11 Ultimate

My “Concepts” instructor used to always say “The ultimate in art direction is to sell a viewer something without them knowing it.”

posted at 08:28 am on May 9, 2004 by David Hosting

12 Who's the boss?

I agree with a lot of the concepts and practices in this article, however I think that the description of the designer’s job is inaccurate.

Zeldman posted an article (http://www.alistapart.com/articles/bathingape/) about this very topic. Most Art Directors/Creative Directors that I’ve delt with have their heads firmly in the clouds. This is often a product of the nature of their work.

Desingers by contrast, the good ones anyway, are very down-to-earth. Their job is to take the input from the early phase creative team and integrate them into a finished piece.

A difficult problem to solve for the designer, but in my experience that’s what the best designers do, solve problems. Those are certainly the type I try to work with.

Just a thought.

posted at 09:54 am on May 9, 2004 by shaZam

13 Re: Who's the boss?

Art directors and designers both solve problems— mostly it’s just that they solve different problems. Many art directors were originally designers (some perhaps even down-to-earth), and I would agree that most good designers are highly conceptual.

posted at 10:41 am on May 9, 2004 by Steve

14 Content, Design, Gifts and Wrapping

<just thinkin’ out loud here>

“we are decorating instead of communicating”
http://www.zeldman.com/daily/0403b.shtml#ma0103

That’s it exactly! In this medium it’s easy to get side tracked with all the other important stuff, Doc Types, XHTML, Color Harmonizers, Typography, 2 col vs. 3 col, rollovers, navigation etc … and get stuck there.

The primary function of a web page is to communicate an idea or thought. How that idea or thought is presented (packaged) can be likened to a gift and the wrapping paper and ribbons one chooses to decorate (package) the gift (content).

If I carefully select a Mother’s Day gift for my significant better half and present the gift “as is” (sans wrapping/ribbons) she will be delighted because my love for her will shine through with the carefully chosen gift. Any wrapping, as long as it’s carefully chosen, will compliment my sentiments. On the other hand, if I just rush out and buy something “off the shelf” all the decorating in the world will not hide the fact that I gave very little thought to her Mother/s Day gift.

Moral of the story…The content is the gift. The design is the wrapping paper and ribbons. The content should be able to stand on it’s own. The design serves to enhance and/or compliment the content.

</just thinkin’ out loud here>

posted at 11:20 am on May 9, 2004 by Ray

15 Re: Content, Design, Gifts and Wrapping

Yes, design can be defined as a way to present content. But I wouldn´t call it a wrapping paper… The wrapping paper becomes useless once it´s destroyed, while design will always be there, presenting the content in the best possible way.

When you call design wrapping paper and ribbons you´re ignoring ergonomy, for instance. Would you call a beautiful but not ergonomic project a good design example ? I certainly wouldn´t.

posted at 03:44 pm on May 9, 2004 by Werther

16 Idea generation

Can anyone suggest good books (or websites) that discuss different “idea generation” techniques (alluded to in this article)?

posted at 08:46 pm on May 9, 2004 by Josh Renaud

17 Re: Idea generation

How’s long it going to take for some someone to mention the herbal help? ;)

posted at 05:16 am on May 10, 2004 by Joe

18 Re: Idea generation

Seriously though- a technique that I think is good for training creativity is to take some white paper, imagine lines and shapes on the paper (much like seeing shapes in the clouds) and just draw what you see.

You can get some interesting results and I believe it’s the sort of frame-of-mind you need to be in for this sort of activity. Just let it happen if you know what I mean.

posted at 05:20 am on May 10, 2004 by Joe

19 Re: Idea generation

HOWdesign.com has a few articles on the subject.

On creating ‘AHA’ moments:
http://www.howdesign.com/dc/features/ahatools.asp

On recovering from ‘designer block’:
http://www.howdesign.com/dc/features/TCGblockbusters.asp

posted at 06:02 am on May 10, 2004 by Mick

20 How many...

How many art directors does it take to change a lightbulb?

Does it have to be lightbulb? I mean what if we tried candles, or WAIT, I KNOW, it’s not man-made light! We use the Sun! The set will have huge windows and skylights and…

As an agency art director and a college web design professor, this article really nails it. I’m keeping this are a required bit of reading for class.

posted at 06:51 am on May 10, 2004 by Walkman