Since starting blogging, I have increasingly found myself referring people to my blog, rather than explaining things that already reside there. Though my blog isn’t particularly personal, it reminds me of those rather impolite mass-emails you may get from a friend on occasion saying “This is what is going on in my life: yadda yadda.” I say rather impolite because my natural reaction has always been “Who are you to think I care?” and “Am I not important enough for you to write an e-mail just for me?”
That’s what’s great about blogs:
You can tell a story, or get information out there and only have to tell it once
Others who spend a lot of time around you don’t to get sick of hearing it over and over
Others are less inclined to wonder why you think they care, because they have sought the information
Others can consult the information at their leisure
You don’t have to worry about omitting crucial information from one telling to another
Anyway, now I sometimes find myself explaining something that happens to already be on my blog, then I get fed up, stop explaining, and simply say “just read my blog.” How selfish of me to consider my time so precious that another moment of human interaction isn’t worth explaining something an extra time.
Some people get offended if you don’t read their blog. I had someone ask me, “Hey, David, how is the blog going?” I, of course, responded “Don’t you read it? If you read it you wouldn’t have to ask me that question.”
I think some day in the future a man will come home from work and say to his wife “Hi, honey, how was your day?” and her response will be a hurt “Don’t you read my blog!?” Or, he might even hear “Are you reading another woman’s blog!?”
I have for some time noticed it, but didn’t know what to call it until today. Affluenza: the disease of epidemic proportions that causes Americans to sacrifice their health, communities, and families, all for the senseless pursuit of owning stuff, or simply “wealth” to buy stuff. Apparently, there’s a TV show on it, a book, and seminars to help combat it (the friend who introduced me to Affluenza noted that perhaps to buy the book was to demonstrate that you have Affluenza). I love this quote from the Amazon.com book review:
“To live, we buy..all the while squelching our intrinsic curiosity, self-motivation, and creativity.”
Apparently this book won’t teach you anything you don’t already know, but it’s exciting to witness our society finally waking up.
Do I have affluenza? I score 15 points on the Affluenza Diagnosis Test, which puts me just below having mild Affluenza. Well, nobody is perfect, and it’s not like all posessions are bad. Some of the things that may or may not make me guilty of Affluenza:
I have a TV…and cable, even though I only watch one or two channels, an average of 1 hour a week.
My computer is always on.
I’m using my Air Conditioner today (we have over 100 degree heat index today!)
My car is a V6, and I drive to work about 4 miles every day at a speed of 30mph.
My personal belief is that if you truly have an intrinsic passion for something, owning a few things that help you exercise that passion is okay. That’s why I won’t count my two guitars, my CD’s, and my book collection. Perhaps I shouldn’t count my computer being on all of the time, because it enables me to exercise my passion for design and for the internet (I believe there is virtue, if used for certain things, in the information classification and transfer that the internet makes possible). Also, working alot of hours has been cited as a symptom of Affluenza, but I do that because I like what I do (not that I never work a few more hours than I’d actually like to).
Of course, the “passion” argument sucks, because someone could say “I have a passion for driving an obnoxious tank that gets 6 miles a gallon half an hour to and from work down the main arterial road of my city,” and that’s not cool. I guess if you’re concerned about it, ask me, and I will tell you whether you should make your purchase or not. I’ll get this all sorted out some day into a solid argument, but until then, just be careful.
A truly fascinating art project related to this from right here in Nebraska: Obsessive Consumption.
Sidethought: I wonder if our economy would just collapse if everyone were magically cured of Affluenza.
After reading it, the outlook for sustainable print design in America looks pretty bleak – not that personal experience has indicated otherwise. I asked my printer the other day if he takes special measures towards minimizing his company’s impact on the environment, and his response, with a confused look on his face, was “well, we recycle?” I’ll have to get him a copy of this manual – maybe to be responsible, I’ll just send him a PDF.
I’m also considering making the manual the subject of my book club one of these months. That, or/and Cradle to Cradle.
Today, good taste is often erroneously rejected as old fashioned because the ordinary man, seeking approval of his so-called personality, prefers to follow the dictates of his own peculiar style rather than submit to any objective criterion of taste.
Here’s another:
Since typography appertains to each and all, it leaves no room for revolutionary changes. We cannot alter the essential shape of a single letter without at the same time destroying the familiar printed face of our language, and thereby rendering it useless.
Reiterating the previous idea:
…the typographer is chained more than any other artist by the unalterable word…
I just completed my latest fun side-project: a poster for Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, and more importantly, for One Percent Productions, who organize the absolute best rock shows in Omaha (the music scene is the best thing about living in Omaha). So here is the poster that will decorate the streets of Omaha (and Lincoln…this happens to be for a Lincoln show).
Yes, it is a little Saul Bass inspired. It started out as a visual interpretation of the music. I had some blobby forms to represent the sounds of the horns, some dots for percussion, and the still surviving vertical bands are what the organ sounds like. I felt it should look a little political too, a fact you can’t ignore if you hear their music.
A little disclaimer: the political nature of this band has nothing to do with me doing for a poster for them. The opinions they express are not necessarily mine.
The other day I saw Michael Moore’sFarenheit 911. I was initially disturbed by the film, but, like in Bowling for Columbine, it was obvious that Moore was using dramatic devices to try to persuade the viewer, and I knew that the information presented couldn’t be as simple as he was making it out to be. I found myself wishing that someone would compile retorts to the movie’s issues. Then I came across Dave Kopel‘s Fifty-nine Deceits in Farenheit 911. I haven’t had a chance to read the whole thing, but at first blush it looks like a promising resource for hearing the other side of the story, or to just get an understanding of how Moore manages to persuade the poor people who use his movies as their sole information source.
There are very few things in this world that I know enough about to express a strong opinion on, and politics is far from being one of them. I will spare you from hearing another uninformed opinion on politics, but present this resource for you to form your own opinions.
Have you noticed the Shrek Postmarks from our friends at USPS?
This makes me ill. One: pop culture is pervasive enough as it is (which is what makes it pop culture, I guess), and I would rather not have its agents shoved in my face everywhere I go. Two: its one more place you can’t look without being marketed to. Shocked a Graphic Designer is so anti-marketing, or rather this type of marketing? I’m not the only one.
Maybe you’ve noticed that my posts have slowed down a little. It’s not that I have a shortage of things to say in this blog: I have many many ideas in my head…all that require more time and energy than I have at the moment. Work has been pretty busy lately. What do I do at work? Well, my job description, like many employees at RDG Planning & Design, is non-existent (I view that as a good thing). Over the course of my two years there, my duties have included:
Developing Flash-based interactive CDs for the various focus markets
Guiding the firm through a rebranding, and putting together the many elements that weren’t attended to by the Graphic Design firm that developed the new branding system
Managing an image library with a wonderful in theory, not so wonderful in practice, piece of software called Cumulus by Canto
Architectural graphics: coloring floor plans/site plans, touching up renderings, creating materials for 3D renderings
IT for my computer, seeing as I am fortunate enough to have the only Mac in my office
Training other people in the office on Illustrator and Photoshop, and serving as a resource for the myriad graphics related questions that come from a technologically advanced Architecture firm such as ours
Developing a color management workflow (Monaco EZ Color is a great product for this)…yes, I now understand what all those Photoshop Color Warnings are about
Creating promotional boards for showcasing completed projects, creating concept boards for competition entries
Putting together “promos” for responding to RFPs
Determining the optimum printers to have for in-house printing (the DesignJet 5500 from HP is good for the big stuff and we have a great Minolta Laser Copier/Printer/Scanner but I don’t remember the model…there are so many options), and keeping those printers running smoothly
“Scan monkey” and “print monkey” duties (“David, can you scan this/print this?”)
Designing PowerPoint presentations
Designing dedication plaques for buildings
Designing brochures
Creating exterior paint schemes for buildings
Answering the occasional computer question
Making sure various displays around the office support our brand
So, as you may have noticed, I have been almost entirely overhead for much of my days there, and that has kept me busier than your average 9-to-5-er. So far, my record is 67 hours in one week (keep in mind that I still have the book club, other AIGA stuff, and occasional AIA events, too). Well, these last couple of weeks, in addition to having these duties, I have been blessed with some clients. RDG Graphic Design is finally, as I originally intended, bringing in revenue, and as anyone would do, I will make sure that when those clients’ projects are done, there will be no second thought as to whom they will come next time they have a project. Some of the projects I have in progress, or coming up, include a booklet, promotional CD, exterior building signage application, wayfinding, museum catalog and a newsletter redesign.
Fortunately, not ALL of the above duties are still duties of mine. Many people have learned enough Illustrator and Photoshop to do alot of the coloring of floor plans, sight plans, and renderings, we hired a great marketing/writing person to concentrate on promos and color management hasn’t been an issue as of late. Some of the things will seemingly never get attended to, such as the image library (it’s never done!).
I have noticed in my web stats that I have gotten a couple of referrals from Devilfinder.com, a rather odd search engine that I didn’t know about before. “Send me to hell!” says the search button…hilarious.
