Paul Rand

This Video is making the rounds on design blogs today (DF) (SM)

It’s a powerful testament to the impact that design can have on a company, and a person. As designers, we all appreciate seeing a client who is moved by the process, and values it’s outcome proportionally. It’s really neat to see Steve Jobs, a person whose individual taste has resurrected Apple, talk about the process of being a client.

What’s probably most interesting is hearing about Rand’s approach. It’s that marriage of art and business that makes truly great design.

Paul Rand owned simplicity. Here’s a few of examples: (and don’t hold Enron against him)

Simplicity

Ask a chef what their favorite flavors are, and they will tell you about soft pasta with butter. They will tell you about a perfectly roast piece of beef. You’ll be hard pressed to hear about complex layered dishes. The experts tend to find pleasure in the smallest of details.

If you talk to people at the height of their profession, they will without fail have tastes humbler than you would imagine. It’s the progression of any art that eventually finds itself most happy in spare elements, and clever arrangement. The subtlety is the magic.

It’s true of graphic design as well. The designs that stand the test of time have a deft handling of simple elements. They speak simply, and truthfully.

A few quotes on the value of simplicity (From Wikipedia)

“Things should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” ‚Albert Einstein (1879‚1955)
“You can always recognize truth by its beauty and simplicity.” ‚Richard Feynman (1918‚1988)
“Our lives are frittered away by detail; simplify, simplify.” ‚Henry David Thoreau (1817‚1862)
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” ‚Leonardo da Vinci (1452‚1519)
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” ‚Antoine de Saint-Exupery

And a few examples of backwards progress:

Accepting Change (via 43f )

All those moving parts…

Especially like the “oiling the scroll bar” scene.

via Swiss Miss

New website launched – Millennium Concepts

We always say that website building is about story telling. When you think about large, growing aviation companies, you might think you already know the story… In the case of Millennium you don’t. They’ve had seemingly meteoric growth over the last decade. When you grow as fast as they have, advertising is necessarily the last thing on your mind.

It’s at a time like this when a smart company begins to make a distinction between advertising and branding. Advertising is what you do when you need more work. Branding is how you command higher rates, and keep the business you do have. Both of them rely on each-other, and the line can be blurry in some cases. The important thing to realize is that you ARE branding yourself whether you know it or not.. Advertising happens on purpose, but branding can be an accident.

When Millennium made the conscious decision to catch their breath and tell their story, we were happy they chose us to work with them. With the help of Franson Consulting (portfolio)we put together a brand new website for Millennium that launched today. It has interactive flash, and lots of css and javascipt; but the technology is just a tool. The important thing about the new Millennium site is that it authoritatively projects their new brand and tells their story purposefully.

Congratulations Millennium! We hope the next decade is as successful as the last.

See the new Millennium website

Keming = bad kerning

It’s not everyday that someone invents a brand new typography term. (The word “keming” looks like the word “kerning” with bad kerning applied.)

http://www.ironicsans.com/2008/02/idea_a_new_typography_term.html