody great covers.
Picture kindly borrowed from Russell, hope you don't mind
Does anyone know any Air Traffic Controllers? I'd like to speak to one.
Does anyone know anyone who works at Porsche? Probably someone in the Communications team as I'd like to talk to them about this.
If you do, would you be ever so kind and let me know via ben at thedesignconspiracy dot com, thanks.
That was bloody good, wasn't it?
Lots of people keeping saying "I'm sure many people will write a lengthy review of Interesting so I'll keep it short". Welcome, my friends, to the long, unedited, directors cut, full length review of Interesting 2007. Well, a bit longer than most at any rate.
Yes, Simon, more chairs.
The Hall was beautiful. It seemed to be constantly bathed in a lovely dappled sunlight. It wasn't of course, but it just felt that way. The bunting was great. The colours of the chairs perfectly in harmony with the hues of the soft drinks and the wooden floor. That kinda colour co-ordination takes a lot of hard work.
The really nice thing about Interesting 2007 was the attitude of the thing was matched by the attitude of the people. Easy going, happy, grateful, friendly and pliable. Everyone and everything; pliable. I thought everyone just got it. Nothing needed explaining. No one needed telling. Everyone found the right way to do things.
Easy going, happy, grateful, friendly and pliable.
There were some really lovely touches. In fact they were everywhere you looked. And it wasn't a PlannersphereWankFest either. Whilst there were lots of people who knew each other, there were loads who didn't. Which was a good thing.
Going back to pliable, the British randomness of the running order worked like a dream. You couldn't have planned that. In fact it's the kind of thing that would have been destroyed by a committee sat around trying to plan a Muppet talking after the editor of The Spectator. It just worked because it just worked.
It was great to see people collect their tshirts. People were really pleased to get them. That was nice.
People loved the vinyl too.
Personally I loved the three minutes talks. They had an energy that is missing from all traditional presentations and conferences. I found myself saying that the 20 minute ones were too long, but that's an absurd thing to say. The different pace of the speakers was really charming too.
I can't write about all the speakers. I'd like to, but I can't. Really, I can't. So, here's my Top 5. It's my personal Top 5 and in no way means that someone I've missed was rubbish. Someone's gotta be 6th, as Enid Blyton used to say.
DANGER. NO FLOOR.
1. Dave Funny Pancake Showed some of his brilliant photos. Just side splittingly hilarious. He could still be speaking now and I'd still be laughing. No big tricks, just 200 photos and humour. Genuine fun for all the family. He should tour. Brilliant.
2. Rhodri Marsden Played the saw. Or rather he made that saw sing to within an inch of it's jagged life. In a good way. Watch the video here. So good I played it over the studio stereo this morning. And again and again. And what a choice of song too. Brilliant.
3. Fiona Romeo Spoke about how they created The Science Of Spying exhibition. I really, really want to go to this exhibition but I keep missing it. So this was the next best thing. But more than that, I learnt stuff. The two second learning in public rule for example. Brilliant. And she used the logo in her ppt.
4. Anne I Like Was a 3D version of her lovely blog. You knew she'd be good didn't you? She was. David helped her design the postcards too. Brilliant.
5. Beeker - Shared what the Muppets and Ibsen had taught her. I don't really know/like the Muppets. And I've no idea who the Dutch bloke was, but Beeker really made this come alive. Touching without being soppy. In depth without being boring. Funny without being stand up. Interesting. Brilliant.
"You're all adults, it's only £20, so, you know, don't complain."
Russell asking the audience to be kind.
"That's Marcus. Do you know him, he's dead. Well, he used to be dead."
Clare trying to explain to a startled helper about Marcus.
"But I am dead."
Marcus' response when I told him the above story.
"Thanks. I'm doing a 20 minute slot."
Matt's response when I told him I thought the 20 minute ones were too long.
"The Muppets were only interested in the lower numbers."
Beeker telling us about Muppet snobbery.
"Knots were invented by Witches."
Tom deconstructs and reinvents history again and again and again.
I've got loads and loads to say about the graphics, but that will be another day and another post.
* The longest review yet of Interesting2007 sits nicely at here.
And I saw a Constable too. All part of a campaign called The Grand Tour by the National Gallery, "A collection of priceless paintings set free around the streets of London".
Pretty bloody good it is too. More details here.
I got sent some lovely things in the post the other day. First up this letter from Craig at The Chase. He's doing a project to highlight the fact that we don't see much hand writing any more. He asks me to write something (anything) on our company letterhead and post it back to him. So that's what I'm gonna do. What do you think I should write?
Secondly I got sent some ace Moo cards from the wonderful Ghost School. I also got a specially hand drawn horseman warrior soldier thing. Pretty fucking cool, eh?
Picture taken by dotx3 (usual stuff applies) and taken from the always interesting, always inspiring and always surprising Design Disease Flickr pool.
Copyright London's Transport Museum and probably loads and loads of other people. No harm intended.
A complete classic from the late, great Mr Abram Games. I just thought I'd have a little look again. Nice isn't it?
The Postopolis! thing that Dan has organised (with some others) looks fucking brilliant.
Picture borrowed from Dan. Usual stuff applies.
It's in New York which is a good start. Dan is blogging it here and the talks seem fascinating. More fascinating than they look on paper, and I mean that in a really good way.
If you're not in New York then you can follow the proceedings through Dan's blog. Already there's a brilliant post about what's happening in NYC right now including the Militarily induced sexual tension (there's a link you won't be able to resist clicking on). There's Robert Krulwich who talks about framing and how the media use and abuse space, including some illustrations from a craftily arranged political "crowd".
There's Tobias Frere-Jones who's photographed over 40,000 bits of street typography in New York.
"A favourite sign is that of the Manhattan Railway Co., which ran the elevated trains in New York. Frere-Jones notes that the last El was torn down 50 years ago, yet the lettering is still there - on Division St".
And there's also Stanley Greenberg who photographs things like New York's water system. Amazing stuff. I wish I was there.
1. You're all ego.
2. Has his Prius broken down? - No, his Hummer.
3. Only half a dozen mills left in this country.
4. I thought you meant me; small, sweaty and hot.
5. You need to adapt to the new generation, son.
6. Wait until June? Why? Will it be cheaper?
7. I ought to make up some words.
8. Visuals. For. The Internet.
9. I don't want to upset you. - Well don't then.
We're beginning to screen print the Interesting tshirts in earnest this week.
Yes, I said, "in earnest".
Thanks to all the people who've already sent one in. If you'd like one (and you would like one, trust me) then get sending 'em asap. Time is running out. We haven't issued a cut off date yet, but obviously we won't be printing on the 15th June.
So pop down to your local Post Office and get sending.
In my first job they used to take me to a lot of meetings. This was a novelty as they'd never taken an art director to meetings before, it was always the CD or the deputy CD.
They took me for two reasons; firstly I can pronounce most words properly and secondly they had a bit of an image problem and wanted to show off the youngest member of staff. My role in these meetings was to sit there and say nothing.
Time after time I found myself listening to utter rubbish and wanting to blurt out, "but why don't you" or "you ought to do it like" but never saying anything. Almost every time someone would say what I was thinking and the assembled marketing brains would nod in approval. How I wished I'd spoken up.
So, if you're thinking something in a meeting - say it. Chances are everyone else is thinking it too.
The colours of the flags of the world as pie charts. Via the wonderful infosthetics.
So Thursday night saw the annual D&AD Awards.
First off, let's get the complaints out the way. I know you may think it's harsh to criticise what is obviously a very difficult event to organise with an impossible to please audience, but a little bit of constructive feedback never did anyone any harm.
The food was bollocks, the ceremony was too long, the bloody water wasn't free and the price is too much.
I don't actually think the price is too high, just that I think you need to get more for your money. I'm sure it's an expensive event to put on but to me it doesn't feel like a £300 bash. I hate all types of food (I wish I didn't have to eat at all, eating is a major interruption in my day) but sushi doesn't exactly feel like value for money, does it?
The ceremony will always be too long, I don't know what they can do about that. Tony and Dara O'Briain went as fast as they could. Lastly, surely it's not too much to ask for a free glass of tap water?
Moan over.
As you've probably worked out (you're a clever lot) Dara O'Briain was the celebrity host. As w+k say, he broke with tradition by being very funny. His joke about buying a mobile phone was spot on and he berated one lad for not bothering to take the stage to get a silver but bounding up to collect a gold. That said, I'm never sure why they need a host at all? (Surely there are enough egos in the audience who could host an awards ceremony?) Usually the President is good enough to stand up and host. Tony has been great at all the other talks and stuff and I think he could have done a good job all on his own.
Two golds and 59 silvers. CR Blog got the scoop on the full awards list.
D&AD Celeb host in "actually funny" shock
This nice chap from Qubibi (sorry, didn't catch his name) was sat on our table and won an award for this website. Well done.
Those pencils look nice, don't they?
This picture above is what it looks like behind the scenes, after all the pencils have been given out. You see, here at NDG we constantly strive to reach the parts other media can't quite stretch to. No need to thank us.
Wacky design and advertising types messing around with the letters.
As you know I judged Writing For Design and I also did Black Pencil judging. Black Pencil judging (like silver) is secret so you don't know what's going to win until the night. I guessed that the Concrete Shelters, the War illustrations and the Nintendo Wii would win. One out of three.
A good time had by all. More pictures on Flickr. Read the view from one of the organisers here.
I was talking to a hairdresser the other day. Talking in an 'over the Gold Blend at a dinner party' kind of way, not in a 'where are you going on holiday' kind of way. He said when he says he's a hairdresser the two questions he always gets asked are; are you gay and what would you do with my hair?
So, when you tell people you're a graphic designer, what's the first question you get asked?
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