It’s a wonderful world, innit? Old Satchmo (Louis Armstrong… no, no, not Lance) certainly thought so and his song about the kaleidoscope that is earth has certainly made its mark on the world. If a blind man can see that much, then surely you as designer can see even more.

At creativity workshops, people are often asked to describe a colour to a blind person. What is brown if you can’t see it?  What does it feel like? It can be the golden brown soft abrasions of sand on the beach, the soft, furry pelt of a grizzly bear, or how about the rough brown bark of an oak tree? If you could taste brown, how would you explain that taste to this blind person? Is it a juicy, grilled steak? Perhaps some brown onion soup? More likely you’re going for a chocolate milkshake. We know what brown smells like – the staple diet of us designers – coffee. Or do you have something else in mind ? Hmmm, hearing brown may be a bit harder, so we’ll give you a moment?

What did you hear?

We heard the swishing of autumn leaves as we drag our feet through it. We also heard the shlip-shlop of mud when tiny hands make mud-cakes. Some of you may hear a cow mooing in the meadow.

Whatever your brown looks, sounds, feels, tastes and smells like – that brown is uniquely yours. Sure, there may be some areas that overlap, but try adding some additional colours, and you’ll see how deep that rabbit hole really goes.

When you start a design project, think of your client as being blind, deaf, anosmic (no smell), ageusiatic (no taste) or having sensory neuropathy. While other designers will simply use a shade of brown to depict an image, you must now use your five senses to make your colour, and your design, come alive.

Enough with the brown, though. We’re sure you understand that concept. What we do want you to remember is that no one has your view of the world or your particular set of interests, and that unique view of the world should guide all your work. If you have to work on a project that you’re not enthused about, you have the opportunity, as someone with no interest in it, to tie it in with your world – how can you connect that theme to your likes? Or, better yet, you absolutely adore the topic at hand, how will you transfer that enthusiasm into your design? Taste its sweetness, feel its abrasions, hear the chiming, see its translucence, smell the aroma – and imagine how you will add all of that to your project, better yet, tell your clients about it when you present to them.

Not only is this a fun way to work, but it will ensure that everything you create bears your stamp of originality.

The most precious stone on earth, the diamond, takes up to 3.3 billion years to form. That’s a long time to wait for something that precious – time that we as humans don’t have.

Unless you believe in reincarnation, your time on earth is limited, which makes your time even more precious than that of the diamond. You only have this life to live, and everything that happens, from the moment of conception, is part of your life’s story – all the good, bad and in between. But you’re not the only one with a story. Collectively, all the stories from fellow South Africans make up the history of our country, just like all these stories of the people of Africa make up the history of the continent, and if you put together all the stories on the globe (and those astronauts outside the earth), you have the history of the Earth.

Now, which one of those stories is more significant than the other? And which part of which story is to be excluded from the overall tale? Who decides this?

Too often people try and deny, or write off parts of their story due to bad experiences or adversity. You may imagine that the bad relationship with your ex-boyfriend or girlfriend never happened. Many of us would like to forget the enormous fashion faux-pas which was the 80s and some generations are still facepalming over the political and financial repercussions of some leaders’decisions. But haven’t you learned something from that relationship? Surely there were good memories in there as well. Some 80s fashion finds actually have a place in the new world. And we’ve surely learned something from worldwide discoveries, genocides and cultures. It is our heritage.

As a designer, you will experience your share of ups and downs, and you will quite often want to do the ostrich thing and just drop your noggin into the sand after one of those horrid projects. Don’t!

The key to growth and evolution is to learn from everything that happens. If you did something wrong, then put on your big girl panties, suck it up and learn from it – get to know yourself under pressure. Show people that you own up and that you can handle critique. Someone has wronged you? Now you’ve learned something about human nature. Oh, and you can show the world that you can be better than them. Those people are also part of your story. Everything that has happened to you is important, and is part of the person you are today and part of the work you deliver. Even if you would try to forget some of the bad things that have happened, they have also contributed towards the unique perspective that you bring to the table.

So stand up tall and tell the world your story.

By Kalika Painter

I recently had the privilege to present a retail design concept to a client of mine I’ve been working with for the last 7 years. Is there anything like the high of a successful presentation? That moment the clients face lights up and everyone is nodding in agreement to what you are saying around the table. It’s difficult to beat!

I believe this feeling is part of the reason we become designers in the first place. We want to make people happy with the experiences we provide for them. The term responsible design is not something I consciously ponder as I put pen to paper whilst designing, mostly it is something that happens in the relationship that forms with my client. It is impossible to tap into what makes people tick without building a relationship with your client, and if you don’t know what makes them tick….well lets just say you are not going to be as successful as you might have hoped to be!

As a designer it is our responsibility to always have our clients’ best interest at heart, I know of a lot of design companies that do not play by these rules. True, they still make money in the short term, but to have sustainable business consisting of a returning client base, I believe you have to really keep this truth at the core of your practice.

I attended a trend talk recently where it was mentioned that one of the leading trends that are happening within our society today is a “Trust no one” mentality. This presents quite a challenge to us as designers trying to sell our solutions (and motivate why it’s the ONLY solution!) to individuals that have access to the same knowledge as us at the click of a button.  The answer to this is, its relational. Get into the people business!

This is why each and every project you undertake is supposed to be different and exciting, because the people you are designing for are individuals.

Another truth that I have once again realised through this encounter is that a responsible designer is honest. The good the bad and the ugly! Your client will appreciate this more than you will ever know and this took me a while to sink in unfortunately. It’s not about how perfect you are, more about that you are true to yourself as a creative and are open to the fact that there will always be someone who knows more than you do!

There are so many facets to what makes a responsible designer such as using sustainable products etc, but for me now, I’m focused on taking my 7 year relationship to the next level!

Selfie or selfish …

We have all done it… posed and taken that unforgettable selfie! Some of us do it once in a while, some of us do it sporadically, and some of us are addicted. Whatever your experience with this self-explorative imagery, it is a movement that is flooding our generation. One could argue that it is not new to history, surely the popular self-portrait that frequents art history is too a popular genre. The difference between yesteryear and today is someone else was commissioned to “paint” the shot but now we have become self-indulgent at a new level. WE commission ourselves!

One should perhaps consider the reason for the flood of this modern self-portrait. In this ever saturated visual world, communicating through selfies seems to speak a universal language, it is instant, it is fun, it is casual and makes an individual feel part of a bigger network. It explores a new fresh art form focusing on body shots, memorable occasions and places. It brings people together with a snide sense of humour. It moves away from the traditional photographic and posed portrait into a world of swift photographic freedom! It moves away from the structured portrait shot that is planned, prepared and usually holds historical significance or sentimental value. Whilst the selfie is also all these things it seems to be a sloppier version of the latter.

Hence my following deduction, are the ever popular selfies influencing our visual perception of good and pleasing aesthetical shots? Selfies are often the epitome of bad photography, with odd camera angles, disproportionate picture spaces, unbalanced compositions and terribly random focus. The strange irony is taking all of this into account, they are actually approved by the sender and posted for all to see with profound bragging rights of often, an amateur! Further coupled with this, are the unintentional affected parties. Jerry Saltz wrote a fascinating article entitled, Art at Arm’s length: A history of the Selfie, which appeared in the February 3, 2014 issue of New York Magazine. This fascinating article also delivers some interesting takes surrounding different aspects of the selfie. Included in these aspects is the point that we become so self-absorbed in snapping our selfie, we often forget about the situation the selfie is taken in or the people it may affect. For example old friends may meet at a funeral, take a selfie of the group and have the coffin in the background with the mourning widow – perhaps a little disrespectful? A little egocentric? In Saltz’ article he quotes Alicia Eler as stating, “… we become our own biggest fans and private paparazzi,” but is this to the detriment of others sometimes?

In this growing selfie explosion perhaps we should start to consider selfie etiquette, a guideline on how to do it gallantly but this would take away from the instantaneousness and promptness. It would exclude those accidental backgrounds which often tell a thousand things even if it is an irony of the foreground. In Saltz’ article he also quotes Franco who feels selfies are “tools of communication more than marks of vanity…that we send out to give others a sense of who we are”.

Whatever your opinion may be, the fact remains that with our increased instant visual accessibility selfies are here to say. They are fun, spontaneous and capture the world we want to share. Etiquette and visually captured consideration of others becomes part of the art form and essence of the shot. Whether the choice of shot is good, well composed or inclusive of unrelated backgrounds it is an egocentric act but loads of fun! Long live bad photography… it can only make the good photographers seem better at the end of the day.

*Photo credit by Author

A look at the future. What will your shoes look like in 15 years?

We all want to predict the future, but it’s an ever-changing complexity that appears simply unpredictable. The future is a clouded mass ahead of us and if we can decipher it, we’ll be ahead of our game as designers.

Looking at the past {link to blog post: http://blog.inscape.ac.za/2014/04/look-past-history-important/ } is as important as looking at the future. We need to know where we’ve come from in order to know where we are going.

Short term trends are well documented by many people. Pantone provides trend forecasting resources and inspiration {link to site: https://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/category.aspx?ca=90 } for designers, offering a glimpse into the upcoming seasons. However, this only spans as far as S/S 2015. What about 15 years from now?

If we look that far into the future, our trend forecasting needs deeper roots. We need to consider more than the surface level impact of the world on fashion. What will the socio-economic impact be? What about religion and politics? Furthermore, we need to consider geological impact – will we already feel the effects of global warming in 15 years’ time?

World events have a large impact on fashion trends across the board. Take for example ‘The Olympic Legacy’ {link to site: http://www.surfdome.com/fashion_blog/fashions-olympic-legacy/ } trend in sportswear after the 2012 London Olympics. How are these fashions different from those stemming from the more recent Sochi games? The Olympics are a recurring event, can we take advantage of this in our forecasting?

We hear about currency crises, slowing growth and environmental problems, but we don’t ever really think about how these changes are going to affect the fashion industry. Further still, what impact will these issues have in the future?

Saverio Romeo explores the retail experience of the future on onwindows.com {link to site: http://www.onwindows.com/Article/sustainability-and-technology-e28093-the-future-of-fashion-retail-2471#.U1YgWfmSx8E }:

“We want to engage with designers. We could go to stores, which are not just retail stores anymore, but open spaces for customers where they can use 3D holograms to design their own clothes or develop their own style through a combination of existing clothes and ideas coming from the store designers in real-time.”

Saverio Romeo also makes a good point of sustainability in the future of fashion retail, talking about making consumers part of the end-to-end process and making them sustainably aware. By 3D printing our own clothes or accessories, we would become more aware and involved.

A current concept for footwear of the future {link to site: http://www.fastcodesign.com/3023579/design-crime/the-footwear-of-the-future-looks-totally-gross} involves (slightly gross looking) shoes printed from a synthetic biological material that has the ability to repair itself. Is this what your shoes will look like in 15 years?

If we open our minds to the possibilities of the future (considering and embracing the inevitable change) we can visualise the world 15 years from now. If we carefully consider the trends and cultural norms for this world, we might be prepared and ultimately ahead of our game as designers.

The Designer behind the Inscape Brand

Rebranding is not just changing a logo, it’s not just upgrading a building. It’s a change that requires all members associated with it to speak the same language. It’s from the inside out.

We spoke to M.J. du Preez to get to know the designer behind the Inscape rebrand.

1. What does MJ stand for?

Johannes Mans. My initials are J.M. but my name is M.J.

Weird, I Know but my mom didn’t like J.M-etjie. M.J-etjie was more her thing.

If you think you’re confused imagine Limpopo speed cops.

2. How many designers contributed to the Inscape rebranding?

In terms of concept development we were 3, but labour wise we were round about 6 designers working on the different parts during the life span of the project.

3. How long did the whole process take?

It’s difficult to say how long we actually worked on the project due to a bunch of obstacles during the project that halted progress, but from the first meeting with Inscape to the brand implementation took just over a year.

4. Do you have any creative ways of dealing with stress and deadlines around the office?

Unfortunately each person needs to deal with their stress in a way that works for them. I prefer cracking jokes and keeping it light hearted in the office because when I’m unhappy my creativity suffers. Some people strive on the stress of a deadlines & just want to be left alone.

As a team it is important to respect the way other people function whilst always trying to relate to each other so you can function as one organism. Just like some diseases a team will start to consume itself if there is a part of it that feels foreign to the body. That is why employing the right people is so important. I find that people with a similar sense of humour make the best teams.

5. What advice would you give to people who want to pursue a career in design?

If we are specifically talking about graphic design, be sure that you understand that it isn’t as glamorous and arty as you think. To make a living you will have to be willing to do a lot of boring design work for boring clients. Clients aren’t keen to rock the boat. People play it safe and they will try and teach you to also do so. It is just like any other corporate job. Money comes first and concept and quality is a plus, even if they won’t admit it.

That being said, if you need to get a 9 – 5, design is awesome. Seeing your first billboard go up, holding your first CD cover design or winning your first awards is a great rush.

Creating something out of nothing, making a physical thing out of a vague vision in your head or touching something that would not have existed without you, is truly a great feeling. A feeling that should be respected and cherished. Trust me, you won’t always feel that way but try to remember the feeling you got from the first successful thing you made. Not the thing, the feeling. You will look back & realise what you made sucked but don’t think because it wasn’t actually that great that the feeling you had at that time means any less. Try to set your sites on always reaching that same feeling with your current standards. That is the Dragon you want to chase and remember, creativity isn’t something you don’t have, it’s just something you give up on finding.

6. What types of weird habits or strange customs do you and your team members have?

To be honest I can’t think of any. When you are always opening yourself for new ideas nothing seems weird I guess.

7. What aspects of the South African Industry make it nice to work here?

I like how all the different cultures influence our design styles, but at the same time we are well connected to the rest of the world so our standard is quite high.

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In-flight emergency cards

If you want to understand a word and its uses, it’s easy – you use a dictionary.  Unless you are writing poetry, your copy can only be interpreted in so many ways.

Unfortunately this does not apply to visuals.

Humans are hard-wired to look out for visual cues – and you will use visual aids throughout your lifetime – the interpretation of these aids can, however, be misconstrued. Not only that, but scientists have found several problems with ‘visual memory’.

Firstly, memory is not a record – it is an actual reconstruction. We remember the main points of events and visuals and then fill in blanks in these visual cues and events with information already available to us. We are literally making up our own stories by using personal references.

Another problem with visual memory, according to Visual Expert {link to site: http://www.visualexpert.com/Resources/eyewitnessmemory.html} is that our minds automatically convert visual memory to words. If you see a red car, for instance, your mind stores the memory as the words ‘red’ and ‘car’, instead of the actual image. Which means that you recall the words when you see it, and don’t always view a replica of what you’ve seen.

The third problem, according to Microsoft Office online {link to site: http://office.microsoft.com/en-za/powerpoint-help/show-me-what-brain-research-says-about-visuals-in-powerpoint-HA010277194.aspx} is relevance:

“The cognitive system is a fantastic relevance detector. It constantly tells the perceptual system, “Hey, spare me the fluff and give me only the facts I can use.” At the same time, pictures attract our attention like magnets. Can you see the dilemma? If irrelevant stock photos (…) appear frequently on slides, purely for decorative reasons, the eyes will respond automatically and then the brain has to make sense of them. Subconsciously, the viewers will be thinking “Why am I being distracted by that visual input? These pictures don’t relate at all to what the guy is saying.”

So now you get how complicated the whole visual representation and memory recall process is, and how any visual instructions could go horribly wrong. Your interpretation of visuals will not necessarily be the same as the person next to you – which is why it’s always good to get a second opinion.

Funnily enough, it seems that people tend to pay much more attention to unusual instructional, whether they were intentionally designed like that or completely by accident.

You’ll remember the antics of Tyler Durden and his posse of wannabe anarchists in Fight Club when they fiddled with the in-flight emergency cards. The result was somewhat hilarious. Since then, the internet has seen many a meme and instructional parody {link to site: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/safety-instruction-parodies} on the matter.

There’s a lot of fun to be had with memes and infographics. You’ve probably seen many illustrations on instructional manuals that made you giggle. Or have you perhaps made a similar blooper in one of your presentations to raise some eyebrows? Once your red-face has resumed its pre-humiliation hue, it’s perhaps a good thing to sit back and laugh about it – or share your blunder with others.

If seriously need to get it done, however, Hongkiat has a list of 50 infographics that got it right {link to site: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/50-informative-and-well-designed-infographics/} as well as some ideas on making your user guide interesting. {link to site: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/how-to-make-an-interesting-user-guide-hint-comic/}