Dear Comedy: It’s not funny anymore

First, this is a real quick post. I don’t have much time today, but I wanted to get this out while it’s on my mind.

I go through phases with movies. For a while I’ll be into cerebral stuff — independent films, long, atmospheric pieces, epic dramas. Then I’ll be into horror films — people getting into ridiculous situations and doing stupid things while experiencing really horrible things. Then comedy — people getting into ridiculous situations and doing stupid things while experiencing really horrible things (wait, what?). Then action, sci-fi, etc.

Each genre of film has its own sort of standard structure. I’ve been noticing  some really repetitive structures in comedies. They recall the classic Greek comedy structure of well-woe-well. And it’s becoming tedious to the point that I don’t want want to watch comedies anymore.

• We join the protagonist in situ, just going through their comfortable, idiosyncratic life.
• The protagonist encounters something that breaks them out of their comfort zone.
• He or she resists, then gives in.
• Loves the new situation, does really well.
• But the old, comfortable life, or some personality trait from that life, catches up and causes problems.
• It looks like things are going to end badly for our protagonist.
• Through a ridiculous series of events, happenstance or uncharacteristic resolve, the protagonist overcomes.
• Happy ending.

I’m really tired of this. It makes movies so predictable that it’s like 80-110 minutes of deja vu. Last night I watched Ghost Town with Merry. It was nice, there was humor. But I was able to predict the exact course of events at each turning point. Please, can we have some new structures in comedies? Maybe lately comedies just haven’t been disguising the underlying structure very well. Not enough effort has been put into development.

Or maybe it’s time to go back to the cerebral films. A little randomness might be nice.

It’s a poster, it’s a t-shirt, it’s…

Someone once told me that if I put this on a t-shirt, they would wear it. So I’m thinking of submitting this to Threadless.com (slightly altered for the medium, of course). Click for larger image.

Create a kaleidoscope image in Illustrator CS3

I recently needed a kaleidoscope-style image for a project. I did some searches and found a few photos of what you would see if you looked through a kaleidoscope. They seemed pretty weak, though, so I set out to create my own artwork. The whole project ended up being scrapped, but I think the kaleidoscope-style artwork is pretty cool, and the process is fairly straightforward. Here’s how I did it, using Illustrator CS3:

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12 tips for working with designers

Everyone who has worked with a designer has probably encountered surprising situations: A designer didn’t respond well to changes. A designer couldn’t seem to get the design right. A designer didn’t follow your directions. Each situation is different, but here is a short list of tips for working with designers that will help to make the process more smooth, enjoyable, and effective.

1. Provide as much relevant information as possible. Design is a visual expression of an idea. The more information you provide the designer about your idea, product, service, process, and your customers and goals, the better the design results will be.
2. Answer questions. Designers ask a lot of questions. Don’t get annoyed by this — it’s a good thing. Again, provide as much information as possible. Discuss. Make sure the designer understands where you are coming from.

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Social media is old news. Now what?

I was about 10 when we got our Commodore 64. I loved it. Everyone else was playing video games, but I had a computer. I programmed in Basic. I made posters in PrintShop. I wanted a modem so bad so I could get on a BBS. I didn’t really know why; I just wanted to. Okay, maybe I was among a minority of 10-year-olds, but everyone shares a fascination with novelty. New movies, books, technology, conveniences, communication — you name it — if it’s new and useful, people are going to be trying it.

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Why design gets crowdsourced, but surgery doesn’t

Crowdsourcing is the messiah. Crowdsourcing is Satan’s scat. There are piles of debates and declarations about it on the web, and I’m not going to add my own styrofoam cup to that ever-growing heap of opinion. But I want to know why the heap is there in the first place. Why is it that graphic design is beset by crowdsourcing while other professions are not?

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Being In-House

This is a resurrected post from April 20, 2009. I accidentally deleted it, but was able to resurrect it using Google’s cache.

In-house designers work within a company that is not a design firm or advertising agency. 65% of graphic designers fall into this category, but I feel like we get overlooked. Sometimes an in-house design department is much like an agency within a company, providing services for multiple departments and having a process and structure that resemble those of an independent agency. Articles like this make the assumption that this is the case.

It doesn’t always work that way, though. Many in-house designers are embedded within a non-design department (marketing, for example) and report to a boss who is a businessperson, not a creative director. This boss reports to someone else, who reports to someone else, etc. Direction and changes can come from any number of people, and the designer has to make everyone happy. It becomes very easy to just live in that little, happy box where everyone is copacetic. But how can you be creative and still make everyone happy?

Design can be an fun, energizing process. I love the discussion and brainstorming that can go into design. But for an in-house designer, these fundamental steps can be forgotten. Often, a design project begins with copy that shows up out of the blue. No concept, no discussion, no direction, an insane turnaround, and along with tons of similar projects. But there it is. And when you have to please a committee, what can a designer do to remain creative without becoming frustrated over all of the limitations?

Here are some of the things I do. Most of which, I should do more.

1. Write. Word association can lead to visual communication. List visuals that could be associated with each individual word of a headline (or title or product name) and then consider ways that these visuals can be combined to pay off the headline. This is a basic, but powerful design technique that I learned in a class with Ed Brodsky.
2. Talk to people. Talk to the writer if possible and get their vision. Talk to other designers. This can help you refine your idea, or keep you from spending time developing an approach that is bound to get squashed.
3. Find inspiration online. Many companies aren’t paying to send designers to conferences to get their creative juices flowing. It’s up to you to keep a list of design sites and blogs bookmarked so you can check them regularly. Better yet, subscribe to those you can via RSS and skim them in Google reader so you can find new content quickly. And follow them on Twitter, too, of course.
4. Draw. This might not work for everyone, but I find that composition goes much quicker and the results are better if I sketch out some layouts (small — no bigger than a couple inches along the largest dimension) before doing anything digitally.
5. Show your design to another designer — someone you trust to give you honest feedback. Working in isolation can get you in a rut.
6. Make suggestions. Once you have come up with some ideas, talk to your boss and express your ideas with inclusive phrases like, “What if we…” and “Your copy makes me think of…” If you don’t say anything, you can miss a rare, creative opportunity. And if you say it the wrong way, you can come across as arrogant.
7. Create multiple designs. Sometimes this just means multiple layouts, but if you can come up with at least two distinct designs, then you’re better off. Make the one you think your boss wants, but if you have time, make the one you think is best too. This way, you’ve expressed your ideas, and you have an A/B option. Most bosses like options.
8. Do freelance work at home. From personal experience, working for just one client continually can deaden creativity. When I get home from work, I only want to eat supper, take care of domestic things, and then do something fun or relax a bit. But it’s my responsibility to continually grow and develop, or else I’m going to become irrelevant.

Of course, you still have to please everyone; it’s the nature of the beast. But with these techniques, doing so can be a more creative process, and you might be surprised by the designs that get approved. These are just a few ideas. I’m mostly thinking out loud through this post, and I’d love to hear your thoughts as well — what advice do you have for the in-house designer? What are the restrictions and challenges you deal with?

Won’t you be?

You may have encountered the story of Jon Engal, a freelance designer trying to make an honest living who was ripped off by a powerful corporation and then ruthlessly attacked legally. Oh wait, you also heard that might not be true?

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Microsoft is acting like #2

A fairly new series of ads by Microsoft has really caught my attention.

First is Lauren, looking for a 17″ laptop under $1000:

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Discovered a handy Firefox feature

If you’re at all like me, you’ve constantly got three or four windows open in Firefox, each window containing 10-15 tabs. As you bounce around from tab to tab, window to window, did you ever come upon a tab with a page that’s just mind-blowing, and you want to tweet or post about it, but you can’t give proper credit because you can’t remember how you got there? This happens to me all of the time. I just recently wished out loud on Twitter for a feature or plugin to help me with this problem. And then I discovered that the feature is already there.

If you go to the Tools menu in Firefox, and then select Page Info, this will bring up a surprisingly informative pallet. Not only can you see what the referring page is, but you can see (and save!) images contained in the page, see any RSS feeds available on that page, determine permissions for that domain, check out cookies associated with that page, and more.

Perhaps I’m the only one who has never noticed this remarkably versatile tool, but I have a feeling I’m not. Oh, and that Twitter URL in there is for real.