Blog4: Values, Beliefs, Paul Rand & Me

Paul Rand

Paul Rand is possibly the most highly credited graphic designer world wide, famous for his work with companies such as IBM and UPS. He tends to have a very interesting way of approaching his design process, although apparently he was doing something right. In Paul Rands tv interview, he made it quite clear that for the majority of his projects he would give the client just one piece to choose from. He has been known to even say things such as "I will solve your problem for you, and you will pay me."

Although I tend to look up to Paul Rand as a designer, I feel as if his approach to showing clients work has a fault. In my opinion, the client should have possibly up to three options for work such as a logo. I completely understand how giving a client a lot of options can hurt the graphic design industry and go against Registered Graphic Designers, but at the same time, the client who's paying a designer should be able to pick between a couple options. This is mainly because having a small amount of leeway would spare us as designers the problem of the client not being able to describe what they do not approve of because they have nothing comparable.

Having said all that, I do agree with what Paul Rand says about designers being allowed to act like doctors in those situations. This is because were are considered the experts in the field of graphic design, and the client is almost seen as a patient. A designer's role in the world is to simply solve problems they are given. Although this may sound like a very simple situation, we all know that it takes a specific type of person to be able to balance both their own creative licence with the thought process of a unexperienced client.

The average person may wonder what it is a designer even does, and wether or not the world would really be all that different without. If you really stop to think about that for a moment, you realize that nearly everything man made in the entire world is in one way or another designed. There's such a variety of forms of design in the world that it would be impossible to imagine the world otherwise.

Just quickly before I end my current blog post, I want to mention just a few of the things that really are important to me as a graphic designer.

– The relationship between a designer and their clients.
– Quality work apposed to simply quantity.
– Using personal experiences from our lives within design.
– Focusing on creating a solution to the problem (leave the pretty designs to amateurs).
– A strong work ethic (Without hardly any schooling, Paul Rand became a fantastic, influential designer).
– Trying to continuously create a world where great design resides all around.

Blog3: "Design is..." Take One

Design is the freedom to convey creative expression.


At this point in the course, although I have learned a lot, I am still looking into exactly what view it is that I want to write my paper on. For the time being, I have decided that design as a whole is ones freedom to convey their own creative expression. This creative expression can span from being a form of visual art, all the way to more restricted design for things such as stationary. Although there are specific groups of people in society who are considered to be more visually conscious such as people in the architectural and graphic fields, each and every individual has their own way in which they can express their feelings through design, whether they choose to or not.

By the time I am able to write my next blog post on this topic I really hope to understand a little more fully what design means as a whole and outside of just my own field of graphic design. I'll have to make a point of looking into some professional designers in their own fields to see exactly what it is that determines their career as design based. Im also going to look further into what the difference between art and design is. I know that technically design is art with a purpose but clearly their is a better answer than that out there. Lastly I'm going to try and find out exactly where the line is drawn in the business world between the idea of design and just simply predefined templates.

Blog2: Creativity & Innovation: Cobus Potgieter

For this blog post I decided to talk about one of my favorite musicians and designers Cobus Potgieter. He is one of my biggest influences as both a graphic designer and a drummer. Cobus is a 23-year-old South African who has become what you would consider famous due to a drum solo he posted on Youtube five years ago from a handheld camera. After this video became so popular, Cobus started recording and producing videos of him playing drums to a variety of different songs. Five years later, Cobus now travels all over the world playing on all different types of stages doing drum conferences, band music, solos etc. As of this moment Cobus Potgieter has more than 99 million views on his drum videos posted to Youtube.

Besides from his amazing talent, the main thing that sets Cobus apart from all other drummers is is passion for both drumming in general and his skills as a videographer. From the earliest videos he has posted all the way to his newest cover videos, he has done the majority of the filming setup, recording and video editing for his videos. This is because it just what he loves to do.

Cobus is known for “getting into” his drumming. This is partly because every single song he plays to is already a song that he loves and that is why he has never taken any song requests from fans.

The first step in Cobus’s design process is to just get to know the feeling of the song that he plans to drum too. This is very easy when you already love to listen to the song. After he knows the song well enough, he starts practicing a few ideas for how to make it his own while at the same time not overplaying it. On average, Cobus will do this with five to ten songs and then he will record them all in the same day as a series. He then proceeds to take all the film and audio and start editing the songs to his exact liking, all the while keeping his fans and followers informed on how its coming along. After a month or two of waiting for the new series, Cobus will finally post them all up on Youtube free for anyone to watch and enjoy.

Cobus’s design process is very unique in the way that he constantly keeps all his followers on both Facebook and Twitter in on what he is working on, while also keeping things a surprise. He is a great role model as both a great drummer and a person with a great personality. I hope that he continues to go through this process and work with his passion to create many more videos for everyone to enjoy.

Blog 1: Introduction

Hello everyone, for those of you who may not know me, my name is Bill Livingstone and I am studying Graphic Design at Humber College. Im a second year student who loves anything to do with creative design and has a passion for music, specifically drumming.  Ever since grade nine I knew I wanted to be a Graphic Designer, I really never had any other choice for a career in mind. One of my design strengths is the ability to problem solve when i'm given a design senario. I tend to have a lot of energy and I am fairly easy to get along with, so if you dont know me make sure to just say hi!

This blog is going to be my way of trying to put any thoughts or ideas I may have about Design Theory out there for anyone and everyone interested to read and discuss.

Being a fourth semester student here at Humber College, I believe one of the key things to remember is to stay organized, which includes my design thoughts. So throughout the next fourteen weeks I'll do my very best to keep everyone posted weekly on what I have discovered about theories relating to design in general. Until next time.