From the pages of my notebooks - Ideas that got the chop.

I notice that when I work I  concentrate on solving small problems to the detriment of the bigger picture. I work on elements of the riddle but not the answer.

For example, when I draw I solve the form of one part of a scene where others will describe that part in a line or two inside many others. My drawing will sit, centred and small, on a blank page when others roughly fill the page right to every edge. When I write I assemble vignettes and hints together but rarely scenes. When working on a logo I might resolve the curves on a single letterform on a logo that is not the solution to the job.

Its hard to know if this is a disability or an advantage. We are all drawn to bigger works but love smaller parts. We will sit and watch Spartacus enthusiastically but will also remember only lines Happy Gilmore.

“I eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast”

“You eat pieces of shit for breakfast?”

Fish fingers… fish digits… FIDGITS!!!

Call the marketing department – we gonna be rich!

Today was a bit of a crushing defeat for design and me. I had three identity options of which I was particularly proud for a company which was an umbrella management company for many others.

Idea one was an anchor built into the text symbolising this central company being a proverbial rock all the others are fastened to. Idea two was based on ripples of water showing a flow of ideas outward from a central point. The third was the idea of a company a fan-like spread of assets, in this case the fan was abstracted and shaped into the initial letter of their name. Instead, the boss took two ideas from a book of logos and hey presto! Done deal!

This happened a day after a client asking me can I draw and being amazed after I said “Of course! After four years of art college I must have learned something”. The response to this was – “oh you can go to college to do design?”

Anyway, it’s lovely to know I am appreciated, now where can I stick those dead logo ideas?

…but swine flu

sorry.

Ships and boats really get me going. Long and elegant from one angle, squat and robust from another; they represent a nostalgic way to travel where instead of being cosseted away one’s senses are assaulted by the journey. The travel is about taking time away from everything and seeing the world at a remove. These mechanical Jonah’s whales battle their way though the seas to deliver those in their bellies.

Mid twentieth century ships particularly excite me with their proud bows vertically rising from the point where they obtusely cleave the water apart. They make no concession to ergonomic theory or streamlining. Everything is upright and proper.