Who would you like to be, a Swiss army knife or a forged Japanese kitchen knife? Both have great “skill” sets and have been on the market a long time. One is a generalist, a tool with many features which can be used in many ways. You can cut, open cans, … you name it, but all features are compromised in functionality a little bit in order to fit in a knife, you will have a hard time cutting sushi with it. The Japanese kitchen knife on the other hand is great for cutting raw fish for sushi and sashimi – but fails when you want to open a can.

In graphic design we have the same problem. Should a graphic designer become a generalist or a specialist? Print and web design, or specialize on social media. Dig deep into php programming or have just the right understanding of the technology?

Management gurus around the world write books where they postulate one year “only who specializes survives”, and the next year “the generalist is the fittest for survival”. How can this be?

In reality there is often space for both the generalist and the specialist – like in the knife metaphor I’ve made. The Japanese knife can survive because it’s niche (cutting) is wide enough. A specialist who chooses a too narrow niche will fail in the long run – just imagine, who would need a knife for dinosaur meat today?

It is good to be specialist when…

• A new technology you master becomes popular
• Complicated solutions require in-depth knowledge
• There are only a few specialist in your field

It is better to be a generalist when…

• Technologies change very often
• You have gained your wide range of experiences through real world projects
• Most of your clients need personalized solutions achievable with standard tools
• You cover a wide range of clients and projects
• You are in a leading position and have to oversee many different aspects beyond one specific field
• You know specialist you can hire when things need a specialist

Should you hire a generalist or a specialist?

In my opinion generalists are especially for smaller agencies and companies the better fit as full time employees. Specialist can be contracted to do special jobs. As an employer you want a motivated and flexible staff. It is far easier to move a generalist to another field, than to lay off a specialist and search for a new specialist.

This is even truer in today’s internet times. Let’s take “social media experts”. Many of those social media specialists master the technology behind Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare etc. but lack the marketing background and design experience. Successful campaigns are not just about one channel.

Web technologies are even worse. Frameworks and programming languages are growing exponentially in number and complexity. Mobile applications, the new hype, is just as bad. iOS need C++ (a special version obviously), Android Java, Windows Phone 7 C# (speak C sharp). Let’s be honest, it’s a mess.

You can see, unless you specialize in that area, that especially for programming jobs (and web site programming as well) are best done by specialists on contract.

Foto curtesy by capcase

I discovered that many small firms are discovering branding as the new formula to success. The understand that having a nice logo and a coherent branding helps them to build a trustful relation to their clients. To make it short – a small firm can look professional and bigger with a good branding. But too much branding can hurt. Why?

We seen this online all the time. Small 1-man firms build have a great website and you think you are communicating/buying/… with a corporation – not a small business.

The big mistake many small firms make with branding is, that they think that the more branding they do, the better it is. It mostly happens when they expand into a new business area. Sometimes the name of the firm does not reflect the new area and they expand into a new brand as well.

This is not a good idea, as you weaken your established brand. It is already an effort for small sized (and even medium sized) businesses to maintain “one” brand. In the screenshot above you can see an example of heavy overbranding. It is a small advertising agency with online and offline departments. As you can see each “department” has received it’s own brand (even with brand in its name – how ironic). This does not only look bad, but it’s not in their best interest. Who are they? Are they one or are they many – and if I call them how do they respond?

Especially if you are a service oriented firm this overbranding does not make sense. Even if you think that your brand name is tied to a business area you are better off investing in your established brand or do you think that Apple should have changed their name when they entered the music selling business?

Everyone of you uses email, but did anyone of you learn how to write emails? In the old days of the ground mail there we learned how to write a business letter. There are books on how to write business letters with templates for any occasion. Here is my tip on writing a successful business email.

Writing a business letter is time consuming and the time it takes to get to the recipient seems endless nowadays. So the email took over. Faster to write, faster to send, faster to receive a response. What get lost? Not only the form. I cannot actually know how my email is displayed and and on what device. But the worst is, that many times we cripple the message because we are such in a hurry when writing the email.

I write every email like I would write an ad. I’m no copywriter, but I do fine enough. And I try to structure it, especially if I write to a person for the first time, following this advertising rules:

• Who I am (for first contact)
• Reason Why
• Unique selling proposition
• Call to action

Who I am

Introduce yourself in one sentence – if I get an email from an unknown person I want first of all know who he is.

Reason Why

Right after the introduction tell the people why you are writing them. Studies show that if you give a reason why your are asking for something people will be more likely to comply. You must give a reason why they should continue reading and make them know that it matters to them. How many times I get calls where a graphic designer asks me to send him a logo in a printable format. The first thing I ask is: “What do you need it for?”

Unique selling proposition

This is maybe the trickiest part, because you have to think always in a way that you are selling something – even if you ask them to do something for you. In fact if you ask them to do something for you (send you something, give you a backlink) you are actually selling them this favour they will do to you. You must therefore find a benefit for them and possibly one that doesn’t sound bland. Or it can be a straight “if you do this x for me, I can do this y for you”. Don’t try to sell “x” and pay “x” back (say backlink for backlink) – it doesn’t work. Your a genius if you can write this part in a way that the receiver thinks he profits from doing what you ask him to do.

Call to action

I sometimes wonder how many times I get emails where after reading them I think: “Ok, and what should I do next?” No, really. Check if your email has a call to action in the end where you distinctively tell the reader what you expect him to do. This applies also to “informative” emails, where you just want to inform someone about a specific topic – include in the end a phrase like “Please keep this email in your records for further reference” or “You can delete this message after reading”. Very popular call to action phrases for emails, where the request is actually clear from the central part or where you respond to a request “If you have any further questions, feel free to contact me.”

And now an example

A classic example – you are making a brochure for an event and your client gives you a list of sponsors. You have to include all the logos of the sponsors and you have none. The agreement between your client and the sponsors are usually made at management level and therefore the marketing department doesn’t know anything about it. Not all firms have printable logos at hand so the email must include the right information about what you need and that they might better forward the request to their graphic designer or advertising agency.

Dear Sirs,

my name is Frank Neulichedl and I write you on behalf of
Mr. Smith from ThisIsAfirm ltd. I am currently designing
the brochure for the annual spring concert in Holland Park
and I've been told that your firm is one of the sponsors.

I would therefore include your logo in the brochure and would
ask you to send me a high resolution digital version of the
logo suitable for print in order to display your commitment
in the best way.

Suitable file formats are Adobe Illustrator (.eps, .ai)
or high resolution images .jpg .tif (File size larger
than 500 KBytes).

If you do not have a suitable format at hand please forward
this request to your graphic designer or advertising agency.

Feel free to contact me for any further questions.

Yours faithfully

Frank Neulichedl
...

For further reference on this subject I’ve found a nice resource here:

• Better writing – tips, useful phrases and sample letters

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 experience.

A design that is just “simple” on the other hand does not give you a rich expirience – it gives you the feeling that something 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:

1. To much decoration or complicated layouts can blur your message. Get rid of graphic elements without a function.
2. 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.
3. 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.

Foto by Dirk Dallas

Serj asked me in a mail if I could list some books about graphic design theory. The amount of books on the market is astounding these days and I understand that surfing through the internet, with its wast resources, tutorials and inspirational site,  its good to have the foundation to build on. Most of the theoretical stuff is normally taught in design schools and most of the books I will recommend are used in this context.

The list

Many are not fancy or new, but the principles of graphic design still apply (just think about the bible printed by Gutenberg, is still considered one of the best justified text layout on the world). So lets get to the list – just a last word, I only recommend books I own or have read, so this list its genuine.

Typographie (German Edition)

Price: $59.54

(2 customer reviews)

13 used & new available from $59.54

Grid Systems in Graphic Design/Raster Systeme Fur Die Visuele Gestaltung (German and English Edition)

Price: $74.21

(19 customer reviews)

33 used & new available from $63.98

Looking Closer: Critical Writings on Graphic Design

Price: $20.01

(2 customer reviews)

50 used & new available from $9.36

Looking Closer 2: Critical Writings on Graphic Design (Bk. 2)

Price: $29.95

(2 customer reviews)

50 used & new available from $0.11

Looking Closer 3: Classic Writings on Graphic Design (Bk. 3)

Price: $25.59

(4 customer reviews)

33 used & new available from $16.96

Looking Closer 4: Critical Writings on Graphic Design (Bk. 4)

Price: $16.02

(2 customer reviews)

36 used & new available from $5.36

Looking Closer 5: Critical Writings on Graphic Design (Bk. 5)

Price: $12.88

(1 customer reviews)

74 used & new available from $3.61

About Face: Reviving the Rules of Typography

Price: $44.99

(2 customer reviews)

19 used & new available from $44.99

Layout Essentials: 100 Design Principles for Using Grids

Price: $22.50

(8 customer reviews)

65 used & new available from $14.20

Things I have learned in my life so far

Price: $30.40

(47 customer reviews)

78 used & new available from $19.19

Creative Advertising, New Edition

Price: $24.90

(11 customer reviews)

66 used & new available from $23.99

Visual Creativity

Price: $40.50

(2 customer reviews)

33 used & new available from $28.98

Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design

Price: $23.10

(13 customer reviews)

58 used & new available from $13.51

Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop

Price: $16.16

(42 customer reviews)

84 used & new available from $11.92

Ruedi Baur…, Integral…, and Partners.

Price: $65.00

( customer reviews)

12 used & new available from $30.00

Des-/Orientierung, Dis-/Orientation, Dés-/Orientation 1 (German, English and French Edition)

Price: $44.95

( customer reviews)

24 used & new available from $6.00

I found in a strategy presentation of a client a few nice inputs. Most of the time we stand in our own way because we don’t think like winner. There is a lot of literature about having success and so forth, but you can boil it down to this: Reframe

And here some examples:

Foto by marthax

Every graphic/online/media designer nowadays calls himself an art director (or worse Information Architect). Even the Wikipedia, the new holy grail of knowledge states, in a little confusing manner. Find out what is the difference between a graphic designer and an art director and what it takes to become one.

Despite the title, an advertising art director isn’t necessarily the head of an art department…

Well, let’s get straight to the point – if you do not “direct” at least a team, may it be of internal co-workers or external partners in a project, then you are probably not an art director. You might be a very good graphic designer, photographer, art-buyer, copy-texter,  image retoucher, layouter, producer,  but not an art director. Let me explain why.

Art directors are team players

An art director must have a good knowledge of the above capabilities. He must understand them, he has not to excel in them, but know how to use them accordingly. If he is not the best photographer for the job, he has to know who is and this not only by capabilities, but also according to the budget.

In smaller firms, most of the time the budgets are tight and therefore the graphic designer takes also the pictures and writes the headlines, looks over the production, printing … While this can result in very good quality for small projects, it also has on big pitfall. The outcome is limited to the capabilities and style of one person.

The Art director on the other hand,  has to have the big picture in his head, know where the whole production is heading to. Setting the style and tone for the project and is not limited to only his capabilities.

Step by step

Obviously there are not only the extremes – on the path from being a graphic designer to become an art director are many steps, where duties may vary and overlap. But the important thing to know is that the mindset changes when you are no longer only a graphic designer. You think differently and approach projects differently.

How to achieve this different mindset will be shown in the next lessons – little by little.