"Ads rely on the cute-quips-after-scenes-of-destruction formula. Gorn—that pornographic admixture of gore and violence that "isn't serious," that's "just effects"—grows apace in popularity. Scenes of shaming and violence topped with the de rigueur snarky remark are everywhere."

The visuals that appear in the article—stills from a variety of 2008 Super Bowl commercials—demonstrate that even in an approximately three-hour slice of American TV, the ads are filled with violence and humiliation.

To be honest, I've been underwhelmed by Super Bowl commercials for at least a decade. I used to think it was because of my age—I haven't watched an "awards" show in over 25 years—or because of my personality: I'm not interested in shows like American Idol or The Apprentice. I even wondered if I’d become desensitized by the media assault over the years. But after reading this article, I think it may be the gorn.

In preparing the article, we watched all 50-some national ads that appeared during the game. The sameness of the ads quickly became apparent, with only slight variations on an unchanging theme of violence and humiliation regardless of what was being advertised. "The Man in the Irony Mask" changed my perspective; I recommend you read it. It may change yours. At least the game was exciting.

THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO
Most people aren’t so smooth—especially family. “I want you to draw a sign for my den, and call it ‘The King’s Lair’” or “Here’s a picture of my grandson, I want you to draw a picture of him.” Or the oft repeated, “I need a logo for my new company, we’re going to call it [_____] Incorporated, and I want the logo to be a picture of [my dog, my cat, my kid, your kid, my car, my ear, my …”] Sorry, again.

JUST SAY NO [SORT OF]
Over the years I’ve learned deal with these unwanted overtures in a couple of ways from the simple non-committal smile and a nod to “I’m sorry, I’m a publication designer, you really need a logo designer.” Or the ever popular “I’m in the middle of a big project right now remind me about it in October.” These always work for me.

Once or twice I’ve even mustered the backbone tell them the truth. “I really don’t want to come home after eight + hours of designing and draw a picture of your dog for free in my spare time. Sorry.”

JUST SAY YES [SOMETIMES]
Of course depending on who asks and whether or not there’s payment, [even if it’s just dinner or a twelve pack] there’s nothing wrong with doing these jobs. Early on in your career it can be both fun and rewarding. It can also give you experience and sometimes much needed exposure.

QUID PRO QUO
The bottom line is whether or not you feel the trade is fair. My sister cuts my hair I do whatever she asks. Our friends float us around on their big expensive boat all summer if they want a new company logo featuring their dog, I’ll do it, for free and it’ll be beautiful. Plus let’s face it if your mom or dad asks—no matter how busy you are—you should probably do it. But when your cousin’s doctor/father-in-law asks you to paint a picture of his Corvette from this “great” photo he took of it. Tell him “You bet Doc, I’ve got this rash…”

DUMBING DOWN DESIGN
World-class designers may have design epiphanies in which the perfect concept conceives the perfect photo shoot, which in turn gives birth to the perfect photo, but many of us don’t have the resources—or our clients don’t have the resources—to do this, so we use royalty-free or occasionally rights-managed images.

This is not a proletariat rant against the “haves”. I’ve met many world-class designers and they are to a person smart, passionate, and hard working, but they aren’t going to be designing Joe’s Manufacturing Company’s latest brochure. But I digress.

THE ULRICH EFFECT?
In spite of the fact that my search criteria may net me 12,771 images, finding the "perfect" image can be impossible, because “When you go looking for something specific, your chances of finding it are very bad.” So occasionally I back up, loosen my visual expectations, set aside a few hours or more [the hard part] and scan every single image.

This is a backwards—I know—and it doesn’t work in every case. Non-concept driven pieces are less susceptible to The Goggle Effect, so if all you need is a photo of a smiling person on the phone—that’s easy. But finding an image to illustrate the concept of say “patience” is tougher—time for The Zero Effect

OK I MAY BE INSANE
DGM Art Director Kathie thinks I’m nuts. She’ll [wo]man-handle the search criteria to eliminate 12,752 of the images. I do that too and it works, but sometimes—for whatever reason—I choose “[to] go looking for anything at all, [because my] chances of finding it are very good. Because of all the things in the world, [I’m] sure to find some of them.”

LAB WORK
I use a PC at home and have grown to like the two-button + scroll wheel mouse standard on a PC, but I had trouble keeping track of Razer’s seven, so I keep two buttons turned off.

I am a lefty so the first thing I did was change to a left-hand configuration—that’s nice. I set the Right button for selecting, the Left for the contextual menu.

I programmed the Scroll Wheel click to toggle between Normal and Preview Screen Mode in InDesign, but I only remember to use that button about half the time.

I set the two right “thumb buttons” to select the InDesign’s Solid Arrow tool and Text tool respectively, but I only remember to use those buttons about 25% of the time.

I originally set the Sensitivity at five [ten being the most sensitive] but had to reduce it to four because I kept moving text boxes when I clicked, and I turned the On-the-fly Sensitivity feature off for obvious reasons. I set the Double Click Speed at one—‘cause I’m slow, but the Scroll Wheel Speed to two—because I’m not that slow.

OBSERVATIONS
Ergonomically it’s not bad, but the concave primary buttons are an adjustment for me. As a way to alleviate my sore index finger I trained myself to click with multiple fingers on a single-button Apple bubble mouse. Consequently the ‘ole mouse finger is acting up again because I’m using my fingers individually. I also have a little trouble finding the right “thumb buttons”, but that’s probably me.

HOW MANY STARS?
If you are a person like me who is always looking for ways to increase your productivity [or at least feel like you are], this may be the mouse for you. I love the idea of being able to move a frequently used keyboard command to a mouse click. Seems faster.

Or if you are a person who needs the increased sensitivity—like an illustrator—this may be the mouse for you.

Or if you just want a cool looking mouse you can’t go wrong with this mouse.

AS FOR ME?
They tell me I’ll adjust to the sensitivity, but if all else fails I’ll switch it from 1600 dpi to 400 dpi—which I can do from the System Preferences window. As a way to lessen mouse finger, I’m testing various finger combinations [no pun intended], and I consciously soft clicking with my index. I like this mouse and I plan on keeping it.

If you’re interested in the mouse, check it out online at www.razerpro.com and while you’re there look at the Pro|Solutions ProPad.

If anyone has a legal and reasonable remedy for mouse finger, let me know.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
First off, I combat this penchant by telling my editors if they were going to art direct me, I’m going to edit them. Now once or twice a year I write a headline—and once or twice a day they art direct me. Problem solved.

Second I never let ANYBODY get away with “I just don’t like it”. I tell the less experienced “I just don’t like it isn’t a reason because I DO like it and I’m the art director so when it comes to like/don’t like my opinion ALWAYS wins.” With peers and supervisors I’m far more diplomatic—I pepper them with questions to get them to articulate their concerns, it’s real hard to fix “I just don’t like it”. [In all fairness to the group I currently work with this never happens, and that’s because they ALWAYS articulate EXACTLY what they don’t like EVERY SINGLE TIME.]

I also rarely let anyone “art direct” over my shoulder. “Move the headline up, a little more, a little more, yes. Now make it plum, a little more plum, no that’s too plum, just forget plum and make it the color of the vein bulging out of your neck. Yes…that’s perfect!”

LIVE AND LEARN
An editor once told me I needed to pick my battles. I was fighting every design battle to the death. It was impossible for anyone to take me seriously. When designers are young we tend to be thin-skinned and a bit myopic. As we get older our work gets better, we become more discerning and we grow a hide. So now when some one wants me to change a color to a “little more plum” I do it. I do it because most of the time it’s not THAT important, plus if you let other people fuss over the small stuff it can have the added benefit of moving you above the fray—“act presidential” as they say.

The other thing to remember is that these projects are rarely ours and ours alone. Other people have a stake in them too, so their opinions do matter. If you have to, smile and ask if you can get back to them, give your blood pressure time to drop. Make sure you’re there mentally and emotionally because you need to listen, understand, ask questions and sometimes “read between the lines”—in the end there’s a good chance they’re right. I find it makes for a better piece, besides I’d rather build the house, and let someone else pick out the curtains.

My first design job was in retail advertising [Carson Pierre Scott]. When the Art Director hired me he told me he didn’t expect me to be “confident in my own work” for at least five years. What a relief is was to know that it was OK to feel that unsure of my work for next five years. I later learned not to confuse confident with comfortable. We all know the minute we don’t push to grow as designers we do ourselves, and our clients [or employers] a disservice.

I’ve told all the designers who’ve ever worked for me that when designing hurts you’re growing; if it doesn’t hurt you’re resting on past design success. I admit we’re all probably guilty of laying back at times, perhaps one can even make a case that in certain circumstances it’s the wise choice, but as long as we have designers like Tibor Kalman challenging us with ideas like “success=boredom”, we’ll have no excuses for getting bored.

While my final design isn't as clean as I'd prefer, I was able to remove the repetitious copy and design some standard formats and style sheets that in the end reduced the newsletter to one quarter-folded 11 x 17 sheet of paper.

In all fairness to the designer [who recognizes this] I don't think this newsletter suffered from design "creep' as much as program "creep". They expect this calendar to serve four different age groups that are divided into as many as four different "clubs"—a lot for any single calendar to accomplish successfully—but alas reorganizing the program was not part of my mission.

In the past this approach has prompted participants to comment on how brutal I was. Sorry.

This year I have a logo, a newsletter and a packaging project on my makeover list, and I don't plan to pull any punches. I also hope to share some of those observations with you.

I wonder if this year I'll make anybody cry.

In all fairness, design is driven by the copy, and poorly organized copy can doom a project to bad design—but that's another blog.

An art director I know once told me "I think design is more about good taste than talent, if you have good taste you'll be a good designer". Well, I'm not sure about that, but I know good organizational skills make you a better designer, and without any organizational skills you're just a decorator.

The upcoming issue of STEP inside design [available on the newsstand Friday, October 28th] is all about Women in Design, and this installment of "Q&A" is my favorite feature in the issue [so far]. Ms. Ansel before starting her own design firm—for those of you who don't know—was the Art Director of Harpers Bazaar, The New York Times Magazine, and Vanity Fair. Her work is great, as are her insights. Here's one of my favorite quotes:

"Trust your instincts, take risks, embrace accidents, keep looking at everything, know your subject, appear fearless (even when you aren’t), and most importantly work with an enlightened client or collaborator as often as you can. Don’t think too much, let it go."

I love this stuff.

I'm now working on a four-page feature by Sheree Clark of Sayles Graphics Design, Des Moines, in which she recounts the successful—but sometimes volatile—relationship with her partner John Sayles. Sheree is one of my favorite contributors to the magazine [she makes me laugh], and her openess about her relationship with John is gutsy. Great article Sheree.

And since I'm on the subject of women, STEP's fearless editor extraodinaire Emily Pott's will be moderating a discussion about women in design [Women Rock!] at the AIGA conference http://designconference.aiga.org September 15–18 in Boston. The lineup includes; Jessica Helfand, Winterhouse; Deanna Kuhlmann-Leavitt, Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.; Ellen Lupton, Design Writing Research; Bonnie Siegler, Number Seventeen. Emily being a woman herself [wow], and a mother [Charli] is well qualified to expound on the subject. If you're there, check it out and let me know what you think.

I'll keep you posted, and remember "Everthing should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler"—A. Einstein

Hi mom