handywork
Presentation. Presentation. Presentation.
This is a little point that I've been meaning to bring up for a while now, not that I'm planning a literal onslaught or anything, I just ponder about these things from time to time.
As you might have guessed from the BIG hint in the sub-heading of the title: the topic of this particular conversation is how design work is presented.
Pick up your nearest design comic, especially Grafik, and you will find numerous ways of how different companies present their work. You will get some that is photographed, some that are visuals, some a mix of both, some visuals that you look at and think "is that a shot or a visual?" and most recently (and also what I find most irritatingly) are people man-handling their work.
If you're not with me here's what I mean.
Posters, a once immediate form of communication and where the idea is king, now seem to be seen in such a way that hinders their power to communicate to us.
Have a look at the 'poster' that I chucked in above this text.
Now are you thinking, "yes I know what he means" or are you more on the lines of investigating what a strange collection of books I have, and why I have a toy Terminator in my 'studio'*. Are they carrier bags stuffed beside the drawers? I wonder where he got the massive A & S, oh look, he has all the Roald Dahl books and that Creative Review Car issue. Is that Mein Kampf?
You could get carried away and lost in that picture—which detracts you from the entire point— The Poster.
Now, being a designer you're supposed to be open-minded so that you can really understand other peoples (and by peoples I mean companies and businesses) problems. I'm no different.
I can see the advantages in showing a poster like this for certain reasons:
The idea:
Stuart at Thoughtful gets the joke.
See, I can see why you would want to present work using this method in this instance as it brings something to the equation that the poster alone wouldn't.
The Execution:
The Partners, armed with a great creative history, know that you have to do whatever it takes to support the idea of a piece of work—even if it means shooting the work in a visually busy environment (to be fair, where the work would end up) and with a person in the shot. This helps reinforce the ideas execution and also sets the scale (with the feet) and so I can see why this is preferred choice of display is used over a 'flat graphic'.
But, when you have a poster that does what a poster does—communicates effectively and precisely in its intended environment, or in any environment for that matter— then why do you have to dilute and confuse this power with the addition of superfluous elements like your hands and the contents of your entire studio.
This is happening in editorial design too:
Shooting a spread from a hardback, rigid book isn't always the easiest thing I know, but it is still achievable and worthwhile.
Irma Boom's outstanding work shows this.
But, I won't go over in detail with books in the same manner that I did with posters, as I feel the same factors apply—as with all good graphic design—I will just skim over the bits best I can.
The idea:
As said previously, the idea, and if a particular execution or format is employed, then it must be supported in any means nessecary.
With the North / South Divide book, George and myself, designed it with the idea that the page could become a physical divide. With a statement that ran over the page, creating a negative stereotype on one page, but then abolishing it with a turn, the reader is engaged with the book by constantly turning the page to complete the story (the images quite nicely met in the gutter too). And to achieve this physicality in a visual we hand to get handy.
But, when an instance like this in essence is not present I see little reason to get your mittens thumbing over a spread of work that can to do all the talking alone.
They just get in the way, for me anyway.
I will however acknowledge that scale and dimensions are more important with a book than they are with a poster but you can only truly experience, and allow others to experience, these by picking up the item for yourself. I simply don't see what an image of someone holding a book over a wooden laminate floor does for the design except maybe lets it sit more comfortably in an arena where style conquers substance.
Maybe that is where this form of presentation has risen from.
One designer has a great piece work, with a great idea that benefits from being shown held. It looks, and is, great. Someone sees it and decides regardless that they will show their work in the same manner even though it is meaningless and so-on and so-forth and a style is born.
But, for me, doing something just because it might look good and because it is in vogue is no excuse.
Have your say at mytwopenneth@craigoldham.co.uk
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*Now, when I say studio I mean, well, a room really.
I do have a Terminator toy that looks more like a pirate as he fell off the drawers and half of his Ray Bans broke away. The big A & S were stolen from some shop signage (wont give away too much there). I own a few Creative Reviews, my mum bought me the Roald Dahl collection as a present and I have Mein Kampf as I studied Modern History.
And just to prove a point, (the point being that you look at everything in the picture and not just the poster) I've left a little treat in the image, a word in fact. If you find it you will know what I felt like standing with that poster in hand. Let me know how you get on.
Also, all the images posted up here are credited below and have links to their sources. Confession time: I didn't get permission for their use from all parties because a) I didn't think anyone would mind, it's not like I'm passing it off as my own—that's just not cricket— and b) because I doubt the great designers mentioned are remotely interested in looking at my tiny site. But still, if you would like me to remove your image or just give me a telling off, please get in touch.
Thoughtful and their blog.
thoughtful.squarespace.com/journal/
The Partners
thepartners.co.uk
The Design Museum and Irma Boom.
designmuseum.org/design/irma-boom
irmaboom.nl
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