Blunder Mondays

This PPP session entailed a revival of ‘designer speed dating’, this time working in groups and moving around the table commenting and giving advice on worries or concerns people had written, about graphic design and getting a career in it. From here, one of these ideas was picked, and a solution had to be devised in any format, be it an app, event, social media campaign etc. The idea chosen was being concerned about the ramifications of making mistakes in a real career scenario as opposed to just in the studio at uni. It was important to consider both the impact and the implementation for the idea, with the best case scenario being it was very impactful and easy to implement. The idea ended up as a social media campaign and hashtag, which could later lead to more impactful platforms such as an event or podcast:

“Blunder Mondays is a celebration of human error in design. Young and accomplished designers alike can share their mistakes using the hashtag on instagram, adding to an archive of the best examples. This initial social media campaign will lead to other more impactful platforms.”

I enjoyed this exercise, firstly because it was nice to see that everyone else had very similar concerns about moving forward in design after uni. Coming up with a creative solution to these concerns and considering the implementation and impact was a very useful skill to develop, one which will be useful in future briefs. It was interesting to put our ideas in the context of the real world and to actually contemplate how we might go about actually carrying this out. 

Manifesto Research - ‘Ten Things I Have Learnt’ by Milton Glaser

1. “You can only work with people you like” - Glaser comments on how all the most meaningful and significant work he has done has been with people on which he regards less with professionalism and more with affection. - I think in an ideal world, we would all do work we love doing, with and for people we enjoy doing it for, however I think its important to realise that this is very idealistic, and certainly at the beginning of ones career, you have to grin and bare it sometimes and take on projects which you perhaps don’t enjoy so much. Glaser was fortunate in the fact that he become such a big name that he could only take on the projects he wanted to 
2. “Never have a job” - For this rule, Glaser cites a radio interview with John Cage, in which Cage is asked ‘How do you prepare for your old age?’ - Cage states ‘Never have a job, and that way no one can take it away from you’. - I think what this rule means is that Cage is referring to a job in a more formal sense, he is talking about a job as a means to ‘put bread on the table’. If you have a job you enjoy and are passionate about, when it comes time to retire from doing it professionally, no one can take it away from you because you can still do it out of pure enjoyment. 
3. “Some people are toxic, avoid them” - This rule comes from the words of Fritz Perls, a gestalt therapist, and it states that in each relationship between any 2 people, one person is toxic and one is nourishing, and Glaser suggests only surrounding yourself with those who are nourishing. I think this is good life advice in general, but doesn’t apply directly to graphic design. One thing I thought however, is if you only interact with people who are nourishing in your relationship, does that not make you the toxic one.
4. “Professionalism is not enough, or the good is the enemy of the great” - Glaser here comments firstly and how he doesn’t like referring to people as ‘creatives’. His main point is that if you’re in a creative field, you cannot be professional because being professional means being efficient and minimising risk, and a creative job requires continuous transgression. While I see what he’s getting at here, I think if you consider professionalism in a more conventional sense, someone in a creative field can be professional.
5. “Less is not necessarily more” - “Just enough is more” - Glaser retorts as he states how the phrase ‘Less is more’ is paradoxical in nature, and is not always true, as it depends on context. 
6. “Style is not to be trusted” - “It’s absurd to be loyal to a style” - The rule here states that because style is always changing, if you want to stay relevant you have to update your style. This point is interesting because as young designers, we try and cultivate our own style and design identity, maybe its true that we shouldn’t be pigeon holed into one style and should be able to experiment how we choose.
7. “How you live changes your brain” - Glaser gives an example of people with perfect pitch, and says how although some people are born with it, a study was carried out which proved that it can actually be obtained by studying music at a young age. He contextualises this within graphic design by saying that constantly drawing makes you m ore visually attentive. I agree with what Glaser says here, obviously the more you do something, the more dexterity you gain in that thing, however it’s interesting to consider the actual physical effects on your brain as opposed to just putting it down to practise.
8. “Doubt is better than certainty” - “Deeply held beliefs of any kind prevent you from being open to experience” - Glaser talks about how important it is to consider other people's ideas and that it’s an important idea when considering the ‘design triad’; Designer, Client and Audience. You need to be able to think from other peoples perspective, especially when considering the audience, and its also important to be able to open to there possibility that someone else is right and you’re wrong.
9. “On Ageing” - “It doesn’t matter… follow this rule and it adds decades to your life”. Again this is gold life advice and as well as meaning you don’t have to worry about ageing, he’s saying you can do whatever you want to do and you don’t have to care about preconceptions.
10. “Tell the truth” - Here Glaser talks about the responsibility that designers have to tell the truth; as the people creating all the visual communication, its important it’s all correct, imagine if someone tasked with creating a road sign lied on it, everyone would get lost, what if a poster advertising a product got the price wrong? - “We can accept certain kinds of misrepresentation, such as fudging about the amount of fat in his hamburger but once a butcher knowingly sells us spoiled meat we go elsewhere. As a designer, do we have less responsibility to our public than a butcher?”.

Making a Manifesto for the Studio - Ideas

Talk More - Communicate with other people in the studio more; give feedback and critiques to people other than close mates in order to get a multitude of opinions, perspectives and knowledge. 

Blog Once a Day - Its very important to stay on top of regular blogging as it is so much easier than doing it last minute.

Don’t Leave Until You’ve Done Something Productive That Day

Keep the Studio Tidy - It’s so much easier to work in a clearer environment.

Critically Engage Yourself More - Find out something new everyday - reads an article, find a new designer you like etc. 

Do Work Beyond Uni Work - Personally explore graphic design, engage yourself and do what interests you, even if its just making a poster every now and then for fun. 

Final idea - Personally engage yourself with graphic design beyond whats necessary for the course. Read articles and books, find design you like, attend events and do personal work or briefs. Examples of how this can be done includes; its nice that, village books, the tetley, instagram, Henry Moore gallery. Engaging yourself with any number of these things will help personally develop yourself more beyond the parameters of the course.