Make Seriously | Design and Life

Logic.

There’s a period at the end for a reason. It says “that’s it.” It’s cold. It’s final. Unfortunately, it’s also very hard to define right now. The vast majority of Americans (and American businessmen) haven’t actually had to survive this kind of crisis before (at least not as an adult). It’s interesting to hear so many people blame this on everyone else. Whether it’s an evil corporation, or that liberal pinko baby-killer in office, nobody seems to want to take a minute and think. And it’s a problem. Instead of trying to solve our problem or putting our minds together, we continue to pull back and attempt to survive with blame as one of the primary defense mechanisms. It’s used as though identifying the cause of the trouble will somehow miraculously bring us back from the precipice

Well, it won’t.

Since I try to write about design, I’m going to make my point in terms of design. Currently, the marketing world is seeing a dramatic loss. Ad revenues in the first half of ‘09 were down 14% according to the Wall Street Journal, and marketers, ad agencies, and other ad-based companies are seeing huge losses. People are getting cut. Budgets are slashed. Special projects are lucky if put on hold, but are usually tossed in the bin. And it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

We in the ad business could start blaming people. We could blame our clients for being stingy. We could blame the past or current president for making a bad economic situation. We could blame our congress for general foolishness. We could blame global warming if we got really creative (it is what we do after all…). The reality is far more distressing it seems: we have nothing to blame but a clear lack of logic. In this market, one of the first things slashed is marketing and advertising budgets. It’s money wasted that’s not directly spent on business. Right?

Unfortunately, wrong. Marketing is what drives business to stores, what brings in innovation, what informs the people of new products, services and functions, and what makes sure that your product is where it should be. So why, when people have stopped spending money, are these companies placing the burden on the marketing departments (or hires)? When your opponents have similarly slashed their marketing budgets, you continue to play on an even playing field. You’re still competing for the same amount of business while people are spending less. Wouldn’t it make more sense to inform people about your product and promote it more aggressively when your competition can’t keep up? Doesn’t it seem clear that disengaging your consumers only leads to a loss of business rather than a cost cut?

It’s an odd problem to have, and seems indicative of our current situation as a  nation: we’re running around with our heads cut off. When was the last time your community banded together to create local economic growth? Locally, I see the Indy metro area tearing itself to pieces to try and compete with different sides of the city rather than promoting the whole area to compete with other metro areas. In the process, we not only divide our city but we also see a plummeting import of tourism in an other-wise tourist friendly city.

It’s time to step back, think, and work together to help things move forward. Blame won’t solve our collective problem, nor will it really make us feel any better to have someone be the scapegoat when we’re still swimming in issues. Let’s be responsible. Let’s be mature. Let’s use a bit of logic.

Almost Famous

So, a while ago, UnderConsideration posed a question: why do you sketch logos. They allowed users to respond at the Brand New blog website or on Twitter using the hashtag #whyisketchlogos. Well, I decided to put in something… amusing: ” The reason #whyisketchlogos is because it would be really awkward to spend hours illustrating it to see that it looked like genitals.”

It seems like a fairly common occurence (read: it happens to all designers) that you take a lot of pride in something you’ve done only to find out from a colleague that it looks like a phallus. It seemed like a really good reason, and I guess they agreed. It seems that the purpose of the question was to produce a new product, and my quote was one of the ones chosen. I’ve now been temporarily immortilized in the pages of the awesome, brand new Brand New logo sketching book:

It’s a pretty stellar book at that. Pocket-sized. Wonderfully textural covering. Smooth pages. Nice typography. This is one of those extremely rare places where design and life meet in a very awesome way.

Sadly, Still Sex-nifigant

The other day I stumbled upon an article that UnderConsideration had a link to on the Quipsologies page. The article raised a point that I don’t think we pay attention to anymore, not because we don’t care but because it’s such a ubiquitous truth that there is no reason to raise it: sex still sells. The article appears to have been written in response to public outrage at a certain Calvin Kline billboard with what appears to be an orgy about to happen. The public was outraged that such advertising could exist, that there were no filters or oversight to prevent such a travesty from happening.

But then the article makes the real point: this has been going on for ages.

Should we be outraged at the continuing process? Should we even be surprised to see such explicit imagery being used in advertising? The problem, it seems, is really the double standard we set for ourselves. When companies like Abercrombie only receive passing criticisms for their use of explicit imagery. Society declares it’s outrage, screams that it shall not tolerate treating people as objects, and raises it’s voice against those who would perpetuate such indecency to our children! Then it sits down calmly, plunks the credit card onto the counter and pays for the pair of jeans and t-shirt it just bought.

What’s truly outrageous is that it’s been happening for a very long time. The article goes into some depth by pulling examples from the last several decades to make the point. It’s not new, and outrage at “new” or more “outlandish” examples betrays the fact that we continue to let it happen, period. As a member of the design community, I understand that it’s a more complicated issue than it looks like at a glance. It’s more than just trying to associate a product and good feelings, it’s about trying to sell a lifestyle. That lifestyle exists, and our society embraces it. We look to the news for drama and scandal. As a society we revel to watch Jon and Kate break apart their marriage vows. We applaud (and almost anticipate) politicians who are crucified to marital unfaithfulness. As a society we don’t marry as often, we have more partners on average than ever, and our sexuality is at the forefront of so many major issues. The advertising we complain about isn’t causing this, it’s the mirror pointing back to us.

And that’s really what it’s all about. We can’t keep blaming ads for ruining our society. We can’t keep saying that the ads make us stumble or that the drama makes us weaker. Those are only reflections of the things we already wallow in. Yes, ending the use of explicit imagery in advertising would be great. Praise, hallelujah! But the real change comes from our society, and the ads will reflect that change, should it ever happen.

Training a Pet Peeve

This is to all of those people out there who choose to type in ALL UPPER CAPS. You know who you are. Maybe you think it helps you get your point across, like screaming it somehow helps in comprehension. Or maybe you’re just really lazy and won’t turn the caps lock button off. Perhaps you think it just looks pretty or that it matches your handwriting better, thus being a better representation of who you really are. Well, you’re not fooling anyone.

You see, we know all about you. And it’s not a two way street. What you don’t know is that we [the people] in order to form a more perfect union have collectively chosen not to read what you write. Yes, you’ve read correctly. Despite your valiant attempts at gaining our attention, you’ve failed. Big time. Of course, there is occasional rebel in our group who thinks what you have to say IN ALL CAPS might be worth reading, but after one [two if you're lucky] lines of type, those idealistic notions of breaking away are quickly relieved.

The fact is, you are writing to a wide forum of people who are mostly literate. And, unfortunately for you, they’ve grown up reading mixed caps. That is to say, 99.9% of all non-headline media that a person reads is made up of either an initial capital letter, or a mixture of capital and lowercase letters with the capital always at the front of the word. It’s easy for everyone to read. Letters are easily distinguished from one another, and words take on unique forms. We don’t need to focus on phonics [what you may call FONIX] because our brains have been trained to treat certain shapes as specific words.

Case in point:

In publishing and graphic design, lorem ipsum[p][1][2] is the name given to commonly used placeholder text (filler text) to demonstrate the graphic elements of a document or visual presentation, such as font, typography, and layout. The lorem ipsum text, which is typically a non-sensical list of semi-Latin words, is a hacked version of a Latin text by Cicero, with words/letters omitted and others inserted, but not proper Latin (see below: History and discovery).

is far easier to read than:

IN PUBLISHING AND GRAPHIC DESIGN, LOREM IPSUM IS THE NAME GIVEN TO COMMONLY USED ELEMENTS OF A DOCUMENT OR VISUAL PRESENTATION, SUCH AS FONT, TYPOGRAPHY, AND LAYOUT. THE LOREM IPSUM TEXT, WHICH IS TYPICALLY A NON-SENSICAL LIST OF SEMI-LATIN WORDS, IS A HACKED VERSION OF LATIN TEXT BY CICERO, WITH WORDS/LETTER OMITTEND AND OTHERS INSERTED, BUT NOT PROPER LATIN (SEE BELOW: HISTORY AND DISCOVERY).

Did you just see that? I know you did. Don’t deny it. You didn’t finish even trying to read that second block of copy. Why is that I wonder?

I hope we’ve learned a valuable lesson here today Mr.-I-love-the-all-caps-treatment. I hope we can now go on to be a civilized nation [interwebz] of people who are both literate and capable of saying things without having to scream them or cry for attention. We can continue to be a polite, well rounded society of folks who have a proper understanding of conversation. Maybe, just maybe, we can move on to the second or third grade of interwebz communication. Congratulation grad.

Icons Dropping Like Rocks

First it was David Carradine. Then Ed McMahon. Then Farrah Fawcett. And Michael Jackson. A real shocker came with BILLIE MAYS!!! And David Eddings. And Steve McNair.

I don’t know how to handle this. As a relatively young person, all of these people have been around (and famous) in my lifetime. David Carradine was the kung-fu master and the wild-west aficionado. I remember watching him from the Legend continuing to the history of Jesse James. Ed McMahon was the voice of the Tonight Show and one of the last of a dying generation of show stars. Farrah was the “blonde bombshell” that we knew from Charlie’s Angels, and from her selfless submissions to tests to help others coming after her. Michael Jackson was the true King of Pop, his songs gracing every single dance and wedding I’ve been to. No one who watches television can honestly say that they’ve not heard Billie Mays shouting to them to purchase some various product with unmatched enthusiasm. Steve McNair was the great rival quarterback to our Indy Colts.

And then there’s David Eddings. And it’s ironic that I’m in the middle of two books he’s written when it happens. He is one of the best fantasy fiction writers ever. His series “The Belgariad” is ubiquitously known to fanfic readers. And it’s rare to find a fantasy reader who’s never heard of Belgarath the sorcerer. My wife and I own 19 of his books. The only other author I own close to as many books of is L.E. Moddesitt Jr., another prolific fantasy athor. Add in Terry Brooks and Kevin Anderson, and We have over 50 books on my shelves.

And I don’t know how to handle it. An Actor. A voice. A beauty. A Singer. A seller. An author. And an athlete. All gone, and it’s not even been two weeks. I can’t really comprehend it, to be honest. But I will continue reading Eddings until I’ve finished the books, and then I will continue to cherish his work until I join him. It’s been a strange week. That’s for sure.