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It is far moire likely that designers have studied and understand interface design than for a programmer to have done so given that it is the very thing we do, we do not just "draw pretty pictures". Design is a commercial art for which I make no apologies. We utilize type and image to interact with people in a myriad of ways. If it's print, then the use of paper, folds, and design all come into play to guide the audience through the piece. If it's broadcast design then understanding how to fit a huge amount of information in as tight a space such as tickers or lower thirds requires a bit more knowledge than how to draw pretty pictures. Same goes for the web. I'm sure you coudl find examples of designers who used pretty pictures on the web simply to use pretty pictures. However, I point to sites like http://www.geoterra.com/, or http://www.bmwusa.com/allnew3 for examples of excellent design with human interaction in mind (both won top honors in Communication Arts - you can view more great sites by following this link). If you want to see a coupe excellent examples of design studios who do web sites very well hop on over to http://www.secondstory.com/, http://www.terraincognito.com/,

Another good example is the Bell System. (Two links there.)

I think they're all just staffed with Dark Jedi. After all, the AT&T logo is the Death Star.

the following magazines, time permitting:

Print Magazine
Communication Arts
Dwell
Step Inside Design
MacWorld
MacAddict
Writer's Digest
Maxim

Of course, it's rare that I actually get to READ them all, but I like to at least have the material available to me.

I nominate Communication Arts for design czar. :)

Very well put. More concise and to the point than I was able to get across.


I'd like to also add re: competition. Much of this competition today is competing for the approval of external agents such as one's peers, and ironically, one's customers.


Hence the major fault of most marketing (and in essence the capitalist infrastructure). The best marketing is the one that wins the most customers. Period. Almost without regard to ethics.

Witness for example, a Communication Arts article indicating the amount of creative effort that goes into a "successful" ad campaign.

What I'd like to know is if the people responsible for fulfilling their individual, essential, niche roles in that juggernaut of slick promotion ever ask themselves whether their valuable time and amazing creative energies couldn't be better spent actually helping needy people live better lives.

Yeah, I read Adbusters (among other things :-).

And yeah, I used to work for an ad agency.

I'm going to go outside soon, I'm losing focus.

Conclusion. I look forward to a period of personal accountability in human affairs. A period where decisions are made honestly and individually.

Sure it'll take more time and effort, but then again...





What's the rush?





slide

the logo they're plastering on these things is awful. Paul Rand would puke.

sure it's the right blue (maybe - web colors suck for ID standards) and there are the stripes, but gradients and dropshadows? on a logo?

okay, so i don't play the part of design nazi very well, but i did have the logo usage standards drilled into my head when i worked at Big Blue, and it sucks to see them ogilvy-and-mathered. yarf.

Many to choose from!