In the second conversation (chapter 2) of the “Paul Rand: conversations with students” by Michael Kroeger , Rand talks about knowing what design is. He states that in order to know what design is a person must know what he/she is actually doing. What problem needs to be resolved? Design is not something that has been seen on the wall according to Rand, it is part of the process but just decoration. Design accomplishes resolving a problem weather it's a poster or a full identity package. Rand does say that the end product should be simple and that the beginning is usually very complicated. All the aspects going into the project can be daunting. Things like size, color, format, etc. The process is eliminating pieces of it to bring the project to it's simplest form.
Maybe it's because I don't fully grasp what design is according to Rand. I define design as inspiration from something I've seen and transferred to a medium of choice. Granted Mr. Rand does have years of experience in this field I think what he says is just his opinion and what processes he goes through. This is probably why he has been so successful. I probably need to put a few more years in before I truly understand what he means by knowing what design is.
Seventy-nine short essays on design – Michael Bierut
The “How to be Famous” portion in the “Seventy-nine short essays on design“ by Michael Bierut is an awesome chapter. The author gives great advise on aspects of doing great designs, giving a great speech, and tips to winning a graphic design competition.
How to win Graphic Design competitions
This portion is basically if you want to win, your piece should be understandable and capturing within a second or two. Usually the judges look at many entered pieces but can only choose one and that winner is always the cool-looking project that solve easily understandable problems. Not to say that cool-looking hard to understand pieces couldn't win it's just that the majority winner in usually the latter. Another great tip mentioned is, enter a the biggest piece as possible, this way it will stand out from the rest and give a slight advantage of being imprinted in the judges mind.
How to give a speech
Pretty straight forward in this portion, most of the speech is going to involve a slide show but eye contact and forceful gesture helps a lot. The few tips stated were to show slides but not too many of them as the audience can become bored and uninterested. Also when showing slides, don't explain every slide. You can state the problem solved of the design then how you achieved the end result, make it short and sweet. Now to back eye contact, never read your speech it makes you look nervous and unconfident while in front of the audience. Practice your speech as many times as possible and if you need notes write down short sentences to keep you on track. Lastly, your last slide should be chosen wisely. The last slide should be memorable and either end your speech on a funny or professional note.
How to do great design work
Most of all the author recommends to do lots of work, do lots of poster designs, and do lots of freebies. Doing a lot of work can lead to a possible piece becoming famous. Whether doing it for a movie poster or just some art pieces for friends and family. Someone is bound to see it and absolutely love it and spreads the word about the piece to a possible future client. Practice, practice, and more practice is the key to putting out great work.
Both books do have some commonalities and what I have taken away, designs should be simple and easily understandable in order to win competitions as well as having a successful piece of design by eliminating the complication of a piece. Doing lots of work just makes a better designer through experience and the process of getting to the end result. Giving ideas, concepts, and options of resolving the problem for your client or whoever the project is for is what being a graphic design is all about.
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