I’ve had the beginning of a post typed at least 3 times this morning. I’ve deleted all of them.
If you find inspiration, capture it. Don’t let the moment pass. That’s all I really need to say. God has painted the sky with clouds this year in an amazing and fantastical way. I’m count myself blessed that I have eyes to see and a BlackBerry Storm (BBS) to save the inspiration for later.
Last night, my wife was gracious enough to take the boys with her to her book study. Fortunately for me, her book study is very near a driving range. Of course I’ll post more on that later. For now, I just wanted to post a few of the photos I took while hanging out at the range.
Ever so slowly, I’m learning how to use this camera! I’m still composing my thoughts from the range, so look for that post this weekend some time.
I watched it last night. (Website Here)
It was great! Of course, I liked Helvetica and I’m looking forward to Urbanized, the final film in Gary Hustwit’s “Design Trilogy.”
Inspiring. Depressing. I always have those two reactions when I watch “design” films.
I see people who are so truly passionate about what they do. I see how they view the world, which is often through entirely unique “eyes” and how that translates into what they design. It’s incredible. How they draw inspiration and the fruits of their labors. It’s quite fantastic.
Then I get sad. I don’t think I look at the world that way. My wife jokes with me, saying “You’ll never be a hugely successful designer because you aren’t weird and eccentric enough.” So far, that seems to be true. All of the hugely successful people I see in the “design world” are oddly and identifiably eccentric. That’s not a bad thing. It’s just an observation.
Do I try and change the way I see the world? Do I pursue something altogether different? I don’t know the answer to either of those questions. All I can do is keep moving forward until God shows me something different.
As for the documentaries themselves, if you love design even just a little, then you are doing yourself a disservice if you haven’t seen them yet.
It’s pretty hard not to notice. I finally got around to adding a picture of myself and a brief description. Not too bad for a crappy Blackberry Storm pic, in poor lighting at work, not really trying. Ha!
In any case, it helps make the site feel more complete. Now, if only I can decide on how I’m going to attack posting my portfolio here, then I can say the site is “done.”
Newspaper Advertising Design is an interesting profession; I’ve been at it for over 6 years now. In my experience, the majority of advertisers just want to be comfortable with their ad designs. They want the tried and true, even if it dates back to 1947, in design terms.
For the most part, I understand their dilemma. They are paying for space, so in business terms, it makes sense to maximize the space and put as much information as possible in the available space. As a designer, that’s a hard pill to swallow. We often feel like production monkeys when an ad is reduced to “pack it in” design, thinking to ourselves “we went to school for this?”
It’s not all gloom and doom though. Every so often, even in newspaper design, there are glimmers of hope. There are advertisers that get it. They know that good design can say more than every word they would prefer to use in the ad.
Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra. They get it. I’ve had the pleasure of doing their ads for almost the entire 6 years I’ve been employed by the Greeley Tribune. I’ve also had to pleasure of being their go-to guy for freelance design (that’s another, better post coming!). Aside from making sure the information is correct, I generally have free reign with the ads.
The GPO 2009-2010 Season made for a great series. I’ve featured them below.
Now for my disclaimer: All of these ads and images are property of The Greeley Tribune. They were produced during my regular working hours for The Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra and cannot be used, reproduced, etc. without express permission from The Greeley Tribune.
On with the ad series.
Concert 1
Concert 2
Concert 3
Concert 4
Concert 5
Concert 6
In addition to the regular season, there are also a few special event concerts every year:
Poinsettia Pops
A Brass Christmas
An Evening at the Cabaret
It would be fantastic if more advertisers would would step away from their comfortable little boxes and put their trust in the designers they have chosen to hire, be it for their newspaper advertising or otherwise. A trained graphic designer is just like any other educated professional. They know what they are doing and can help you maximize your advertising efforts.
Visual communication is what they do.
At least there are glimmers of hope in all of the inky black ads we have to produce.
Side note to this discussion: In all of my internet wanderings, I have not seen much, if any, in the way of Newspaper Design blogging or showcases. Does anyone know of any?
