Bodonation

Had a chat with friends after the design dialogues.

Despite their experiences of presenting personal works in different conferences and lectures, it seems that every presentation is a new challenge.

• To keep it meaningful, understandable and inspiring but to be careful not to trip into the areas of self-glorification.
• To understand that among the audience there would be fans and there would be strangers. There would also be old cynical designers amongst the young eager students.
• To maintain a level of insightful engagement and yet be entertaining.

By organising design events, I have the privilege of looking at how designers frantically tweak their presentations before the actual show - tweaking to make it more relevant to the audience:

"Would Malaysians understand this sort of things?"
"Is the audience mainly professionals or students?"
"Is this boring or is this interesting?"

In actual fact, presenting to designers (seasoned or aspiring) is a
daunting task, especially when creative people are generally known as
the most critical bunch.

Speaking about being critical.

On a typical morning like today, I would be going through my lecture presentation - adding/deleting slides and rearranging sequences, knowing very well that I will not attain 100% approval of the class.

• The smart-wise folks will think this is too simple for them. "Boring!" I can anticipate them sms-ing each other, probably checking on who’s going to Zouk (or Redbox) on Friday night.
• The simple-conservative group will think this is too complex. "What is he talking about?" I can almost envision their dazed-and-confused expression.
• The eager-to-learn-everything group will find this a revelation. "Interesting!" I am expecting them to see me after class to ask me more questions.
• The I-am-not-bothered group will find this irrelevant. "Not my kind of design." I can imagine all the territory+idn+vector graphics dancing in front of their eyes.
• The I-thought-I-knew-everything people will be suddenly inspired. "I never knew it could be done this way…" I can imagine them transforming into grid-freaks.
• The it’s-just-another-class people will always be harping on "when’s the deadline?" since nothing else matters. I can forsee them staying this way for the next few semesters.

It will never be an easy task communicating without being judgmental to a target audience as such.

I supposed it is the same way around. Being avail for public scrutiny means to be prepared for comments concerning my hair to my shoes. It means accepting the perception of being either an inspiring individual, a lame duck or a boring twat.

I am still wondering why I ever took on lecturing.

Penning down my thoughts for the few designers (IZ, if you are reading this) who are contemplating lecturing. This is what you will get for making yourself avail.

This Lego ad from FCB Johannesberg just won the Grand Prix (Press) at Cannes Lion.
Malaysia did fairly well, bagging 5 golds. That’s the biggest haul of medals in the history of Malaysian advertising. Everyone is shouting Malaysia Boleh.

I guess I feel happy for those who won.

Though I could never quite understand the whole business of celebrating creativity and rewarding ideas. Quite freaky it is, to think of the people working days and nights on the so-called "self-initiatives" for imaginary briefs before turning them into "real works" with endorsements from "real clients".

Meanwhile, Malaysia boleh.

I found the ppt presentation I did a while back in Mumbai to a hall of designers.

In which I threw in some self-reflecting numbers:

For the year 1994-2000 I logged in:
    Annual reports: 100+
    Newsletters & corporate brochures: 400+
    Books/Corporate profiles: 60+
    Awards: 0+ (There were one or two merits somewhere)

And the awfully depressing part:
    Designers whom I’m in contact with (besides staff and ex-staff): 0
    Design lectures/talks/seminars attended: 1
    Number of days taken for holidays: 0
    Number of working hours per day: 16+
    Number of overnights spent in studio: ?

During that period I really wanted to know what other designers are doing (or thinking), and secretly wished that they could/would share some of their experiences with me, so that an ignorant young fart like me could learn and improve myself.

Unfortunately it doesn’t work that way.

I couldn’t possibly pick up my phone and call another designer and start a conversation that goes like this:

"Hello Nelson, you don’t know me but I would really like to know what you are doing. I really like your works and would like to know you in person. Oh, by the way, I happened to run a design studio, and yea, we are pitching for the same jobs."

For a while these people belonged to the elusive list of "designers I would like to meet but I just don’t know when". It was a long list of designers who were producing respectable works in our little design industry.

The local design events (if there were any) were always organised by a certain paper company on a "by invitation" basis. I was never a "VIP customer" since my clients could never allocate me the budget to splurge on nice papers.

I was always hiding behind my cubicle.

That was then.

6 years down the road and about 2 hours ago I asked my wife:

"Have I made a difference in the creative industry?"

How&why is 6 years old. My two fantastic colleagues (Eh, JL and SK, if you two are reading this, I really mean fantastic without my trademarked sarcasm) were joking about doing a 7 year anniversary next year. Why 7? "Because we just want to find a reason to celebrate something".

I guess on a personal level I have accomplished my mission of getting to know all the people on the list. Above that, I have managed to persuade most of them to step out in public, to share their knowledge and experiences with the people who cared to know. It brings me even more joy to see well-established people sacrificing their precious time with students - they are not obligated to, but have done so on numerous occasions.

"Have I made a difference in the creative industry?"

I would want to think so. That’s such a lovely self-appeasing and self-congratulatory thought.

But the truth is, the past 6 years had been a difficult journey.

It has been energy sapping, mentally draining and definitely not financially rewarding. Sometimes I wonder whether I have lost my sanity and toiled in vain.

Sometimes I just want to drop all these and be a designer, again.

Maybe I would.

(in a reflective mood today)

"When they build things for us, they have to be happy. Rejecting works is dehumanising." - Seksan, on describing his relationships with fellow collaborators/contractors/workers.

"The idea of not finishing something is important. Why are we always trying to sweep away dirt?"

Haven’t heard anyone speak with such humility for a long while.
A soul that is sensitive towards environment and human.

Makes me ponder.

(If you were not there, you had missed a very inspirational talk.)

I read this anecdote on fifaworld before the Ecuador match.

Lost in the middle of nowhere, a master and his servant were
looking for assistance when they came across a small shack. In front of
the hut was a single cow. The master knocked on the door and a man
opened it.

"What can I do for you?," the owner asked, with a smile on his lips.
"We’ve had some transport problems and wondered if you could give us shelter for the night?"
"Of course,” came the reply. “Come in and make yourselves at home."

His wife invited the guests to sit down to dinner, which consisted of
milk, cheese and beef. The servant, surprised by the surroundings, then
said to the hosts: "All I’ve seen is a cow in front of your house. How
do you live like this?"

"It’s like this," answered the man. "The cow gives us milk, and her
calves give us the hides we need to make clothes and the meat we need
to eat. What else do we need?"

After dinner, everyone went to their rooms. The next morning, the
guests thanked their hosts and left. After they departed, the master
turned to his servant and ordered him to return and kill their cow.

In spite of his astonishment, the servant carried out the order. The
event weighed on his conscience for years, until he finally decided to
return to the place to find out what had happened to the family.
Imagine his surprise when he arrived at an enormous estate, full of
animals, containing a mill and various other outhouses.

Amazed, he knocked on the door, which was opened by a man he didn’t recognise.

"What can I do for you?" he asked.
"I was here many years ago, but everything was very different. I was
wondering what happened to the family who used to live here," said the
servant.
"That must be us, we’ve never moved."
"But how have you come by all of this wealth?"
"Well actually, something very strange happened. One morning we woke up
and our cow was dead. We had no choice but to embark on a new life full
of hard work and new challenges, which has led us to where we are
today."

Ecuador’s coach, Luis Suarez reportedly gathered his troops and said
"Gentlemen, we’re going to play in a World Cup. It’s time to kill your cows."

Sometimes we have to take stock of what we are doing in life and kill our cows too. Maybe it will be for the better.

Just reflecting on some thoughts that had been bugging me for the past few weeks.

I don’t like this sort of type treatment, especially when used for logotypes.

I always think this arrangement is overdone, probably suffering from the syndrome of trying too hard to inject contrast into an otherwise ok logotype - as shown below.

What’s wrong with this?
It is strong and clear. The corporate colors divide the two words perfectly.
It is simple. It has no typographic acrobatics.
Perhaps simplicity is the problem here.

Here’s another:

An arrangement which has been repeated countless times by all.

Why not just this?

Too simple, maybe.

(Life is already complicated, why can’t we just do simple things?)