Join Dirk+Weiss and AIGA Boston at Pecha Kucha Night. July 22, 1009 @ 6:30pm. The goal of these events is to talk about ‘our’ design work, in a setting that is comfortable and not pretentious. Come support all the speakers and Dirk+Weiss at this open forum type event. Each speaker is given 6min and 40seconds to talk about what they do as a creative professional.
Our topic will include designing for now and the power of interconnecting design concepts with smart technology. For more information: http://www.pecha-kucha.org/cities/boston
What is Pecha Kutcha?
“Pecha Kucha (which is Japanese for the sound of conversation) has tapped into a demand for a forum in which creative work can be easily and informally shown, without having to rent a gallery or chat up a magazine editor. This is a† demand that seems to be global – as Pecha Kucha Night, without any pushing, has spread virally to over 100 cities across the world. Find a location and join the conversation.”
Every two years, the AIGA has it’s Best of New England design competition. If you have been following our updates (or love/hate Helvetica) you probably have seen our project Anyone Can Swiss. Well, we can now call Anyone Can Swiss “Award Winning”.
That’s right, Dirk+Weiss has won a Best of New England (BoNE) award for outstanding design. The BoNE awards only go out the best New England designers with ‘knock your socks off’ work. Admittedly, the website for Anyone Can Swiss is not your typical graphic design project, but somehow, it felt right at home inside a graphic design competition.
Overall, we feel the judges connected to the bigger picture, and maybe even had a little fun with the project. That’s exactly what we wanted. Anyone Can Swiss is not just a “Perfect Helvetica Poster Generator”, it is a social experiment for graphic designers. Sure it pushes a few buttons, and causes some to ask “is this a joke? or serious?”. That’s the whole idea: contemplation and discourse.
We would like to thank the AIGA BoNE Show Judges and AIGA Boston for taking the time consider Anyone Can Swiss as an award winning design project, and creating an opportunity for us here a Dirk+Weiss to promote what we do to the greater design community.
Now what? Well, check out our Anyone Can Swiss iPhone app. Why the iPhone? We ask simply, why just be on the web, when you can be on the web and mobile? And we feel it is a safe assumption that many of the 40,000,000 iPhone users in the US are indeed, graphic designers.
Over at Convince and Convert, owner Jason Baer expresses his wealth of knowledge of social media and the trends that apply. His theories apply greatly to what we do here at Dirk+Weiss, including viral online marketing and return on investment.
In this video, Jason is speaking about how people use the web now, and mentions some stats from an “internet usage” study that was released. Always great to see how Jasons knowledge aligns with our practice and usage of marketing across social networks.
Very interesting: “Is social media being used more for communication or entertainment or both?”
Journalists still complaining about how technology and social networks are killing print news? Newspapers will try to convince you of the old tale that says “If it’s in print, its real”. Well this story out of Ireleand is one for the papers (or is it?!).
Shane Fitzgerald is a senior studying sociology and economics at University College in Dublin Ireleand. Shane carefully crafted a quote of a recently dead musician on the musicians Wikipedia page. The quote was indeed fictitious, and was printed in prominent newspapers in England, India, USA and down under in Australia. A few weeks after his posting, he notified the newspapers that the quote was a fictitious fabrication, and part of his studies.
So what have we learned? People will sacrifice exact information for instant news, if not viral news. This is much the reason why newspapers are in the state they are currently in.
Everyone uses Wikipedia, including newspaper journalists.
Apparently, long time software developers are finally making bank by creating one of those $1.99 iPhone apps. I have now read countless articles about struggling software companies who are giving up their pc/mac box development, for the iPhone platform.
So what’s in an iPhone app? Well, from what we can see, besides some code and graphics, there is an underlying philosophy that has put up the white flag to proprietary software piracy. Software companies have, and are beginning to understand that there is no bringing down piracy. The old mentality and business model of “big box, big software, big price” has been eradicated by open, collaborative development, and the iPhone has brought the same software development strategy to a mobile and light weight, if not viral stage.
Lets do a quick calculation for an example iPhone app’s annual revenue:
200 downloads/day x 1.99/download x 365 Days = $145,270!
Now that’s the way to make a six figure salary.
Stay tuned for the Anyone Can Swiss iPhone app!!
Above: Microsoft’s Surface Interface. Proprietary madness. Lets go open-source and make it available to everyone!
In typical Dirk+Weiss fashion, we are building an interface for this years 2009 AIGA BoNE Show. This kiosk combines projection and a touch input device, powered by a custom software interface.
The purpose of this kiosk is to showcase the website winners of this years Best of New England design competition. Our goal is to create an interface that is not only well designed, but extremely intuitive.
The next generation of software interface is well, interface-less. Menu’s are going away and being replaced by hand gestures and organic content design. Thanks to a generous donation from TechSuperpowers in Boston, we have access to a MacMini and other various components for hardware. Come by the show in June, to check it out!
AIGA BoNE Show 2009 Info >>
Go ahead, click around. This is our “Transparent Relaunch” of the Dirk+Weiss Brand. Countless times we have been asked, “what is it you do exactly?” The typical response you may hear is “we are a design and technology firm”.
And we still are, but different.
After some great brainstorming and critically mapping of our original business model, it became instantly clear that what we were doing for our clients was more than just design and programming, and was more in the Marketing arena. We were always trying to find what field exactly uses graphic design and technology combined. Our solution was to re-structure our business model and brand as a fully capable, creative marketing agency.
If you follow our blog, you know that we know, transparency is king. Just like our advice we give to our clients, we applied to Dirk+Weiss. The cases are real, the videos are real, results are quantifiable and we can help make you money. Enjoy.
This past Thursday there was another AIGA “meet and drink” event in Cambridge, MA. These events are great opportunities to network and see some fellow designer buds. I was anticipating this one to be no different than any of the other countless “AFTA’s” I have attended, but I must say, this time the word FREE was buzzing in the air.
Usually when I talk about free things, its mainly Open Source software or great places to learn technology for free. But in this case, free refers to “Freelance”. Out of all the people I talked to (about 12 in 2.5hrs), five have either quit their job or got laid off, and are starting to freelance and independent contract regularly. Of course, Freelancing is not free, you will get paid, but what a connection.
This trend is just one of the clear examples I can see, that proves that the web is still in an infant stage, and efficient technology drives design. Freelancing and independent contracting gigs are out there, lots of them. Business’ still need designers, just with no strings (salary, benefits, etc.) attached. What is a pension anyway?
I am excited to see that designers are getting themselves out there. By using social media and Open Source technology, plus some smart branding, you can make a business for yourself. Set up your website to give the user instant gratification; the faster the better.
In this economic climate, if you can deliver good, efficient design, companies will hire you. They just want to know that you can make it work.
This past Saturday, I attended the annual AIGA Student Portfolio Review at MassArt, Boston.
The event started with all the reviewers, corralled, anticipating and chit-chatting amongst each other about what they do and what they expect to see. As the doors opened, the sight of all the students, looking nice and nervous at the same time, was quite exhilarating. It reminded me of a time not to long ago, when I was on their side of the table.
As I went from person to person, looking at posters, books, and corporate stationery, I quickly realized that the most needed advice to the students, was that of the so-called “Big-Picture”. There were obvious signs that the students have diligently practiced their craft; typography was tight and craft was clean. So after seeing this, I began to tell the students to relax, and that I was not there to nit-pick about un-kerned 12 point type.
I was very interested in hearing what the plans were for these students post-graduation. Where would they take their design skills? A job? Graduate Program? Freelance?
Because of the economy, most students had no idea what was in store next. They did understand however, how important it is to create valuable connections not only to other designers, but companies as well.
I felt I was able to provide some insight to the value of creating connections, and some of the methods that connections can be made. The first buzz word to arise is “Facebook”, then “Twitter”, then the common phrase “I need a website, but don’t want to learn Dreamweaver.” When I here this, I smile politely, and recommend a more realistic approach that is content management based. I explain that HTML websites are OK at best, and then go on to explain the power and simplicity of systems like Wordpress and Indexhibit. Their eyes go wide.
One student in particular, I found was looking for the Big Picture talk. Michael Deal is a design student who loves information graphics and the Beatles.
He found in his design class, while working on an information graphics project, that lots of connections can be made withing a particular subject. He told me quite a few times, that he wished he had an entire class about this subject (information design).
We talked for quite some time about how he could apply his skills in design to not just posters of information, but to business models, products, and events. Probably the best conversation about design happening in the room.
These students at the MassArt Review seemed like fast paced, social network savvy individuals who seem satisfied with their schooling. I could see the wanting though, to take on not just design projects, but larger goals. Overall, a feeling I got from many of the students: “I can do graphic design…now what? How do I make an impact?”
I guess my last bit of advice here would be: Branch out, make connections to what ever can help you move forward. Remember, regular people are your clients, continually get to know the world they live in, and you will be fine.
Michael Deal - "Beatles Citing Beatles"
Last night’s Hugh Dubberly lecuter @ MassArt was fascintating, inspirational, and a bit exhausting.
Entitled: “Design in the Age of Biology”, Hugh covers his thesis that explains how the ideas and principles of design have moved from mechanical to organic, and object to system. Many points (and charts) show how the trends of technology movements influence designers and the products they make.
In terms of technology, the Open Source software movement is one example of his theory. The old dev model was to have software be proprietary, with big conglomerates holding all the cards. The new dev model, that is proven to work, is to allow software to be developed by an unlimited community of developers. This creates faster more efficient development, as it uses the “from the ground-up” model instead of “from the top-down”. In short, let the users design the software, for free.
The second point that seemed to stick out in my mind was the “then and now” of the designers role. There is a transition going on now for designers. Graphic designers especially, seem to be in the thick of it. Before graphic designers, there were printers who set type. Then graphic design became what it is/was in the 20th century, a slew of “Lone-Gunman” designers, who (are expected to) hold all the cards for the client. Now, a transition is happening again. The days of the “Lone-Gunman” are over. Designers can produce a stronger, more efficient product for their client if collaboration is encouraged and implemented.
Clients expect the designer to be at maximum efficiency. The internet, social media, and the speed of information access set the standards for designers to operate in.
“In the first part of the 20th century, there were great circus posters in Poland. Go to Poland, and see. But now, designing the poster is just not enough. Designers are expected to design an entire circus. Oh yea, and a poster to advertise the show.”
-Nathan Felde, Chair of the AIB Design Department, Boston.
From www.dubberly.com
