Design a poster that communicates the message that we are giving away tickets to the Broadway series. To be in with a chance to win, they must come to the showroom, and we want the ad to encourage them to also test drive the new 2010 GLK while they are there.

So, I got to work. Firstly, I got the document ready in Photoshop, 22 x 28 inches, 300 dpi. I gave it a .127 bleed to work with.

I decided that a decent stock image of the interior of a theater would work nicely, as the posters were to be placed inside the lobby area of the performing arts hall. This imagery would also give me the upscale look I was hoping to create to tie in with the Mercedes Benz brand. So, I placed the above stock image into the photoshop document, and sized it to take up just over half of the poster vertically.

Then, I added dark grey to the bottom half of the poster, pulling the color from a Mercedes Benz brochure. I then decided it was time to place in the main message of the poster, and the text I was supplied with was, "WIN A PAIR OF PREMIUM ORCHESTRA SEATS TO THE 2009-2010 BROADWAY SERIES". I added this text and after some formatting, it started to fit nicely. The upper level of the seating in the image needed to be darkened down so that the white text would stand out clearly. The font type used is the the standard Mercedes Benz font, Corporate S.

By adding a slight drop shadow ( opacity=100%, angle=120, distance=37px, size=5 ) and dark outer glow ( opacity=85%, size=32 ), the text now popped and would be easily legible from a distance when viewed in the lobby of the performing arts hall.

The 2010 GLK car image was going to be placed on the stage, so I had to first create a stage and then clip the image of the GLK that I was provided with. I created the stage in three steps. First, I drew an elongated oval shape in light grey, with the pen tool spanning the width of the poster. I then duplicated that layer, and added a filter to it. ( Filter > Render > Fibers ) To give it somewhat of a spotlight look, I masked over right and left hand sides slightly.

Once the stage was complete, I placed the clipped GLK layer, and placed it onto the stage. I carried out some photoshop work on the car to enhance it a little, and you can see the changes I made in the before and after image below.

To finish it off, I placed in the additional text supplied by the client and the poster was ready for print. I flattened all layers and pdf’d it and sent it off. The postcards were designed in the same style to match the posters, and together they make a nice impact inside the performing arts hall on show nights.

So, I thought I might as well share my response to him with you, and it may end up helping someone else similar to this 14 yr old that emailed my company.

The three pieces you sent are quite impressive for a 14 yr old (for any age really). You obviously have a natural artistic ability and this is vital to being a good graphic designer. You can only learn so much but you need that intrinsic ability to know what visually appeals and works for the look you are trying to achieve.

It is important to learn how to combine your creativity and natural artistic ability with the business aspect of being a graphic designer. As a graphic designer, you also play a large role as a marketing professional, and you need to learn how to apply your art and design skills to the business world. This is vitally important as this will allow you to make a living from your craft. I know many designers that are extremely creative but lack the ability to use that creativity in a business / advertising environment.

Professional graphic design is all about communicating a message as powerfully and memorable as possible. If you become a professional designer, you will have clients that have messages (products , services etc) that they need to communicate to their market through advertising, and it will be up to you to figure out how to use your design skill and knowledge to present that message in the most effective way possible.

Another piece of advice is to always continue learning and expanding upon your skill set. Never settle for the knowledge you have at any point. Always strive to learn more.

Some other recent posts that I have published that provide advice for young designers are "50 Reasons Why You Will Not Make It As A Freelancer ", "What Not To Do When Designing a Logo " and "Most Important Thing I Would Tell A Design Student "

Yesterday, my company Brian Joseph Studios received an inquiry from our contact form, and in the "Tell us a little about your project" field, the potential client wrote:

" The usual - totally waste my competition; become filthy rich with my revenue generated from the internet; retire early et cetera "

Someone with a personality and a sense of humor like this makes me like them right off the bat. I want this guy to be a client for my company. We could even give him a "cool guy" discount on our quote.

Designers/Developers etc, have you ever received a funny / strange / odd inquiry? I would love to hear about it in the comments field!

Here is how I got to the current state of mind I am currently in:

We all want instant gratification; instant answers. Websites with a “live chat available” option is a like an oasis in the desert for the wandering nomad lost without a camel. I have a question, and I want a response immediately. This is the world we live in. However, I am also on the computer a lot, which makes me dislike my phone and speaking on the phone more and more as a way of communicating. This seems to be typical with most “techy” types as we work mostly in an online world, where we control when and how communication is made. The telephone naturally becomes a nuisance and an interruption.

However (again)….the telephone is the most efficient way to get the instant answer we are looking for, that instant gratification most of us demand as 21st Century civilians.

So, we are somewhere in between a rock and a hard place. Or on Twitter. Is that the solution for this communication conundrum?

As a designer, I am constantly networking with peers worldwide using social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter . As both services grow, develop and increase in popularity, they begin to take on a similar shape to one another. We can share links, photos and other information to our online friends using applications dedicated to one or both of these services.

So, why use both? As Facebook and Twitter battle it out, users are left in the middle to deal with the overlap, the mess and the frustration of constantly seeing double.

I use Facebook to……

be quite a bit more personal with my network than on Twitter. Facebook’s main purpose is largely to allow you to share pictures and videos with your friends, family, peers and collegues. Of course there are hundreds of other functions on Facebook that allow you to connect with your network, but most of it is all geared towards the ability to get to know others and allow others to get to know you by supplying information about your life.

Here is where it gets cloudy. I have both "in-person" friends and "online" friends on Facebook. The majority of my "in-person" friends don’t care that I found a great site with a list of high res textures . They are not designers nor do they have any interest in graphic, web or logo design . My "online"  friends do however. Just like I have an interest in the links and information that they share with me.

Due to this combination of having my friends and my online network both on Facebook, I have made a decision that it is best to make the majority of my information sharing on Facebook more personal than career/design/seo/marketing oriented.

I use Twitter to……

mainly share links, career experiences, and random thoughts with my nework. I currently follow around 500 people on Twitter, with a large majority of them in the graphic design, internet marketing or web design industry. In contrast to the thoughts of the general public, Twitter is far from simply being a website where you tell people "what you are doing". The major media channels have been pretty poor in their half-assed attempts to educate their viewers about Twitter, and it’s potential as a social media tool.

Ryan Seacrest on E! News said that they are now on Twitter but he has no idea what it is supposed to do, Kiera on CNN said something similar, Jon Stewart on the Daily Show claimed to have no idea why anyone would use Twitter….and the list goes on. Many "non-web" people are signing up to Twitter now that it has gained mass exposure, yet most have no idea why they signed up and what they are going to use it for. "I don’t get it" seems to be a popular first tweet.

Here is an excerpt from a monthly feature that I write for a local Chamber of Commerce newsletter, discussing my thoughts on Twitter:

"Twitter is a social media application that allows you to connect with people online. There is a misleading trend in the news media right now describing Twitter as something to simply tell people "what you are doing" at the moment you post an update. Twitter, if utilized to its full potential, can be the most powerful tool to help you advance in your career, or to make your company more successful. By setting up a Twitter account, you can instantly start to connect with other people by "following" them, which means you will receive their updates in your timeline. Likewise, people can "follow" you and your updates to see what you are talking about. This ability to instantly connect with hundreds and thousands of people around the world is what makes Twitter so special. If you are in the real estate industry, you can find other real estate agents around the world to connect with, share links/stories/experiences/advice with, and receive it all back. For us at Brian Joseph Studios, we use Twitter to connect with thousands of designers and developers from many countries, and we share links and advice with our network, and receive the same in return. The community that you can build within your Twitter network is invaluable and the daily industry knowledge you will receive is unmatched on any other social media site, newspaper or magazine. To put it simply, Twitter can connect you with thousands of experts in your industry, and most of them are more than willing to share their experience and knowledge with you. If they find a good link on a website, or an important news story, they will post it to their Twitter account, and you will receive it if you follow them. It is so much more than telling someone what you are doing."

The Result

Most of us that are active on Twitter and Facebook will have noticed an increasingly evident overlap between the two, and I am of the opinion that this is not a good thing. I follow many other designers on Twitter to see the links they have to share, the pieces of advice they have to share, and their general thoughts on their career and experiences. I am also Facebook friends with many of them so that I can get to know them a little more personally and share some personal aspects of my life with them. In other terms, Twitter is for business (mostly) and Facebook is for pleasure (mostly).

Many of us use "Tweetdeck" as a desktop app to update our Twitter timeline, and with its recent Facebook addon, Teetdeck users can now update their Facebook status at the same time that they send out a tweet. As result, I am receiving your post twice. I follow you on Twitter and I thank you for your tweet, but is it really necessary to post it to your Facebook account also? Don’t you think that a huge majority of people that want to receive your updates already follow you on Twitter for this purpose? With a little research, one popular designer that I follow on Twitter has about 10,000 followers. He has about 1,500 Facebook friends. I wonder how many of those 1,500 Facebook friends don’t follow him on Twitter? And if they don’t follow him on Twitter do they really want to know about the logo of the day everyday? (p.s. I think Jacob Cass is an awesome guy, just using him as an example!)

And I would like to finish with one final question: If I sent you an email today telling you about a new website my company launched, and then another email within 5 minutes with the exact same information, would you find that useful?

The crossover between Facebook and Twitter, in my opinion, is causing one of them to start feeling "spammy". I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate the information you provide on Twitter, and I want to get to know you more personally on Facebook. How can we get back to that?

I have seen many of my Facebook friends recently post status updates along the lines of  "Please stop posting your Twitter updates on Facebook. I follow you on Twitter for this purpose." etc etc.

I would love to hear the thoughts of all of you, whether you post the same information on both Twitter and Facebook, or you like to keep them separate. I personally have posted the same information on both but this is rare. I typically only post my Twitter updates on Facebook if I they are somewhat more personal than a standard design related link.

What are your thoughts on how the design community should move forward with Facebook and Twitter as they gain incredible popularity?

**UPDATE - June 19th -  I have closed comments on this post now as I feel that all sides of the argument have been voiced, and it seems the right time to close the discussion on this particular post. I look forward to the continuing debate on other sites/blogs from all of you.  Thank you very much for all of your comments here, the retweets and the re-posting.**

For those of you who have not read or heard about the recent Forbes Magazine article by Christopher Steiner, here is a snippet from David Airey’s site explaining what the article is about:

The high-profile business magazine recently published this article: The Creativity of Crowds , which opens with the following subtitle:

“CrowdSpring aims to slash the cost of graphic design work — and democratize a snooty business .”

Now I’m all for competition, and indeed welcome it, but when there’s such a one-sided article about the validity of spec work , it’s appropriate to mention the other side of the story.

For the unaware, CrowdSpring is a design contest website, where people submit (mainly) logo designs in the hope of winning a prize. Prizes are (not always) awarded by the companies who join and host a contest.

You can read David’s full post here . David puts forward excellent thoughts and opinions on the "Design Contest Websites" and due to a huge following, the inevitable debate is often an important read.

Michael Samson, one of the owners and creators of CrowdSpring, is quoted in the article as saying,

The beauty of our site is that it doesn’t matter if you have a degree from the Rhode Island School of Design or if you’re a grandma in Tennessee with a bunch of free time and Adobe Illustrator," says Samson. "If the client likes the grandma’s work better, then she’s going to get the job.

Dear Mr. Samson,

"A grandma in Tennessee with a bunch of free time and Adobe Illustrator"?! - in the words of the new "Saturday Night Live" feature; Samson…..REALLY?!

A grandma in Tennessee should not be designing a company’s identity, logo, website, print advertising or anything if she doesn’t have design experience, skill, knowledge, etc. Anyone can get their hands on a copy of Adobe Illustrator and call themselves a designer. I am actually quite shocked that you didn’t use "MS Paint" in place of Adobe Illustrator with your apparent knowledge of the graphic design industry.

Hey, I have a hammer and some wood, anyone need a house built? I have never built a house before but how hard can it be. I’m sure I could put something together that SOMEONE will think looks good. And if they think it looks good, then guess what, I guess I am a builder! Sweet! (just don’t come complaining to me when your house collapses after the first bit of wind.)

Mr Samson, or can I call you Michael? Ok, Michael it is, I feel like we have built up a relationship now that I can call you Michael…..or maybe Mike? Mikey….No? Ok, Michael it is.

Michael, your comment highlights everything that is wrong in the graphic design industry.

Some clients do not know what looks good and what will be successful for them

Of course the grandma in Tennessee can scribble a few things together, and someone out there may love it, but that does not mean for one second that it will be successful for that client, or that it comes anywhere close to meeting their real needs as an integral piece of their company’s identity.

As an experienced designer, clients often ask me to "do this" or "do that", and often what they want is not what they need . They need skilled designers and marketers to help them to see what they need. Designers and marketers research their clients’ audience, and come up with an educated solution. Some clients love an animated gif of a leopard running in place to be on their website, but you and I know (well, maybe not YOU…)  that this is not a good addition to their website. The client is not to blame for this, that’s why they hired the professional .

And that is where your website comes in. If you don’t want to hire a professional who values their work, does not research your company, your market, your clients’ needs, and simply knows how to draw pretty things that are meaningless, then head on over to Michael and his website.

An excellent comment on the Forbes article comes from Eric Hillerns explaining this perfectly.

A CAD program does not make me an architect and a copy of QuickBooks does not make me an accountant… And the Forbes writer? You know, the one who penned this article’s ludicrously silly subhead, was likely this year’s lucky winner of Mrs. Winters’ sixth grade journalism competition. Because why would we pay an experienced writer when anyone with Microsoft Word and e-mail can submit a story?

Congratulations, Forbes. You got exactly what you paid for. Sludge. But then again, maybe that was your point.
Eric Hillerns

Mr. Swanson, there is something extremely odd about the article that was written by this Christopher guy. I’m no journalist, but I do understand some aspects of journalism and integrity. When one writes an article about a subject matter that obviously has a strong opposition to it, to merely throw in one single quote from the contrasting side is not only displaying a gross lack of judgment, but also shows that you are an extremely amateur writer, and quite possibly Mrs. Winters’ best student in her 6th grade class. Forbes must have had to lay off the highly paid journo’s and in their place, Westbrook Catholic School got their chance.

I wonder what got rejected…….

Sincerely,

Designers that respect their work, their fellow designers, and their industry

The article in the business magazine (Gulf Shore Business) has now been published and you can read it here

Only a few of my comments made it into the article. It is interesting to read the first section about the client, "Carbon Net" talking about his poor experience with the first web development company. The company he is speaking about is now out of business, and being sued by some big companies for failure to carry out the work in some agreements with them.

Another interesting note about the "Carbon Net" client mentioned in the article, was that some time ago, he actually contacted my company requesting a quote.  After I spoke to him on the phone, and then provided a quote and proposal, I did not hear back from him.

Whether or not our quote was within his budget, another part of "What Clients Need to Know When Hiring A Web Design Company" is the fact that clients are interviewed almost as much as clients interview us and our company.  Web designers and any other service providers that provide estimates and quotes appreciate it when a client notifies the company about their intention to move forward with the project or not.

There are many reasons for this, and as a consumer, everyone should attempt to practice this. If you request a quote or estimate, notify the company even if you are not going to move forward with them. Thank them for their time to speak with you and for providing a quote. Better yet, you can even give them a few reasons as to why you did not choose them. This helps the company and enables them to grow.

By simply not replying to an estimate or proposal, you never know when you might want to receive another quote from that company in the future, and by then, the company will have a red mark next to your name.

Designer/Developers, how often do you receive an email or phone call from those clients that don’t end up going with after you provided a quote? Do you attempt to contact them to learn the reasons why they didn’t choose you? I am interested to hear if most of you do want this information.

So, I just checked out my google webmaster tools account, and it looks like I have a large number of users subscribed to my old feed, brianyerkes.com/feed.

Please take a few moments and update my feed in your feedreader to http://feeds.feedburner.com/brianyerkes

Thanks very much and thank you for subscribing to my site!

Rather than discuss this as an argument, I would like to see statistics on opinions from fellow designers, internet users, general garden gnomes etc.

Please select below, whether you prefer to create/visit/browse center aligned websites, or left aligned websites.

If you have a good argument for either, please comment below. I am interested to hear it, thanks

Artists place their signature in the bottom corner of a masterpiece and journalists add a copyright to their articles. Logo designers, however, are not so quickly recognized for their work.

Some logo designs , especially those that were created prior to the internet age, do not have an official designer attached to them, and for the aging/retired graphic designer this can understandably be a slightly disappointing fact.

One such case is the Major League Baseball logo, seen in the title image of this post. The logo was originally designed in 1968, and there seems to be a lack of physical evidence to prove the name of the designer. The Wall Street Journal and Paul Lukas of ESPN.com have recently carried out some research into this matter, and have since discovered the most likely candidate, Mr. Jerry Dior.

There are many reasons why the Major League Baseball logo is so timeless and an exceptional piece of branding, but the most obvious is the fact that image in the logo can be either left handed or right handed, depending on how you look at it. Also, the use of red, white and blue portrays this national pastime perfectly.

This story is an extremely interesting read, and it even uncovers some truth from the research carried out.

Read the full story and interviews with both Sherman and Dior here

Once you have read the article, do you think Dior designed it? What other famous and timeless logos don’t have an official designer attached to them?