F*** you, pay me!

("I COOK FOR YOU") - a nova panela de pressão do design

—desculpem a quantidade de texto, mas leiam—

"(…)The balancing of understanding and overbearing clients is nothing new, but at least that client/designer relationship still exists. Only a few months ago a new service Ready Media pitched up online, which allows companies to create their own magazines using a set of pre-designed templates. This is something that has existed for a long time for websites, but relatively new to editorial publishing. Opening with the inflammatory phrase ‘just add content’, it conjures up images of picking out a packet of cake mix, and simply adding water, stirring, and throwing it in the oven. It may be standard practice for design agencies to create templates for new or relaunched magazines, and then passed onto the in-house art department, but these templates are built for that particular magazine; its audience, its content, the art direction and the flow of the articles. The danger of removing the designer from the process and allowing the client to directly pick out a pre-designed template is it may not suit the content or audience. Ready Media does offer to adapt templates for an extra fee, so as a business idea it’s perfect for getting clients through the door and selling them something more ‘bespoke’. However, it causes many designers, including myself, to feel quite uncomfortable. It makes our job appear easy, like simply picking out a new set of curtains, our only function is mere decoration. It devalues the role that the designer plays in the process.

If the template services are widely adopted by the industry, it may only be bad news for designers that use the same style over and over again for each client. Inevitably they will be imitated or absorbed by the companies offering a template of a similar style at a fraction of the price. This will force some designers to try harder, to outrun the imitators. My concern is the designer becomes an expensive luxury that can be removed from the formula. This may not worry the agencies with large clients with large pockets, but for the companies that rely on a steady flow of lower budget work this could seriously affect their survival.

The template model may cause editorial designers to shift uneasily in their seats, but branding designers may also worry a little about the outsourcing/crowdsourcing model made possible by faster and wider global internet access. Some companies offer an ‘affordable’ and speedy logo outsourced to countries where the labour is cheaper. Others offer the crowdsourcing model, where a cluster of desperate enthusiastic designers spit out many variations of the client’s logo, until a lucky one wins the measly prize. Essentially this is a marriage of convenience; the client will get exactly what they pay for; an ill-conceived design, based on a sparse brief and no expensive surprises, and the designer gets paid for a few hours work. Everyone’s a winner.

The budget logo companies draw inevitable comparisons with the fashion industry. From employing cheap overseas labour for the benefit of rich Western countries, to the cheap but formulaic styles that spread like wildfire. Budget high street fashion stores are regularly ‘inspired’ by the designs that appear on the high fashion catwalks, with the budget logo designers they too absorb the styles of the designers at the top.

To survive as a designer (without losing your soul) does that mean we have to become the equivalent of a Saville Row tailors? Essentially yes, with a tailor you pay for the personalised customer service, for an outfit that not only fits and flatters you, it fits your personality. So as designers we have to maintain that level of service, listening to the client, creating something unique to them and risk surprising them with something they were not expecting. All of these qualities are impossible to conduct with a quick and cheap logo service, or a window display of templates. For the client who appreciates these differences, they be willing to pay the extra to communicate their message and personality effectively."

será que isto é considerado design, ou algo que podemos comprar no supermercado?

Famous Logo Designs

http://www.logoblog.org/wordpress/famous-logo-designers-creation/

We witness countless famous brands and their captivating logo designs but do we ever wonder whose brainchild is it that created these magnificent logo designs? Short and simple, I say: “Behind every successful brand there is a logo designer”

http://www.toxel.com/design/2008/08/20/20-famous-logo-designs/

If there is one thing that we can learn from famous logos like Nike’s “Swoosh” or FedEx logo, it is that the logo does not have to be complicated to be effective.
Hopefully, our collection of famous logo designs will help prove that simplicity is the key to a memorable logo.