Toronto Crime Stoppers: Hat, Hoodie, Bandana

Advertising Agency: DDB, Toronto, Canada
Creative Director: Todd Mackie, Denise Rossetto
Copywriter: Daniel Bonder
Art Director: Yusong Zhang
Photographer: Frank Hoedl
Retoucher: Daniel Essegern, Frank Hoedl
Account manager: Lexi Rose, Reshma Lalany

Client Criticism for Graphic Designers – Not a big deal!!

For graphic designers, clients are everything. And why wouldn’t they? They are the chief source of revenue and income for designers. But no graphic designer is willing to sell his pride and prestige for any money. Designers get paid to work on graphic design projects and not listen to demeaning comments from clients. Although client criticism is part and parcel of the game, let us be clear on the two aspects of criticism.

The first aspect is the constructive criticism and the other is pessimistic criticism. Constructive criticism is always helpful for graphic designers as they help them identify their loopholes and strengthen their areas of weakness. Sometimes clients criticize simply because they want the designer to work with optimum efficiency. The other extreme is the pessimistic criticism. Some clients criticize just for the sake of it. Graphic designers need to distinguish between the two before reacting. But it’s always better to be proactive than reactive. Let us learn how we can handle client criticism in a proactive manner:

1. Become an active listener:

One of the best techniques of remaining proactive is to become an active listener. When graphic designers are tackling difficult clients, patience is virtue. Learn to listen more and speak less. That way you can avoid a tussle with the clients who mete out insults and verbal assaults. Even if the client is criticizing without a concrete reason, let him. Sooner or later, he will eventually become worn out of the arguing. There is no point in quarrelling over a discussion that has no end to it.

2. Control your anger:

Whether you work in the field of graphic design or not, there is one thing that we all need to be careful about. Professionalism demands control over your anger. It is a known fact that whosoever has let their anger get in the way of their professional dealings have been unsuccessful. While I know it is easy to say and difficult to implement this, we need to realize that whatever criticism we hear in our professional careers, there is nothing to take personal. That is why I particularly like the saying, “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.”

3. Distinguish good and bad criticism:

The first thing that you need to know while handling client criticism is to distinguish the good from the bad. As I mentioned earlier, some criticisms are for the graphic designers’ betterment and improvement, while some are just mere arguments for the sake of argument. There are some common statements that client say which can help identify the negative censure from the positive feedbacks. One way is of finding out is through bilateral communication. Try to clarify the intentions of the client and not presume what he meant to say.

4. Convince the client with your intellect:

There are two ways that a human body is administered. Either we do what our brains tell us or we listen to the heart. Although our heart helps us through many grave situations, but it is not very useful when someone is aggressively criticizing you and your work. This is the place where a calm and collected mind comes in handy. Instead of reacting brashly, try to convince your client using your intellect and brain power. Outwit the client with your knowledge and dexterity by giving logical and rational explanations.

5. Never panic:

Sometimes, clients can come up with outrageous suggestions and unfeasible deadlines for their project. This aggravates graphic designers who suddenly panic when they listen to these impractical things that clients ask them to do. The key here is never to say die. A competent graphic designer never backs down from challenges. If you are given an unachievable deadline to complete a project, don’t panic. Simply accept it and clarify the client the minimum time required in the entire procedure.

6. Be self-motivated:

The ultimate step to handling design criticism is to be self-motivated. Negative censure and verbal insults cause a graphic designer to lose enthusiasm in his work. It reduces the designer’s motivation level. Obviously, dealing with client objections and criticisms isn’t every graphic designer’s bag of tricks. You need to learn to be self-motivated constantly. The key here is to believe in yourself! If you think that you are right, then no amount of criticism can impair you.

Credite: graphicdesignblog.org

The Connection of the Dissociation!

TAKE OFF !

Finally, I have already caught up with everything that I was so behind for the past two weeks!
School projects, events project from graphic office, office duties, and an essays for applying student scholarship, these are things which had already been taken care off properly and slowly.
It is about time to take off for the next step of changing something, something that is wrong, something that is set with the wrong attitude and wrong understanding. I am changing these kind of things slowly and quietly. Just only a few people who could be able to notice, however some are still taking the same steps and would not be able to get the message!
Image: The Connection of the Dissociation
Yothsaran Rermraksakul March 4th, 2010
I was confused and suffered for a while where should I stand and what should I do? Should I just being like a wind and or water that flows following the majority in the society?
Hell NO! That was my answer that is really hard to be figured out!

it's been a while !!!!

It has been a while that I have not bloged.
I was super duper busy with school and personal things that I had to take care of.
Niway, that should not be the excuses!! I better be motivated and inspired by pretty and high-quality designs without any excuses.

I came across the idea of inspiring myself to use the different elements and techniques for designing my project. Also, it was the original idea for me to think about my thesis project.
I was thinking about designing the information design. However, I had a big problem of what kind of information that I want to do. I did tons of research on others designers and design students. I found so many interesting sets of information that those people did for there project. Most of the information came from personal interests: planes, houses, foods, places, etc. Therefore, I asked myself, "why dont I pick the thing that I am obsessed with or that I would love to see it for another year from now?"

I decided to collect the information from my personal interests: faucets, fire hydrants, shadow, time based information, etc. I did some of the experimentation for examining my ideas and showed the designs to my professers. I would like to thank Prof. Jimmy Moss, Prof. Connie Utterback, Prof. Michael Henderson, and Prof. Jim Ovelmen for giving me so many advises even though, some of the advises I did not take I really appreciate for their generous and kindness. Without their advises, I could not pass my proposal and continue doing my project.

Well, I would like share those designs that I developed in the past two months.

Where the Wild Things Are

http://www.albertocerriteno.blogspot.com/

Obsessive Consumption.

Well, let me start with what I have been up to lately....
My school just started last week with many anxieties ... lol cause so many things going on to our campus. The government cut the ( I would say "BIG") budget from our school, actually the whole CSU. Which means, the CSU schools have less money to spend on the education and everything. Therefore, they have to cancel bunch of classes and close the school every other Friday.....what ??? close school every other Friday ???? Yeah.....BUT, not completely close...but close HAHA whatever !!!!

So, is that affect me and my other design students including undergraduate and graduate students ?? Oh hell yeah !!!!
First of all, we have to pay 10 % - 20 % more for our tuition fees but there will be less class than it was !!!! make so many senses huh ?$!@#^#%
Second, the school will not accepting new and transfer students until Fall 2010.....Oh my, we have to face to same design students, dame ideas and styles from them for another one more year !!! We need new students for sharing and opening our eyes with the fresh and new ideas....

By the way, I do not want to complain more about this...I would let it just .......Sigh

Hey!! since the first line there was nothing to do with obsessive consumption !!!!
Alright, here is the thing, I have to come up with ideas for my thesis which I have to propose in the Winter 2010.
Since, I took a class with Prof. Jimmy -Information Design, I am kind of interested in the information design. I would say I am obsessed looking at the visual information no matter how complicated it is. even more, I could not get the massage or the content from that design. I still appreciate the beauty of the color, the composition, the letters and the background.... Background ?? Yeah, Background... why is the background? Because, this canvas gives the balance to the design and to the information underneath that design....take a moment and look at every single design around you, you will see how important of the background and the color of it.
Ok, let's get to the point of obsessive consumption. I will talk about consumption in the capitalism society. I will be documenting and collecting the data of what I consume for a day in a year and might be able to manipulate those information to some sort of and visual graphic which could tell all my story and and contribute to some other prospective international design students.
Hopefully, this idea might be interesting and might leads me to something in the end of the project.... It might be something totally different from the thing that I have mentioned before...Who knows ?

These images caught my attention !!!

weekly wrap up + slash: paper under the knife

whew! it has been a long week so i’m heading out a tiny bit early to work on a side project for d*s (news on that soon!). so i thought it would be nice to start and end the day with beautiful paper projects. these images are from the upcoming exhibition, slash: paper under the knife, at the museum of arts and design. starting in october, the MAD will feature the work of about 50 contemporary artists from 16 countries, including sculpture and large-scale installations. and the best part? during the first week of the exhibition, visitors will also be able to watch several of the artists working on-site to install their piece. so cool- click here for more information. until monday, i hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

from Design Sponge

August 14th, 2009 - 12:30pm

Romanian Traffic Police

Advertising Agency: Mercury 360, Bucharest, Romania
Art Director: Ionut Rusu
Copywriter: Alexandru Malaescu
Creative Group Director: Liviu Turcanu
Published: April 2009

Typography Inspiration Showcase

Typography can be one of the most fascinating elements of design. Whether it’s web design, album art, posters, or any other type of graphic design, typographical inspiration can be a great resource for designers. With that in mind I’ve compiled this collection of beautiful typographical works.

Unloveable

รัก....คำที่มีนิยามและความหมายแตกต่างกันออกไปขึ้นอยู่กับว่าใครเป็นคนให้คำนิยามนั้นๆ
ในที่นี้ผมจะไม่ขอกล่าวถึงรักจากครอบครัว...ซึ่งนั่นแน่นอนว่ารักจากครอบครัวเป็นรักที่บริสุทธิ์ ไม่มีเหตุผลใดมาโต้แย้งได้

บาง คนพยายามเข้าใจความหมายและนัยโดยแท้ของรัก แต่กลับกลายเป็นว่ายิ่งทำความพยายามเข้าใจมันมากเท่าไหร่กลับยิ่งเข้าใจมัน น้อยลง....เหตุผลเหรอ ? หรือใช้เหตุผลกับมันมากไป >>>นั่นก็อาจจะใช่...หรือในทางกลับกัน ในบางสถาณการณ์ เหตุผลที่จะรักก็เป็นสิ่งที่ถูกยกมาเป็นปัจจัยและกลับกลายเป็นประเด็นให้ถก เถียงกัน!

บางคนเข้าใจและให้ความสำคัญกับรักผิดออกไป รักกลับกลายเป็นเครื่องมือ, มาตรวัด หรือดัชนีบ่งบอกค่าอะไรบางอย่าง เช่น การที่ถูกรักโดยคนมากมายนั่นบ่งบอกถึงคุณค่าของตนเอง...!!!!!!!!

Food meets Fashion

mini

TYPO

The color of your memories.

Advertising Agency: JMC YR, Caracas, Venezuela
Executive Creative Directors: Daniel Ascención, Jairo Gudiño
Creative Director / Copywriter: Maeca Gomez
Art Directors: Francisco Marín, Daniel Ascención
Illustrator: Francisco Marín
Published: July 2008

Glue, Paper, Scissors

Collage-based work by 15 artists from Los Angeles

During April 4-May 23, 2009 at California State University-Los Angeles, the Luckman Fine Arts Complex exhibited a collection of collage-based work by 15 Los Angeles artists, “Glue, Paper, Scissors”. The exhibition included artists Dan Bayles, Mark Bradford, Kent Familton, Joyce Lightbody, Candice Lin, Jason Meadows, Justin Michell, Aaron Morse, Eamon Ore-Giron, Meaghan Reid, Nils Schirrmacher, Alexis Smith, Frances Stark, Rosha Yaghmai, and Brenna Youngblood. “It draws attention to the many-sided ways in which contemporary artists continue to employ collage techniques, juxtaposing objects or images to create new meanings. The collages represented here include experiments in formal composition, the creation of personal narratives, a way of challenging or re-imagining political events. It included popular culture as a way of reflecting upon the juxtapositions present in the Los Angeles landscape.” (www.luckmanarts.org) It was such a great opportunity for me and other students to perceive collage-based works by these contemporary artists in the different techniques and different approaches. Moreover, the exhibition was presented at the Luckman Gallery on our campus and was FREE!
In my opinion, this exhibition was marvelous and impressive. There were diverse styles and techniques used to produce the works of art. Each style represents personal experience and personal preference to communicate its meaning to the audiences. Dan Bayles explores the relationship between art and architecture by mixing photographs, tape, paper, and painting into semi-abstract works. “Eamon Ore-Giron’s engagement with music and sound is a central force in his visual work. By manipulating the graphics or record covers that accompany music, or by appropriating and manipulating lyrics, he draws attention to forms of cultural resistance and improvisation in both music and visual art.” (www.luckmanarts.org) Above all, the art collection from Joyce Lightbody completely grabbed my attention and dragged me into her collage world. “Her collages reveal her long-standing interest in world travel, map-making, music, and poetry. Her pieces often involve national structures—musical, cartographic, and linguistic.” (www.luckmanarts.org)
Joyce Lightbody is a current faculty member at Otis College of Art and Design. She was born in Providence, Rhode Island. She got a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1974. Her works has been selected to exhibit since 1975 in California, New York, Nevada, Texas and Illinois. (www.acmelosangeles.com) After I had walked throughout the exhibition, I had the opportunity to speak with the woman sitting at the front desk of the gallery. She told me a little bit about Joyce Lightbody. The most interesting part was that Joyce Lightbody is also a music composer and stamp collector. Her parallel interests clearly reflect her style and the media that she had used for this collection. Stamps have been collaged to cover the majority part of her works with several meanings depending on what she wants to say through her works. There were seven pieces of collaged work from Joyce Lightbody in the exhibition including Anchored In Deep Water, 2002, Colliope Song, 1998, Play Both Sides, 1997, Tea For Two For One, 2001, Central Hearing for Olivier Messiaen, 2003, Untitled, 1990, and More for the Poets, 1998.
Anchored In Deep Water, 2002 (mixed media collage) is displayed at the left side of her collection. Obviously, the first thing that struck my eyes is the use of several postage stamps to cover the bottom part of the artwork. Numerous shades of blue stamps are used to represent the color of the ocean. In addition, different shades of orange and brown stamps are collaged to be an anchor and chains. These stamps make me think of a journey to different places in the world. Joyce Lightbody used stamps to represent the journey of this beautiful ship. The ship transports from one location to another by dropping the anchor in the ocean where the ship is stopped. Joyce Lightbody wrote the name of the artwork in the middle of this piece with her own handwriting. The fact that she wrote the name of the artwork in this style of lettering makes me categorize her handwriting as one of the typefaces.
Again, in Play Both Sides, 1997 (oil, ink and postage stamps on paper, mounted on wood), she wrote something in the middle right of her artwork with the same typeface. The composition of shape and form in the piece makes the artwork look like a birdhouse. The circular hole on the top of the artwork and the perch in the central part is reminiscent of a birdhouse. Joyce Lightbody also used several bird stamps around the artwork to create a collage. The bird stamps are not only the decoration of this piece, but also provide and imply the meaning to the audiences. I viewed Play Both Sides as a wonderful combination of the colors. I wondered how she combined and collaged different colors from the different stamps so beautifully without competing important element. Further, I realized the meaning of using the stamps of different birds around the artwork and also the composition of the small elements. All the elements were placed in the appropriate position to form a birdhouse. Position in the middle of the artwork, she had painted with blue color and a similar orange color in, Anchored In Deep Water.
Colliope Song, 1998(mixed media) is one out of two pieces that Joyce Lightbody did not use stamps in her artwork. Nevertheless, the audience is able to tell that she created this piece as well. Due to the style of typeface and the combination of the colors, I would give these two apparent factors as her style. The story in this piece is all about her personal interests, which include music and notes. Every single element is a part of the musical symbols. Such as, note lines, quarter note, half note, whole note, bass clef sign, and treble clef sign. Personally, I could not read the musical notes, but I totally believe that the person who can read it will understand the meaning from this piece. I cannot imagine that the musical symbols could be composed beautifully with color and decorations.
By and large, the style of the artwork comes from individual and personal interest. However, the style will be different even if the artists are focusing on the same topic. It depends on their experience and the media that are selected to create and construct their works. Many artists communicate the meaning directly through the elements and pictures. Nevertheless, some of them hide the meanings behind those pictures in order to make the audiences pay special attention to them. In conclusion, I would like to give credit to our University gallery that exhibited an excellent collection from contemporary artists located in Los Angeles. Also providing us an opportunity to appreciate these collections at our university for almost seven weeks. The exhibition was impressive and the collections in the exhibition were varied. We were provided a chance to observe and learn more about fine arts from contrasting views and from different artists.

~Yothsaran (Natt) Rermraksakul

Where is this lovely girl who wrote this poet ????

I can't believe you could make me feel this much.
I can't believe it's like another time I have a crush.
You totally make my day and my night.
I don't know...I just don't want you to be out of my sight.
This might sound weird.. but hopefully it does sound right.

You made me coming a happy girl.
You made me forgetting about all the bad things in the world.
It would be nice if you are around.
This is what is on my mind right one.