DESIGN IS A BEHAVIOUR / NOT A DEPARTMENT

Monday 12 July 2010

The problem

In almost every sport women have less opportunities then men. There are far fewer competitions for women and the prizes are less worth competing for. But the situation is so much worse when it comes to action sports. Extreme sports competitions – including skateboarding, motocross and BMX racing – have almost always been a man’s world which young female athletes struggle to break into. It is almost impossible to find sports clubs for action-orientated girls. There seems to be a lack of structures within which young girls could train and compete.

Female sports also receive less media exposure than their male counterparts. Female participation in actions sports is often seen as a hobby rather than a possible career path. Young girls struggle to find female role models in action sports and are often discouraged from participating by their male colleagues.

The Goal

This project seeks to:

  • Break down the barriers between extreme and traditional sports;
  • Promote action sports as entertainment, hobby or career for girls;
  • Promote equality for women willing to participate in action sports competitively and/or on a professional level;
  • Promote action sports as an alternative to gym memberships and conventional sports for women willing to improve their fitness level and have a healthy lifestyle;
  • Encourage higher media exposure for women in action sports.
The Means

I intend to develop and launch a new monthly magazine aimed at young women interested in extreme sports. It will inspire girls to try new activities and excel at those they like most.

The magazine will be accompanied by a website providing opportunities for networking in order to establish a real community of adrenaline-loving ladies.

I will also develop a style-guide for the publication alongside with samples of covers and magazine spreads. There will be a possibility of developing a promotional launch campaign as well.

Upon completion of the project I intend to pitch the idea to publishing directors at Factory Media, the publisher of the Cooler magazine (competitor).

The Challenge

The biggest challenge is breaking into a very saturated market of women’s monthly magazines. Magazine publishing is also a declining industry affected greatly by the digital revolution. However, there seems to be a significant niche as the vast majority of women’s magazine focus of fashion and celebrity gossips. The UK market lacks a publication for women’s sports in general and there is nothing for girls in extreme sports either. I recognize it as a great business opportunity and the way to overcome the challenge.

The Outcome

Magazine launch is mainly a branding exercise, which includes:
  • Current market research, competitors analysis and positioning;
  • Business opportunity;
  • The brand development (name, slogan, mission statement, core reader, the content breakdown, flat plan, section plan);
  • The magazine’s visual identity (logo, typography, visual style, visual vocabulary, navigation system);
  • Design guidelines and style book;
  • Final product (sample magazine covers, layouts and spreads as well as a website);
  • Promotional launch campaign;
  • The final idea pitch/presentation.

Friday 16 April 2010

Having officially completed the semester 2 assignments I decided to spend a few days working on one of my personal project ideas.

I wanted to design and print a series of business cards for myself but I needed some artwork to go on the back. And some time ago I came across an interesting idea. I saw a set of typographic ice cubes trays in my local artshop and instantly imagined artistic photography featuring frozen letterforms. The ice-letters could by coloured by freezing fruit juices and then placed in glasses with water. With a bit of experimentation with light and angles, it could produce interesting results.

I would like to create an entire range of business cards with different images at the back. I am still thinking about a selection of words to be made out of ice cubes. It has to be a cross between design buzzwords and frozen liquidity. I am considering: design, liquid, ideas, art and type (not very original but at least they're short). Any suggestions?

Thursday 15 April 2010

We got to the end of the project and my book is ready! I am so pleased with the final result and so excited to show it to you. I took some pictures this afternoon. They are not great but give you an idea of what the book is like.

I would like to draw your attention to a few facts. Firstly, as you see, the book actually has a cover and it is a white hardback with an off-white cover wrap.

The book title page, the chapter openers and the author's commentary are printed on tracing paper in colour. The remaining pages are printed on layout paper which also allows for some see through effect (look at the close up pictures). Moreover, these pages are folded in a very unique way, which I developed with hours and hours of test folding.

Using a palette of 12 different colours for chapter openers resulted in a very interesting effect on the edgeof the book. 

The book has over a hundred pages and if someone actually makes an effort to read it, it's very insightful. It triggers a deeper reflection about the nature of Nothing in people's lives. I do recommend. 

Wednesday 14 April 2010

1. You don’t have to be born with it to do it
The notion that geniuses such as Shakespeare, Picasso and Mozart were `gifted' is a myth! According to a recent study at Exeter University, excellence in any field, this includes design, is determined by five key elements: opportunities, encouragement, training, motivation and - most importantly - practice. The research shows that everyone has creative abilities that grow with the amount of effort we put in. This explains the fact that I am being relatively successful on the course without being exceptionally skilled or talented in graphic design.

2. Feed your brain
In order to produce creative output you need to consume creative input. Your brain as is an amazing processing machine, not a magic hat. You need fuel to power it. Read books and magazines; visit industry websites and blogs; go to galleries and exhibitions. It is important, however, to not only see things but to actively question them. When you see something you like, ask yourself why you like it? What is unique about it? Why the idea works well? Be analytic and learn from it, maybe even write about it, articulate it. Processing ideas helps generate new ideas. And in this business…

3. Quantity equals quality
The longer the list of ideas, the higher the quality of the final solution. Don’t storm the exit door with your first idea. Get used to changing directions, angles and point of view. Often, the highest quality ideas appear at the end of the list. When I started this course I thought it’s best to quickly choose an idea and then work longer on polishing the final product. Now, I think it is better to take the time to consider alternatives – as many as possible. When you get the idea right, everything else will follow.

4. It’s good to be childish
The average adult thinks of three to six alternatives for any given situation. The average child thinks of 60. Seeing the problem, adults panic, feel insecure and uncomfortable, push for quick solutions. Children see a problem as an adventure and a challenge. They don’t look for ready-made solutions in books or on the Internet, but use their own imagination to invent new ones. And they play along the way. Childlike attitude helps designers have fun with their projects and deliver creative and original solutions.

5. Map your ideas
Whether you are working on a year-long project, researching the topic for your blog post or discussing something with a client, mapping is the best way to organize your thoughts. Mind mapping mimics the way we think more accurately than vertical (linear) lists. Neurons in your brain are not linear but have ‘branches’ (dendrites) that transmit impulses to many other cells simultaneously. Drawing mind maps will help understand complex problems, see patterns and make connections.

6. Don’t be afraid of doing things differently
Designers need to think like inventors. Nobody can come up with something new by doing the same think time and time again. Innovation might be an industry buzzword but you won’t get anything truly innovative if you don’t leave your comfort zone. Doing what you already can is your limitation. Start by imagining things even if you don’t know that they are possible to achieve. Don’t be afraid to experiment and to be truly different. Don’t follow the trends and fashions - make them! Don’t just meet the expectations – exceed them!

7. Creativity is an individual process
As designers we can’t work on any project in isolation. We need to cooperate with colleagues, clients and audiences to develop an inclusive considerate solution. Taking into account other people’s points of view is extremely valuable. But, at its core, creativity is an individual process. Personally, I am not most efficient while working in a group – it distracts me. I am much more creative when I am alone and can concentrate. Groups are best for idea selection or evaluation rather than idea generation.

8. Both sleep and creative insomnia are essential
Just a few months ago, I had a tendency to leave a lot of work till the last minute. I would spend the last few days and nights working on a project without a break to finish it before the deadline. At one point, however, I realized that some ideas need to mature for longer; sometimes I need to “sleep with them”. Moreover, most of my good ideas come to me at night when I am trying to fall asleep. In fact, a number of studies on sleep and creativity have shown that sleep can facilitate insightful behavior and flexible reasoning so it is important to get enough rest. Good ideas and creativity usually do not appear under stress but when you are relaxed and rejuvenated.
However, I also came across a theory of creative insomnia, in which creativity is significantly correlated with sleep disturbance. I experience it a lot when my mind refuses to drift off and keeps sending me some new ideas instead. Usually, these are good ideas so I’ve learnt to write them down and put to work the following day.

9. Nature has solutions for every human problem
Whatever design challenge you might be facing now, it has almost certainly been already solved by nature. With its 3.8 billion years of experience Mother Nature provides inspiration for sustainable design today. Biomimicry has led to development of self-cleaning paint by imitating the rough surface of Lotus and to increasing the efficiency of wind turbines by imitating the bumps on a humpback whale’s flippers. I have learnt to search for such simple and clever ideas in the natural environment I love.

10. Make ethical choices
The issues or personal and corporate ethics echoed across all the subjects discussed this semester: typography, wayfinding, animated digital media, packaging and advertising. I have realized that no matter what field of design you are working in, there is always something you can do to make our world a better place. It might be minimizing energy use in your studio, recycling paper waste, or campaigning for a social or environmental cause of your choice. It may involve choosing clients with a good Corporate Social Responsibility, or making sure your printers are also eco-friendly. Take a personal responsibility for the effect of your work. Whatever you do, there is always a way to do it better,¬ and to inspire other people to jo

Tuesday 13 April 2010

What is Sustainable Design?

Traditionally, a term 'sustainable design' was used as a synonym of 'green design', 'eco-design' or 'design for environment'. Now, it has a new, broader meaning. Sustainable design aims to deliver profits on the 'tripple bottom line'. It still generates financial profit, but also benefits the environment and the society.

While discussing the issue, it is extremely important to understand that sustainable design does not apply to designing products in separation from the environment they are being used in. Sustainable design refers to designing entirely sustainable systems: a product, the way it is produced and used, and what happens to it afterwards.

Briefly, sustainable design may be defined as the design of flexible systems that can be sustained indefinitely. Sustainable product design, on the other hand, is the design of products that aid or permit sustainability of the systems in which they operate.

These definitions can be simplified further to say that "sustainable design is good design", or even better, "good design is sustainable design".

The basics of the sustainable design are very well explained by Tom Greenwood in the video I found on the ESP Design website. To illustrate the concept, Greenwood is using three examples:

  • ebay (an online marketplace for second hand goods);
  • Onzo (home energy use monitoring system);
  • Freitag (fashionable bags made out of used truck tarpaulins, car seat belts, airbags and bicycle inner tubes).


Inspired by Nature

Personally, I am very much in favour of sustainable design. But what I find even more inspiring is 'biomimicry' (or 'biomimetics') - an emerging discipline that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve human problems.

Biomimicry promotes the study and imitation of nature’s remarkably efficient designs. I was amazed to realize what nature has to offer: 3.8 billion years of field research, testing and prototyping as well as a successful adaptation of nature's designs in 10-30 million species living on Earth now. In my eyes, this is truly green and sustainable design!

There are a number of organizations that advocate the nature's inspiring solutions. Biomimicry Institute promotes learning from and then emulating natural forms, processes, and ecosystems to create more sustainable and healthier human technologies and designs. It brings together scientists, engineers, architects and innovators to create natural and eco-friendly technologies fit for the future.

The Biomimicry Guild is the only innovation company in the world to use a deep knowledge of biological adaptations to help designers, engineers, architects, and business leaders solve design and engineering challenges sustainably.

Ask Nature is an online inspiration source for the biomimicry community. In here, I have learned that butterflies exhibit vibrant colors and stay clean using nano-scale structures on their wings. Designers and engineers have emulated this strategy to create self-cleaning coatings, fabrics and paints, and electronic display screens.

I also came across this long but extremely interesting video featuring Janine Benyus from the Biomimicry Institute speaking at TED conference about 12 sustainable design ideas inspired by nature. These include:
  • self-assembly,
  • CO2 as a feedstock,
  • solar transformations,
  • the power of shape,
  • quenching thirst,
  • metals without mining,
  • green chemistry,
  • timed degradation,
  • resilience and healing,
  • sensing and responding,
  • growing fertility,
  • creating conditions conductive to life.


I found the above examples of biomimetic design extremely inspiring. I believe that this is the answer to most of our environmental and human problems. And beneath the advanced science and engineering, there is a very simple principle. Humans might be the dominant species on Earth now, but human history is very short as compared to the history of the planet. As seen on The 11th Hour, the planet is not in danger, neither is the life on the planet. But human existence on it is threatened because we see ourselves somehow in separation from the rest of the ecosystem. We need to develop sustainable ways of inhabiting the planet in order to provide a safe environment to live in for the future generations. And, in my opinion, it is best to use the 3.8 billion years of experience nature has to offer. I strongly believe that the only way to sustainability is to learn directly from nature and as designers we have the responsibility to do so.

Monday 12 April 2010

Advertising in a Pill

A Canadian humorist, Stephen Leacock, once said that advertising is “the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.” The statement was true in Leacock’s lifetime (1869-1944) and it is true today.

Traditionally, advertising is defined as a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to take some action, such as purchase or consume a particular brand. It includes the name of a product or service and usually shows how that product or service could benefit the consumer. Through the repetition of an image or product name, advertising campaigns associate related qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers.

Although advertising is most often used to sell commercial products and services, some non-for-profit organizations (political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and charities) use this method of communication to inform, raise awareness and funds for a particular cause. Commercial and non-commercial ads are usually but not always (as I we will see later) easy to distinct from each other. Nowadays, both types utilize traditional media (newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor or direct mail) and new media (websites and text messages).


Advertising's Got Some Issues

Regardless of the means of communicating, advertising has always been a controversial subject. Since its very purpose is to persuade customers to act in certain way, advertising is often accused (not without a reason) of manipulating or even ‘brainwashing’ people.

There is a number of ethical issues surrounding the field of advertising and these include:

  • The use of sex and/or violence in advertising campaigns;
  • The right to advertise products considered to be harmful to humans, such as alcohol and cigarettes or unhealthy foods;
  • Advertising aimed at children and other vulnerable social groups;
  • False claims, lies and misleading the consumers (especially evident in recent trend to show brands as ‘green’ and ‘eco-friendly’ in order to win the environmentally conscious customers);
  • The use of shock tactics crossing the boundaries of taste and decency (frequently utilized in charity fundraising campaigns);
  • The cultural and moral impact of advertising on customers and customs as well as the overall spread of consumerism.
In order to protect people from the impact of unethical advertising, a number of laws and regulations have been introduced. In the UK, for example, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) acts as an independent watchdog ensuring that ads we see everyday are legal, decent, honest and truthful by enforcing the Advertising Codes written by the Committee of Advertising Practice and acting when marketing communications break the rules.

Personally, I do understand the need to have some control over what can and cannot be used in advertising. However, I always find it interesting that people who raise accusations against advertisers are not usually concerned about themselves but about ‘someone else’: children, teenagers, young adults, working class people, elderly, the ill, the troubled, the stupid ones, etc. I do acknowledge the fact that we all, at times, become ‘victims’ of manipulative advertising. But I also believe that the fears of the entire, ‘brainwashed’ human civilization heading for the inevitable self-destruction are a bit exaggerated and those who spread such panic simply underestimate customers’ intelligence. People are not dumb! We know advertisers are biased! We know they are just trying to sell us something! We no longer take adverts seriously! We really can negotiate advertising or ignore it completely.

With this in mind I begun questioning what ‘ethical advertising’ really is. Does a commercial become ethical by simply obeying the laws and respecting the rules of social and cultural decency? Is a charity ad an ethical ad only because it supports a good cause? How do we distinguish good advertising from bad advertising? What makes a ‘good’ advertising campaign: a stunning graphic design, a commercial success it generates, or the charitable cause it advocates? And finally, is it possible to generate a profit while promoting an important social issue through a stunning graphic design? Can we have it all?

My answer is ‘Yes’! And it is not a totally new concept!


Advertising for Social Responsibility

While in 1980s the West was dealing with the issues of race, racial equality, inequality and diversity, United Colors of Benetton launched the first of many controversial advertising campaign featuring multi-racial couples and families. Instead of showing multi-coloured clothing and telling us where to buy it, Benetton ads represented important social issues, religious and political conflicts (the Palestinian and the Israeli), religious and sexual conflict (a priest kissing a nun) and yet another portrayal of moral conflict (the stereotypes of good and ever, symbolized by an angel and the devil). Paradoxically, the growing popularity of Benetton merchandise translated into the disappearance of those good from the ads.

In early 1990s Benetton’s advertising style became even more ‘realistic’ through the use of photojournalistic imagery instead of staged photography and manufactured reality used in traditional ads. Again, instead of pictures of happy people in colourful clothing, customers had to face terrifyingly real images of war cemetery, a newborn baby, a man dying from AIDS, a soldier gripping a human thigh bone, a ship being stormed by emigrants, etc.

The reactions to those real-life photos were sometimes violent. The campaigns were criticized not only for using shocking images and violating taboos but also for using AIDS, war, racism and so forth, as a source of income and a component of a profit-making venture. Nevertheless, Benetton’s campaigns stimulated public discussion of those important issues more than efforts of many purposely-established non-for-profit organizations. United Colors of Benetton proved that a ‘different’ use of advertising was indeed possible.


Designers Vs. Advertisers

The Benetton example serves also as a valuable contribution to the discussion of the graphic designers’ role in advertising. Back in 1964 Ken Garland questioned the application of graphic designers’ talent and skills to advertising. In his famous manifesto First Things First Garland argued that advertising had “reached a saturation point” (questionable from our perspective) and that it had been persistently presented as “most lucrative, effective and desirable means” of using graphic designers’ potential.

As the advertising field grew, it became more and more difficult to differentiate between graphic designers and advertisers. More than ever before, graphic design is now being used as a tool for advertising.

Garland’s call for “reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication’ was updated and reprinted by the Canadian magazine Adbusters in 2000. Many of the most influential contemporary graphic designers, art directors and visual communicators became uncomfortable with “devoting their efforts primarily to advertising, marketing and brand development”. They spoke against serving commerce and in favour of applying the problem-solving skills to unprecedented environmental, social and cultural issues demanding designers’ attention, expertise and help.

With the First Things First manifesto in mind, Benetton’s past and present marketing campaigns seem even more admirable and significant. The brands’ socio-commercial work of the past two decades strikes as a perfect example of a rare marriage of advertising and social responsibility. My point is that United Color of Benetton proved time and time again that combining aesthetics, social impact and commercial success is indeed possible. And this is what I call ‘good advertising’!

Wednesday 31 March 2010