exurban

I finally figured it out today.

When you design something you are interpreting conceptual data and building a system of internal logic in order to create actual designs for the intended audience.

In my entire work experience the input data is entirely conceptual. Its based on some combination of previous experience and some client supplied data. The client supplied data is something to the affect of “Person in certain age/income bracket who wants to buy the thing but not think about it, this person is not cool, but thinks they are.”

So what you end up doing is asking a few questions and while you may get more data it is still conceptual data. You are going to build a model of who you think this target is, because the data is highly indeterminite, compared to say “This needs to support 1000lbs.”

The problem arises when you show your finished work. What it boils down to is that you’re comparing, in the example, your conceptual framwork for this target audience with the one generated by the marketing person/client/other designer/whoever. Because of the lack of real data, you cannot actually draw a definitive conclusion so there is almost inevitably disagreement. Whats negative about this is that its not “Socrates at the Forum” kind of disagreement, its more of a negative assessment of your performance as a designer kind of agreement.

So you failure is that you didn’t think about the project in the same way as the other person. You didn’t see it from the same angle, interpreted the data totally differently. Conflict arises here because whats being called out is the way you think. This actually pushes all the same buttons as a disagreement about religion or politics.

That’s what I hate about graphic design.

I realize part of this is just language. Most people go immediately with “You didn’t do X.” in a hostile tone of voice, because from their point of view, it was really obvious that it needed to be done. If you say “I was looking at it from this perspective.” most of the time you get “Well thats wrong.” rather than “Oh, I see.”

One clip art surfer later…

Part one in a hopefully ongoing series about why I am a bad geek.

So do I really hate Macs? Really objectively, taking just the hardware and software into consideration, not really. The Mac just is not my weapon of choice. Subjectively taking Apple’s advertising, the Cult of Mac, and generally what you actually get for your money, yes. I hate Macs.

I used to be one of those people too, I really was like a die hard Mac user. I really did extol the virtues and whatnot, and as a student intending to be a creative professional I really did buy that “Macs were better.” At one point, I really do think this was true. The Wintel machines really did struggle, when the first actual Mac came out in 84 I do think it was better than most of the PCs of the time, (but not better than the Amiga by a long shot) and there was definitely a point where I do think Apple and the software companies focused more on the creative professional.

The problem is, I think that era ended somewhere around 1996. I just think that whole ‘Macs are better for creative stuff’ is a holdover thats been repeated from ‘generation to generation.’ I don’t see it now at all. Crap like using server memory and having an automatic vitrual memory allocation of four times the phsyical allocation size doesn’t help either.

The monitors are nice, but those are really NECs.

The internet is for ranting:

New issue of Juxtapoz, new guy blasting computer artists. To paraphrase, guy is really upset that there are ‘all these artists that don’t have drawing tables, they have wacom tablets, they’re lazy and that pisses him off that people don’t draw.’ Or he sees people with great finished artwork, but their sketches look bad.

I didn’t go to school for an illustration degree, I did graphic design. I realized that you know, designers can’t draw, thats the common conception. I don’t consider myself a trained illustrator, but I can draw and frequently have to for work.

This week I was working on some new higher end hats. They all started off with artwork that I drew, by hand. I went from rough sketches to just drawing it on my Mac at work. I was moving my hand and making lines, just not on paper. I don’t feel this is lazy. Yes, I have the benefit of fixing things if I didn’t like them or messed up, I could have also done that with like 50 more sketches. Later one of my designs wasn’t accepted so I did another that was 2/3 clipart collage and 1/3 my drawing. Again I could have hand rendered this or done an analog collage with the photocopier, but I don’t feel this made me lazy in any way, shape, or form.

Also I sketch to sketch. That’s why they’re called sketches. I’m doing them for layout and positioning, that’s all.

I am sick of these luddites. This is again people who I guess never had a computer. I’ve drawn on one for 20 years. I didn’t realize it made me lazy and it wasn’t real.

Last issue of Juxtapoz I was reading about painter Aaron Horkey. I really liked his paintings and even was kind of envious of his rural lifestyle. The reason I’m writing this though, is the guy really hates computers.

When I was in college a lot of the Illustrators hated them too. There was this a general consensus that the computer did things for you. That drawing on a computer required a lot less skill and those who used them did so because for lack of a better explanation, because they couldn’t draw and didn’t respect the mediums serious artists used. (You also were in graphic design because you couldn’t draw, another story.)

I thought I’d take some time to write up my thoughts on this, as someone who’s used a computer for artwork almost their entire life. First of all that makes a big difference to me, the entire life thing. My dad got a Commodore 128 with a mouse and drawing software when I was 5. After that I used Paintworks Plus on my Apple IIgs from age 12 to 19. I used Fractal Painter in high school and then later Photoshop and Illustrator. This whole time I was drawing with ‘analog’ tools too. I finished my frist round college with a concentration in printmaking and drawing, all ‘by hand’ or ‘analog.’ So growing up with technology means that it doesn’t really represent anything new with me.

So next I was really trying to think of what the computer ‘does for you’ in the terms my illustrator peers were thinking of, I came up with a few things:

Be precise. Of course there are tons of drafting tools if you really want to be precise. I’m not sure using circle templates, a protractor or t-square makes you quantitatively more skilled as an artist.

Duplicate things. Copy paste is easy. I’m not sure how much this would matter to a painter or illustrator. Being able to draw a character consistently is a different thing.

Manage color. This is really easy on a computer, you make the color and its yours forever. I don’t know how painters and people who use colored ink do this? Do they mix consistent colors over again. I couldn’t do this while taking painting classes? This is no doubt a skill that the computer elmininates, but I don’t know if makes the quality of your work any better.

Those are the big three I thought of. The computer doesn’t handle composition, layout, design, rendering (depends on what type) etc. for you. You cannot say ‘Computer, draw me an awesome Batman’ or something and kick back. If you don’t have any talent and/or training, the computer is not a substitute.

This to me is like saying using a word processor isn’t for ‘real’ writers.

I think this attitude is only the result of unfamiliarity with computer technology, or some kind of social/political belief system that causes a bias.

One thing I will say though, is that art produced on a computer frequently has no real world value. Hitting print just doesn’t do it for people. I found this out in college. On the other hand, people buy prints. There must be a sweet spot between an edition and ‘I’ll run one off for you.’

How much stuff are you doing for yourself? Stuff=art/design/creative for this posting.

I ask because the job now is more conducive to broader design awareness and I spent more time checking out other people’s work. I accumulating a bigger list of artists I admire but I’m also wondering about myself somewhat.

I don’t do a whole lot of personal work. This bothers me but I’ve isolated some reasons. Still, I don’t know what this says about me. Here they are:

1. I’m tired. I work all day at a creative job. 99% of what I do is product development, its what they hired me for. That basically means that I have to try to be creative 8 hours a day. Theres a part of me that just is just ‘done’ mentally at the end of the day.

2. I have other interests. I made stuff all day, now I want to read or play City of Heroes or something.

3. I don’t have a love or a cause. I like what I do, don’t get me wrong. At the same time like, a lot of people I see have a specific style they rock, or a specific theme, or a cause, or a subject. One guy who’s blog I read just draws naked women. ISO50 rocks his style, so does Shep Fairey. Sometimes I want to make something but literally don’t know what, because I don’t have that one ‘thing’ out there.

Problem is that I feel guilty about not being more creative at home, at the same time I can pass most of my evenings and weekends doing a lot of other stuff. Makes me feel pretty bad sometimes though.

I’ve learned a couple of things about this at the new job. And I am going to put a positive spin on some negative stuff.

Clients can’t communicate. They don’t know how. They’ve never been trained and a lot of them sort of assume you ‘just know’ what they want or how to do anything visually, no matter how complicated or difficult. The problem with an applied arts job is that every sighted person knows what kind of stuff they like and that is that. Your degree or training is inconsequential. And since they lack the same, you’re inability to ’see it their way’ means you’re not very good at your job as they don’t have any outside perspective at all.

They’ll also describe what you did in the most insulting terms possible, thats just a given. They don’t really mean to insult you, or your work, or anything. Its just that since you didn’t give them what they wanted, even though they didn’t describe it well or at all, it looks terrible to them.

The positive is that once you learn this is just what happens, you can relax. It doesn’t mean you are a bad designer or artist. Or that you have bad communications skills. If you see this happening to everyone else you work with, its just something inherent that you learned about and you can rest assured knowing its not personal, and its not you.

Because of the unexpected encouragement from Kari, I’m posting my not very good drawings, all these were done with photo reference.

I am super busy. I am with job again. Its weird because it has taken me back to my very old school design roots back from my art school days. I don’t know what to say about that. Six years doesn’t seem like a long time for some things but somehow those days are a lifetime ago. I had fun making some stuff, but I feel really out of touch with who I was when I really wanted to do this kind of work. We’ll see how it goes, the people are very nice.

Anyway, I am getting back into drawing. Like with pencils. Which I haven’t done in I’d say 4-5 years. Nothing really good enough yet to show here, but I’m very pleased to say that I have not suffered a serious atrophy of skills (not that I was super extra awesome to begin with). I went out and got some new drawing stuff. Pencils, a new sketchbook and a Staedtler electric eraser. This may sound really dumb, but this thing is awesome. It just rips unwanted lines off the paper.