Inspiration
A quote that I’ve just come across:
What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?
I think that’s such an interesting question that graphic design on many occasions fails to answer. So much design follows trends instead of starting one. No one person can be blamed for wanting to look like something else, however. Afterall, we as a society are comfortable with the familiar, while casting out anything that can be considered unusual. You only have to look at the likes of the London 2012 logo to see how that was unwelcomed by the world.
It’s hard to be different because it’s scary being different. The more you stray from the realms of familiarity, the less people there are to give you advice on how to progress because if they’ve never done it, how are they going to help you? And if they’ve never done what you’re trying to do, they’ll always want to direct you down a path on which they have an understanding. But just because someone isn’t there to point you in a (right or wrong) direction, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t always do it regardless. At the worst, it’s a failed experiment, giving you valuable lessons for whatever project you work on next and at best, you design something that leads the rest of the industry, seperating you from those who are content just to follow.
Shelby White | January 30, 2009 | 4:52 am
Good insight. I think it takes time to be different. Most designers are exposed early in their life to so much material that the natural instinct is to create something to what they’ve seen in the past. It takes time to be creative, with the exception of some individuals that may have been exposed in a different way when they were young, giving them a different outlook that the majority of others didn’t have.
My first take on the 2012 London logo was that it was horrid. I haven’t seen the logo again until now––I like. The logo comes across as art, and when I think of the Olympics, I think of extroardinarly different people, much like artists of their trade.
Great post!
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