Bread Line Design

 cli•ché –noun

1. a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse, as sadder but wiser, or strong as an ox.

2. anything that has become trite or commonplace through overuse.

Alright, next time I see the “dictionary definition as a graphic” technique on a flyer, bookcover, website, whatever, I’m gonna personally track the offending designer down and smack them over the head with a copy of Original Design for Dummies. This trick has been used so many times over the last five years that seeing it now is enough to make me hurl. It’s proliferated so much that yesterday when I innocently reached in my wallet to pay for a can of Irn Bru I was stabbed in the eye by the definition of 50 pence ON THE ACTUAL 50P!

When a design trick appears on the Queens currency you know its truly died a death. Guys (I’m looking at you, students) for the sake of original design, and my continued sanity, lets bury this trick alongside 3D spinning logos and Under Construction gifs, lest we as a community end up burning in design hell.

This is a recent logo I designed for a Newcastle based company. They supply audio equipment for gigs, studios and clubs.

Here are a pair of links to two keynote speaches made at last years TED design conference. Both are around the twenty minute mark and both are absolutely brilliant. The first is Sir Ken Robinson talking about creativity in education, its both execptionally funny and insightful.  

Sir Ken Robinson

The second features Paul Bennett talking about creativity in general, and uses many examples, including IKEA and the health service to show how different perspectives on a problem can lead to exceptional design solutions.

Paul Bennett

Working in a design studio can be both amazingly creative and inspiring, and at other times really dull and repetitive: I look forward to fresh design work, and loath endless image amends. But over the piece I’ve discovered that even when fresh work arrives, the initial excitement of the brief and first concepts can be quickly eroded by fussy clients and permanent design amends. I’ve seen fellow design colleagues go through the same thing, initially fired up for a fresh project, only to moan insistently about it five weeks and a thousand amends later.

This has inspired me to create the fantastic Breadline “Designer Project Interest Curve” in order to plot interest in a project over time. If any of you fellow designers experience the same thing when designing let me know so I know it isn’t just me!