Take a look at this Welsh road sign. What does it communicate? What is it trying to get you, as the driver, to do or not do?

Think about it.

Go on. I’ll wait.

Really.

Give up? Read about it here. How would you go about designing a sign of this nature?

Continuing with our conversation on design, the International Herald Tribune has an article from April 2007 dealing with what they call “design flops.” Yes, they are speaking more of physical things and not so much on the digital pieces we will create, but the reasons listed for failure are universal.

The odd thing is that no one sets out to design something that’s mediocre. So why does design go wrong so often? Let’s set aside the rational reasons why projects can fail - like budgetary constraints, deadline pressure and lack of talent - to concentrate on the scenarios that should be easily avoidable, but crop up again and again, with predictably dire results.

The article is fairly short and limits itself to eight things that can be avoided. Besides what is listed, what other things can sabotage your design?

Why the overwhelming numbers of design flops?

Just file this away until we talk about color in class:

X-Rite Buys Pantone

X-Rite announced on Friday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to buy Pantone for US$180 million. X-Rite is known for its color measurement and matching products, and Pantone is recognized as a world leader in color design and is also the creator of the industry standard Pantone Matching System, or PMS.

(via)

After class someone asked, in essence, about intellectual property in regards to assignment 2. Here’s the summary of that discussion: the ideas you present in assignment 2 will be made public to the whole class. If you have a business idea kicking around your head that you’d like to develop, but you’ve made no means to protect that idea as of yet, I’d strongly suggest you work up a company profile on something else. It is entirely possible that someone could take your idea and run with it. In essence, it will be up to you to protect your own intellectual property.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with. As always, thanks for coming tonight and participating. If you haven’t already done so, be sure to drop a comment into the Thanks post for quiz points. And don’t feel I have to compel you to comment; feel free to add to any of these posts (the more conversation the merrier).

Joshua Porter’s article serves to reinforce our conversation from last class about the nature of Art vs. Design:

Art is about personal expression. It is about the life, the emotions, the thoughts and ideas of the artist. It matters very little what observers do, their activity is not required, only their appreciation. The practice of Art doesn’t require them. It is a necessary activity for the artist, and the artist alone.

Design, on the other hand, is about use. The designer needs someone to use (not only appreciate) what they create. Design doesn’t serve its purpose without people to use it. Design helps solve human problems. The highest accolade we can bestow on a design is not that it is beautiful, as we do in Art, but that it is well-used.

Give the whole article a read as it touches on several other principles of design that will be important to us this semester. What do you think? Do you agree? Disagree?

Five Principles to Design By (via)

Anyone looking at a printed message will be influenced, within a split second of making eye contact, by everything on the page: the arrangement of various elements as well as the individual look of each one. In other words, an overall impression is created in our minds before we even start reading the first word. It’s similar to the way we respond to a person’s presence before we know anything about him or her, and then later find it difficult to revise our first impression.

Erik Spiekermann, Stop Stealing Sheep

To all that showed up for class last night and participated: thanks. I know that we covered a metric ton of information, some minutia and some foundational stuff, and it was a lot to take in. I enjoyed meeting you all and hope to learn some names soon (no promises, though).

To summarize the things I’ve asked you to for next week’s class:

• look over this site and get familiar with the syllabus
• get the class book if you don’t already have it and be sure NOT to open it yet
• be sure to get your RSS reader loaded up for assignment 1

As this site is setup all bloggy style, I’d like you to drop me a comment to this post so you know how to do it. Comments allow you to communicate with me and your comments may help others who are reading the site. They further the conversation.

Leave a comment by hitting the “No Comments >>” link or “x Comments >>” link at the bottom of a post. Or, simply click the headline for the post and scroll to the comment fields.

I hope to see you all on Thursday.

Hi. This is the website for VT1300-50. This site will become very important to your success in this class, so stay tuned.