Last week I had the opportunity to spend some time with colleagues on the Appleton Design Council. I’m most interested in the conversations that happen in between the “official” discussions. We had the opportunity to judge the U360 competition and we decided that we liked the power of pink. To that end I give you my favorite clip from the movie Funny Face, “Think Pink”, the best song and dance number about a color: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmaffpKAYcw

So Darlings, burn your recession blues, bury the beige and “think pink”—if nothing else it’s a lot more fun.

A lot of years, a lot of logos. We’ve “marked” everything from van wraps and mailing tubes to playing cards, postcards and note cards. Digital images of these marks have appeared on iPhones, computer monitors and conference room screens.

A lot of options, and ways to touch. The question now is with what? In what combination – and sequence? It depends on what you want to convey. Just like in human interaction, a touch can be soft, gentle and reassuring or it can surprise and delight you. Are you touching your customers in a way that will inspire them to engage with your brand?

A compilation of logos designed by Decker Design, “Marks” was conceived as a study of the power of touch and its ability to influence perception and translate ideas through print, web and mobile media.

The square booklet, engraved and embossed with UV printing on three different textures, delights the fingers and pleases the eye. An inventive microsite uses modern Javascript techniques invites viewers to grab, drag, push, pull and zoom in on the various logos. A few more lines of code enabled iPhone users to play as well.

"Route 66," a 16-page booklet of photographs taken by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Edward Keating and curated by creative director and firm owner Lynda Decker, shatters the myth of America's "Mother Road" as a path to a better life and shows it for what it has become: A corridor of raw hopelessness and a symbol of American dreams no longer possible.

The book is a collaboration between Edward Keating and Lynda Decker and was printed by Digital Color Concepts (DCC). It is the first in a series designed to show how expert graphic design and printing can amplify the impact of photographic art.

"Ed Keating’s gift is that he captures small, intimate human moments that occur in the context of a larger narrative. Ed’s body of work for this project is much larger than this publication; my challenge was to curate the images down to a select few, while remaining true to his vision,” notes Decker.

The book is a short run limited edition and is available by request only. To obtain a copy of the booklet, please contact Lynda Decker at 212.633.8588 or email route66(at)deckerdesign.com

Read press release.

Last night at Legends on 33^rd Street, a few hundred people from New York’s design and photographic community gathered to celebrate the release of “Route 66,” a 16-page booklet of photographs by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Edward Keating. The booklet is the first in series of pieces, which are marries graphic design with photography by both sophomore and seasoned photographers.

The project is intended to demonstrate the importance of graphic design, copywriting and printing in accurately communicating the importance and impact of art – photography, in this case.

Ed Keating’s gift is that he captures small, intimate human moments that occur in the context of a larger narrative. His images shatter the myth of America’s Route 66 as a path to a better life and impress upon the viewer what the road has become: a corridor of raw hopelessness, a symbol of American dreams no longer possible. Ed’s body of work on this theme is voluminous; my challenge was to curate the images down to a select few, while remaining true to Ed’s vision.

If you would like a copy of the booklet and be notified as the subsequent books in the series release, contact me. 212.633.8588

Syracuse University’s design students now know a little more about surfing, along with how succeeding in today’s challenging working environment requires patience, perseverance and skill – just like surfing the small summer waves typical of the east coast.

In her presentation, “Surfing the Ankle High Wave,” Decker Design president (and veteran surfer) Lynda Decker drew analogies between learning how to surf and building a career in design. 

“East coast conditions are crowded and inconsistent and everyone fights to get that one perfect wave that comes through every now and then. The biggest surf comes in storms. Small waves are difficult to catch and very unstable. As a result, many surfers feel that if you can surf small waves well, you can surf anything. One of the greatest compliments on the beach is “Wow look at that guy, he just made that nothing blip into a wave.”

Building a career in design really is much like learning to surf. It’s difficult. You graduate with untested skills, an inability to accurately read your environment and a tendency to make a lot of mistakes. Building a career in the current economic situation adds to your problems.”

The presentation contains 10 lessons she learned from surfing that are directly applicable to creating career success. 

Consider lesson one: “Every time you think you know what to expect, something else happens.” Lesson three: “If you want to catch a wave, you have to paddle REALLY hard. Insanely hard. Harder than you think possible.” Or lesson five, which is, “Keep your eyes on the horizon.” 

Through first-hand anecdotes from both the surfing and design business worlds, Lynda communicates the importance, of discipline, courtesy, knowledge and persistence when competing in the most adverse economic environment in 50 years. 

For a copy of the presentation, or to invite Lynda to present to your organization, contact her directly at Decker Design, 212.633.8588.

Uncertain economic times, coupled with the drop in value of many stocks over the past year have left investors (and their accounts) battered, bruised, suspicious and scared. Smart companies are adjusting their communications strategies to quell investor fears and to provide reassurance that their money is well placed and relatively secure.

At the same time, the SEC has softened the requirements for a company’s best and most effective communications vehicle, the corporate annual report. Seeing this as an opportunity to conserve budget dollars, many companies are now doing only what is required. Many “annuals” have been reduced to a few pages of text attached to the front the 10K, which ends up an un-useful PDF blob languishing in the furthest corner of the corporate website. While this strategy might save companies some money and time in the short term, the bulk cost of this decision will be paid in what is not accomplished.

The annual provides a perfect opportunity to bolster investor trust. It also allows investors to connect directly with the CEO, whose letter shows the softer, human side of the company. The annual report also plays an important role in managing current investor perceptions, reminding them of your strengths, visions and heritage – and the reason they invested with you in the first place.

Perhaps most importantly, the discipline and commitment to this yearly report sends a message that your company does what is right, not just what it can get away with. Presenting an abbreviated and incomplete view of the business leaves things to people’s already active imaginations. Prompting them to ask, “What else are they cutting?”  

To that end, a well-done annual report gives your audience a reason to speak well of your company to others. It is your company’s ambassador, its calling card. In fact, your annual report can reach more people – employees, prospective investors and the business and financial press – than any other non-advertising medium.

Paper vs. Online vs. Both

For companies still committed to providing investors with a full annual report, there are now two accepted formats: print (paper) and online. 

The printed annual remains important because today’s primary investors (40+ years old with liquid cash to invest) are still very print-oriented. If you make your annual available online only, you may attract the 30-something audience, but chances are they won’t have much money to play with (beyond what’s going into their 401K).

To best serve your audiences, you really need to produce both a print and online version of your corporate annual report. Why? Because printed information is perceived very differently than information read online, and the two formats fulfill very different needs.

Print lends itself to perusal, and is designed to be experienced over a longer period of time. People will spend more time reading a print piece than they will reading the same content online. Print is a medium you can see, smell and touch; nothing communicates better the human aspect of your company. Committing information to paper also implies permanence and commitment, stability and success.

Changing information online, on the other hand, is a matter of a few keystrokes. Web-based content is designed to be dynamic and to inform – quickly; perfect for communicating with the media, analysts, and future employees – anyone who needs to know something about your company fast. And so it follows that information being consumed online also needs to be presented differently from print.

Why HTML Rules

Printed annual reports are created in spreads, which assumes (with the exception of the front cover) that the reader is seeing two pages at one time. When you PDF a book it destroys this layout, splitting the spreads into a series of 8.5” x 11” pages. The formats just don’t translate. Images are hackneyed and rather than clarify can confuse.

Worst, people complain they cannot find what they are looking for. This is understandable, as printed documents are designed to make the audience linger, consider, ruminate and engage. By the way, online magazine formats are not the answer, either. They’re slow, frustrating and for most virtually unreadable. And forget the Kindle, at least for now – it doesn’t render color and at the very least you need color to help guide the reader through the various levels of information. 

If you’re going to put your annual report online, try to avoid putting up the dreaded and unimpressive PDF blob. Better: have the piece created in HTML. This way you can provide the reader with the navigational elements they expect when reading something online. Logical navigation, breadcrumbs and the ability to print out individual pages will go a long way to providing the reader with the experience they are looking for. If you’re going to both a print and online version – and we hope you do – thorough planning at beginning of the project regarding copy, images, graphics, layouts and navigation will keep conversion costs down.

With increasing financial pressures it is tempting to pare the annual report down to its bare bones, but to do so is penny-wise and pound-foolish. A well-done corporate annual report, presented both in print and online buoys the confidence, trust and knowledge of investors, shareholders and media alike. And stakeholder confidence, trust and knowledge are precisely the elements that drive the continuing prosperity and success of every organization.

Decker Design recently developed the visual brand and identity for the Ken Miller Group and applied it to stationery and the book "Insight for Innovation: Twenty years in the deep end" written by Ken Miller. Decker also created a CMS (content management system) based website that enables the company to easily update the content on the website as needed – no need to know HTML and no additional technical assistance required.

First off, there's the legal issue.  Type designers are now faced with a new wrinkle in their licensing schemes:  how do you price for using a font on a website?  And secondly, because the font-file would be stored publicly on the website's server, how do you prevent people from swiping the legally obtained, copyrighted material knowing full well DRM (Digital Rights Management) is something a majority of web-savvy people are not fans of?  The forthcoming Typekit appears to be a way to solve these issues but until we can play with it, that remains to be seen.  I Love Typography has a great discussion going on at their blog about this as well.

And then there's the problem of wide-spread support.  Unless you use one of the latest versions of a web browser, you probably won't be able to see the nice type settings of websites programmed with @font-face.  Aside from Firefox, the only other browser to offer proper @font-face support is Apple's Safari browser since March 18th, 2008 with the release of 3.1.  Opera will be adding @font-face support in the near future.  Internet Explorer's support of @font-face is long-standing but like many of it's CSS features, half-assed.  Chrome's support is apparently broken at the moment.

The good news is that 50% of Internet users are on a Firefox or Safari browser.  But what version do they use?  It's wishful thinking to assume that every Firefox and Safari user is using the latest, although the odds are certainly with higher with Safari given how long it's supported the property.

How much does @font-face change the web design world?  At the moment, not much.  Support is too hit-or-miss and the potential for abuse is enormous.  @font-face will certainly change the landscape someday but it won't be inspiring a dramatic shift in the way websites are built any time soon.

With many designers out of work as a result of the economy, advanced degrees targeting creatives are sprouting like dandelions, promising graduates additional differentiation, an edge over their competition, and ostensibly, additional career security.

It is in the best interest of these institutions of higher learning (read: businesses) to convince us that yet another credential either will increase the odds of getting hired if we’re unemployed or reduce adequately the chance of being let go if we are lucky enough to still have a job.

Lately, I’ve noticed a spate of new programs that target designers. These MXA’s come in all shapes and sizes, are available anywhere in the world. Some require you to put your career on hold while you study. All require significant financial resources. And none come with guarantees. To ensure that this investment actually will move you toward your goals, you need to have a very clear agenda.

If goal is to become a great businessperson, get into the best MBA program that will have you. (Think Wharton, Harvard, Columbia, Yale, etc.) But if you want to become a more worldly and wise designer, first stop and think about where you would most like to apply your talent. For example, if your passion is art books then you’ll want to find some way to become affiliated with museums. This could be achieved through an educational institution, but it could happen just as easily via mentoring, ad hoc educational program or internship. Be open minded – and creative.

Regardless of which path you choose, if you want to achieve greatness in your field, you must make education an absolute constant, whether it is through your own devices or through an organized program. Education must be coupled with constant and fearless self-analysis. What are my strengths? How dedicated am I? How much talent do I have, really? Are my expectations realistic based on my natural ability and the time that I’m putting in? A study published in 2006 by British-based researchers revealed that it takes a person approximately 10 years of active practice (average 20 hours a week) to gain mastery in any discipline.

These are interesting times. Additional education may indeed be a panacea, but it should be preceded by a thorough inventory of your capabilities, expectations and motives. You may be surprised at what you find.  

Click the images below for a full view:

Like Star Trek’s Tribbles, design templates and systems are popping up all over. Both appear benign and even helpful but reproduce quickly and indiscriminately, threatening to destroy the planet if their breeding is not controlled. The trouble with Tribbles and templates is that they both do what they are designed to do: Reproduce a lot of things very quickly that look very much alike.

Templates are intended to help businesses control how their brands are presented, saving money and ensuring output that is at the very least, consistent. But while this approach may work well in some situations (think retail packaging such as cartons of orange juice displayed together on a shelf) it also effectively neutralizes a designer’s ability to meet the communications objectives of more targeted design assignments such as printed literature or web-based communications. The result: Assets that follow the rules regardless of whether or not they are effective in connecting with their targets.

Most organizations have more than one audience, which means they should be tailoring their communications to speaking directly to each one. Consider “Carol,” who is not only a woman and an executive but also a wife and mother. If she speaks to her colleagues in the same way she speaks to her husband or children that would not only be ineffective, it might also be considered kind of crazy.

Just as in everyday life, we each have our own identity and adjust the way we communicate to that which we believe will be most effective given the situation. Sometimes it is appropriate to speak with authority, sometimes with affection. We do this instinctively, knowing that these nuances help us achieve our objectives, whether it be to move a potential customer closer to action through a marketing piece or calm a child with a skinned knee.

Also, just like good fashion, print and web pieces don’t have to match; they just have to “go.” In many cases, individual communications pieces are never seen together. A good designer will be able to respect your brand’s identity while also creating something unique that will resonate with your target audience.

Possibly the biggest problem with templates and systems, however, is that they eliminate not only the possibility failure but also any hope of arriving at something brilliant, startling, stunning. This leaves a great swath of mediocrity, which may not hurt your case but will not advance it either. Systems are typically implemented to save money (read: reduce the need for a professional designer). But at what real cost? Consider the potential lost opportunities. Matchy-matchy communications pieces are automatically averaged and shuffled quickly to the  “seen it already” file by the human brain; they have no power to overcome or break through the noise of contemporary life. Worse, a steady diet of vanilla fare will, over time, erode the impact of other well-executed efforts.

Remember the law of unintended consequences: those cute templates might “eat” your choices and limit your flexibility. If you decide to implement templates or a system, make sure the rules around following them are flexible enough to deal with the variety of messages that your organization needs to send as well as the assurance that they are likely to change often and quickly depending on external circumstances.

Finally, recognize that no system or template is a substitute for true creative talent – or the potential impact of pieces to which it is applied.