‘A lie told often enough becomes the truth.‘ — attributed to V. I. Lenin

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Phaidon have recently published the latest book by advertising legend, George Lois, entitled Damn Good Advice (for people with talent!). It is yet another inspirational book, very similar to those written by Paul Arden. The 120 pieces of advice are sustained by examples, usually from the author’s extensive career. Among juicy stories from the 1960s Mad Men era (so popular these days), he mentions his hero, Paul Rand, and his mentors, two teachers that recognised his talent and his first Creative Director, a lady, Reba Sochis. By the time you finish the book, you feel ready to take on the world, to go out and do your best work.

George Lois about Paul Rand (click for larger size)

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There’s just one problem.

Many of George Lois’s stories are not true.  If you try to find out more about his work, you’ll soon learn that he has been taking credit not only for projects in which the work has been done through team effort, but even for projects in which he hasn’t been involved at all. In his book, he never mentions Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB) where he was employed, the Papert Koenig Lois agency where he was a partner, together with Fred Papert and Julian Koenig, nor Lois, Holland, Callaway.

The June 19, 2009 episode of This American Life, the radio show hosted by Ira Glass, features interviews with Julian Koenig, Fred Papert, George Lois’s ex-partners, and also with Carl Fischer (the photographer who shot most of the Esquire covers). They talk about projects they’ve done and to which extent George Lois was involved, if at all (links at the end of the post). After listening, it becomes very clear that George Lois is such a convincing story teller that he’s fallen victim to his own talent.

‘In my instance, the greatest predator of my work was my one-time partner George Lois, who is a most heralded and talented art director/designer, and his talent is only exceeded by his omnivorous ego. So where it once would’ve been accepted that the word would be “we” did it, regardless of who originated the work, the word “we” evaporated from George’s vocabulary and it became “my.”‘ — Julian Koenig

In 2005, George Lois published his book $elebrities, in which he basically replaces Julian Koenig in his own story about how he met Ernie Kovacs just hours before the latter’s death. Mr Koenig tried to fight back by running a witty ad in the New York Times. They never ran it, but AdWeek did, even if at the back of the magazine, to no response. Since I couldn’t find the original, I’ve taken the liberty to reimagine it, based on the ad for Coldene (coughing syrup), also Mr Koenig’s idea, but ‘stolen’ by George Lois. I’d be very happy if any of you would repost this.

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George Lois is an advertising legend and he’s been writing books periodically, appeared in the Art & Copy film and other interviews, so he’s had a lot of exposure along the years. Still, due to the current craze around the Mad Men TV series, many publications and websites have recently run even more stories about him, naming him ‘the original Mad Man’ or ‘the original Don Draper’. Lois has often rejected this comparison, talking about the shallow depiction of the 1960s advertising world in the series, but it is ironic to find out how much he actually resembles Don Draper, whose whole adult life is based on a huge lie (I won’t spoil it for you, watch the show). It is such a shame that because of his exposure, George Lois gets to repeat his lies over and over again. Later corrections, if any, written in small print at the back of magazines or blog posts cannot repair the harm done.

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FURTHER READING & LINKS
— listen to Ira Glass’s show with the above-mentioned interviews (or read the transcript);
— the Julian Koenig Wikipedia page — learn how he named Earth Day;
— the George Lois Wikipedia page, including the Controversy section;
— another blog post about the same subject, including some video interviews of both George Lois and Mr Koenig (direct YouTube link).

Unlike the lucky ones living in London, New York or other big cities with proper libraries, book shops and art schools, the rest have to settle for buying online. Without guidance, this can be daunting, especially on Amazon, with its huge range. You might get a bibliography from your school, or you could find reading lists of great designers (see end of article for links), but these are rarely short or affordable.

This is why I’m keeping my list to ten books. Five ‘basic’ books that will get you through almost anything, five more that will build on the first. Most of them are about graphic design, but those that aren’t will help you just as well, I’d bet even more. Here they are, each with a short reason-why:

How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul
by Adrian Shaughnessy
This book will give you a very good idea on the general idea of what it actually means to be a graphic designer. Whether you plan to find a job or start on your own, Mr Shaughnessy offers plenty of details on what you need to know and do. He also interviews several high profile designers, asking for their tips. The table of contents, laid out on the cover, is more than self-explanatory.

The Elements of Typographic Style
by Robert Bringhurst
While there is no such thing as too many typefaces (unless they’re on the same layout), this is less valid for typography books. Good typography is the backbone of any design, whether it’s a small Christmas card or a large supergraphic signage system. I will only add that Hermann Zapf’s ‘wish to see this book become the Typographer’s Bible’ written on the back cover says it all.

Grid systems
by Josef Müller-Brockmann
The 80′s are some thirty years back now and fortunately David Carson is just one, so you’ll need to learn the basics of grid systems, especially now that webdesign has finally caught up in using great typefaces and proper, even flexible grids. While the previous book will explain the basics, this book by Müller-Brockmann is the cornerstone. You don’t have to become a gridnik like Mr Crouwel, but any piece of design – just like architecture – needs a good structure.

The Brand Handbook
by Wally Olins
Unless you’re living on a remote mountain, growing your own vegetables, you’ll know by now that brands are all around us. In this day and age, understanding branding has become maybe even more important than classic skills like typography or grid design. This book explains what brands are and how they work. If you’re involved in any commercial business, branding is essential for success, whether you’re a designer or not. You’ll hardly find more concise, no-bullshit writing on branding than from Mr Olins – and these days everyone writes about branding.

Steal like an artist
by Austin Kleon
This book has only been published a few weeks ago, but rarely have I seen such concise pieces of advice for any creative venturer. You can read its ten short chapters in less than an hour, but you’ll find invaluable advice, ranging from copying as the best form of learning or freedom from debt to the importance of habits and perseverance. Buy it, read it, keep it on your table and browse it again and again.

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Graphic Design, A Concise History
by Richard Hollis
Graphic design has changed significantly with the introduction of PCs in the 1980s and with the spread of the Internet in the 1990s and especially the 2000s. Still, the core ideas remain pretty much the same as the ones laid out by the Bauhaus or Paul Rand, for example. The past is a great source of inspiration, as long as you keep in mind that you need to steal from many, not just one. Hollis’s book is a great start (also look for the Meggs tome if you have the time and the money).

A Smile in the Mind
by Beryl McAlhone & David Stuart
Design without ideas is mere styling. This book shows plenty of memorable examples of fine design, the kind that makes you smile with admiration. The projects shown range from playful, witty to humorous or ironic, covering the main business sectors. It also contains interviews with 26 of the best designers, explaining how they got their ideas. A must have for any designer striving to learn how to think.

Paul Rand
by Steven Heller
Probably the best monograph ever written about a designer, especially about Paul Rand. He is regarded as one of the finest thinkers, with work spanning from advertising, publishing to corporate design and children’s books. This book will show you the endless possibilities in design (even before the web) and introduce you to one of the best heroes you could have.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
by Haruki Murakami
It’s not about design, but this book will teach you about the importance of perseverance. Murakami offers great insights into what it takes to have a long and fruitful career. It also talks about the benefits of sport, especially for creatives that are bound to their chair for most of the day. Btw, this cover shown here is designed by Chip Kidd, look him up too.

Siddhartha
by Hermann Hesse
This is my all time favourite book. There’s so much to learn from it, but the main reason I’m including it here is that it talks about the importance of leaving your familiar places to experience the diversity of the world and about the search for meaning. It’s a great book for any designer that learns that best things come from ‘seeing’ (not just looking) around you, and dares to step out of the ‘bubble’ designers usually tend to live in.

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Ending note
Making the list hasn’t been easy. I had to leave out many gems like ‘From Lascaux to Brooklyn’ by Paul Rand, ‘Make it Bigger’ by Paula Scher or the wonderful “The Art of Looking Sideways” by Alan Fletcher. Also, the recently published ‘An A-Z of Visual Ideas’ by John Ingledew and ‘LogoDesignLove’ by David Airey are worth reading and keeping close, for daily references. All these will help you a lot, but in the end, the best way to learn is still working with a senior. Read these and go out and find somebody better than you, learn everything you can, then find somebody even better and repeat. Good luck!

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FURTHER READING & LINKS
— read the Eye Magazine article that triggered my post;
— browse my Anobii online library — ask me if you want more recommendations;
— read my reviews of the LogoDesignLove book and other great books;
— check out Designersandbooks — the favourite books of many great designers;
— also worth browsing, Frank Chimero’s and Jason Santa Maria’s book lists.

The event's quirky poster and the 'Free Magenta' book

The event started with Mr Wolbers thanking the sponsors and explaining the idea behind the event’s poster. Taking a different approach, the sponsors became the main focus, their gold-foiled logos being repeated several times, while the ‘content’ took a more humble place at the bottom.

Mr Wolber’s simple presentation, white text (using Impact!) on black background, showed nine sections on the table of contents and was announced to have 600+ slides (for 45 minutes). I thought it might actually be a stop-motion film, but Mr Wolber’s delivered a fast paced, very insightful and humorous presentation. ‘A monkey called Bokito’ was the first section, explaining again the Lava philosophy of telling a story in a surprising way. Why show a gorilla (Bokito) when everyone knows how one looks, when the story in the newspaper is about how it managed to get across a big water ditch? So the whole article showed only photos of the ditch, no gorilla.

Design is not about beauty, it is about telling a story

Next was their definition of design: Design is not about beauty. Design is about telling a story. Followed by the Lava ‘corporate’ film, funny and self-deprecating, showing a good sense of humour that was present throughout the whole evening. One example: the founders Hans and Greet names could’ve led to a hilarious Hansel & Gretel company name, but it was not meant to be (the illustration had the packed hall roaring with laughter). Mr Wolbers continued with how, not having a lot of work, he and his partner decided to start with a holiday first. A volcano in Indonesia led them to their name, Lava Design. And a train from Shanghai to Amsterdam provided more than enough time to read one of the ‘Bourne Identity’ books and change the rules of the spies into the designer’s:

• Think as the enemy client
• Always stay in control
• Do the unexpected

Back from holiday, both partners had around 600 meetings in 5 months, 3 per day for each, showing their portfolio to potential clients — this perseverance soon paying off. The fun story around this point: putting on their letterhead Alain Prost’s quote: ‘If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough’ (attributed to Mario Andretti, but with the Internet, you never know) led to an appearance in one of the Rockport books with Mr Prost as the ‘boss’ of the company.

‘If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough’

Next came a collection of photos of weird, funny, vernacular or over-designed toilet signs from all around the world — a growing series for a future book. These supported the point that understanding clichés can help in understanding design as stories and visual communication in general. Btw, If you have any similar photos, Mr Wolbers would be happy to receive them: hans at lava dot nl or contact him on Twitter at @hanswolbers.

A very good tip on how to explain the importance of brand identity to clients followed: using details of Van Gogh paintings, easily recognisable without seeing ‘the logo’ — Vincent’s signature — because of their style, something that a good brand identity should possess.

Visual style versus 'logo' — understanding the difference

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The next sections were case studies of LAVA projects. Worth mentioning is that most of them had video presentations, showing animations of the logos with music in the background — I bet this makes things more interesting (and easier to take in) for the client. First was ’7 days of inspiration’, a flexible identity for a networking event:

'7 days of inspiration' flexible identity

The THNK project, another flexible identity for the Amsterdam school of creative leadership, based on the idea that there is no ‘I” in Think, led to a multitude of I’s coming together and overlapping to form a network:

A flexible visual identity for THNK, the Amsterdam school of creative leadership

The following case study was titled ‘G-Spot’, about a South Korean company called Gabia in need of a new identity. A project started with what seemed like a spam email, but which proved to be a very good lesson on why you should avoid working for a client without knowing their background and paying a visit — they did only after three rejected concepts. The first one relied on four coloured circles, very similar to the very popular billiard signs, present all over the place in Seoul.

The visual identity for the Dutch National History Museum was next — a very simple yet so bold, different and fresh approach. Instead of going for the usual long name or the NHM acronym, they chose the ‘in NL’ name and developed yet another flexible identity, worthy of comparison with the identities of acclaimed art museums like Tate, Pompidou or MoMA:

Connecting the past and the present, the Dutch Museum of National History identity

A similar project but with a different solution, the very fresh identity for the Moscow Design Museum (launched that very morning):

Russian glassware inspiration for a flexible grid …

A visually striking array of symbols, all based on the same grid:

… leading to a multitude of symbols.

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“Claiming a colour is nonsense because colors are from God”
— Gert Dumbar

‘Free Magenta’ was the next story — if you’ve missed the total nerve of T-Mobile for claiming the magenta colour as their own a few years ago, read more on the website: www.freemagenta.nl. Mr Wolbers’s story proved again that designers should (and have the power) put their skills in service of good causes.

The last section was titled ‘How to earn more money’, based around some priceless advice (in the words of Peter Griffin: ‘see what I did here?’):

• Explain the value of your work creatively — Hans’s business card shows the classic ‘good—cheap—fast’ triangle, of which the clients can only pick two — very simple, very effective and also quite fun;
• Be market sensitive — good advice on how to adapt to the market, especially during a crisis, as Lava explain on this specially created website: crisisdesign.nl;

A very entertaining story was the one about tenders — most designers’ nightmare. After frustratingly seeing client after client skipping the carefully-written presentations just to go directly to the last page and start complaining about the price, no matter how high or low, Mr Wolbers started to look for a ‘design solution’ to this problem. It came in the shape of three sealed envelopes, one with a ‘cheap’ price inside, one with a medium price and one with a high price. You can imagine the client’s surprise to this approach. They would almost always avoid the cheap one — no one likes to be seen as cheap. That would leave the medium and the expensive. What’s the difference, the client would ask?

Paris in your old, rusty car …

Well, for the medium price, it would be like going to Paris in your old, rusty car …

… is not exactly Paris in a superb Jaguar.

… while for the expensive price, you’d be going to the same Paris, but in a superb Jaguar. The destination is the same, but the necessary time and the experience are quite different. A very smart way to put it, and two out of three clients would go for the expensive package. The ending conclusion: Think creatively not just in design.

Think creatively not just in design.

Questions and answers followed, myself starting by asking whether Lava presents more directions to the client or one, and more after if the first one fails. It seems they present early concepts and involve the client early in the process, choose one direction and develop only that one. Another question made Mr Wolbers confess that he’d love to design an airline (who wouldn’t?). Another good question was whether Lava are specialised or not (from Mr Lee Sankey, see below for link). Their aim is to have/be more ideas people who could direct a team of visual specialists (freelancers). A question about pitches made Mr Wolbers explain the advantages of having a strong Dutch design association (think AIGA), meaning they only take part in paid pitches. Still, he admitted that competition is getting tougher.

Mr Hans Wolbers

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Personal note
I’ve taken the time to write all the details I could remember (and recreate some of Mr Wolbers’s examples with images from the web) as this has been probably the most inspiring design presentation I’ve seen ’till now. Dutch design, no matter how beautiful, often seems ‘alien’ and undoable in other places but the Netherlands, but hearing the stories for each case study convinced me that there is no excuse to not doing fresh, surprising work. This review might be on the long side, but I hope it is useful nevertheless. Thanks again to Mr Wolbers and the organisers.

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LINKS
— see more case studies on the Lava website;
— you can follow @LavaDesign and @hanswolbers on Twitter;
— keep an eye on LongLunch and the Design Museum for more events;
— Mr Lee Sankey blogged about the event as well.

'Symbol', edited by Angus Hyland and Steve Bateman

In the second part, titled ‘Mark & typeface’, Mr Hyland talked about the ongoing partnership between Cass Art, the London art materials retailer, and Pentagram. Over more than ten years, Pentagram have developed a beautiful brand identity, based mainly on typography (with very nice recent additions of colour). Just like most successful brands, Cass Art based its strategy on a very good manifesto/strategy: “let’s fill this town with artists”, being the first aiming to sell affordable art materials to everybody, not just highbrow artists.

The Cass Art store in Soho

Other highlights were the Cass Art Kids side-project, the packaging for own-label products, based on Mr Hyland’s habit of ‘colouring’ bits and pieces in his free time, and the retail design done together with Pentagram’s architecture team. Oh, and after ten years, they finally got around to making the business cards too :)

Cass Art Kids books, illustrated by Marion Deuchars

Each illustration suggest the purpose of the item

Colour names on the front …

… famous art pieces referenced on the back (that use the colours on the front).

The event was sold out, some even being willing to stand just to get to see Mr Hyland’s talk. Questions at the end ranged from the typical-student-question, ‘what’s your favourite symbol’ (Woolmark, if you’re dying to know) to more interesting ones. My question was that since sustained advertising (Nike etc) or just simple repetition (Google) seem to hit the spot with consumers, how valuable is a well-designed mark anyway. Mr Hyland made a very good analogy, saying that a good mark ‘is like a good suit, it won’t guarantee your success, but it will make you look good and feel better, and in time, people will associate you with that image‘ — quite similar to what Thomas J. Watson meant with ‘good design is good business’.

[a good mark] is like a good suit, it won’t guarantee your success, but it will make you look good and feel better, and in time, people will associate you with that image

It was also very interesting to see Mr Hyland using terms like brand equity, brand proposition and others, showing that, these days, even Pentagram has to talk more branding than design.

The Typo Circle members were wonderful hosts and I must say I can’t wait for the next event. And especially to receive the Circular magazine, designed by Mr Domenic Lippa (Pentagram), which you get for free as a member.

One of the four-series posters specially designed for the event, given away at the end (kindly signed by Mr Hyland)

So, if you’re in London (or in reachable distance), do yourself a favour and sign up as a Typographic Circle member, it’s only £30 per year, for which you’ll get discounts for the events, the beautiful annual Circle magazine and the chance to say hi personally to some of the best designers in the world, every month.

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LINKS
— read even more details about the Cass Art project on Eye Mag’s blog;
— see the Cass Art projects on the Pentagram website;
— watch the ‘Symbol’ talk at the Design Museum on Vimeo;
— details about the event on the TypoCircle website and the Creative Review blog;
— you can buy the book ‘Symbol’ on BookDepository (free shipping worldwide) or Amazon.

When you don’t create things, you become defined by your tastes rather than ability. Your tastes only narrow and exclude people.
So create — why the lucky stiff

Yet another push, if you still need one, to spend more time creating your own work and less looking at what others are doing. As it gets easier and easier to be online 24/7 — tweeting, instagramming, facebooking, blogging or Internet-knows-what — it gets harder and harder to find the time for your own projects. And I’m talking about investing at least a few serious hours, if not days’ worth, not just thirty minutes here and there, doing trendy all-caps posters using Twitter ‘wisdom’ for copy — even if some seem to make quite a good name for themselves in this way.

It’s also a bit unsettling to realise that if you could judge yourself by your creations only, you wouldn’t have a very good opinion of you, isn’t it?

Before you ask, the source is not a joke, it’s the pseudonym of a programmer, you can read more about his interesting story and disappearance here — I’m hoping he just decided to create more.

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Via Quote Vadis. You might also like my post, “My taste is why my work disappoints me.”

Hopefully, this new year will be more work, less talk. I haven’t been writing much lately, but if things go well, you’ll be looking more than reading. Comments will be welcome, as always. May we all have a great one — cheers!

Iancu

I took the photos on Cavendish and Regent’s Street in London, using Instagram on an iPhone 4. The second one was quite a surprise, as it’s just a 5-min-walk away from the first one.

You can see more of my photos on Instagram (Statigram, actually, as Instagram doesn’t have a web interface — *hint, guys!*). You can also follow me on Twitter, as you can follow 1Plain1Fancy for updates.

I’ve been reading some great books lately, but also picking up bits and pieces that feel ‘right’, building something almost like a ‘widsom’ puzzle. One of the pieces was the “your taste is why your work disappoints you” quote from Mr Ira Glass that I wrote about a few weeks ago. This time it’s a talk from Mrs Lynda Barry, on the topic of “What is an image?”. It’s hugely entertaining, very insightful, makes you think, but, most importantly, makes you want to pick up a pencil and start drawing just for fun, just playing, and do it as often as possible.

But I’ll let you enjoy it:

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Here are the links too, in case the embedding doesn’t work: part 1 & part 2.

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Thanks go to Mr Austin Kleon — do follow him.
Saul Bass quote from the new book, read about it on the Creative Review.

I managed to shoot from the hip a few photos, hence the poor quality, but I hope it’s enough to give you an idea, and maybe even go see it:

A nice custom typeface for titles:

Among others, this Bibendum-inspired chair was definitely one of my favourites, proving yet again that playful design is always a delight to experience:

Chair inspired by Bibendum, or The Michelin Man

Mr Conran’s working office — much warmer than Mr Vignelli’s, one might argue:

Now, whose dream house wouldn’t have racing cars on the wall?

Simple & modern stationery and imagery, depicting Conran’s ‘form follows function’ approach :

There are many more gems to discover, but this one was another favourite (click to enlarge):

The exhibition is open from 16 November till 04 March 2012, so if you’re in London, give it a go, it’s surely worth it. You can learn more on the Design Museum page for the exhibition.

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone had told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase; they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have that special think that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know that it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you finish one story. It’s only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take a while. It’s normal to take a while. You just gotta fight your way through.
— Ira Glass

In short, there is no easy way out. You have to sweat over everything you do if you want it to be any good. Of course, you need talent just to have a real chance of getting somewhere in what you’re doing, but that will only get you as far as ‘decent’ — you need perseverance to make it to the ‘good’ section. And, with a bit of luck, you might even see a glimpse of ‘great’.

It felt like a small epiphany reading this — too often I’ve found myself unhappy with my work. I’ve always thought that a good way of learning is to watch others how they do it. And it was, for me at least. I would often surprise my college friends by being able to work in their style after watching them do just one or two drawings. But watching is not enough. It can break the ice for you, but if you want to make it to the shore, you’re on your own, with no one to help you. You have to go through it alone, fighting your own damned self. Beacons (mentors, colleagues, other sources of inspiration) might guide you awhile now and then, but most of the time, you’re in the dark, swimming for your very soul. You do get better with age if you keep going, but your best chance is to barely make it to the shore when you die. Any other way is just Sirens fucking with your mind. If you ever think “It’s easy, I know how to do this”, they’ve probably got you.

You do get better with age if you keep going, but your best chance is to barely make it to the shore when you die. Any other way is just Sirens fucking with your mind.

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The quote is a transcript from a video interview with Glass, the “On Taste…” part. You can watch it here on Youtube. Via Untitled Mag, Kottke.