Anti-design

This is not your normal take on design.

But it's well worth considering.

Test your knowledge

Graphic Designers and cheese aficionados... go!

same mistake, new application

Note to self – any display, flyer, whatever, should focus on the product being offered, not the organization logo. I make this mistake again, and again, and again, yet I know better. I know this lesson very well, just when I don't think about what I'm doing I revert to logo-centric design. Case in point... at the student activities fair, I (more or less) directed the creation of our first table displays for this fair. Now, I KNOW that the logo is not the most important thing on the display... rather, we need to advertise "salsa classes." Still, as I manned the booth for my 45 minute shift today, I realized that yet again, I had put the ritmos logo big and on top, with "salsa classes", while still large, probably 3rd in the visual hierarchy, after the logo and then the photos from performances. Now, the performance photos are great, but to be honest, they don't communicate that we offer classes and teach salsa to people who have no dance experience and no dance partner. Thank goodness Maria offered up her stereo so we could play salsa music, which, probably more than anything else, communicated to passersby that hey, we are a salsa group. And the music is pretty damn catchy, in any case.

Still, this is far better than the feather boa and otherwise empty table we had last year. Not that I'm knocking the feather boa.

How Should Nonprofits Use Social Media?

The big debate these days is how nonprofits should use social media. I would contend that you still need someone who can write or otherwise craft powerful messages on the back-end, whether your twittering or whatever. Here's an interesting example (though a poorly-written and uninspired story) which raises many questions about nonprofit PR and political correctness...

Homeless advocate brings his message to the masses through social media.

Though I can't help but wonder, what happens when every homeless-oriented nonprofit starts such a social media campaign? Does the news get old? Does it fade into the background? My proscription... talent. A good story will catch an audience no matter what the medium.

*steps down from soapbox*

NYT article on nonprofit fundraising

how to get excited about clean water.

I only wish there were more details on the exact campaign.

the proverbial deserted island

Graphic designers, unlike the rest of the population, ask the question like this, "If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only take 6 typefaces with you, what would those be?"

At this point in life, my response is:

Caslon, Garamond, Cochin, Trade Gothic, Scala Sans, Avenir.

When asked about Times New Roman:

If I were stranded on a deserted island and all I had was Times New Roman, I'd burn it.

to speechify

I have a hard time keeping my posts visually themed, given that I'm also studying PR and writing these days. So here's another theme transgression...

I have a new favorite website.

www.americanrhetoric.com

Spent part of class today listening to Elie Weisel's speech on indifference.