Today?

Today? Design.

Who am I?

Who am I?
Andreas Beining
/ Online Specialist, CMG

Who am I?
Andreas Beining
/ Online Specialist, CMG
BA Visual Communication in Leeds
/ design + advertising

What is design?
a.beining.com

What is design?

i-kommunikasjon.no
What is design?

Who am I?
Andreas Beining
/ Online Specialist, CMG
BA Visual Communication in Leeds
/ design + advertising
Jr. Art Director at The Farm
/ ad agency in Madrid

What is design?
thefarmcf.com

Who am I?
Andreas Beining
/ Online Specialist, CMG
BA Visual Communication in Leeds
/ design + advertising
Jr. Art Director at The Farm
/ ad agency in Madrid
Marketing consultant at Akademika
/ designing all marketing material for the
book chain + website

What is design?
akademika.no

What is design?

What is design?
graphic design / industrial design / garden de-
sign / webdesign / communication design /
business design / packaging design / product
design / service design / applications design /
experience design / game design / interaction
design / software engineering / software design
/ software development / system design / user
experience design / user interface design / web
accessibility / color design / content design /
information design / instructional design / mo-
tion graphic design / news design / packaging
design / production design / sound design / etc.

Design is not art.
Design Art
/ Use / Artificial
/ Constraints / Unconstrained
/ Representation / Expression

Design is not art.
“Advertising that does not sell is bad
advertising. It might be art or literature
- it can be funny, beautiful or poetic
- but it is not good advertising.”
Robert Millar, 1914
Founder of Bennett ad agency in Bergen

Design is not science.
Design Science
/ Soft process / Rigid process
/ Human analysis / Data analysis
/ Intuition / Proof

“Juicy Salif”
Philippe Starck’s award winning Lemon Squeezer

Its famous, but useless.

Design is a craft.
/ artistic science
that melds technology
and humanity People
Tech
Art Design
nology
Science

Form Follows Function
/ Think about what you want to achieve
/ Message, theme, mood, ...
/ Type of design (brochure, community site,
logo, banner, t-shirt, ...)
/ Look at what existing designs do (user
expectations)

Problem: bad design.

Bad design: it’s everywhere!

Bad design: it’s everywhere!
Why? Consequences
/ Lack of self-criticism / Frustration due to
/ Rush job more reading effort
/ Unfamiliar with best / Message is lost
practices / Lost business oppor-
/ Inexperience with tunity
tools / Not taken seriously
/ Bad taste / Lack of beauty and
elegance

Everyone is a designer!
/ Previously:
One needed long education to be able to, for
example, print a book.

Everyone is a designer!
/ Previously:
One needed long education to be able to, for
example, print a book.
/ Today:
New technology “democratized” design.

Everyone is a designer!
/ Previously:
One needed long education to be able to, for
example, print a book.
/ Today:
New technology “democratized” design.
(just think of all the Powerpoint presentations
you seen that were ugly..)

myspace.com

What is design?
arngren.net

What is design?
ryanair.com

What is design?
komplett.no

What is design?
norwegian.no

What is design?
skyscanner.net

What is design?
wegolo.com

Microsoft

What is design?
microsoft.no

What is design?
office online

What is design?
msdn

What is design?
partner

What is design?
dynamics

Apple

What is design?
apple.com

Microsoft vs. Apple
Microsoft
It’s a big company with many products.
/ Many different messages at the same time.
Can be confusing for “outsiders” (or even for
MS people..)
Apple
It’s a small company with few products.
/ One brand.

What can MS do?
/ Keep the design consitent:
offline + online
/ KISS principle
Keep it Simple, Stupid
Strive to eliminate unnecessary complications.

Be brief.
/ Explain in the brief what you want to achieve.
What should the receiver do after seeing/read-
ing your poster/website, etc.
/ But don’t be too detaily on image use, etc.
Creativity gets lost this way. (but dont’ forget
corporate guidelines.)
Again, do trust the designer. (If you don’t. get a
new one...)

“Can you make the logo bigger?”
/ Clients always want a bigger logo.
“The client is king” - but do trust the designer.
/ You know the content.
Designers know design. (or should know!)
A bigger logo doesn’t make it a better design.

Know your time.
/ Know when the time is to give feedback on
creativity, design, content and when not.
/ Nothing is more frustrating than doing a job a
second time when you thought it was approved
by the client.

Don’t look at the details.
Attention to detail is good, but...
/ You know the content.
Does the design display the content in a easy
manner?
/ “Just” moving a textbox or logo around
might change the whole balance of a design.
Hence, all must be designed again.

“It’s just a small change...”
/ Task:
Design logo with corporate identity. (Logo,
business card, word templates, etc.)
/ Client:
“Simply change the Word template a bit.”
No understanding that designing templates
in Word was difficult. Took me more than 1,5
whole days!

What do you want to achieve?
Always get a 2. opinion on 1. impressions.
BUT:
It’s like asking someone to find 5 mistakes.
Guide the question, examples:
/ What’s the first thing you notice?
/ What’s the message here?
/ What’s the call-to-action?

Zune.

What is design?
zune-arts.net

Zune. Is it Microsoft?

Zune. Is it really Microsoft?!
Creative ad campaign that uses animation and
indie tunes to promote the Zune is generating a
buzz online. (freebies: Wallpaper, videos, etc.)
“The clips, which Microsoft pays artists to cre-
ate, revolve around the concept of sharing,
which supposedly differentiates Zune from the
iPod and the rest of the digital media player
pack.”

What is design?
zune-arts.net

Zune. Is it really Microsoft?!
/ I think I does differentiate itself from iPod.
/ It’s fresh and you want to spend time on the
website, BUT:
“Microsoft” is not branded anywhere...

Resources (or “books”)
”The Hidden Persuaders” - Vance Packard
“Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everyday
Life” - John Heskett
“Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to
Creating Great Ads” - Luke Sullivan
“Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense
Approach to Web Usability” - Steve Krug
”The Art Book”

Thank you!
/ Andreas Beining
11.12.2007