Noted by flow14
Buy this book! Ryan Hembree, founder of Indicia Design in Kansas City, has just released a great book: The Complete Graphic Designer, A Guide to Understanding Graphics and Visual Communication.
Unlike the bulk of graphic design books on the market today, Ryan’s book offers substance — covering everthing from process to layout to branding — and style — it’s packed with oodles of examples from notable designers.
Current has been running viewer-created ad messages (VCAMs) for a while now. 99% of the ads prove the being consistently clever and creative while delivering a compelling, coherent brand message isn’t as easy as it looks.
Here’s how it works: Current lines up a sponsor; the first was Sony, followed by Toyota and L’Oreal. The sponsor provides assets (primarily photos and logos) and a creative brief; a little background on the brand, the feeling they want the ads to evoke, etc.
Next, Current viewers download the assets, ignore the brief, and set to work on their commercials. The results generally look like local commercials for global brands, with a few notable exceptions:
[Edit: video embed lost to the ages]
This example was created by an animation and visual effects studio
However, even the quality submissions don’t do a great job of representing these big-name brands. It will be interesting to see if consumer-generated advertising is a passing fad or if consumers and companies can mature the process and create truly compelling work.
A great interview with James Victore; part of Hillman Curtis’ Artist Series (which includes my favorite interview with Milton Glaser).
The connection that I find most interesting in this series (the ones I’ve watched, anyway), is that most the designers and artists shy away from using computers for any part of their process—something that would terrify many contemporary designers.
So I was having a conversation at work today about how creative folks always have big ideas rattling around in our heads. In some cases, we’re fortunate enough to have the skills and/or time to act on those ideas.
It made me think of a quote I ran across the other day:
“Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you and just before you realise what’s wrong with it.” — Anonymous
It’s really easy to kill any idea (good or bad) by looking for shortcomings:
“This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.” –Western Union internal memo, 1876.
Sometimes it’s best to ignore the naysayers, overlook the obstacles, and act on your ideas. Dammit.
Those quotes and many more can be found here.