On February 1st, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) asked designers submit logo design proposals for its Art Works initiative.

The request was a speculative one, prompting Richard Grefé, executive director of AIGA — the largest and oldest professional communication design association in the United States — to respond by addressing a letter to NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman.

I’ve picked out a few excerpts from Grefé’s letter (shown below), and the full response is linked to at the foot of the post.

AIGA’s response to the NEA’s call for logos

“This type of competition runs against the global professional standards and practices for graphic design [...] it is both unfortunate and inappropriate that the NEA would be pursuing this practice.

“The approach you are pursuing is one that seriously compromises the quality of work you are entitled to and also violates a tacit ethical standard that has long standing in the communication design professions worldwide.

“Speculative design competitions or processes result in a superficial assessment of the problem and can only result in a design that is judged on a superficial basis. [Such competitions] will not result in the kind of work a client deserves.

“Only too often, [spec work] results in a client eventually having to bring a more experienced designer onto a project in order to execute it.”

Read AIGA’s full response to the NEA here.

What AIGA President Debbie Millman says about spec work.

Header image: 1968 AIGA Annual cover, by Paul Rand.

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The Chip Shop Awards 2010 is open for entry.

The Chip Shop Awards is about fostering and recognising creativity with no boundaries and no rules. It’s an international creative awards, open to anyone with great ideas.

Best Use of a Shop Window Postcard Space

Client: Playstation 3
Company: the if agency

Best Use of Plagiarism

Client: Metropolitan Police
Company: TCS Advertising

Best Public Awareness

Client: Durex
Company: Malcolm Crews Design

Best Viral

Client: Richard Holmes, Marketing Director, Specsavers
Company: Specsavers Optical Group

More Chip Shop Awards nominations in a blog post from back in 2008.

Can you do better? Enter the Awards here.

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I’ve read a lot about Dubai that paints a sad picture, but Philip Bloom makes it easy to look beyond the dark side and witness the undoubted beauty of the man-made surroundings.

This four-minute timelapse video was filmed in Dubai over five days and five nights, shot using a Canon 7D and a Panasonic GF1. It’s definitely best viewed full-screen.

“I mostly shot aperture priority mode to cope with the light change. Sometimes in manual. You don’t need expensive cameras to do this. The GF1 is a cheap camera and there are even cheaper ones out there like some of the powershot series with built in timelapse. It’s great fun, very boring to shoot but ultimately the most rewarding.”
Philip Bloom

Music is from The Fountain by Clint Mansell.

More info and stills on Bloom’s blog. Via creativeroots.

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Last month I sent out a call to design students and graduates, asking what should be included in an ideal graphic design course.

Here’s the lowdown.

What graphic design schools are lacking

“Design school teaches you how to talk to other designers … there needs to be an entire course on talking to people who are not designers.”
Stephen Lee Ogden

“First-year students should be put through a rigorous programme of calculus, economics, history, composition, and public speaking. The goal would be to produce first a thinker, a professional, a businessperson, and an educated individual. Only then will traditional design “training” begin. And yes, a lot of people would drop out. The phrase “in the real world” would be banned — this school would be very much a part of the professional world.”
Prescott Perez-Fox

“A class that gives homework from that awesome lil’ book “Caffeine for the Creative Mind.” Or one that uses “Orbiting the Giant Hairball” by Gordon Mackenzie as mandatory reading.”
Raul Soria

“Fifty percent of the class shall be directed towards commercial work, with the remaining fifty percent spent pursuing personal projects.”
Brandon Hunter

“What we lacked was web design teaching. It’s a big part of the demand would have been a major plus.”
Laura

“I would teach how to get a proper design brief from a client. The design brief is half the battle and can really guide your work. I would then teach client contracts, another area I feel school has given me little knowledge about. Revisions, getting half pay up front, client approvals, and other legalities.”
Tyler Maynard

“I would place a lot of emphasis on the strength of the concept. Design students might fall deeply in love with a design because it’s absolutely gorgeous (but it might not always be the most effective solution for that particular project). It’s important to learn the difference between a gorgeous solution and an effective one.”
Catrina Dulay

“I would prepare my students for the inevitable…the small projects that take time away from the major projects. For example, after assigning a two week project, I would sporadically assign ‘Client Emergencies’ like that ad that needs to be designed, approved and printed by ‘tomorrow’. That’s something that I wasn’t prepared for when I got my first design job.”
Andrea Williams

“Run it like a business. I feel like clients abuse designers and there needs to be a class to learn how to deal with them.”
Victor Zuniga

“Balance, movement, tone, grid structure, etc, would all become permanent vocabulary for my 101 students.”
Douglas Bonneville

“Part of the problem of my graphic design degree was that it spent a lot of time glamourising the subject and not enough time telling us what it was like in the real world. More input from employed designers would be a welcome addition.”
Abbas Arezoo

“Once my students graduate I’d always keep in contact in case they need anything more.”
Ashley Dean Newall

“I would teach the students, ”Kill your darlings!” This was the sentence one teacher repeated in a design course in Sweden. I find it important because sometimes we think we have the solution, and it’s definitely not. Killing your first idea is a good solution because the first one that comes to you is almost never the right answer.”
Aneliya Stoyanova

“I would teach students a lot more about running a business. My course was outstanding at teaching us design, but lacked in teaching us how to run our own business.”
Tim

“I would make sure that all students understand the importance of print-ready files. This was an area that was barely touched upon in my courses, both BA and MA. A lot of people left the course not knowing how CMYK made a full colour. Ridiculous.”
Maria Stephens

“It would be good to see a focused course covering all aspects of web design in more detail from yr1 including standards, css, type, usability, social media, IA, branding etc.”
Lee Munroe

“I would assign projects that that solve real problems for real businesses. I am so sick of all the Best Logos Of The Web posts that are full of fake, made-up businesses and words that would never be used in real life. If you can work with the challenges of a real client with real opinions, and you can still come up with a top quality design, that’s what it’s all about.”
Shanna

“If you don’t know how to interact with clients, or even close a sale, your talents are going to be restricted. No clients = no designing.”
Alan Anderson

Photo from Terashima design exhibition

“I’d make very clear that design is not art. So many designers end up where they are even though they always wanted to be artists. As such, they hate the business side, and try push clients to fulfill their own goals. Design and art should be separate, and that should be fundamental in any course.”
Kevin Cannon

“If designers had more knowledge on how to start a small firm and turn it into something great, we wouldn’t have so many frustrated creative people in the world.”
Jay Shamburger

“At least one design class should pair each student with a business seeking a new visual identity, with the students then taught how to ask intelligent questions, prompting the business to reveal its vision for the new look.”
Jennifer Null

“Since so many designers are called-upon to do web design, and so many websites require some programming (with Javascript, PHP, Actionscript, etc.) a minimum of practical exposure and experience to de-mystify (and defuse) the basics can go a long way.”
Bob Quinn

“I would love a class that taught how to be diplomatic with people who don’t know anything about design but think they do.”
Emily Doliner

“If I ran a design course I’d spend most of the time teaching basic design principles and working with pencil and paper.”
Mario Montoya Jr.

“If I ran a design course, I would take the time to learn the art of teaching first and realize that just because I have designed a few annual reports in the field does not qualify me as a good teacher. Many of my professors have not been able to justify their grades, didn’t know what a scoring guide/rubric was, and loved to humiliate students during the critique portion of the class. Phenomenal teachers give constructive criticism, but they also know that they should sandwich it in between some positive feedback.”
Tracy

“I would include some sort of discussion or lecture on pricing.”
Eric Lawson

“The capstone would be very similar to my branding class where students would create a product/company of their own and take it from nothing to launch, writing design and marketing briefs and design several key things such as an identity package, advertising, catalogs, packaging, etc. with the instructor acting like an art director in a design firm. Outside of design I would have students take courses in experimental psychology to expose them to research methodology and looking in research journals to help solve design problems.”
Jon Liebold

“Students should be given projects where the teacher plays the role of a difficult client — someone without imagination and the ability to articulate what they want. It can be a huge challenge to isolate the core message of a design project, and knowing how to handle those clients, and keep them happy, can be even harder.”
Neil Kowalewski

“I always felt that my design classes, while informative and very helpful, never touched on the ‘real world’ of the design community and life. How to survive at a design firm (whether small or big) was never spoken of.”
Lee Gustin

“If I ran a design course, I would hire David Airey to give me advice on what to teach students.”
Liking your style, Eduardo Velarde

“Business practices in the design field would be high on the list. Presentation skills should also be stressed.”
Victor Ware

“I’d like to see design schools help students garner freelance work on their own, as a student project supervised by an instructor, as well as require an internship in an agency setting.”
Nick Venturella

“After our last final a couple weeks ago, my fellow students all felt like, “Wow, we’ve got a portfolio website for ourselves, but how do we do it for a client? Do we buy the domain or what?”
Peggy

“Perhaps a lack of craft is partially the fault of the student, but in many cases, as a teachers assistant I find myself often showing students how to properly utilize an exacto blade, or even how to score something. These basic skills are easily enough taught, and I can’t believe that some of my professors are overlooking them, because they’re fundamental in the final presentation of your product.”
Rachel Mercer

“Preparing students for the working world should be a priority.”
Jacob Payne

“If I ran a design course I would want students to seek out opportunities within and outside the design profession. My favorite thing about being a designer, the thing that pulled me into this field to begin with, is the ability to see how so much other stuff works behind the scenes. I love talking to clients who do things I never knew existed.”
Kevin M. Scarbrough

“If I ran a design course, it would be for kids from 7-18. It would be completely free, and all they had to bring were their own tables and chairs.”
Su Chin’s husband

“I would include a lot more on client interaction or the business side of design. For every design course I’ve taken, we learn the ins and outs of the software perfectly, along with the review and application of design principles.

“However, there have only been a few courses where the outline simulated a real-world design we might have to do for a client, or the handling of any other sort of client alteration, suggestion, or complaint. Of the few that had done that, I learned the most.”
Crystal

“Instead of just having the students design a book about a place they visit, for example, I would make the students research their place of choice, talk to people from that place, photograph the location, derive common themes of their place, use word maps to find deeper than surface ideas for much more well thought-out designs.”
Benjamin Kowalski

“The tutors would behave like clients with the briefs so you have to ask the right questions in order to get the information needed.”
Gemma Jackson

“I had an instructor who made us run our projects through an output bureau before we turned them in. It was expensive, even with the student discount, but it only took one midnight phone call (“Hi. Your type defaulted to Courier. You said you had to turn in tomorrow morning… what do you want to do?”) to make me pay attention to all the details. That was invaluable experience.”
Cynthia Knighton

“With just a little more effort ‘clients’ could have been assigned to each student, or students could have come up with a client, written up a brief and then thrown it in a box and swapped with other students so they had to follow some guidelines from a client. Who gets to change the name of their client because they want to create a logo in a grunge style this week?”
Dakota Chichester

“I would love to see more print shops being visited, mom and pop, large scale, all types from full four color offset to web to flexo to letterpress, designers need to know how things work so that as designers they can design for how it will be processed.”
Cameron

“Business classes should be a requirement because design serves business. Without an idea of how businesses operate, we designers are missing a huge part of what we are designing for. We aren’t creating commissioned art pieces, we are creating design solutions.”
Chris Lee

Over to you

If you know of a design teacher or course leader, why not forward them the link to this page? I know my old tutors would’ve been appreciative.

Not everyone who commented on my original call was featured here, as there was some overlapping thoughts, and I’ve edited the comments for succinctness. Thanks very much for the time everyone took.

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A fascinating eight-minute look at Hatch Show Print, a 130 year-old working letterpress shop (established 1879) in Nashville, Tennessee.

Photo via Marshall Sokoloff’s stunning photo collection

For those reading via email, watch the video on YouTube.

More info about Hatch Show Print on UPPERCASE.

Photo via Marshall Sokoloff

Whilst on the topic of letterpress, and letterpress wood blocks in particular, here’s a gorgeous office wall-hanging that made me look.

Perhaps more interesting than the wall-hanging is the comment thread on Design*Sponge. Quite a few letterpress artists express their sadness at this use of wood blocks, and say it encourages people to break up block collections to make more of a profit.

Beautiful installation? Bad practice?

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Here’s a brief look inside one of my latest graphic design reads: Studio Culture: The secret life of the graphic design studio.

Edited by Tony Brook and Adrian Shaughnessy, here’s the blurb:

Studio Culture provides a unique glimpse into the inner workings of 28 leading graphic design studios. In a series of penetrating interviews, the secret life of the studio is revealed, and the mechanics of building and maintaining a vibrant studio culture are laid bare with disarming frankness.

The two editors Brook and Shaughnessy signed the inside, which was a nice touch.

The book is filled with stories from the business of design — from balancing the books to hiring interns and clients. On page 10, for instance, Nicola of London-based Build said, “We don’t do printed portfolios. It just doesn’t seem relevant any more. A couple of times in the past I dropped one off at clients. They’d sit on it for a month and go ‘Oh, we didn’t get a chance to look at it.’”

Interviewed throughout the book are inspiring design studios such as Edenspiekermann, Universal Everything, Milton Glaser, Inc., Coast, Pentagram, and many more.

The Milton Glaser interview was of particular interest, and he described his office like this:

My office, which has always been more or less the same, is a big undifferentiated room. I sit in one place in the room, in the same relationship to the rest of the room as everybody else. There is no visual hierarchy.

I love the overall design by Spin, but what is it about design books and tiny type? Maybe it’s just how my eye-sight isn’t what it once was.

From the website:

Studio Culture is a book for both seasoned professionals who have been running studios for years, and for idealistic designers contemplating starting up. It is the complete guide to creating, maintaining and growing a studio culture.

312pp, 165×230mm, 4 colour + 1 PMS
£24.95 + P&P

You can buy your copy today, direct from Unit Editions.

For more design book recommendations, visit my bookstore.

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It was December 2008 when out-of-the-blue I received an email from Nikki McDonald, senior acquisitions editor at US-based publisher Peachpit. In December 2009 I received a box filled with copies of my first book Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities. Here are some of my experiences along the way.

Self-publish or work with an established publisher?

I considered the main benefits of each as:

• Self-publishing: 100% of profits are recovered.
• Working with an established publisher: I gain the experience of people who know what they’re doing — professional copy editors, marketers, and production staff. Over 450 Pearson reps (Pearson is Peachpit’s parent company) canvass the U.S. educational market, and information about my book would be available via course codes in graphic design, brand management, marketing, business education, and computer graphics/arts.

I’d been following the progress of designers Mark Boulton (England) and Eric Karjaluoto (Canada), both of whom chose to self-publish their most recent books, but both had more design and writing experience than me. So I turned to friends for advice. I was told not to expect riches from the sales of a design book — fine by me, as it wasn’t my motivation — and that as a first-time author I should use the experience of a proven publisher, trading what possible financial gain might result from self-publishing for the ability to reach a wider audience, helping share my thoughts with more designers.

I viewed the project as both a challenge, and as a way to establish a reputation as a brand identity designer who knows what he’s doing. The outcome is, of course, for readers of the book to decide.

The book proposal

Before a contract was signed I was required to submit a book proposal. This included a book outline — draft chapter headings and details of my design background / writing experience.

A proposal form was supplied by my publisher, and there was some back and forth before it was finalised. I would use these details to help grow my thoughts about the book’s content, and it’s worth noting that the proposal can be quite different from how the completed book turns out (looking back, mine certainly was).

Finding contributors

It was during the proposal stage that I began contacting potential contributors. I didn’t want to write a book filled only with my work, believing that readers would gain more help by learning from a wide range of designers, from all over the world.

I contacted studios and independent graphic designers, pitching my book idea and asking for specific logo contributions. Those interested were asked for logo EPS files, available sketches, and the rationale behind each design.

You can view the full list of contributors here.

My archives show that from book concept to completion, I sent a total of 1,330 book-related emails. Not for the faint-hearted, touch-typing a bonus.

Design responsibilities

I’d seen a lot of design books that were poorly designed and difficult to read, so I took responsibility for the design and composition of everything: cover, title page, copyright page, resources section, index — the lot.

Once the content was final, I would provide Peachpit’s production team with packaged InDesign files and print-formatted images.

Contract negotiations

With the completed proposal in the hands of my publisher, we could then negotiate the contract offer. It’s worth noting that everything is negotiable, and if you’re contemplating becoming an author, it’s vital you’re happy with the terms. You’ll be taking on a huge amount of work, and you don’t want to get second thoughts half-way through the project because you think you’re being underpaid.

The offer I received included an advance payment of the book’s royalties. This took the form of a monetary figure, split into four, with a cheque for 25% mailed at the start, and the remainder paid at pre-determined stages of completion.

A one-off design fee was also agreed (paid upon completion).

It was four months after the initial out-of-the-blue email when I finally put pen to paper and signed a contract.

And so, in April 2009, the deal was official.

Setting a schedule

When we were ready to begin actually writing, my copy editor sent me a submission schedule, mapping the time frames for each chapter pass (1st pass, 2nd pass, 3rd pass, etc.). I was told upon receipt that we were already behind schedule, so no pressure, David.

The initial writing stages

The process worked like this: I would email a Word document to my editor, and a day or two later she would ask me to rewrite it completely, and I’d receive guidance about where I was going wrong. During the first few weeks, not only was I off-target with the writing, but none of my draft content was suitable for use. Twice I was asked to resubmit the first chapter, and although I was told how the initial chapters were always the most difficult, it was a little demoralizing.

Once the first chapter content was finally agreed upon, I needed to transfer the text and images to InDesign, then supply Peachpit’s design team with a sample PDF. This was so my preferred design and layout could be given the go-ahead.

They were happy with my design proposal, so from there on, we would edit the chapter content using Microsoft Word documents.

Keeping track of chapter drafts

A basecamp-style FTP site was created to keep track of the documents, with all content being uploaded to a central server. The folders on the FTP site worked a little like this:

• A: 1st pass Word file (to my copy editor, from me)
• A1: 1st pass copy edits (to me, from my copy editor)
• A2: 2nd pass Word file (from me)
• A3: 2nd pass copy edits (from my copy editor)
• A4: 3rd pass Word file
• A5: 3rd pass copy edits, ready for setting in InDesign
• A6: 1st pass PDF (set in the actual design, from me)
• A7: 1st pass copy edits (from my copy editor)
• A8: 2nd pass PDF
• A9: 2nd pass copy edits
• A10: 3rd pass PDF
• A11: 3rd pass copy edits

If you consider that every chapter, from one to eleven, needed to pass through these folders, there was a lot more work than I first anticipated. With each pass, however, the content became tighter, more focused, and in much better shape than it was when I first wrote it.

I owe a great deal to my development / copy editors Jill Marts Lodwig and Robin Drake, without whom the book would be a shadow of what it is.

Second thoughts

It wasn’t until we passed the half-way stage when I banished the second thoughts I was having about the entire project. I always knew I’d be taking a cut in earnings to write the book, but I didn’t appreciate how much work was going to be involved, so when things weren’t running so smoothly I questioned myself until the finish line was in sight.

Looking back, I’m very glad I stuck with it, and I have nothing but praise for the people I worked with at Peachpit.

Print production choices

The production was handled by Peachpit, but I got to make choices about the book’s size and cover stock. The size was determined back in the proposal stage (physical dimensions and page count), and I was asked whether I wanted a matte or gloss finish on the cover.

After the book was printed (and just a week or two ago) I asked Cory Borman, production guru at Peachpit, for specific print info:

The cover stock is Matte UV with embossing, 12pt color 1 side. The interior is 60# Influence Matte (88 bright) 588.

The interior was printed at the Courier Kendallville plant, with the cover embossed and printed at Moore Langen, a part of Courier Printing Co.

8,000 copies of the book were printed for the first run, with 1,800 of those sold prior to release.

Promoting the book

When the writing, editing, and production was complete, the promotional work began. I was told the most successful books are those where the author takes an active role in the promotion, and of course I was only too happy to help.

Working with Peachpit’s product marketing manager, Glenn Bisignani, I did what I could to get the word out, including the following:

• I launched a book-specific website at www.logodesignlovebook.com
• I created a Logo Design Love Facebook page and gave free copies to fans
• I showed my readers the book’s table of contents and asked which chapter they wanted for free, then, once their preference was learned, I offered a free PDF chapter download
• I supplied my publisher with a list of review copy recipients around the world — designers I know and trust
• Coming soon, I’ll be giving away signed copies (as soon as my box of books is shipped from my old address in Ireland to my new home office in Scotland)

What you’re saying

Judging by people’s updates on Twitter, book orders are now being received every day, and I’m seeing some great feedback. You can view a number of reviews here on the review page and here on Amazon.

Would I do it again?

Peachpit has kindly asked me to think of another project for this year, and I’d be delighted to work with Nikki, Jill, Cory, Robin, and Glenn again. Whether I take up the author reigns so soon is another question, and I’d like to see how I get on with my first release before making that decision.

Regrets?

My biggest regret is contacting too many potential contributors. Many designers took time out to supply me with artwork and explanations, but a maximum page count needed to be set at the beginning of the project, and when we reached the end, I had too much content. Choosing who to cut wasn’t easy, and without the help of my editor, I probably wouldn’t have been able to make a decision.

To those who helped, but weren’t featured in the book, you have my sincerest gratitude, and I hope to feature your contributions on the Logo Design Love website before too long.

Thank you

To the thousands who have already ordered a copy, thanks so much. I hope you enjoy the read, and if you have any questions — about design or writing in general — don’t hesitate to ask.

More info on the Logo Design Love book website.

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Five of my least favourite

#5 Packard Bell / packardbell.com / on Brand New

Why would any brand want to own PB? Including and especially Packard Bell. PB doesn’t bear Packard Bell. Packard Bell bears Packard Bell. There doesn’t appear to be any inherent value in owning PB. PB as a symbol is as superficial and redundant as the gloss effect throughout the new branding.
Andrew Sabatier

#4 EURO 2012 / uefa.com / on Logo Design Love
Designed by Brandia Central

The famous Oscar Wilde quote comes to mind “All Art is Quite Useless. So is a Flower.”
Raja Sandhu

#3 Kraft Foods / kraftfoods.com / on Brand New

It doesn’t help at all that the new logo is no better at all than the old one, it’s simply rearranging the deck chairs on this logo Titanic.
Armin Vit

#2 Burnley / burnley.co.uk / on Brand New

It looks like an exploded slinky which has no relevance whatsoever to it’s location.
Nathan McKinney

#1 American Life Network / americanlifetv.com / on Brand New

Which logo design contest web site did they outsource this project to?
Darrel Austin

Five of my favourite

#5 New York Philharmonic / nyphil.org / on Logo Design Love
Designed by Pentagram

It’s memorable, different, out-of-the-box, and although a dramatic departure from Scher’s other Lincoln Center identities, it manages to fit right in.
Mark Barilla

#4 City of Melbourne / melbourne.vic.gov.au / on Brand New
Designed by Landor Sydney

An amazing logo that will be relevant for years to come.
Tom Ledwidge

#3 Pfizer / pfizer.com / on Brand New
Designed by Siegel+Gale

The logo is refreshed without being unrecognisable from it’s well known predecessor. The identity system is very nice, and positions Pfizer, visually and tonally, as an innovative leader.
Clinton Duncan

#2 9/11 Memorial / national911memorial.org / on Andrew Sabatier
Designed by Landor New York

Powerful and solid. The color choice reinforces the strong design and feeling of remembrance.
Lauren Boebinger

#1 Avid / avid.com / on Brand New
Designed by The Brand Union

Very appropriate use of symbols as type. Without even reading the synopsis I could identify the industry.
Chris Austin

Special thanks to Armin Vit for his identity design features.

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I know that many of you have either been a design student, or are currently enrolled on a design course. Tell me, what would you change about your education? Complete the following statement in a comment and I’ll publish your thoughts in a follow-up post, linking to your website:

If I ran a design course…

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Press play, then HD, go full-screen, and marvel at the wonders of The Known Universe.

For those reading via email subscription, watch in HD here.

Developed by the American Museum of Natural History, this six minute video zooms out from the Himalayas of Tibet, pulling farther and farther from earth to the limit of the observable universe — the afterglow of the Big Bang.

“I liken the Digital Universe to the invention of the globe,” says Curator Ben R. Oppenheimer, an astrophysicist at the museum. “When Mercator invented the globe, everyone wanted one. He had back-orders for years. It gave everyone a new perspective on where they live in relation to others, and we hope that the Digital Universe does the same on a grander, cosmic scale.”

More info on the AMNH website. Via Jason Kottke.

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