Aainaism

Flowery designs on a business card, too many words on a greeting card, too many images on a poster and too much information on a logo. These are few of many things that can make design look immature and unsophisticated. One rule that has always been prevalent in design is “less is More” and you can never go wrong when following this rule. Intriguing design shows its audience what’s been conveyed rather than telling them. The less a designer shows in a particular piece of design, the more others are compelled to ask questions about it. I believe that a certain design is successful when the audience that it’s catering to actually relates to the design.

In a poster for an event or an organization, it’s most important to apply the rule of “less is More.” Today’s generation is always on its toes, running from home to work and work to the supermarket, etc. People today have no time to stand at one place and look at things around them. It’s a designers responsibility to make them look at their poster. The average time that a designer has to capture people’s attention is 4 seconds. So, the poster has to be appealing and simple enough for people to glance at it in 4 seconds and grab their interest. If a poster passes the “4-second test” (as my teacher likes to call it), it’s a successful poster. In order for it to pass the 4-second test, it needs to be special, different from other posters around it. This is where “Less is More” comes in. Keeping the poster to the point and witty is a must. How many times have you seen posters with pictures of a band and big type on it? Or a poster with a picture of books asking you to borrow money for college? Amidst poster like these always stands out a poster with minimal information and a strong message.

Lately, I have noticed that designers that design stationary systems for companies have managed to cut down on the amount of information they have on a letterhead, envelope and business card. I think this is a great idea as the world is changing in terms of the way people communicate now. An e-mail address should be the primary method of contact listed on a business card unless the nature of a particular business demands other methods of contact to be listed as well. The key point here is to keep is minimal. Just like crowding a small room with a lot of furniture can look messy, crowding a business card with a whole bunch of useless information can make it look cluttered and unappealing.

These days, I am trying to observe more and gather information on how the design world is changing in terms of creating more simplistic and sophisticated pieces. I believe in this “type” of design because sophisticated design is the kind of design that actually looks like it’s designed. I hope that made sense.

I have been researching design material lately and have come across a lot of things like books, magazines, websites and even cities that are big on Graphic Design. Design is emerging at a very rapid speed right now. More and more companies wanting a corporate identity, a design team, a smashing website and all of this to compete with other companies in terms of making people aware of their brand. Advertisers and graphic designers are working so closely these days that it’s difficult to distinguish between their works. Designers help advertisers bring their ideas to life and advertisers are the ones with the ideas (for the most part). It would be very interesting to see how advertising and design will either drift apart or merge together in the future.

Here’s a list of some great design magazines:

• Artistica
• CMYK
• Communication Arts
• Eye
• How
• Graphis
• Print
• Layers
• Before and After
• I.D.
• Step by step
• GD USA
• Adbusters

- Aaina.

I enjoy logging on to Apple’s website once in a while and checking out the new ads they have. I love the attitude of these ads. They make a point apart from being funny and not to mention, witty. But there’s another side to these ads as well. It bothers me that Apple advertises it’s product by putting down it’s competitor, Microsoft. I mean, the ads are great but Apple can always advertise about how wonderful it is rather than telling people how bad their competitor is. Just a thought.

Here’s a cartoon I found based on Apple ads:

There’s a movie coming out (I don’t know when) called No Smoking. The director, Anurag Kashyap had a contest for a poster design for No Smoking back in December of 2006. I submitted three designs. We were told that the winner of the contest will be announced in February but it’s June now and there’s no response. I didn’t really mind that because directors and film makers have a ton of stuff to do, so, they must have been busy with something else. But I was furious when I saw that one of my concepts had been modified into something a little different and put on a poster for the movie and the poster was displayed at a conference. There were no credits or anything. I think that’s very unprofessional of the people that are related to this contest. I posted a comment on Anurag Kashyap’s blog. I don’t know how long it’ll stay there but here’s what I wrote:

“Hi Anurag

Let me first congratulate you on wrapping up your movie, No Smoking. I am one of the contestants of the contest you had on your blog for the poster of No Smoking. We were told that we would get a response saying who the winner is sometime in February but that, obviously, didn’t happen. I am very disappointed in the amount of professionalism that you showed towards this so-called poster contest. Not only did you not announce who the winner is but also went ahead and used one of my concepts for a poster design at a conference. I believe that your contest is a great platform for you to get a whole bunch of talented people to submit their brilliant designs and then rip them off and use them without giving the designer any credit. Very disappointing!”

Here’s my design and below it is the ripped off design (Also notice that the fonts are the same):

Here’s the reply that I got from Anurag: “hey aaina, the winners will be announced soon.. after the release date is locked.. seriously didn’t know your concept was ripped off..the conference poster was done overnight without any consultation by rahul nanda.. if your allegation is true , will rip him apart.. this can’t be happening.. will just get on to it.. and you can claim it.. write me a mail on the poster contest post, with reference to your entry number and i will take him to task.. serious apologies..” AND “AAINA_i am sorry, i saw your three designs.. i can’t see where it is ripped off.. is there something that you see and i don’t..”

Adobe’s creative suite’s next version, 2.3, was launched a while ago. This package will include Adobe’s Universal Acrobat 8 professional software apart from Photoshop CS3, Indesign CS3, Illustrator CS3, Dreamweaver 8, Golive, Adobe Bridge and Adobe Stock Photos. A few days ago, I downloaded a trial version of Photoshop CS3 and found it to be about the same as Photoshop CS2 but better. It’s more user friendly and easier to use. I also signed up for a free trial CD of Adobe Creative Suite 2.3 on Adobe’s website and the CD is due to arrive in mail in 2-3 weeks. I’ll surely post a review on the other applications as soon as I get my CD.

But the bad news is that a few of months ago, I bought Creative Suite 2 because I was in desperate need of it. Had I researched a little more, I would’ve waited for the release of the next version. It’s going to cost me about $160 to upgrade my software to the newer version. I am not too happy about that, but I guess that’s how it goes.