Pentagram Talk

During our trip to Berlin we had the opportunity to have a talk by one of the partners of Pentagram, Justus Oehler. Straight from the get go, I could see why and how he was in the position he was, he talked a lot about graphic design being a passion and not just something you do passively. Unlike like maybe other career choices where people's parents might have a heavy influence on what they do, he said and I quote..

"we do graphic design because we fucking want to". 

Quote of the century, surely.

The first part of the presentation was giving us an insight into his contribution to the industry and the work he'd done over the years which was interesting to see who he'd worked with. But he then moved onto more important matters within graphic design that I personally think we should be aware of when designing, mainly within branding projects.

Taste vs Timeless

Often companies can make the mistake of following trends and their own taste in design rather than choosing a design that is timeless. Trends come and they go, as does someones taste in design but what doesn't change is timeless designs, ones that will last years in comparison to ones that will fade out when the next trend comes along. Companies such as Coca-Cola and AT&T have made this mistake before. Their original logos were solid and worked perfectly fine across all mediums, but making the mistake of following a trend meant they fell victim to the other trends that followed. AT&T for example below, their 2007 logo was following the trend of gradients and transparency, which may work for the moment but again will likely change in coming years to keep up with the trend.

Coke made a similar mistake, although not necessarily following a trend they attempted to change their logo in 1985, maybe down to a change in taste. But soon realised it didn't work nearly as well as their well known original logo and so quickly changed it back a couple of years later.

Another really interesting point he made that I'd never even considered before was how there is no public debate on graphic design. Other areas of design like fashion, cars etc. are discussed on a regular basis, which means that most people have a good idea of what's good, bad or trendy within that area. But yet with graphic design, only graphic designers themselves for the most part discuss what's good and bad design meaning that when it comes to the majority of the public they don't have much of an idea of what's good or not. This can lead to bad design as clients don't know what works and what doesn't.