Flod Meeting, December 2, 2009

Idaho Stew

Stuart Alden

Nicky Alden,

Jeff Steffonich

“Choc Full of Good Stuff”

A married couple and an intern turned employee are the only ones who make up the super successful design company, Idaho Stew.  The success I see is not soley about money, but I can see that through their love of design, and hard work—willingness to go beyond what’s expected, they were able to affect the lives of people who need clean water, support a political cause they felt strongly about, and most importantly, because of their business success, spend their lives doing something they love.

My first impression of Idaho Stew was that they were elitist designers, which put me off a little.  Stuart Alden started off the talk about the difference between a graphic designer and a graphic decorator, saying that designers are more involved start to finish with the creation and production of their designs, while decorators merely match the feel and look of a job, not taking the time to invest themselves personally in the design.  But I realize that they are so critical about their profession because quality and good looking design means a lot to them, not because they feel the need to validate their hard work by diminishing the value of others.

I appreciate that they have strong conceptual content in their work, each element ties in affectively based on concept as well as aesthetic coherence.  Their intensive research techniques show another aspect of how comittment to a job, to creation of the idea start to finish actually earns them their jobs.

“We Voted for Ourselves”

Idaho Stew got the chance to bid on creating posters for the Democratic National Convention, and before they even delivered their comp ideas, they got the job.  They love to screen print so that was a cool way to handle the project adding that extra little personal touch to the job.  They actually got to meet a lot of famous politicians and participate in a really interesting event. They’ll never forget it.

They also created a campaign for a clean water charity in a third world country.  Legitamit design creates a sense of confidence in the charity, which I believe affects how much people give (time and money).

But again, the most successful businesses in the design world are the ones who’s motto reflects Picasso’s quote, “I’m always doing that which I cannot do…” Idaho Stew challenged themselves especially when they found themselves designing for environments. They created a lounge using wall vinyl design, but they also found themselves creating the entire environment. They picked out floor tile, furniture—everything. This is another example of their willingness to go beyond the call of duty.  They create a reputation for themselves as a business with the foundation for trust.

Flod Meeting, September 2, 2009

Art & Anthropology, Inc

Jason Ontero

“The intrinsic desire to express complemented by the imperative to understand”

Jason Ontero believes that designers need to create work that’s relevant and beautiful.  Its refreshing for me to think about design as art again. The job I have now is really not about that—they mostly create work that mimicks old styles, lacking in visual punch and creativity.  What allows Ontero’s business to explore art in his real designs is that he always seeks out intelligent work and clients who are open for it.  When you’re picky about your clients, work will ebb and flow, but you’ll always give yourself the chance to really be proud of your work. Another way to keep challenging yourself as a designer is to surround yourself with people who are better than you. Intellectual challenges are necessary to spark the desire to create awesome work, nothing mediocre.

One thing I noticed about Jason is that he is willing to do anything, with client approval, including going way beyond the call of duty.  His company, Art & Anthropology spends a lot of time doing production work, like screen printing, hand cutting, letterpressing, etc.) to make an interesting design piece out of anything.  The company is small and really good at what they do, so I think they can charge more in order to be able to spend that extra time on work that could be solved quickly and thoughtlessly.  He created very involved business cards for a realtor. They were cut out keys and tags. It’s a big production puzzle to solve for something that could have been remedied easily with a little card.  Most of the print/design shops I have come across gets angry when presented with print jobs that are odd sizes.  Ontero doesn’t look for the easiest or the cheapest fit, he looks for the best solution to design jobs I think his attitude makes the difference in his business and definitely reveals the source of his small business success is actually about hard work, commitment, and enthusiam about every project.  Although it may be easier to be picky about projects, picking ones that you’ve never done or had experience doing are the ones that have the most pay off. And why would anyone seek to create work that’s half-assed and embarrassing, especially when trying to build a financial support from design work.

“Have no fear…say yes to everything… And figure the rest out later.”

There is more to creating a successful design business than creating awesome work.  There is a need for networking and a social/business mindset. In this way especially, getting invested in the projects you get will give you the fuel to support your business confidence.

Opportunities rarely find you…Get Invested.

The Media likes to group and define personalities that they believe everyone should be able to relate to.
“Which ‘Breakfast Club’ Character are you?”
Pick one! Vote! Relate! Fit In!

With the invention of “viewer-directed” television (American Idol, Dancing With the Stars) the public is given the illusion that these categories are self-defined: that we define social standards for ourselves, our colleagues, etc.

The real challenge is to maintain a strong ’self’ identity, “yet [be] successful” (p.101). Sometimes being ‘definable’ is the only realistic means of being promoted, advanced, and rewarded within a system.  If you fit into the ‘promotable’ box, you will be.But not to say that there aren’t distinguishable, and widely accepted characteristics of an entire social group. (this is what Siegel suggests with “Monk” as an example.  His crazy-ness no longer separates him, but becomes a ‘relatable’ element as the general public sees more and more of him and his lifestyle becomes adopted into a character skin.

In general, It IS hard to separate from the collective because someone from us [whether it was up to the media or the general public] created the character types and they’re based off of some one real person, or many.

by the way, I’m Brian Johnson

Flod Meeting, September 2, 2009

Art & Anthropology, Inc

Jason Ontero

“The intrinsic desire to express complemented by the imperative to understand”

Jason Ontero believes that designers need to create work that’s relevant and beautiful and that they should always seek intelligent work and clients who are open for it.  Work will ebb and flow, but designers should surround themselves with people will make you better.

One thing I noticed about Jason is that he is willing to do anything, with client approval, (screen printing, hand cutting, etc.) to make an interesting design piece.  The print/design shop I work for gets angry when print jobs are odd sizes let alone partially made out of dog tags, etc.  I think that this difference definitely reveals who is actually more successful.  Jason Ontero is willing to do lots of different processes for the look, while my employer’s company is barely making it and barely tries to work outside the box to please a client.

Have no fear… “say yes to everything”

And figure the rest out later.

Opportunities rarely find you…Get Invested.

Youth culture completely reinvents itself every 3 monthsm maybe even in less time than that…This rapid evolution is probably kudos to the Internet and its open, free communications. So lets get serious…The guy with the Simple shoes and Bowling shirt doesn’t know whats up with youth culture even though he claims to be completely enthralled and even behind changing web cultures. And sure, youth are affected and easily adaptable, changed and influenced by the internet, but at this point, the internet is so integrated into that culture that they’ve got be able to see through that power system by now and intelligently pick and choose what to believe and how to make that new culture projection either their own, or into a joke.

Graublau Sans Web

<br>

Trebuchet<br>

Pauline Regular<br><br>

*reference

http://www.screechowldesign.com/blank4.html

http://beautifulpaper.typepad.com/oh_so_beautiful_paper/2009/01/pretty-pretty-wallpaper.html

CH.2

This section was about the marketing aims of the internet.
Not just e-commerce aspects, but also through creating a culture dependent on addicting material goods, services, and the perpetuation of those ideas. In chapter 2 I tend not to agree with his points because he immediately discounts the internet’s ability to spread information: spiritual and otherwise unless its backed by money-making motives. I think that he is actually limitinng the internet’s usefullness as he points out the overlooked aspects of the internet because he suggests success can only be managed in money (marketing) and forgets about “number of blog hits” as a form of success indicator.

Cootie Catcher

Based on the popular children’s game, this site will unlock your future in response to the viewer’s answers to: “pick a color” “pick a number” “pick another number” leading through the paper game interface to the viewers forseen fate.
This website will lead the viewers into a variety of different web treasure avenues via (links, and photos, videos and text…) There will be numerous paths (a new cootie catcher per the day or week or perhaps month), but each catcher will be a linked as they are kind of like a diary entry: my life via internet shenanigans, or a fictional character’s entry, or my best friend’s.
It will be interesting to translate the cootie catcher game into a paperless media, but if it is detailed enough, or engaging, I don’t think that the paperless environment will detract from the charm of the game. I think that the main influences to this idea are journals, blogs, delicious’ personal bookmark collections, fictional stories, and artifactual portraiture. (as this would be a virtual artifact portrait/journal/story)…
General Audience: web surfers, bloggers, creepers, people who enjoy hyper-text based interfaces, and probably primarily women because I am a female creating the content and the stuff I like, make, write about will probably be most interesting to someone like me.

http://www.etsy.com/

http://www.learningtoloveyoumore.com/

http://www.superbad.com/