advertising + graphic design

New Blog Now Open

2011-06-14T07:29:00.002-04:00

We're moving the A+GD blog to a new location: http://blogs.cpcc.edu/agd/. See you there!

Ripped From the Headlines

2010-11-30T11:00:00.002-05:00

A+GD students are working together to turn seven nails into a house for a homeless family. They'll do it through trading one thing for another.

Check out their story in today's Charlotte Observer.

Check out their blog: www.swaptotherooftop.org

Where Do Ideas Come From

2010-11-24T11:08:00.001-05:00

From Seth's Blog:

Ideas don't come from watching television

Ideas sometimes come from listening to a lecture

Ideas often come while reading a book

Good ideas come from bad ideas, but only if there are enough of them

Ideas hate conference rooms, particularly conference rooms where there is a history of criticism, personal attacks or boredom

Ideas occur when dissimilar universes collide

Ideas often strive to meet expectations. If people expect them to appear, they do

Ideas fear experts, but they adore beginner's mind. A little awareness is a good thing

Ideas come in spurts, until you get frightened. Willie Nelson wrote three of his biggest hits in one week

Ideas come from trouble

Ideas come from our ego, and they do their best when they're generous and selfless

Ideas come from nature

Sometimes ideas come from fear (usually in movies) but often they come from confidence

Useful ideas come from being awake, alert enough to actually notice

Though sometimes ideas sneak in when we're asleep and too numb to be afraid

Ideas come out of the corner of the eye, or in the shower, when we're not trying

Mediocre ideas enjoy copying what happens to be working right this minute

Bigger ideas leapfrog the mediocre ones

Ideas don't need a passport, and often cross borders (of all kinds) with impunity

An idea must come from somewhere, because if it merely stays where it is and doesn't join us here, it's hidden. And hidden ideas don't ship, have no influence, no intersection with the market. They die, alone.

2010 Portfolio Show

2010-11-22T15:19:00.000-05:00

New book by A+GD students

2010-10-06T09:18:00.005-04:00

Students in Jenna MacFarlane's Typography 2 course wrote, designed and published a book about the future of design in Mecklenburg County. Artwork was supplied by students in classes taught by Jane McBee.

You can view the online version here: http://issuu.com/kenncompton/docs/culvtivating_a_chronicle_ii

Achieving the Dream

2010-10-06T08:58:00.005-04:00

From the Richard Zollinger, VP of Learning at CPCC:

Congratulations to Kenn Compton and Jenna MacFarlane, instructors in the Advertising and Graphic Design Program, for integrating Achieving the Dream (ATD) into a class project. Students in the GRD242 classes were asked to work collaboratively in a team and design a creative solution to encourage CPCC students to “finish what they start.”

Watch this short film about Paul Rand

2010-10-04T09:03:00.001-04:00

Paul Rand Retrospective from Jeremy Cox on Vimeo.

Name that Logo

2010-10-01T11:08:00.002-04:00

"Major brands have become so recognizable, so ingrained in our minds, that simply covering them up won't do the trick. Here, we present a slew of logos that have been tampered with: color altered, text removed, shapes magnified--a logo generally obscured and totally out of context. See how many you can still recognize, even after being un-logo-fied."

via FastCompany

READING LIST

2010-09-30T10:00:00.002-04:00

Interesting stuff to read from here and there:

Positive Posters

Good Stories make Good Brands

How graphic design can prevent the spread of HIV

The design challenge of the decade

The Future of Books

2010-09-26T14:24:00.001-04:00

The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

Advice for Design Students

2010-09-13T10:17:00.001-04:00

Advice For Design Students from UnBeige on Vimeo.

This Could be You!

2010-05-24T09:22:00.001-04:00

Nick L and his T-Shirt of Wisdom

2010-04-17T17:13:00.003-04:00

Get one of your very own. Ask me how.

You, Too, Could be a Commercial Artist

2010-02-07T08:31:00.003-05:00

How do you define success?

2010-02-06T21:32:00.002-05:00

Re-nourish | Design Sustainably

2010-01-28T21:07:00.000-05:00

Re-nourish is dedicated to helping the graphic design community grow into a more sustainable industry. Whatever your experience level, you can use our tools and information to expand your knowledge and build a more sustainable practice.

Check it out at www.re-nourish.com

Four Things Leaned about Designers

2010-01-28T13:32:00.001-05:00

This essay is from AIGA.org, and written by Warren Berger.

For the last two years, I’ve been doing to designers what they usually do unto others. Which is to say, I’ve been observing and studying them, asking a lot of questions and trying to discern patterns. Here are a few things I’ve learned along the way.

1. Designers question

To be more specific, they ask what Bruce Mau calls “the stupid questions”—the kind that are actually profound, but can make you look stupid because they address fundamental issues. When designers ask the powers that be, “Why are you doing things this way?” or “What are we really trying to accomplish here?” or “Does it have to have four wheels?” it can seem as if they’re bogging down the business meeting. But they are actually cracking open the door to real innovation and progress.

It’s a gift designers have that I’m not sure they fully appreciate: the ability to recognize that the present reality is a temporary and changeable condition. (To the rest of us, reality looks like reality, something to be accepted with a shrug.) I think all of this is captured nicely in the joke some designers tell about themselves. How many designers does it take to change a light bulb? Answer: Does it have to be a light bulb?

In these times, with so much in need of reinvention, we need people who know how to ask stupid questions. And who are actually willing to ask them—because it does take a certain amount of courage to question the fundamentals. Or, to put it in the pithy words of George Lois, “You gotta have guts to be the person in the room who’s asking ‘why’ while everybody else is nodding their heads.”

2. Designers connect

When I first began visiting designers’ studios and workshops, I noticed a lot of hoarding going on: five-year-old magazines, sketches on the wall from long-ago projects, lateral drawers filled with hunks of plastic and scraps of leftover cloth. I have relatives who engage in this kind of behavior for no good reason, but designers actually have a reason: They are master “recombinators.” They can take a bit of this and a piece of that to form something completely new.

Designers can do this because—as you probably know, and as RISD professor Charlie Cannon informed me—they are born and trained to synthesize, to take existing elements or ideas and bring them together in creative and coherent ways. The beauty of this, from the standpoint of anyone who happens to be involved in creative endeavors of any kind, is that it shows you don’t always have to invent entirely from scratch. To quote the designer John Thackara (who coined the wonderful term “smart recombinations”), most of us who are out there trying to create or innovate “are needlessly constrained by the myth that everything [we] do has to be a unique and creative act.” But the good news is, somebody already invented the wheel—all the rest of us need do is design new ways to combine it with other stuff that already exists. (Example: Put wheels on an alarm clock, as designer Gauri Nanda did, and you’ve created the Clocky—guaranteed to rouse you in the morning because you must chase after it to turn off the alarm.)

3. Designers commit

When it comes to ideas, most of us humans are all talk. But something I learned about designers is that they very quickly give form to their ideas. Ask a designer about a notion he/she has and immediately that designer starts sketching it out for you on any scrap of paper that’s handy. At that point the idea exists, even if only on a napkin. Whatever form a rough prototype may take—a carved piece of foam rubber, a cut-and-paste collage or a digital mock-up—it represents a level of commitment that most people aren’t willing or able to make when it comes to bringing a young idea into the world. Here again, the designer is showing guts—because when you commit to an idea early, sharing it while it’s still tender and imperfect, you open yourself up to criticism. You hand people something that is tangible enough to be torn apart.

But you also give them something to pass around, and to build upon, and rally around. The designer Brian Collins has a wonderful phrase he uses: “Design is hope made visible.” Designers can show us a better future, can present us with all kinds of new possibilities so that we can decide: Is this what we want? Before any of that can happen, though, the designer must first commit—by taking what is just a faint glimmer in the mind’s eye and giving it shape and life.

4. Designers care

This is not always a good thing, and can, in fact, be annoying. Designers obsess so much about their work that it’s a wonder they ever let any finished project out the door. And they’re just as tough on everyone else’s work. As I discovered, if you let designers read what you’ve written about them in advance, they will try to finesse every word. They can’t help but notice all the imperfections in the world around them, even when they ought to have other things on their minds. (Once, when Michael Graves was in the midst of a medical crisis, he reportedly said from his hospital gurney, “I don’t want to die here—it’s too ugly!”)

But if it’s true that designers sometimes care about things that don’t matter, it’s also true they care about things that do: sustainability, homeless shelters, better hospital rooms, better voting ballots, mortgages that can be understood, prisons that actually might be livable, social services that actually might work. Designers are tackling all of these challenges and more, and they’re not doing it for the money—because the money is in making the next iPhone. They’re doing it, I think, because they can’t help noticing that things around them are more imperfect than ever these days. And because they can’t stop themselves from stupidly asking, “Why?” and “What if?”

Innovation Principles from metacool

2010-01-02T08:39:00.003-05:00

1: Experience the world instead of talking about experiencing the world
2: See and hear with the mind of a child
3: Always ask: "How do we want people to feel after they experience this?"
4: Prototype as if you are right. Listen as if you are wrong.
5: Anything can be prototyped. You can prototype with anything.
6: Live life at the intersection
7: Develop a taste for the many flavors of innovation
8: Most new ideas aren't
9: Killing good ideas is a good idea
10: Baby steps often lead to big leaps
11: Everyone needs time to innovate
12: Instead of managing, try cultivating
13: Do everything right, and you'll still fail
14: Failure sucks, but instructs
15: Celebrate errors of commission. Stamp out errors of omission.
16: Grok the gestalt of teams
17. It's not the years, it's the mileage

Cool Stuff

2010-01-02T08:14:00.004-05:00

Interesting, inspiring and other cool stuff that I have found while looking for something else:

Thirty Conversations on Design

Fellisimo's 500 Colored Pencils

Design Altruism Project

Tips for Better Writing from the OED

Free Drawing Books

7 New Year's Resolutions for A+GD Students

2009-12-31T09:42:00.005-05:00

Each new year, and new semester, is a symbolic opportunity to start fresh, to begin again. Here are 7 resolutions that you should consider making as we begin the Spring 2010 semester.

Think. Design. Repeat.
Great design is about solving problems, not making things pretty. Take time to investigate, ponder and evaluate a lot of possibilities before you jump to a design solution.

Be courageous.
Don't just think outside the box--reinvent the box!

Believe in your ideas.
But, be willing to discard them when a better idea comes along.

Build your portfolio everyday.
Always do work that requires no apologies.

Learn to be a learner.
The classroom is a great place to start, but the world is too big to know in a few semesters.

Be responsible for your own success.
Your instructors are here to help, but your success is largely dependent on what you invest in it.

Get in involved.
Do something else. Volunteer in the community, join AIGA, tutor ESL students. Find a place to practice your leadership skills.

See you in January!

A+GD Presentation to County Commission

2009-12-16T07:40:00.008-05:00

During the Fall 2009 semester, two classes from Advertising + Graphic Design collaborated on a project about the brand identity for Mecklenburg County. The project involved an investigation into the existing identity system and an exploration of possible solutions. Last night, two students (Becky Kobsik and Mike Calitri) from those classes, accompanied by their instructors (Jenna MacFarlane and Dimeji Onawafu), presented a book to the Mecklenburg County commissioners, bringing closure to the project.

The book features graphic explorations of a hypothetical new brand identity for the county departments, based upon the official county seal. Students also provided essays about what it means to them to be a Mecklenburg County resident. As part of their research, students interviewed each commissioner to get their impressions of what made Mecklenburg County special.

The commissioners response was very enthusiastic.

Comments included:

"an amazing piece of work"

"terrific"

"A+"

Several of the commissioners were also very complimentary of CPCC and the college's efforts in workforce training.

One commissioner remarked that the students had done something that no one else had done that night--bring bipartisanship to the room.

Afterward, we were able to meet Mr. Harvey Boyd, a CPCC graduate from the 60s, and the designer of the Official Seal of Mecklenburg County. The students presented him with a copy of the book, since his work formed the foundation for their project. (He is also the designer of the Official Seal of CPCC, which can be seen on exterior campus signage.) Mr. Boyd has had a long and storied career as one the few African-Americans in the advertising field during the 60s and 70s. We plan to invite him to speak to a larger group of design students during the Spring 2010 semester.

Only a small quantity of the books were printed, using program self-supporting funds. Belk Printing and Xpedx Paper also helped make this possible through donations of goods and price reductions. As we left City Hall last night, a couple of citizens who saw the presentation asked where they could purchase copies. The book may have been seen on tv, but it is not available in stores.

2009-11-18T15:38:00.004-05:00

A+GD student project makes the evening news

2009-11-05T17:24:00.001-05:00

Check it out here: http://bit.ly/296WBz

A+GD Students Taking it to the Streets

2009-11-02T19:36:00.008-05:00

Central Piedmont Community College's (CPCC) Advertising + Graphic Design students will stage an awareness campaign for Samaritan House on the southwest corner of Trade and Tryon Streets November 2 -4 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. The theme of this campaign is "the streets are no place for hospital beds." Through the campaign, the students, who are in Deanna Campbell's Advertising Copywriting class, will create a 'homeless camp' to illustrate where a homeless citizen might take shelter while trying to heal from cancer surgery, brain trauma injuries, broken bones, etc. The event is timed to coincide with the Samaritan House's annual campaign fund drive, as the organization prepares to celebrate its 5th anniversary of serving the Charlotte community.

Samaritan House is a not-for-profit, interfaith recuperative care place for people who are homeless and in need a short term care following a hospital or emergency room stay. Samaritan House takes guest referrals from Charlotte-Mecklenburg hospitals, and provides its services at no cost to the guest. Samaritan House does not take insurance money, or funding from local, state or federal agencies. Samaritan House survives on recurring donations from individuals, faith-based organizations and charitable grants.

Check it out on FaceBook here!

CPCC AIGA Student Group

2009-11-02T08:53:00.002-05:00

23 students in A+GD have come together to organize the area's first AIGA Student Group. Congratulations to their leaders: Aaron, Kat, Andrea and Robin. Thanks for all their support to CPCC Student Life, especially Amanda and Alyssa, and to AIGA Charlotte, for all of their assistance.

Watch this space. Good things will be coming from this new student group.

Good designers are open minded and comfortable with ambiguity

2009-10-22T11:24:00.002-04:00

Read all about it here!

Take your mom to this movie.

2009-10-17T21:35:00.005-04:00

It will go a long way towards explaining what business you're in.

How to Get a Job in Advertising (a good job)

2009-10-17T16:42:00.002-04:00

What is the most important thing for advertising students?

"It’s passion, Scott. The one thing I can’t teach.

"We (the program) work them to the bone to see if they really want it, and my faculty and myself have a passion to share every day in class – but every year I have kids with A+ averages come into this program and I feel for them, because if they don’t breath and sleep advertising all the A’s in the world won’t save them.

"I hope that doesn’t sound like there is nothing to teach. This is after all a professional business and a major force in economic culture, but at the end of the day when all the teaching is done – passion is the only factor that really creates the success stories." (my emphasis)

Read the entire article by Scott Goodson here!

10 Essentials Every Design Student Should Know

2009-10-12T13:19:00.001-04:00

"Design students think a lot. They want to know exactly what the future has in store, particularly during this time of economic uncertainty. They want to understand whether there is anything consequential – an essential truth – that will insure their place in design’s future. So, a year ago, before the bottom fell out of the financial markets, we set out to identify 100 essential concepts that design students could agree were important. We surveyed graduate and undergraduate design students, primarily from the MFA Designer as Author program at School of Visual Arts, to determine what issues are foremost on their minds and narrowed them down to the following top ten essentials."

Read all about it at Print Magazine here!

A+GD Alum Nabbed by Police

2009-10-11T10:30:00.006-04:00

Marlon Witherspoon, one of our alums, was featured in an article about the Police Activities League, "the Police Activities League (PAL), a local non-profit organization that enriches lives through academics and athletics," in the August 25, 2009 edition of the Charlotte Observer. In case you missed it, here are the good parts:

The new look of the organization will also be unveiled during the event with an updated logo and website. Marlon Witherspoon, designer of the logo and a guest speaker at the event, has a special connection to the organization - he was a participant in the PAL program.

"When we learned of Marlon's involvement as a PAL student and his successes now as an adult, it was testament to the goals PAL instills in its participants." said Hood. "We are very proud to have him help dedicate this new beginning for our organization."

The Changing Concept of Design

2009-10-09T11:59:00.006-04:00

"Design has become the engine of innovation, giving mere ideas shape and substance. It has evolved into the highest form of communication, turning ideas into solutions." -- Andrian Kreye

Read all about it here: http://designmind.frogdesign.com

A+GD Instructor Gallery Show Opens

2009-10-09T09:03:00.005-04:00

Dimeji Onawafu, adjunct instructor and owner of CasaJulie Design, has a show of his paintings at Charlottes' Red Sky Gallery. The show runs from October 9 through November 11, 2009. Be sure and check it out.

CPCC AIGA Student Group

2009-10-09T08:54:00.003-04:00

The college's first AIGA student group is up and running. The group has two meetings on every other Wednesday, on the Harper Campus.

> the Day Group meets from 1:30 to 2:20pm in room 207

> the Evening Group meets from 5pm to 5:50pm in room 301

Future events include an exhibition of student work, a studio tour organized by AIGA Charlotte, and guest speakers from the industry.

If you want to join, please see Mr. C, the faculty advisor for the group.

Empathy and Design

2009-07-01T18:28:00.002-04:00

"Design almost always entails looking; moreover it demands that the designer actually see what he or she is looking at. In other words, looking, as a design activity, means noticing, which, among human beings, tends to imply caring. It is a risky business, possibly leading to what a politician recently identified as “a slippery slope”: empathy."

--Ralph Caplan, in an article in AIGA Voice, The Empathetic Fallacy

A+GD Has a Friend in High Places!

2009-07-01T18:09:00.002-04:00

Debbie Millman is the new president of AIGA, the professional organization for designers. At last year's portfolio show, she was one of our guest judges and the featured keynote speaker of the evening.

This fall, we are starting CPCC's first student chapter of AIGA. More details to come.

Design Thinking for Innovation

2009-07-01T14:20:00.004-04:00

From an interview with Tom Kelley, IDEO:

"Part of a successful innovation is that people understand what something is and how it works. As a starting threshold, people must understand what you are offering and how to use it."

Read all about it here!

Tip o' the hat to InnovationConnection.com.

Marian Bantjes on Inspiration

2009-07-01T10:22:00.001-04:00

"Inspiration is that unexpected moment of discovery when the mind leaps to a new place triggered by something interesting. That something interesting can be a thing you’ve read, or seen on the street, or in a book or gallery, or a piece of music, or something really great or something really awful. For me it is often unrelated to my work and is completely unpredictable.

"Influence is when you see something you like, usually work that is related to the work you do, and you absorb whatever it is you like about it and either consciously or subconsciously emulate it or somehow incorporate something of it into your own work.

"Reference material is when you look at something specific and try to make something like that."

Excerpted from Marian Bantjes: Student Questions

CROP Hunger Walk 2009

2009-06-18T10:46:00.002-04:00

Congratulations to Becky Kobsik! Her design was chosen for the 2009 Charlotte CROP Hunger Walk T-shirt. Charlotte has the largest CROP Walk on the planet and Becky's design will be seen on t-shirts worn by several thousand walkers.

Follow A+GD on Facebook

2009-06-18T10:28:00.002-04:00

Keep up with the latest news for A+GD students and alumni on our Facebook Group page!

Typekit Offers a New Approach to Fonts on the Web

2009-06-07T17:39:00.003-04:00

The Internet was abuzz today with the news of Typekit, an upcoming product from user experience guru Jeff Veen set to launch this summer.

Basically, Typekit will offer a way for designers to license fonts for use on web pages, which is a big deal because of a CSS feature that is soon to be supported in most major browsers that will allow designers to reference fonts installed on the server and render them as fonts (rather than Flash or images) for users.

In other words, the web is about to get a whole lot more accessible and indexable even while it gets prettier. The problem, says Veen, is that most web fonts aren’t licensed for CSS linking or use on web pages. Even free fonts are generally not licensed for that type of use. That’s where Typekit comes in.

Read all about it here!

How to Be a Graphic Design Student Online

2009-04-29T13:43:00.002-04:00

1. Flickr
2. Blogging
3. Tumblr
4. Twitter
5. Facebook
6. Delicious
7. RSS Reader

Read all about it here!

Tip o' the hat to Noisy Decent Graphics.

Be the Creative Director Sweepstakes

2009-03-31T21:12:00.003-04:00

“Do you have what it takes to be a Creative Director? Find out now for your chance to win a Creative Director's Prize Package, including a $50,000 bonus check and an iMac computer.”

Check it out: bethecreativedirector.com

The 10000 Year Clock

2009-03-28T21:47:00.002-04:00

“The idea to build a monument scale, multi-millennial, all mechanical clock as an icon to long term thinking came from computer scientist Danny Hillis and was published in the form of an email to friends. Later it was followed up with an essay published in the 01995 Wired magazine scenarios issue. Danny reasoned that by actually building a remote monument, the discussions around long term thinking would be far more focused, and it would lend itself to good storytelling and myth. Two key requirements of anything lasting a long time.”

Read all about it here.

100 Great Resources for Design Inspiration

2009-03-28T21:02:00.001-04:00

Look for design inspiration? Check out this list from Mashable.com!

Graphic Designers: North Carolina

2009-03-26T20:03:00.005-04:00

www.careerinfonet.org

Little Red Riding Hood

2009-03-26T19:45:00.000-04:00

Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

The Legendary Bill Bernbach Shares His Thoughts About Twitter

2009-03-18T18:49:00.002-04:00

“Every few years I pick up the Bill Bernbach Book and re-read quotes from the inspirational founder of Doyle Dane Bernbach. For over 40 years Bill’s ideas have rung true and stayed relevant. In fact, take his exact thoughts, word for word and apply them to questions about Twitter, and they not only make perfect sense, they enlighten us with wisdom. Here then is an imaginary interview with Bill Bernbach. His words are exactly that. His words. Verbatim.”

Read all about it here!

Tip o’ of the hat to Creativity Unbound.

Sheep and Dogs make Art

2009-03-18T17:12:00.001-04:00

Typographic Trees

2009-03-17T08:17:00.003-04:00

Just What is Design Thinking

2009-03-17T08:05:00.002-04:00

“Design thinking deals with wicked problems. Because no single objective can be identified in advance, design thinking is aimed at drawing on and synthesizing a wide range of knowledge and influences rather than at optimizing (Huang; Saffer; Owen). For the same reason, it is viewed as interpretive (Lombardi), holistic and integrative (Lombardi; Owen). Both how the problem is framed and how to evaluate possible solutions must be devised as part of the designing process.”

Read all about it here!

Tip o’ the hat to Fast Company.

Ken Robinson -- Finding Your Element

2009-03-17T08:03:00.001-04:00

Tip o’ the hat to elearningpost.com.

Quick, Henry, the Flit!

2009-03-06T12:53:00.006-05:00

“Before Theodore Seuss Geisel found fame as a children's book author, the primary outlet for his creative efforts was magazines. His first steady job after he left Oxford was as a cartoonist for Judge, a New York City publication. In 1927 one of these cartoons opened the way to a more profitable career, as well as greater public exposure, as an advertising illustrator.”

Read all about it here!

Tip o’ the hat to University of California at San Diego. UC San Diego’s Mandeville Special Collections Library is the main repository in the nation for the original works of Dr. Seuss. The approximately 10,000 items in the Dr. Seuss collection, which includes original drawings, manuscript drafts, books, notebooks, photographs and memorabilia, document the full range of Geisel’s creative achievements, beginning in 1919 in high school and ending with his death in 1991.

Two Elements of a Great Presenter

2009-03-05T16:08:00.002-05:00

“1. Respect (from the audience)

“2. Love (to the audience)

“There are no doubt important evolutionary reasons why this is true, but in my experience, every great presenter earns the respect of the audience (through her appearance, reputation, posture, voice, slides, introduction, etc.) and captures the attention of the audience by sending them love.”

Read all about it here!

Tip o’ the hat to Seth Godin.

Type in the Landscape: CREATE

2009-03-05T09:21:00.002-05:00

Typography I students CREATE big type on the Harper Campus.

Understanding Comics

2009-03-04T16:51:00.001-05:00

Design Thinking

2009-03-01T19:46:00.000-05:00

Did You Know?

2009-03-01T18:01:00.000-05:00

Branding Overload in Your (Clock) Face

2009-03-01T17:00:00.004-05:00

“We’re bombarded with branding. No news there. But how bad is it, really? That’s what design student Tanner Woodford (Arizona State) wanted to figure out. During the course of 24 hours, he meticulously recorded all the brands that flitted past his line of vision. He then took his observations one step further, visualizing the results on a clock face.”

Read All About It Here!

Tip o’ the hat to FastCompany.com.

Coolest Business Card Ever

2009-02-25T21:44:00.002-05:00

Vollis Simpson Whirligigs

2009-02-25T21:32:00.001-05:00

Vollis Simpson's Whirligigs from Pete Bell on Vimeo.

Crowdsourcing

2009-02-25T09:22:00.003-05:00

“For at least a decade, software companies and gaming developers have been out-sourcing tricky programming problems. They don’t use a hand-picked team of experts: they let hundreds, sometimes thousands of geeks compete with one another, to crack just a few lines of code or modify their favourite game (and maybe make some pocket money in the process).

“The design and communication industry has been reacting in different ways to this idea, now known as ‘crowdsourcing’ (courtesy of the Wired journalist Jeff Howe who wrote an interesting book on the phenomenon last year). Some of his examples of success are beguiling – clothing manufacturer Threadless has for most of the noughties been publishing and printing designs submitted by its community. But only the most voted for designs are produced, and every edition sells out. Its ‘crowd’ designs, and chooses its own clothing – the perfectly designed, self-editing, self-selecting marketplace.”

Read all about it here!

Tip o’ the hat to JohnsonBanks.co.uk/.

Creating An “Oasis Of Creativity”

2009-02-25T09:09:00.004-05:00

“John Cleese gave a fabulous presentation last week at the Creativity World Forum 2008. After setting everyone’s mind on the importance of creativity, he introduced his technique of putting creative thinking into practice in daily business life. I really liked it being so straightforward and practical.

“Focus on only two key elements:

Creating boundaries in time (set a clear begin and end time)
Creating boundaries in space (define a clear setting and location)

“By creating clear boundaries in time and space, even if very little every two weeks for example, you can create exactly that environment in which your creative, right brain can come out and play. John called it an “Oasis Of Creativity”. Just imagine: When you start your scheduled 30 minutes of creativity, what would be your first thought? Probably it will be something like “I should have called John” or “I forgot to send that document”. Do not act on this anymore than jotting these points down so you can forget about them for the coming 30 minutes. Relax and let your creative mind come out and wander, don’t steer it. Let the ideas flow, do not judge, take some notes, and outside your oasis of creativity you can then use your logical brain to evaluate and expand the ideas. If you do not see the value of this, just think of the following: doing the same will almost never get you further. Keeping on tackling problems logically will most likely give you the same results over and over again. Create your small oasis of creativity with clear boundaries and just experience for yourself over a couple of weeks if it proves valuable for you.

“Amongst thousands of creativity tips, I believe his idea is quite powerful to introduce some creative thinking in daily business life. I invite everyone to read this great transcript of John’s keynote. A final quote to reflect on… ‘Intelligence increases when you think less!’”

Tip o’ the hat to Open Innovators.

100 Ways to Kill a Concept

2009-02-25T08:44:00.003-05:00

“At some level, every human is involved in the generation of ideas and then the solicitation of those ideas. Most of the time, somewhere along the way, a person’s idea gets changed before their concept transaction is completed.

“Sometimes their concept lives and evolves, but more often it dies. Once a concept is conceived, persuading someone else to buy into that concept usually causes any of the following circumstances to happen (particularly in business, marketing & sales, the arts, science, government, and any entrepreneurial venture) . . .”

Read all about it here!

Tip o’ the hat to Adholes.com.

Milton Glaser at TED

2009-02-23T21:04:00.000-05:00

A poet’s advice to creative people: Let your mind wander

2009-02-23T13:05:00.004-05:00

“What a wonderful thought. ‘Learn to let your mind wander.’ The fact that the sentence needs the word ‘learn’ in it is telling. It implies we don’t yet know how. Or perhaps that with work, meetings, assignments, and screens consuming us, we've forgotten how.”

Read all about it here!

Tip o’ the hat to Creativity Unbound.

Job Hunting Tips

2009-02-23T12:53:00.006-05:00

“Over the last 25 years I’ve hired over 100 writers, art directors, designers and producers, many of them right out of college. Some were simply in the right place at the right time. Others had work that stood head and shoulders above the competition. A few simply impressed me with their raw intelligence and potential. But only Roger had an idea as brilliant, remarkable and unexpected as the answering machine message.

“If you’re graduating this year, in the worst recession of your short life, you’ll need all of the above. So, here are 10 suggestions that might help.”

Read all about it here!

Tip o' the hat to Please Feed the Animals.

Defining Communication Design

2009-02-23T08:36:00.001-05:00

Communication = creation of shared meaning.

Design = a structured way of using creativity to accomplish a strategic result.

So:

Communication design is the practice of creating strategic meaning. And that meaning can be shared through words, images, and experiences.

Read all about it here!

Tip o' the hat to Tiny Gigantic.com.

Calling All Unemployed Adfolk

2009-02-20T09:53:00.004-05:00

Please Feed the Animals is a showcase for all disciplines of advertising talent. Account service, production, traffic, creative, web developers, interactive, media, admin, HR…if you worked in advertising and want to again, Please Feed the Animals is the place for you.

Read all about it at AdAge.com.

Letterboxes

2009-02-20T09:36:00.005-05:00

Children of a young age play with small wooden blocks to learn the alphabet. Letters lead to words that lead into sentences and so on. Our oversized kraft boxes reintroduce the alphabet not as 26 distinct letters, but as the result of combining geometric parts. The 4-inch cubes may be viewed and stacked from any direction, creating unexpected shapes and letterforms.

Read All About It Here!

Tip o' the hat to SwissMiss!

How (Not) to Write Like a Designer

2009-02-18T08:06:00.002-05:00

Like designing, writing can straddle the line between art and craft—half blinding flashes of inspiration and unexplainable moments of brilliance (maybe a little less than half), and half moving words around, making and breaking sentences, typing commas then deleting them.

Read all about it here.

Tip o' the hat to Core77.

Upside Downturn

2009-02-17T20:17:00.005-05:00

Sure, times are tough, but history has shown that recessions can lead to innovation and enlightened ways of thinking. Here, creatives reflect on opportunities to be mined on the tough road ahead. Read all about it here!

Tip o' the hat to Creativity Online.

Sketchbook of Craig Frazer

2009-02-15T15:34:00.003-05:00

Newest Member of the Staff -- Baby Onawafu

2009-02-12T08:46:00.000-05:00

Blogilvy

2009-02-12T08:25:00.003-05:00

Check out BLOGILVY, the blog of random creative inspiration found online by Ogilvy Amsterdam.

« If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative. »

Web Design as a Foreign Language

2009-02-11T20:02:00.005-05:00

“Never before in the history of modern graphic design—at least since Gutenberg—has our common language changed so rapidly and radically, to the point of being downright exclusionary for those of us who have never read (or are incapable of using) a user’s manual. Forget those silly semantic distinctions between commercial art and graphic design that crop up at design conferences—this is where the real divide lives.”—Stephen Heller

Read All About It Here!

Tip o the hat to AIGA Voice.

10 Typography Rules Every Web Designer Should Know

2009-02-09T19:31:00.007-05:00

“When someone visits a website you’ve designed, the odds are that they don’t care much about the colors, images or sounds, they’re immediately looking at the text.

“No matter how many bells and whistles you’ve built into a website, everyone relies on text to accomplish whatever they’re visiting the site to do.

“That alone should make typography, the art of arranging type, a priority for any web designer.

"In this article we take a look at 10 easy rules to keep in mind when designing your next web project.”

Read All About It Here!

Tip o' the hat to WebDesignerDepot.com

Graphic design helped advertising become the texture of everyday life

2009-02-09T10:04:00.011-05:00

“Advertising soaks into everything. It has become the texture of contemporary life. Graphic design has played a central part in this process. But does it have a viable role of its own?”

Read All About It Here!

Tip o' the hat to Eye Magazine.

Digital Thinking at Rhode Island School of Design

2009-02-09T10:00:00.006-05:00

“As the new president of the Rhode Island School of Design, John Maeda brings digital artistry -- and an obsession with business -- to an ultra-analog world.”

Read All About It Here!

Tip of the Hat to Fast Company

Visual and Creative Thinking

2009-02-08T19:03:00.006-05:00

What We Learned From Peter Pan and Willy Wonka.

A Designer Takes on His Biggest Challenge Ever

2009-02-08T18:50:00.006-05:00

“We moved from thinking of ourselves as designers to thinking of ourselves as design thinkers. We have a methodology that enables us to come up with a solution that nobody has before.” -- David Kelley

Read All About It.

Tip o' the hat to Fast Company.

Do You Recognize These 10 Mental Blocks to Creative Thinking?

2009-02-06T10:59:00.009-05:00

“Whether you're trying to solve a tough problem, start a business, get attention for the business or write an interesting article, creative thinking is crucial. The process boils down to changing your perspective and seeing things differently than you currently do.”

Read All About It Here!

Tip o’ the hat to CopyBlogger.com.

Thelonius Monk's Creative Advice

2009-02-04T19:54:00.004-05:00

Tip o' the hat to: Eric Alba

Portfolio Enhancing Opportunities

2009-02-04T12:14:00.004-05:00

There are a number of opportunities for you to enhance your portfolio this semester, working with outside companies and non-profits on Real Work. If you're interested in knowing what's available, please contact Mister Compton. kenn.compton {at} cpcc.edu.

What, Me Worry?

2009-02-04T09:48:00.006-05:00

“Last week, Mad magazine announced that it is the latest victim of the economic and print culture meltdown. Starting with the April issue, Mad will publish only four times a year.”

Read all about it here!

Tip o’ the hat to the Daily Heller.

Quotes on Design

2009-02-04T08:03:00.005-05:00

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it.”—Jim Jarmusch

Tip o' the Hat to Quotes on Design.

Crowdsourcing Design

2009-02-02T18:11:00.007-05:00

“Crowdsourcing is the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.” -- Jeff Howe

Crowdsourcing can either be the death of professional design, or a new way of providing freelance services. Tell me what you think.

Read All About It Here!

2009 Charlotte Student ADDY® Competition - Deadline Extended to February 19th!

2009-02-02T11:45:00.004-05:00

Attention All Students

Do you want to compete in a creative awards program to possibly receive local, regional and national recognition for your projects? Looking for an opportunity to boost your resume? Do you want to show off your talents and get your work in front of prospective employers? Yes? We have the perfect opportunity for you!
This local competition is the first step in a 3-tier national competition sponsored by the American Advertising Federation. It is the only creative awards program administered by the advertising industry for the industry.

READ ALL ABOUT IT HERE!

The Journal of Urban Typography

2009-01-31T21:41:00.002-05:00

5 Directions for Living on Purpose

2009-01-26T12:46:00.004-05:00

Read all about it!

Tip o' the Hat to "on good days it all works so well."

2009-01-24T12:29:00.002-05:00

Ellen Ward Strikes Again!

2009-01-24T12:18:00.003-05:00

Shigeo Fukuda, Graphic Designer, Dies at 76

2009-01-20T09:31:00.003-05:00

"Mr. Fukuda was expert at communicating messages using minimal graphic means."

Read Steven Heller's New York Times tribute here.

2009-01-09T22:58:00.001-05:00

Designed Unplugged: For students, recent graduates and job seekers

2009-01-08T11:24:00.007-05:00

January 29, 2009 06:30 PM - 09:00 PM @ Johnson C. Smith University

Are you about to graduate and wondering what exactly do employers want? Are you a recent graduate looking to jump into the workforce? Or does the recession have you seeking a new job? Then sign up today to hear from our panel of Design Unplugged experts, including creative directors, top designers, and agency and business owners, as they share their tips and thoughts on job hunting, resume writing, portfolios, interview etiquette, and criteria they look for in a potential employee.

Free for AIGA Students & Members | Student Non-Members $5.00 | Non-Members $10.00

Keep Your Design Job Right Now

2009-01-02T16:31:00.002-05:00

From an article from Greg Huntoon:

Seven “good employee” things that you can easily do to get your employers leaning towards keeping you (these apply to every single employee on Planet Earth, by the way…not just designers):

Devour tasks on your plate. Don’t let things assigned to you linger or sit uncompleted.
Show up on-time, or early, in fact. I don’t care what your boss says about being okay with you coming in sometime between 9-10am, when you show up at 8.45am consistently, everyone notices.
I don’t know whether I’d say stay late, but don’t be the douchebag packing up at 5.54pm everyday in anticipation of the 6pm bell. (I say this, and I leave work everyday at 4.30pm to go pick up my kids…but let’s just say I work more hours than you, so no shit-talking that point.)
Do your homework and come to brainstorm discussions prepared. If you’re the one delivering the ideas your clients are picking (or at least the ones your bosses are presenting each week), they’ll have a hard time justifying your dismissal.
Don’t take long lunches for a little while. Try to keep to the hour (or other time) allotted.
Try to minimize the amount of appointments you make during the day, when you can. If you can’t, ALWAYS ask for the first appt of the day, or the last, and then compensate on the other end (i.e., 8am appt, arrive @ work at 10.30am, work until 6.45pm instead of leaving at 6pm).
When your bosses are cruising the office, minimize your blog, feed readers, Twitter apps, and NSFW content. I know this seems simple, but you’d be amazed how often it happens.
Oh yeah, don’t EVER be caught working on a freelance client’s project at your 9-to-5. Nothing will get you scraped quicker.

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

The Beckoning of Lovely

2009-01-02T12:32:00.000-05:00

Logo Trends of 2008

2008-12-30T17:48:00.002-05:00

"This year, however, it seems as though there has been a change in the nature of trends themselves. Instead of a hub-to-spoke relationship in which trends fan out from a central source, prevailing tendencies in logo design now seem to send out long underground runners that poke through the dirt in unrelated, unexpected places, anywhere in the world. It's harder and harder to trace the rhizomatous spread of ideas anymore - which truly is a good thing."

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Portfolio Show Photos

2008-12-27T13:23:00.003-05:00

Citizen Designer project winners and judges. More photos available HERE.

Local Boy Makes Good

2008-12-16T08:56:00.006-05:00

Dustin Harbin, our new Comics instructor, was featured on Drawn yesterday. Check out more of his work here, here and quite possibly, here.

And don't forget to sign up for the comics class he'll be teaching starting January 10! Info here.

MILLMAN WOWS!

2008-12-11T15:40:00.004-05:00

THE SECOND ANNUAL EVENING WITHOUT DAVID CARSON, FEATURING DEBBIE MILLMAN was a rousing success for everyone involved. The crowd was estimated to be around 125 and included not only students and their families, but also members of the local professional organizations, including AIGA and American Advertising Federation. There were 13 student portfolios and 14 Citizen Designer projects on display. Our guest speaker gave an inspiring/empowering speech that people are still talking about.

The evening would not have been possible without the generous support of Student Life/Service Learning who paid for the rental of the space and for the food. GenerationEngage secured a $1000 grant from the Goodrich Corp to help offset costs of bringing Ms Millman from NYC. And the Art department provided the gallery space for us.

Five students received design awards for their work on the Citizen Designer project. We also presented the Tom Pfahlert scholarship for Spring 2009.

See photos of the event!