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Design like you mean it…

Hey, did you see that new logo for the Wisconsin Tourism Department? Did you make a snarky comment, or just come straight out say say “it sucks!”? Probably…

Wisconsin

But, like most things… I’m sure there is more to the story.

I often speak about the difference between art and design. Yes, there is a difference. An artist creates work to satisfy themselves, while the designer creates work to satisfy the client. You could say the artist is their own client, which is why artists die poor. Designers, on the other hand, try to create work that is great, work they can be proud of, work that solves problems… but ultimately, the client makes the decisions.

So, when you hear that some company got $50,000 for a lame logo that totally sucks, you are outraged, and you make fun of it, and call it a “rip off” and say that your third grader could do better. While these things may be true, there are always other things to consider.

I can almost guarantee the State of Wisconsin did not just write a check to some company for $50,000 and a week later got this amazing logo in an email. You’ve dealt with government, right? The project probably took 3 years, and involved dozens of people, none of which agreed on anything. I’m sure there were better ideas that were scrapped, and there may be a whole campaign involving radio, tv, and print that is part of the $50,000. (Which would actually be a pretty tiny campaign.)There may have even been multiple people tagged as the “decision maker” throughout the process, which may have changed every month, or week, or maybe even the classic “design by committee” where a group of 20 people all had to agree on one thing, and ultimately, this was the outcome. (Hint: there’s a reason Steve Jobs makes all the decisions at Apple.)

Oh, not to mention, there are usually specific requirements a company has to meet to work with government organizations, including things like who owns the company, what involvement the company has with other organizations… you know, bureaucracy stuff. It’s what government is known for!

The designers I know, the ones who still have a passion for design, and haven’t just given up yet, love to be proud of their work, and want what they feel is best for the client… but at the end of the day, the client is the customer, and the customer is always right… right? (OK, the customer is not always right, but with the economic situation today, most companies are not in a position to fire their clients.)

If you’ve worked in the design industry, you’ve probably created work for a client that you didn’t like, or actually hated, but the client loved it, so you delivered it. It’s not going in your portfolio, and you don’t admit you designed it, but that’s just the way it goes sometimes…

And if you’re wondering… yes, I too think this logo stinks, but I blame the client.

(Disclaimer: I’ve worked in the design industry for many years, and am currently working with Z2 Marketing. I have a BFA in Graphic Design, but my titles have never included the word “designer” in them.)

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Morning Light

Morning Light

I finally feel like I am getting into a comfort zone shooting with the Nikon D40 now… The shot above was taken yesterday morning as it was freezing cold, along Highway 67 in Dousman, near the Bark River. I just dropped the kids off, and on the way to work, it looked amazing so I took a shot. Oddly enough, I took about a dozen, but the first one turned out the best.

Also, PortalWisconsin.org used it on their home page on December 5th, 2008. I liked that so much, I took a screen shot of it… :)

PortalWisconsin.org screen shot






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DrupalCampWisconsin Recap

DrupalCampWisconsin was held all day on Saturday, January 19th, 2008 at MSOE in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I’d like to thank everyone who showed up and took part, and all of the sponsors for the care and feeding during the 12+ hour event. Thanks to Web414 for organizing the thing, Fresh Coast Ventures and 2XL Networks for providing beverages, and Cruiskeen Consulting LLC, EC Connection, and Palantir for keeping our bellies full so we could concentrate on Drupal.

Talking about Crell's presentation on IRC (by ashley_dryden)

This was the first real BarCamp-type event we’ve done which was not really a BarCamp. Since it was a smaller event, and just one day, and focused on one thing (Drupal!) it was a bit different. We had planned to settle in between 9AM and 10AM, and then kick right into it, but due to a few issues, we really got started closer to 11AM, and Larry from Palantir started with a good overview of the Drupal Ecosystem, and what makes Drupal what it is, not just code, but a community of good people doing good things. My note during this time was that you can’t just look at the code of an open source project you plan to invest in, you need to look at the people that make up the community. No matter how good a piece of software is, I don’t want to have to deal with jerks every time I use it. Drupal has a serious lack of jerks… What they don’t have is a lack of female involvement. Larry mentioned that the percentage of women involved in open source is typically low, and is lower than the percentage involved in just software development in general, but in the Drupal community, the number is pretty high. (KarenS was there, and I can tell you, she really knew her stuff! We had a handful of “Drupal Ninjas” and she was definitely near the top of that list.)

KarenS (by kev_walsh)

Like I said, slow start… After we asked the group for session ideas, we wrote them down and built a rough schedule. We then just talked generally about the Drupal Community until noon when lunch arrived, and then ate our subs and launched into the sessions. We ended up having two rooms, one for Beginner sessions, and one for Advanced sessions. We covered a lot of stuff including CCK, Views, Ubercart, and more… until it was time for dinner. Oh, we also put up a “who needs work/who needs to hire someone” board. After dinner we ended up combining the Beginner and Advanced groups into one and covered theming.

Drupalers (by ashley_dryden)

After the event ended, we headed over to Bucketworks for a party sponsored by Social Helix and The Fireseed Group. There was drink and merriment until we were too tired and went home to sleep.

Blake Hall (by kev_walsh)

Will we do it again? Definitely…



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Wisconsin Election Summary

Wisconsin Election Summary




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Milwaukee/Wisconsin Podcasting Directory?

I used to be the guy who maintained the Wisconsin branch of the iPodder.org directory. (I might still be, but haven’t gotten any requests for additions in months.) Is iPodder.org still being used today? I’m not even sure…

Anyway, Sara Oceguera from mkeonline sent out an email asking for Milwaukee area podcasts to list themselves in the mkeonline.com podcast directory. So, you know, if you’re in the area (Milwaukee, that is) and do a podcast, here’s one more outlet for you… Enjoy!