A couple of days ago I saw someone had posted a story to: “People used to stand for something” by Jordan Allen on my tweetdeck which soon got me wondering: “What do I, as a designer, stand for?”. My natural reflex started tossing adjectives in my mind such as ethical, moral, sustainable, green, socially conscious, but they’re just pretty words and it left me wondering what I really stand for in the design world.

There are two kinds of designers. Designers who design to pay bills, and designers who design for something greater. Most, if not all, want to be the latter; yet most, if not all, fall under the former. There is nothing wrong with using your design expertise as a means to keep up with rent. It’s something we all have to face. But a mentor once posed the question to me: What’s more important: your rent or your morals?

My response at the time was my rent.  I was also only 18 and despite having worked since the age of 14 to support myself financially I was naive as to how overwhelming something as simple as rent could be.  I quickly found out that my morals fell through the floor when it came to taking any design job regardless of how morally, ethically, and irresponsible the project.  It was only in my later years at Parsons the New School for Design that I did a complete 180 back to my morals.  I started taking design research courses, sociology, anthropology, pyschology related to art, philosophy, and business classes and all of these things helped me not only redefine myself as a designer, but as a person.  

Much to my dismay I found that there were only a small number of young designers who had even bothered to change themselves in this manner.  Not only in New York City, but all over America.  Design to them was about trends, money, and fame.  While these there are important, they should no way dictate your workflow or creative process.  From my learning, I’ve reasoned that design is not a process to make -something-, it’s a philosophy and processed used to find creative, ethical, and sustainible solutions to complex problems that exist in our world.  But what I see a lot of now, especially within the online design community, is trend following trend and ass-kissing received by more ass-kissing.  

To free myself of the litany and excuses plagued by those in my own field, I’ve established a set of personal guidelines and rules that I’ve sworn to follow as a designer.

1. I will not follow trends unless they apply relevantly to the project I am working on
2. Failure is always possible, and I need to know when I’m in over my head.
3. Whatever I design: product, graphic, system, it will be ethical and beneficial to the correct group of people it targets.
4. I will not let my designs and design skillset suffer because of oppinions of others in my field.
5. Yet I will always understand the importance of constructive criticism made by my peers. 
6. I will practice my skills as a designer at any chance I get applying them to any situation I can.
7. I must remember that my designs are never for myself, but for something greater.
8. Perfection as designer means there is a limit to how good I can become, I will seek to -always- better my skills and learn new things.
9. I will consult and converse with not only those in my field, but those in fields far from my own to grasp a better understanding as people as a whole.
10. I will stand up for my design work when it is necessary and I know in my heart that it is right.
11. Finally, I will remind myself that design can’t save the world.  But it can help move things in the right direction.

Now I ask of you, designers, artists, creatives, and intellectuals…do you have guidelines and morals you follow in your own work?  

If so post them here and let’s get a discussion going about your own self reflection on yourselves as individuals.

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“Logo Design”

Pixel Logo

Online Logo.com 

Logo Works

Logo Design Gurus

LogoDesign.com

LogoBee

Log Technology

Logo Tree

“Company logo design”

Rewriteables

PWC Webmasters

IQ Logo

Prize Logos

Business Logos

“Professional Logo Design”

E-Logo Design

Logo Design Creation

Logo Labs

Logo Design Magic

Logo Design Pros

Logo Design Team

 

I now pose the question to you, the design community, why and how on earth to the most popular corporate logo design companies can get away with atrocious logos?

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I expected that with all of the people on twitter, especially since the fact that the majority of the people on my list are tech-heads/geeks/designers/programmers that someone w
ould have either had experience with the HTC Diamond / Touch Pro or would at least have been able to point me in the right direction. Yet the only reponse I was met with was:

The rest of the dialogue afterwards is irrelevant, but it got me thinking. “Fred you sexy beast, why don’t you want a trendy iPhone?”. So let’s talk about why as a designer I make a conscious, ethical, and well informed decision to back my reasoning behind why I refuse to get Apple’s smartphone.

Note: I have nothing against Apple products, I think Mac computer’s are wonderful for graphic design work and movie editing. I prefer PC’s for 3d animation, programming, gaming, & personal customization. Both products have their specific uses. The product isn’t the issue here, it’s the brand.

1. Androgynous.

I’m a man. Despite the mockery I’ve made of hipsters and designers alike with my avatar photo I don’t wear tight skinny jeans, have real thick rimmed black glasses and I hate my coffee black and above $1. The iPhone’s smooth, slick, and minimalistic design is completely devoid of being associated with either gender. Despite it’s rounded edges it doesn’t cater towards the female market nor does large viewing screen it’s abundance of technology/applications cater towards the technical male crowd. The iPhone successfully breaks down gender barriers and is in essence a phone for men and women alike between the ages of 17 and 35. This is excellent since it’s exactly what Apple wanted. But I want a phone that looks like a man. You might think of this as chaunvistic, egotistical, etc but I disagree; I want a phone that doesn’t associate me with people wearing androgynous American Apparel clothing or movement restricting clothing.

2. The White Hand of God.

I don’t take anything personally, you could call me any racial epithet you wanted and I wouldn’t even bat an eyelash, I probably even have more racial jokes about my ethnic background than anyone on the planet. With that said, let’s talk about Apple’s White Hand of God.  Below is one of the apple backed advertisement’s for the iPhone:

I only need one picture to point something out.  If you go back and look at all of Apple’s advertising for it’s product’s you’ll notice they employ the white hand of god as their central motif when releasing new products.  You’re probably quick to call bullshit; to which I would suggest you stop freelancing, take a course on signage/semotics/advertisements/sociology and then take another look at their advertising methods.  Even so, this isn’t what bother’s me.  It’s the fact that Apple had the nerve when coming under fire for not advertising to other ethniticies to use this ad:

They even had the nerve to use this slogan with it “A little video for everyone.” (2007) used to market the third generation iPod nano”(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apple_Inc._slogans)

When did Apple get this smug with their branding and advertising methods?  I swore on that day that the iPod would never enter my household.  I mean really, the “White Hand of God” offering “A little video for everyone” and using the black ipod nano?  If you think I’m stretching it, I once again point you towards graduate level courses in semoitics.  Apple has an amazing marketing team, they completely understand what they did.  I know they don’t have racist intentions, but they’re distinctly not marketing to me and as such I will not endorse their iPods and iPhones. (Computers are a different story, I need them to edit in Final Cut).

3. Steve Job’s War on Buttons.

My last reason is more of an awkward quirk.  This whole thing about no button’s that Apple has is compltely beyond me.  There’s a reason keyboards have buttons that make noises, there’s a reason that cell phones have buttons that make noises.  It’s completely uncessary but phone designers go OUT OF THEIR WAY to make sure that when you hit a button it makes a noise.  Why?!  It’s because people like to know they’re doing something.  The act of pushing a button and hearing a noise means that their physical action caused a reaction.  And though it might seem simple and illogical that something like this is necessary, quickly remind yourself that human beings are by nature slightly illogical.  I like buttons.  Maybe it’s just because I grew up in the gamer’s generation.

As a final note: Don’t be a flame troll. =]

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1. The job’s payout is too good to resist
2. You’re fresh out of college / freelancing and are willing to take any project, large or small.
3. You’ve done something like it before on a personal/smaller scale.
4. You think taking on a big project will make you a better designer.

While these may be valid reasons, they all seem to fall short when a design is truly faced with a project they knew little to nothing about.  The steps to avoid getting into this sort of situation are just as simple as the alluring reasons above:

1. Write down a list of your skills and rate them on a scale of your choosing.
2. Know your design process, how long it takes you to complete a project, etc.
3. Understand your limitations.
4. Know that you can fail at any given moment.

Try as we might, the above reasons aren’t enough to stop designers from taking on projects they shouldn’t, so there are ways to get around this if you’re ever in the situation:

1. ASK FOR HELP.  A good designer always has a pool of EDUCATED peers to ask for advice.  Worst case scenario is you have to bring them in on the project and pay them part of your cut.  But this prevents you from looking bad in your client’s eyes and you might establish a relationship with an other designer to form a team.
2. HONESTY – Tell your client that you can’t complete the project and offer them a list of other designers that can.  If you’re going to bow out of a project at least leave them with options as to what to do without you.
3. READ – As tempting as it is to just Google “How to design this and that” and get a bunch of search results to blog tutorials on designing various things, go out and get a real book published by actual designers who have been in the field and are accredited for their methodology and skills.  

What do you guys think is the proper way to handle a situation like this: What do you do as a designer when you can’t handle the project you’re already contracted to?

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(It’s great and productive to have -some- of these things, but God help you if you think it entitles you to some sort of designer title).

1. Black Rimmed Glasses. – I know for a fact they don’t give you a new perspective on design.
2. Being a Hipster. – Normally assosciated with some sort of art and design background.  False.  Designers don’t spend money to look like they don’t have money.  Money is meant for Adobe.
3. Owning The White Hand of God Products (iPhone, Macs, etc). – If you don’t get the White Hand of God Reference you’ve never taken a semiotics class and shouldn’t be designing anything.
4. 3/4 Black and White Myspace Headshots that make you look better than you really are. – The picture says enough. Not even Photoshop could make this girl look ‘artsy’.
5. Drinking Lattes or any form of cafinated hot drink that doesn’t start with “Cof” and end with “ee”.  - $1 for coffee or $4 for a lattee?  I wonder.  Frugal, Frugal, Frugal.  Design costs $$$.
6. Owning a moleskin journal. – When did these suddenly become insanely trendy?  Useful they are, but they’re not an icon to represent designers.  We’ll use napkins to sketch ideas if need-be.
7. Being friends with other ‘designers’ on Twitter. – It’s kind of like digg, one giant political system, no one will properly critisize your work as long as you keep giving them floats & diggs.
8. Posting lists of resources. – Posting lists is great for other designers, until you realize people only posts lists because they have nothing substantive to say.          

There are plenty of other things but this completely distracts from the point of this article which is below & Big up’s to google for these images:

If you’ve gone to any accredited design university, college, or trade school there is one question that is bound to come up no matter what field of design you hail from: What makes a good designer?  The question rivals some of the most paradoxical philosophical questions today and is very much the center of debate among design researchers and scholars.  The question applies to all fields of design and suggests that there are basic requirements and that there is an ideological designer that all designers should aspire to be.  After copious amounts of design research both at universities and on my own, I’ve come to the personal conclusion that the ideological ‘good’ designer is one whom can design ethically functional societies and systems.

You might be asking yourself now: Design a Society?  I daresay Fred McCoy I’m through with Megalongcat and this foolishness.  But I must ask you to wait and hear me through.  What would it take to design the systems to help run a functional society?  Te help think about this, I’d like to point out here that being a designer is awkwardly similar to being a scientist.  The scientific method applies to how ‘Good’ Designers should go about design. Here’s the scientific method:

SCIENTIFIC METHODOLOGY:

1. Observe some aspect of the universe, “free from bias.”
2. Invent a hypothesis that is consistent with what your empirically described observations.
3. Form a falsifiable theory to make predictions.
4. Test those predictions by experiments or further observations.
5. Modify the hypothesis into a theory in the light of your results.
6. Publish your findings in a peer reviewed journal (Newer addition)
7. Consider criticisms offered, and revise your theory
8. Go to step 3. 

You might be wondering how to apply this to design, especially since nothing about being creative, talented or being abreast of trends is mentioned here.  The fact of the matter is the above methodology is how designers can think about going about their projects:

1. Find a problem in the world regardless of what it is.
2. Create a well though, plausible, and ethical solution.
3. Publish a well-written proposal and outline for your solution.
4. Prototype, Prototype, Prototype.
5. Test the prototype in the field.
6. Gather observations and publish in a document to send to relevant scholars, peers, designers, and artists.
7. Take in all constructive criticism and revise solution.
8. Return to step 4.

This is nothing more than a general guide, rather than any sort of hard rule of thumb for designers to think about their projects.  I will leave you with two parting notes.  The first is that if you can design a logo, you have the thought process and capabilities to  design a solution to war in the middle east.

The second is that when design is done right, no one will have any idea you did anything at all.

What are YOUR thoughts on what makes a good designer?  I’m sure there’s plenty to be said for my article which pigeonholes a lot of people who will come across this article.

**My profile picture you see everywhere associated with Megalongcat is the 3/4th’s MySpace headshot with black rimmed glasses.  It’s there to make fun of the very people described above, the glasses are actually 3D glasses I got from the movies. . 

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