‘Legibility, in practice, amounts simply to what one is accustomed to. But this is not to say that because we have got used to something demonstrably less legible than something else would be if we could get used to it, we should make no effort to scrap the existing things.’
A few years ago we were set a project at university to design a typographical calendar. It was a project in our final year of BA at Nottingham Trent University. There was a few comments that I knew something about typography, but I didn’t, and I actually still don’t really. I still get confused between sans and sans serif. Not because I’m a bit thick but because I have the same issue when I introduce two friends from different camps. I usually forgot one or both of their names; truth.
I digress. I decided I needed to go away and learn something about typography, beyond kerning, leading, picas and points. So I read books. Lots of them. I spent the first week of a two week project in the library reading, making notes and reading some more. I wrote an essay. I used pieces of the essay as passages on the calendar. It was an ok project, the work was, for the time, not bad. I cannot find it to show you. The point is that Eric Gill’s quote about Legibility was a revelation. It didn’t change my life, but it made sense and it stuck.
More recently I’ve been considering that the quote is applicable to life, and particularly my life here in Norway. So I’ve changed it to ‘Understanding amounts simply to what one is accustomed too’. Living in Norway is new, and I’m getting used to it, but I had not considered the little things like reading newspapers, watching TV, listening to radio. Also going food shopping is different; I love cooking and I like food shopping. Norway is not famed for it’s food, cuisine or fresh produce. Don’t get me wrong, the shops are fine, but when you’ve spoiled yourself with Waitrose…
All of a sudden social networking has become even more important to me. I wouldn’t say I use it more or less, but it is my only constant connection to friends, family and happenings. That sounds dramatic, but I have to be thankful for these things. Imagine living away from everything that you understand and not having anything to communicate but perhaps the ability to write a letter and then maybe, just maybe, get one back months later.
I don’t use this site for talking about my private life, but this entry is not actually far off topic. As a designer I’ve spent the last ten years designing and communicating and now I am unable to do that at my usual rate. Most people in Norway speak very good English, which might sounds like it voids what I have written. But it doesn’t. When you cannot communicate properly you adjust the way in which you communicate. It’s unusual, but challenges are just that – a challenge and you either strive to meet head-on or you let them beat you. I’m aiming for the former direction. He says, like some ‘personal mind trainer’.
What has become more important than before is this; blogging, twittering, facebook – it’s honestly about making those connections.
My suspicions of design conferences is partly (mostly) because I am jealous. Jealous that I cannot get to some, or afford them but mostly that I’m not invited to talk at them. This only compounds the sinking realisation that I’ve not done what I set out to do – make a noticeable difference with my creativity and be recognised for it. Not for fame or any kind of celebrity status, but acknowledgment from my piers. I appreciate that this must be earned and right now I’m still trying.
That said… I got an email last week from the lovely Vanessa Eckstein, who runs Bløk Design in Mexico City. I’ve never met her, or heard of her before that email, but we ‘know’ one another now. The email informed me that she was speaking at this years ‘Design Thinkers’ conference in Ontario, Canada. I looked at the site. The list of speakers is mighty impressive, and if I could afford to go I would enjoy quite a few of them; Matthew Carter, Kyle Cooper, Steven Heller, Vanessa (obvs), Michael Beirut, Sanky, and quite a few more.
Fanny Khoo, a very talented Creative Director of Equus (Singapore) and of Me and Mr Jones, and friend of mine were recently discussing the merits of such conferences. ‘All too often design gets lost in communication’, Fanny was referring to a similar conference/group in Singapore, and how these groups very often become more noted for back slapping than they are for promotion of Design values. That is only part of the problem.
The other issues I have is that most design conference audiences are made up of creatives and students all wishing to break in as creatives from the industry, or be on the same stage next year, or get inspiration, or just get ideas for projects. All is fine and dandy, but we all know the merits of good design. Yes it’s great to hear some of these people express the ideas behind the ideas – I totally get that.
I wonder doesn’t it make more sense to try and get our clients, future clients, marketing directors, directors of communications or any other such person who holds the responsibility to employing us, to come along and listen? Maybe they do already and I’m being thick. It is likely. But if not, why not? If, if there is no answer to ‘Why not?‘, shouldn’t we look at how we can do this?
Might the ‘point’ of design conferences be a way to help improving the understanding of the process, and the subsequent value that we all know Good Design Thinking™ can bring to a brand, a campaign, a project?
Just found a video this thanks to ‘theprawnofmogulandtheprawn‘. It’s a crack-cocaine-drunk heckler getting thrown out of design seminar after she ranted at me for three minutes.
She’d been quite vocal through Hamish Makgill’s talk, and I assumed she was just drunk. But two minutes in to mine she stood up shouting the question ‘WHERE’S THE EDUCATION? EDUCATION! EDUCATION!?’. Ironically at that point I was just presenting an idea for a project that aimed to have a theme of education throughout.
It was amusing to deal with someone completely irrational, drunk, high and a bit unhinged. If the video works (at all) I think it cuts before you hear my comeback to the audience, just as the heckler was being escorted out of the building, I said ‘You’ll have to excuse my Mother.’ WIN
Last night I was invited by a good friend Magnus (from Grandpeople) to attend a design talk in Bergen. Organised by Grafil; the Norwegian organistion for visual communication who are, according to their site, ‘working to increase knowledge of visual communication as a tool, and our primary mission is to protect the athlete academic and economic interests.‘ This was the invite:
I will try to tread carefully because I’m new to this town and I don’t want to offend anyone in the first week; plenty of time for that. Also I was also at a slight disadvantage because I don’t yet understand much Norwegian, and the talk was rightly in Norwegian. It also seems that this was a night for the benefit of the eagle-eyed students that contributed to most of the intimate audience, not aging old designers like me.
The night was a low-key affair. Unlike other events I’ve been too, Norwegian seems to be much more… civilised; partly because a pint of beer is £5; no joke. Problem was the night wasn’t hosted, it just start of began, which was the first #FAIL. Invited to talk were two new ‘up-and-coming’ design groups; HEYDAYS and YourFriends; both consisting of two young, just-graduated last year designers.
I couldn’t really understand much of what was said, but I could understand body language. Both groups were nervous so they mostly mumbled, and spoke mainly to the small projection screen behind them, not their audience in front of them. They had too many slides with titles which they felt the need to discuss at length.
It was nearly an hour before we saw the first slide with work on it from YourFriends; a selection of print work for KHiO (Arts Academy in Oslo), and various other print pieces including Arkitektur.nå. Overall really strong work including work for Edit 09 a design conference; including a printed catalogue, invites and motion graphics pieces. Visuals that were well produced, but I was so bored by the time I saw these that it did little to lift my mood. Still a strong piece of work considering their youthfulness (N.B. this is not the exact piece I wanted to share but it seems that this isn’t yet on Vimeo):
HEYDAYS are similar; a great site, and a very comprehensive array of work (again) considering their age – one in particular was ‘Streethearts’ a fashion blog ident/web site and ‘Whiteout‘ a clothing company whose web site showcases a never-ending, rather clever (if not infuriating way to navigate) picture with hotspots. Although it immediately made think of the stuff that the brilliant Koichiro Tanaka of Projector (Tokyo) has been doing for UNIQLO in Japan.
However, whilst both groups have a great portfolio of work, both failed to get that across in the talk. Although they eventually did show work it was ‘overshadowed’ by the lengthy description of it <cue black slide with the title on>. I’m guessing the reason for this was that both groups had catered their talk for their student audience, in which case it would make slightly more sense how they went about it.
Both groups combined their talk, so one group spoke about one project and then the other. This was annoying in itself because invariably they had not managed to sync their presentations and had to skip back and forth to find their spot. But this happens to us all sometimes. Worse still is that it meant that the ‘talk’ went on for over two and a half hours… which is a massive no-no as far as I am concerned.
At one point Magnus asked me ‘How many talks like this have you been too?’… Well, not many like that but I’ve been to other design talks before by Michael Beirut, David Carson, Ken Garland, etc. – rarely have I been to a design talk where the speaker has spoken for more than an hour. Because no-one was hosting the night and because they combined their talk it meant it went on, and on, and on, and on, and on. Also there was a distinct lack of lightheartedness and therefore no laughs, at all. That is not to say that I think everyone should try to be a stand-up, or swear as much as me, but you must try to change the levels and alter what can (and was in this case) create a really monotonousness talk.
I feel I am being harsh. They were young, and nervous, but YourFriends have even been involved with the Pecha Kucha night in Oslo – so I assumed they must know the value of what a bit of spontaneity can bring? What was worrying is that no-one seemed to be organising it or them and so only after half the audience had left, and the remaining half had got very twitchy did they suddenly realise that it needed to end. Which, unfortunately, came across as a bit arrogant on the speakers part – but perhaps experience is the real culprit, not arrogance?
Here are some examples of speakers who I find inspiring, the first is Sir Ken Robinson:
Or the riveting Malcolm Gladwell:
It comes down to education, again. YourFriends studied at Central Saint Martins, so I would expect better from that school, but having studied there I’m actually not that surprised. Last year in my workshop with KHiB (the Arts Academy in Bergen) the students were pressed to do three different types of presentation over the two weeks. The first was an informal one to me about themselves (in six slides, 20secs per slide) – with only one day to prepare. The second was a more formal/professional style to present their project to us (pretending to be clients). The third was a Pecha Kucha night organised by me on the final night of the project at a bar/cafe in town.
I’m not saying that this is a more perfect approach but design is fundamentally about communication. Furthermore it is about the communication of an idea. You might be a very gifted designer with great ideas, but if you cannot articulate yourself, you will fail. I’ve seen it happen, and I too have been guilty of this. Judging from these two groups web sites they obviously come across better in meetings, or at least I hope so.
I will say this though… both groups have great sites. YourFriends and HEYDEYS have taken a lot of time to have their work photographed properly, and their work presented online really well. Which is actually something I have to address myself. So you can still learn and be inspired.
I’ve also just noticed that in order to be a member of Grafil you have to pay $1250, bargain. D&AD anyone?
My 1/1 silver screenprint made another appearance in last weekends ‘The Bigger Picture’ exhibition/workshop at the Bargehouse. Thanks to Hege and Kate.
In every respect. Moving to Bergen has had its challenges personally, but ones that I am willing to meet head-on. From a business point-of-view it’s ground-zero for me again. I am still working with clients in London and will aim to continue that as well as possible; yes we can work from distance, but face-to-face arguably will always have its advantages.
However what I am enjoying is tapping in to the design forums in this part of the world. Just this morning I’ve seen two projects that I love. The first is an advert for REMA1000, a chain of local supermarkets, similar to Tescos (only not in size). The advert is a fast, compiled edit of all those moments from a holiday trip that we’ve all experienced, sometimes all together. It’s well shot, well graded and has some very amusing snippets. Unfortunately DDB Oslo haven’t posted it in YouTube, but you can watch it here.
The second is a VW campaign by DDB Sweden called The Fun Theory. A project aimed to encourage people to come up with new ways to make ordinary, everyday things more fun. Some great examples here:
- Meatclub
- My iPhone works as an iPhone not just a phone.
- The amazing array of fresh produce in all supermarkets.
- Because I saw a man doing an actual oil painting by Hyde Park Corner
- Good TV
- Even their electricians are attractive young female – no joke!
- Drinking a few drams of Jonnie Walker’s Black Label everynight – because that is you can do here.
- ‘Sun Buns’ with coconut
- MEATCLUB (membership = 1)
- Cheaper nurseries
- Less attiude
- Policemen that stop to make sure your son isn’t going to scooter in to the road, even though it looks like he might.
For those that are not aware, and lets face it, everyone must know by now (I’ve bored enough of you with it on Twitter and Facebook about it), but I’ve relocated to Bergen, Norway. I arrived on Sunday 25th October 2009 and my initial reaction was ‘FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK, WHAT HAVE I DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE?!’.
However, I am happy to report that my initial reaction has subsided, only just. I’m still getting used to the idea of being outside of London. As a designer whose painfully aware that London is the epicenter for design it is a shock to the system to realise that the radio and TV on in the background that you can’t usually understand whilst taking a vacation in Norway is now the radio and TV you have to get used too! Small things. There are lots of big ones too, but in an effort to be more optimistic I’ve devised a system to encourage positive thinking.
I’ve written about the iPhone before, several times; here, here, here, and here. Much the same as millions of other bloggers, but it is the iPhone that has probably lead to my girlfriend secretly hating me, or rather, my iPhone (I’m sure it’s the phone she hates). I’m about to move to Norway and I have to keep my UK iPhone because it will cost more to leave than to stay in the contract, plus I can use it when I come back to the UK, but I am already looking at how much it might cost to have one in Norway. I’ve not told the girlfriend yet.
I was thinking today that perhaps I should give it up and use moving to Norway as the perfect excuse. Live a more wholesome life, and who knows I still might. But immediately proceeding this train of though I gave myself a good beating for even thinking that I live without my iPhone. Sounds silly, and even more rediculous writing it, but let me explain…
It is unlike any other mobile device out there (still!). It syncs seemlessly with my computer, which helps me to create a consistency in the organisation of my busy lifestyle. Yes I still things down, but I also now make sure that my iPhone tells me when to get up, a two hour warning before my gas engineer is coming, when my egg is soft boiled, it gives me recipes, up-to-the-second information for every corner of every F1 race, where my local Kwik-Fit is and what their number is, as well as check email, call home and send that drunken text message to friends. This is just some of the list. Yes I admit I’m dependent, but not necessarily entrapped.
You see I read an article by Alexander Vanelsas; an interesting blog about the iPhone and Apples entrapment strategy. On the whole he make s good case for why Apple’s long-term strategy with the iPhone might fail, but mostly I disagree with him.
‘… Apple has the audacity to decide that I must change to another operator in order to be able to use their product? For me that was a bridge too far. I do not want to be restricted or entrapped. I want choice.’
I was with orange for ten years and was reluctant to move but a change is as good as a rest, and I didn’t feel entrapped in to moving over to 02, annoyed yes, but entrapped no. It would be like going to a Nike shop and saying ‘I like your shoes, but I want choice, so give me the Air Max sole, and make the shoe bit Adidas’. I would argue that the iPhone brings choice and freedom. Yes it is governed by Apples’ sometimes strange approval of which App’s make it and which do not, but good design and technology is about enhancing life.
On three occasions the iPhone has made my life easier. Three weeks ago I left my car with a Kwik-Fit garage to do the MOT. I needed to call them but realised I had no number for them. So rather than call 11111888111818181500 I used my ‘AroundMe‘ App for the first time, I might add.
It used my location, but I changed that to my home postcode. I did a search for ‘kwik fit’.
Back came the results within seconds. Top of the list was indeed the closest kwik-fit garage and the one I needed to contact.
I selected my garage, I got a map and their address:
I pressed the telephone icon and agreed to call the garage, which my iPhone subsequently did.
All this took around twenty seconds. It was free. It worked, and worked well and saved me from spending any money on calling a directory service. Not that the twenty or so pence is vital to my cash flow, but (as I wrote in my recently ‘Simple GDT’ paper) good technology and interaction is about empowerment.
The second occasion that my iPhone proved a worthy asset was whilst anxiously watching the penultimate F1 race in Brazil. Yes, I know, most of you don’t care, but for those that do follow the sport with any interest it was a great race. It was nail-biting but I loaded my F1 App up to follow Button. You see, as great as the BBC coverage is, you sometimes want to follow your/a particular driver; in this case, Button.
What was an added bonus was that my F1 App was actually a lap ahead of the digital TV delayed coverage. So I knew that Button had overtaken Nakajima before the TV did. Amazing. I took some screenshots to record the moment. Why? Because I’ve followed Button since he started in 2000 for Williams and through thick and thin; the dark days at Renault to the abysmal failings of the 2007/8 F1 Championship, I have stuck there fighting his corner. Finally he gets a car he can show his true potential in!
I also love cooking. Anyone that knows me knows this. But I still spent £4.99 recently on the Jamie Oliver App. I was curious to see how they did it, and although I find the video’s a little too close to crinch-worthy, it is a brilliant application.
Even for someone that considers himself someone that can cook this is a brilliant and useful App. Not only does it provide you with simple videos guiding you through the process of making the perfect risotto, or slicing/dicing an onion it also does something which is very simple, but quite brilliant.
I’ve been in Waitrose sometimes and gone to their book section to look for some inspiration. I might have found it. I might even take that book around with me while I get the list of ingredients and then replace the book on its shelf. I might do that, but no more… Let’s say you want to find a recipe, some inspiration for dinner, right? Well open up the Jamie App whne you’re next in your supermarket…
Maybe you decide to make a prawn and mint risotto?
You even get a picture of it, but there is more; so much more!
You get a summary of the recipe and flavour, and the steps to take you through the recipe, but you also get a list of ingredients, and here comes the clever bit…
Add to shopping list. It gets even more useful…
Once you’ve added it to your ‘Shopping List’ you can then check/delete things off as they go in your trolley.
Added.
Which I think is a great little App. The videos are informative and easy, and the recipe cards are a handy little device instead of constantly pausing the videos and wasting your battery.
All of which goes to creating a device that is not ‘restrictive’ but on the contrary – informative and useful. It becomes something that you can trust and rely on to work (N.B. although I realise this is not everyone’s experience of the iPhone). But it has helped to improve some small details that make help to make my life a little bit easier. As Louis CK so rightly points out (below), ‘Everything’s amazing and nobody’s happy!’. I’m not obsessed with the iPhone, but I am inspired by it, and that (surely) is the best compliment to any piece of functional design? Not to mention the fact that it now has Tetris on it.
A micro-blog, again. But last week this caught my eye. I don’t particularly take much notice of tabloids, but I do so often admire their headlines, and this one seemed to be a very insightful, informed and definitive ‘lay-mans-term’ philosophy:
