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Another Recent Identity Package from Redwire Creative.

My company Redwire Creative recently helped give a visual identity to the EnterChange, a consultancy that helps organizations learn about themselves and navigate into seasons of change.

Here’s the Visuals:

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A pair identity projects

I haven’t really been updating the portfolio much lately. Here’s two recent identity projects:

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5 Sites for Design/Web Inspiration

Here’s a quickie: 5 Sites I revisit for design inspiration.

Design Sponge

Behance Network

LogoPond

Smashing Magazine

Screenfluent

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Human-Centered Design Toolkit

This really is one of the more brilliant gifts for non-profits/ministries that I’ve come across in a long time. I can’t believe I haven’t seen it earlier.

The Human Centered Design Toolkit is a free innovation guide for NGOs and Social Enterprises. It’s basically a blueprint for identifying key problems and developing innovative solutions for them. The It’s designed to help NGO’s tackle the biggest issues that affect those living on $2/day or less. However, it’s ministry implications are far greater.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the brainchild of IDEO (the World’s Greatest Design Firm) and others, it’s an irresistibly clean, well-designed guide for innovation. Useful at so many levels of an organization.

Check it out over at IDEO’s website:
http://www.ideo.com/work/item/human-centered-design-toolkit/

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Solar Decathlon: Great Impact with Less Impact.

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Logos are the chief of all gossipers.

It’s tough to create a good logo. Even tougher to create a great logo. Logos are important for what they communicate. They’re important for creating mnemonic relationships between people and your organization. They are important to communicate for you when you can’t communicate for yourself. So here’s the question I’d ask you to answer if you’re jumping into a logo project for your organization:

What will your logo SAY ABOUT YOU…when you’re not there to SPEAK FOR YOURSELF?

Logos are gossipers. They talk about you behind your back like an 8th grader chatting on myspace about your pimples. So what is your logo saying about you behind your back?

• If your logo says, “I’m complicated.” you lose.
• If your logo says, “I look this way because my owner is too cheap to pay someone to make me look pretty.” you lose.
• If your logo says, “I think I’m adopted because I don’t look like my parent organization.” you lose.
• If your logo says, “I’m the logo for Org A and I look just like the logo for Org B.” you lose.

So, what  can you do to help your logo be on the same team you are?

Simplify.
Your logo can’t say it all; not even if you tell it to. If your logo requires instructions or a legend to map out and make sense of, then it’s not doing your organization any good. In fact, it’s likely a distraction from bringing people to you.

Emotify.
Ok, that’s not a word, but let’s pretend you’re going on a date with this hot new logo. At the end of the night, your hands lightly graze each other and you get all tingly inside. I know, a bit dramatic. But the point is, you want more. You had a great first encounter and you’re ready to go to the next level. This is all about an emotional connection. A desire to go deeper. Deeper, because you don’t know everything about the oganization, but you believe the encounter could be the start of something great. Your logo should share the same energy as your organization. That helps others know whether they want to have anything to do with you. Don’t be afraid to express yourself.

Burn.
You want to burn your image in someone else’s memory. That’s it. Recollection. Recall. Brining it back. That’s what it’s all about.  Like a branding iron leaving its mark, a logo should mark it’s territory in your brain. Don’t let it look like all the others. What’s unique about you that you can easily communicate? Make it plain, and make it memorable.

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All up in arms about Seth Godin's post.

Today, Seth Godin took a pragmatic approach to design in a blog article that allowed him the opportunity to be accosted by designers all over the internet. Go ahead, have your opinions, I have mine.

He said,

“Why aren’t you (really) good at graphic design?

Ten years ago, you had a wide range of excuses for being a lousy visuals person. Starting with no talent, leading to no skill and going from there.

But now, in a world where it is expected that professionals will be able to make beautiful powerpoint slides, handsome business cards, clever bio photos and a decent website, it’s as important as driving. And easier to learn and do, and requiring less talent.”

And I agree. Design can be formulaic. Totally awesome design is not always formulaic. It requires sheer talent. But, the tools available these days make it easier than ever to make something that is not total crap. And really, isn’t the goal to always be a little better than you were before.

I’m not foolish enough to think as a designer that I’m a novelty act. Used to be, if you were a journalist, you worked at a newspaper. Now, there’s millions of people on the web with very useful things to say and stories to report that really can wow me with their precision at times.  There’s still a lot of total crap out there, but there’s a ton of people doing great work. It’s the same with design. The days of boutique design aren’t over, but the door is wide open for real innovation to happen that makes it easy for non-designers to make life more beautiful and communicate better. We should be thankful that we all get to partake in something that makes life a little less crappy.

Realistically, you can find design on the same continuums that other industries use as indicated in the awesome scale below. The language may be different, but 10 points is still more than 0.
75 points is still more than 30.
And a big step in the right direction is better than being total crap.

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Tidying Up Art

I may have linked this before, but I just watched it again. This is a hilarious concept.
TED TALK by: Ursus Wehrli

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5 Minneapolis Design Shops that Inspire…

1. Studio on Fire
Friends of Friends. These folks make unbelievable Letterpress designs.

www.Studioonfire.com

2. Duffy & Partners
Pure beauty and Brand Aware Design.

www.duffy.com

3. Aesthetic Apparatus
Incredible Screen Print Design. Posters Galore.

www.aestheticapparatus.com

4. Little & Company
Consistently push the envelope.

www.littleco.com

5. Peterson Milla Hooks
This firm knocks out sweet design for the home town hero: Target. Beautiful eye-popping work.

www.pmhadv.com

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A Communications Primer: A Film by Eames

This one unlocks the vault.
Charles and Ray Eames are legends.
Watch and learn old skool style.

The Eames’ “A Communications Primer” from FI$H 2000 on Vimeo.

link via Infosthetics, via alltop.