The last postcard on Earth

Has e-technology caused the demise of yet another of life’s little joys?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve enjoyed opening my mailbox at the end of the day and finding (among the multitude of utility bills and unwanted applications for credit cards) a 4-color postcard or two announcing the opening of a fine art photography exhibition. Small in size, sometimes badly designed, but more often than not able to generate a substantial amount of interest and excitement about seeing an exhibition. In the last decade this has all changed.

Galleries announce exhibitions and openings through websites and blogs and Facebook and Twitter and email. Yes, it’s cheaper, faster, and effective enough, but it’s also dead on arrival. An email can’t be pinned on a bulletin board or taped to the fridge. Something has been lost. Another real-world, hold-it-in-your-hand, keep-it-in-a drawer-with-all-the-others experience has gone digital. Poof! Never to return and I am not too pleased about it.
During my years as Executive Director of the Photographic Resource Center at Boston University, I got a chance to use my design skills to produce a number of postcards.

A few of my favorites are posted here.

Creating a successful corporate identity

I have no idea how someone can create a logo for $29.00, but when you enter “logo design” in Yahoo, that is the first paid listing that appears. Good for them whoever they are. It’s not me and never will be.

Paul Rand, one of my design heroes, said, “If in the business of communications, ‘image is king,’ the essence of this image, the logo, is the jewel in its crown.”

Without question, I believe the most difficult assignment a graphic designer is faced with is the development of a client’s corporate identity system. When I use the term corporate identity, I’m referring to a company’s name and logo and their numerous applications. The process of creating and selling a company a new or revised corporate identity is, at best, highly political and exceedingly emotional. The project can be a minefield, and many design firms have been fired as a result of trying to deliver a successful solution.

What causes the multiplicity of client/agency problems and how can the graphic designer avoid them? For over thirty years, I’ve created corporate identities for numerous companies. Based on my experience, I’ve developed a method of working that has proven to successfully avoid most of the inherent problems, and as a result, allowing me to create award winning corporate identities.

It is beyond the scope of this article to go through all the steps in my process, but I can offer three tips that will, I believe, be beneficial to the client/agency team.

Start at the Finish Line
Begin by defining what a successful corporate identity system should be. It sounds simple, but too often the projects are initiated before all members of the team understand how to recognize a great solution. Prior to developing concepts, I spend significant time with the client (and all members of the client’s team) defining the vision behind the final deliverable. This should not be confused with what is generally referred to in the design industry as a “creative brief.” At the end of this process, success is defined in the form of one simple, focused sentence. Naturally, this sentence will be different for each client.

Don’t Bloat the Team
Keep the number of people on the team small and don’t change them. On the client side, the team should consist of the one person with the authority to approve the final concept and no more than one or two other members. This first impulse most clients have is to expand the team to include everyone they possibly can. This is an enormous mistake.

Here is a perfect example. Several years ago, I worked with a startup software company that had a name, a product in development and an immense amount of cash. We began the corporate identity project working very closely with the founder of the company and his senior staff and, in the end, we agreed on a vision for the corporate identity that was smart and simple. I couldn’t wait to present our proposed solution. The day came to make our presentation and when we entered the conference room we were shocked to find seventeen product managers and no sign of the company’s founder. He had decided to let each of his product managers accept or reject the proposed solution. Early into the presentation, I knew our solution was doomed. The product managers had no idea what the founder had agreed to, and each of them had a different idea of what the solution should be. We ended up losing the project, and the experience was so catastrophic that we stopped accepting corporate identity projects for several years. Later, I learned that the software company selected an excellent design firm to replace us and our replacement experienced the similar difficulties.

Rubberstamp the Solution
Too many designers present their solutions using full color layouts that rival the splendor of Faberge eggs. It’s fine to represent your idea in the best possible light, but more often than not the logo will be reproduced in one or two colors at a small size. It could literally be used as a rubberstamp. Make sure, as part of your presentation, you show your solution postage stamp size in black and white. If it doesn’t work at that size, it’s not a successful solution.

One final note. Never ask your friends their opinion of the logo. I’m sure that your friends are incredibly smart people and can give you a perfectly good recommendation for a movie or restaurant, but if they have not been an integral part of your corporate identity team, they can’t give you any insight that you don’t already have. All they will do is confuse you.

Into the Mystic

Under the direction of Jeffrey Keough, Massachusetts College of Art repeatedly presents exhibitions that are both challenging and rewarding. The exhibition titled "Mystic" is a perfect example.

The exhibition consisted of a wide variety of pieces by Marina Abramovic, Jeremy Blake, Dorothy Cross, Nona Hershey, Arthur Jafa, Tony Oursler, Gustavo Romano, Arlene Shechet and C. A. Stigliano. The artworks on display by these nine artists were created in such varied media as polychromed wood, toy models, graphite powder on paper with pastel, pigmented cast rubber and DVD projection. Jeffrey Keough states that the artists "share a fascination with exploring the indefinable margins between our earthly, physical domain and the intangible, unknowable beyond.

Jeffrey Keough was kind enough to ask me to design the exhibition catalog. It was an honor and a challenge. Over the past several years, I have worked with Jeffrey on a variety of projects including the exhibition catalog and poster for William Wegman's "Strange but True exhibition.

My main challenge designing the "Mystic" catalog was trying to adequately capture such diverse and energetic works on the printed page. I decided to present the artist's work using a technique that demonstrates both motion and the passage of time. To accomplish this, each artist has a full-color introductory spread highlighting a single piece of artwork followed by a full-color spread that displays his or her artwork in a multi-framed storyboard. In the case of Dorothy Cross's "Ghost Ship", the twelve frame storyboard illustrates her toy model floating lighthouse disappearing into blackness. In Arthur Jafa's "Tree", the storyboard shows single frames from his DVD projection giving the impression of the tree in movement as well as frozen in time.



The catalog cover was printed using metallic bronze ink. The exhibition title, "Mystic", appears in small and intentionally blurred type. This simple, clean cover design produces an otherworldly effect that is hard to ignore.

The catalog also contains David D. Nolta's insightful essay entitled "Art the Medium (Death the Large)" illustrated with a photograph by Abelardo Morrell.

I would like to thank Jeffrey Keough, Lisa Tung and Alexia de Los Reyes for the opportunity to design the catalog and for their insight and support.