Years ago, before I moved to New York City, I developed a mantra – that as a designer, it’s your duty to change your style frequently. In the search for transformation, some designers might find solace in the variety of media and side projects (filmmaking, photography, painting, etc.), while others may deliberately change their individual creative patterns and methods of working. This approach helps you to motivate; it helps you to remain excited; and most importantly, allows you to remain valid in an industry that depends on fresh ideas and not just a rehash of yesterday’s stuff. It was this axiom that enabled me to come to New York City…
…as a young designer, I had shown my portfolio to a Cleveland-based agency in a job hunt. They tactfully told me that while they liked my work, without a specific & identifiable style, I would not be a “salable” creative; fitting into their corporate system. In other words, they wanted a singular style to sell instead of substance. I explained to them that my portfolio had creative solutions which were based on what the client’s audience required to identify with a brand, and had very little to do with my own personal visual style. I changed my personal visual styles when I got bored, or needed to feel revitalized. It was this response that empowered me to get in my car, drive from Cleveland to New York City, and take my first New York job at the now defunct (yet highly influential Web design consultancy) methodfive.
At The Police’s final concert last night in Madison Square Garden, I was reminded of the importance of transformation by Sting, who acted out a creative metamorphosis onstage. Arriving and playing most of the show with a shaggy gray beard – he appeared as a grizzled, aging musician instead of the symbol of health and vitality expected from the leader of the pop trio. Just before the encore, he publicly changed his appearance backstage (and onscreen) with a shave. Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes of a long tour and interpersonal battles within the band, he changed his persona during the intermission – emerging revitalized and new; shaved and young – delivering a two act play as an example of how first, the long tour had aged and tested him – and on this final night, revitalized him – as he moves once again past the shadow and drama of The Police, into the next phase of his career.
Was this overplayed and dramatic? Of course, but rock n’ roll should always have an unpredictable element of bombast. And possibly, so should you.
Dave Fletcher is the Founder / Creative Director at theMechanism, a multi-disciplinary design agency with offices in New York, London and Durban, South Africa. He is also a fan of music and believes that a sign of old age is going to see the “final concerts” played by bands that formed after his birth.
I used to live near Pratt Institute, on Vanderbilt Avenue in Brooklyn. One of the many great graphic artists and designers that attended Pratt was Paul Rand (back in 1929). For those of you that don’t know the name (shame on you), Paul Rand (August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was an American graphic designer, best known for his corporate logo designs, helping to originate the Swiss Style of graphic design, and keen thinking and curmudgeonly attitude about our profession.
I stumbled on a 1991 interview with Rand conducted by Miggs B, producer/host of “Miggs B On TV,” a public access TV show in Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3 of the interview features an idiot known as “Art Mann,” – a bit of a ghoul – and obviously a bi-product of early 90’s baboonery. Rand doesn’t fully grasp the intended humor of a segment where Art claims that Westinghouse came to him to simplify their logo (one of Rand’s logo designs), which added uncomfortability to the hearty porridge of nonsense that was being served up to Rand in heaping spoonfuls.
Part 3
However out of date the interview segment is, it is full of great nuggets from one of the “design greats.” One of Rand’s quotes that particularly impressed me was, “A good logo is meaningless until it is used.” Good food for thought, indeed.
Dave Fletcher is a Founder and Creative Director at theMechanism, a multi-disciplinary design agency with offices in New York, London and Durban, South Africa.
Seven nice quotes were posted at Signal vs. Noise yesterday. My favorite is by Jeffrey Zeldman: "Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it's decoration."
Jeffrey Barke is senior developer and information architect at theMechanism, a multimedia firm with offices in New York, London and Durban, South Africa.
theMechanism worked closely with the Ansari X PRIZE Foundation right up until Burt Rutan won back in October of 2004. We continue to support X PRIZE Founder, Dr. Peter Diamandis’ recent efforts, including the Progressive Automotive X PRIZE and the Archon X PRIZE for Genomics, which will help the world to both live and travel more efficiently in the near future. The reason I mention this is because I accidentally stumbled on Peter featured in an excellent (and Freely downloadable) series at iTunes called TED Talks.
TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started in 1984 as a conference to bring together people from those three worlds, and is an “invite only” event.
Dr. Peter Diamandis speaks about Stephen Hawking experiencing Zero Gravity. To hear him speak so vividly and excitedly about this unusual event is inspiring and encouraging.
As designers and thinkers, it’s our duty to try to learn how to apply ourselves to helping the planet. Taking some time to watch and be inspired by Peter, Philippe Stark and John Maeda (to name only a few) at the TED Conference, is a great start.
Dave Fletcher is a Founder and Creative Director at theMechanism, a multi-disciplinary design agency with offices in New York, London and Durban, South Africa. Dave’s still trying to figure out how to get an invite to TED, but he’s getting closer…
Sorry, would love to write more, but completely beat after four hours of sleep and an intense day learning about the latest Google projects. Until I'm able to write a wrap up, check out my photos and audio from the keynote and some of the sessions. (Note—the audio quality might be poor. These are unedited recordings made from the audience using an .mp3 recorder)
Can We Get There From Here? by Alex Russell
Part 1:
Part 2:
Secure Collaboration—How Web Applications can Share and Still Be Paranoid by Mike Samuel
Improving Browsers in New Ways: Gears++ by Chris Prince
Part 1:
Part 2:
Jeffrey Barke is senior developer and information architect at theMechanism, a multimedia firm with offices in New York, London and Durban, South Africa.
