Sunday 9 January 2011

Clients

When projects go wrong, designers tend to blame their clients. But its usually designers who are to blame. Yes, there are bad clients, but they are often turned into bad clients by designers treating them badly. Designers get the clients they deserve - the good, the bad and the indifferent.

The only way to build these great designer-client relationships is to create them ourselves. We cant rely on our clients to do it. The onus is on us to make these equal partnerships happen. But how do we do this? In a word: empathy. Empathy is a great attribute for a designer: it provides understanding and objectivity.

And just when we think we've learnt how to deal with clients, we find one who doesn't fit our game plan. In truth, all we ever learn to do is handle a particular client. When another comes along, we have to start all over again. Clients can be capricious. They can be fickle and indecisive. This is a hard thing to contend with. But no one ever escapes it.

Doing all the dull stuff like written quotes, establishing payment terms and agreeing schedules is essential. Even when clients are casual and relaxed it is vital to maintain professional standards. When we complain that clients don't treat us like 'professionals' it is usually because we haven't behaved professionally.

Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

Job Bags

Job-bag is a secure, intelligent resource solution for sharing media and marketing assets across all platforms anywhere in the world, twenty-four hours a day. Job-Bag empowers all members of management, sales, marketing and production without causing the usual bottle necks of busy design houses, marketing outlets and media ventures. No longer do you need to rummage through though traditional job bags in order to find copy, images, spreadsheets, word docs etc. Now all you need is a username and a login.

In Plain English...
Click a link from your website or intranet, and have full access to all your media assets, with the ability to upload/download and share files at the click of a mouse.

Job-bag is taking the grunt work out of what is killing business hours. What’s more it is a simple web browser interface not hidden by any computer mumbo jumbo.

Job-Bag’s foundation is an innate understanding of the needs of deadline-driven businesses where every minute counts, automated media asset repurposing gives publishers, advertising and marketing agencies, photographers and in-house marketing departments a true cost saving creative and competitive edge.

Job-Bag’s evolved by working with clients and understanding the need for a cost and time saving effective solution that not only reduces time, errors and servicing of assets, but also opens doorways to new revenue streams.


http://www.job-bag.co.uk/what.htm

Briefs

How a designer responds to a brief is the most important factor in determining the outcome of a project. Briefing documents need to be studied closely, yet following them slavishly is not always advisable. We should challenge bad briefs and dig deeper into good ones.

Although designers like to kick out at the restrictions in design briefs, the simple truth is that they need briefs like cars need fuel. yet a frequent complaint among clients is that designers ignore briefs. There are two reasons why clients say this. The first is that some designers do indeed ignore briefs and do what they want to do. The other - probably the more common - the reason is that most designers give clients better work than they want, and clients mistakenly see this as a failure to follow the brief.

Although a brief normally arrives as a document, its more important aspect is the person, or persons, who issued it. In other words, a brief isn't just a brief, its a piece of communication from a human being with thought, prejudices, fears and concerns, and its only by dealing with the human being 0 the brief's creator - that we can squeeze out its real essence. A good written brief is a prompt for a discussion more than a set of definitive instructions.

The AIGA defines a design brief as follows:
'A written explanation given by the client to the designer at the outset of a project. As the client, you are spelling out your objectives and expectations and defining a scope of work when you issue one. You're also committing to a concrete expression that can be revisited as a project moves forward. Its an honest way to keep everyone honest. If the brief raises questions, all the better. Questions early are better than questions late.'

Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

Account Handlers

Many design groups use account handlers. Some account handlers do a good job, but in most cases account handling leads to clients being divorced from the creative process and imagining that design is an invisible procedure. When this happens, problems ensue.


Forcing clients to deal with account handlers downgrades the creative process and turns it into a mess of indecision and rejection. There's nothing easier for a client than rejecting or brainlessly modifying work when someone with no personal stake in the project is charged with presenting it. It's much harder to tell a designer, or someone intimately involved with the creative production of a piece of work, that their efforts are rejected. Of course, this is why clients prefer to deal with account handlers; they can be bullied.

Furthermore, account handlers in agencies and big design groups often develop a greater loyalty to their clients than to their own creative teams. This is hardly surprising. They are encouraged to bond with their clients - thats their job. But clients sense this, and they rip creative work to pieces.

In the modern design studio everyone does the 'account handling', and every phone call, email, or meeting is an opportunity to 'look after clients'. For solo designers, the same applies. They spend half their time being a designer and the other half being an account handler - not to mention accountant, debt chaser, production controller, spellchecker, light-bulb changer and a dozen other roles. To put it as bluntly as possible - all designers have to learn to become account handlers all the time.

Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

Psychology

Adopting the correct frame of mind is vital. By frame of mind, i mean having the right attitude and managing your expectations. Don't assume you will walk into the first job you apply for (but don't assume you won't). Be positive, but expect setbacks - everyone has knock-backs at the outset of their careers, and how we deal with them determines how we develop as creative individuals and as human beings.

Don't be too lofty about where you should work. By all means be ambitious and aim high, but don't turn your nose up at opportunities that don't conform to your vision of the ideal job. Make it your mission to attend as many interviews as you can. Learn from each one. Find out what you are doing well and what you are doing badly. Ask the interviewers to tell you. Most of them will do this happily.

Finally, as a recent graduate you have an attribute that a designer with two years experience doesn't have: you cost less. Also, you will be willing to do many of the mundane things that someone with two years experience is less willing to do. So don't see yourself as disadvantaged. See yourself as possessing the precious quality most employers want: unrestrained enthusiasm and willingness.

Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

Presentation

When a designer's ideas are rejected it's usually because they have been presented badly, and not because they are bad ideas. Few skills are more important to the modern designer than the ability to present work. Considering the importance of presentations it's surprising we're not better at doing them.

Designers frequently imagine that presenting work is a trick- like walking on a high wire - which only certain people are able to do. It's seen as something alien, a skill not suited to introspective graphic designers. It's certainly true that it can be effective to introduce a level on theatricality and performance into presentations. But its not necessary. Presentation is a matter of simple logic and common sense, and is one of the most fundamental skills a designer needs to acquire.

The way you present your work and yourself is more important than the work you show. No matter how good it is, if you present it sloppily, or present yourself sloppily, you will struggle to find employment. But if you do it well, the seemingly insurmountable mountain of landing a first job becomes a stroll on the beach.

To sum up: Make your presentation as good as you can. Be prepared to change it after two or three interviews if it's not getting a good response. And adopt a confident but unprejudiced view about any opportunities that present themselves.

Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

Grids


When detractors attack graphic design - Swiss design in particular - they point out that visual expression based on mathematical grids must be dull and inexpressive. In fact, the opposite is true. Grids means freedom. And what's more, artists have always known this.

Josef Muller-Brockmann wrote: 'The reduction of the number of visual elements used and their incorporation in a grid system creates a sense of compact planning, intelligibility and clarity and suggests orderliness of design. This orderliness adds credibility to the information and induces confidence. The grid determines the constant dimensions of space. There is virtually no limit to the number of grid divisions. It may be said in general that every piece of work must be studied very carefully so as to arrive at the specific grid network corresponding to its requirements.'

A grid is fundamentally about spatial relationships. Every spatial relationship needs to be considered. Putting together the internal bracing of a layout is one of the great joys of design, and once all the relationships are in place - arrived at through examination of all the factors involved - we are free to take as many liberties with the grid as possible.

For many clients, grids have become templates. They are highly usable, idiot-proof systems that allow anyone to lay out text and images. The result is the death of the notion of the grid as a living breathing structure, and the establishment of the idea of the grid as a rigid structure that anything can be poured into.

Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

A lesson on typography

Typography

At the heart of typography is a massive paradox: the hallmark of good typography is that it should go unnoticed, yet there has never been more demand for the sort of typography that grabs the reader's attention and excites the retina. Does this mean typography is the new illustration?

Typography is a pretty reliable guide to a nation's character. Typography in Tokyo is feverish and urgent; typography in rural France is languid and traditional; Dutch typography is intellectual and restrained; typography in the United States is strident and omnipresent.

It is not only a sense of place and nationality that can be conveyed through typography. So recognisable is its footprint that entire eras can be defined in a few stray letterforms. All we need is a few characters of an Art Deco font and we are propelled back to the 1930s.

We live in a world where communication is conducted on many levels, and typography - its style, size and colour - is one of the ways in which we convey added 'meaning'. Its no longer enough for type to be type. It has to impart resonance and depth to the messages it is delivering. We see this most clearly in brand names that have no obvious meaning. How we identify these 'brands' is through the typographic rendition of the name; change the type, and the brand 'value' evaporates. this makes type a powerful force in the modern brand economy.

Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

Art Direction

Art direction is generally considered to be the act of giving visual expression to an idea with the help of others, in roughly the same way that a film director 'directs' a film using both technical and creative collaborators. But what makes a good art director?

As a job description, art direction still flourishes in advertising, but also in fashion and in magazine publishing. It is also used in movie-making to describe a slightly different activity. In advertising it means directing the appearance of communications of all kinds - press advertisements, television commercials, websites and digital messages. In graphic design, a good art director moulds a palette of visual and verbal elements into a coherent whole. Typically, these elements might include photography, retouching, typography and specialist skills such as 3-D modelling, animation, audio: creating the design might also entail casting, prop hire, model making and location finding. But the one defining characteristic is that art direction always involves directing other people.

To be a good art director, three attributes are essential:

A clear vision of the final outcome.

A working knowledge of the various technical disciplines involved in creating a successful result.

An ability to inspire a sense of joint authorship.



Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

Copyright


Few topics have greater potential for disaster than copyright. Designers and clients knowingly and unknowingly infringe someone's rights every day. Copyright is a minefield but few of us know where the mines are buried. How do we avoid being blown up?

The United States Copyright office defines copyright as a 'form of protection provided by the laws of the United States to the authors of "original works of authorship", including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works'. Significantly, this definition doesn't mention design. Copyright in relation to design is describe by the AIGA in its online Guide to Copyright as defining 'the ownership of work created by a designer'.

The AIGA guide notes that 'most graphic design should be copyrightable'. It states that, 'Basic geometric shapes, such as squares and circles, are not copyrightable, but artistic combinations of these shapes can be copyrighted. Typeface designs are also excluded from being copyrightable.'

Graphic Design: A Users Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

Saturday 8 January 2011

Paper


Specifying paper used to be fun. Today, choosing paper stock involves juggling issues relating to cost, technical matters and sustainability, and that's before we even start thinking about appearance and texture, or the role of electric paper.

Firstly you have to think about the surface of the paper. The general rule would be that the smoother the paper the better it would hold an image. If you decide that a coated stock is going to be best for your project, it's worth considering the variety of coated stocks that are available, and the effect they will have on your images.

Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

Colour


Color is everywhere and conveys a message even if we don't realize it. While this message can vary by culture it pays to know what colors "say" in your own corner of the universe, and even what color means to your target market.

If you don't think that color speaks just complete this sentence, "red means ---- and green means ?" even a child will know what red means stop and green means go. If such simple ideas work for all of a given culture or market what could it mean to the graphic design of your website, brochure, or product if you know some of this information.

First let's start with the basics. The color wheel. We've all seen it. The color wheel shows the basic colors, each wheel is different in how many shades of each color is shown, but they are essentially the same.

Color harmony, colors that go together well. These will be colors that are next door to each other on the color wheel. Such as blue and green. In reference to clothes these colors match each other. Instinctively most of us know which colors go together when we dress ourselves every morning.

Color complements, colors that set each other off, they complement each other. These are colors that are opposite on the color wheel. Such as blue and orange.

Color depth, colors can recede or jump forward. Remember that some colors seem to fall back such as blue, black, dark green, and brown. Other colors will seem to step forward such as white, yellow, red, and orange. This is why if you have a bright orange background it may seem to fight with any text or images that you place on it. The orange will always seem to move forward.

Now you have the basics so let's go further. Just because to colors go together or complement each other doesn't mean that yo necessarily want to use them on your project. I opened this article with the meaning of colors now here is an example, keep in mind this is one example from western culture.

Color Survey: what respondents said colors mean to them.

  • Happy = Yellow
  • Inexpensive = Brown
  • Pure = White
  • Powerful = Red (tomato)
  • Good Luck = Green
  • Dependable = Blue
  • Good tasting = Red (tomato)
  • High Quality = Black
  • Dignity = Purple
  • Nausea = Green
  • Technology = Silver
  • Deity = White
  • Sexiness = Red (tomato)
  • Bad Luck = Black
  • Mourning = Black
  • Favorite color = Blue
  • Expensive = Gold
  • Least favorite color = Orange

So in designing your project it's important to know what colors mean. You can now see why a black back ground with green type would be bad, beyond being nearly impossible to read, if your target market thinks that black represents mourning and green makes them sick. There are exceptions to every rule of course.

So you may want to include some research in what colors mean to your target market. Colors that would get the attention of a teen would probably annoy an older person and the colors that appeal to the older person wouldn't get a second look from a young person.

Color may be one of the most overlooked aspects of design.


http://www.webdesign.org/web-design-basics/color-theory/graphic-design-using-color.12801.html


Commissioning Creatives

Design is increasingly a collaborative undertaking. This means that designers often have to commission other creative professionals. This is not easy and means that designers have to become a bit more like clients. We are rarely at our best when playing the role of client.

Let your creative suppliers know what you expect, but make sure you leave them space to do what they do. To use a cliche: treat them as you'd like to be treated yourself.

Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

Print Spec


PRINT SPEC TIPS

  • Does your project need to be this size or can it be smaller? A reduced format could save paper, ink, water, carbon emissions in distribution and it may even save money on postage.
  • Can you use lighter paper for your job? Avoid specifying heavier paper than is necessary. It may seem obvious, but 200gsm paper uses double the amount of wood fibre as 100gsm paper.
  • Talk to your printer to check paper size availability and press size before designing your product. Many materials are available in a limited range of sizes and so simply shaving off a few millimetres may dramatically reduce waste.
  • The most waste and cost-effective formats are A sizes, as all materials and printing presses are based around these.
  • If your product is likely to be around for some time, design it to be updateable.
  • Window envelopes cannot currently be recycled in the UK. Unless the windows have been cut/torn out, the envelopes will be removed from the waste paper when it is sorted. However, cellulose film for window envelopes is now available and although this is not recyclable, at least it will biodegrade in landfills.
  • Don’t print more copies than you need just because it’s not going to cost much more.
  • Make sure that the job has been proofed extremely carefully. This reduces the risk of a re-print or a job being pulled off the press halfway through.
  • Keeping ink coverage to a minimum reduces the amount of environmentally damaging ink used and makes your product easier to recycle.

Think about the timings, and try to plan as far in advance as possible:

  • Book time with your printer, and try to get quantities and paper agreed well in advance to stop emergency transport of materials, especially if buying special order recycled paper.
  • Plan well for grouped, low cost deliveries.

BINDING

The binding you choose can make your product pretty toxic and can also affect the recyclability of your design.

The most environmentally friendly method is wire stitching as staples can be easily removed during the recycling process and then recycled themselves. Singer sewing is not as good due to the cotton thread being more difficult to remove. The same goes for comb and wire-o bindings.

Glue is really bad news for recycling and can be pretty toxic, usually containing VOC-releasing solvents (see glossary).

FINISHES AND INKS

Foil blocking

These are polyester film coatings, many containing toxic chemicals and heavy metals. Foil blocking may make your product unrecyclable as it doesn't break down in the de-inking process.

Lamination

This can render a product unrecyclable and un-biodegradable and the lamination process emits high levels of VOCs. A recent study states that single sided lamination is recyclable though, providing it is not laminated with wax or latex. There are cellulose (wood-based) alternatives but these can be difficult to remove in the recycling process, so you might want to avoid lamination if your product is likely to have a short shelf life.

UV varnishes

UV varnishes are mineral-oil based, they contain solvents, the process uses a lot of energy, and as if that wasn’t enough, they cause problems for the recycling process. If you still want to use a varnish, go for aqueous (water based) coatings instead. They come in matt and gloss finishes – the gloss is pretty shiny although not as shiny as UV varnish.

Vegetable oil based inks

Most sheet-fed inks are now vegetable-oil instead of petroleum-oil based (with the exception of fluorescents and most metallics), typically containing three parts linseed to one part soya oil. By using vegetable-oil based inks you're reducing worker and environmental health hazards and avoiding use of a non-renewable resource.

However, there has been much controversy surrounding the huge expansion of the worldwide soya industry, so this is not a black and white issue. Read more

Heatset web inks still contain 30-35% mineral (petroleum) oil, emitting low levels of VOCs as they dry and can result in environmental and worker health hazards. Coldset web inks also contain a small amount of mineral oil.

Some inks go one step further by reducing the levels of environmentally damaging drying catalysts such as cobalt. However, this means that they dry more slowly than conventional inks.

Fluorescent colours

Unfortunately these are not available as vegetable-oil based inks.

Metallics

Metallics have traditionally only been available as petroleum based inks, but a vegetable-oil version has just come onto the market so ask your printer if they're using these yet.


http://www.lovelyasatree.com/printspec.htm

Preparation

Job hunting begins with research. Waiting for the perfect job usually entails a long and ultimately disappointing wait. Designers have to prepare. There are many ways to find out about jobs. Often opportunities come through personal recommendations, which means it is essential to maintain a network of contacts. It also helps to ask around to see whether anyone knows about vacancies. jobs are advertised in design magazines, on design groups' websites and on online recruitment sites. Signing up with a professional recruitment firm is also an option.

Designers should begin by finding the names of studios and firms they'd like to work for - but what they mustn't do is approach only the cool studios. These are inundated with applications. Be smart and choose places that are likely to hire people. How do you know whether studios hire? Well, you can try the direct approach and call them up and ask them. But you can also look for clues. Do you know anyone who has worked for them? The more research you do, the more likely your chance of being granted an interview.

Once targets have been identified you need to find out everything you can about them. Turning up for an interview knowing nothing about a prospective employer is like turning up with a sticker on your forehead saying, 'Don't hire me'. It is also imperative to find the names of the people responsible for hiring. If this information isn't on a studio's website, call them up and ask who you should send your CV to. Most studios will happily provide this information.

Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

Finding a First Job

"Emerging into the job market is the most daunting moment in a young designers life. But although landing a first job is tough, there are many simple rules to make it easier, and its amazing to see how many designers don't bother with these basic strategies."

Adrian Shaughnessy

Students ask how they can get jobs when every advertised vacancy seems to demand at least two years' experience. Well, when studios say they want two years' experience they don't really mean it. What they mean is they want someone good. If you are good enough, two years doesn't mean two years; its code for no second-rate designers. So the first rule of job hunting is don't make yourself appear second-rate.

The second rule of job hunting is : spare a thought for the employers and give them a helping hand. At the point in the year when graduates start hitting the employment trail, letters start appearing in the design press from disgruntled job seekers complaining about the callous way studios and employers treat potential recruits. These letters are followed by letters from disgruntled employers complaining about the poor level of preparation they find among graduates. If an employer has to struggle to see the potential in a recruit, the recruit is falling a the first hurdle.

For most of the graduates who flood the market each year, finding a job is a daunting task. But the good new is that it needn't be. Doing it properly is easy. So easy, in fact, that its remarkable it is ever done badly. Conveniently, they all begin with the letter P - they are preparation, presentation and psychology.

Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy.

Portfolio


"The process of impressing employers or clients with our design skills begins with the design of our portfolios. When we show them we are not only judged on the content, but also on the way we have designed them. A badly designed portfolio sends out a message: bad designer"

Adrian Shaughnessy

For designers looking for employment, and for studios and individuals trying to impress clients and win assignments, it is essential to have a portfolio of work. There are two important aspects to portfolios. The first is the actual physical receptacle we use to show our work, and the second is the methodology we employ to visually present the work within our portfolios. We need to get both aspects right. We can spend a small fortune on a beautiful custom-made steel flight case, but if the work inside is poorly presented we might as well put it in a supermarket carrier bag.

Today, portfolios are less and less likely to be physical artefacts. Since many presentations will involve web design, interactive elements and motion graphics, it is essential to be able to make some sort of screen-based presentation. Presentations made on laptops or via data projectors can be highly effective. Somebody recently showed me their work on an Apple iTouch. Novelty value: high. Effectiveness: low. Personally, my favourite way to make a formal presentation is to use a data projector, with printed samples as back-up. These smart little machines are cheap and easy to transport, and when hooked up to a laptop they allow designers to make sophisticated audiovisual presentations. However, it's always advisable to check to see whether a presentation with a projector is possible.

The most important rule to remember when showing work is to show it in context. Clients rarely care about the formal aspects of a design, but they do care about its effectiveness. Of course it is not always possible but we should always attempt to show context - even if it means mocking it up, in the same way that architects make lifelike models of their buildings to show their 'reality'. Doing this is an enormous benefit.


Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy

Writing a C.V

Targeting
Employers do not have the time to spare working out what your CV is trying to tell them. You must communicate clearly and concisely the information that you wish to convey about yourself that will be of relevance to them. As a potential employee you are far more attractive if you can convince the employer that you have the qualities they require. Think about what particular employers want, and how you fit the bill. Problem solving is very important in all career areas. Define your problem solving skills relating them, as far as possible, to your job target. Convince the employer that you will be an asset to their company. With this in mind, prepare lists of your skills and achievements. They will normally cover the following areas:
    • Education and qualifications- concentrating on GCSE and beyond.
    • Work experience- think about the skills you needed for, and gained from, these posts. Transmit a sense of achievement, say what you accomplished in your work. Show evidence of any leadership skills you used. Skills used / gained may be professional, technical and personal.
    • Extra-curricular activities- positions of responsibility, membership of a sports team. Use your interests to say something of interest about yourself. It should be information with a purpose.
    • General skills- for example a driving licence, foreign language skills, and increasingly computer skills.
Planning and Drafting
Now you've worked out what you've got to offer, it's time to think about how to present it. This is crucial to the impact and success of your CV. Bear in mind the following:
    • Leave out any irrelevant material.
    • Avoid wordy CVs- make your points concisely. You should use the minimum amount of words to make the maximum impact.
    • Avoid "flowery phrases"- make sure the words you use imply action and decisiveness.
    • Make sure your grammar and spelling are correct.
    • Make sure the CV is fairly short- many people recommend a one side CV. Bear in mind an employer can quickly lose interest.
You must also select a format for your CV. Most students arrange their CV chronologically, but there are other options. Skill profile CVs can help emphasise particular skills that you possess. Within categories such as communication, leadership or initiative you show how your experience demonstrates these skills. This can be a useful method for those with more patchy work experience. Try different formats and see which "sells" you the best.

Editing
Do not expect to produce a wonderful CV at your first attempt. You will need to make a few drafts. Each should be an improvement on the last. Be critical- aim to end up with a CV that is easy to read, looks attractive and communicates distinct benefits to a prospective employer. There are a few simple steps to follow:
    • Keep rewriting until you are satisfied.
    • Check your spelling and grammar.
    • Check again for unnecessary material- for example putting "references on request" can save you space.
    • Show your CV to someone whose advice you trust and listen to what they have to say- welcome constructive criticism.
    • Print your CV using a laser printer on good quality paper.
Writing a Covering Letter
Now you've put together a strong CV, you need an equally strong covering letter to convince the employer to look closely at your carefully crafted CV.
    • The covering letter must be tailored to each job opportunity and individual company. It personalises your approach to companies.
    • Address the letter to the particular person with whom you wish to have an interview. ( Relate the letter to the specific needs of the company, and refer to particular skills in your CV that are of relevance. This will probably mean doing a little research into the employer, and looking back at the job vacancy advertisement.
    • As with your CV a letter should be brief, relevant, easy to read, with the spelling and grammar carefully checked.


http://www.europa-pages.com/jobs/cv.html



Employment

"As if learning to be a designer wasn't hard enough, we then have to find employment. Business gurus tell us the job is dead. Finding employment has become harder than ever. Yet designers are better equipped to deal with the new world of work than most." Adrian Shaughnessy.

To be successful, a designer needs empathy and egotism. If we have empathy we will always find clients willing to employ us. But if we can combine empathy with a bit of stubborn inner conviction, our work will be richer and more effective. It will be richer and more effective because it will have the stamp of confidence and personal commitment. You can tell the work that doesn't have these ingredients. It is bland and formulaic - or, to put it another way, it is work that is drowning empathy.

Graphic Design: A User's Manual by Adrian Shaughnessy.