Once I found out that Speak Up’s Word It for the month was “Extreme” I knew I had to track this van down. I had seen it several months ago and I had wanted to post it here, but it took a little research and driving to find it and take the photo. I know that the “Extreme” trend has been considered over for a while now, but this is a whole new end. This is Charles Dickens deader than a doornail … dead. Please, no more!

So the National Hockey League cancels an entire season, becoming the first “major” sport to ever do so, losing most of their fans in the process. And now that they’re back, of course, one of the first things they do is change their logo.

Great, now I need to buy all new gear, since my “I Love the NHL” shirt is outdated.

You bet.

Adrian and I will be joining Debbie Millman on her internet radio talk show, Design Matters on Friday from 3-4 eastern time. We will be joining the esteemed guests Armin and Bryony (Speak Up), Rick Poyner (Design Observer) and Jen Bekman (was Unbeige, now Personism). We will of course be talking about blogging and our respective design blogs. It should be a great time. Adrian and I had the pleasure of meeting Debbie, Armin and Byrony at this years HOW Conference. They are all incredible people and it should be a revealing conversation.

If you would like to submit a question for Debbie to ask any of the guests, just leave it here. Debbie will be checking the site before the show. If you would rather be a “first time caller”, here is the number for the show. 1-866-233-7861.

You can listen on either Windows Media Player or Real Player. I have had more luck using RealPlayer to listen live.

So what’s really in a logo that gets our design-blood stirring so hotly? It’s boiled me a bit, as evidenced in the Seth Godin string below, but is definitely a great discussion-button I know we all have perspectives on…

The UPS logo is a favorite hot-button for me, especially with an appreciation of all that Paul Rand was able to invest in the original mark and all the meaning that’s been stripped out of it in its current incarnation by FutureBrand.

A quote borrowed from Design Observer to get us rolling:

“The abstract total-design logo is the most marvelous fraud that the American graphic arts have ever perpetrated upon American business. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, these abstract logos, which a company (Chase Manhattan, Pan Am, Winston Sprocket, Kor Ban Chemical) is supposed to put on everything from memo pads to the side of its 50-story building, make absolutely no impact-conscious or unconscious-upon its customers or the general public, except insofar as they create a feeling of vagueness or confusion…Yet millions continue to be poured into the design of them. Why? Because the conversion to a total-design abstract logo format somehow makes it possible for the head of the corporation to tell himself: “I’m modern, up-to-date, with it, a man of the future. I’ve streamlined this old baby.” Why else would they have their companies pour $30,000, $50,000, $100,000 into the concoction of symbols that any student at Pratt could, and would gladly, give him for $125 plus a couple of lunches at the Tratorria, or even the Zum-Zum? The answer: if the fee doesn’t run into five figures, he doesn’t feel streamlined. Logos are strictly a vanity industry, and all who enter the field should be merciless cynics if they wish to guarantee satisfaction.”

- Tom Wolfe, “From Bauhaus to Our House” quoted in 1972, the year he was a judge for the AIGA’s Communication Graphics competition. (See more on the topic at Design Observer)

I had a friend ask me where I buy my paper when I do short run letterpress work. Since most of the local paper suppliers don’t carry the various colors that I like to use, I order directly from the mill. I know a lot of fine letterpress printers like to use actual art paper, like Arches, but I haven’t had a job that called for that quality or had that kind of budget. One of these days …

As of right now I have only ordered paper from two online suppliers, Fox River and French Paper. If you weren’t aware of the paper mills that you can order directly from, here is my short list. Even if you don’t do your own printing, these sites might come in handy if your local paper supplier doesn’t carry the stock that you would prefer.

Bennett and I have collected a pretty good list of email addresses, and it was with much hesitation that we decided to send out a mass email about Be A Design Group. I built the email, plugged in the mailing list, and stared at the screen for about fifteen minutes contemplating whether or not this really was such a good idea. After all, this list represents not only huge names in the graphic design field, but most of the people that are responsible for the success of our site. If there is anybody we don’t want to upset, their name is most likely on this list. Once I gained enough courage, I hit the send button. “Here goes nothing.”

Maybe you got our email, and have something to say about it. Let us have it. Your feedback is welcome and will be taken very seriously.

So I’m at a stoplight. Doesn’t matter what corner. But for the record, it was 60th and Maple, Omaha Nebraska. I’m singing along to Big Poppa by Notorious BIG (is sing the wrong word? rap. thanks. forgot to eat my rap snacks today. sorry.) and as the words “i love it when you call me big poppa!” come out, i’m looking sideways out my passenger window. And the worst thing EVER happened next…

I would like to share a few examples of bad packaging that I have encountered over the last month. Some big names (Starburst, Hershey’s and Buger King ) and a no name (Dr. J. H. McClean’s Volcanic Oil).

The above Starburst packaging is in my opinion the worst of the bunch. What color do you think of when you hear the name Starburst? Yellow I would assume. I have purposefully taken a side shot of this package to show how much red the average shopper will see. The designers of this packaging apparently never went to Walmart and saw all of the Starburst stacked with hardly a spot of yellow showing. I now know that the new packaging is mainly red and I still have a hard time finding it in the candy aisle.

This past weekend, the DesignOff! came to a close - almost…

Today I received my new Bogen Manfrotto Tripod. When browsing through the warning booklet, I was immediately stopped by the illustration next to the warning “Do not exceed the maximum specified load.” As my public service to you tripod owners out there, I figured I’d scan the warning and share it with everybody. (Basically, it looks like you’re not supposed to put the tripod where the sun don’t shine.)

I was really disappointed when I read Seth Godin’s blog today. The usually insightful Godin has apparently fell in love with mediocre logo design saying “…it is okay to have a non-wonderful logo, because the logo is just a placeholder. It gains value AFTER it hits the world, because people associate things with it.” What happened to the Seth Godin who said “Design is the single highest-leverage investment you can make” in his book, Free Prize Inside? Seth comes short of endorsing stock logos, but it is unclear how else you would get a “good enough” logo. Maybe Seth is suggesting that you hire a design firm that is known for their average reputation. Maybe he thinks it is “good enough” to hire your nephew who doodles cartoons on the back of his notebook to develop your company’s identity system. Maybe you should just do it yourself with the fonts that came free with your computer. Whatever he meant, it is truly baffling to hear the champion of the remarkable disregard the value of good logo design.

I followed Seth’s link to Pixellogo.com to see what Seth wasn’t endorsing. Some of the logos were actually pretty good, but the idea of a stock logo is still repulsive. Why would anyone compromise their very identity by purchasing a pre-made logo? The site leads you to believe that logo design is a simple matching game. Their site says, “Our Ready-To-Use logo designs provide an excellent system to instantly match a company/brand with an appropriate logo design.” If it isn’t “good enough” for you to have the exact same logo as someone else, they will even make your logo exclusive with the option to copyright it (for an additional fee).

Seth doesn’t seem to really understand what a logo is, calling it a “blank slate” just like the name of your company. He is trying to imply that it isn’t what your company’s name or logo is, it is how you use it. There is a bit of good advice there, but that isn’t enough to come to the conclusion that it is ok to compromise your logo design. Sure, a bad company can’t be saved by a good logo, but it is foolish to think that the opposite is true. There will be times when people will base their whole perception of your company on nothing more than your logo. If your logo looks mediocre, your company will be seen as mediocre. That goes for your logo as well as everything else about your company including your stationary and your web site. Pixellogo sells stock web templates and stationary, too, if you are going for the completely mediocre package. I seriously hope that Seth reconsiders his endorsement of “good enough” logo design. Contrary to what he says, good enough still is a curse.

I picked up a Polaroid camera for $1 at a garage sale thinking I could add a pinhole and have a pinholaroid. I didn’t find any good online tutorials, and feeling confident after building my digital pinhole camera, I decided to figure it out as I went. Keep reading to learn how to turn a cheap Polaroid camera into a cheap polaroid pinhole camera…

In an effort for our site to be even more “group” oriented we are going to have a group post called “Be Aware” twice a month. This is the first of many to come. Half of our authors will be in the post at the first of the month and the other half in the middle. Each author on our site will consistently write about a chosen subject that they are passionate about. It is amazing what you can observe if you are aware of your surroundings. Enjoy!

Paul Berkbigler: Design Education

It’s still early in my practice as a teacher, so my fervor for the subject of typography and drive to nearly hammer it into the brains of any student I come into contact with may still mellow as my career continues. All that aside, though, if you have a need to brush up on typography basics or find yourself faced with a classroom of folks looking to know more about it, Ellen Lupton has again been prolific and generous enough to compile an excellent type primer and a great website companion to it - take a look at a copy of Thinking With Type the next time you’re in a bookstore, or browse the fairly extensive content that she’s also offering on thinkingwithtype.com.

Among my personal favorites that she’s included are the “Crimes against Typography” section and her “Tools for Teachers” section - simply terrific little supplies to dole out in the classroom.

Clinton Carlson: Design Quotes

“Designers can no longer only be concerned about the interaction of word and image; they also must be concerned about the interaction between the audience, the content of the communication and the outcome of the design. In order to create dialogues that effectively persuade the viewer to adopt a new belief or change behavior, the communication designer can no longer rely solely on intuition.

Designers have to devise methods for creating empathy with the viewer who will play a part in constructing meaning from the message.”

Jodi Forlizzi and Cherie Lebbon. “From Formalism to Social Significance in Communication Design” in Design Issues. Autumn 2002.

Kyle Heinemann: InDesign Tip

InDesign Guides

Do you know how much InDesign guides can do for you? You’ve probably already realized you can select one, and enter an exact (x,y) value in the Transform window. You can also select multiple guides of the same orientation and align/distribute. Or, just move a bunch of them at the same time by selecting only guides (although once you select an object, your guide selection will be lost) and either drag or type a new value. This is particularly helpful for adjusting book layouts to new spine sizes.

Bennett Holzworth: Letterpress

If you happen to be in north central Kanas anytime soon I would recommend visiting what I would like to call the “ghost” letterpress shop. Jewel Kansas has a little history museum with an old practically untouched letterpress printshop in the back. It is sad to see the rollers melted on the ink plates, but it is fascinating to look at the tympan paper and still be able to see what the last job printed was. Just be sure to call and make an appointment before you go, because that is the only way to get in.

Nate Voss: Grunt Designer

Stock Photography is saturating the world with tameness. A quick search of stock-site Photos.com for “Anger” gives you near-emotionless, unevocative, frowning portraits. The problem? In order to sell photos, the shots need to fit as many applications as possible. My “Anger” photo could fit the square-hole for “Need a New Printer?” just as easily as it could fit “So You’ve Committed Murder?”

There’s such a glut of non-specific imagery in the world right now that it may-well become this decade’s design trend.

What if you could project an advertisement onto any surface? Imagine a 7000 watt projector that could bounce logos and images off of buildings, signs, or anything you pointed it at. You could put it in a van and drive around flashing images all over a city. Sound like science fiction? Well, believe it or not, the technology exists, and it is starting to catch on. According to Daniel Lee, Starbucks is the most recent company to employ the technology and they are broadcasting their image all over Chicago. I am sure there are legitimate uses for these projectors, I doubt that strapping them to a van and projecting images on buildings as you drive by would fit into that category. Companies like Kinetic Lighting seem unconcerned, and are promoting a projector that “is easily mounted to the back of a pick-up or van.” They claim to provide “creative agencies with unparalleled branding technology. And that���s translating to happy clients.” If you are tired of the “astronomical billboard advertising fees,” New Wave Development is working on a similar service. For the environmentally conscious, Projected-Ads.com boasts of how “environmentally friendly” their product is.

Well, I have to admit, that this technology sounds pretty cool. Unfortunately, the newness will wear off, and we will be left to deal with the legal, ethical and cultural implication of such technology. Daniel Lee rightly asks, “Is it legal to turn personal property into advertising material without consent? …With the use of projections even competitors advertising space can be converted into opposing messages.” The thought of a Starbucks logo being projected onto a McDonalds billboard is kind of funny, you have to admit. Maybe we can have some fun with it before the lawsuits start flying. Imagine the possibilities. If you could get your hands on one of those projectors, what image would you use, and what would you project it on?

Just in case anyone was thinking about using an image of Superman in any upcoming publications, here is some advice: make sure you get permission from the Man of Steel first. Obviously, Superman has more important concerns than copyright and trademark infringement, so you will have to get permission from his lawyers. Unlike Marvel super heroes like Spider-Man who have an exclusive deal with Corbis to distribute their images, Superman is the property of DC comics. Despite DC’s silly comb-over logo, try to remember that this is a serious matter. Copyright infringement is a crime. The singer Sufjan Stevens learned this the hard way last week when his album, titled Illinoise, had to be recalled because it had a drawing that resembled Superman on the cover. The moral of the story is this: If you want to use the likeness of a super hero in a publication, you have to grease the wheels first. Superman has bills to pay, too.

Disclaimer: The image above, which was created by Corbis, is not meant to represent any super hero, real or fictional. Any likeness to any copyrighted characters is purely coincidental. The fact that Corbis sells stock images that resemble Superman (in spite of their agreement with Marvel) is not ironic. Rest assured that Corbis has greased the DC wheels appropriately.

Since there wasn’t a lot of noticeable changes to the design this time around, I thought I would show the beginning stages of setting the wood and metal type. What you see here is the only part of the poster that I will be hand setting. We will be sending off for magnesium plates for the rest of the type and design in the poster.

On a night about 2 years ago I had nothing better to do so I sat down and spent about 5 hours bookmarking a huge list of type and typography links (mostly type designers and foundries).

While some of these links are now probably outdated and some only offer a few poorly designed typefaces, I figured I’d share the list with everyone so someone else could get some use out of it (since I usually visit the same typography sites and haven’t visited a ton of the links on this list since I made it).

Just wanted to point out a cool article I read over at Typographica about “Delete: Delettering the Public Space,” a project by Christoph Steinbrener and Rainer Dempf. They took yellow foil and covered all the letters on a popular shopping street in Vienna. It shows exactly how much advertising and typography we encounter on a daily basis…and how much we probably tune out.

(Be sure to check out the “Untitled Project,” another cool project mentioned in the Typographica post.)

From DesignOff! 2005 Round One: “The design will begin when Nate sends Bennett the first draft at high noon on Tuesday, June 21 and end when Bennett sends the final design to Nate on Tuesday, July 5. Designers will have no more than 48 hours each round to turn in their drafts to the other designer”

Have you ever surfed foreign sites just to look at pictures? I do. Sometimes I use Google’s translate tool to see what they are talking about, but other times, I just blindly surf. I follow link after link not understanding a single word, and not knowing where I will end up. Today I found a foreign design blog called Oeil Pour Oeil and followed a link to a site showing the best posters of Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. Maybe some of you understand German, but for the rest of us, it is pure eye candy.

You may remember I am a Toyota person. Don’t worry, I haven’t changed teams. Actually, my dad worked for General Motors for a while when I was growing up and my ears still perk up when I hear GM mentioned in the news. It has been nothing but bad news lately. Losing market share, cutting 25,000 jobs, and junk bond status have all colored the company recently. When I saw their new commercials proclaiming an “Employee discount for everyone,” I was skeptical. Reading between the lines, I assumed it really meant “We can’t afford to give our employees a discount anymore, and we are passing the savings on to you.” Surely the public wouldn’t be hooked by that promotion. Well, I was wrong. GM just had their best month since 2001, and the employee discount promotion is getting the credit. Good news for GM, I just hope their success doesn’t mean other companies will copy this promotion. I am tired of employee discounts for everybody already. Do you like the commercials? Was it designed better than I think? It is pretty impressive that they can overcome all the negative press with just an advertising campaign.

I am pulling the “Time Crunch” card as well. Just keep in mind that I am also frantically working to get my press fully operational by the time we need to print this. If I can’t get the motor up and running, we just might have to stick Nate on a treadmill to keep the press moving.

When I was in about fourth grade I loved to draw Ferraris and Lamborghinis that I found in car magazines and calendars. I had an arsenal of rulers, compasses, pencil sharpeners, erasers, and most importantly, several mechanical pencils. I would take apart and reassemble my drawing tools with the pride and precision reminiscent of that scene in the movies where the hero puts his gun together before a battle. I desperately wanted to create something as beautiful as those cars. As I drew more and more, my drawings began to look more and more like the photos I was drawing from. I developed shortcuts to measure and rescale the proportions from photo to drawing. I was proud of these drawings despite the fact that they were taken so blatantly from other people’s photographs. Click here to see a comparison of my drawing to the original.

As an adult looking back at that little boy I have a new perspective. I am filled with fear and concern because of the current climate of corporate greed where companies sue their customers. I think I am reasonably safe from a lawsuit by posting my plagiarized fourth grade drawing, but that’s not the point. The point isn’t about stealing music, either. I gave up Kazaa a long time ago. The nostalgia of my memories contrasts with the current environment that is very toxic to creativity. If I hadn’t drawn those cars for fear of being sued, or worse yet if I had been sued, I might not be a graphic designer today.

Fortunately I believe that the recent court ruling against file-sharing is a small loss in a much bigger war. The old regime of greed and lawyers will be defeated by the emerging open-source community. The battle will be won by and fought for young artists with deep arsenals of mechanical pencils and lead smeared wrists.