AADA - Raw, direct and live chats about design and creativity

AADA - Raw, direct and live chats about design and creativity

By Craig BurgessArtsMusicVisual ArtsDesign
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AADA - Raw, direct and live chats about design and creativity episodes

  • 130 - Comfort
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    Comfort. It's comfortable. And deadly.
    Music and links from this episode
    Mystery Mammal from their great new album, Risk Society
    I featured the tracks: Ruin, Greenhorn, and All Your Organs Get a Laugh
    Line-by-line notes
    Today's episode was going to be an extended one
    But at the last minute
    I changed my mind
    Something has been nagging at me the last few days
    About comfort zones
    And how nobody likes to step out of them
    But really, the only way we get better as humans
    Is to step outside our comfort zones
    This is AADA, and I'm Craig Burgess
    MUSIC
    Design and the creative industries require very specific things from you that lots of other careers dont
    You have to adaptable, changing to variables that can appear at the drop of the hat
    You have to be consistently improving, because things move so fast 
    And that is something that gets harder as time goes on
    When you first start in any career, everything is new
    Anything at all that you learn is an improvement 
    Every small increment is an improvement
    But when you've been doing the design game for a while
    You feel like you've seen it all
    Or done everything 
    Worst of all, lots of people feel like they know it all
    That there's nothing left to learn
    That's comfort
    And it's deadly in a fast moving industry 
    You can't ever get comfortable 
    Comfort breeds arrogsnce
    And cockiness
    And not only are those traits not nice to see in somebody
    They're self limiting
    When you think you know everything, you stop learning everything 
    Ive spoken lots about lifting weights on this podcast 
    And i don't just do it keep fit and get stronger
    I do it for the mental strength that it gives me
    Lifting heavy weights pushes you far out of your comfort zone
    When you've got a massive weight crushing your whole body and the only way to escape is to push it away
    You find mental strength you didn't know you possessed
    And finding that mental strength breeds more mental strength
    This is exactly the same reason why pushing yourself out of a realm of comfort is so important
    Progression isn't made by doing the same thing over and over
    The only way to progress with anything is to increase the chsllenge
    And as a designer, as you get better and better, that challenge needs to get bigger and bigger
    When you get past all the initial book learning 
    And reading the magazines 
    And doing all the design work over the years 
    Then you have to start working really hard to get outside of your comfort zone
    I'm lucky in some ways
    I've always thought like this
    And I know that the only way to get better is through insane amounts of hard work
    I don't always do the hard work
    Sometimes I'm lazy
    And sometimes for a long time I'm lazy
    But I know, and I've proved it to myself over the years 
    That when you put in the work to push yourself far outside of comfort
    You make huge improvements 
    The clue is in the title
    Comfort is... Comfortable 
    Comfort is nice feeling
    But comfort over a long period has diminishing returns
    We should all strive to be comfortable 
    But the only way to be permanently comfortable 
    Is to keep getting better and better 
    And the only way to do thst
    Is to stop being comfortable 
    MUSIC
    This was AADA and I'm Craig Burgess 
    Music featured in this episode was by
    Mystery Mammal from their great new album, Risk Society
    I featured the tracks: Ruin, Greenhorn, and All Your Organs Get a Laugh
    For a line by line rundown... /ep130
    If you want more updates about my podcast, follow me on Twitter at craigburgess
    I'm back tomorrow 
    Support Ask a Designer Anything
    Ask a Designer Anything Website
    Twitter (@craigburgess)
    Ask a Designer Anything on Facebook
    Leave me a review on iTunes
    7 min
  • 129 - Handling Conflict
    How do you handle conflict in a design project?
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    Music and links from this episode
    Zapomnieç by Nonima
    Viscous by FRAIL
    Perfect Match by Kilyo
    Line-by-line notes
    Every designer has worked on frustrating projects
    Most design projects have little bumps in the road
    But sometimes, they turn into full on car crashes
    At some point in every designer’s career
    They’re going to have to handle conflict
    This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
    MUSIC
    Design projects can go wrong in a thousand ways
    If you’re really unlucky, they’ll go wrong in a thousand ways all at once
    The client can be wrong, the designer can be wrong, the research can be wrong
    Deadlines might get missed, emails might get missed, meetings might get missed
    People easily misunderstand things
    Seriously, there’s so much that can go wrong
    It’s no wonder then that experienced designers have to become conflict resolution experts
    Let’s talk about one of the most common ways conflict arises in a project
    A client making lots of changes to a design
    You’ve been working with a client
    You’ve been designing them a new logo
    But you just can’t seem to get it completed
    Every time you think you’re nearly there
    The client makes another change
    And most of the changes the client is making seem pointless
    What do you do?
    When a client is making lots of changes to any kind of design work
    There’s something deeper going wrong
    It could be the designer isn’t good enough
    and the client feels like they need to improve it
    It could be that the client is being polite
    and that they don’t really like the design but they’re trying to improve it stealthily
    Finally, it could be the client thinks they’re the designer
    And they merely see you as a facilitator of their ideas
    Whenever a design goes through more than a couple of changes
    And you don’t feel like you’re getting anywhere with the project
    You can’t keep going and not saying anything
    At some point, for everybody’s sanity, a conversation needs to be had
    The air needs to be cleared
    In a situation like this
    You need to ideally get to the problem before everybody gets pissed off
    Which is sometimes easier said than done, because people can be excellent at hiding when they’re annoyed
    Then that conversation needs to be had
    These kind of conversations aren’t easy for anybody
    Nobody likes talking about negative stuff
    Unless you’re some kind of monster, or you’re used to that kind of thing
    Lay out the problem or issue clearly to your client
    “It seems like we’re struggling to get this piece of design work signed off”
    “Why do you think that is?”
    “What’s stopping us from getting this work signed off from your end?”
    Then let them talk
    When you’re trying to resolve a conflict, you need to encourage your client to talk
    You need to get every last bit out of them
    Every last annoyance and hangup about you needs to come out
    And even though that could be uncomfortable to hear
    Don’t be tempted to go on the offensive
    Don’t be tempted to elevate the situation to start to argue or fight back
    Let your client talk and explain the situation
    Once they’ve explained their entire situation, then you have the time to talk
    Explain your point of view, but don’t blame anybody
    Be polite and friendly
    Because at the end of the day
    Everybody wants the same thing
    The designer wants to do a good job and make the best possible thing for their client that they can
    and the client wants the designer to make the best possible thing they can
    Sometimes though, things get muddled a little bit
    And tensions can build up
    Make sure you iron them out as soon as you can
    And keep your projects running smoothly and stress free
    MUSIC
    This was AADA and I’m Craig Burgess
    I had to reuse music from episode 86 today, as Free Music Archive was down
    I featured:
    Zapomnieç by Nonima
    Viscous by FRAIL
    Perfect Match by Kilyo
    For a line by line rundown of this episode go over to...
    8 min
  • 128 - Ego
    Ego is the enemy of any design project.
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    Music and links from this episode
    Why I Can't Sleep With The Door Ajar by We Is Shore Dedicated
    Nothing (Bonus Track) by Kai Engel
    Mutations by Small Colin
    Line-by-line notes
    If we consider the task of making a website
    There’s several stages a project goes through
    Most of those stages are black and white, especially actually building a website
    But when design gets involved
    The ego starts to get in the way
    This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
    MUSIC
    When you build something
    Like a wall for example
    There’s no black and white to that
    A wall either works
    It stays stood up for years and functions as a wall
    Or it doesn’t
    The wall falls down
    It’s very clean when the wall isn’t working, or doing its job
    There’s no emotional intricacies to deal with here
    Design is the exact polar opposite of this
    When you’re talking to somebody and telling them their logo will be green
    This can elicit a whole range of responses you can’t begin to even comprehend
    Ranging from things that make sense like
    My customer base won’t like the colour green
    To strange things like
    Green reminds me of grass and the countryside, and I don’t like that
    No matter how hard we try to stop it from being so
    Design is an emotional thing
    It isn’t as simple as a wall that either stands up or doesn’t
    Or a website that either works or not
    Design isn’t black and white, and it works on a thousand levels
    Most of all, design is subjective
    And that causes problems for everybody
    With subjectivity comes a much more insidious thing: ego
    The graveyard of failed design projects is full of gravestones that declare Ego was the problem
    And ego comes from everywhere
    It comes from the client thinking they know better than the professional designer they hired
    It comes from the marketing company thinking they know better than everybody else
    And worst of all, it comes from the designer thinking that they know better than everybody else in the world
    A designer with an ego is a useless designer
    That’s a fact
    A designer who sees their work as precious pieces of art that have been perfectly crafted isn’t a real designer
    Design is not art
    Design can be pretty, it can affect people’s emotions and decisions, but it’s not art
    Art is designed to affect an emotion
    Design is to communicate a message
    Art serves the artist
    Design serves the client or the purpose intended
    Design doesn’t serve the designer 
    And when a designer thinks it does, things go wrong really quickly
    Don’t get me wrong
    Designers should be passionate about doing a good job
    OF COURSE they should
    But that’s a fundamental difference
    Passion is not ego
    Passion is doing things with conviction
    And an ego usually negatively impacts anything it gets involved with
    I’m going to finish off with a depressing thing about design
    It’s not depressing if you already know it
    But it might be depressing if you’ve never considered it
    Good design
    Really good design
    Gets out of its own way
    Good design doesn’t get noticed
    Because its done it’s job
    The only people who notice good design is designers
    And design isn’t for designers
    MUSIC
    This was AADA and I’m Craig Burgess
    Music featured in this episode was
    Why I Can't Sleep With The Door Ajar by We Is Shore Dedicated
    Nothing (Bonus Track) by Kai Engel
    Mutations by Small Colin
    For a line by line rundown of this episode go over to askadesigneranythingdotcom/ep128
    I’m back tomorrow
    Support Ask a Designer Anything
    Ask a Designer Anything Website
    Twitter (@craigburgess)
    Ask a Designer Anything on Facebook
    Leave me a review on iTunes
    7 min
  • 127 - Every Design Isn't Solid Gold
    Sorry. Every design you make isn't going to be amazing.
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    Music and links from this episode
    Creative Destruction by Nihilore
    Slow Nights by Sro
    Synthetic Feels by Sro
    Line-by-line notes
    No matter what your job is
    When you do it every day of your life
    When you create stuff every day
    It's not always good
    In fact, most of what you do isn't good
    And every thing you do isn't solid gold
    This is AADA, and I'm Craig Burgess
    MUSIC
    Let me clarify what I mean when I say most of what you do isn't good
    Unless you're really lucky
    I mean, really lucky
    90% of what you create isn't good
    It might be average
    It might be better than average
    And some of it that you never show anybody will be absolutely terrible
    Some of it will be good
    But most of it won't be solid gold
    It's hard making stuff that's good, and especially solid gold design work
    It's a sad and inevitable fact of design
    Sometimes
    Whether it's the client's fault, your fault, or you just run out of time
    The design work you make won't be amazing
    It'll be passable
    And sometimes good enough is...good enough
    Sometimes, and I don't want to sound snobby about this but I guess I'm going to
    Sometimes a company or a client deserves just good enough
    Not every company in the world should look amazing
    You wouldn't make a scrap yard look like a perfume brand
    A perfume brand should look elegant and usually high class
    But the same isn't true for a scrap yard, and it shouldn't look...amazing
    And yeah...I know that sounds snobbish
    But it's true
    Not every brand should look amazing, because it isn't appropriate
    As a designer, it's OK to sometimes be bad
    In my last episode, I spoke about creative block
    And learning to appreciate that it's OK to sometimes run out of ideas
    It's also OK to sometimes make bad design work
    So long as you have an internal barometer to know that you should never show it to a client
    Because I can guarantee that the client will pick your worst design if you show it
    My sketchbooks and my rough logo documents are full of things that look like they've been designed by a 2 year old
    But nobody ever sees them
    You've got to get past all of the bad ideas before you can get to the good ones
    Sometimes you get lucky, and the first thing out of your brain is amazing
    But that's rare
    And it takes persistence and consistency to find that solid gold idea amongst all the dross
    Sometimes you can start to feel a little self conscious about this though
    If you go through a couple of hours or even a couple of days
    And everything you've designed or the ideas that you've come up with are all rubbish
    You start to wonder if you're rubbish
    Am I rubbish?
    Is that it?
    Am I past it? Have I got no more good ideas in me?
    It's hard to stop thinking that
    But you've got to
    Because bad ideas never last for a long time
    Unless you let yourself start to believe that you're a bad designer
    Just like creative block
    You've got to understand
    That as a designer, your job is to come up with ideas
    And as your job is ideas
    Not all of them are solid gold
    And you've got to be OK with that
    Because as soon as you are
    And you can dismiss the bad ideas easily
    The good ideas suddenly start appearing
    And then you get to the solid gold ones
    MUSIC
    This was AADA, and I'm Craig Burgess
    Music featured in this episode was
    Creative Destruction by Nihilore
    Slow Nights by Sro
    Synthetic Feels by Sro
     For a line by line rundown of this episode go to askadesigneranythingdotcom/ep127
    I'm back tomorrow
    Support Ask a Designer Anything
    Ask a Designer Anything Website
    Twitter (@craigburgess)
    Ask a Designer Anything on Facebook
    Leave me a review on iTunes
    6 min
  • 126 - Creative Block
    What do you do when you run out of ideas?
     
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    Music and links from this episode
    Not Locrian by Captive Portal
    Beautiful Reciprocal (Half Mix) by Captive Portal
    Line-by-line notes
    Today’s episode has a double-edged meaning
    On one instance
    I’m discussing the idea of struggling to find ideas
    And in the other instance
    The reason I’ve done this episode
    Is because I’m struggling for ideas
    This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
    MUSIC
    No matter what kind of creative person you are
    An artist, a designer, a musician, a writer
    You’re going to hit creative block
    You’re going to hit a point where suddenly
    You can’t think of any ideas
    You’re going to go from being an absolute ideas machine
    Where they come freely and easily
    To a complete idea vacuum
    Where nothing exists anymore
    And that…is scary
    Different creative people react to this kind of thing differently
    Some relish the challenge
    And some get scared
    It’s OK to feel like that
    When you trade on your ideas and suddenly your stock has vanished
    That’s scary
    I think that a creative shouldn’t be judged on their creative output
    Although that’s important
    But a truly experienced creative should be judged on their ability to consistently come up with good ideas
    And also should be judged on their ability to recover from creative block
    An experienced creative knows that they’ve not just become irrelevant
    They don’t get scared by creative block
    And they have endless strategies on how to overcome such a situation
    Overcoming creative block isn’t a skill you develop overnight as a creative
    I don’t even think that’s it’s something that you could teach to a young creative
    It’s just a thing you develop with experience
    And pressure
    And really, doing things wrong and running out of ideas
    I talk a lot about the creative muscle and needing to exercise it regularly
    If you’re not regularly flexing that ideas muscle, your creative muscle
    It gets smaller and harder to use, and it burns out quicker
    Mood, anxiety and just generally being in a bad mood affects all this too
    If you’re in a bad place, ideas are hard to come by
    And that can be a vicious circle that’s hard to escape
    You’re in a bad mood, you get creative block, it makes you in a worst mood, and so on
    So creative block is more complicated that it looks
    It’s hard to combat and hard to come out of
    Sometimes the only way out
    Is just get doing
    Just start writing, designing, drawing, whatever it is
    And creative block just disappears
    MUSIC
    This was AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
    Music featured in this episode was
    Not Locrian by Captive Portal
    Beautiful Reciprocal (Half Mix) by Captive Portal
    For a line by line rundown of this episode go over to askadesigneranythingdotcom/ep126
    I’m back tomorrow
    Support Ask a Designer Anything
    Ask a Designer Anything Website
    Twitter (@craigburgess)
    Ask a Designer Anything on Facebook
    Leave me a review on iTunes
    6 min
  • 125 - Awareness
    Self awareness. It's an important thing.
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    Music and links from this episode
    Suspension by Jorge Mario Zuleta
    Effects of Elevation by Revolution Void
    Ahead Of The Curve by Creo
    Line-by-line notes
    Hello, it’s me again, Craig
    Before we start the episode proper
    I’m going being a dirty tease again
    Just a quick update on the whole interview podcast thing
    I’ve got a couple of guests lined up
    And I’m going to start recording some of the episodes soon
    I still don’t have a name
    But the format will very likely be a couple of hour episode every 2 weeks
    I’ve decided not to edit the episodes beyond just making them sound better
    So they’ll sometimes be long conversations
    The first episode will likely be out within the next 2 months
    I really can’t wait to release it 
    And I think you’re really going to love it
    Maybe even more than this podcast, if you prefer listening to conversations
    Anyway, back to this podcast.
    Cue the episode!
    INTRO
    I don’t envy young designers
    All the stuff you have to learn can be overwhelming
    And especially now, where’s there’s so much new stuff ALL THE TIME
    You’ve lots of stuff to learn, constantly
    And it’s not easy
    Because you’ve got to be good at everything as well
    But one thing a lot of young designers struggle with
    And young people in general really
    Is awareness
    This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
    MUSIC
    Self awareness is a tough one
    You won’t find self awareness listed on any curriculum anywhere
    And you’d probably even struggle to define it
    And if you went to any other seasoned designer
    They’d probably never even mention self awareness
    But having said all that
    And after probably making you think this whole thing isn’t even important
    I’m going to tell you it is
    And it’s probably one of the most important things designers need to know
    So, what is self awareness?
    Well, it’s an awareness of yourself
    Obviously
    It means you’re really aware of what you’re good at
    And you’re really aware of what you’re bad at
    Basically, you’re really aware of yourself
    Yes, I’m aware I’ve just turned the words self and awareness around a few times to explain the term self awareness
    Knowing what you’re good at and what you’re bad at is harder than you think though
    It’s some parts confidence
    Confident in your abilities
    And it’s some parts being pragmatic
    And some parts being honest
    Admitting things that you’re not so good at
    Isn’t easy for most people
    Especially as a young designer, you’re just not aware of what you’re best at
    And you want to try everything, so you’d probably never admit you’re not that good
    And actually, some people just plain aren’t aware that they’re bad at things
    And if you’re not aware of what you’re bad at
    There’s no way you could ever improve 
    And that means there’s no way to ever become a better designer
    And that is why self awareness is the single most important thing to develop
    This is definitely something I never realised when I was a young designer
    And it lead to some really uncomfortable conversations with my boss about my design work that wasn’t up to scratch
    I didn’t have the design knowledge to know that the work I was producing wasn’t good enough
    And I didn’t have the ability to step out of my own work and admit it wasn’t good enough
    I actually developed self awareness without being aware of myself
    Which is weird
    But if I could go back now
    And talk to my 18 year old self
    This is the single thing I’d be shouting out 
    Go learn to some self awareness
    And forget everything else
    MUSIC
    This was AADA and I’m Craig Burgess
    Music featured in this episode was
    Suspension by Jorge Mario Zuleta
    Effects of Elevation by Revolution Void
    And this quirky little song playing right now, Ahead Of The Curve by Creo
    For a line by line rundown of this episode go over to askadesigneranythingdotcom/ep125
    I’m back tomorrow
    Support Ask a Designer Anything
    Ask a Designer Anything Website
    8 min
  • 124 - Developing The Style
    Is a style for a designer a good thing to cultivate, or a bad thing?
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    Music and links from this episode
    Trampled by P C III
    Waitng by Ars Sonor
    In curtains by J Hacha de Zola
    Line-by-line notes
    I’ve always been heavily conflicted as a designer
    I’ve never really thought I fit in with what lots of other designers think of themselves
    I love designing things, and I love coding things
    I love technical stuff as much as design stuff
    But I call myself a designer
    That puts me in a weird no mans land with lots of designers
    And the other thing I’ve never had
    Is an outright style as a designer
    Let’s talking about designer’s styles for a bit
    This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
    MUSIC
    Style
    Having a style works for lots of things
    This podcast, has a style
    A model may have a particularl style
    And a singer usually sings in a certain way or style
    It’s still a weird thing to me to associate with design though
    In design, you should be producing the work that’s most appropriate for the situation
    Regardless of personal preference, and style
    Maybe I’m being a little idealistic
    After all, we all have styles, whether they’re carefully cultivated or not
    We all have go to typefaces, or colour combinations that we like
    We all have styles of photos that we like and layouts that we think work best
    All this stuff builds up a style
    And at first, this style is an unconscious thing for most people
    Eventually though, a designer twigs on and starts to make more work like their other work
    And this is where things get weird for me
    Because I genuinely don’t understand this bit
    Why, as a designer, would you ever want to suddenly start making the same work using the same methods, over and over?
    I understand the idea of niches, and how you can make a lot of money if you stick to a niche
    I get all the commercial reasons
    I just don’t get the personal reasons
    To me, once you’ve settled on a style, that’s it
    You’re developing a designer as far and wide as you could be any more
    You’ve decided you’re going to sit in a very particular box
    And you’ll continue to do your work from inside that box
    For me, I love making all sorts of things in all different styles
    I relish the challenge of producing a brand for something I’ve never done before
    Or designing something in a style I’ve never even considered
    They’re all interesting challenges to me
    And as I take on things like that I become a better designer
    But if you suddenly develop your style, you don’t really get any of that opportunity anymore
    To some extent, the people commissioning the work are to blame
    They’ll go hunting on behance and pinterest and look for things that fit their new ad campaign
    Then they’ll find something, go to the original designer, and ask them to do the same thing again but for their campaign
    “In their style"
    This usually happens when somebody becomes known for a particular piece of work
    And they’ll find themselves—if they’re not careful—recreating the same piece of work over and over again
    In different scenarios for different people
    Some designers embrace that challenge
    And I guess on some level, restricting yourself to one style presents a different kind of design challenge to being able to do what you want
    But at its very core
    The idea of designers have a particular style
     And developing that style
    And then reproducing that style over and over for different clients
    I don’t understand on a human level
    We all have an innate design to keep improving, to keep getting better at things
    And working as a designer producing work of a particular style makes it harder to improve all the time
    It’s a bit like being a football goalkeeper with a hand tied behind your back
    It’s possible, but it’ll be twice as hard to get good at it
    I don’t intend this to be an episode of me bashing designers who have a style
    Some of my favourite designers have styles
    People like James White of Signalnoise and
    7 min
  • 123 - The Art Of Video Games
    Yes, video games are an art form. Today I give some love for the video games.
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    Music and links from this episode
    To run in an elevator in a dream in a fiction in space by Monplaisir
    Simplify and Black Riders Anthem by Little Glass Men
    YFMIFY by Alpha Hydrae
    Line-by-line notes
    Videogames have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember
    I don’t remember much of my youth
    Because I have a terrible memory for important things like that
    But I do remember pretty much all of my video game consoles
    And boy, did I have a lot of them
    Atari, Commodore 64, NES, SNES, Dreamcast, Mastersystem, N64, Playstation, XBOX… I’ll stop there
    Today I want to talk about design in a different medium
    The video game
    This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
    MUSIC
    Video games are dismissed
    And they’re dismissed a lot
    They’re dismissed because they’re dangerous,
    they’re silly,
    they rot your brain
    they make you fat
    oh yeah, and they inspire you to kill people, rape people, or generally do harm you wouldn’t normally do to people
    And finally, Games are for kids, right?
    Wrong
    Despite making a cool $91 billion per year globally
    And that’s more than Hollywood by the way
    Video games still aren’t taken seriously
    They’re not considered a serious medium
    And they’re still seen by lots of people as something for kids
    People don’t say this about music, or books or films
    But they do still say it about video games
    And if I was to tell you that video games are art
    I’d be laughed out of at least 50% of the rooms I walked into
    But, they ARE art
    And they’re more engrossing than every other artistic medium that exists today
    Games have made me laugh, made me sad, made me scared, and made me question my entire existence
    Sometimes they’re throwaway experiences and sometimes they’re serious
    Every single one of them have affected me in a way no other traditional art form could do
    And it’s all because video games have a secret trick up their sleeve
    It’s because they're interactive
    And this is the power that video games has over any other medium
    Sure, some pieces of art can be interactive
    But a lot of it isn’t
    And most pieces of music you listen to you can’t affect with your actions
    And most movies you watch don’t change depending on what button you press
    This is the power of video games
    And it turns it into a completely different art form
    Just that one simple thing—interactivity—pulls you in to it SO much
    The fact that it’s me controlling my character walking down a corridor
    And I’m not just watching passively somebody walk down a corridor
    Enhances the experience ten fold
    And then when we extrapolate that out to experiencing different things
    Driving a car I could never afford to buy
    Or running around in an action game doing things I could never dream of doing
    Games become much more than what they appear to be on the surface
    Not only are they easy ways to escape from the humdrum of normal life
    They’re easy ways to experience things you’d never hope to experience
    Games allow you to live your dreams, quite literally
    People who make video games are making dreams
    And then unleashing them on the public to let these dreams by experienced by lots of people
    I’m not trying to use hyperbole here, I’m being genuine
    If you don’t like playing video games
    Or you’ve never got into them
    I urge you to go give them another chance
    Start with something like Unchartered, an absolute modern day masterpiece
    And come back in 2 months time and tell me you didn’t experience something really special
    Games are an art form, no matter what anybody says
    They’re a very special art form unlike anything else
    And they’ll always have a special place in my heart
    MUSIC
    This was AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
    Music featured in this episode was:
    To run in an elevator in a dream in a fiction in space by Monplaisir
    Simplify and Black Riders Anthem by Little Glass Men
    YFMIFY by Alpha Hydrae...
    9 min
  • 122 - My Favourite Kind Of Design - Part 1 - Graphic Design
    Ian Moss asked me a question I just had to answer: what's your favourite kind of design?
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    Music and links from this episode
    Follow An Ar Christ Rabbit by Fields Ohio
    Neon Hippies by Fields Ohio
    Wolf Dunes by Fields Ohio
    Line-by-line notes
    I was asked by Ian Moss
    Quite a long time ago now
    Sorry Ian
    What my favourite piece of design is
    And what areas, such as communication, graphic design, architecture
    This is new for this format of AADA
    Because I’ve never answered somebody’s question before
    But Ian is a good friend, and it’s a good question
    So I’m going to do my best to answer it
    Let’s give it a try.
    This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
    MUSIC
    There’s two things I remember distinctly when I first started realising I was into design
    One of them I only realised retrospectively
    And the second one was my first love of graphic design
    The retrospective one is something I’ve spoken about way back in episode 81, the design disease
    I mentioned the WWF logo, the World Wrestling Federation
    At the time in my teens, I was mega into wrestling
    And I used to love reproducing their logo with a marker pen over and over
    It was the only logo I could draw, so I went nuts with it
    I got pretty good at drawing it too actually
    Looking back at this now, I wonder if the WWF—now WWE made their logo like that on purpose
    The two things I’ve long since had in my head about logo design
    Is it should be simple enough so anybody can draw it
    And it should be able to fit on a postage stamp
    The WWF logo did both of those things
    And it was accessible
    It wasn’t a great logo from any technical standpoint
    But it fit the bill, it fit the kind of audience they wanted to attract
    And it meant young teenagers like me could draw it easily and spread their message
    Logos have long since been a favourite part of design for me
    They are the perfect distilled version of graphic design
    It takes so much skill to create something that looks so simple
    And it’s why I’m constantly fascinated with logos
    It’s my favourite part of design to produce, and admire
    And as for my favourite logos
    I’m probably a bit predictable here
    I love Coca Cola’s logo, not just because it looks nice, but because they’ve had the balls to stick with it
    And whilst I’m not a big fan of Apple as a business or company anymore, their logo through the ages and today is just perfect
    I also have a soft spot for the new Juventus FC logo, but that’s probably because I’m not a football fan and I like that it looks different to every other football logo
    The second thing I adored then I first started in design
    Was everything that The Designers Republic did
    As a kid, I got the original Playstation with Wipeout for christmas
    And back then I used to love looking through the manuals after I got the game
    Some game companies put effort into these manuals
    And this was a game that put a lot of effort into the manual
    Not only that, the case was so nice
    All the graphics and artwork was—to my young eyes—just so cool
    Even looking back at it now
    Some 22 years later
    It still looks so cool
    In their hey day, that’s what The Designers Republic were really good at
    Making things just look so damn cool
    Designers are usually pretty good at making stuff look cool
    But The Designers Republic went a step further than that
    Everything they touched, from video games to coke bottles to record sleeves
    All just looked so cool
    It’s a style these days that has been emulated endlessly
    But some of the originals who worked there
    Like Michael C Place
    Still create really cool looking stuff to this day
    I’m nearly out of time for this episode
    And I have to put a time limit on this because I could gush for days about my favourite design
    But I just quickly wanted to mention one final thing I love
    Wit
    Wit in any form of design, and here I mean clever design
    I just love in any medium
    Maybe I’ll expand on this on a future episode
    MUSIC...
    9 min
  • 121 - The Process
    No matter what you're designing, designers have a special code we all follow. It's called The Process.
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    Music and links from this episode
    Gorgon by Jesse Spillane
    No sudden movements by rui
    Interstate 70 Rain Chants by Fields Ohio
    Line-by-line notes
    Buildings
    Bridges
    Roads
    Websites
    Restaurant menus
    They’ll all made by following a set process
    This process, whilst usually similar for every designer
    Allows designers all over the world to make very special things
    This is AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
    MUSIC
    A problem
    Every design process
    Whether you’re designing a city or designing a business card
    Begins with a problem
    Design only really has one purpose: to solve problems
    And if there’s no problem to solve, there’s no point designing anything
    These problems range from simple stuff like a problem of a business not looking professional enough
    To complicated problems like too many traffic jams on a particular road
    You can’t find a solution, until you’ve identified the problem
    And the design process is the only one that can solve such a problem
    After that, designers start to collect information to understand the problem
    This step is a mix of research and finding inspiration
    By seeing what others have done before, you can analyse what went wrong
    And of course, what went right and what you may want to emulate
    I’ve been pretty vocal in some past episodes about the inspiration gathering step
    And being very careful not to cross the line of inspiration to downright copying other’s work
    Now comes the fun part, ideas generation
    This is my favourite part of any design project
    Being alone with a sketchbook and working on ideas
    Younger designers too often skip this step, or go about it in the wrong way
    The point of the ideas step is to indiscriminately create ideas
    That is, to create ideas without thinking they’re good, bad, or anything else
    At this step, it doesn’t matter if your idea is bad
    Or if you think you’ve found a solution to the design problem
    That is not the point here, it’s just to let your brain be free
    And make ideas
    And then take those ideas, and turn them into solutions
    This is a really difficult step, because now you’ve got so many ideas
    You need to analyse them, and work out which ones are good
    Or appropriate solutions
    Lots of designers like to leave this step to their clients
    They’ll create quite a few ideas, and ask their clients to pick which is their favourite
    I prefer to be much more critical at this stage
    And I normally only present one solution to a client
    If we give the client the choice, we’ll either end up with a frankestein’s monster of a design with lots of solutions turned into one
    Or we’ll end up with the solution we like the least
    It isn’t the client’s place to do our job for use at this stage
    And we need to be ruthless and pick the best solution for the job
    This slots neatly into feedback
    This is the stage which can cause the most problems in the design process if not handled properly
    A client isn’t usually experienced in the design process
    And we ask them which one they like the most
    This is not the correct question to ask them
    We should be asking them which is most appropriate
    The one that is the best solution to the design problem is the best
    And we need to make sure we tell our clients that too
    The final step
    Is improve
    In lots of design projects, we may go back and forth between feedback and improve
    Before we get the best solution
    And that’s OK
    So long as we’re working towards the same goal
    To make the best solution for the design problem we’ve set
    It’s amazing when you think about it
    That no matter what you’re designing
    This process is largely similar across any medium
    It’s really special
    And also quite humbling
    MUSIC
    This was AADA, and I’m Craig Burgess
    The music featured in this episode was
    Gorgon by Jesse Spillane
    No sudden movements by rui
    Interstate 70 Rain Chants by
    8 min

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