Trainees or intern as they are called are part of the responsibilities an art director has. I’m not talking about the bad habit of using trainees as regular workers, sometimes referred to as “precarity” or “underclass”, but about the trainees coming from schools doing a few weeks of internship to learn about the real work in an agency.
I had in the past problems finding the right jobs for the trainees as I was caught up in my daily routine and when they actually showed up at my desk I wondered what would fit. I therefore setup a routine for finding jobs around the year to have them ready. Find out how I did it and the 3 rules for successfully managing a graphic design trainee. …click here to continue…
An important part of corporate design and branding in general is the font used online and offline. That’s no secret – the typeface must be readable (or not) and transport in a distilled way the character of the brand. But how unique can you be when 90% of the logos and corporate designs are made with the 8 most popular fonts (Helvetica, Univers, Futura, Thesis, Eurostile, Bank Gothic, Avenir)? Not much.
It is therefore a good idea to search for a special font or even better to ask a type designer to make a custom font. The custom font can push your brand experience further than you could by just using a common font as they can be tailored to the profile of the company.
A nice example is the font “Serrano” a custom font made for the Bank of New Zealand made by Klim Type Foundry under the direction of DNA.
If you think that having a new font from scratch is too expensive you might also contract with the type foundry that you don’t have the exclusive rights to the font to bring down the price. But in the end the benefits from having your own font is priceless;-)
Back again with some more alternative fonts for your graphic design pleasure. This time I want to show you some very fresh fonts, none of the presented fonts are designed prior to 1999. This is partly because Interstate itself is quite new (1993) and it would be strange if I found an alternative that is older than the original. A bit of history – Interstate is based on the font used by the Federal Highway Administration and was one of the most popular typefaces in the 90s. Used often for corporate design and quite flexible enough for a broad range of “topics”. Enough bla bla, lets get started. …click here to continue…
You ever wondered why some magazines appeal you more than others? One thing you rarely been teached is how to do appealing covers. Even when you are in corporate publishing and layout the corporate news magazine having a nice cover is good. Besides the text layout having an appealing foto is key. But not every photo does the same good job. Here a few examples and why they work. …click here to continue…
But this does not mean that the design is simple. A minimalistic approach uses as few graphical elements as needed to transport the message to the user. No decoration or other distracting elements are added. The message is the protagonist. The graphical elements to focus on the message can be simple shapes, but the result is a rich expirience.
A design that is just “simple” on the other hand does not give you a rich expirience – it gives you the feeling that someting is missing.
If you do a minimalistic design and you get the feeling that something is missing, then you probably (1) didn’t focus enough on the message, (2) the message is too weak or (3) cannot be transported through minimalistic design:
To much decoration or complicated layouts can blur your message. Get rid of graphic elements without a function.
Weak messages are often the main problem. Minimalistic means reduced to the bones and a message which is blurry and not focused can’t work in this context. Talk again with your copywriter and client if you can get a message with a tighter focus.
You cannot transport chaos with a minimalistic approach. Period.
As a conclusion we could say: A minimalistic design uses only graphic elements with function to maximise the message, simple design ignores the message to maximise simplicity.
How many times have you heard your client say: “You can fix this later in Photoshop.” or “We don’t need a photo shooting, we just combine the photos we have.” As an art director one of your jobs is to ensure that the quality of the final product lives up to the standard you set. To ensure this quality you have to look at all aspects. We already discussed the copywriting part, now let’s look at the photography. …click here to continue…
Pentagram, a historic graphic design firm is releasing a new book. It will cover 400 logotypes and symbols made by Pentagram from the 1960s until now on over 800 pages. Neddles to say that this is a must for every serious graphic designer and a top inspiration source.
And if you preorder it now you can save 37% off the retail price. So get yours now.
Let’s get fshionable. Gill Sans is for sure one of the most used fonts for corporate design in the fashion industry. Whe a brand claims elegance and self confidence this font is a sure shot. But with the wide use (since Mac OSX it’s even a standard system font) one brand looks like another, so let’s get some alternatives.
What is the job of an art director anyway. How is it like? And how to learn to do the things the right way in real life. I will present you here some insights and some tutorials about becomming an art director, not just a graphic designer. Tips & Tricks you won't learn in any school and normally you will have to figure them out yourself. So go ahead and start your lessons.
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