A pair of iPhone apps I’ve taken a liking to underscore the new reality: Design craft is no longer an activity reserved strictly for designers.

The first app, Anyone Can Swiss, created by Dirk + Weiss, has a simple premise: Helvetica posters are so formulaic, a computer can make them practically unassisted. I tested this theory recently when I heard about a local poster contest. I knocked out an entry using Anyone Can Swiss, submitted it, and actually made the cut to the finals. (Don’t get your hopes up, though; I didn’t win.)

The second app, Facemakr from Dadako Studios, features a kit of parts for building custom avatars. A couple weekends ago I got on a roll and attempted to “design” one for everyone here at People Design. The results, as you can see, were mixed.

Today’s graphic designer has bigger problems to solve than typesetting a Swissy poster or rendering a cool avatar. When technology frees up the time of skilled designers to work on stickier problems, design as a discipline is better served.

Nostalgia for the days when design craft was the solely the domain of professional designers isn’t unlike nostalgia for the days when booking airline tickets was solely the domain of travel agents. Putting user-friendly tools in the hands of the masses actually frees up the specialists to further hone their craft. And that way, everybody wins. Yay, progress!

Not this year, though. Nope, this year we were on the ball. Awesome right? Well, not exactly…

Since I started working as a designer, I can’t seem to watch movies the way I used to. Nowadays, I get hung up on the design of the titles, their chosen typeface, and any other graphics that pop up in the film. What’s a designer/movie buff to do?

Embrace it. So… Here’s my typographic view of this year’s Oscar landscape.

Up In The Air

Fantastic opening sequence. The aerial shots, the white frames that wipe them, and the contrasting type choices all work well together to give the audience a 1950s airliner vibe. Not too shabby at all.

Inglourious Basterds

Almost no consistency in the title art. But in true avant-garde fashion, the rules—including conventional spellings—are broken on purpose. Only a master of cultural collage can pull off a mishmash like this.

Avatar

Papyrus? Really? This font is usually reserved for cheap menus. All the movie posters were blue, so the title screen should be… wait, green?  Yes, green. And squished.

An Education

Straight away, I noticed an interstitial for BBC films. Then, amidst the fun and whimsically animated opening credits, what do I see? Gill Sans—the typeface of the BBC. I call that being font-whipped.

Up

The titles match the poster art! Is it my birthday? What’s more, the closing credits will melt in your mouth. They’re tastefully complimented by boy scout badges and polaroids that relate to each role.

The Hurt Locker

The film starts with a white typeface similar to Courier, and closes with a poster font, Bank Gothic.

True, not every movie calls for fancy title art. Simplicity works well, but only when you stick to your guns. I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but I can’t help it. If the film is halfway decent, the supers should be too.

Oscar bold goes to… Up.

In the Creativity 38 Annual Awards competition, we have 12 award-winning projects, five of which won a Silver, three Gold, and one Platinum. Creativity 38 brought in close to 3,000 entries from 45 states in the U.S, and 44 countries around the world.

We also were notified recently that we won five awards from the American Graphic Design Awards, presented by Graphic Design USA. These will be featured in an upcoming issue of GDUSA.

Of course, we can’t forget about our local Addys, the recognition program sponsored by the Ad Club of West Michigan, local affiliate of the American Advertising Federation. The Grand Rapids Art Museum trademark and identity system, the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts capital campaign brochure, and the Herman Miller ICFF New York tradeshow space all won medals: two silvers, one gold.

But the best part is our second Webby Award for our work on the GRAM website. We’ll take any kudos, but this one’s especially special because it’s so hard to get.

Many choose to lend their design skills to a greater and larger purpose which, when properly executed, can rally support for a cause and make a change for the better. One courageous cause benefiting from smart design is Buyameter. Buyameter, which allows users to help donate to bring water into the homes and community of Hale County, Alabama, is a great example of what design brings to the communication of a message. Good Magazine describes the story behind buyameter.

The topic of climate change and sustainability are finding designers increasingly lending their support, ideas, and skills — addressing these issues with the hope of accomplishing something good. There is, of course, the national and global rally for change: to change our ideas, habits, thinking and even lifestyles. Design Can Change is “an initiative aimed at uniting the world’s graphic designers to use their influence and purchasing power to combat climate change.” Their website is smart, slick, compelling and offers facts and solutions to how graphic designers can “raise awareness of the importance of sustainable-thinking.” Graphic designers are often the link between the idea and the public. With their skills, designers play a crucial role in how this idea is presented. It is up to the designer to offer the best possible solution no matter how large the cause may be.

Not a designer, but believe that great design can bring power to these messages? Designers who want to do this work may be looking for your support… Check out these communities.

Focused on exploring “design as an economic building block for the region” the DWM was seeded by a federally-funded DOL WIRED grant, working with The Right Place and Lakeshore Advantage, and part of the Innovation Works initiatives. We’re connected to these efforts in several ways including the development of the Innovation Works identity and Idea Portal. DWM is sponsoring a Business Academy, coming in July, to be held at Kendall College of Art & Design, which aims at exposing business people to design concepts. People Design and other design professionals will be presenting case studies to help with the learning.

I’ve been serving on advisory committee, and I’m thrilled to see this come to fruition. Upon Chris‘s suggestion, Yang and I gave Daniel Pink’s “A Whole New Mind” to the staff for Christmas last year, so we were pleased when he came to West Michigan for a lecture. Upon learning about the group, Pink offered the following:

“West Michigan is doing what other regions no doubt will be doing soon: Developing design education for business people who aren’t designers. The piloting of a Business Academy is a wise and savvy move to support economic development.”

This prompted Julie to ask: What do business people need to know to be better consumers and purchasers of design and design services? Good question. Here are some thought starters, literally straight out of the People Design Playbook:

Who designs and who we consider designers are not limited to who went to design school or who have “designer” on their business card. Designers are those who participate in the process of design.
The designer is a problem solver, with keen skills in perception and intuition. Designers — creative people — tend to have special skills for facilitating, describing, deciding, visualizing, creating meaning, creating context, creating value. Designers believe they can solve a problem. This is partly why they can. A designer’s unique strength is in managing the design process to produce innovation — the process of creating something.

Bedrock skills for designers

• Conceive and make stuff
• Make things, places, and messages distinctive
• Empathize with people
• Imagine ideal usage experiences
• Sense and value what is new
• Simplify and clarify information
• Dramatically affect preference and value
• Display mental flexibility, openness
• Focus on the idea, not whose idea
• See relationships, make connections
• Seek problems
• See problems as market opportunities

DWM is just a start, but it seems like a really good start. I think it capitalizes on two important trends: design thinking and localization. The pair can not only help spur economic growth in West Michigan, but make it a better place to live.

The complexity of design is often missed because our job, if done well, is to make things simple and easy to understand. Despite design’s rich history, not everyone knows or appreciates its impact on their daily lives. I don’t think the majority of people commonly consider design when holding a fork or loading laundry in a new front loading washer.

The part that innovation plays in evolving what we do and how we do it day-to-day is amazing when you do stop to think about it. Design is about function and purpose. If it’s successful, in a sense, it almost disappears or becomes an afterthought. Within our industry, I believe the benefits design brings to business are probably well understood, but the process to achieve them is not.

Recently I picked up a book by Alina Wheeler entitled Designing Brand Identity. It’s a great resource for anyone interested in the process of brand development and is outlined with wonderful visuals and quotes by notables in the design industry that support the thinking. What I love about it most is that it’s straightforward, yet doesn’t over simplify the necessary steps to achieve the best possible results. It’s clear that great design takes smarts, hard work and diligence. Because I work with this type of information every day, Wheeler’s book has become a valued reference for me. I refer to it in my own writing and have encouraged our designers here to spend some time with it themselves.

Many of the concepts we try to convey can be difficult for some people to understand. This book helps bridge that gap.One of the most important things we bring as designers is the ability to develop solutions that connect with people on an emotional level. We can do this not only because designers are problem solvers but because they have the ability to present the solution with insight, objectivity and creativity.

Design is receiving much recognition as a catalyst for driving success in the marketplace. You hear a great deal about designers finally being invited to sit at the business table. What we need to remember is that the seat at the table will remain open to us only if we continue to make our role clear and communicate the value we bring to business in the form of solutions. It’s no longer just about designing artifacts. It goes deep into understanding and impacting the customer’s experience, shaping perceptions and communicating effectively — to friends and all.

Mail makes it easy to use Stationary templates that are predesigned. But naturally, I wanted to know how to make my own.

Minding the eternal urge, I took this new toy apart. After a few hours digging around Google and in the deep recesses of my computer, I discovered that all Stationery really consists of is standard html and graphic files that have been neatly packaged for mass consumption. Each Stationery file is a complete tiny website packaged so that Mail can recognize it.

Interesting? Here’s how to build your own stationery for Mail. You will need:

An html editor (Dreamweaver, TextMate, TextEdit)
A photo editor (Photoshop, Graphic Convertor)
A basic knowledge of how html works
A fearless desire to try out new things

Before jumping in and making your own Stationery, see how the feature is designed to work. Open Mail and create a new message. In the upper right of the new message window, you will see a button that says “Show Stationery.” Click that to open a panel of Stationary templates. Click around to see how these will affect your document.

Now let’s go find those Stationery files in your system. Here’s the trail: Library > Application Support > Apple > Mail > Stationery > Apple > Contents > Resources > Stationery > Contents > Resources. I know that was quite a lot of folders, but it is worth the trip.

Once you are there, you will notice a bunch of icons that look like envelopes with letters. Pick one and make a duplicate of it and you will be ready to start experimenting. It doesn’t matter too much which one you choose, though it does help if you pick one that has a layout similar to what you would like to end up with.

Once you have your duplicate file, rename it making sure to keep the “.mailstationery” on the end of the file name. Then right click (ctrl+click) and select “Show Package Contents.” This will open up that cute little envelope and let you make some edits.

Once you are inside the “package” or stationery file, you will see images and a file named content.html. To edit the stationery, you will need to open content.html in your html editing program. If you don’t know how to edit html, now would be a good time to find someone who does. I will leave that to your own ingenuity.

The key when you are editing this file is to keep it very simple. You will notice that the stationery that Apple provided looks like a very basic web page. You should follow that thinking in building your design. You can set up your own layout and link to whatever images you want, just like when creating a normal website. Just make sure that they are stored in this same folder and that there aren’t extra files that you aren’t using in here.

After you feel you are in good shape, close the stationery up and go back to the folder that it is stored in. Look for a file named “TableOfContents.plist.” Open this file in a text editor such as TextEdit. You need to add the name of your new Stationery to this list for mail to see it. After you have done that, you can close everything up.

You should be ready to start testing your Stationery now. Open Mail and make sure your creation is listed. If you need to make updates or instructions, follow these instructions again.

There you have it. Now you can use your Mac to create custom email stationery for your business, to send to friends, and of course, to your mother. When was the last time you wrote to your mother?

Several of us have had corporate jobs and know what it’s like to get a lot of useless stuff in the mail around the holidays, so we thought it should be useful. We wanted something that invited a creative divergence – but had some rules. As Charles Eames rightly said, design is about constraints. So we created a little system for ourselves including an over-sized plastic sleeve and a few sheets of corrugated cardboard and have been playing it out since 2003.

Initially some recipients a little dumbfounded, not knowing what to make of the gift. Now clients ask for it in advance. Recently the mail room staff for one of our clients sent us a list of names of people who were no longer with the firm. We told them to keep the packages for themselves. That’s when they revealed their internal debate about whether to tell us in the first place… they were afraid if they did, they wouldn’t be able to keep them! They’re on the list for next year.

Stuffing the over-sized packages has become an annual team effort that consumes the office. Scott observed recently that the packing assembly line is an important tradition, an opportunity for the junior people to get a little casual time with whoever is passing through. That’s part of the charm of the whole thing.

We’ve won awards, made friends, and had fun doing it. This year’s contribution by Adam is no different. It features cows in ties and high heels. These cows are saying something – but it’s up to you to decide.

We don’t really know what happens to the paper beyond little anecdotes. For kicks, and in case there are some who still don’t know what to do, we took a quick poll to create a David Letterman-style top 10 list of things to do with our wrapping paper. To wit:

Top 10 things to do with People Design wrapping paper

10. Use it for Santa Claus paper (you can’t get it it anywhere else!).
9. Host a paper hat party.
8. Convince friends you’re an international trendsetter – tell them it’s the hottest thing in France
7. Wrap fish in it.
6. Crumple into a ball, dip in batter, roll in breadcrumbs, and deep-fry for 30 seconds. Serve with mayonnaise.
5. Wallpaper your bathroom.
4. Go Robert Sabuda and make a holiday pop-up.
3. Use as fire starter.
2. Place on tongue as litmus paper test to check if you’re naughty or nice.
1. Regift it.

Happy Holidays from your friends at People Design!

At the AIGA Conference in Denver, I saw a presentation given by Shoshana Berger and Grace Hawthorne, co-founders of Ready-Made Magazine. The talk was entitled “Disposable Design.” The message at the end of the talk was “you don’t have to be a designer to think like a designer.” While I appreciate the sentiment and want the world to “get” design, these tools and templates show that the popular meaning of the verb “to design” is changing. “Designing” today often means using templates and tools to make beautiful things.

Design consumers may be rightly shocked by the cost of original design when these tools provide so much for so little. The enormous effort and work behind the designed templates and the function of these self-serve tools is invisible to the user.

So this is our new problem: to help our customers and potential customers understand the problem solving and work that goes into developing original designs, and finding design consumers for whom original work that solves unique problems is valuable. For people who have simple problems, who need tried-and-true communication tools, who have no budget for new ideas — those people don’t really need us anymore. Maybe they never did. And they have been set free. We shouldn’t be shy about recommending these tools to them. When they can help our customers communicate effectively given the resources they have, why not?

Some examples:

Ellen Lupton, a designer we admire a lot, has written a series of new books on designing things yourself. They’re well-written, with lots of good help for the amateur designer.

Apple offers great looking templates for websites and a host of other media. Make your own movies, publish your own books, design your own e-Cards. It helps a lot if you have an Apple computer first, btw…

Stock Layouts gives you very professional templates for very reasonable prices. They’ve got the healthcare brochure with the apple on the cover. They’ve got the Warhol-esque bright color montage, they’ve got a lot of trendy work.

There’s a slew of online printers who give away free layouts and have “design” services. These are actually “layout” services, but very few people know the difference.

Companies like Moo.com and tinyprints.com are offering high quality announcements, letterpress and all. It’s pretty damn good. There’s no need to design a low quantity custom invitation anymore. We might be able to design it better, but we can’t deliver it cheaper.

Design your own greeting cards with your own photos and make it available for the world to use. How cool it that?

You can download very cute craft templates from Martha Stewart, clip-art, pumpkin carving templates, gift tags, invitations, e-cards.

Got more great design tools to share, or ideas about how to distinguish the product of problem-solving designers from the product of do-it-yourself design tools? Then comment on…

Among the many lovely folks I had the chance to meet, work with, and learn from at AIGA’s Image, Space, Object camp in Denver this past August was Hugh Dubberly, a designer. His RISD, Yale, Apple, Times-Mirror, Netscape, Academic background have informed his thinky, inclusive, far-reaching mind.

He’s the kind of guy who is able to remain open to all possibilities without losing his way. Somehow. And he and office, and he and his students, are the producers of brilliant concept maps. We love the whole concept of concept maps for helping people more quickly grasp complex and related ideas. His are breathtaking.

Readers of this blog will be particularly interested in the Brand Concept Map, and the more recent Innovation Concept Map (Contact Dubberly with your big ideas about innovation, will you? He’s collecting them for a book he’s working on.). But in my household there’s far more interest in the Baseball Concept Map. And our developer friends will absorb the Search Concept Map and Java Concept Map faster than I did. Than I am. Than I am trying to…. Anybody want to try a concept map for Thanksgiving gatherings?