Post Tagged with: "Ideas"

The Business of Creativity

The Business of Creativity

Three questions before taking on a project:

Can we make money from it?
We’re a going business. We have mortgages to pay. We have tuitions to pay for our kids. We’re not ashamed of making money.

Are we gonna be proud of it when we’re done?
There’s nothing that will break your heart faster than working three months on a project and then, when it’s all done, you’ve sold your soul and compromised and you don’t even want anybody to see it.

Can we learn something new?
That allows us to continue to grow in the skills that we have. It allows us to be better filmmakers and writers and coders and art directors. And it keeps things interesting.

From Bootstrapped, Profitable & Proud: Coudal on Signal vs. Noise

March 31, 2011
Pixel as Mother Tongue

Pixel as Mother Tongue

The era of transitioning human beings to the screen is over. Now is the time for designers and storytellers to fully embrace the ascendant platforms and invent a vernacular beyond the derivative language of engineers and marketers.

March 13, 2011
Mind the Gap

Mind the Gap

It’s been an interesting few days in the world of mark making. First, GAP Inc. unveiled a new logo on their website which swiftly became The Biggest News in The Entire World. Then, for a week or so, people bitched and moaned about it. They designed their own better logos. For free. They made fun of each other for designing better logos for free. They flocked to other mediocre mainstream retail outlets for comfort and familiarity — then, in a move historically reserved for French military units and very reminiscent of the Tropicana re-brand debacle, GAP surrendered to the horde.

That’s right. Tonight, waving white flags with blue squares on them and shouting something ludicrous about crowd-sourcing, they went back to their old logo.

This is in no way a commentary on the aesthetic value of the new logo, you can get plenty of that elsewhere from people a lot smarter than me — what concerns me is the prospect of a future where branding and design decisions are made by the mob. Crowd-sourcing is awesome. This isn’t it. This isn’t even design by committee. If the internet had been around, could someone like Paul Rand or Milton Glaser have ever existed? Someone with singular vision, willing to be booed at first — believing that history would eventually prove him right. Or would IBM still look like a meatball wearing a corset?

There will always be people who prefer the old and sometimes those people will be very noisy. Evolution is uncomfortable, but throwing eggs at everything we perceive to be a downgrade isn’t just juvenile — it’s dangerous. It undermines what’s great about the web. It’s wonderful that we have forums for discussing the relative strengths and weaknesses of different brand identities and it’s fun to see what out-of-work designers woulda-coulda-shoulda done, but at the end of the day: it’s a logo.

And it would have been okay.

October 11, 2010
Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Been thinking about the bare necessities — those objects of comfort and utility that we lug around all day every day. The things you really can’t do without. I emptied my hands and trousers and came up with the following:

1. BILLFOLD — Quite empty I’m afraid.

2. ONES — I feel oddly naked without a wad of small bills.

3. KEYS — To the house, office, motorbike and truck. Plus an indispensable screwdriver.

4. USB DRIVE — Loaded with the compleat works of Artie Shaw at the moment.

5. SAFARI PEN — By Lamy. Very possibly the perfect implement for daily use.

6. POCKET KNIFE — The Stockman by Buck. Granddaddy always carried one similar.

7. OBLIGATORY SKETCHBOOK — For the drawing of drawings and the noting of notes.

8. CLAIM TICKET — One of my horns is in the shop.

9. QUARTERS — The only coin I carry. Perhaps an artifact from the days of pay phones.

10. THERMOS — Well, technically the Stanley Classic Vacuum Bottle. Because let’s face it, a cup in hand is worth five in the pot.

What’s in your pocket(book)?

October 10, 2010