Get it right...

This post is about the election. Again. This time, it's about design, not content. We received two non-addressed flyers in for the candidates for our constituency.

Oh dear.

Conservatives:

Standard template (as most of these things are), however the layout on the send side is pretty poor. As for the image of the candidate - oh dear. Was that a family picture that you've cropped to size?

Score: 5/10

BNP:

There's about 18

abominations against the laws of good aesthetics here, surely. And again, the image of the candidate is poor. Mr Orr looks barely alive. Never mind the policies, I'm not sure he's going to survive until the

votes are counted...

Score: 1/10

Fortunately, elections aren't about being the best looking candidate. Thatcher won, after all. Nope, elections should be about the issues. And each of these parties has their three point plans laid out pretty clearly (that'll be the tick marks then).

SNP

The SNP seemed to send us more personal correspondence - addressed to Mrs theWeir and I separately. Which is interesting as I'm pretty sure we're on the edited electoral

roll.

Anyway, it's actually a decent letter and an interesting wee flyer.

Shame that the flyer made me think of being here, in New Zealand...

So, have you had any examples of beautiful design from your candidates?

...and relax

One of the many things I enjoy is stretching.

My back has been sore since Saturday - partly because of dancing with Mrs theWeir at Colin & Sue's 25th Wedding Anniversary, and partly because I haven't done much stretching.

There's something satisfying about a good stretch. My experience is there's many physical benefits, but mainly it's the after-stretch feeling that I like.

Something I *don't* like to see stretched is an image. It's one of those things that bug me if I see it when looking at a slide deck someone else has made. Not that everyone does it, or that it's always inappropriate, but there's something to be said for maintaining the integrity of the original image. Particularly if it's copyrighted ;-p

Jan wrote this gentle reminder and this more detailed how-to if you want to have a higher-resolution image.

Does this bug you?

difficult is simple

Okay, time for a statement of the bleeding obvious.

There's often times in life when we experience inertia. For me it's when there's something difficult on the horizon. Something that might take fair bit of effort to make happen.

It struck me the other day that anything that is difficult is often really simple.

What makes something simple?

Take some time to understand the situation, make a list of these little thing, put them into priority order then:

Do little things. Do them well. Do them excellently.

Difficult becomes simple.

Nothing earth-shattering in that, but it helped me with some stuff this week. What else would you say makes difficult things simple?

let me rephrase that...

Hmm.

Dave Gray (of XPLANE) recently used the *classic* AK-47 as an example of great design in the context of a design conference. He took a bit of flak from people for using a weapon as a positive example. It's worth reading what was quoted and the response on his blog. You can read that here.

I agree in the main with Dave's points in his reply, but that's not what got me thinking. I was simply reminded that we all have a lens through which the world is viewed. If you are anti-war/-gun/-death then the use of an AK-47 may be something you'd take offence at. It's the antithesis of your ethics, morals or taste - it's evil. It's a sign that there's little ethics in design anymore etc etc. It's. it's, it's... We miss the point that was being made and stay at our defensive position, ready to defend all who come against us.

Or.

The way I saw it was this: the gun is not something I'd hold up as a great thing. Let's be clear about that. The AK-47 is, however, a great piece of design (on the principle of what was it intended for? and does it do the job?).

I'm left thinking if the critic was listening or if Dave made his point this clearly enough. Sure, there may be a number of other examples - like the Land Rover.

But as Dave said. "It's in imperect world"

get drawing

I've been catching up on the blogs I follow over the past few hours...

Dan Roam (author of the excellent Back of the Napkin) shared this story of an airline hostess who encouraged passengers to draw during flight to break things up.

Now, I'm not great at drawing, but that's not the point of the book, or the story. Reading this story made me think about how accessible drawing is. We got the weeWeir a simple magna-doodle-type toy for Christmas (no, it wasn't from Santa), and the story makes me want to encourage Beth to be able to express herself with pictures as well as words.

In other thoughts, I also found it a little odd that people had put the artwork in a museum already. I get the reasoning, but it still seems a little strange.

What do you think? Can you draw?

The Reason

"The reason they want you to fit in... is that once you do, then they can ignore you."

Thanks, Seth

Real Fiction

A few months ago, I watched the film Stranger than Fiction and loved it. I was really surprised how much I loved it.

I think it was the mix of a great plot, some lovely cinematography and a few really cool mashups of design/technical drawing/schematics and real-life. Loved it.

So then I saw the video embedded below and was reminded of that film - as well as appreciating the message. I might not be Canadian, but I totally get the point of this:

Hellmann’s - It’s Time for Real from CRUSH on Vimeo.

I think I also loved that this was from a HUGE corporation (Hellman's is a Unilever brand). I wonder how much of this is reflecting their corporate mentality...? Oh and it doesn't make me want to by their product. But that's not the point, right?

H/T http://infosthetics.com/

Typefaces give us signals

A while back I made up some posters for our area at work. When they were printed, the font was wrong.

While it was not ideal for the trees, I fixed the problem and got them reprinted. One of McColleagues laughed that I was so concerned with the font.

My reasons for wanting the font to be right. Aside from bringing some balance to the design, consistent fonts make a difference. They give us signposts as to what we are looking at. Subliminal or not.

So, you can imagine my delight when Garr Reynolds shared this:

Typefaces give us signals from erik spiekermann on Vimeo.

(here is the source is you can't see the embed)

A nice little tune, a bit of humour and a simple point well made. I love it.

What do you think?

Typefaces give us signals.