Design enthusiasts from around the world gathered in San Francisco on September 16th for the 2nd annual Brand New Conference – the logo and identity event hatched from Bryony Gomez-Palacio’s and Armin Vit’s wildly popular Brand New blog. Eager to peek into the brand-making process by industry trailblazers and pocket juicy creative nuggets, the well-turned-out set received an ear and eye-full of inspiration from: Vince Frost of Frost Design; Christopher Simmons of MINE™, Paddy Harrington of Bruce Mau, Marina Willer of Wolff Olins, Jonathan Notaro of Brand New School, Claudia Boggio and Alfredo Burga of Infinito, Ben Barry and Everett Katigbak of Facebook, and Matteo Bologna of Mucca Design.
Armin Vit and Bryony Gomez-Palacio opening Brand New Conference 2011 - photo credit Steve Maller
For designer and speaker Paddy Harrington, Armin Vit’s opening design-year-in-review was most memorable. In the same refreshingly honest wit as his blog, the design writer rehashed (for better or worse) a slew of noteworthy identity reveals including Time Warner, the Big Ten, CNN, Comedy Central, Starbucks, JC Penny, and PetCo. “I loved how Armin covered well-known and possibly lesser-known identities. I also loved that he included the My Little Pony redesign,” shares Harrington.
Read my full article on the awesome design blog IMPRINT.
What’s hot? What’s new? Innovation — whether in technology or the arts — has always fascinated our society. Today, the latest buzz is, “What’s next after Facebook and Twitter?” In the 19th century, we were dying to know, “What’s next after Impressionism?” Regardless of the century, groundbreaking trailblazers continue to excite and pique our interests.
Following the extraordinary summer exhibition Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay at the de Young Museum in San Francisco (seen by over 430,000 visitors) is Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post-Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay. This exhibition, the second of the two exhibitions traveling around the world from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, explores the evolution of cutting-edge artistic developments by renowned Post-Impressionist artists (and some lesser known ones too).
Read my full arts review on SF STATION.
When running a one-man show as a self-employed creative (artist, graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, writer, etc.), how we prioritize our time is of the utmost importance to the success of our business. When the economy is good, our days are spent juggling “the creative side” with all the other tasks of keeping the company afloat. But when times are slow, like now, an imbalanced portion of our time is spent on promotion. This, of course, is an absolute necessity. But with a significant portion of time spent marketing via Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, blogs, online discussion groups, sending out direct mailers, emails, and the like, at what point do we take a break from all this promoting and start creating again?
Clever new card created for my greeting card company She's SO Creative. Photo Courtesy Stephanie Orma / She's SO Creative.
For my greeting card business, She’s SO Creative, I certainly find myself struggling to justify time spent on creating new cards when business is slow. Do I create new products when I still have a fair amount of unsold inventory or do I just hold off and wait for the storm to subside? Retailers need fresh inventory in their stores because customers will stop coming if they see the same old products day in and day out. And retailers won’t buy from manufacturers if they having nothing new to offer.
Along the same lines, how do we as commercial artists grow our talents in a sluggish economy, if we’re not gaining new clients? Taking on new projects challenges us, keeps our skills sharp, and feeds our creative souls. And those entities are the bread and butter of our business. Plus, creating new work adds another project to our portfolio; an extremely vital element as it’s the actual tangible item that sells our services.
Whether we create a new project in a graphic design or illustration class, take on a non-for-profit client, or write a magazine article on spec, this is our livelihood and we need to keep moving forward. I absolutely believe we should be spending a large portion of our time promoting our services and drumming up new business. But I think it’s equally important to dedicate a certain portion of our day, our week, our lives to creating. In fact, I’m cutting this article short to start working on some new greeting cards right now!
(originally appeared in SF Examiner 3/30/09)