January 29th, 2010 by Matthew Brett

As a designer, I'm a sucker for a well-designed book cover. I will gladly spring the extra dollars for the book that has the nice typography in lieu of the tacky movie tie-in book covers. I've been known to buy books I already own by virtue of the cover. The recent Peter Menelsund book covers for Dostoevsky's novels made me repurchase the entire series, though I've yet to reread them.

 

I had the same weakness for a well-designed CD cover, when that media was relevant. I remember flipping through the stacks of CDs at Dr. Wax in my twenties, when I pulled out a copy of Social Distortion's Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell. It's not a great design by any means, but it has a nice energy to it. The hipster skater kid standing next to me took notice and said "that music is exactly like that cover". I bought it on that endorsement alone. He was right, what you see is what you hear; raw, unflinching with a rebellious spirit to the music.

 

The same can be said of the re-issue of Cormac McCarthy's backlist, designed by David Pearson. McCarthy is one of my favorite writers and the cover series is breathtaking. Gorgeous typography, bold colors that jump off the page to smack you in the face, and to paraphrase the skater kid, look exactly like what you are about to read. McCarthy's work has never been represented in such an evocative manner, capturing the spirit of the writing and the time in which the stories occur. Stunning work.

January 26th, 2010 by Matthew Brett

For the past three years, Chicago teen Lauren McClusky has held a fundraiser for Special Olympics. The festival, which she named McFest as a variant on her name, consists of high school and college bands and has raised $30,000 to date. Pretty ambitious and admirable for a teenager. When I was in high school, my charity activities largely consisted of trying to meet girls and buy beer underage, generally failing miserably at both. 

 

For her laudable efforts, Lauren has been rebuffed by the McDonald's Corporation. When she tried to register the name with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office, McDonald's filed a challenge, claiming the fest would be linked to the chain. The trial date is pending and she has spent $5,000 defending the challenge thus far.

 

I don't want to fall into the knee-jerk populist trap of bashing the big, evil corporation in defense of the little guy. Sadly, there's no other way to look at this scenario. This is a classic case of a company getting it completely wrong. They are confusing protecting their brand with protecting a variation of their name. Whether you love their food or hate it, (I fall into the latter category), McDonald's has done many admirable things for charity. Their Ronald McDonald houses provide families with children in hospitals a place to stay that is comfortable, close to the hospital, at little or no cost. By and large, they have been a fairly solid corporate citizen.

 

They really screwed up on this one however. The last thing a company with a brand based on family and community needs is the appearance of being the corporate spoiler of a grass roots event to do some good for kids with special needs. McDonald's is so focused on protecting the variants of the "Mc" name, they have lost sight of why that name is valuable to the communities they serve in the first place.

January 24th, 2010 by Matthew Brett

We recently wrapped up a branding and web development project for a professional services firm in the financial industry. Over a celebratory lunch, the client said by way of what I presumed to be a compliment, "Wow, you really made our boring stuff look interesting."

 

I never really thought of it that way. One of the most fascinating aspects of being a graphic designer is having to learn all the nuances of a client and their industry before you can develop a meaningful message and brand proposition for that client. I knew nothing about leveraged financing, facilitation training, or private equity, but having done work in each of those industries, I can speak very intelligently about those respective industries.

 

Which may not win me friends at cocktail parties, but it certainly helps inform the work. 

 

Contrary to the client's comment about their industry being boring, I find it intriguing to have to learn something new with each engagement. I've long resisted the design cliche´of referring to oneself as a "storyteller" because it's such a hackneyed way of defining what we do as creative professionals. It's perhaps more accurate to say we're akin to Hollywood script doctors, the folks who come in and rewrite and flesh out existing scripts. We don't fundamentally change what our clients do, but we continually redefine and reframe how it is presented in a way that sets them apart from their competition. 

 

If you have a film about an archaeologist on a dig in Tunisia during the late 1930s, you won't get the attention of a single producer. Cast Harrison Ford, put a whip in his hand, have him fight Nazis, and suddenly you've got a blockbuster that can be parlayed into a franchise. It's all in how you craft the narrative.

 

 And a dusty fedora almost never hurts.

January 19th, 2010 by Matthew Brett

I will be joining a host of other Chicago design firms to review student portfolios at the AIGA Chicago Winter Portfolio Review. I'm looking forward to seeing what the students are developing and seeing some fresh new ideas. Too often as professionals it's easy to get caught up in the mill of doing work that is palatable to the client, vs. developing work that challenges some expectations. 

January 15th, 2010 by Matthew Brett

Under Consideration's For Print Only site has done us the kindness of featuring our holiday resolution promotion. Thanks to Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio for the kind words! Hope everyone is keeping their resolutions. Or at least having fun breaking them.

January 8th, 2010 by Matthew Brett

Once again, the London Financial Times has announced its annual awards for management guff. Guff, also known as marketing-consultant-speak is probably best summed up in one word. Bullshit. Phrases such as paradigm-shifting, best in class, impactful and leveraging get bandied about in conference rooms everywhere. It's enough to disincentive even the most jaded consultant. 

 

A few examples and excerpts:

- "We might have significant optionality."

- "disestablish up to 100 positions" (I would much rather be fired than disestablished)

- "Experience Architect" (an actual job title on a business card) 

 

There are also numerous examples of poorly mixed metaphors and the obligatory overused phrases that permeate the language. The elephant in the room. Throw someone under the bus. Failure is not an option. 

 

What is it that makes people feel the need to abuse such a wonderful means of communication as the English language? As marketing communicators, we counsel our clients to be direct, clear and succinct in their choice of words. Otherwise, it is virtually impossible to develop strategic communication. 

 

One of my favorite writers is Martin Amis, whose collection of non-fiction writings and essays is called The War Against Cliche. I've always taken the title as both rallying cry and litmus test for how we should treat corporate communication. Avoid the lazy and the trite. Strive for originality but not at the expense of clarity. It's a worthy mandate for both clients and designers, one that is applicable to the visual language as well as the written.

January 5th, 2010 by Matthew Brett

This video developed by the American Museum of Natural History is nothing short of breathtaking when viewed in full screen mode. It maps the known universe, scaling back from the (relative) epic peaks of the Himalayas, through the galaxies and toward the limit of the knowable universe, and hence, the literal beginning of time. All done to scale.

 

It's quite moving to see where we stand in relation to the rest of the universe, akin to staring at the stars on a summer night and feeling blissfully insignificant in the grand scheme of things. When the film scales back from the known reaches of our universe back to Earth, it's quite comforting and makes me think of Earth as "home" in a fresh way. 

 

I considered creating some dopey top ten list to commence 2010 but thought that this did a good job of visually putting our planet (and worries) into perspective and context.

 

Thanks to David Airey of Belfast for sharing this.