Our Creative Director Brian is a massive football fan and an even bigger fan of one of Edinburgh’s sides – so much so that he couldn’t resist this. Below is an iPhone 5 wallpaper for free download for my fellow Hearts fans. Simply view this page on your phone, press and hold on the image and save it to your camera roll. You’ll then be able to set it up as your wallpaper. Note: please switch off the parallax scrolling nonsense for this to look ok.
We’d like to wish all our clients and contacts the very best for the coming year. With the plans that you have in the pipeline we’re as excited as you are about what the next twelve months will bring. Onwards and upwards!
We’ll have some nice new work to showcase too, and if you’re a potential client, wondering if we’re the right design team for you, then please get in touch for a no obligation chat/meeting about how we work and what we could do for your business.
Following many years of driving and recent advances in screen quality, combined with a long night time drive from Scotland to Bath, I wanted to investigate what my ideal dashboard design would be.
In research it seemed clear that it was all still about the dials. Wherever a manufacturer has chosen to move away from this into numbers they always seem rooted to the digital typeface, never choosing to use a clear and legible face. Onboard computers would be relegated to a small section of the display and the driver would be forced to cycle through the options. Surely there was enough real estate there to show all those multiple options such as outside temperature, how much fuel you have left, etc.
What transpired is a typographic solution to a personal grumble. Maybe if I get into car design I can enforce some change from within, but given I don’t know any clients in that sector I’d say the chances are slim. Nevermind, it was fun to think about something totally different for a change and apply my preferences to.
I don’t mention it often on this site, in fact, I’m struggling to think of ever mentioning it, that I am a founding member of LongLunch. LongLunch is me and a few design chums that give up our spare time to arrange lectures (more like informal talks) by prominent graphic designers in either Scotland or London. Over the years we’ve hosted some of the biggest names in design, such as Peter Saville, Tomato, Airside, Bibliothèque and so many more. Full details of all our speakers can be found on the LongLunch website.
There are currently 4 of us as ‘directors’ of LongLunch, myself, Andrew Neely, Rufus Spiller and Andrew Massey. We all used to live and work in Scotland, but now Andy M and myself have moved away but we still get involved to help out the design community where we started our careers.
Our next talk is from the current European Design Agency of the Year, Dutch consultancy LAVA. The talk is on the 5th May at the Glasgow School of Arts Mackintosh lecture theatre and tickets are on sale now via the LongLunch website.
We’re hoping to host them in London later in the year, along with a talk from designer-of-the-moment Michael C. Place (Build), though we’ve yet to agree dates and details with him.
After what seems to have been an eternity we are now voting for our next government. There have been lies, subterfuge and more spin than a launderettes on wash day, but now finally we might get a new kind of politics in Britain. However unless we, the British people, remind those that get elected today that we are watching them then we risk another generation of under performance for our politicians. This is why we have decided to create a simple poster that everyone can print out and display in their windows, on the lamp post in their street or indeed anywhere, that will serve as a constant reminder. A reminder that it’s time we got respect from our “Right Honourables”.
Download our simple PDF and display it with pride: Download it now ››
Rather surprisingly some people still think design won’t add value to their company, that it’s therefore not worth investing in because it doesn’t matter. Not in real terms. Not in the way that a real service might, like a repair guy fixing your machinery or an accountant who saves you on your tax bill, that’s “real” value. It never fails to amaze me that some people think it’s easy, this design thing, and therefore they devalue the profession further. Sure you can buy—or get free—desktop publishing software that will let you create your own design work for your organisation, so why on earth would you want to pay for a designer to do it for you?
Perhaps I can offer a reason to recognise why a designer can be worth their weight in gold; and it’s not about a job we did, in fact I don’t even know who produced the design.
Recently I found myself dealing with something that, unfortunately, many of us will have to do at some point in our lives: deal with an undertaker. Nothing could have been further from my mind than design during this period of immense sadness. We had to choose a coffin, handles, details, plaques and so on—and yes, of course everything had been designed by someone. But even a highly tuned designer didn’t see it and only now, three years later, am I recognising the immense effort these designers made in ensuring that the process was as automated as possible.
You might think describing something as “automated” when it comes to design is a disparaging comment, but it’s a compliment. I can’t thank the designers enough for making the processes easy. You have a myriad of forms to fill out and when you’re emotionally volatile you don’t want a form to break you, yet the design of the paperwork had clearly been considered. It was a process that we were gently guided through to the point that we barely noticed we had dealt with the hardest thing I think I’ve ever had to do.
Compassion.. in a form? Would someone using a free DTP program manage that?
Here at Graphic Clinic we rarely pitch for work, in fact we’ve only done it once. More often than not we get recommended to our clients, we meet, we chat, we get to know each other, and we deliver results driven design that works for them. But there is also a commercial reason for it not pitching for work. We just don’t have the time. Plain and simple, we just don’t have the time to. We’re so busy making sure we give our existing clients a damn good creative service that if we were distracted by pitching speculatively for new work our existing clients might suffer—and we don’t want that. We’re quite sure that they won’t fancy that idea either.
“…But what if…?” I hear you say. Well if you would like to use us to design you a new website, or a brochure, or an exhibition, and you’re running a pitch for that project ask yourself a couple of key questions. Do I like what they’ve done? Do I want to talk to them? and will my pitch really give me ‘value for money’?
One day, shortly after you choose the winning agency from those who tendered, you’ll call them up looking to discuss your project and they’ll be too busy to talk to you. Why? Well they’re probably pitching for some new business.
It seems the Belgians feel the same as we found this on Twitter this week, compelling us to put our views online too. “Belgian advertising is offline this week http://www.saatchi.be” * This has now been taken offline so don’t click on the link*
It’s like 20:20 vision but not for another ten years. Happy New Year!
I just took a diversion back to the office after a photoshoot to take in the 7/7 Monument in Hyde Park that was recently opened. It’s a beautiful tribute to those who lost their lives in such an act of ugly cowardice. I recommend that if you’re ever nearby, you take a few minutes out to pay your respects.
Following a fire alarm last Friday at the talk I was attending at the V&A by 3 former D&AD presidents, the event was concluded outside on the street, in a rare piece of design street theatre.
Martin Lambie-Nairn had just given us a wonderful talk on the influence of individuals in massive government projects, inspired by Prince Albert (Queen Victoria’s other half), when the event was almost cut short by a fire-alarm. Not to be unheard however, Simon Waterfall and Iain Davidson served up their talks on what inspired them inside the V&A on the steps outside – complete with jobsworth fire marshall saying they weren’t allowed to stand on the steps! He was called a few 4 letter words by the assembled crowd of designers and passers by.
Truly memorable!
