Over the past semester I learned a number of critical lesson, which allowed me to more successfully grow a digital & physical community.
- The Importance of Incentives: People respond to incentives. Since childhood we have been exposed to the idea of incentives. For example: when a child gets a good grade, his parents may reward him with a new toy. It is important to involve this method within communities in order to promote initial and constant contribution by the majority of users.
- Promoting User Interaction & Contribution: Make clear your interest in community members thoughts, opinions, and criticisms. People like to feel needed and respected for their intelectual contributions. Once you get "the ball rolling," in terms of user interaction & contribution, users will react to one another and follow suit.
- Constant Content Evolvement & Growth: It is important to constantly grow and evolve your communities home content. Whether it be digital or physical, community members need new and changing content in order to keep interest in the cause or purpose of the community.
- Attracting Multiple Target Markets: Do not make your communities market attraction to narrow in focus. The point of a community is to grow its user base, not to turn away or restrict access to certain groups or markets.
Even when a formal agreement of confidentiality has not been signed, designers must step carefully in regards to client confidentiality and intellectual property rights. Actions as simple as a few words with a friend over coffee or leaving work up on screen in your brief absence can have serious consequences and lead to the premature release of a clients product or service.
One unexpected tweet or blog post can change the course of multi-year projects and can lead to great fiscal loss for both the designer and the client. For this and many other reasons, designers should follow these simple rules when considering what can and cannot be said outside of your immediate work team and clients.
Decide in advance what you can and can’t talk about, then stick to those boundaries.
Be prepared for your boundaries to be tested.
Confirm with vendors that they also comply with your set boundaries in advance of sharing any confidential information.
Don’t blow off steam about a project in public. (This means social media, too.)
Ask permission for promoting projects post-launch.
Compartmentalize your work on your computer.
Know when to use the strongest protection for IP that you pass back and forth
Rachel Cuyler is a graduate of Marist College with a bachelors of science in digital media. She is currently employed as a junior designer at the Madison Group in Manhattan where she works directly with clients as a part of design and presentation teams to both conceptualize and execute design projects and multimedia presentation design for print and multimedia presentations.
The Madison Group is an independently operated graphics and press company of the Young & Rubicam network that supports both Y&R network companies as well as a large amount of highly esteemed exterior clients and businesses.
During my time speaking with Rachel she highlighted the importance of going the extra mile when taking part in an internship. She spoke of nights where she would stay passed midnight to help employed peers complete various projects and tasks and she reaffirmed the importance of showing a sincere interest in the companies and its various functions.
This outlook on undergraduate internships paid off in the end when Rachel was employed by the Madison Group where she interned.
We also discussed the importance of diversifying within your field. Rachel practices photography as a passionate hobby and freelances as a web designer/developer on top of her very demanding career life.
Always looking for a new opportunity Rachel portrays a confident young designer who knows that hard work and sacrifice early in your career pays off tremendously.
For the most part good graphic design in the 20th century has been equated to the ability to tell a compelling visual narrative, which finds value within an otherwise inert product. This valuable skill of storytelling has been the backbone of the modern western design field, within the commercial realm, for all of its existence. Clients understood the advantage good design gave a product or service, and they hired designers to tell the story.
But we have reached an inflection point within the profession where simply creating a product narrative is no longer the most effective way to approach design. The digital revolution has without a doubt changed the game. Products are no longer just analog, and some products and services have became completely digitalized. One great example of this switch to digital is the music industry. Brick and mortar record stores are no longer the place to hang out and discover new music. Digital storefronts and social networks are now the driving forces in the evolvement of the music industry.
This switch to intangible has sparked two radical changes within the design profession. First, clients can no longer afford to depend on outside sources to fulfill their storytelling needs. And second, designers are no longer dependent on clients to practice their profession.
The first change in the design field holds a more negative connotation. In a digital economy products and services are more intimately tied into the company its self. The products they sell have become synonymous with the company they are. Clothing stores must constantly optimize and design their online storefronts, which makes it impossible or the client to entrust the project to a designer outside the company. So for many designers this means that they will have to leave the studio model behind and embrace the in-house model. Negatively this will mean that the range of projects will diminish substantially and areas of focus will narrow.
But the second change cause by this digital crossover greatly broadens the possibilities within the field. Digital tools have become democratized within the last decade and it is now possible to build a digitally based business at a fraction of the funds once needed. This puts designers in command of their own destiny by allowing them to channel their creativity into a viable business. Without demanding deadlines, strict budgets, and painfully ignorant clients, the designer is left to create and prosper at he or she wish.
In connection with his recent exhibition "Hylozoism" at the Bardens gallery in London Jake Blanchard discusses the fulfilling but inconsistent career of a freelance professional. Jake is able to take a topic wrapped around doubt and fear and turn it into a poetic, hopeful piece of art, which will be featured in the upcoming show that will contain a collection of his prints and drawings.
The London born artist Jamie Reid played a critical and controversial role in the sharp edged punk rock movement which exploded throughout the US and the UK during the 1970's. The punk rock movement, rooted in the DIY mindset was the jumping-off point for Reid's uncensored, in your face aesthetic, which perfectly captured this aggressive sub culture.
Reid was exposed to political and cultural rebellion at an early age by his activist parents. Highly influenced by the anarcho-dadaists, Reid's work contained the strong and restless voice of a dissatisfied generation of mainstream misfits. Reid channeled his dissent by starting an underground publishing outfit: Suburban Press, which managed to catch the attention of the UK based punk band, the Sex Pistols.
Reid's work was not considered gallery worthy at the time. In fact, most of his work was so controversial that many people thought it to be tasteless filth. Thus, Reid used the street to voice his social commentary.
In a recent interview with the art & culture magazine Juxtapoz Reid comments on the enduring influence of public/street art...
"Ordinary people would see these images wheat pasted on walls, stickers, in shops, and splashed across the covers of newspaper, and they couldn't help but react. Sometimes they'd be scared, sometimes they'd be amused, and sometimes they'd start wondering what was really going on."
Today Reid's art is predominantly shamanistic and religiously inspired. Reid explains that he is simply exploring the other side of the evolutionary spectrum...
"If there's one thing I've always been aware of, its that if you need political change, you also need spiritual change."
But when it comes to his opinion of art galleries, not much has changed. He still approaches these institutions with the cynical outlook that helped define a worldwide cultural movement.
"The whole thing is so corrupt and so negative. Im not depressed about it at all–I just choose to do things my own way."
What can be said about Milton Glaser? He is one of the most insightful and honest speakers I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. In his most recent talk at the SVA Theater for the NY Creative Mornings he spoke upon the importance of failure and how failure is what feeds or imagination and is the driving force to are furthered development as a designer.
Within the design world there is this notion that we can not fail. To fail is to be unsuccessful and is the proverbial gravestone to our career. But Milton tosses aside this notion, and reminds us of our rejected bodies of work. The collection of proposals that were turned down by clients, that to us illustrate our most imaginative and transgressive work.
Milton reminded us all that in order to better understand what we do, we must fail time and time again as artists. Just as a chef cooks the same dish over and over until it is perfect, we must fail over and over again until we have perfected another aspect of our craft.
The Danish type designers e-Types have opened a "brick and mortar" shop in Copenhagen, Denmark where they are selling their digital fonts within a physical space. Along with posters, t-shirts, and other type decorated accessories, the danish foundry is selling their font families on preloaded usb sticks.
From the idealistic aesthetic standpoint of a typophile the store is a beautiful and playful idea. Yet I can not help but notice the environmental and fiscal short comings, which drain the idea of any rationality. The waste created by the usb sticks, as well as the material that was consumed in the creation of the store itself seems unnecessary for a store that is selling digital based typefaces. Is not the beauty of web-based stores, the ability for them to cut down on physical waste?
The store also seems to reach only a very niche market, which in turn does not scream huge profit margins. Yet, e-Type only plans to keep the store open for the course of one year and I can't argue with my internal urge to take an impromptu trip to Denmark.
50 and 50 is a curated collective effort amongst 50 invited designers from 50 different states to create illustrated versions of each state motto. The color template is limited to the good old red, white, and blue and a new design is posted every weekday.
Started in January of this year, Drew Melton started The Phraseology Project as a way for him to practice his craft within a communal setting. This typographic experiment allows participants to submit a letter, word, or phrase of less then 20 characters, which Melton will then transform into a beautiful, unexpected, and creative design.
The Phraseology Project now features new creatives every month whom will also lend a hand in designing the submitted phrases. This exciting participation dependent project gives us an exciting look into the creative process, and the unexpected outcomes that are reached by different creative minds with unique processes.
Within its first week The Phraseology Project received 90 entries, and its global community is growing daily. Submit your own phrase at phraseologyproject.com
"A sophisticated society needs sophisticated designers who need to be informed and critical as well as practically creative." -Nigel Whiteley
The definition of a “Designer” is becoming more broad and nebulous everyday. Advancements in culture and technology have shattered the lines between disciplines and are constantly changing the way we approach our profession. With this higher calling for constant evolvement and progress within our field we must be constantly redefining what it means to be a “designer.”
As this definition of design changes, so must design education. The Valorised Designer, a critique on design education written by Nigel Whiteley, perfectly illustrates how a new diverse but cohesive approach to design education is needed in order to produce critical, sophisticated, and responsible designers.
Whiteley identifies and outlines the five main types of design education that students are exposed to within their schooling. Highlighting extreme examples in order to more clearly illustrate the gaps amongst each type of design education.
Type 1: The Formalised Designer
Suspicious of grand ideas and profound concepts, the formalised designer holds a utilitarian approach to design and focuses on creating a critical eye in terms of aesthetic understanding. Derived from the Bauhaus methodology, formalised designers focus on the creation behind their design. Concentrating on materials, and simple form & function this type of design education lacks any focus on design theory or value.
Type 2: The Theorised Designer
The Theorised designer is the flipside of the formalized designer. The theorised education forgoes actually creation in exchange for a deep theorized understanding of design. Deconstructing the power, and vested interests behind design, this education lacks practical knowledge and commercial knowledge. Often limited and somewhat irrelevant outside of the classroom, the theorised approach can often leave students with an elitist outlook on design. Making it difficult for them to design anything that communicates to the common majority.
Type 3: The Politicised Designer
The politicised model is not as widespread in its practice as the previous two educational models. Gaining popularity in the 70’s & 80’s, politicised design is an ethical designer whom tries to influence people’s actions through their social conscience. This method is fairly weak, as it demands a rational reaction to design. Assuming that ethically correct design will produce “correct” or “sensible” choices. Ultimately, the politicised approach to design education is very simplistic, idealist and incomplete.
Type 4: The Consumerised Designer
Focusing on consumerist priorities, the consumerised design education trains students how to create successful campaigns for commercial success in a simple conformist way. This approach does not critically view designs influence on society and produce design work that simply adds to the visual industrial clutter within our society.
Type 5: The Technologised Designer
Focuses primarily on new media and “cutting edge” technology. They create a superficial value out of the works technological relevance. Holding to the “latest & greatest” mentality, the technologized design education relies on visual impact and shock value.
All of these five basic types of education lack certain pieces of the design spectrum and have fundamental limitations. Whiteley expresses that we must develop a new model for design education that combines characteristics amongst the classic five models with an outlook on the consequences and value of design. This new model which Whiteley presents is known as the Valorised Designer.
The Valorised Designer:
The valorised designer is aware of the interdisciplinary nature of design in today’s society. Recognizing numerous outlooks: cultural, social, political, environmental, etc. the valorised designer finds their role amongst these social outlooks (issues) so that they can create design with a value. Valurised designers connect the theory and practice aspects of design and are able to look at design as a tool for change.
When designers view design as a tool that can spark change and influence aspects of society, they are able to better understand the ethical consequences of their work. When a designer better understand the world around them, and their place amongst the many social outlooks (issues) they can most effectively create design with purpose and value.
