“Technical equipment enabled me to realise my world of signs”
Sitting in the Museum Fur Gestalt, Zurich, watching footage of pre-eminent typographer Wolfgang Weingart in his archives it was hard not to be moved. A man sits surrounded by his life’s work telling the stories of how each artefact came to life.
I have been developing a short worksheet over the passed year or so for certain jobs. Its purpose is to collate the different influential factors on a rebranding or redesign of content brands – in this instance one thats sits on multiple platforms. It I have been using it in lieu of user research but I think it would sit well with it or before it on many of my more recent jobs. The most recent time I used it I felt I didn’t have a strong enough starting point before I undertook the trust part of the work. We shred the document between the key figures of the job and I quickly got back this great picture of where we needed to go.
Unit Editions, design book publishers, hosted a talk to celebrate the success of their amazing book Manuals 1: Design & Identity Guidelines. The panel consists of Sean Perkins (North), John Lloyd (Ex-Lloyd Northover) and Tony Brook (Spin/Unit). The discussion was hosted by Adrian Shaughnessy.
It opened a tribute to Massimo Vignelli who passed away earlier in the week. In the winter he had written the forward for the book and provided much encouragement and excitement about the project. Some of his quotes set the tone for the evening including:
“Anyone who says that a manual is a creative straight jacket is a moron. Without a manual you will end up speaking a dialect. A good manual allows you to speak a language” Massimo Vignelli
It was very nice to see one of my projects up on stage at the EDO talk this week – Cyclist Magazine App. It was being used an example of how well considered design can create strong templates in HTML products. Or as Ant Miller of Clearleft said in his post: “It’s structure heavy, technically, but this is just a scaffold for some really beautiful design.” Thanks! That is what I want people to think when they see my products. (http://clearleft.com/thinks/pointstopixelsatedo/)
Had the great pleasure of visiting Monotype’s Clerkenwell office last week. We met with Than Hoang, Thomas Elliot and the type designer Toshi Omagari. We discussed numerous subjects including Etext fonts, kerning pairs, and their very clever Typecast system.
Read another wonderful architectural definition today. It was about how architects differentiate between items and space: “A figure is an element or shape placed on a page, canvas, or other background. Ground is the space on the page”
This is the most succinct description of good design I have heard in a while. Rather typically it came from a book on architecture. If you can make something as simple as a logo achieve this or something as complex as a page use it as a principle that helps guide you through it you have really achieved something.
No matter how new the medium we still tell stories using familiar principles, components & references: iOS7 is set in Helvetica Neu designed in 1983, the hierarchy of The Guardian app echoes that of the print, Instagram evokes a passed most of its users didn’t experience, a photo always has a crop and a colour, Responsive design uses movable type – you can’t get more heritage than Gutenberg. More on this at a later date.
ideas/forms/functions 