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July 2010

Photoshop Has (Almost) Nothing To Do With Graphic Design

Think of the photographer who captures a fraction of time or the illustrator who tells a story. Will these moments not exist if it weren’t for the camera or the pencil?

They exist in spite of the tools used to capture them.

The ideas that we develop for our clients, the messages we wish to communicate, exist in spite of Photoshop or any other piece of software. The lines of code wrapped in an interface do nothing but hold a (virtual) expression of our ideas. Much like the photographer’s moment, the ideas exist whether captured or not.

But so many insist on calling Photoshop mishmash pieces design, when they are nothing of the sort as they hold no idea, just stylistic nonsense. A hammer can help build a house, does that mean hammering two planks of wood together is good enough to be a home?

Oh Photoshop, Your Crown Is Too Heavy

Yes, Photoshop is, today, an essential tool of graphic design. Yes, knowing our tools well make our jobs easier and can help our work become beautiful — there is no denying that.

But it isn’t enough to know the tools well without an idea to which they can be applied. The expressions these tools craft will be without soul, meaning or story.

The idea is not validated by the tools used to craft its expression. But the tool does find validation in the expression. The tool relies on it to be considered valuable. Photoshop is no different than any other tool.

In 100 years, discussions about what version of Photoshop was used to produce the wonderful work today will not be held. It will call it a tool. It might be an wonderful tool to wield, but it is only a tool. It may have changed the way we express our ideas, but it shouldn’t change the way we conceive them.

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The Timeless Beauty of National Geographic

Who isn’t familiar with that wonderful yellow frame?

It holds breathtaking images of exotic destination and mountains of nostalgia! It’s the flag of the editorial institution that National Geographic has established over the span of 120 years.

The eponymous yellow rectangle has seen virtually no change, much like the interior pages, since it first bordered the front covers of the 1888 launch issue.

I thought it could teach us a few things about timelessness in graphic design, so I randomly picked four issues to look at; March 1964, November 1988, April 2000 and a recent December 2009.

The Front Cover

National Geographic’s front cover is a great example of how well simple branding can be tied to a product or message. In this case, the slightly warm yellow has become a symbol of wonderful photography, intriguing articles and serves as a doorway into places worlds away.

The ’64 issue is clearly the most different because of a floral border that, while taking up space, being distracting and kind of just kitsch, is romantically wonderful. It feels so appropriate to the sixties (echoes of William Morris?) that I’m glad to see it. Though I must say I’m also glad to see it evolve to nothing more than a yellow border.

The yellow frame works the hardest as a piece of branding, being more recognisable than the logotype (which only changed slightly — notice the slight type size change in the ’09 issue?) and far stronger than the floral badge that was used in the ’88 and ’00 issues.

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Tomorrow's Cool

Making your design look cool puts a date on it.

Cool is a temporary thing, based on emotions and thoughts and ideas of the time in which it was made. More often than not, what’s cool is a taste of what people guess tomorrow will bring.

But tomorrow hasn’t happened yet. What we guess will look cool tomorrow is an assumption based on how we feel today.

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“Clarity!” Demanded the Modernists

The design shouldn’t uselessly babble and scream until it’s foaming at the mouth.

It should speak clearly and be easily understood. It should have a charming level of clarity and character as all parts are given a reason for taking up space.

It has to be quickly and easily understood, as elements accent the message and design, never drowning them.

This is where the soul of the early 20th century modernist lives.

Fifty years before the Swiss movement really got some bounce, The New Typography got the ball rolling.

It started as the 20th century was moving into its early years, with the Bauhaus and the Futurist art movements fueling the fire.

Before the design was clean, it was messy. Before it was quiet, it was loud. Very loud. To the modernist, this wasn’t appropriate. It wasn’t easy to digest information and too much intervention upon the message was being done by the designer.

Let’s have a look at where it all began for the modernists — with The New Typography.

Spread from NKF cableworks catalogue designed by Piet Zwart.
The imagery and text dance with one another, rather than one simply pointing to the other. (1928)

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Going to the Next Level

Improvements can always be made. Always. It is not possible to go through your career without having every single piece of work you do needing an improvement of some sort. The trick is knowing that the improvements need to be made.

Imagine sitting down at a table with a designer whose work you admire passionately. This person is a living-god in your world and their word is gospel.

Now imagine your sliding a piece of your work across the table.

Think about it for a moment. Really do it. I’ll wait, I’m in no rush.

So, how was it?

I hope for your sake it wasn’t terrifying. I hope you were proud and waiting to hear what advice they had to offer. I hope you were confident in the work you were showing them. I hope you believed in the work.

If this isn’t the case, then why not? It’s time to do something about it.

The work doesn’t have to be as good a theirs, it doesn’t have to be as clever as theirs – after all, isn’t this why you admire them so, because they’re able to think differently to you?

You should be confident in your work. You should be able to say “with this I give you the finest of my skills”. Hell, it doesn’t even need to be good. Just the best that you are capable of.

There is nothing stopping you from moving to the next level

If the idea of showing your work to the person across the table fills your soul with fear? Many consider this a lack of confidence a trait well worth dispensing with. I think the opposite. It is something that you can take amazing advantage of.

You are in an enviable position because you know your skills are lacking. You would be wise to realise that there is nothing stopping you from moving to the next level.

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The Secret Law of Page Harmony

“A method to produce the perfect book.”

The perfect book. This is how designer-genius Jan Tschichold described this system. Not the ok book, nor the pretty good book, but the perfect book.

This method existed long before the computer, the printing press and even a defined measuring unit. No picas or points, no inches or millimeters. It can be used with nothing more than a straight edge, a piece of paper and a pencil.

And you can still use it. This is a system which is still as valid, beautiful and elegant with ultra-modern design as it ever was for the work of the scribes, Gutenberg and Tschichold.

The Secret Canon & Page Harmony

Books were once a luxury only the richest could afford and would take months of work to be brought to fruition.

And they were harmoniously beautiful.

The bookmakers knew the secret to the perfect book. They shared among themselves a system—a canon—by which their blocks of text and the pages they were printed on would “agree with one another and become a harmonious unit.”

So elegant is this method of producing harmony that a few designers saw to rediscover it. Even though it was considered a trade-secret, they all came to the same conclusion, hundreds of years apart, independent of one another, but each supported by the other.

They found the way to design a harmonious page. A perfect page.

There’s a dance to all this

Let’s look at this dance, shall we? In it’s simplest form, here is the canon, without the guides.

And here it is with them (using the Van de Graaf Canon and Tschichold’s recommended 2:3 page-size ratio, which we’ll get into next).

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You're Going To Be Fine

Generally I despise this kind of hallmark advice.

You know the sort, something that tries to evoke some sort of reaction as if it’s a revolutionary, deity-like discovery of thought, even though is is often closer to day-time television psychology.

But oh well, here it is:

You’re going to be fine.

I find my self compelled to say this, as it’s a big lesson I began to learn after I began my working life and I’m sure there are some people who are in that same position right now.

You’re going to be fine.

Honestly, totally fine. No problems. It’ll work out just dandy.

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Jan Tschichold's Inspiring Penguins

It is far more valuable to see five beautiful pieces and understand how and why their beauty touches you, than it is to see a hundred beautiful things and merely understand that they are beautiful.

Today, I’m going to show you a few pieces of beauty that send shivers of joy through my heart, and how the designer behind them—Jan Tschichold—turned the mundane into the magnificent.

A hand-rendered concept produced by Tschichold while exploring his ideas.

After recently writing an article on how inspiration can provide a journey, I thought a few holiday snaps of an enlightening trip I’ve taken might be of interest.

Earlier this year I explored the tracks laid forth by one of the most renowned graphic designers and typographers in history — Jan Tschichold.

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Pixar & Dreamworks: The Stories Their Brands Tell

Pixar is a billion dollar company because it knows how to tell a story.

They know how important it is and that without a strong story at the core, all the technical wizardry and aesthetic mastery of their films would be overly sweet.

Story telling is often as important in graphic design as it is in animation and film making, even if it isn’t as obvious — we use grids, type, colour and imagery to help bring stories to life.

When there is a lack of a story—of an idea—there is nothing but average design to be found. Why? Because there’s a lack of a point of interest — there’s nothing for the audience to grab onto.

So let’s learn from the mistakes and glories of others, comparing two story tellers who act on the same stage—Pixar and Dreamworks, of course—and the stories told through the branding of their films.

I’m talkin’ logos, baby.

Toy Story

Pixar

Playful and fun — a great way to start!

This logo is a winner because it’s appropriate without being condescending.

The primary colour pallet aims it perfectly at its audience and nothing says “gimmie” like red and yellow. The type size, the chunkiness of it, as well as the playful way it’s laid out, make this cute in the right way and screams, well, “Toy”.

It’s also nice to see a logo which has depth (hinting at the 3D of the animation) without going straight to embossed trickery.

A Bug’s Life

Pixar

Another nice and flat logo from Pixar. It’s lovely to see a beveled look isn’t what they go for just because their films are CGI.

The bugs eating away at the letters are cute and the little one between Disney & Pixar is a great touch.

The typeface is appropriately playful and has an exaggeration to it that suggests that we’re going to be shown little things really big (I’m looking at the i, f and e mostly), but it’ll be a gentle ride.

The slight warmth of the yellow is nice little ray of sunshine that gently touches down on the bug covered leaf.

All this adds up to a little reflection of the film — it has its footing in it.

Antz

Dreamworks

I’m sorry, what?

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Hidden!Hidden!