About love and client relationships

This morning, while I was having breakfast, I was thinking: Ok, a client is like a girlfriend. Let me explain:

• The first time I see her, I don't know her, but I see her and I think: I would like to make her mine before other designers go after her.
• I send her gifts, flowers and chocolates, and I think: I hope to impress her with these work samples!
• At the same time I ask her out for a date, and I think: I must prepare myself well for this interview, introduce my work and my offer.
• Once she accepts me and we are in a stable relationship: This is a relationship that must be supported with respect, professionalism, and sincere communication.
• Occasionally there is friction, like when she does not want to give me what I ask for, or she thinks that I am asking her for too much, then I think: I have to find a solution so that we can go on, after all we have a history together!
• And if unfortunate things happen that make our relationship come to an end, then: it must be a friendly break up, otherwise my professional reputation could be affected.
• And yes, disappointed girlfriends speak with their friends, and can put your love/professional prospects* in danger.

*truth be told, in matters like this, a monogamous relation is not advisable.

Design Services Survey

Dear friends,
As you all know, I work as a freelance designer, providing branding, graphic and web design services. I am working to increase my client base, and I have created a 4-question, anonymous survey. If you could please take 5 minutes to answer these questions, it would help me greatly. Also, feel free to share it with your friends. Thanks, thanks, thanks.

Just watched (for a second time) a presentation on Google Wave. This is going to be a new way to communicate and collaborate at a personal or a professional level. I am very impressed, and I can't wait to get an invitation to an account. The system is still beta, and you are able to use it only by invitation. Cool stuff!

Rich Black or 100%K

(For Offset printing)

For when deciding between using Rich Black or 100% black in your designs: 100K is better for small text (smaller than 18pts). This helps avoiding registration issues AND if the client requests changes to the text, this will only affect one plate rather than all four (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black).

Client - Vendor Relationship

Interestingly enough, nobody would behave like this with a doctor, I wonder why?

Paul Rand, logo designer

Check out this video of Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, talking about Paul Rand, the designer who created logos for: IBM, ABC, Cummins Engine, Westinghouse, and UPS.

It is refreshing to see the respect and admiration of a client for a designer.

Typographic experimentation

This morning I attended a workshop on typography, as part of AIGA Boston's celebration of its 25 years. The instructor was Michelle Bowers, a very talented designer, who does fantastic typography work. You can see her work here, and below are the images that I created during the workshop. It was a lot of fun!

Polish posters

Here is a gallery of some of my favorite Polish posters. The designer, Franciszek Starowieyski, died last week. He was one of the masters of the great postwar Polish poster school

Interesting photographic experiment - Experimento fotográfico interesante

Here is a link to a very interesting experiment. Place your cursor at the top of the photo. You will notice it is 6:10 PM. Bring the mouse down slowly over the photo without pressing any button. Watch how night time appears, the lights come on, and at 7:40 PM, it's dark! 

Este es un experimento muy interesante. Coloca el cursor sobre la parte superior de la fotografía. El cursor dirá que son las 6:10 PM. Lentamente mueve el cursor hacia abajo sobre la foto, si presionar ningún botón, y observa cómo se hace de noche en la foto!

Redesign does not always mean improvement - Rediseño no siempre significa mejoría

When a company decides to go through a redesign of their logo, it is usually done for an improvement. This is not the case of the logo redesign for Blimpie. Here you can see how they changed a logo that was at least playful for an insipid use of the font Futura Extra Bold.

Casi siempre cuando una empresa decide hacer un rediseño de su identidad es con el objetivo de mejorarlo. No ha sido ese el caso de la compañia de sandwishes Blimpie, que recientemente hizo un rediseño de su logo para usar únicamente el nombre Blimpie en la tipografía Futura Extra Bold. Un cambio desafortunado.

Beautiful Book Covers - Bellas Portadas de Libros

Penguin re-published the James Bond novels with a beautiful redesign of the cover. See the artist's blog here and the covers here.

La editorial Penguin re-publicó las novelas de James Bond con nuevas, muy bellas portadas, diseñadas por este artista. Aquí puedes ver las portadas.

Shigeo Fukuda RIP

I just read the news that Shigeo Fukuda passed away on Sunday, January 11, 2009. He was 76 years old.

Fukuda was a very important figure of the Japanese and International design community. His work is full of poetry and discovery. He was, is, and will always be a good inspiration for designers and artists. Rest in peace, dear maestro.

Here are are some of his posters