My colleague Yi-Xiu send me a video because we had a small chat about design during a smoking break. It was really fascinating!
Hello, I am Erik: The German Letterman from gestalten on Vimeo.
It reminds me that I was lucky enough to learn from an old designer in one of my first internships what the essence of design is. It´s the love on details, the quality of your output and the passion on the way to the final result.
One major disadvantage of most accounters and project managers in advertising is, that they never got in touch with the design before. They studied business and economics. They learn how to see and work out things that make the money. They can set up processes that ease and speeds up the work….but they never get addicted to design during their studies.
This is what they (hopefully) “learn” when they start to work in an advertising agency. I don´t say that they are not as good as someone who does. But I recognize it on myself. I studied 4 years of design. I “created” things, even if it was just business cards or a business paper. But it was a process I went through…starting from scribbling ideas in my Moleskine (yeah…I know…that´s sooooo nerdy)…then try to get those ideas on the screen…make a printable PDF (not just a PDF). Then go to the printer….check the paper which one may fits best (and fits into the budget)….and then you stand at the printing-press and watch the first sheets come out of the machine….you run to the daylight table….pick out the PANTONE color fan and check if the color matches…then you tell the print-master to adjust the machine…he does….you print again some sheets….run back again to the daylight table until it fits….then you smile and say “rock on”….and at the end you receive a package with your output….you open it….you look at it…your fingers slip over the surface of the paper…you look at it from the left…..you look at it from the right….you smile again….work is done. This is how quality work comes into the world…and passion.
We need to treasure this. Although the world will become more and more digital, we (as advertisers, accouters, designers, IAs, whatever) need to keep that in mind that we create something. No matter if it’s digital or print. That´s the fuel of a good advertisement.
And now I want to do some of this.
Thx Yi-Xiu for this small “reminder” 😉