So far this series has been unoriginal and had a few bad ideas, but today’s installment can be especially crippling: self doubt. It usually goes something like this: “I can concept this, but I can’t execute it. I don’t have the requisite skills to pay the forthcoming bills.”
The fear of undertaking a project beyond your abilities is enough to stop you in your tracks while concepting. And it’s especially frustrating because the idea you have may be great. It may be inspired. You can see it, right there, clear as day in your head. But getting it out in the real world? That isn’t your forté. And that’s a bummer.
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Back in June the federal government unveiled a newly designed visual to replace the Food Pyramid many of us are familiar with. Rather than simply showing us what each food group is, the new graphic also is meant to give us an idea of proper portion control of each food group. Shaped like a plate (and cup for the milk) the graphic is very simple, especially when held in contrast with the food pyramid.
This change prompted us at XPLANE | Dachis Group to take a look at a few other long-standing charts, graphics and diagrams and ask whether they could use a bit of sprucing up.
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Cold sweats. Anxiety. A blank canvas. Sudden creative paralysis.
You have stumbled into a zone in which we’ve all found ourselves: Coming up with a design concept for your new project.
I’m here to talk you through some of the common roadblocks you may encounter when generating concepts. Previously, we discussed unoriginality. Today, let’s dig into bad ideas. Or at least what to do when you have them.
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I recently came across this really great six week program happening this summer in NYC. Impact: Design for Social Change is for a great place for creatives and all professionals who are seeking for ways to create social change within design strategies. It’s really good to look into initiatives like this — not just because it’s obviously inspiring, but also it pushes us proactively.
This is from a PDF you can download on their site:
This is a program at a level on par with graduate studies. The intensive offers advanced students and working professionals a unique opportunity to study with faculty composed of leading designers and social entrepreneurs. In addition, weekly lectures and field trips will allow students to directly interact with a dynamic range of innovators in the field.
This is a rapidly growing area of design. This program will instill in participants the confidence, self-motivation and collaborative spirit which will be needed as they continue on to work as design activists.
Professionals, educators and advanced students in the following disciplines are invited to participate: advertising, graphic design, product design, information design, interactive design, fashion design, photography and illustration. The program is oriented towards these design disciplines but we have had architects and social entrepreneurs participate
I bet you thought we forgot all about Valentine’s Day.
We didn’t.
A love letter to Designers from XPLANE on Vimeo.
Dear future XPLANE Designer,
We may not have met yet, but I suspect you’ll receive this letter as if it’s a call from a wayward kindred spirit. See, we’ve got this magic chemistry that’s precious and rare. In short, I’m looking for you. More directly, the world needs you.
First, let me tell you that XPLANE is unlike anywhere you’ve worked before. We give respect to Design by using it as a proper noun. We’re neither an advertising agency nor a marketing group — we’re a consultative Design studio wherein Designers employ the arts of listening, strategizing, creating and presenting on a daily basis.
Now that I have your attention, please allow me a few moments to tell you why you’re so very special.
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As XPLANE’s Director of Design I’ve plowed through thousands of résumés from young designers looking for work, and I must admit it’s starting to take a toll on me. Each time I sift through a pile of applications or portfolio samples I wish I could have given that person a little coaching beforehand to give them a better chance of moving forward in the process — or at least save some of their time.
So with graduation just around the corner and this economy being what it is, I figured it was a good time to reach out and give you a few things to think about as you apply for your next job… hopefully with us. We’re hiring.
The job posting
We put a lot of thought into what we say in our job postings. We do this in the hope that you’ll read through the qualifications and only apply if you meet our criteria. So please make sure that your skills and experience fit well with what we do. We take complex, messy information and make it understandable. You do too? Great! Let’s talk. No? I’ll just push the button under my desk that makes the trap door open.
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Hang around the designers’ corner of the internet for any amount of time and you quickly are overwhelmed with great work and lame work, sound advice and bad advice, rules, ideas, maxims, quotes, plagiarism, inspiration and inanity.
Over the last few years all of these things have been getting mashed up and spread around, especially on Tumblr, Posterous and sites like FFFFOUND. I can’t even count the number of simple but lovely posters, graphics and sketches featuring an inspirational quote or a set of rules or a piece of advice set in a condensed gothic font and overlayed on a moody photograph. Don’t get me wrong — for the most part I like them. Sometimes they make you think or give you a needed kick in the butt — or at the very least give you a peek into another creative person’s head.
I’ve had the above poster hanging in my home workspace for several years now. It’s a constant reminder, and I like that.
But it seems that pretty much everywhere I go online lately I am being told what to do…
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Visual complexity is a paradox. On the one hand, complexity is a compelling feature known to capture a viewer’s attention and stimulate interest… On the other hand, complexity only arouses curiosity up to a point. When a visual is extremely complex, viewers may tend to avoid it altogether.
There are a lot of reasons why I really like Connie Malamed’s 2009 book, “Visual Language for Designers: Principles for Creating Graphics that People Understand.” Here are three:
1. Balance | The book balances examples of great design, explanations of core visual principles and informative bits on cognitive research about how the brain processes graphics. Some pieces you might be familiar with: Nicholas Felton‘s Annual Reports, the HistoryShots series, and Nigel Holmes‘ and Alberto Cairo‘s work all appear here. But a great strength of the book is in the mix of graphics projects you’ve almost certainly not seen before.
2. Context | But it’s not just about infographics. It’s not just about charts. It’s not just about data visualization. It’s not just about posters or maps or illustrations. The book clearly places each of those outputs into context by using specific projects as examples of a key design principle rather than sorting them by deliverable, or style, or date, or provenance or designer. Seeing each piece according to its best qualities is almost better than having an overall project case study. It helps make successes clear and repeatable.
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XPLANE has a regular thing we do called Visual Thinking School — VTS for short.
It started as a way to take a break from client work and get together to safely learn new skills and innovate. The format is wide open — the only real requirement these days is that the exercises be interactive. By that, we mean that everyone should be involved and active. No death by PPT. No one-way lectures. Get people up, get them working together in small groups or discussing things, report back.
So at VTS we make things, ask questions, sketch, scribble, draw, design, share. It’s a time for XPLANERS (and the public, on the first Thursday of each month) to focus on becoming great at what we do and have some fun at the same time. (Contact me at bkeaggy at this domain if you’re in St. Louis or Portland and would like to get on the invite list.)
Anyway, today I’m going to tell you about one of the more fun VTS sessions we’ve done. Actually we’ve done some of these a few times. It’s called Design Challenge Night!
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Great set of design accidents, homages, inspirations and appropriations.
The pairs of images in this “Similarities” set are similar visually in one way or another. They are presented without judgement as to the motives of their creators. The viewers of the pieces can form their own opinion(s) about what they see.
