Graphic Design School Blog » Advertising

Neon Signs

admin — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 06:14:54 +0000

To maintain a curious eye about the world, to look and attempt to decode the terrain around you is what separates a great designer from a mere ‘good’ one. That, at least, is what my old university professor once told me, and it seemed like a sage morsel of wisdom at the time. Still does. The world is awash with things to decode and contextualise, so, to take just one of them, and with our heads cocked quizzically to the side, let’s look at neon signs. Dazzling yet ubiquitous, and produced in a range of typographic and illustrative styles, neon has been utilized by advertisers for decades. It’s time for a fresh appraisal.

Author: Bradley Hotson for The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.

Neon Signs

Neon, Advertising & Vice

One message strongly signified by neon advertising seems to be vice. The enthusiasm shown by those in the alcohol, tobacco, gambling and sex trades for embracing neon to advertise their wares, services and establishments has been substantial, forming for many an indelible connection between neon signage and decadent commodities. The inherently bright and showy properties of neon make it an ideal choice for the cheerful yet pushy style so often adopted by vice-based industries, and by extension those simply selling cigarettes and Budweiser beer. So whilst there is nothing intrinsically trashy or risqué about neon, the sober and the luxurious sections of the business and cultural communities seem largely to have made their minds up, and decided it’s not for them. One recent exception has been London’s Wellcome Trust who engaged the services of London-based graphic design studio Graphic Thought Facility to create a “series of neon artworks based on the scientific models that represent the structures of proteins used in the treatment of HIV, obesity, malaria and cancer.” Images may be found here.

The connection between neon and the advertising of vice is undeniable. Peddlers of alcohol, tobacco, gambling and sex are well aware of neon’s attention-grabbing and brash potential. Image © Cheryl Goodwin.

Certain brands have subsumed neon into the fabric of their DNA. The flickering neon Budweiser sign has attained cultural familiarity through cinema and our own experience. Image © David Morton.

Electrifying in blue, and perfect to sit over the door of a nightclub. Image © Ian Muttoo.

As with vice, neon advertising has strong connections with the body modification industry. Image © Marc Weinreich.

I Never Knew That…

When used in tubes for signs, neon produces a distinctive red-orange light. It’s the other noble gases which when used emit the greens, blues and other hues commonly seen in signage, though all are commonly referred to as ‘neon’ signs. Neon signs are expensive to produce, the high costs due to the rarity of neon, and not the liquifaction process involved in their production.

During daylight hours, the neon sign drops back into the landscape, becoming a mere painted sign with a tubular exo-skeleton. Image © Patrick Boury.

David Warwick likes “the incongruously jaunty type” of this neon sign. Nothing murky about the establishment though; The Dungeon is a London-based art gallery.

Though often typographic, sometimes an illustrative sign crops up to amuse and delight. Image © Gerard Donnelly.

It’s the roman and Asiatic-type neon signs that have filtered through to our consciousness, but cyrillic and other-writing people make them too. Image © Dit is Suzanne.

Neon’s Influence on Future Noir

Whilst commonplace in our cities, it might also be useful to look at how a commodity like neon can have an influence on style and subculture. Neon has featured heavily in the work of film directors looking to project a dystopian vision of the future, signifying the particular un-organic look its fluorescence communicates. Throughout Blade Runner, Deckard, the detective who inhabits Ridley Scott’s Los Angeles of 2019, weaves his way through a neon-soaked cityscape. Here, neon signs advertise every kind of ware—legitimate and shady—in roman and Asian type of bright reds, greens and blues, as crowds hurry through fierce rain with neon-handled umbrellas. Scott’s idea of a future Los Angeles was based less on the LA of the time and more on Tokyo, itself a futuristic city teeming with neon.

Neon features heavily in science fiction filmmakers’ work, perhaps most notably in Ridley Scott’s 1982 future noir thriller Blade Runner, who’s 2019-set Los Angeles resembles a neon-drenched rain-swept Tokyo, itself a kind of future-city.

In Sum

A writer whose name escapes me once divided historians up between what he called parachutists and truffle hunters, meaning those who are driven by the broad sweeps of history and those who find meaning in the unexpected nuggets of stories often related by ordinary people. As designers we need to be both. We shouldn’t ignore the wider world around us—to take an interest in global trends will help improve our work as well as our character. At the same time we must nurture and cultivate a keen sense for the miniature of life, to zoom in to the detail of the everyday, pick an attribute of the environment and link it back to a wider cultural context. Neon signage is one such attribute, and there are countless others out there to explore. Ernesto Rogers (I don’t forget everyone’s name) once claimed that if you examine a spoon carefully you can understand enough about the society that made it to visualise how they would design a city. Whilst possibly stretching things with this assertion I believe he was on the right path. You will be too if you develop the visual awareness explained above, striding towards signs reading ‘Awards’ ‘Recognition’ and ‘Success’, in neon naturally!

“The baths are no longer there, but the sign was restored in a recent conversion of the building into flats” explains Herschell Hershey. Gorgeous.

The Worlds Best Looking Design Studios

admin — Sat, 15 May 2010 06:01:21 +0000

We searched high and low to find you the best looking design studios in the world. If you don’t see your studio here and you think you are a contender, send us a pic and we will add it on

Author: Abby Holmes for The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.

The Worlds Best Looking Design Studios

It’s true. Our environment affects the way we work. I remember an agency where I once worked, I found it really hard to be productive as it was a bit like being in a science lab. Think; concrete floors and stark white blank desks – heaven forbid you had work on your desk! Although sleek and well designed, it was not conducive to creative thinking. As designers we hope our offices are designed in an inspirational manner. It is definitely easier to think and be motivated and inspired in such surroundings. Here’s a few creative spaces I would love to work in….

Ogilvy

A boardroom that changes colour.

I’d be pretty impressed if I was a client sitting in this reception. Ogilvy in Cape Town is one of the largest advertising agencies in the world. No excuse for a lack of creativity in this building Oglivy

Three Rings Design

After the whole office gave input into their wants and needs for the office design, the theme for the space was decided on – Victorian / Steam Punk.Photo credit and interior design;LLC & Three Rings San Francisco

Mono

Mono Minneapolis

Nothing

The offices at Nothing are made entirely of cardboard. The idea being to create an office that is nothing, a blank canvas on which people can leave their mark.Pretty bleeding obvious it’s Amsterdam, what other country wouldn’t shut down this place for OHS reasons… Love the Dutch! Nothing Amsterdam

Parliament

Photos care of Lincoln Harbour Parliament Design Portland

Oktavilla

Photos care of Oktovilla Stockholm

JWT

Photos care of JWT New York

Michon

At Michon, they believe they work better in light and bright surroundings. They transformed what was formerly an old school into a creative agency.Michon UK

Design by Front

Design By Front Nth Ireland

Barkley

Exterior photos; Allistair Goodman, interior photos; Ron Berg

Got a great looking studio?

email us your pics and we will add them. Email: admin@thegraphicdesignschool.com

Should I go freelance or permanent? The pros and cons of both

admin — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 03:28:23 +0000

Woo hoo! You’ve finished college, you’ve put together your folio and you’re ready to take on the design world. Should you be looking for permanent or freelance roles, or just try and get whatever you can? Here are some things worth considering before you decide.

Should I Go Freelance Or Permanent? The Pros & Cons Of Both

Pros of freelance

Freelance can be an attractive proposition to an employer, as they are not tied to keeping you on. When you’ve just left college, you haven’t established yourself in the industry, so it can be seen as less risky to an employer to take you on to do some freelance work and see how you go.
Often freelancing can be a foot in the door to a permanent job, a sort of ‘try before you buy’ for the employer. You get to suss them out too!
Freelance can be a fantastic way to work for a number of very different clients.
You will be able work with lots of different designers and have exposure to many different design styles.
Not sure whether you’d like to work in a design agency, advertising agency or even in-house? Freelancing gives you the opportunity to try a bit of everything out.
You get to choose when you want to work.
You’re not tied to any employer.
There’s less chance of getting involved in office politics. You’re not going to be there for long, so why do you care? You can just go in, do your work and leave.
If you don’t like the job, it’s easy to move somewhere else.
There’s the chance to earn more money per day freelancing than in a permanent role.
You may be able to work from home.
You’re your own boss. There’s a definite feeling of autonomy and independence.
You get to meet lots of people and build up your contacts in the industry. Once you start building a reputation for yourself, you may find that you don’t have to seek out work so much, but that you get called back by the same places when they are busy time and time again.
It’s easier to take longer periods off to go on holiday to pursue other creative projects. This can be great if you’re also a budding animator, photographer, illustrator…
You can negotiate your own rate. Once you start gathering experience, you can up your rate accordingly.

You can sometimes charge for overtime – depending on the employer. You must pre-negotiate this before you start.

Working at a great agency can make all the difference, photography © Lincoln Barbour

Pros of permanent

You know where you’re going to be working every day of the week. No job is ever stable in this industry, but there’s definitely a feeling of more stability.
Once you’ve been in your job for a while, you will be given bigger briefs and more responsibility.
You will be mentored by your creative director. This is particularly important when you’re straight out of college and you’re still learning the ropes. By the same token, you may be given a fair bit more leniency than you would in a freelance role, where you would be expected to perform without ‘learning plates’.
You will form close friendships with the people around you. Being permanent means you’ll be part of all the social events, Friday night drinks, award nights etc. You’ll really feel like part of a team.
You’ll have greater creative control over your work and a greater say in how it evolves. As time goes on, you’ll have greater say in how the agency runs and you could be given more leadership responsibilities. You may also start to mentor and manage other designers.
You know what you are going to be earning every week. This makes it easier to plan your life, paying bills, getting a loan, buying a house. You are considered more stable to a bank.
A permanent role can look good to your next permanent employer.
You’ll be able to build up a portfolio of work that you saw through from conception to completion. This will be work that hopefully you’re really proud of.
You will be able to work and develop a brand over time. You will get to evolve campaigns and have a real creative say in the brand.

Cons of freelance

You are often called in because an agency is really busy, such as in a pitch situation. This can be pretty intense.
You don’t get any real downtime or ‘quiet days’ like you would in a permanent role, as if you’re not working, you are costing the company money, so they won’t keep you on.
It can be hard to plan holidays and other stuff, as you never know when you’ll be working.
You could be called in to work all weekend and lots of late nights, especially in a pitch situation.
As you’re often moving around from agency to agency, you often don’t get to bond with co-workers and you always have to get to know new people and suss out how they work. You can consequently always feel like the ‘new kid at school’.
You may not have such a large say as a freelancer. You can always have a creative opinion, but if someone in the agency doesn’t agree, you often have to go along with what they say, as you are in effect ‘the hired help’. If you become too disagreeable, they can just get rid of you. This can be frustrating, as you often just have to follow other people’s ideas, against your better judgement.
You can sometimes have less creative input, as you are seeing someone’s idea through.
You often start a project and you may not get to see it all the way through, so it can be harder to build up your folio.
You are almost certainly never given the briefs that others in the agency would want. More often than not, you are given the briefs that no one else wants to work on. I once came into an agency for a freelance gig to work on a weight loss client. The creative director had sat on the brief for 5 weeks in the agency, as most of the creative’s were guys and they didn’t want to touch it. Finally my partner and I came in one Thursday and were told we had to present three fully developed concepts to the US heads of this company that flying to Australia for the meeting on Monday morning. Needless to say, we did not get much sleep on Sunday. We charged for 18 hours of work that day!

Cons of permanent

Sometimes when you start off somewhere as a junior, it can be hard to move up the ranks as you develop more experience. In some ways, you will always be thought of as a junior. I stayed in my first job for just over three years. After asking for pay rises and only getting very minimal jumps, I decided to move agencies. Even though I absolutely loved where I was, I just knew I wasn’t going to be able to move up the ranks there. By moving agencies, I doubled my salary and my seniority.
Sometimes the demands of the job can be so much that you feel like your job is your life. There can be this feeling that you must stay late every night even if you’re not busy, just so you seem devoted to your job. Some people can thrive on this, but most of us like a little balance.
It can be harder to take holidays. I remember going to ask for a month off to go overseas and I was told ‘there’s never a good time to take a holiday, so it’s always a good time to take a holiday’. There also used to be this running joke in a few agencies that I worked in that if you went on holiday, you’d be lucky to come back to a job. I know a few people that did lose their job after going on holiday. One poor girl happened to bump into her boss at an airport whilst on holiday and wondered why he was acting so strange and not looking her in the eye. Then the day before she was due back at work, she got a call from someone at the agency saying ‘don’t bother coming in tomorrow’. No wonder her boss hadn’t been able to look her in the eye.
As you’re on a permanent salary, most likely you won’t be entitled to overtime. Long hours and weekend work can be expected for no extra pay.
Starting salaries can be low and as you’re just out of college, there’s no room for negotiation. You basically have to accept what is offered to you. Sometimes employers take advantage of this and offer really low salaries. Sometimes you have to weigh this up with the great experience you’ll be getting, especially if the agency is highly regarded in the industry.
You may only be working on the same two or three clients. In fact a few times, I’ve only been working on one client. This can be creatively mind numbing after a while and once you’re deemed as the so called ‘expert’ on that client, it can be hard to move onto other clients.

As you can see, there are great things about freelance and permanent. It’s up to you to decide what’s right for you now. I started off in permanent roles for the first seven years of my career and then decided to go freelance. Both have been fantastic for many different reasons. Good luck with the hunting!

26 Logos & Their Design Evolution

admin — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 09:26:08 +0000

Our top 26 logo revamps for better or worse you decide.It’s hard to argue with the Art Paul’s and the Paul Rand’s of the design world. Some of the greatest logos have stood the test of time, below are the ones that obviously no longer represented the modern day image of the associated brand.

Author:The Graphic Design School The Graphic Design School offers vocational training graphic design courses. Delivery is online, affordable and open to students all over the world to study in the comfort of their own home.

26 Logos & Their Design Evolution

Professional Design Practice Lesson 1: Self-Promotion & Winning Work

admin — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:51:18 +0000

In the first of a series of lessons entitled Professional Practice, we have sourced one of todays hottest working English based freelance designers to give you the leg up on building yourself a truly professional Graphic Design practice. Look out for the following in the new series; Freelance Fee Structures & How to Quote, Project Planning (Breaking Jobs Into Milestones), Dealing with Clients, Charging & Invoicing, Law in Design Practice, The Portfolio, A Conclusion of Sorts. Being Freelance. Benefits & Pitfalls.

Professional Practice: Self-promotion & Winning Work

In this climate of Olympian-sized competition, compounded, undoubtedly, by the worldwide recession, it’s imperative for us to do all we can to stand out from our peers, to make an impact on those we meet, to conduct ourselves with integrity when meeting new people and to start to cultivate a reputation, in order that we might be remembered by those commissioning design, and chosen over the competition.

The Lesser Bird of Paradise knows a thing or two about standing out. Image courtesy of Bluepeak Travel Photography bluepeakt

Great Expectations

Many children across Great Britain grow up hearing the oft-quoted phrase “from little acorns, large oak trees grow”. This is a worthwhile phrase to remember when starting out on the path to a career in graphic design. Many undergraduates, having spent years reading about star-designers and surfing the websites of their favourite studios, become stuffed to the gills on great work, and may face a rude awakening when, on graduating, they find that Nike aren’t banging at their door to insist on giving them their next international campaign to work on, or that Pentagram haven’t created a job position especially for them.

Starting out rarely involves working with clients of Nike’s calibre. More realistically, your first break might come through a small charity, a local acupuncturist or an acquaintance in need of an identity. These are the kinds of “little acorns” which, though not as glamourous as Nike and its ilk, offer young graphic designers an opportunity to cut their teeth, do some great work and begin to cultivate a reputation. In his best-selling book “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be” Paul Arden writes “We are always waiting for the perfect brief from the perfect client. It almost never happens. You’re probably working on a job or project right now and saying ‘This is boring, let’s just deal with it and get it over with. We’ll make the next one good.’ Whatever is on your desk right now, that’s the one. Make it the best you possibly can.” Paul is right. By conducting yourself with integrity and doing your best on each job you’re commissioned you will be making moves toward building a good professional reputation.

Rather than pursue the big beasts…

…adjust your sights and go after those that need you most! Lioness picture used with permission of Laurent Geslin, photographer Laurent-Geslin Moggie picture supplied by Herbi Ditl www.flickr.com/photos/herbivore

A recent branding project for a newly-formed free church by Hotson Studio Hotson Studio

In any event, it’s a sure bet that the “dream clients” (Nike and, in Britain, perhaps Selfridges) will already have access to award-winning, highly reputable design studios. The evidence for this is there in the quality of their campaigns. Far better to look in the less exposed, more pedestrian corners of the High Street and business world, and to seek out those who could really do with your help. Adrian Shaughnessy in “How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul” puts it nicely when he says “There is more personal satisfaction in taking a client with no apparent potential and producing effective and resonant work for them than there is in working for so-called ‘cool brands’.”

With realistic expectations, and a personal business ethic in place, you can deploy the techniques explored below to help make things happen.

Word of Mouth

It occasionally frustrates me how many potential clients are going about their work unaware of just how much good graphic design could enhance the value of their business. These potential clients are everywhere. One of our jobs is to tap into this rich seam and pull some aboard, just as the brown bear scoops the salmon from the fast-flowing stream in the wilds of Canada.

There are various methods of finding clients at our disposal, and to maximise our chances of building a solid client base we need to exploit each of them as best we can.

As a freelance graphic designer you’re your own shop front. Image courtesy of Colin Turner

Even in this digital age one of the surest ways of making contacts and finding work remains plain old-fashioned word of mouth. Make sure family members and friends all know what you do and have at least some idea of what the profession entails. They will then be in a position to mention your name (and perhaps pass on a well-designed business card of yours that you’ll have supplied them with) should they hear of anything going. Between you and everybody you know, you probably know more people who commission design than you’d think.

There’s no reason why the same rule cannot apply to clients. If you have an existing client then ask him to keep his ear to the ground for you and recommend you to his associates. By ruthlessly exploiting every contact you can think of things can (at the best of times) develop for you in an exponential manner.

Your Online Presence

Some graphic designers still pride themselves on running a thriving business without the need for a website, but they are now a minority breed. In the digital age it pays to work at your online presence, through your own site and the larger, networking-based ones. At the bare minimum, a well-designed single webpage can act as a message board through which potential clients might email, telephone or write you. You can also supply a link to a website like Flickr, where you can keep an up-to-date online portfolio of your work. If you use Twitter, or run a blog, then leave the links on your webpage. If you’re a web-savvy designer then I won’t need to stress how beneficial and impacting a well-designed and planned website can be.

Letterpress printers Typoretum work hard at their online presence and have an integrated approach, each page giving links to the others, forming an intuitive whole www.typoretum.co.uk

I have found Twitter to be a useful tool for making contacts. Twitter seems to be like Marmite in that people either love it or hate it (or don’t “get” it), but through persevering with Twitter, winning followers and following the interesting Tweeters, advertising your work and leaving links to useful online stuff, you can gain a valuable network of online contacts, some of whom may contact you when they need creative services. With a copy & paste you can publish the same information you tweet through Facebook, LinkedIn and Bebo, your own blog or website. Once you get going this can take seconds, and it pays to disseminate your information as widely as possible.

There are dedicated businesses such as View Creatives in Britain where you can upload a cv and selection of work, which prospective clients can then download for a small fee and view respectively. Some of these sites, for a small monthly standing order, give the option of being a premium user which guarantees a place near the top of the list and offers more space to upload images of work. This too, parallel to a networking-based online presence, may be worth considering.

Link each account, blog and website back to the others. The more relentless you are at publicising yourself, informing your followers and friends of recent work and advertising your wares online the better your chances of making a successful go at gaining a substantial pool of contacts.

Self-promotional Material

Back in the real, tangible world of print and paper, you will also need to engage in the production of printed promotional literature. This too, when starting out, can be a useful tool in generating leads and contacts. Be prepared to work hard to make whatever you do visually arresting and distinctive. The world is awash with printed, moribund detritus and amongst all this you’ll want to get noticed. You might start with a postcard, displaying an image of a favourite piece of work on one side and your contact details on the reverse. The more ambitious-minded might want to experiment with an intricately folding piece displaying a choice selection of work. This adds a tactile element for the end user to experience.

Graphic design studio Turnbull Grey letterpress print their own greetings cards and frequently use them for self-promotional purposes Turnbull Grey

Your promotional piece should be used to leave behind at interviews and meetings, and to send out to people. Direct mail should be considered, and the same rules about making your piece visually compelling apply. Just as I’m advising you all to do here, I myself recently designed and had printed a 16pp A3 poster, which folds down to postcard size. One side contained a selection of imagery from my portfolio with explanatory text, and the reverse some typography and contact details. I sent this piece out, combined with a handwritten letter on my own letterhead, to existing and prospective clients and London-based studios whose businesses I admired. In two months I’ve been invited along to several portfolio reviews with design studios (advice and criticism given at these are invaluable) and pulled a new client on board who I am now working for. My database of contacts received a considerable boost through the endeavour.

I learned that details with this sort of thing matter. Be sure to have a well-designed, cohesive suite of stationery with which to use when writing to people. Find out your contact’s name and record it accurately to avoid the dreaded “Dear Sir/Madam” at the top of your letterhead. Another tip from Adrian Shaugnessy “…when you write a letter, especially a letter promoting you or your company, always write the address on the envelope by hand. It is so fare to get a letter with a handwritten address that most people instinctively open these first.”

Your stationery needn’t be gorgeously foil-blocked like Build’s is, but put as much effort into its design as they did www.designbybuild.com

The Self-initiated Brief

“Self-initiated projects are often necessary for the individual’s … psychic health, and the urge to experiment and explore is perfectly reasonable”. So says Adrian Shaughnessy, who then goes on to make clear that we should be under no illusion that self-initiated projects impress in the same way that a real, commercial project will. He has a valid point, although there are no hard and fast rules to what works in graphic design. I have met people in studios who have politely leafed through my commercial work unconcernedly and only really displayed any interest when coming across my letterpress work, which is largely self-initiated. One past client even took me on for a summer on the strength of a student sketchbook.

Though rare, if good enough (and out there online) your work may be spotted by the editor of a design journal and images requested for inclusion, and this can happen for personal projects just as easily as commercial ones (see the record sleeves by Hector Pottie below). My own feelings on the matter are that self-initiated projects allow the designer to give full reign to his creative impulses, allowing any potential client a better insight into who the person he may commission really is.

These fictional, silk-screen printed record sleeves by Hector Pottie were deemed fit for inclusion in an issue of British-based Grafik magazine

Summary

By pouring sweat, blood and tears over the various means and methods described above, you will be laying the sound foundations of a healthy freelance life. Maintain realistic goals, be aware of the zeitgeist, of all that goes on around you, and try to act with originality and precision when working on self-promotional and -initiated work, and your online presence. Treat self-promotion as an ongoing process rather than a sequence of one-offs. By maintaining a critical, striving attitude to your own work and acting with integrity and professionalism in your dealings with people you’ll soon be on the front foot and cracking open the champagne!

*Pop!* “Whey!” *Splash* *Fizz* *Pour, pour, pour* *Clink* “Cheers!” *Glug, glug, glug&ellip;*. Image supplied by Alessandro Termignone

Next week in our series of Professional Design Practice…

Freelance Fee Structures & How to Quote

Get off the Mac, roll up your sleeves and get making. Once a week.

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:43:33 +0000

In the working world it has become increasingly difficult to free yourself from the Mac and create something with your hands. Make the most of analogue and crafty disciplines offered through design education, and take your skills with you into the working world!

Get off the Mac, roll up your sleeves and get making. Once a week.

Steve Jobs is nobody’s fool. The sleek, sexy and justifiably praised desktops and laptops that Apple make are now a staple —a necessity even— of any self-respecting graphic designer. We await the release of new iMacs and operating systems with impatience, queue up to purchase our copy, and coo over them once they’re installed as if they were newborn babies. We learn them inside out and gush, blog and tweet over new Photoshop filters. Graphic design, along with many other professions which used to require a certain amount of manual endeavour, has, with the rise of digital technology become nigh-on completely computer-based and desk-bound. The modern graphic designer need never sketch out a rough by hand or design a font on layout paper. Everything can now be done with the help of a computer.

The latest “big-cat-themed” operating system that you simply can’t live without and the best ever. Until the next one…

And yet there was a time when graphic design was a very hands-on profession, not at all centred around a magical-looking computer, and which involved all kinds of tactile and smelly materials, and which required actual physical effort to work with the various mediums associated with it. I’m talking drawing boards, airbrushes, magic markers, inks, layout pads, lightboxes, silk-screen printing, linocutting, collage and drawing. What is most fascinating here is that these analogue processes aren’t from some far-flung past. We aren’t talking William Morris’s Kelmscott Press here. No, many graphic designers and tutors in their fifties, forties and even thirties, will have some recollection of their professional life involving the making of things by hand.

Large-scale Voltron models made entirely of Lego, from Grand Admiral / Mark Sandlin www.flickr.com/people/grandadmiral/

Thankfully, most design schools still offer students the chance to get to grips with some, if not most, of the processes listed in the paragraph above. And this fact should be celebrated, as it provides those willing to learn with an anchoring in the distant and not-so-distant analogue past. One could view this advocation of older processes as a certain charming backwardness through lack of funds on the design schools’ part, although the well-planned and carefully thought out courses will have been designed with the same points that I describe here in mind. Good design schools, like many designers out there ‘in the field’, recognise that it’s highly beneficial for the young graphic designer to think outside the Mac. For students, the freedom and breadth of disciplines offered should be taken advantage of, as the opportunity to indulge these passions (in the quantities that design schools can offer) will hardly likely come round again once you’re out there in the working world.

During my own final year of education I decided I wanted to learn about letterpress printing, and planned to use it to print my major end-of-year project. In my pursuit I was fortunate enough to have a course head as enthusiastic as I was and who had valuable connections to a fine printing press in Wales. Within a month I had been packed off there for an intensive, hands-on introduction, and emerged two weeks’ later having learned to design, handset, compose and print using letterpress, and returned home with two posters to exhibit at my end-of-year show. On graduating I kept in touch with the staff at the press and continue to visit them each year. Two weeks is scarcely enough time to master the discipline, though I was at least given an initiation into letterpress printing which enabled me to continue to use it for personal projects. Clients and other designers seem to like the fact I include these handmade projects in my portfolio, and of all my work it is often these pieces, and not my commercial work, which is singled out for praise and which people are most easily able to recall when I speak to them.

Lovely commission for ilovetypography.com letterpress-printed by Typoretum www.typoretum.co.uk

Gorgeous 2010 handbound, accordion-fold letterpress-printed calendar by Campbell Raw Press www.campbellrawpress.com

Two tactile Christmas cards from Hand & Eye Letterpress both set in wood and metal type and printed on a metal-coated board www.handandeye.co.uk

As mentioned above, on completing your education, if you’re lucky enough to bag yourself a job either inhouse or within an independent studio, the chances are the prospect of long hours at the Mac beckons. You won’t mind this at all because within your studio, through all the graft, artworking and occasional tedium involved, you’ll glimpse moments of pure enchantment; when you get a job couriered over from the printers, or have an idea of yours passed for inclusion on a project. You’ll be trying very hard to make a positive contribution to your studio, to make the transition from someone who needs a lot of help and support to a genuinely productive member of the team.

A charming montage of greetings cards and the colourful back patterning from letterpress-printed stationery designed and printed by Smock www.smockpaper.com

Amidst all this though, try to maintain some link with the traditional processes you’ll have learned at some point during your education. It’ll be all too easy to let things slide when you’re strapped in to an iMac. Sketch out roughs with a pencil as opposed to on screen. Suggest using letterpress on that new album cover. Anything. Thankfully there is now more appreciation for the handmade than there was fifteen years ago. Back then the age of Mac had only just become prevalent and software like Photoshop had still to really catch on. Graphic designers (and their clients) were in thrall to what they could now accomplish with computer-aided design. Luckily, here at the end of the decade, you could say that disciplines such as letterpress and traditional drawing are enjoying something of a renaissance. People will always value the tactile and the handmade (if it’s any good that is) and by choosing to take this route where appropriate your professional life will be richer and more rewarding than it would be spent solely on the Mac.

The creative possibilities that computer-aided design brings is undoubtedly a Good Thing. Adrian Shaugnessy again “The computer has revolutionized the design process. It has made the act of designing easier, and in many ways it has improved the way we design things. Yet in other respects it has made design more formulaic, and it has standardized the act of designing.” These are words worth heeding. Traditional skills retain a charm and often present a usage which should always be remembered, celebrated and, wherever appropriate, used!

Impactful four and three-colour silkscreen prints by Waste Yourself www.wasteyourself.com

A Day in the Life at the Leo Burnett Agency

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:20:36 +0000

We have been lucky enough to follow Leo Burnett Art Director Djordje Joksimovic for a day around legendary Agency Leo Burnett. Leo Burnett created iconic symbols of American-branded products. It was his creation of the Marlboro Man, the Jolly Green Giant, and Tony the Tiger that would make his small mid-western company one of the largest, most sought-after agencies in the world. The Marlboro Man and the Jolly Green Giant are said to be two of three most recognised characters in the world (with Ronald McDonald).

Author: The Graphic Design School

A first in our new series of articles A Day In The Life Of… The Graphic Design School will, each month be offering you a tour around the ins and outs of the best graphic design agencies, freelancers and studios in the world… A virtual work experience.

A Day in the Life at the Leo Burnett Agency

Leo Burnett's iconic work that kick started a career spanning decades and dozens of multi-national agencies: The Malboro Man, The Jolly Green Giant and Tony the Tiger.

Big ideas come from the big pencil

is the statement behind Leo Burnett's thinking, along with a humankind approach. The single greatest thing for Leo and Design Schools are its people. In the end it all comes down to the people you meet, talk to, network with, work with, love, avoid, respect and so on. I have a great opportunity to work with top professionals from many different areas of expertise, every day. The advice, opinions, views, knowledge and skill set of each individual at Leo offers me a network of highly skilled assistance at my fingertips, that's priceless.

Project: Image Campaign Client: Leo Burnett Belgrade Creative Director: Dejan Bojovic, Art Director: Djordje Joksimovic Photographer: Djordje Joksimovic

Leo Burnett Belgrade, I believe has a specific climate, we call it a ‘relaxed’ atmosphere. Your priority at work is to finish your days duties regardless of when you arrive. Working hours are 9am to 5pm, however many people arrive after 10. So long as you meet the requirements of an 8hr day. This atmosphere enables you to feel free to find your own private way of functioning to your best advantage. I believe our ‘relaxed’ atmosphere, and different schedules can be difficult for the Accounts dept. when trying to gather us all for a group meeting. However, designers are those lay-back, cool and often quiet people that you handle with care, their genius allows them to invent ‘stuff’ from scratch, and that kind of talent requires kit gloves and flexibility!

One of the greatest challenges with being a ‘creative’ in this kind of work environment is the delicate juggling between the ‘Logical’ and ‘Creative’ parts of the agency. To some extent an agency can be described as a similar set up to the two sides of your brain. The Logical side represents all non-designers such as the Accounts, Traffic and Media departments. The Creative side with Designers, Copywriters, the Creative and Art dept. The Creatives create fantasy, and the Logicals help refine fantasy to meet the goals of communication, and the logistics of the business. In unison the two sides perfect the storytelling to enhance sales. In the words of infamous Director, Author and Producer Hermann Vaske.

Advertising is the fine art of separating people from their money

Image Campaign Client: Heinz Agency Location: Paris, France Creative Director: Stephan Ferens » Copywriter / Art Director: Eric Esculier.

The most rewarding aspect, once every detail of a campaigns communication has been perfected, is feedback. We receive this feedback when the campaign ‘hits the streets’. This is the ‘litmus test’. The public. The truth, the moment that you learn whether you invested yourself in something that can make you feel accomplishment and pride or feel like hell!

Learning is a constant process and campaigns definitely enhance your learning, however I believe that learning really starts on the day you enter any office or design school, in my case Leo Burnett. Advertising can be a tough world, and each day can takes its toll. Every day you burry yet another unused idea that seemed as bright as a star. Yet, as this industry requires, we continue to ‘reach for the stars’ because we want to be the best. Advertising guru Paul Arden once said “It's not how good you are, it's how good you want to be!” He was damn right too. This is the quote that has most inspired me in my career and my life. The better you want to be, the better colleagues you will have, the more happiness you will spread, the more people you will inspire and the more people will love you for it. That is the simplest life philosophy. Once again Leo was right it all comes down to people, ourselves included.

Image Campaign Client: McDonalds Leo Burnett Chicago Global Chief Creative Officer: Mark Tutssel Chief Creative Officer: John Condon EVP/Creative Group Head: John Montgomery Creative Directors: V. Cook, G. Fox-Robertson, B. Shembeda, A. Gross

Working in an environment of creatives one is constantly aware of the fact that creative people have big egos! We insist on how great we are and how amazing our design is. Working in this agency has taught me that we should always share our knowledge with others, no matter how big your ego, or almighty your position. (People that don’t share their ideas, probably don’t have many of them anyway). Leo Burnett Belgrade has 120 employees, and many walls, however, colleagues are not segregated by departments and teams, our agency has moved the barriers between us, we support and enrich each others ideas. Our philosophy is that if we haven't moved these metaphorical barriers our day has been unproductive… useless. Our attitude to healthy competition and challenge sees us having some great nights out after a synergy of successes.

Image Campaign Client: Pirelli Leo Burnett, Milan, Italy Global Chief Creative Directors: Enrico Dorizza, Sergio Rodriguez Art Director: Roberto Piazza Copywriter: Matteo Lazzarini

Although our barriers are less than in other more traditional agencies we do team up (Art Director and Copywriter for example) to work together in ‘micro7rsquo; environments, presenting ideas and working long hours on pitches for clients. We do what we can to keep the agency's spirit alive and beating. Like the rhythm that exudes from the speakers of my iTunes playlist. I have earnt the role as the agency's DJ. I play music to over 40 people on my floor. I keep them happy! one of the perks of being a ‘creative’.

And so starts another day… I'm getting up, fresh enough so I can rewind the film in my head of how I got here. A spanking new morning in Belgrade 2009, clean head, big drive, full batteries, after so many trips, boarding passes, frequent desk changes, computer desktops, cityscapes and music on iTunes. I start with a double shot of coffee, warm milk with one sugar, please. Made from the Communal Leo Burnett coffee machine… of course!

Take a peak in the life of an Art Director at Leo Burnett

Video created by Djordje Joksimovic filmed by Zoran Jovanovic, Written by Marija Mladjenovic, prize winner in HumanKind Leo Burnett world challenge.

Definitions that you may find useful in this article

Copywriter has ultimate responsibility for an advertisement's verbal or textual content, which often includes receiving the copy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copywriter) information from the client.

Art Director An Art Director isn't necessarily the head of an art department. He/She typically works in tandem with a copywriter. The team usually works together to devise an overall concept (also known as the “big idea”) for an ad, commercial, mailer, brochure, or other advertisement. An A.D. may come up with the headline or other copy, and the copywriter may suggest a visual or aesthetic approach. Each person usually welcomes suggestions and constructive criticism from the other. Ideally, the words and visual should not parrot each other; each should enhance or enlarge the other$#39;s meaning and effect.

Accounts Account Services or Account Management is somewhat the sales arm of the advertising agency. An account executive meets with the client to determine sales goals and creative strategy. They are then responsible for coordinating the creative, media, and production staff behind the campaign. Throughout the creative process, they keep in touch with the client to update them on the ad's progress and gain feedback. Upon completion of the creative work, it is their job to ensure the ad's production and placement.

Creative Director The CD oversees the design of branding and advertising for a client and ensures that the new branding and advertising fits in with the client's requirements and the image they wish to promote for their company or product. The main aspects of this role are to interpret a client's communications strategy and then develop proposed creative approaches and treatments that align with that strategy. Another is to initiate and stimulate creative ideas for and from everyone involved in the creative process. Creative directors normally oversee copywriters and art directors.

Traffic The traffic department regulates the flow of work in the agency. It is typically headed by a traffic manager (or system administrator). Traffic increases an agency's efficiency and profitability through the reduction of false job starts, inappropriate job initiation, incomplete information sharing, over- and under-cost estimation, and the need for media extensions. In small agencies without a dedicated traffic manager, one employee may be responsible for managing workflow, gathering cost estimates and answering the phone, for example. Large agencies may have a traffic department of five or more employees

Featured Designer Djordje Joksimovic

Featured Agency Leo Burnett

Djordje is Art Director at Leo Burnett Blegrade.

Communication is a priority.
Perception is everything.
Design is the key.

What I'm Like? As a boy I dreamt about launching and flying a spacecraft, and was only happy if the other kids that played with me were happy too. Today I'm launching the brands that serve the purpose and help people to feel comfortable and
happy about themselves. In fact, design is the way we talk to each other these days, and doing so in clear, direct, honest
and interesting ways, we can make better things – and make things better.

Handstand To be unique, imaginative, simple and memorable by capturing people's imagination to inspire them to be the best they can be.

Craftwork I create work, inspired through humanity to influence people's behavior.

Rocket Science I help marketing people to make their brands part of people's lives by understanding, inspiring, and
activating human behavior.

Djordje’s Blog

Follow Djordje on Twitter

When Times are Tough Graphic Designers Get Tactile!

admin — Mon, 04 May 2009 01:55:55 +0000

As always its up to the graphic designer to keep the economy running when times are tough… Really! Graphic Design makes the modern world go around, and the medicine go down!

Graphic Designers are the men and women who’s ideas bridge the gap of communication between industry and man. We are therefore partly responsible for economic stimulation.

The Graphic Design School has been noticing the creative ways that designers have been pushing the boundaries beyond the flat print form and ‘reaching out’ to appeal to our SENSES. Below are a few creative designs that verge on engineering.

Author: The Graphic Design School

In between tutoring students in The Graphic Design School’s Online Course and making multitudes of coffees, we thought that we would whip up this little blog entry simply for your viewing pleasure….
Ahhh no sleep for the wicked! Enjoy!

CHANEL Nº5

Chanel’s new sample card is simple yet different enough to have you smelling and admiring its sculptural form… We wish all brands would spend as much on advertising and branding as Chanel.

Russian Standard Vodka

Smell-o-vision it is not… its lick-o-newspaper. What a great way to kick start the ride to work on the train. Reportedly an April fools day joke… Those crazy Russians!

Welch’s

“A lot of people won’t lick a magazine no matter how good it tastes”says Chris Heye, Welch’s marketing chief. But a lot of people will talk about it. Released last year in People magazine. This ad may have given Welch exactly the market boost it was needing.

Arcor Bubble gum

Leo Burnett in Sao Paulo created this clever ad for Arcor bubble gum.

Dior

The controversially named makeup line Addict, has been under fire from Addiction support groups, for insensitive appellation. Well as we all know the fashion world loves a scandal, and Dior Addict is on the advertising rampage now more than ever! This simple and elegant envelope style page opens out to invite your personal consultation at the Dior counter… Sell,sell,sell.

Headline Review

What worn out housewife could resist the allure of a bath, a romance novel and a free lift out that tells the kids to take a hike. Say no more… target audience… HIT!

Sopranos

“Bada Bing!” Sopranos magazine insert used to promote the latest season.

Fruits of the Loom

Undies so fresh they smell like flowers?

Tide

Creating a tactile look and feel to a fabric softener, this 3D ad takes the cake.

3 Musketeers

A pop up chocolate sample, extra tactile! Yumm.

Giorgio Armani Onde perfume

For the release of the Onde series of perfumes, Armani let us sample all three in a 6 page spread of the May issue of Harpers Bazaar.

Oil Of Olay

Clever use of specially designed light catching textured paper, help demonstrate that Oil of Olay has glamour and shine, without the price tag. Nice.

Absolut

Absolut is taking tactile to places where everybody dreams of going…

Visionaire

Lastly, have you heard of Visionaire magazine? Visionaire is a multi-format album of fashion and art produced in exclusive numbered limited editions. Published three times a year, each Visionaire features a different theme.

Issue number 55 is called “Suprise”, engineered by Bruce Foster it utilizes complex 3D environments with classic pop-up techniques. The Visionaire 55 is a showcase of impressive pop-ups by Sophie Calle, Nicola Formichetti with Gareth Pugh, Cai Guo-Quiang, Andreas Gursky, Steven Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Alasdair McLellan, Steven Meisel, Guido Mocafico, Solve Sundsbo and Mario Testino.

See it live here and be sure to visit their site

www.visionaireworld.com

Your Business Card is Crap! Not quite!

admin — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:22:17 +0000

Your business card leaves an impression of You, even when you are not there. A beautiful business card helps you stay in on the radar of the people you are giving it to, a great business card makes you standout. We have came across some beauties, and we would like to share them with you.

Send us business cards that stand out, we will publish them!

Author: The Graphic Design School

Your Business Card is Crap!

This clip inspired us to make a reactive thread. We laughed so hard at this self professed ‘Rich jerk’. We couldn’t agree with his appellation more. Check it out, see what you think! Below are a few of our fav interactive business cards… that didn’t take 25 years to design!!

“I am Emerson Taymor”

Emerson Taymor is a quirky ‘little’ guy. His business card seems to reflect his overall style, check out his website too.

www.emersontaymor.com

Impact Salon

www.creativesuitcase.com

“Google Me Card”

Ji Lee

Download a template to make your own!

www.pleaseenjoy.com

Lego

Can you believe that this is a business card? For who else, but the employees at Lego. They are designed to look like the employee that they represent by matching hair color, style and accessories.

www.lego.com

Tur & Partner

Jong von Matt of Germany (also featured in our European Print Article this month) made this awesome business card for Tur & Partner an architectural landscaping company. The card contains seedlings that germinate when you water and expose to light.

Raphael Essoo-Snowdon

He designed and created these awesome 3D glasses when he was a Graphic design student. He painstakingly did all of the cutting and construction by hand.

Raphael Essoo-Snowdon on Flickr

Peet Pienaar

Laser cut business card of South African performance artist/graphic designer Peet Pienaar. From Daddy buy me a Pony magazine.

I’m using art as an excuse to live a very interesting life – it allows you to be whoever you want to be, do whatever you want to do, go where ever you want to go. It’s like a free ticket.

Peet Pienaar

Peet Pienaar on Flickr

1scale1

Lasercut business card of David Sjunnesson of 1scale1: a Critical Research Studio looking into the development of interactive media solutions. This business card really needed to be interactive for a company with that kind of a mission statement.

www.1scale1.com

Scizors

Scizors is a small post-production company who asked Ben Schlitter to create their identity and branding. Those ambitious enough to cut on the dotted line are rewarded with a small paper robot.

benschlitter.com

Bracket

Bracket is a publication that features everything-in-between – ideas, process and voices overlooked and under-appreciated. Nice representation of the company through this simple yet effective idea… genius.

www.silnt.com

Che-Wei Wang

This design is inspired by Ken Blackburn’s world record paper airplane.

Tip: Fold the business card airplane with the wings tilted downward. It’ll fly like a dart. Nothing like a paper airplane flying around an office of board pencil pushers to get your message ‘out there’.

cwwang.com

Murillo Design

A good identity promotes instant retention and long-term recall in an already overcrowded marketplace.

As stated on their website

And what better way to prove your point than practicing what you preach! Hell if they make it big, we might be able to use this business card as currency.

www.murillodesign.com

Donovan Mafnas

Business card of our very own lovable tutor and forum technical advisor at The Graphic Design School Donovan Mafnas. Donovan is not only one of the most professional and efficient people that we have ever had the pleasure of working with, he is a ‘kick ass’ designer. Love your work Dino… again!

www.fuelhaus.com

Reactor

The boys at Reactor thought they were worth a little extra. This is a great concept for a business card to leave at an interview… sets an ‘up and coming’ designer apart from the hoards of potentials that an employer may seek. Nice one!

www.yourreactor.com

The catapult business card

Bryce Bell is a designer with a LOT of time on his hands, and quite a few fans.

You can create one of these yourself, by visiting his site for instructions and instructional videos. You never know when you may need a catapult for an ant invasion… think about it!

www.instructables.com

Master Promo, Curitiba, Brazil

They designed this card for Couples Therapist Marisa Schmit Silva. Makes you wanna have marital problems just to get your hands on one of these. Thanks to adgoodness for this find.

www.frederiksamuel.com

Make your own interactive Business Cards

Want to learn how to make this cute little guy? You can follow a tutorial and even download the templates at computer arts. You will need InDesign for this one, maybe even Scribus. Be inspired by this template and adapt it to your own style.

www.computerarts.co.uk

American Psycho

American Psycho: “Business Card Scene”

Last but not least we would like to leave you with this little clip from the movie American Psycho. Too good!