RegardingDesign

LogoLounge Book 6 Call For Entries!

LogoLounge has become an indispensable research tool, reference guide and online portfolio for the international who's who in the identity design community. It is the site of record, information and inspiration for logo design. From legends to up-and-comers, LogoLounge is the place to be. SUBMISSION DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 15, 2010. Visit www.logolounge.com for entry details!

Book Signing: Jay Calderin of "Form, Fit and Fashion"

Jay Calderin, author of "Form, Fit and Fashion," and his students from the School of Fashion Design in Boston lead a behind-the-scenes look at how a garment comes to life, from fashion sketch to fabric draped on a dress form, during "The Art of Fashion in Action" at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA from 11 am–4 pm on Saturday, Dec. 5. in the Atrium! Calderin is director of creative marketing at the school and founder and executive director of Boston Fashion Week. For more information, visit http://www.pem.org/calendar/event/137-atrium_alive_the_art_of_fashion_with_iris_apfel.

Deadline extended for submission to "1000 More Greetings!"

The submission deadline for publication in the upcoming "1000 More Greetings" has been EXTENDED to November 16! Rockport Publishers is looking for wedding invitations, company announcements, and much more.

For more details, click here!

Deadline extended!

The submission deadline for "Identity Essentials" (to be published by Rockport Publishers in October 2010) has been EXTENDED to November 1, 2009! "Identity Essentials" will celebrate well-executed brand programs as well as really great marks. If selected, your work will appear alongside logos and identity programs by the world's top design firms, including Siegel + Gale, SamataMason, C2, and more.

For more information, visit http://www.identity-essentials.com.

Style is not WHAT you do… It's HOW you do it

Being a creative bloke–doing design and loving fashion, like I do–I run into conversations on "style" almost daily. As is my usual, that got me to thinking on "style" and what it actually means in practice. (I say in practice because dictionary definitions are often too clinical to make any practical sense given the situation, place or time you're in.)

It's my opinion that most view style as an absolute–a hard-lined definitive that allows for no flexibility or movement. We define our clothing as a style. We define our artwork as a style. We even define the foods we eat in terms of a favorite "kind." But I have a thought; Perhaps style is not the end result of what we do but how we go about the act of "doing."

For instance, in my oft talked about and cherished sneaker collection, there are many "styles" of shoes, so to look at them as a collection it would prove difficult to say that I have a style. However, my collection methods do give rise to the idea that I have a process to the actual collecting of said sneakers. I base my acquisitions on factors such as availability to mass audiences, the method and wardrobe with which I will wear them, the venues that I foresee myself rocking them in, and even the seasonal weather in my area. My collection is diverse, but my collection criteria is most certainly my style. For those who have seen me in my various pairs of customs, most have agreed, "Steve, that's totally your style," even given the completely different physical shapes and designs of the shoes. Why? Because it's not what I am rocking, but rather the way I consistently rock it.

From a both a creative and life standpoint, in our attempts to shake definition and be free of labels that hold us to any one thing, we tend to give ourselves definition and attach labels holding us to something else. We escape boxes by jumping into other boxes. If we must apply definition, pay particular attention to how we move more so than the direction we are pointing. How you move may offer flexibility in both journey and destination that a straight, aimed, defined, blocked path may not.

Source: http://rdqlus.blogspot.com/2009/09/style-is-not-what-you-do-its-how-you-do.html

AIGA Attendees: Test your design knowledge at Mano-a-Mano!

Think you know your design trivia? Step up to the challenge at Mano-a-Mano during the 2009 AIGA Design Conference! Designers and authors Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio have planned an exciting event for Thursday evening, and they're looking for 16 hardy participants to join a bracket-style tournament testing their design-history knowledge.

What: Mano-a-Mano, 2009 AIGA Design Conference, Memphis, TN

When: Thursday, October 8, 2009 from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Where: Room L-10

Vit and Gomez-Palacio are authors of Graphic Design, Referenced published by Rockport Publishers, a 400-page compendium on all things graphic design, featuring over 1,000 visuals. All questions will be taken from the authors' book. (All contestants will have a copy of the book in hand and will have limited accessibility to it during the event.)

The first 16 who enter by e-mail at mano-a-mano-aiga@underconsideration.com will be the lucky contestants. But everyone is welcome to come and watch the action and sharpen their own design trivia!

The grand-prize Mano-a-Mano winner will get free registration to Gain: AIGA Business and Design Conference 2010 in New York City!

Click here for more information on this fun-filled event.

Get a Life

Starting your own business can be an all-consuming affair, especially in the first year when you've had so much to do to get up and running and then to keep up with that first influx of work. There were undoubtedly many nights and weekends devoted to your new baby, your business. In the process, there are friends who have gone uncontacted, books left unread, sock drawers left unsorted, and relatives who've had real babies.

Think back to the days when you left work at someone else's office at the end of the day or week. Did you have a hobby? What about that macrame class you've always wanted to take? That girl you met and never got around to asking out? That new coffee shop you still haven't tried? If you have some downtime, your best first step might be to look in the mirror and reacquaint yourself with the person you find there.

How to Keep Your Clients Honest

Always remember the cliché: "This isn't personal; it's business." This isn't offered as an excuse to treat your clients poorly or let them rough you up. It's just that business, even creative business, is conducted more effectively if you keep the relationship very professional. While you may become friendly with your clients, they are not your childhood pals. And even though a friend may become a client, when it comes to the work, treat them like a client first, and a pal only after the paperwork is done and the sign offs are completed.

Here are a few details you should get straight with your client -- and down on paper -- before you begin any project:

• Overall budget for the project
• Billing expectations, as in hourly or project basis
• Payment schedule
• Delivery schedule, as in what phases have to be complete and to whom by when
• Final deliverable -- are you expected to show concepts only or deliver production-quality files?
• Subcontractors -- are you using them, or expected to use your client's? If so, how will they be paid, and by whom, and how much, and is there a markup?

Turn Down the Volume to Turn Up the Pricing

When you become a freelancer, you won't be able to handle massive volumes of work. You can't take on everyone who knocks at your design door or every little project that comes along. The good news is that if you assign proper market value to your creative work, this will allow you to make the revenue you need and not nickel-and-dime yourself to the poorhouse or to freelance death.

If you lower the volume of the work that you are handling, you can pay more attention to the projects at hand and, naturally, the quality of each project goes up. The better the quality of your work, the more you can charge, so you'll have to do fewer projects to make the same amount.

This approach also bolsters the industry at the grassroots level. There is usually plenty of work to go around in any city or town if there's not one shop greedily gobbling up everything in sight, offering bargain basement prices, and turning out low-quality work that drags the value of the entire design industry down.

Take a Spot on the Couch for Some "Identity Therapy"

For a long time, I've had a particular way of getting the info I need from my clients to do the best work possible for them, but it lacked a few key points. So over the years, I've asked and borrowed and tweaked my process until it finally was far more useful than it had ever been. But… it wasn't fully ready yet. Then my good friend, and a client of mine, Jeni Herberger said something that caught my ear. "This was like therapy! You told me some things I didn't like and may not have wanted to hear but I came around. Yeah, it's therapy!"

And so came the name of the process: "Identity Therapy" it shall be!

My "Identity Therapy" process is simply my old trusty creative brief that I turned into a process and an actual product that the client takes active part in, and then ultimately owns and stands behind. Because of client buy-in and ownership, many traditional designer/client potholes are held to a more scientific method and less to the whims of either party, vastly reducing the traditional friction that comes with it all.

The tangible result of the "Identity Therapy" is an actual document of info that becomes the initial "brand story" and culture which many small start-up businesses never get because they come rushing in asking "Can you design me a logo?" Yeah, but I'd rather give you a full identity and brand. So in essence, it's a slimmed-down, candid, straightforward way to get the info I need to do my work, all while giving the client a seat at the table, holding them accountable in a gentle but honest way, and then rewarding them with the brand story that you built together.

Truth is, I developed this process working in corporate life to stop the ages-old tug-of-war over ownership of the creative process between the internal clients (other silos & departments) and the marketing/creative department. I kept refining it over years and years and started to call it "Identity Therapy" because clients really got into it and had a story to tell, so I'd just sit and listen.

Source: http://rdqlus.blogspot.com/2009/07/take-spot-on-rdqlus-couch-for-some.html