As a senior in high school I was required to do an internship in a field that I may want to pursue. I landed an internship with Wondrack Design. My mentor, James Wondrack worked with the AIGA chapter for Upstate NY. He brought Micheal Beirut in to speak at RIT and I was invited to the lecture.

At this point in my life I’d never heard of Micheal Beirut or Pentagram Design. I had taken some graphic design classes in my high school art department. I liked them and after interning at Wondrack Design learned a lot more about the ins and outs of working in the field. I was pretty sure it was something I wanted to pursue but I hadn’t had that moment yet where it just slaps you in the face and you realize that it’s definitely the right path. That all changed after hearing Micheal Beirut speak and present his work. Some of the pieces were just so clever (maybe even genius) and I suddenly understood what it meant all those times my high school art teacher told us that design is about problem solving.

To this day I still would credit both my mentor and Micheal Beirut for inspiring me to go into graphic design. In college I had the chance to visit Pentagram in NYC and then after school I was able to work with another Pentagram partner Woody Pirtle which was another invaluable learning experience.

I recently came upon this video from Behance of Beirut speaking and once again found myself inspired. I love the part where he talks about not being creative. He says the reason he became a designer is because he wanted people to come to him with problems to solve. This is exactly the reason why I am a designer and not a painter, illustrator, sculptor, etc.

About This Presentation
Renowned graphic designer Michael Bierut claims that he’s not creative. Instead, he likens his job to that of a doctor who tends to patients extracting a handful of simple lessons (e.g. the problem contains the solution; don’t avoid the obvious) at the foundation of brilliant design solutions.

About Michael Bierut
Prior to joining Pentagram in 1990 as a partner in the firm’s New York office, Michael Bierut worked for ten years at Vignelli Associates, ultimately as vice president of graphic design. His clients at Pentagram have included The New York Times, Saks Fifth Avenue, The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Harley-Davidson, The Minnesota Children’s Museum, The William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, Mohawk Paper Mills, the New York Jets, Princeton University, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Morgan Library and Museum.

He has won hundreds of design awards and his work is represented in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Montreal. His commentaries about graphic design in everyday life have been heard nationally on the Public Radio International program “Studio 360″ and his appearance in Helvetica: A Documentary Film is considered by many that movie’s funniest moment. Michael is a co-founder of the weblog DesignObserver.com, and his book 79 Short Essays on Design was published in 2007 by Princeton Architectural Press.

Shopping for a website designer should be like looking for a good restaurant. You might be able to find a restaurant with great food but the service may be lousy. Or maybe the service and food is great but portion sizes are measly for the price. So using the restaurant as a metaphor let’s walk through a typical meal in a restaurant and the factors that determine if your experience is a good one or not.

First, you walk into the restaurant and take in the overall decor and atmosphere. This can be compared to looking at a designer’s portfolio. Take a thorough look and see what it is you like about the designer. It may also compare to initial contact with the designer. How do they respond to you? Do they get back to you right away? Are they personal or automated? Chances are if they don’t take the time now to help you then they won’t care much later either.

Next, you’re taken to your table where you’re greeted by a server. I personally get annoyed when I have a question about the menu and the server can’t answer it. Make sure your designer is knowledgeable in their field and can explain things back to you in terms that you will understand. They should be able to answer basic questions easily and be willing to find the answer should your question stump them.

Timing is everything when it comes to your meal. If the kitchen takes too long you’re sure to be in a bad mood by the time your food arrives. Make sure your designer can give you a clear timeline of the project before you get to work. This will keep you both on the same page and will result in both a happy designer and a happy you.

Once the food arrives there are a bunch of factors to weigh in on. Is this the type of restaurant that serves huge uninspired (dare I say cookie-cutter) meals? Or are they serving you a work of art on a plate that tastes out of this world while leaving room for dessert? Well if its the former chances are they are cutting costs by not using quality ingredients. This is fine if its quanity you’re after and not quality because assuredly the taste of your meal will suffer. Then there’s the other end of the spectrum, the restaurants that do use high-quality ingredients but act as if you should pay just for the honor of eating their masterpiece. In some cases, you should…you’ll probably never taste anything better. In other cases its just an egotistical chef at work. I’m sure you can understand how this can compare to choosing a designer. You want a balance in everything.

So this leads us to getting your check. Everyone’s favorite part of the meal. Well, you wouldn’t walk into a Diner and expect to pay $50 for your dinner just as you wouldn’t walk into a 5-star restaurant and expect it to cost the same as fast food. So the same goes with a designer. The old saying holds true…you get what you pay for. I think the hard part is knowing what it is that you should expect to get from a designer in the first place…hopefully this article will help you come to that conclusion.

Recently I launched an e-commerce website for a new company called Miles in Style. My client, who is an avid cyclist, had some ingeniously witty ideas for some custom bike jerseys and socks and came to me to help bring her ideas to life. Check out the site and buy something, or spread the word to your cyclist friends!

Before developing the website we of course started with the logo, which I brought in my friend and Illustrator Matt Cahill to bring the company mascot Miles the Duck to life. Once settled on the illustration I went to work on incorporating it into the logo and came up with this… Read the rest of this entry »

I finally got my blog up and running. I built my website in MODx but decided to integrate WordPress since I wasn’t really liking the lack of features in the MODx blogging option.

I haven’t completely decided what this blog will focus on. I think it will be a mish-mash of recent projects, interesting design-related things, and thoughts and genious ideas I have while I’m working. There will probably be some completely random stuff mixed in as well.