Course “Ad Hoc Design: Memorable Graphic Identities” by Mario Eskenazi
What is ad hoc design
The problem can have infinite different solutions, depending on the designer.
Be coherent. Conceptual and form design must be in unity, one should not outweight the other.
Basis of design is communication and identification. Design not selling, advertising does.
Design has to be unique for that person, institution or company. It can’t be applied to any other business or problem.
Base - conceptual, sturctural, formal. It’s the substance of work.
It has to be neutral and easy. Natural to understand, produce and use.
Know as much about history as possible. Study continuously.
Only when you leave the school, you start to truly learn. Before that, it is just studying.
First contact with the client
I charge for thinking. Then for construction. Everything has a concept price.
Establish long-term relationships with clients.
Clients can critique concept, but not form.
Good briefings is when they (users of the product) are identities, and not some random “25/35 yo. Hard worker, male etc” profiles.
Investigation of the problem
Each topic should have a special investigation.
In general, I prefer to avoid the references because they tend to contaminate.
When investigation does not progress, or there is not much data available, look for references.
Find the idea
Idea, is the search for a concept or a unique solution for a single problem.
Two fundamental things in communication:
- “To describe is to destroy. To suggest is to create.”
- “While fresher the idea, better the job.”
When we think we find an idea or a concept, we must first get back to the problem, and see if it really works for that problem. When see if that idea has not been had by another.
You must remember, that not everything we do will be liked by everyone, but what we do is not to be liked, but to identify.
The shape
Many times the form comes before the concept.
Dont put something for decoration - design is not decoration, its communication.
Every element of graphic identity must function as element of communication.
Presentation
The basics:
- explain what is the problem of the commission
- the concept on which i base myself to solve it
- show the solution
- show applications
if the problem, concept and solution stage well explained, there is no confusion.
i make it very clear that the formal problem is mine, that i accept all possible criticisms within the concept, there i can be wrong. Now, the form does not have to criticize me.
Never present with doubts or fear. Be sure of what you have done.
Recommended books Grid Systems in Graphic Design | Josef Müller-Brockman Paula Scher: Works (concise edition) | Tony Brook & Adrian Shaughnessy Letter and Image | Massin Jost Hochuli: Printed Matter, Mainly Books | Jost Hochuli Creative Code: Aesthetics + Computation | John Maeda A Designers Art | Paul Rand Forget all the rules you have been taught about graphic design. Even the ones in this book | Bob Gill Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist | Peter Hall The Art of Looking Sideways | Alan Fletcher Printed matter | Karel Martens Citizen first, Designer second | Rejane Dal Bello Designer, Activist, Visual Historian | David King The Visual History of Type | Paul McNeil A * New * Program for Graphic Design | David Reinfurt The Form of the Book Book | Edited by Sara De Bondt and Fraser Muggeridge 100 Whites | Kenya Hara Notes on Book Design | Derek Birdsall The Art of Graphic Design | Bradbury Thompson Robert Brownjohn: Sex and Typography
Reference designers: Emily Atwood Practice Anthony Burril Experimental Jetset Sara De Bondt studio Europe Carvalho Bernau Spin Fraser Muggeridge studio Julia Porto Rocha Studio FERNANDO GUTIÉRREZ Mark Porter Associates Trevor Jackson Zak Group Collins Neil Donnelly Studio OK-RM Atelier Dyakova Other Means John Morgan studio Nick Adam Sarah Boris Arauna Work-order Works