In the last week I've been asked twice what exactly a graphic designer does. I'm sure there are graphics professionals who would define the role differently, but as far as I'm concerned, it's my job to make information visually accessible (as well as unique and attractive). The old Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes entry packages are an example of anti-design (my opinion). I suppose they served a purpose; miss putting one sticker in place and your entry is probably disqualified ("You may already be a sucker"). On the other hand, the early church had developed a whole iconography to make information accessible to even those who couldn't read (man with a bee hive? That's St. Ambrose. Saint with a palm branch? One that was martyred). Iconography is a little different now. Today if you see a symbol surrounded by a red circle with a diagonal bar through it, you know that you are not supposed to do something (don't smoke, don't enter here, no ghosts allowed). These are pictures that might save a thousand words, even if they don't necessarily paint as many.
I went to a design presentation some time back during which the speaker was disappointed in the lack of a contemporary iconography. Whatever Hieronymous Bosch might have been trying to say in his bizarre artwork is mostly visual gibberish now. And while this type of symbolism isn't quite as necessary now that more people are able to read, I think it is still possible to remind an audience an entire story with a recognizable picture. Our iconography has just changed from religious symbols to fantasy symbols: Indiana Jones with the bullwhip, the Jedi with their light sabres, Mary Poppins with an umbrella and really weird shoes. Or one of the bread and butter jobs of a designer now: branding. Red and white concentric circles for Target, a bloated check mark for Nike -- calling people to our new religion of commerce.
Those are my first thoughts on accessible information as a designer's job. I'm on the watch for examples of good communication and of buried communication. I'll see what I can post here.
Showing posts with label branding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label branding. Show all posts
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Carefully wading into Web 2.0
Widget check: rain today, tomorrow & Saturday. Best gas price holding at $2.39.
Yesterday I got an email from one of my regular customers at work; she had just joined "Facebook" and put me on a list of folks she invited to join with her. I had read that Facebook was a bit less of a high school hangout than MySpace, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Maybe I'm a late adopter, but here I am with a blog and a social network page, taking a few curious steps into the current incarnation of the web. I feel like I'm standing exactly between two camps; one one hand the teens/tweens/treens (there's a new word) who have already plowed this path thoroughly (and who will probably snicker at what a newb I am ... ), and on the other hand many of my clients who are retired folks, thinking I'm the consumate computer expert. I'm somewhere in the middle.
[[[Hey sis, this is the new Middle Class. I found it!!!]]]
The next thing I need to do is get this silly blog customized. I don't mind the simplicity of the generic header, but I guess it's irresponsible as a designer not to put up one of my own. The difficulty is in wanting it to be PERFECT instead of just different. I've been going over ideas on updating my brand (I know, lingospeak... how boring). For the last couple of years, my home page has featured 4 window panes with a view of a dandelion and lots of blue sky. Not that the dandelion is particularly iconic for me; I just really liked the image. It was mostly about there being a view through the windows, and being able to choose which window to go through (click) to get someplace else. That's pretty telling about my own life; seems I've spent more than a couple of decades looking for a portal to go through, trying to get where I want to be. (Wow, my home page was more profound than I had originally planned. A little subliminal design action, I guess). Maybe that's a springboard for planning the next incarnation. But don't want to do it until I can use it to showcase some new skills, and before that I need to finish getting a good handle on the new software I've acquired... Achh. Where's the first domino??
Yesterday I got an email from one of my regular customers at work; she had just joined "Facebook" and put me on a list of folks she invited to join with her. I had read that Facebook was a bit less of a high school hangout than MySpace, so I figured I'd give it a shot. Maybe I'm a late adopter, but here I am with a blog and a social network page, taking a few curious steps into the current incarnation of the web. I feel like I'm standing exactly between two camps; one one hand the teens/tweens/treens (there's a new word) who have already plowed this path thoroughly (and who will probably snicker at what a newb I am ... ), and on the other hand many of my clients who are retired folks, thinking I'm the consumate computer expert. I'm somewhere in the middle.
[[[Hey sis, this is the new Middle Class. I found it!!!]]]
The next thing I need to do is get this silly blog customized. I don't mind the simplicity of the generic header, but I guess it's irresponsible as a designer not to put up one of my own. The difficulty is in wanting it to be PERFECT instead of just different. I've been going over ideas on updating my brand (I know, lingospeak... how boring). For the last couple of years, my home page has featured 4 window panes with a view of a dandelion and lots of blue sky. Not that the dandelion is particularly iconic for me; I just really liked the image. It was mostly about there being a view through the windows, and being able to choose which window to go through (click) to get someplace else. That's pretty telling about my own life; seems I've spent more than a couple of decades looking for a portal to go through, trying to get where I want to be. (Wow, my home page was more profound than I had originally planned. A little subliminal design action, I guess). Maybe that's a springboard for planning the next incarnation. But don't want to do it until I can use it to showcase some new skills, and before that I need to finish getting a good handle on the new software I've acquired... Achh. Where's the first domino??
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