Jessica Hische added a “find by location” tool to Inker Linker (worldwide, but with US focus).

Lovely as a Tree contains a UK database of commercial printers.

Rob Giampietro published a list of mainly US print vendors (some within Europe).

Tina Roth Eisenberg shared US-based letterpress studios (with many more in the comments).

Designers & Printers is a free directory where print companies list their services.

Woodtype specimen photo by Grant Hutchinson.

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Land art. Worth a look. On Kuriositas.

The importance of a good crop. A nice visual demonstration of photo manipulation, and how you can use cropping to improve your photos. On ISO50.

“Instead of doing two jobs at 50%, or four jobs at 25%, just do one job at 100%.”

Do one job properly. Dave Trott on why specialising is the way to go. On Dave Trott’s blog.

Beautiful colour in this 60-second ad for Lurpak Butter (embedded below). Via Creative Review.

Typographic chocolate holiday gifts. Lunch time yet? Via inspire me now.

Uncloaking a slumlord conspiracy with social network analysis. Via Social Design Notes.

The TED imperatives apply to a much wider scope than TED alone. On Seth’s Blog.

If you’re looking for a little design inspiration, have a browse in the work section of Milton Glaser’s new website. Site design outsourced to Ludlow Kingsley.

Mike Dempsey asked, “Who are you designing for? a. Your client. b. Other designers. c. Yourself.” Richard of Ace Jet 170 replied, “None of the above. The customer, of course.”

Eric Karjaluoto kicks-off his 2012 blogging efforts in upbeat fashion by sharing 10 of his favourite “big agency claims, promises, and bits of rhetoric… All of which manage to sound so very impressive, while meaning so astoundingly little.” Read more Bullshit.

Here’s a great video (below) of Herb Lubalin discussing the client requests that occurred when he designed the PBS logo. Via Brand New.

I’ll finish with a solid quote from iA’s Oliver Reichenstein.

“Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t have the brain or time or will to learn and think and understand whatever the problem is. That’s what the political and corporate charlatans want you to believe: They want you to be as ignorant as possible.”

Previously: From the reader #6

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“The design of our latest selector reflects the different ways in which people select our papers. In some instances, colour is the primary concern, before material type, texture or weight. However, these priorities are often reversed, making style the key point of reference. So now we give you three modes of paper selection: Select Colour, Select Black+White or Select Range.”

Beautifully designed by London-based SEA, request yours from paper-specialist GF Smith.

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Mike Dempsey:
Younger designers [are] getting into a very overcrowded business, and increasingly so. Do you have any thoughts?

Michael Wolff:
“I do actually. The main thought I have is don’t think a design company is where a designer should necessarily be, because if you’re interested in creativity and you are creative and you can see and you have got curiosity and you do appreciate things and you have got imagination, take it anywhere. Go and work in any company. Go and bring it to anyone who’ll listen to you.

“The design company is not the only place to be a designer. In fact it’s actually in some ways a rather constraining place to be a designer.”

—

Transcribed from the closing remarks of this 40-minute recording.

Related (from the archives): An excellent 12-minute video of Michael Wolff on creativity.

Japanese lamp photo via Thinkstock.

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A snippet from Be Bold 101, by Nicholas Bate. Some stellar advice.

You might remember Nicholas from a mention this time last year: Be brilliant at the basics.

If he keeps it up this might become an annual theme.

I’ll practice my handwriting.

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How lettering is made for public display (sign-making). On Eye blog, via Khoi Vinh.

Top 15 Music Videos Of 2011, on ISO50.

The Icon Handbook is now available to buy, on The Hickensian. Andy Clarke shared his thoughts.

The Year in Volcanic Activity, on The Atlantic, via Kottke.

Get your own custom stamp from the Cranky Pressman, on Mikey Burton, via swissmiss.

Coverjunkie’s best magazine covers of 2011, on CR Blog.

What do you do with books that gather dust? Create book sculptures, via inspire me now.

Stephen Coles shared his favourite font sources.

ink&paper is a lovely short film about the last letterpress and paper shops in Los Angeles, via AisleOne.

Have a brilliant new year, everyone!

Previously: From the reader #5

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Thoughts on the designer/client relationship, courtesy of the Design Council. Interesting watch, via Glug.

“If I go to see the doctor, I accept that the doctor has trained, has skill, has experience, is concentrating on one aspect of me. I’ve asked them to do that. What I don’t do is what bad graphic design clients do. I don’t lean over the doctor’s shoulder and say, ‘Could we make that pill a bit larger?’”
— QUENTIN NEWARK, ATELIER WORKS

“A good client has the responsibility to choose the designer that they’re going to work on the project with carefully, and when they get that job right it makes your job a lot easier.”
— LUKE PEARSON, PEARSONLLOYD

“I’m not sure there is such a thing as a perfect client because people are messy, just like I don’t think there’s such a thing as a perfect agency or a perfect consultancy or a perfect advisor.”
— RITA CLIFTON, INTERBRAND

“You make your client a good client or a bad client. After you’ve worked with clients over the years you know how to handle them, from a selfish point-of-view to get the best out of them, but also, to give them the best.”
— EDWARD BARBER, BARBEROSGERBY

“Most clients come to us with no real idea of what identity they’re trying to achieve. They’ll often come to us thinking that what they need is a new logo, that going forwards all their problems will be solved by this new logo, and our response to them would normally be, ‘Who do you think you are? How does your audience see you? How would you like your audience to be seeing you?’”
— NEVILLE BRODY

There’s a full transcript here.

The Design Council also has a resources for designers page you might find useful.

—

Related, from the davidairey.com archives:
The vendor client relationship
Handling the client approach

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iCam concept, on ISO50. The future of photography?

Record-breaking 3D street mural. Reminiscent of Julian Beever, only bigger. Via design work life.

Nice, bold stationery for Feb Design, on For Print Only.

With design agency Airside closing doors in March, the team released a commemorative video showcasing their work. Via Noisy Decent Graphics.

“Who’s there? The Olympics!” Third-years at Kingston University created their own interpretations of the London 2012 Olympic posters. This one’s by Felix Heyes, Josh King, & Ben West.

Asterisk Superheroes. Cute.

The domain name graphicdesign.com was recently bought for $150,000. Pocket change.

This Little Printer, from London-based Berg, is getting a lot of press around design blogs.

It’s an idea that’s caught the imagination of Daniel Gray, who has already started work on a prototype for Little Printer 2.0. Interestingly, here’s where the idea came about, five years ago.

The Tree, Line work of Zander Olsen is great stuff. Via davidthedesigner.

Photo by Katie Soloker/Gothamist

Grand Central Station. What a venue for a new Apple store.

Just three years after the “world’s first museum of graphic design” opened in Breda, Netherlands, it’s changed name to Museum of the Image. Strange. More on johnson banks’ thought for the week.

Photos of the now-closed Aldwych underground station in London caught my eye.

—

Previously: From the reader #4

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“We’re not the ones that are going to make a big name for ourselves. We’re not going to be in Creative Review every month or win D&AD pencils every year. We’re not going to be celebrated.

“Does that make us lesser designers?

“Does that mean we’re not good, great, exceptional? No it doesn’t.”

“More minimalist effect” in the maximalist market, carried on from the previously noted minimalism in packaging design.

I was happy when @BlairThomson pointed me toward this Dave Trott post from last year: The train is leaving the station. An excellent story of how one company presented their design idea to a client.

A nice collection of illustrated letterforms, by Jonny Wan.

Q/ How good are these iconographic posters for children’s stories? A/ Very.

These seem popular now (or these now seem popular). They do, don’t they?

For something a little different, this 25-minute documentary on downhill skateboarding is insane.

—

Previously: From the reader #3

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Neil Ayres asked for my thoughts on D&AD — the London-based organisation at which he works. Before I replied I got sidetracked by Ireland’s Design Week. The event website needed updating, so I sent a quick email to remind the organisers that the “get involved” page was months out-of-date.

Barry Sheehan, the Week’s chairperson and director at Sheehan Architects, replied to say they’re volunteers, and despite best intentions the website hadn’t received its intended overhaul. On a tangent, Barry’s email signature linked to his 2009 dissertation, titled What is the Optimal Structure for Organisations Representing Design and Designers on the Island of Ireland? It was written for his Masters in Professional Design Practice at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Short story shorter, I read the report and thought it might help answer Neil.

Here’s a dissertation excerpt I found particularly relevant. It’s from page 49 where Barry questionned a number people who held senior positions within design associations.

—

4.2.15 Question 15
With the exception of architecture, in your opinion, why do so few designers join professional design organisations?

Purpose of question 15:
It was established in the literature review that the percentage of graduate architects joining design organisations is high. By way of comparison, the number of other designers joining design organisations is low. Why is this?

Key points in the answers to question 15:
Dawson Stelfox and Elaine Butler are in agreement, saying respectively. ‘They don’t have to.’ and ‘Because the market doesn’t demand it of them.’

Rather than point to the self interest of designers, Damian Cranney and John O’Connor also look to the offerings of the organisations. Cranney states, ‘It’s not seen as a necessary mark for professional standards. … There are few design organisations that have anything tangible, or a kind of perceived, genuinely meaningful value, to offer designers.’ This is echoed by O’Connor, ‘There are no immediate benefits. … The industry or designers themselves don’t actually genuinely see a benefit. … The industry doesn’t support the organisation. In other words, if you are looking for work, you are never asked, “Are you a member?”’

Garrett Stokes is more direct. ‘They don’t believe in them, and they are right.’

Nick Cloake and Toby Scott discuss the issue of design not being considered as a profession, something that was highlighted in the literature review. Cloake states, ‘Two reasons. One is apathy. … The other is that I think designers have yet to realise they are a profession. … Designers, I think, are also naturally single people. They operate on a kind of a solo basis and they aren’t great team players. They are not joiners.’ Toby Scott agrees, ‘There is no need. … There is no professional accreditation or sense of continuing professional development.’ He also states that ‘the economics are poor’.

This point is echoed by Michael Thomson, indicating the tricky times of recession, when members state, ‘Why do I pay €400 to my organisation? What value am I getting?’ This is of course the case, but we have established that some organisations have little revenue. Without significantly increased revenue, how can they increase their offering?

Seán O’Laoire also highlights the issue of financial interest when speaking of why architects join organisations. Irrespective of the quality of offerings of the RIAI and RSUA, significant numbers of architects join. ‘Being a member is fairly fundamentally linked to you and your capacity to be employed.’

Conclusions drawn from the answers to question 15:
There are many reasons why designers do not join design organisations. They are clearly outlined by the interviewees. There is a financial imperative for architects to join. The opposite may be the case with designers. They do not join because they do not have to.

The offerings may be inadequate, leading to low membership numbers. Low membership numbers directly imposes financial constraints, resulting in limited offerings. A way out of this downward spiral is for organisations to pool resources, financially and administratively, to boost the offering, changing the direction of the spiral.

—

Interviewees:
Dawson Stelfox, President, Royal Society of Ulster Architects (RSUA)
Damian Cranney, President, Institute of Designers in Ireland (IDI)
Garrett Stokes, Past President, Institute of Creative Advertising and Design (ICAD)
John O’Connor, Board Member, Design Ireland
Elaine Butler, Past President, Interiors Association (IA)
Seán O’Laoire, President, The Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland (RIAI)
Toby Scott, Former Director, Design Council, London
Nicholas (Nick) Cloake, President, Graphic Design Business Association (GDBA)
Michael Thompson, Former President, Bureau of European Design Associations (BEDA)

—

Back to D&AD and Neil’s question. It’s £100 to join the organisation. These are the member benefits. I’d consider joining if I lived in London. But living in Northern Ireland?

A quote from Cat in a previous post, affiliation in the design profession, comes to mind:

“You get out of it what you put in, so if you don’t go to meetings, or become involved with other members, paying the fee is pretty much useless.”

I’d go with that. If I was paying an annual fee I’d want to get involved, attend events, meet other designers. Overall, the dissertation left me with a pretty negative account of Irish design organisations, summed-up in an Enterprise Ireland report from 1999:

“The Design consultancy sector in Ireland is fragmented and diverse, comprising many small design consultancy practices, operating within different design arenas. While there are a number of different industry associations i.e. the Institute of Designers in Ireland, Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland (RIAI), the Graphic Design Business Association, Institute of Creative Advertising and Design, etc, no one organisation represents the interests of all designers. As a consequence design is not represented at an industry level; there is no cohesion, poor networking, both within design areas and across design disciplines and little cross-fertilisation of ideas.”

Design Ireland grew as a result of the report, but with lack of funding it became a completely voluntary organisation until in 2009 it could no longer survive and ceased trading.

Norway is frequently mentioned in Barry Sheehan’s report as an example of a similar-sized nation doing things better, and I recently heard good things about folk in the Norwegian Design Council.

Are you a member of any design organisations? I’m interested to know why or why not, particularly if you’re based in Northern Ireland.

—

Update: 04 November 2011

“The Chartered Society of Designers has received Royal permission to grant the designation of Chartered Designer, thus allowing it to go ahead with its controversial plans for professional certification in design.”

Quoted from Creative Review: CDes gets go-ahead.

—

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