Good Ol' GIF

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The old fashioned GIF has had something of a resurgance in my inbox. The charmingly retro animations keep popping up in promotional emails, like the one above from CB2.

I like getting them; they're engagaing and add a twist of humor and whimsy to otherwise humdrum sales announcements. To see some more favorites, click here.

While I'm on the subject, the Tumblr blog If We Don't, Remember Me features GIFs created from movie stills and is a worth a visit. Most of the chosen scenes are so quiet and simple your eye is drawn to the details that you might not have had time to notice while watching the actual movie.

Thursday Roundup : Designing Occupy Wall Street

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Occupy Design, a website out of San Francisco, attempts to streamline the visual identity of OWS by creating "freely available visual tools around a common graphic language to unite the 99%." The site offers high res graphics for download, including icons for logistical purposes like making bathroom signage at protest sites and infographics for signage (example above). Non-design savvy demonstrators can also request custom designs. 
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A friend's Facebook feed led me to The Occupied Times of London, a website and free weekly printed paper which covers international OWS news and is an offshoot of Occupy London. Designed by Tzortzis Rallis and Lazaros Kakoulidis, the newspaper features striking typography that's carried over to the online edition as well. 
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A few weeks ago, the New York Times featured several designers' suggested logos for the OWS movement. See all the proposed ideas here.
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I found a closed OWS contest on the spec design site 99designs which offered $145 for a protest "currency" that would be handed out at events. Without getting on my soapbox about spec contests (ahem, Huffington Post), I find it counterintuitive, to put it mildly, to ask designers to work on spec for OWS material, but 10 designers did respond and the above entry was declared the winner.

[Digression on Political Spec Work: Obama for America was recently criticized for holding a competition to design a poster promoting Obama's jobs bill that would then be sold in the campaign store. Critics cited the irony in asking designers to work for free in the name of job creation. While I understand that commissioning a poster from a specific designer or a staff member would have been viable alternatives, I'm torn on this particular case. 

So how, then, is the 99designs contest different from Obama for America poster competition, or the Huffington Post hoopla, for that matter? For me, it comes down to whether the requested work is framed as an opportunity to support a cause or as a job. (Granted this isn't an entirely foolproof distinction and can certainly be manipulated, as when a for-profit entity like the Huffington Post inexcusably frames a non-paying spec job as an "opportunity" for a designer to raise his/her own profile.) 

I entered an Obama t-shirt design contest in 2008 because I viewed my time and creativity as a "donation" I was more than happy to make and I ended up selling the design via cafepress and giving the proceeds to the campaign as well. The lowball pay offered on 99designs, however, combined with a speculative working process belittles the maker more than asking for the same thing gratis. As this post demonstrates, there are plenty of designers out there coming up with creative ways to contribute and share—for free—in the name of OWS. 

In my experience, when done for free, the value of the work comes from the decision and pleasure of transforming one's feelings of support into an object. And why can't designers choose to donate their time and abilities if they believe in the politics, just as someone else may choose to donate their time to phone bank or join a protest?]
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More in keeping with the spirit of the movement, OccupyGeorge applies OWS messaging and statistics to our existing currency with stamps, and the site offers its templates as a free download, from which you can make your own "stamped" bills with your printer. (Second image: a dollar bill marked with the same statistic as the Occupy Design poster from the top of this post.)
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Finally, on the flip side, in a response to what he felt was an initial dismissive reaction to OWS, Los Angeles designer Fro Reza created a series of propaganda posters from the point of view of the 1%. 
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Steve Jobs 1955 - 2011

 

Even though it was clear Steve Jobs was battling severe health problems, I was still shocked when I learned that he died yesterday. I didn't anticipate feeling such a great sense of loss at his passing. Aside from the recaps of Jobs' many achievements, I've been most moved by the passage excerpted below from a commencement speech he gave at Stanford in 2005. In it, he talks about death and how, for him, the assurance that he will die has been his best guide to navigating life. This speech has been making the rounds and I post it here as a reminder to myself. His words are inspiring, humorous, wise and—perhaps most significantly for a man like Jobs—humanizing. 
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"My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

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Read text of the complete speech here.

 

 

Monday Digest : Questioning Design

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• In the International Herald Tribune, Alice Rawsthorn asks, "Can Anybody Be a Designer?" a question inspired by a crop of current exhibitions which present "the concept of design as a fluid, instinctive process, open to everyone..." Read her article weighing the implications of "open design" here.

• Yesterday's food-themed NYT Magazine was chock full of all sorts of random food and health questions, including one that caught my eye, "Can Good Design Rescue Fast Food?" by David Segal. Segal discusses Pentagram's rebranding of Popeyes from "Popeyes Chicken and Bisquits" to "Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen" and the resulting changes to the packaging which, he observed, "also had the effect of making the food somehow seem more healthful." This was intentional, as confirmed by the company and D.J. Stout who led the rebrand at Pentagram. Stout's quote of note: "There is this unspoken perception that if something looks intelligent or literary, it also seems healthier." 

Knowing how litigious Americans can be, especially when it comes to feeling deceived about the physical risks of products (see: Big Tobacco), perhaps designers should double down on their insurance to protect against the inevitable class action lawsuits claiming that diners innocently believed burgers and meat-lovers pizza were suddenly healthy eating options because of the colors and font choice on the box. 

Read the whole story here.

Designing Around a Hot Potato : The Barnes Foundation Identity

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I grew up in Philadelphia with an art-loving father, who frequently brought me ("dragged" would have been my verb of choice at the time) to the Barnes Foundation. In the late 80s, early 90s, the Barnes collection hadn't yet reached the height of its popularity which is probably why my dad liked to take out-of-towners (and even locals)—to blow their mind with the incredible selection of Impressionist paintings sitting in semi-obsercuity on the Main Line. 

The museum allowed children between the ages of 10 and 12 in for free—anyone younger was not allowed—which meant that for many of our visits my childish disinterest to gallery outings was combined with an anxiety over rule-breaking as my dad either said I was older than I was so I could get in, or younger than I was so I could get in for free. (Not to totally sully his good name, keeping me in the admission policy sweet spot was all in the name of world-class art exposure and, entrance discomfort aside, I have strong memories of sitting alone in a gallery looking at the tigers in a Rousseau painting and trying to imagine what it would be like to walk around a house with Van Goghs and Cézannes crammed into corners like any old pieces of bric-a-brac.)

Fast forward 20-odd years and the Barnes collection will soon be accessible to the public in a new location in central Philadelphia. The adjective most associated with this move is "controversial" and after watching the documentary The Art of the Steal, I can't help but feel that regardless of the assertions of everyone involved to stay true to Barnes' presentation style and objectives, his most fundamental intention—for the collection to be housed permanently at the location in Merion—has been steamrolled in the name of bringing art to the public and tourist revenue to the city. (Make note, no mater how iron-clad your Last Will and Testament, once you die, there are no guarantees.)

The powers-that-be behind the move have brought in the big guns at Pentagram (specifically Abbott Miller) to design the logo, website and display graphics for the gallery. Well aware of the conflict surrounding the relocation, a recent post on Pentagram's blog provides an in-depth explanation of Miller's process, emphasizing that his inspiration came from researching Barnes' tendency to display art along an x-axis and that, in turn, the identity attempts to "insure that the museum maintains Barnes' indelible stamp." The result: a horizontally-oriented logo consisting of type and a series of Matisse-orange rectangles. 

It's an encouraging start and the website is clean, with a layout that echoes the structure of the logo and incorporates plenty of imagery. 

While the politics surrounding the relocation of the museum remain hard for me to swallow, having it enveloped in an attractive identity will make it a little easier to accept. And that's probably the point. 

(Images courtesy of Pentagram)

 

Intermezzo on the Steam Press : The Music of Diego Stocco

Most likely, Diego Stocco will either inspire you or make you feel like a totally boring and uncreative slug. As a composer/musician, his instruments of choice have included a tree, sand, a piano on fire and the contents of his local drycleaners, as captured in this video, further proving his point that "you can really make music with everything."

A Mouthful on the Preserve Toothbrush

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Last Christmas, I discovered a Preserve toothbrush in my stocking. I can get close-minded when it comes to changing my routine but this arrived at a perfect moment; I had already concluded that all non-electric toothbrushes work basically the same and I was trying to transition my grooming products to those with less hostile chemical formulas. Having a BPA-free toothbrush that was made out of recycled yogurt cups fit right in.

At the time, the toothbrush packaging was meant to double as a travel case and the brush could be sent back to the manufacturer for further recycling once its cleaning days were over. Produced since 1997, I'm guessing not very many brushes were returned because Preserve recently overhauled the packaging to further encourage user participation in the next stage of the brush's lifecycle. The brushes are now available in a slim envelope, complete with prepaid postage, so as long as you save it, you can then slip the brush back in and mail it out for free. 

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(Production still courtesy of Objectifiedfilm.com)

In the excellent documentary Objectified, there's a segment that features a group of designers at IDEO tasked with redesigning the toothbrush. It's not clear if there's a specific client behind the project or what, but I'll be honest, this portion of the film made me cringe. 

Having received most of my design education in the Bay Area, I learned to revere IDEO as the kind of firm a thinking designer would kill to work for. That said, there's something about actually witnessing a group of smart people, surrounded by Post-it notes, throwing out random (and sometimes idiotic) contributions to a brainstorming session on What Is The Toothbrush? that could give easy ammunition to those less inclined toward appreciating the societal contributions of designers. After much discussion and prototyping, the result was revealed: a toothbrush with a wooden handle. End scene. 

Why, if, or by whom the brush would be manufactured (or its price point) were not addressed. Without that information, and unlike a lot of the other case studies in the documentary, it appeared as a case of design for design's sake—a case, I believe, in which it would have been best to not have peeked behind the velvet curtain at all. 

What does all that have to do with Preserve? Unlike its wooden-handled brethren, to me this toothbrush is the product of smart design executed with an eye on the broader context and user-ability of the final object. It cleans teeth. It's recycled and recyclable, and the packaging makes it easy to follow-through on this. And, perhaps most importantly, it's available at Trader Joe's for $3.

To top it all off, Continuum, the design and consultancy firm behind the updated Preserve packaging, won the 2011 Cooper Hewitt National Design Award for Product Design. 

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to put my used Preserve in the mail.

 

Murray Fredricks : Photography

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Last month's National Geographic Photo Journal section featured a selection of photographs taken by Murray Fredricks over the course of several annual trips to Lake Eyre, a "flat, arid salt sink in Australia with only the horizon to define its 3,700 square miles." Fredericks' aimed to "remove the landscape from landscape photography" and his photos, which at times resemble Mark Rothko paintings, certainly achieve this goal. It's incredible to see the breadth of color that occurs naturally, on the barest of canvases, thanks to this photographer's patient observation. 

Check out more of Fredricks' work here: http://murrayfredericks.com.au

(Photos courtesy of National Geographic Magazine)