me news

a shared interest in speculative design

…they want to hear about the nuts and bolts of a studio rather than listening to airy waves of self-branding. They see how the field is changing and want to know how other designers deal with it. And all that is totally legitimate. However, I would like to look at what we are from the work we make rather than from our salaries. Our business model is this: you have to take everything as an opportunity and be very entrepreneurial about your work. You have to mix paid assignments with self-directed work; don’t assume that self-directed work is going to be the final solution. It won’t be. Design and clients belong together. We agree with Guus Beumer, Dutch curator and design writer, that redesigning design is not just up to the designers, but also up to the clients: if we need different answers, we also need different questions…

following on from their recent article, design observer have done a short interview with metahaven’s daniel van der velde, see also these two related posts

m / 28-12-2010 10:38 - tags: , ,  

meta logo

design observer have picked up on metahaven’s ‘wikileaks’ presentation last week in amsterdam, the obvious reaction seems to be how ugly the proposals were which is, although undeniably true, missing the point somehow… their proposals had many interesting angles like the fascinating brand architecture and ‘image economy’ he discussed at some length

m / 27-12-2010 11:13 - tags: , ,  

old story, new media

happy christmas to all from me… x

m / 24-12-2010 12:31 - tags: ,  

best mexican-dutch type collection… say what?

here’s a list of the ‘best’ and most blogged about fonts from 2010: admittedly a highly subjective list seeing as it’s from ‘font shop’ and only features their own stuff… still a few fonts that have been seen all over the place this year, like the perhaps already overused ‘museo’

m / 23-12-2010 19:59 - tags: ,  

large communication conglomerates

…perhaps it sounds as though I have fallen out of sympathy with Dutch graphic design. The disappointment, as I have tried to show, comes from the strength of admiration that preceded it. Dutch graphic design’s astonishing, inspiring achievements showed what could sometimes be possible in visual communication. Its innovations provided unusually exacting benchmarks that could be used to assess graphic design anywhere. I can only suggest that it would be dishonest now — and self-deceiving on the part of Dutch designers – not to apply these benchmarks to the contemporary graphic design scene…

sadly i was too late to get a ticket when design critic ‘rick poynor’ visited amsterdam last week… the debate he was attending on the state of dutch design must have been a lively one and i would (really!) love to hear from anyone who was present… exactly what the debate produced in terms of new ideas or old ones…

the reason he was invited to amsterdam is the critical article poynor wrote on ‘dutch design’ in the recently released edition of ‘the dutch design awards’ yearbook… the complete article has now been placed online (also in the dutch version) have a read… he makes many valid points, but as often is the case, it leaves me wondering whether he might be too limited in his depth of knowledge in terms of the smaller (lesser known) gods, making some very exciting and engaged work right now all over the netherlands… agreed the times have changed and we need to redefine ourselves but that means time to stop looking back, only forward perhaps… all the same we must (i feel) welcome any thinker/writer who is as passionate about our profession as ‘rick poynor’ is

m / 16-12-2010 20:35 - tags: ,