142 - My Favourite Kind of Design - Part 2 - Old Design and Alan Fletcher

What this episode covers

Here's another episode where I gush about my favourite kind of design. Subscribe: ITUNES | ANDROID | STITCHER | RSS FEED Music and links from this episode Whiteout by Little Glass Men Clover by Little Glass Men Westside Chillers by Little Glass Men Line-by-line notes I was asked by Ian Moss What my favourite piece of design is And what areas, such as communication, graphic design, architecture I enjoyed answering the question so much back in episode 122 That I’m going to answer it again Let’s go for a second round This is all about my favourite kind of design This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess MUSIC When I think about design that I love I mean, really love Almost none of it is new design In episode 138 I spoke about designing logos And how all of my favourite logos were Paul Rand ones I love old graphic design especially, because it has something that I can’t quite put my finger on Lots of it has has an innocence that’s missing from modern graphic design Now, you can easily hide behind amazing technical ability You can hide behind how well you can command Illustrator or Photoshop to realise your pretty pictures Old graphic design didn’t allow for that You drew ideas on paper, then you drew them again properly, and somebody would use that as an actual logo Old graphic design was limited by the production methods available But because of that, the ideas behind so many of them are amazing You couldn’t rely on execution to hide behind You had to come up with an amazing idea, something witty or clever Witty and clever design is much rarer these days Maybe it’s because there’s so many more designers And anybody can be a designer with a laptop and the right applications So all the good stuff gets hidden under the dross Or maybe it’s just that modern design favours technically brilliant design over witty stuff I’m not really sure on that one But when it comes to designers that I’d love to even have 20% of their skill and intellect, Paul Rand is on the list, but Alan Fletcher is somebody I appreciate even more Paul Rand was just way more than just a designer, and he embodied what I see a “proper” designer should be His fascination about the world of design and art never faded throughout his whole career And his books, particularly The Art of Looking Sideways, are masterpieces The Art of Looking Sideways is an interesting read for anybody, whether you’re as much in love with design as me or not That book showed Alan Fletcher at his absolute best Curious about everything, and using that curiosity about everything to make great graphic design He understood, so well, that inspiration can come from anywhere and because of that we should be interested in everything I’ve taken that into my own career, and I’m endlessly pursuing new knowledge and experiences to help fuel inspiration for my design And of course, he founded Pentagram, one of the greatest design studios out there today doing work Alan Flecher and Paul Rand were proper graphic designers Their design work was ideas lead, and it was always about producing the simplest design work possible to execute that idea They didn’t gradients or flashy effects to do any of that, and it wasn’t available to them even if they wanted it They relentlessly searched for interesting ideas, and new ways of looking at problems that had already been answered a thousand times They really were on the cusp of when graphic design started to establish itself as a real profession When sometimes they’d be called commercial artists There’s just something magical about that era Something that’s better than now I could put it down to a feeling of nostalgia But I didn’t live through that era, so there’s no reason for me to remember it fondly I think the reason why I love old graphic design so much Design like Alan Fletcher’s and Paul Rand’s Is because it was just pure It wasn’t diluted in any way It was just pure ideas From people who...

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