Graphic Design Legend Milton Glaser on Design & Art

Anne Quito for Quartz: 

Design is not art. It’s a distinction understood by practicing designers, but it still eludes many. In an Oct. 29 talk at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, the 87-year-old graphic design legend Milton Glaser gave the best definition of the practice of design.

“Design is the process of going from an existing condition to a preferred one,” said the 2010 National Medal of Arts recipient. “Observe that there’s no relationship to art.”

This confusion is not just a matter of semantics. In businesses, schools, offices, even newspapers, design is often associated with the art department. That’s a fundamental misunderstanding of the aim of design. When art and design are confused, the designers’ domain becomes limited to style and appearance.

My Mutant Brain

I've been somewhat obsessed with this short film by Spike Jonze since the moment I saw it first making its way through social networks. From the music and dance, to the filmmaking behind it, to the fact that it is an ad for perfume in the most non-traditional way possible. Mostly I keep re-watching trying to recapture the moments of surprise I experienced the first few times I saw it. That moment when your brain registers what is actually happening as she runs up those steps and there are reflections everywhere, was, is, so satisfying. 

The film is a creative relative to Jonze's music video for Fatboy Slim's "Weapon of Choice." Both of those films make me wish for a collaboration between Jonze, Qualley and Walken.   

Client: Kenzo
Kenzo CD/EPs: Carol Lim and Humberto Leon
Written & Directed by: Spike Jonze
Actress: Margaret Qualley
VFX: Digital Domain
VFX supervisor: Janelle Croshaw
Costumes: Heidi Bivens
Song: Mutant Brain (feat. Assassin) by Sam Spiegel & Ape Drums
Production Design: KK Barrett
Director of Photography: Hoyte van Hoytema
Choreographer: Ryan Heffington

Marketing in four steps

Seth Godin: 

The last step is so often overlooked: The part where you show up, regularly, consistently and generously, for years and years, to organize and lead and build confidence in the change you seek to make.

Kristy Tillman: Inviting Yourself to the Table

Have you ever had an idea that you wanted to execute or be involved in, but it never quite happened for you? For Kristy Tillman, this was not only true for her, but at times it felt like the defining sentiment of her career. While we live in a world of interconnection, it's still so easy to feel like we're not making the impact that we'd like or taking advantage of all of our opportunities. However, instead of asking for permission or waiting for life to happen to us, Kristy urges us to invite ourselves to the table. 

In this 99u talk, Kristy challenges us to "restate the problem: How might [you] begin to make [your] own opportunities? By inviting yourself to the table."

What is the purpose of a logo?

Brian Solis continuing a conversation about logos, after it was discovered that a few modern logos look a lot like logos from a design book: 

Without purpose, a logo is merely design. If it’s borrowed or if it’s completely original, it makes no difference if it’s unrelatable. In the end, a meaningful logo is a symbol of what you stand for and what you aspire to do or be that attracts me to stand with you. It’s how you bring that purpose and meaning to life, in every moment of truth, that shapes my experience.