The colours in fast food restaurants isn't all as it seems.

 

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Music and links from this episode

7-La hache et le canoë by Pousse Mousse

4-Roulé-boulé-boulé by Pousse Mousse

Dans la batterie solo by Frederic Lardon feat Laura Palmée

Line-by-line notes

As I’m in the marketing game

I see lots of things in a different way

When you’re in marketing

Or when you’re a designer

You don’t take anything at face value

My episode yesterday about Photoshop discussed that a little bit

But today, I want to focus on something else that has hidden meanings

Fast food

This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

Let’s start with something really basic

And something that you won’t even think about consciously

That’s colour

Obviously, everything has a particular colour

When I spoke about political parties in episodes 145 and 144,

I talked about colour a lot

And the meaning of colour

In politics, red means a socialist/left leaning party, almost exclusively around the world

And blue means the opposite

I think Those two things, just taken by themselves,

Are pretty fascinating

Before you even see anything else, a logo, words, anything

The colour of something is already influencing you

And beyond politics, the psychology behind colour goes even deeper than that

Believe or not

When you see a colour

Just the simple act of a colour bouncing off of your retina

The it being processed by your brain

This still starts to influence you, and do all kinds of things to your mood, your hunger levels, your priorities

It’s really quite crazy when you think about it

And maybe just a little bit creepy

Fast food companies are the absolute masters at using colour to great influencing effect

Let’s take the colour red again

It’s been proven that the colour red stimulates appetite

That’s why so many fast food logos

Burger King, McDonalds, KFC

Are all predominantly red

And you have not a single say on how the colour red influences you

Because it’s programmed into your brain already

And it’s programmed to instinctually think things when presented with stimuli

Red and yellow used together, as they so often are in fast food restaurants, represents speed

And also, yellow is one of the most visible colours you can choose at any time of day, but especially in daylight, which is why McDonalds chose it for their giant M arches all around the globe

And because red and yellow has become so well known in fast food

Any other fast food places that open also pick these colours

Perpetuating the standard that fast food restaurants should be red and yellow

And as more and more fast food restaurants pop up using these colours

The more you associate red and yellow with fast food

It’s genius really

One other point that’s interesting though

Is how a lot of McDonalds have started implementing the colour green in their restaurants now

I’m not sure if it’s a worldwide thing, but this is a thing in the UK

They haven’t picked a garish green, they’ve picked a dark olive green

An earthy green

And this gives McDonalds immediately a much different impression

They’ve also upgraded to wooden tables and benches in a lot of their restaurants too

It gives off lots of new impressions of McDonalds

Mainly around quality

It makes you think about natural foods, and the environment

Lots of natural foods and vegetarian products use dark greens in their packaging

And it’s no accident McDonalds have chosen this as they’ve also been banging the "100% chicken and beef” marketing drum

The green also makes McDonalds feel more adult

And maybe a little bit more like a place to relax like a coffee shop

And not just a crappy fast food restaurant for crappy fast food

When you think about colour theory and the psychology of colour

There isn’t many greater examples than looking at fast food joints.

Next time you see a colour in a restaurant

Have a think what it’s trying to say to you

Because I guarantee...

With Photoshop, and CGI, none of what you see is real anymore. I explain why.

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Music and links from this episode

Air Hockey Saloon by Chris Zabriskie

Nothing Like Captain Crunch by Broke For Free

The Wrong Way by Jazzer

Line-by-line notes

I recently watched a YouTube video about David Fincher

If you dont know him, he's a film director 

He's a pretty big deal 

He's directed things like Seven, Fight Club, The Social Network, and he was very influential in the making of Netflixs House of Cards

As I said, he's a big deal

The video I watched was about Fincher use of CGI in films for things that seemed, well, pointless

He'd use CGI for putting stuff on Cork boards in detective's rooms

And CGI for most of the blood spatters

He does it so he has absolute control over how the blood spatter looks

He doesn't have to rely on anything as boring as gravity and physics to ruin his shot

It got me thinking of the comparison in design

Or at least, Photoshopping things

And how nearly any photo you see these days

Just isn't real

This is AADA, and I'm Craig Burgess 

MUSIC

Let me ask you a question 

When you see a photo in a magazine or on a billboard, do you think it's real? 

It's a question you probably haven't considered much

What is real anyway? 

You'll see it, and see its a real human, so yeah, you probably think it's real

Or it's a real country side, so yeah, it's real

After all, why would anybody bother to fake it rather than just take a photo? 

It's sound logic

Surely it's easier to send a photographer to a location and take the photo? 

Because I'm a designer, I see these things differently. 

I know how hard it can be to get a perfect photo

I know how much some photos are altered, and sometimes completely changed

It isn't often you see a side by side comparison 

Between an original photo and the retouched one

Just like David Fincher using CGI for surprisingly small things, you'd be surprised how often photos are retouched or photoshopped as most people say

I've seen everything from composite photos made

Which is where an entirely new image is made from several other images

This is usually done for things like movie posters and car advertisements 

And everything down to using it for things swapping out skies

Or making the sun brighter, or darker 

Photoshop is a stupidly powerful tool

And it isn't always used for innocent purposee

I can't do an episode about photoshop without talking about models

Most models are photoshopped in every photo

Everything from simple things like removing pores from skin so skin looks smoother, to brightening eyes, removing wrinkles, 

And the most despicable of all

Changing a models shape

Making a model thinner

Taller

More muscly or more curvy, depending on the model and the purpose needed

These photos aren't anything like just taking a photo

These kind of photo shoots with models and I say that with lots of inverted commas

Are a two part process

Photos are taken with the model looking their best

The after that, the photos are given to photo retouchers to make them look extra specisl

Or to make the model look like they always do in magazines or movies

Photoshop has become such a powerful tool at retouching photos

Just as CGI is in movies now

That you just can't trust a single thing you see anymore 

And I'm saying that from somebody in the know. 

MUSIC

This was AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

Music featured in this episode was:

Air Hockey Saloon by Chris Zabriskie

Nothing Like Captain Crunch by Broke For Free

The Wrong Way by Jazzer

For a line by line rundown go over to https://www.askadesigneranything.com/ep147

Find me on Twitter at @craigburgess

I’m back tomorrow

Support Ask a Designer Anything

Ask a Designer Anything Website

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Leave me a review on iTunes

How do you use design to improve your business?

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Music and links from this episode

World Take by Drake Stafford

All Your Organs Get A Laugh by Mystery Mammal

Good Grief by Mystery Mammal

Line-by-line notes

After my last couple of episodes about politics

I’m leaving all that alone for a couple of episodes now

And I’m going to return to talking about some less controversial topics

Although…some people might see this one as a bit controversial

Especially if you’re in business

And you don’t really appreciate the value of design and design thinking

By the end of this episode, I think you might appreciate design a little bit more

Today I’m talking about how design can improve businesses

And the power that having a design first mentality can bring

This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

MUSIC

I’m going to start with a really overworked example of how design is used in business

But as much as it’s overworked, and overused to explain how powerful design and business can be

It’s a great example

Throughout the years, there’s been lots of businesses that have put design at the heart of their company, and made a lot of money from it

Think Braun, Dyson, Airbnb, and the king of it all, Apple

Apple is the example I want to start with

But first, let me explain what I mean by a business that puts design first

Essentially, they design amazing products, be them digital or physical, and spend all their effort designing those products

Or at least, outwardly to the public they appear to be doing this

They value design inside their business above almost everything else

And no how valuable a well-designed product is

To return to the Apple example

Think about the difference between a £300 Windows laptop, and a £1200 MacBook

The Windows laptop will feel cheap, usually made of plastic

It’ll start breaking away almost as soon as you buy it

And it’ll be full of bloatware and software you just don’t need

Compare that with the MacBook

As soon a you see the packaging, you know it’s a quality product

Apple even spend stupid amounts of care and attention on their packaging, to give you the exact impression they want you to feel

Quality

And then when you open it up, and feel that MacBook, you know you’re handling a quality product

It’s made of aluminium, feels premium, and you instantly know you’ve made the right choice

Even when you boot up the MacBook for the first time, the software is easy to use

It’s clean, functional, and guides you through the entire process

This has all come about because Apple care about the entire design experience

They care about designing and manufacturing really good products, and it shows in everything they do

And that’s because they value design above everything else

They value profits too, which is why they’re one of the largest companies in the world in terms of money made each year

But even if you don’t like Apple, and you hate their laptops and their phones and their stupid watches, you can’t deny they’re well-designed products

Jony Ive clearly has always wanted to leave a legacy around his products

And you get the impression that their current range of products will be looked back on in 20 years by product designers and still admired

Just like the original iMac is today

And other design-led companies are just like this too

Look at Dyson

James Dyson and everybody else at Dyson is utterly focused on making the best products possible, just like Apple

Even if you don’t buy one of their vacuum cleaners, fans or desk lights, you look at them and they’re just damn cool

You know they’re products that are at the top of their game

And one of the major advantages of all this design led thinking, and trying to produce the best products you can

Is that it makes your company unique in your marketplace, even if you’re making the same things as everybody else

And also… you make more money. Apple, Dyson, Braun… none of their products

In the lead up to the general election in the UK on June 8th, I'm doing a series of episodes about the design of UK political parties. Today's is about The Conservatives.

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Music and links from this episode

Siamo Tutti Antifascisti by Monplaisir

Radiasiya by Mystery Mammal

Line-by-line notes

Yesterday I spoke about the design and branding of the Labour party

I spoke about how they use the colour red, and where the red came from

And I went through their logos, and spoke about some of their reasoning behind their logos

I enjoyed doing it actually, a lot

And in the lead up to the june 8th general election in the UK

I’m doing a series of episodes analysing the history of the design and branding of the major UK political parties

There’s something I didn’t mention yesterday that I want to mention today

I’m trying to be as objective as I can with these episodes, as I’m not trying to influence your political opinion in any way

I’m purely looking at the political parties because their interesting, and not for any other reason

The only other reason I’m doing these episodes is so I can try and influence you to vote

It doesn’t matter who you vote for, but if you’re a UK citizen over 18 it’s really important you vote

Anyway, enough of that. Let’s get to looking at The Conservatives design and branding throughout the years

This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

MUSIC

Let’s start like we started last time, by looking at colour

As Labour is red, the Conservatives are almost the exact opposite: they’re blue

In really crude, childish terms, just the colour difference shows how different they are to other parties like Labour

It’s a little bit like when the bad guy and the good guy in a cartoon always wear different coloured clothes

It immediately and very obviously sets up a point of difference between the parties

And that colour… blue… you can’t really go wrong with that

You’ll see a million companies out there using the colour blue, because it’s a very safe colour

It’s a very popular colour with banks and other things to do with money, because it means safety, and security

It’s a colour that makes a lot of sense for a political party to use

Because it’s used extensively throughout businesses that you tend to trust

It almost automatically sets you up to trust a political party that is blue

Blue also, is nearly always used to indicate a political party with conservative views

But not always, because in america—as is a lot of other things—it’s the complete opposite

In America, the democrats are blue, and the republicans (the conservative party equivalent) are red

But america is the exception to the rule here

So for The Conservatives in the UK, the blue colour makes a lot of sense, both as a political colour and as any business picking a colour

It actually makes a little bit more sense than Labour’s choice of red, as red can be seen as quite a striking or negative colour to some people and cultures

Blue is just safe, almost universally, around the entire world

So that’s the colour blue, but what about that logo?

Well, the Conservatives logo is actually pretty interesting

I struggled to find the original logo of the Conservatives, but I found the one they used right back in the Thatcher era

The torch logo, introduced in the Thatcher era, is a really strong statement of intent

It isn’t like Labour’s original logo, that plays to the people

This logo, the torch logo, was grandiose, and dare I say even a little bit pompous

It reminds me of an olympics logo, or the logo for a Great Britain sports team

It feels strong, and powerful, and a logo that you can get behind and be proud to wear as a pin badge

In comparison to the Labour logo of the British rose, the British rose is a much more restrained and down to earth symbol

It doesn’t have the same weighty intent behind it, and such an overt sense of power embedded in it

Even the way that the hand is...

In the lead up to the general election in the UK on June 8th, I'm doing a series of episodes about the design of UK political parties. Today's is about The Conservatives.

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Music and links from this episode

Siamo Tutti Antifascisti by Monplaisir

Radiasiya by Mystery Mammal

Line-by-line notes

Yesterday I spoke about the design and branding of the Labour party

I spoke about how they use the colour red, and where the red came from

And I went through their logos, and spoke about some of their reasoning behind their logos

I enjoyed doing it actually, a lot

And in the lead up to the june 8th general election in the UK

I’m doing a series of episodes analysing the history of the design and branding of the major UK political parties

There’s something I didn’t mention yesterday that I want to mention today

I’m trying to be as objective as I can with these episodes, as I’m not trying to influence your political opinion in any way

I’m purely looking at the political parties because their interesting, and not for any other reason

The only other reason I’m doing these episodes is so I can try and influence you to vote

It doesn’t matter who you vote for, but if you’re a UK citizen over 18 it’s really important you vote

Anyway, enough of that. Let’s get to looking at The Conservatives design and branding throughout the years

This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

MUSIC

Let’s start like we started last time, by looking at colour

As Labour is red, the Conservatives are almost the exact opposite: they’re blue

In really crude, childish terms, just the colour difference shows how different they are to other parties like Labour

It’s a little bit like when the bad guy and the good guy in a cartoon always wear different coloured clothes

It immediately and very obviously sets up a point of difference between the parties

And that colour… blue… you can’t really go wrong with that

You’ll see a million companies out there using the colour blue, because it’s a very safe colour

It’s a very popular colour with banks and other things to do with money, because it means safety, and security

It’s a colour that makes a lot of sense for a political party to use

Because it’s used extensively throughout businesses that you tend to trust

It almost automatically sets you up to trust a political party that is blue

Blue also, is nearly always used to indicate a political party with conservative views

But not always, because in america—as is a lot of other things—it’s the complete opposite

In America, the democrats are blue, and the republicans (the conservative party equivalent) are red

But america is the exception to the rule here

So for The Conservatives in the UK, the blue colour makes a lot of sense, both as a political colour and as any business picking a colour

It actually makes a little bit more sense than Labour’s choice of red, as red can be seen as quite a striking or negative colour to some people and cultures

Blue is just safe, almost universally, around the entire world

So that’s the colour blue, but what about that logo?

Well, the Conservatives logo is actually pretty interesting

I struggled to find the original logo of the Conservatives, but I found the one they used right back in the Thatcher era

The torch logo, introduced in the Thatcher era, is a really strong statement of intent

It isn’t like Labour’s original logo, that plays to the people

This logo, the torch logo, was grandiose, and dare I say even a little bit pompous

It reminds me of an olympics logo, or the logo for a Great Britain sports team

It feels strong, and powerful, and a logo that you can get behind and be proud to wear as a pin badge

In comparison to the Labour logo of the British rose, the British rose is a much more restrained and down to earth symbol

It doesn’t have the same weighty intent behind it, and such an overt sense of power embedded in it

Even the way that the hand is...

In the lead up to the general election in the UK on June 8th, I'm doing a series of episodes about the design of UK political parties. Today's is about Labour.

 

Subscribe: ITUNES | ANDROID | STITCHER | RSS FEED

Music and links from this episode

Simple Hop by Broke For Free

Let me be by Soft and Furious

Line-by-line notes

When it comes to design

And branding, and visual stuff

Basically, the thing I do for a job every day

Political parties are really interesting

No matter what country we look at

Be it American politics, French politics, UK politics,

They all make really fascinating choices when it comes to design

In the lead up to the UK general election on June 8

I’m going to be doing a series of episodes of my podcast looking at the branding of UK political parties

Today, let’s talk about the design and branding of the Labour party

Just a quick note: In this episode I talk about some visual stuff that you won’t be able to see

If you want to see what I’m talking about, I’ve linked to any images that I’ve mentioned in the show notes

This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

MUSIC

Let’s start by talking about colours

Each political party all around the world have a particular identifying colour

In the UK, UKIP is purple, Conservatives are Blue, Liberal Democrats are yellow, 

And Labour is red

You’ll notice they’re all really simple colours that are easy to differentiate

For example, Labour isn’t lime green and Conservatives aren’t a dark green

It’s important that each party picks a strong colour

If you don’t know your colour theory, it’s also interesting to note that each major party has what’s called a primary colour as their main party colour

Primary colours are the core colours on the colour wheel, and they’re the base colours that everything else is made from

They’ve all picked these colours because they’re the strongest, and the most easily identifiable by pretty much anybody

What’s particularly interesting about the colour red for Labour in the UK though

Is that the left leaning party in America—the democrats—is actually blue

Red is a very interesting choice for Labour in the UK

Red, on its own, has all sorts of connotations around the globe

It strongly means things like danger, or blood, but it also strongly means passion, and love

In the political landscape though, red tends to mean different things

It’s usually used to symbolise left wing ideologies

The most famous being communism and socialism

The oldest symbol of communism in fact is the red flag, which dates back to 1848

So red is really old, and its long since been associated with communism and socialism

As Labour started as a party to put forward the interests of the workers and unions, it’s pretty obvious why they chose red.

And as they’re generally considered left leaning party, and according to wikipedia their ideology is social democracy, red makes perfect sense

Just by seeing the name Labour, then the red colour, you’ll know this is a social democatric party.

Whilst under Tony Blair Labour wanted to hide the fact they were a social party, talking about New Labour and The Third Way

It makes perfect sense under Jeremy Corbyn that they shout the fact that they’re red

Interestingly, during the New Labour campaign with Tony Blair, looking back at old pictures shows that they didn’t use much red in his campaign, particularly in backgrounds and when they wrote the words New Labour

Let’s look at Labour’s logo throughout the years now

If we look at the original Labour logo, used right up until 1983, they clearly spoke very directly to their core audience of workers and unionists

The logo said LIBERTY across the middle of it, in a strong serif font

And that word was crossed with a spade and a quill

I actually couldn’t find a definitive history of the Labour logo after 1983, until I came across Logopedia and found an article on there

Surprisingly, throughout Labours entire history they’ve only had 3 logos, showing...

In the lead up to the general election in the UK on June 8th, I'm doing a series of episodes about the design of UK political parties. Today's is about Labour.

 

Subscribe: ITUNES | ANDROID | STITCHER | RSS FEED

Music and links from this episode

Simple Hop by Broke For Free

Let me be by Soft and Furious

Line-by-line notes

When it comes to design

And branding, and visual stuff

Basically, the thing I do for a job every day

Political parties are really interesting

No matter what country we look at

Be it American politics, French politics, UK politics,

They all make really fascinating choices when it comes to design

In the lead up to the UK general election on June 8

I’m going to be doing a series of episodes of my podcast looking at the branding of UK political parties

Today, let’s talk about the design and branding of the Labour party

Just a quick note: In this episode I talk about some visual stuff that you won’t be able to see

If you want to see what I’m talking about, I’ve linked to any images that I’ve mentioned in the show notes

This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

MUSIC

Let’s start by talking about colours

Each political party all around the world have a particular identifying colour

In the UK, UKIP is purple, Conservatives are Blue, Liberal Democrats are yellow, 

And Labour is red

You’ll notice they’re all really simple colours that are easy to differentiate

For example, Labour isn’t lime green and Conservatives aren’t a dark green

It’s important that each party picks a strong colour

If you don’t know your colour theory, it’s also interesting to note that each major party has what’s called a primary colour as their main party colour

Primary colours are the core colours on the colour wheel, and they’re the base colours that everything else is made from

They’ve all picked these colours because they’re the strongest, and the most easily identifiable by pretty much anybody

What’s particularly interesting about the colour red for Labour in the UK though

Is that the left leaning party in America—the democrats—is actually blue

Red is a very interesting choice for Labour in the UK

Red, on its own, has all sorts of connotations around the globe

It strongly means things like danger, or blood, but it also strongly means passion, and love

In the political landscape though, red tends to mean different things

It’s usually used to symbolise left wing ideologies

The most famous being communism and socialism

The oldest symbol of communism in fact is the red flag, which dates back to 1848

So red is really old, and its long since been associated with communism and socialism

As Labour started as a party to put forward the interests of the workers and unions, it’s pretty obvious why they chose red.

And as they’re generally considered left leaning party, and according to wikipedia their ideology is social democracy, red makes perfect sense

Just by seeing the name Labour, then the red colour, you’ll know this is a social democatric party.

Whilst under Tony Blair Labour wanted to hide the fact they were a social party, talking about New Labour and The Third Way

It makes perfect sense under Jeremy Corbyn that they shout the fact that they’re red

Interestingly, during the New Labour campaign with Tony Blair, looking back at old pictures shows that they didn’t use much red in his campaign, particularly in backgrounds and when they wrote the words New Labour

Let’s look at Labour’s logo throughout the years now

If we look at the original Labour logo, used right up until 1983, they clearly spoke very directly to their core audience of workers and unionists

The logo said LIBERTY across the middle of it, in a strong serif font

And that word was crossed with a spade and a quill

I actually couldn’t find a definitive history of the Labour logo after 1983, until I came across Logopedia and found an article on there

Surprisingly, throughout Labours entire history they’ve only had 3 logos, showing...

Is the art of conversation dying, or is it just different?

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Music and links from this episode

Comfortably loved by Soft and Furious

When the blood driving the self by Soft and Furious

Empowered Ending by Soft and Furious

Line-by-line notes

It’s funny

Talking about the dying art of conversation to a medium of listeners that’s all about conversation

But it’s a topic I talk about a lot to my friends about

And it’s an important topic to designers

The reason it’s important to designers is because so much of what we do is about conversing

We have to have a conversation to sell our design work

To discuss projects, goals and briefs

And countless other parts of our job that require designers to be masters of the art of conversation

But how does this change our job, if the art of conversation is dying

This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

MUSIC

On April the 21st, 2006, the BBC ran an article about the dying art of conversation

In it they spoke to two self styled expert conversationalists about how conversation is changing

They talk about time being a factor, that everybody is busier now

And they talk about old TV talk shows, where they used to have one guest on for an hour, 

and now the same talk shows have five guests in the same time

They talk about how our attention spans are shorter, that we have less patience for chit chat, and that we’re not good listeners

All of which I agree with, but this article is from 2006, 11 years ago

Now, in 2017, the situation is even worse

The rise of so many text-based chat apps: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Twitter and all the rest, mean we’re even more text-baed now, and not conversation based

We’re conversing with each other, but less and less, we’re actually talking to each other

You know, actually looking each other in the eye and saying words

Let’s talk about one final example

In the UK

The good old British Public House used to be the place to find a conversation, every night of the week

Often called Pubs, pubs used to be everywhere across the UK

Any night, you could turn up to your local pub, and talk with people over a pint of beer

They’re used to be 3 pubs within 2 minutes walking distance from my house about 10 years ago

And now there’s 0

Pubs are dying too, and they were one of the last bastions of the good old art of conversation

Lots of people say pubs have lost their appeal in the UK because beer became so expensive at them

But maybe it’s because people don’t like, or aren’t skilled in the art of conversation anymore

Some people even point to the rise in the popularity of podcasts as an indicator that conversation is dying

But...

Maybe I’m wrong with all of this

Maybe all this means is conversation is changing

And there’s big signs that this is true too

WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook Messenger and all those are absolutely thriving

The younger generation spend hours every day chatting to each other over messaging apps

And they’re actually spending longer than even chatting to each other in these formats than anybody ever did face to face

It’s not dying, it’s just different from what I and loads of other people are used to

Whether that’s true, or not, it’s important as designers that we understand how conversation is changing

Whether young people’s conversation patterns are changing or not, it’s vital that designers are excellent communicators

We need to sell our ideas, sell our our work, and sell ourselves every single day

The only way we can effectively do that is through being excellent communicators, and being good at the art of conversation

And then we need to understand all of this

The changing landscape of conversation

Because every design we produce has to communicate something

And if we don’t understand how to communicate

And communicate to anybody, regardless of age

Then we might as well not bother designing anything else

And regardless of all that, even when...

Is the art of conversation dying, or is it just different?

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Music and links from this episode

Comfortably loved by Soft and Furious

When the blood driving the self by Soft and Furious

Empowered Ending by Soft and Furious

Line-by-line notes

It’s funny

Talking about the dying art of conversation to a medium of listeners that’s all about conversation

But it’s a topic I talk about a lot to my friends about

And it’s an important topic to designers

The reason it’s important to designers is because so much of what we do is about conversing

We have to have a conversation to sell our design work

To discuss projects, goals and briefs

And countless other parts of our job that require designers to be masters of the art of conversation

But how does this change our job, if the art of conversation is dying

This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

MUSIC

On April the 21st, 2006, the BBC ran an article about the dying art of conversation

In it they spoke to two self styled expert conversationalists about how conversation is changing

They talk about time being a factor, that everybody is busier now

And they talk about old TV talk shows, where they used to have one guest on for an hour, 

and now the same talk shows have five guests in the same time

They talk about how our attention spans are shorter, that we have less patience for chit chat, and that we’re not good listeners

All of which I agree with, but this article is from 2006, 11 years ago

Now, in 2017, the situation is even worse

The rise of so many text-based chat apps: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, iMessage, Twitter and all the rest, mean we’re even more text-baed now, and not conversation based

We’re conversing with each other, but less and less, we’re actually talking to each other

You know, actually looking each other in the eye and saying words

Let’s talk about one final example

In the UK

The good old British Public House used to be the place to find a conversation, every night of the week

Often called Pubs, pubs used to be everywhere across the UK

Any night, you could turn up to your local pub, and talk with people over a pint of beer

They’re used to be 3 pubs within 2 minutes walking distance from my house about 10 years ago

And now there’s 0

Pubs are dying too, and they were one of the last bastions of the good old art of conversation

Lots of people say pubs have lost their appeal in the UK because beer became so expensive at them

But maybe it’s because people don’t like, or aren’t skilled in the art of conversation anymore

Some people even point to the rise in the popularity of podcasts as an indicator that conversation is dying

But...

Maybe I’m wrong with all of this

Maybe all this means is conversation is changing

And there’s big signs that this is true too

WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook Messenger and all those are absolutely thriving

The younger generation spend hours every day chatting to each other over messaging apps

And they’re actually spending longer than even chatting to each other in these formats than anybody ever did face to face

It’s not dying, it’s just different from what I and loads of other people are used to

Whether that’s true, or not, it’s important as designers that we understand how conversation is changing

Whether young people’s conversation patterns are changing or not, it’s vital that designers are excellent communicators

We need to sell our ideas, sell our our work, and sell ourselves every single day

The only way we can effectively do that is through being excellent communicators, and being good at the art of conversation

And then we need to understand all of this

The changing landscape of conversation

Because every design we produce has to communicate something

And if we don’t understand how to communicate

And communicate to anybody, regardless of age

Then we might as well not bother designing anything else

And regardless of all that, even when...

Here's another episode where I gush about my favourite kind of design.

 

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Music and links from this episode

Whiteout by Little Glass Men

Clover by Little Glass Men

Westside Chillers by Little Glass Men

Line-by-line notes

I was asked by Ian Moss

What my favourite piece of design is

And what areas, such as communication, graphic design, architecture

I enjoyed answering the question so much back in episode 122

That I’m going to answer it again

Let’s go for a second round

This is all about my favourite kind of design

This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess

MUSIC

When I think about design that I love

I mean, really love

Almost none of it is new design

In episode 138 I spoke about designing logos

And how all of my favourite logos were Paul Rand ones

I love old graphic design especially, because it has something that I can’t quite put my finger on

Lots of it has has an innocence that’s missing from modern graphic design

Now, you can easily hide behind amazing technical ability

You can hide behind how well you can command Illustrator or Photoshop to realise your pretty pictures

Old graphic design didn’t allow for that

You drew ideas on paper, then you drew them again properly, and somebody would use that as an actual logo

Old graphic design was limited by the production methods available

But because of that, the ideas behind so many of them are amazing

You couldn’t rely on execution to hide behind

You had to come up with an amazing idea, something witty or clever

Witty and clever design is much rarer these days

Maybe it’s because there’s so many more designers

And anybody can be a designer with a laptop and the right applications

So all the good stuff gets hidden under the dross

Or maybe it’s just that modern design favours technically brilliant design over witty stuff

I’m not really sure on that one

But when it comes to designers that I’d love to even have 20% of their skill and intellect, Paul Rand is on the list, but Alan Fletcher is somebody I appreciate even more

Paul Rand was just way more than just a designer, and he embodied what I see a “proper” designer should be

His fascination about the world of design and art never faded throughout his whole career

And his books, particularly The Art of Looking Sideways, are masterpieces

The Art of Looking Sideways is an interesting read for anybody, whether you’re as much in love with design as me or not

That book showed Alan Fletcher at his absolute best

Curious about everything, and using that curiosity about everything to make great graphic design

He understood, so well, that inspiration can come from anywhere and because of that we should be interested in everything

I’ve taken that into my own career, and I’m endlessly pursuing new knowledge and experiences to help fuel inspiration for my design

And of course, he founded Pentagram, one of the greatest design studios out there today doing work

Alan Flecher and Paul Rand were proper graphic designers

Their design work was ideas lead, and it was always about producing the simplest design work possible to execute that idea

They didn’t gradients or flashy effects to do any of that, and it wasn’t available to them even if they wanted it

They relentlessly searched for interesting ideas, and new ways of looking at problems that had already been answered a thousand times

They really were on the cusp of when graphic design started to establish itself as a real profession

When sometimes they’d be called commercial artists

There’s just something magical about that era

Something that’s better than now

I could put it down to a feeling of nostalgia

But I didn’t live through that era, so there’s no reason for me to remember it fondly

I think the reason why I love old graphic design so much

Design like Alan Fletcher’s and Paul Rand’s

Is because it was just pure

It wasn’t diluted in any way

It was just pure ideas

From people who...