Michael Beirut
Oh dear, I’m not…competitive. Well, let me rephrase. I don’t LOVE being competitive with others but I do like to push myself. That seems to be the opposite substance of almost all of the graphic designers I’ve learned about this year. Designers by nature are competitive, but I guess I just didn’t expect it to be all about competitions and awards. I guess I wanted it to be about doing something because you’re passionate about it, because you have to do it or you’ll bust.
Clearly his entry is all about being famous and how to go about doing that, and people that want to be famous are typically competitive. So as I read along I decided to gear up for a dose of the competitive nature and get ready to feel like a miserable failure because I haven’t entered any design competitions (yet) during this program.
What I really liked about his essay was the little assignments he doles out. “If you get stuck try this”, “Do things for free”, “Design holiday cards for friends”. I decided to write down these little assignments and make sure that I check them all off the list by the end of the year. Thank you professor Beirut, may I have another?
Information Design + The Placebo Effect
I’m a sucker for pushing those crossing buttons just like everyone else. I’m also guilty of pressing the door close button in the elevator. Why? Because I, no we, everyone is a in a big damn hurry.
Design is wonderful, it’s beautiful and functional. It can transcend language and provide helpful information. It can also exist purely for the sake of convenience. How simplified do things really need to be? Are we balking at Darwin’s Survival of the Fittest theory by making everything readily understandable to all? I think he’s just mad that he’s been sucker pushing the crosswalk buttons all those years and honestly, I don’t blame him.
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Something that makes me chuckle and inspires me all at the same time is the passion some designers feel about certain typefaces. In this essay the author hates, and I mean hates ITC Garamond. Ok, that’s weird. I mean, I hate Wingdings because seriously, what was the point? But to hate Garamond?
Hating a typeface like Garamond simply because he does is the part that makes me chuckle. Being so engrossed in what you do and so passionate that you can actually despise a typeface so much as to compare it to dog poop is inspiring!
The worlds of art and design are so different and I’ve been so engrossed in the art world for so long that I haven’t gotten to spend enough time in the world of design. Fortunately what I have been exposed to, I’ve loved and can’t wait to learn more. I think as a designer you need to have passion about silly things like fonts in order to create work that you truly believe in. So, I guess I’d better start forming some strong opinions on fonts, otherwise I’ll never make it as a designer.