We got an email today correcting copy on the AIGA Baltimore website.
It read, “I am a post grad design student. My first degree was not in English. This morning I took a brief look at your home page and read the paragraph below. I was shocked. Please give your copy writer a guide to grammar and punctuation. Flaws speak louder than perfection, don’t have this represent AIGA Baltimore.
“As part of our effort to increase reach, increase conversation about design and all things good in that respect, AIGA Baltimore will be developing a blog about Baltimore, AIGA, AIGA Baltimore, design and issues in the industry and if you read the legalese we wont be limited to that. (We need someone to actually write the legalese, by the way.) Anyway one guarantee for continued notes and news is to keep the conversation going back and forth. Let us know what you think (“that was terrible”) or good thoughts and post ideas are welcome as well…”
As the author of that copy, I responded and corrected the copy to “As part of our effort to increase reach, increase design conversation, AIGA Baltimore has started a blog. The blog is available at www.aigabaltimore.wordpress.com. Let us know what you think (“that was terrible”) or good thoughts and post ideas are welcome as well…”
Thanks for the correction. Keep it up.
To the comments, I’ll mention that while I blog for AIGA Baltimore and work on its behalf, the notion that my comments, writing or design skills represent the members or its contents is definitely a stretch. I barely represent the things I said twenty minutes ago. Once I had a writing instructor who said I couldn’t write at all. the next semester, I had an instructor who said I was a great writer. They’re both right. I’ll also defend the imperfect, for it’s substance if not it’s imperfection.
Join AIGA Baltimore as we welcome Spunk Design Machine. Spunk Design Machine is hitting the road in 2010 to talk about design. Designing for culture, designing for invention and the diverse aspects of designing within the world’s ever-changing state of affairs.
They believe there is jot to be found in distinction and little to be found in distraction. 2009 was good to them, being feaatured in Steven Heller’s book: The Design Entrepreneur. They are also going to be featured in his upcoming book about designers’ sketchbooks.
The thirteen year-old firm recently opened their satellite office in New York City and produced the fourth installment of the Poster Offensive, their poster show for peace and democracy. And getting a peek at what they’ll be presenting us, I can tell you that this is presentation you don’t want to miss.
Thanks to the rejection gods, I have this graphic to include…
It’s funny I think, ruminating on a post I created some time ago, I remarked that a colleague ended up calling me a “PowerPoint God” because I was able to build inter-activity and influence his PowerPoint with design sense. The comment I made was made in a way hat off-handedly put down being a “PowerPoint God” as if it’s like being the chief french fry-cooker at that coveted fast-food job when I was a teen.
I won’t be so bold as to say no designer dreams of being the PowerPoint God, because I realize that’s not true. I just don’t think I ever wanted to be that person. It just so happened that a) many people might confuse me with a reasonably competent designer (pity them) and b) I happened to work with some corporate types who seem to think using PowerPoints—at least internally.
But here’s the deal: when work is slow, me, I’m pining to be the “PowerPoint God.” So much so, that maybe I’ll create a PowerPoint have an internal meeting with corporate clients that I have discussing how much of a god I am at PowerPoint. Because, when it comes down to brass tax, being a designer is about a number of different avenues in the profession, whether it’s like a colleague whom I met last night who works at The Sun creating graphics or the colleague whom I met at the MICA Flex class who works on a designer jean label.
As it turns out these are all valid entry/destinations for a career in graphic design. Do you know how I know? They pay a paycheck. You laugh, but that, in many cases, is the arbiter of success.
Quick story: I went to Loyola and at Loyola the communications track translates into taking various courses among them: journalism. In the journalism class, my professor had each student work with a local paper, researching and writing a story for the paper’s editor. Well, my turn came up and I did an interview of program in West Baltimore. Even back then I had “journalistic ethics” supposedly. As an avid fan of “60 Minutes” and Mike Wallace, in particular, I didn’t want to be a pushover for the program. I wanted to check the facts mentioned—all that stuff. So, I did all that and wrote the article and the editor, as it turns out was happy enough with the work that he gave me assignments throughout that summer. When I went back to the professor some time later (lag time between writing and the subsequent publishing) and asked him what he thought of my article.
He said: “Did they publish it?”
I said “Of course!!”
He said “Well then, it was professional.”
I thought wow! That’s a great cover for not having read it (still don’t know if he did). But more importantly, it was a singular point that sometimes the most valuable thing to be, is the thing in the mind of your customer or boss, that says “they are great at this particular job and I am willing to pay for it.” I say this, having lived the experience of the in-house designer and being the guy who could do “that thing you do”.
Sometimes, in-house designers have to struggle at quantifying their value to the company (and the profession). Somewhat isolated, internally (always a small group in a company of people) and externally (“you work on what?”), it’s often a world of other stuff that the company’s focused on and, oh, by the way, the designer’s job is to tell them to fix the leading in the brochure and they’re like what? Who cares?
Well, we do: making good communication is what we do… that’s our deification.
Perhaps the search for value and meaning means finding more of that value outside your specific job function: (Note: managers that the innovative Google allows its engineers to spend 20% of their time working on a personal passion which keeps them energized for all that Google stuff) whether that means you are freelancing a little, painting, writing blogs or whatever keeps you focused on value.
But, keep the creative fire and the resumé fresh and keep getting paid.
A new blog/e-zine debuted yesterday that is focused on providing content to the in-house design community. Appropriately named The In-HOWse Designer Blog, it is being underwritten by HOW with AIGA national participating as a partner in the venture.
Join AIGA Baltimore as we welcome Spunk Design Machine. Spunk Design Machine is hitting the road in 2010 to talk about design. Designing for culture, designing for invention and the diverse aspects of designing within the world’s ever-changing state of affairs.
They believe there is jot to be found in distinction and little to be found in distraction. 2009 was good to them, being feaatured in Steven Heller’s book: The Design Entrepreneur. They are also going to be featured in his upcoming book about designers’ sketchbooks.
The thirteen year-old firm recently opened their satellite office in New York City and produced the fourth installment of the Poster Offensive, their poster show for peace and democracy. And getting a peek at what they’ll be presenting us, I can tell you that this is presentation you don’t want to miss.
Registration specials through Friday of this week… (because of the snow—blame it all on the snow)
As a black person, I was never really bowled over by the prospect of black history month. It might be me, but I don’t need to designate a month to remember my history. I always figured it was for others to know and remember. So, I’ve always been proud, yet low-key about it, specifically trying to color outside the lines on the official designation.
Perhaps the goal with all that ws just enough to get me to think about race (I do that ll the time). But perhaps, another goal was to talk about it (something I almost never do). Except for now …
August of 2008, I heard an interview on Fresh Air (www.freshair.npr.org) perhaps the best interview show in media where the guest was David Simon one of the creators of The Wire which has been called one of the best television shows on television. In this interview, Simon talked about working with black actors and I share this because, the design industry, much like Hollywood has what may be an aversion to racial diversity. That comment is perhaps debatable—and I won’t—suffice to say, I’ve heard people, companies say “we’re committed to diversity” but to look at them or to see their actions, you’d never know.
Like Todd Henry says the founder of the Accidental Creative website and podcast (www.accidentalcreative.com) says: “Knowing something doesn’t change you, implementing it does.”
So anyway, David Simon says in the interview: “There’s a wonderful reservoir of African-american talent, there really is, and… they’re not working, there’s just not enough work. nobody’s writing the parts. What they are writing is very marginal, at best, and so there’s a natural hunger out there. I always bristle when people on shows that are supposedly ‘race-neutral’ … and they’re casting. And they come out ‘lily-white’ and you ask them about it and they say “they’re just isn’t that level of talent—you know—among black actors. I hear that [and] I get furious.”
I bring this up because how can I tie in The Wire (my favorite show), NPR, design and diversity into one post. But the takeaway I had from that is that collectively perhaps the will just isn’t there fully to embrace diversity in many facets—at least not meaningfully.
Things are changing. And not just the obvious. Attending the Robert Bringhurst lecture last fall, I heard Robert Bringhurst talk about the ever-marching loss of indigenous languages as societies become extinct and the world gets smaller. He quoted the loss of language, that happens when societies such as the Inuit become extinct as their people become less and less and often the young are no longer exposed tot he rigors of their own language—or are inclined to use it on a daily basis—making the language more of an educational pursuit than a facet of life. He showed how even myriad species of birds have instinctual and particular differences among their own species, even if the same is located as little one mile away. The difference glaring to birds in the song they are taught and learn to sing throughout their lives and how that song is reflection of the careful mixture of environment, experience, and nature.
It’s very similar with us people. Oh, how different is the Baltimore experience from the eyes of a lifelong Baltimorean as it compares to the newcomer. Same with each of our experiences on a day-to-day basis.
So when trying to connect with one another group of any type, our ability to tap into another group’s background is so valuable and not to be overlooked. That takes work and irrespective of color or background the goal of design to develop symbolism and translate experience in ways that resound and emanate and of course ultimately communicate the facts as well as the experience. Knowing all this, we needn’t be accusatory, but simply realize it’s good business to do the work of connecting with the diverse stock of cultures that our society is becoming.
Last October, AIGA Baltimore sponsored Create Don’t Hate with Worldstudio. This was a mentoring program for high school students in the Baltimore area. Graphic designers were matched up with students interested in visual arts from Patapsco and Patterson high schools. The groups worked together to create posters that later on could become billboards throughout the city. The program lasted four weeks, with students and mentors meeting once a week. The billboard designs are based on a variety of topics such as: stop crime, domestic violence, love your city, stop vandalism in the streets, don’t trash your city, and much more. This was a great experience for students and many saw how a career in the arts can be achieved.
Thank you to the mentors that participated:
Dani Bradford
Cris Cimatu
Debbie Feldman Jones
Joseph Ford
Kimberly Hopkins
Alissa Jones
Megan Lavelle
Mary Leszczynski
Ilene Lundy
Chad Miller
Llara Pazdan
Lark Pfleegor
Katie Rosenberg
Kevin Sprouls
Shannon Tedeschi
Andrew Walters
Grace Wanzer
And another big thank you to Patterson and Patapsco high schools participating!
If you missed the closing reception, here are pictures showcasing some of the designs:
This program is showcasing the power of design to ignite change to the general public and business community so please join us in this closing event! To see other programs that are happening in other cities, visit http://www.designigniteschange.org.
Images were taken the day of the reception February 4th, 2010 from 6:30 pm to 8:30pm at Patapsco High School Center for the Arts.
With all the snow and cold, I was recently treated to about 1 hour of channel surfing. On the Sundance Channel I saw a segment in a documentary series called The Day Before. Through all the self-importance and posturing, I thought about how often and similar the process of cramming is for design practitioners of the graphic kinds as well as fashion.
I saw the end of one on Fendi and (Karl Lagerfeld) and the beginning of another (Jean Paul Gaultier). The self-importance of the Fendi documentary was about as much as I could stand with my fingers ready to turn the channel, but the Gaultier documentary was interesting in its ability to capture the craziness in front of a fashion show.
What struck me is how little was actually done ahead of the day before!!! Gaultier’s whole collection was rounded together in the last 24 hours. What is it about the zen of the deadline?
This has been on my mind for about a quarter since I’ve been working with a MICA flex class on assignments that—while modified—were an assignment that I received and was given 24 hours to complete. When I got the assignment I was happy of course to be paid, but then as soon as I got off the phone with the client, the first thing that happens is I begin hearing that ’24’ tick-down, knowing that the clock is ticking…. And how for the first five hours I dinked around testing various compositions, then eating and then thinking: “I’ve got to have something definitive going into the next day”… I didn’t. But, we’ve heard this story before: a little head-clearing and voila comps which went to the client just slightly after time.
Flashback to the present. What remains of that story is some decent work and the buzz of the deadline. When communicating all this to the students, I’ve focused on their creating the internal process of milestone completions that allow one to revisit and rebuild—making the design better and better as one goes along. All that works out on paper, but the “fog of war” happens and the process gets muddled.
For instance, the snow interfered with six-hour class that was the working time that gave the students deadlines BEFORE the deadline. For some this was a help, for others it was a hindrance. More time to ponder became more time wasted. I saw a documentary where a design firm developed thirty-five prototypes of a chair design before presenting it to the client and wanted to impart this level of preparation to the students, if only to prove to them that, everything doesn’t have to be a seat-of-the-pants design process.
On the other hand sometimes those iterations become the inspiration that comes together in the end. It’s all down to varying experiences and varying processes. The key is to know your process.
An example of that is the difference between the way Apple releases products and Google releases products.
Apple’s emphasis is built on hyper-preparation and testing, perhaps fueled by their failures of the late nineties (think Newton pad). On the other hand Google often can’t release something fast enough to get it to a beta stage that can then be reworked and made better. Apple rarely does this. And anytime Apple had to revisit something, it was under the prospect of negative reaction—think back to the switch to OS X or the switch to USB and firewire and the blowback that Apple received.
Google’s not found the same level of objection, often releasing products at beta (Gmail is a prime example) which then was slowly introduced to the masses.
In an article on innovation in Fast Company, Doug Merrill, a Google executive said, “The marvel of Google is its ability to instill creative fearlessness”… A book I have on creativity called Fearless Creating says that we should “understand the difference between working and working deeply.” The bottom line is no matter what approach we use, it ultimately has to be about our ability to tap into that stored creativity reserve, preserve and cultivate some of that and make it useful for someone to digest.
http://www.aigacharlotte.org/blog/post/87 See The Actual Post…
Here’s What We Said:
AIGA Baltimore
Number of Members: 382
Year Founded: 1989
1. What is your Chapter’s most proud recent accomplishment? Our Pulp Ink and Hops event last year was a success, even in this economy, bringing approximately 20 design vendors and hundreds of designers together to review the latest and greatest in designer’s tools from printers and paper samples to job resources and design information. Photos available here.
2. Tell us about your Chapter’s Mentorship Program. Our chapter recently worked on the Create don’t Hate mentorship program which brought together members of the design community and schoolkids to create messages about stopping the ongoing violence. The program involved approximately 20 mentors and two schools here. In the mentorship timeline the mentor groups developed 24 billboards of which seven have been chosen to be displayed around town. We feel promoting this message was a particularly important endeavor in which to undertake given the problems of gun violence in the country and especially in Baltimore, which has had a particularly high murder rate due to the influx of drug culture and the large numbers of youth who do not have or do not take opportunities to become gainfully employed.
3. Tell us about your Chapter’s student programming. Currently, we offer two portfolio reviews a year, one small and one larger, for students. We also offer studio tours to various locations — including printers and design firms located in the Baltimore area.
4. Tell us how your Chapter uses social media. We use Facebook to connect with the AIGA Baltimore universe, as well as, Twitter and LinkedIn. We have also started a blog that feeds to our website. These avenues have helped us stay connected with members, as well as, deliver relevant content to them in ways that, based on traffic numbers, they value.
5. What type of food is Baltimore famous for and where can we get some? The crabcake is the delicacy of choice in Baltimore. While there are plenty of places in Baltimore to go for crabcakes, I’d suggest Faidley’s in Lexington Market. A number of reasons play into that. The scene is a covered marketplace with a nod to its past with stalls, a buzz of activity, the din of talking and the blue-collar working man’s spirit of Baltimore. Baltimore’s Inner Harbor which is famous with the tourists represents the slice of the city that you’d see in its Sunday’s Best. Don’t we all want to know a city when it has on its play clothes?
