twitter.com redesign

Twitter.com launches a new, less cartoony interface today.

The question on some people’s mind has to be…

Hipster dogs.

Because I so desperately owe this blog a post and because this dog reminds me a bit of my own little white fluffkin.

Is your design work a suitable ambassador of our time?

On a certain day during some month of some year in the 1950’s, an ad guy went to work. Let’s call him Phil. It was a day like any other for Phil, and on this day he was to design a poster for a client. No doubt he put the same love and attention into this poster as he had the 30 before it, but what he didn’t realize is that this particular poster had a slightly more remarkable future in store for it. It would soon be sealed into a dusty room in the London Underground and would be completely forgotten. This is a better fate than I imagine for most of my work.

As designers, we recognize our art is not destined for galleries. We know what we do has worth, but we wouldn’t be surprised at all to see our most beautiful and effective piece of work casually abandoned and/or stomped to illegibility on a sidewalk somewhere. Eventually, all our work ends up a rotting pile of pulp in a landfill somewhere, or is erased out of existence entirely (in this age of digital design). This is just how things work. Right?

While renovating the Notting Hill gate tube station, workers came across several incredible mid-century posters, still hanging on the walls. Apparently, the posters had been sealed away for years as a result of the lift closing and being replaced by escalators. What we’re left with are some beautiful, albeit grimy, mid to late 1950′s posters! Mike Ashworth, the Design and Heritage Manager for London Underground has more images on his Flickr account.

So, Phil’s poster’s life wasn’t quite over yet! It was found accidentally some 60 years later! And despite the fact that there’s no talk (anywhere I’ve read) of moving these posters to a museum, they have once again left a footprint on our culture. They emerged from the dark to inspire! Phil’s poster that he thought might have a shelf life of a couple months got a second shot to affect and inspire!

If we ever hope to be effective designers, our work should stand the test of time. These posters are clearly from a very recognizable period of graphic design history, but that doesn’t make them any less beautiful or important. They are now ambassadors of a time period – proof that amazing things were happening and that maybe things weren’t so different then, after all. They are relics. Artifacts.

Are you proud of the work you’re putting out today? Would you be ashamed to have that last project you completed plastered all over the Snooglenet (what I imagine The Internet will be called in the year 2070)? Is it a suitable future artifact of what our culture is capable of? If not, maybe it’s time to rethink some of your philosophies. We all make design to make money, and that’s okay. The question to ask yourself is whether the work you’re creating is perpetuating good design practices and, at the end of the day, our industry’s reputation and success. The work you do day in and day out effects the rest of us in very real ways. This isn’t a responsibility to take lightly.

So, do me a solid, okay? Be a strong ambassador of OUR time period in design. Go out there and do incredible things.

When did Social Media become Socially Acceptable?

Social media. It started out as a buzzword. Now it seems as though it has permeated every facet of our culture. Anyone with an internet connection has a voice through blogs, message boards and sites like Twitter and Facebook. Even celebrities have gotten onboard, with almost all of them creating Twitter accounts in the past year, each amassing thousands or even millions of followers. When I last visited my grandparents in Indiana, my grandfather asked me if I was on Facebook yet.

My question is: WHEN DID SOCIAL MEDIA BECOME SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE? I’ve been using the internet socially for as long as it has been available to me (the early to mid 90’s). My parents, had they known, would have been as horrified as most Americans to know that their teen was going into chat rooms, using instant messaging programs and a “regular” at several online message board communities. They constantly warned me against giving out any of my information over the internet – even my first name.

They were scared shitless. And why shouldn’t they have been? All the mainstream media had to say about any of these sorts of online activities was negative. So-And-So talked to a guy online and the next thing you know, SHE’S DEAD. What’s-His-Name ruined his life and ended up in jail because of friends he’d met online who taught him how to build a pipe bomb.

Being social online was not only seen as incredibly dangerous, it was also an activity for the socially inept. Why was I sending my buddies an instant message rather than picking up the phone and calling them?

Most of these fears seem to have gone the way of the buffalo. Today’s internet users are a social bunch, unconcerned with the highly personal information they’re putting out there for anyone who cares enough to look. Twitter and Facebook users keep their followers up-to-date on a moment-by-moment basis with exactly where they are, who they’re with and what they’re doing. Add-on Twitter applications like Foursquare actually pinpoint user’s exact locations, giving thieves enough information to effectively rob your ass blind before you have time to get home.

What changed in the public’s perceptions of these technologies? Perhaps the success and security of e-commerce sites like Amazon has helped to put people’s minds at ease. Perhaps everyone has wised up and finally understands the enormous potential of online communication. Perhaps our news outlets have found way scarier shit to freak us out with on a nightly basis. Perhaps blonde bowl-cut tweens like Justin Bieber putting up some videos on YouTube and landing multi-million dollar record contracts has helped.

Whatever the cause, and for better or worse, the public’s perception of social media has changed. It’s now viewed as an entrepreneurial gold mine and any business not utilizing a regimented social media effort is seen as backwards and incapable of seeing “the big picture.” So called social media “experts” are springing up everywhere, with the only real requirement being that they know how to create and edit a social media account. Businesses are opting not to design a website, citing their social media accounts as “good enough.”

Social media on a mainstream level seems to be here to stay. It is an essential no-brainer element of any larger marketing effort. However, it should be viewed as just that: one element of an overall larger and comprehensive marketing strategy. Treating social media as anything more than a supplemental, albeit beneficial, part of your marketing is like delivering a partial message – an incomplete thought.

Incomplete thoughts…are…confusing to…your……..

Dog Dive Creative Has Moved.

Austin, Texas. That’s where I live now. Making the move was a decision I made some six or seven years ago while still in college. After college graduation, I moved back to Chicagoland. At the time, my biggest concentration was music. Economically and geographically, my hometown would be a great place to call home base and be in a band…or so I thought. I actually found myself an unhappy musician turning into an ecstatic graphic designer – but one who wanted to move.

Austin is great place to live. It’s a great place to own a business. And, from what I hear, it’s a great place to be in a band. As a person who likes to own a business, play in bands, and, above all, LIVE, it seems like a good fit. I’ve been working some pretty long days. But, I’ve also found the time to meet tons of new and amazing people, get back into songwriting, and I’ve spent some lovely days outside…in Winter.

…in WINTER?

Nothing is better than being able to spend time outside. And doing so in February wearing less than a puffy coat, snowpants and a jewelry thief mask is almost unheard of in the Midwest. It hasn’t been all wonderful, though. The weather has actually been very Chicago-esque on a more than comforting amount of occasions. From what I hear, though, it has been unseasonably cold this year. I will hope for better luck next year.

I’ve met a bunch of really cool and talented design types through AIGA Austin. It’s pretty amazing to live in a place that can foster as much creativity as Austin does. It seems to be bursting at the seams and I’m super stoked to be a part of it.

How about that guy flying his plane into the IRS building here today? Wow, right? I hope that last IRS employee is just playing hooky to take a Tex Mex cooking class, or something…

patton trash comics

I stumbled upon a little gem from my past the other day – a stack of the comic books I used to make in high school. PATTON TRASH COMICS. I guess you could say that these little photocopied cut-and-paste ‘zines represent some of my earliest attempts at graphic design. The graphic design industry had certainly moved to the computer by the time my first issue was released in 1998. I used what I had at my disposal, which ended up being some pencils, fine tip Sharpies, scissors, computer paper and any sort of “found” media I deemed interesting enough to make the cut. Larger blocks of copy were set in Microsoft Paint, printed out and pasted into the layout. I had used Photoshop and Illustrator to a very limited extent at this point through my high school’s art program. I probably would have used them on Patton Trash if I’d had them at home.

Here is what a 16 year old Dan Patton had to say in the introduction paragraph to Patton Trash’s debut issue:

“Patton Trash is a comic book done ‘zine style.’ When I say ‘zine style,’ I’m referring to the fact that it is a cheap as possible Xeroxed collection of a person’s ideas usually sold at a punk show.”

The comics were really my first delve into the fundamentals of layout and communication design in general. Concerns like composition and color theory had been with me as long as I’d been trying to create visual art (since before I can remember). Layout is a different beast all together, though. I’d never heard the terms “hierarchy” as applied to design theory. I thought of the “creative process” as something that must be a magical and personal journey, and that an “identity” probably had something to do with the social circle you ran in. The technical skills shown in these comics speak to this lack of understanding (is that…no…COMIC SANS?). Looking back, though, I can’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia and a bit of the excitement I felt upon each issue’s release. It was comparable to the flutter I feel in my stomach upon the launching of a new brand for a client today!

Lately I’ve been thinking more and more about how great it would be to do a pilot for an adult-oriented animated series (a la Adult Swim). Animation has always been a huge interest of mine. I always thought I might end up working on cartoons for a living. As things worked out, I ended up falling in love with design in college. I’ve never looked back, and as an employed American who still loves his job in today’s economic climate, I can’t regret this decision in the least. Still, I haven’t ruled out the possibility of doing an animated series someday.

Let’s hope that I can come up with a slightly better name than “Patton Trash.”

toronto and the design debacle.

My girlfriend and I visited Toronto over Labor Day Weekend. Whenever I tell people this, most react in the following way: “Toronto? What was going on in Toronto?”

To be clear, nothing was going on in Toronto. Or, we THOUGHT nothing was going on in Toronto. As it turned out, there was the annual Toronto Air Show, the Ex (which is a giant annual carnival), a really cool art show we stumbled upon, Brazil Days Festival, and a bustling China Town (not to mention all the other every day coolness). We were looking for a relatively close city that would be an interesting place to visit. I don’t think we could have gone anywhere in the States more interesting! Toronto, Ontario is a friendly, accessible, diverse and amazing city!

As a graphic designer, Toronto seems like a place that truly values its design. In general, if you’re an established company or storefront, you’ve got a great brand that was clearly created by an advertising professional. In the Midwestern United States, often times the attitude seems to be very much in the line of thinking, “Hey, if I can be successful without the expense of design (beyond the business cards I had my printer whip up for me), I’ll do it.” We’ve got well-respected (and amazing!) companies who have been in business for 50 plus years that have never even considered creating a professional, strong and unified image for themselves. The argument could be made that in some cases design just isn’t that important. Though, I have to wonder how much more successful said businesses could have become if they’d only invested that little bit extra to give their great reputations and superior products an aesthetic edge in the marketplace as well.

At Herman Miller, Vice President of Advanced Development, Don Goeman says, “Since the 60’s our company has respected design and has consistently elevated its importance through product solutions, brand identity, architecture, advocacy and our own culture… Our success in the marketplace is dependent on differentiation, and we attribute a good share of this to design, failures too are attributed to design!”

I’d like to point to that quote, jump up and down and scream, “See!? Looky! These big guys get it!” However, I hear just as many frustrating and revealing stories from the front lines of the biggest agencies in the world. Part of a graphic designer’s job must be to communicate the importance of not only graphic design in general, but also of the value and reasoning for individual design decisions. It seems to me that if you’ve got a client that came to you to have some graphic design created, and they don’t have a chip on their shoulder about having been “burnt” in the past by another agency, you should consider counting your blessings and get to work!

At the end of the day, graphic designers are going to perpetually find themselves beating their heads against the wall repeating the words, “What I do has value. What I do has worth.” This is because we will continually run into people who view what we do as mere “styling” and a “fun” occupation (Never trust or pay a man who enjoys his job)! Veer has attempted to combat some of that mentality with amazing shirts that read, “I draw pictures all day.” I’m not going to lie. I’ve wanted one of those shirts for as long as I’ve seen them around. I’m not sure I’d ever wear it in front of a client, though. Maybe it would feel safer in Toronto…

new website. new blog.

new dog dive site

I finally got around to putting up my new site! For now, I’m really enjoying it. I’m hoping to continue these feelings, at least for a while. I find it much harder to design for myself than any other client. It would seem that the opposite should be true, right? After all, giving a graphic designer free reign to make all of the “best” design decisions based only on the limitations or stipulations he or she places on themselves should result in optimal results…at least in the eyes of said graphic designer. Well, that’s never been the case for me. I fear the problem for me (and probably all designers that suffer with this) is that I place too many limitations and stipulations upon myself when working on my own promotions. The easy rut to fall into is the fear that every nook and cranny of MY website’s design must somehow reflect or predict every design that will ever come out of me. Whoa. That’s a lot of responsibility.

I got over it.

Clearly, you’re looking at a new blog too. This is going to be my little space to go on about projects I’m working on, friends’ projects, as well as other neat design and non-design related stuff. I’ll keep you up-to-date on current trends too! For example, I’ll tell you about music I’m listening to (5 years too late), great books I’m reading (55 years too late), and how I’m using the term “Cussed Scalawag” to describe a motorist who clearly just intentionally cut me off while I’m driving on the highway (155 years too late).

At any rate, see you next time.