How not to do it

This is an actual email, sent by an actual graphic designer to an actual client, then forwarded to another actual graphic designer (the one whose design is in question).

If that sounds convoluted, it is.

Now, it's important to be detail-oriented, and I can understand how as a student studying design you may want specific feedback like this, but it's not critique or problem-solving; it's an exercise in control and not healthy or helpful.

Details have been deleted for good reason, below:

- Colors: the only colors that should be used are the four depicted in the logo plus the purple when needed
- Replace the middle blue (used in the background of the body text with the deep blue
- Flush left all of the text
- Use same font for the subhead preferably bold
- Replace subhead "Our Mission" with tagline
- Move "Our mission" to beginning of body text (so it's apart of the copy block)
- Delete tagline on right
- Delete ribbon (however, if this is not an option, move it to left side under the copy block in the lower right corner
- Now image area is larger so the photos can be larger and cleaned up (see below)
- Add .5pt size light blue stroke in between images (because these photos are all different, have different backgrounds, color combinations, etc. when they sit next to each other it looks confusing. A stroke with help define them and have them look less messy)
- I'm not thrilled about the way the shots are cropped and positioned in relation to each other, but it's too hard to explain without doing it myself. However, I can make one recommendation, to have the image on the bottom stretch across the entire image area to help anchor the images above. By having that image cut off, it appears stunted.
- Because this is a booth graphic, I worry that the info on the bottom will get lost. I'd rather see the four bands of color be at the bottom and everything raised. While the colors are important, it's more of a motif. Your message is what's important.
- Remove one of the logos. Seeing two logos on one large-scale booth graphic is redundant. I'd have to see it, but in this case just center a single logo.
- Remove blue behind logo

Fall Flung

I don't know if this post title is a take on Fall Fling or Far Flung, but I do know I wish I had some milk to go with the Oreo cookies I'm eating right now.

So it's fall people. As in, autumn.

Now you may be thinking, What is she talking about? It's still July.

What I'm talking about is the release of the fall schedule for UCLA Extension courses, which is now updated online and available in PDF here (on your right).

Please, if you're looking to take Drawing for Communication online or Design History and Context, be sure to enroll soon. It's only the first day of registration and they're already 25% full. I know those are important requirements to fit into your schedule.

Let me know if you have questions about the courses or instructors. We've got a few new ones: Michael Dooley, Larry Poindexter and Jason Buzzeo, all of whom are awesome.

My First Avatar

I remember sitting in on Graphic Design Career Launch Pad with Pash last quarter when he mentioned avatars to students, and suggested that they may want to create one as part of their self-branding. That was the second time that week that someone talked about avatars, the first being when Dragos Bogdan suggested I get one since I have a blog.

Then, this morning, Cristina showed me her Mad Men avatar and I got interested because I'm a fan of the show. (I've only seen the first season because I don't actually have real television, just Netflix, so I'm a little behind, but still digging it.) Also, Geoff Mandel works on that show and I missed a field trip to the set, but that's okay because nothing will be as magical as what I see on the screen.

Anyway, here is my Mad Men avatar:



In it I'm eating a donut which is pretty life-like, or at least way more accurate than having me walking around with a Manhattan in my hand. It was fun to make in a playing paper dolls sort of way, and as a user I'd rate my experience an eight out of ten. It takes a while to load and for some reason only shows male character options while loading, which is annoying. But if you're interested in creating your own so you can hang with Joanie and Peggy and the dudes, go here.

This is advertising in a digital age, and they got me. But, I liked the product already, so I'm not sure if that counts. Does that count? Also, why is my avatar and the world it inhabits so brown? My color palatte needs a redesign.

Congratulations Graduates!

Okay, so our UCLA Extension-wide graduation was last month, but I just saw this photo of DCA certificate awardees with Scott Hutchinson, our Program Director and oft-instigator of blog posts. I love how happy and jubilant everyone looks.

Publication Design by Vogue

I saw photos of the July 2009 Italian Vogue supplement when reading Jezebel this morning. See more of the doll photo shoot here, which is pretty awesome, even if I have mixed feelings about the doll. It's Barbies playing doubles! It's Barbies running in heels! I also really like how they re-imagined the masthead for this supplement.

Did you know there is a "Totally Tattoo" Barbie? It was released in April of this year. That's a fun fact for you.

Reality Art World

Cristina wrote a funny post about auditions for the new reality show for artists on Bravo. She loves puns!

The Hurricane Poster Project

This project to benefit those impacted by Hurricane Katrina has passed, but the poster images are still there, and very lovely.

Critiques Not Papercuts

Papercut by Craig Ward

I don't know what this title means, exactly, but I feel in a distance synapse somewhere, it makes sense (which may be something I've said before because my titles aren't always, um, intuitive).

Anyway, last night was our first critique in Mixed Media with James Fish. I've been critiqued many times before but usually on my writing or, more recently, my trapeze sets.

It went well.

And well not as in everyone loved it, no one had suggestions and I felt praised as only an only child can feel by a grade mongering mother. There were plenty of suggestions and one person even used "a little much" to describe a choice I had made. As in, "The border is a little much." Hey, so it goes. Your little much is my just right, which is true too of my feelings about fresh strawberries and pre-tax retirement savings.

But that idea about adding some blue to soften the white, that I liked.

What struck me last evening was how well James handled the range of feelings and questions people brought to class. Some graciously solicited feedback, some wanted choices made for them, some were really hard on themselves, some weren't finished. James juggled it all with aplomb while I marveled at his probing questions, agility in not getting pulled into an emotional brew, and smooth skill in placing the onus gently on students to create their own solutions.

For example, when a student asks a class to imagine... a large lime-green bee flying over a medium-sized pyramid logo with a tropical ocean behind it... or something... How would that look?

The simple answer is we don't know until we see it.

So, critiques. When I'm observing courses I often marvel at how wildly different this critical (ha!) part of instruction can go, depending on the instructor. Some are super structured and offer three points that will be commented on per project with each student getting five minutes of response time, while others are looser and review the entirety of the work. Either and more methods can work well depending on the class.

On the student's end, I find it's really helpful to disconnect from the work. The intention of a critique is to explore options and potentially improve the piece. It can help to remember that it's about the piece, not about me, and that I've got a lot to learn, and that there are people who have a lot of ideas to offer. I can try them on and accept and dismiss and alter as I wish. It's actually kind of exciting. Working on creative projects is often such an isolated experience, just me and my gesso imagining I'm in the French countryside making my living selling fresh bread and short stories, like a real artist who owns only one pair of shoes. It can be freeing to get some other perspectives.

On a related note, there is a site called Please Critique Me where you can submit your work for feedback. They also cite an article on what goes into a good critique, which can be useful when responding to others' work or looking at your own.

Communication Arts has Illustration Winners Online

The winning illustrations and artists can be viewed here.

Artbeat for Humanity at the REMO Recreational Music Center

Road Trip

Road trips are on my mind.

Apparently, perhaps attributable to summertime, they are also on the minds of writers at GOOD and the NYT.

The former has an article called Rest Stops, R.I.P. and the latter has one called Should Roadside Memorials Be Banned?

They're not related, I mean they are but they aren't. Both articles have several engaging photographs of daily life art and design.

Carrie Imai and Calligraphy

In the summer n-vis-n newsletter, you can read about calligrapher and instructor Carrie Imai, who is just as passionate about teaching as she is about her art. “I thought I had it good when I found calligraphy, but I found my true passion when I saw the light go on in a student’s eyes.”

Carrie first taught at UCLA Extension this past winter quarter, when she introduced Calligraphy: From Classical to Contemporary. This fall, she’ll present a new course, Calligraphy: Gothic Alphabets.

Read the complete newsletter by clicking on the link in the right column of this blog.

So Many Contests

I'm still getting used to the idea of our government sponsoring contests... Regardless, here is one for creating a flu prevention PSA, because in the fall it seems certain we're going to see more people wearing those surgical masks around town.

The Good Design Book: Request for Submissions

This is happening (there isn't even a fee for entry) by HOW Design Books:

We’re looking for the best examples of design work that engages and addresses critical causes. This can include paid or pro bono work for non-profits, political causes, social justice, the arts, education as well as self-initiated projects that support the greater good.

Work can be in any medium — posters, logos, websites, brochures, campaigns, naming/branding, etc. We’re especially interested in systemic and/or programmatic solutions, as well as beautiful artifacts.

For all the info go here.

Re: website optimizer + Thank you

-----Original Message-----
From: Hutchinson, Scott
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 5:21 PM
To: Lauritsen, Karen
Subject: FW: website optimizer + Thank you

...excellent for testing with partners projects and great experience for designers to understand the impact of visual decisions.

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael
Sent: Monday, July 06, 2009 2:13 PM
To: Hutchinson, Scott
Cc: Lorna
Subject: Re: website optimizer + Thank you

Another "intro" article:

http://www.uxbooth.com/blog/how-to-increase-site-performance-through-ab-split-testing/

This is the stuff you see a lot of in practice that students in academic courses don't really get so much experience at....the difference is mostly quantity of traffic. Might be fun to do project courses based on real sites if you could find some partners.

Hope things are well! I unfortunately broke my foot on the Sonoma trip, so I'm not getting out much. Will be better in August, supposedly.

mike

Real Artists on Reality TV?

This is happening:

Bravo's next reality competition series will join the forces of Sarah Jessica Parker and her production company, Pretty Matches with Magical Elves (Top Chef, Project Runway) and Eli Holzman to produce a reality series dubbed The Untitled Art Project.

The series will focus on thirteen up-and-coming artists who compete for a gallery show, a cash prize and a sponsored national tour. Bravo is hosting national casting calls for artists in various cities across the nation starting this month.

The first open casting call is July 11-12 in Los Angeles; followed by July 14 in Miami; July 16in Chicago; and July 18-19 in New York. More information on the series and casting calls can be found at www.BravoTV.com/casting.

Edward Tufte & Hans Rosling: Scott Drops

Gapminder World Chart Found Here

Often I'll be talking to Scott and he'll drop a name or movement or style and then keep going, assuming I'm as intimately familiar with the reference as he is. Although perhaps flattering, this usually is not the case as I'm not great at holding onto names of people and things I only read about. It hurt me on high school tests and it hurts me now.

Anyway, one of the names that has stuck with me through repeated Scott exposure is Edward Tufte. There is an article on him in the NYT because he has a class called “Edward Tufte: Short Course and Sculpture Tour” at the Ridgefield Playhouse next week. First, if your name is part of a title followed by a colon, as though you are your own dissertation, you know you've hit the big time. Second, Ridgefield Playhouse needs to improve its website because it took me too long to figure out that it's in Connecticut.

Speaking of websites, Edward Tufte has one, and it uses Times New Roman, which is an affront to me for reasons I can't articulate. But it also has amazing posters, like this one, about cyclograms, which is a word I learned when looking at this poster, made by a Russian cosmonaut (another great word). I can't figure out a way to see it larger, but it looks beautiful and apparently shows a schedule for space walks and baths and visits of resupply ships bringing equipment, fresh fruit, and gingerbread. That is so awesome to me. Taking space baths! Eating kiwi among the stars!

Anyway, I saw Tufte's schedule of talks on his website, and asked Scott if this independent scholar who is no longer affiliated with a learning institution had something so extraordinary to say that it would be worth dropping $380. That's when he told me about Hans Rosling and I sat in his office and watched this and learned about Trendalyzer Beta. Not only is he one of my Nordic people and a showman who wears costumes after my own heart (wait for it, at the end of the video, when he unbuttons his shirt) but he adds time to the equation in visually representing information (which Tufte doesn't incorporate). Rosling sold his algorithm to Google, where his son works, and I look at a product of this algorhythm every time I check my blog analytics. Also, I prefer his website to Tufte's, not that it's a competition for my website affection...

So yeah, another post about infographics by "Karen Lauritsen: Mental Cosmonaut and Gingerbread Maker."

Newspaper Clippings

Image from Corbis

My aunt saved an article from the WSJ for me that I just now read, over a month later. It was the cover story of the Weekend Journal section, and on it in ballpoint pen she wrote, "Karen wonderful story," and underlined her note twice. I liked that.

The article is about how the bankruptcy of GM can be explained romantically, not economically. "Fire the MBAs and hire a poet," author P.J. O'Rourke says.

I'm including it here because Scott subscribes to the WSJ and when it arrives at the office we often discuss the articles as they relate to design. This article is about the emotional associations we can have with design, and other life things that I won't try and encapsulate here.

It's a lovely story. Read it here. It's not as nice to read online as it is to read it in print, but, that's sort of part of the story too.

Precious Things

No, this is not my tribute to all things Tori Amos. This is about value in our culture and how it relates to art.

But first, Happy Birthday Cristina! I value you.



Currently I'm digitizing my music, which involves a lot of CDs that I have never listed to nor purchased myself. I do the digitizing in a nearly trance-like state, vaguely wondering why I'm going to so much trouble overheating my little iMac to create an expansive library of songs that I'm not sure I will ever listen to.

An aside: You know when you look at the bottom of your iTunes library and it's like, 7.2 days of music? I always imagine pressing play and just having the music go, creating a soundtrack for a week of my life. What will play when I sleep? What will play while I have a friend over for dinner? How will what is playing determine how I'm feeling about what is happening? How many songs and compositions will I even like? What if Def Leppard comes on during a Schubert moment?

Anyway, recently I was asked if I listened to Neko Case and I didn't know the answer, which is weird. I recognized her name and even thought I had seen her in concert when she was pregnant, until my friend told me she's never been pregnant.

So. I plan to buy her music this weekend because the little research I've done reveals that I will totally dig her because I love anything just a little bit country. Or a lot, for that matter. Also, I love Greg Brown.

Wow, I'm taking a while to get to my point about value here. Hopefully I can tie all this all together; please stay with me...

Value is easy to dismiss and hard to hold onto. In Mixed Media last night, James was telling us that we needed to choose a material that had some gravitas to it because he wanted us to value our work. (This was in response to a student who was wondering about using illustration paper as a foundation.) Choosing something cheap and flimsy for a four week collage assignment wasn't going to do our time or our art any justice. He wanted us to invest in what we were making, to create something to be framed and shared. Simply, something to be valued. Why it's so easy for us to downplay the value of our work (and in turn ourselves) is a symptom of something larger I think, but if I start theorizing on that this post will really lose its way.

Yet it's easy to not value much when we live in excess. Do I value my 7.2 days of music, lots of which I didn't buy myself out of love or fandom, but instead came my way through sharing or, frankly, theft? Buying Neko Case's music will be more meaningful because I'm making a conscious choice, it was recommended by someone whose opinion I value, and it has an association for me. Yet I know that sometimes those opportunities, to appreciate and potentially value that which someone else does, are also easy to miss.

As for my first collage, I'm using elements from my past, pieces that have emotional value on their own that cumulatively, through my time and work, will perhaps accrue more value. This investment means that I will get involved with this thing, we'll start a sort of relationship I guess. Which may be why people are afraid of making a collage on a hearty foundation or really giving something a lot of time. Because it still may not work out, which then means you've got to value the process and not just the output.

Okay, I'm going to stop before this gets even more unwieldy.

To summarize:

1. Today is Cristina's birthday.
2. I have mixed feelings about my music library.
3. What James said in class got me philosophizing.
4. I'm totally into making collages.
5. Value is important and I like to value.