(via mexicanfoodporn)
Exactly.
(via girlinlondon)
I remind myself of this every time I start following the crowd.
Let's face it, graphic designers are cliché-mongers.
Yet don’t be insulted (or embarrassed)––this is not as damning as it sounds. It is, however, the essential paradox. Although most designers’ goal is to create work that is here and now, the majority of graphic communication is grounded in the tried and true. In A Dictionary of Visual Language, Philip Thompson explained that classic or “hackneyed” pieces of imagery “persist because they contain an essential truth that appeals to our collective sense of myth and form.” The world understands these images at a glance. People don’t necessarily relish learning a new language every time they open a magazine, read an advertisement or see a billboard. Yet neither do they want to be bored by what they read or see.
…To use the word cliché in a critique about a work of art of graphic design is indeed the sharpest barb. Yet visual clichés are also mnemonics, entry points and way-finders––both necessary and invaluable. The job of the contemporary designer is to somehow manipulate clichés by recasting their archetypal meaning. Mediocre designers use clichés without alteration, but clever designers invest timeworn veneers with new levels of meaning. Since graphic design is, in large part, a recycling of common imagery, then designers should squeeze out uncommon solutions.
New thoughts, after all, rise from discarded old ones. Every designer builds on an existing premise or problem. And the majority of design solutions derive from worn-out expressions. At best, these expressions are made totally new; at worst, they are derivative and formulaic. Although some designers would prefer to always answer the muse within, graphic design is the art of meeting challenges from without. “Today’s archetype was yesterday’s art form, day before yesterday’s cliché, and the day before that, it was the last word,” wrote Howard Gossage, an advertising executive. Only time determines the viability of a common design solution. So understanding how designers throughout history have solved basic conceptual problems validates the rationale that graphic design is a collection of familiar visual idioms and accents made new.
(excerpt from Icons of Graphic Design by Steven Heller & Mirko Ilíc)
I need to get myself a new sketchbook before I leave.
(via visualgraphic)
8) Doubt is better than certainty
Ten Things I Have Learned by Milton Glaser
