Black Widow

Following up yesterday's post of some old art, I'm now in the post comic career work. These next few posts will be of work that I have been noodling with in some effort to not be completely through with drawing. I had been hired to do some sketches for a few pin-ups by an independent comic creator, who upon review, rejected them. Later, a friend of his told me that he was reluctant to have work in his book that looked better than his. I know it's subjective, but this "creator" was never cited for his draftsmanship and I trusted the source. In an effort to not waste paper, I changed the character, re-worked the idea and got to work. The result is a linefest, maybe I'll block in more blacks next time. I can't remember if I've inked this, I'' check when I get home. But, enjoy it for now.

Out with the Old!

Alright, I'm in full tailspin with my creative life/career(s). This is leading me to post a bunch of my old art, much would be able to drive, maybe vote, were the living breathing citizens of this fair country. Note: These are not in chronological order.

The New Rupee

Just about a year ago the government of India announced a contest to design an alpha-numeric mark to represent the nations currency, the rupee. I learned of the effort listening to Erik Spiekermann speak about it on NPR.

This may not sound amazing but I found it a truly exciting moment, graphic design was being put on to the world stage. The second largest nation (in population) was turning to my profession to brand this exploding economy and make it a world currency. No small matter, our closest example is the creation of the Euro, a modern economic invention.

It’s clear that India wishes to place it’s currency on the same international platform as the US Dollar ($), UK Pound (£) and Japanese Yen (¥). Having an economic symbol that is internationally recognized raises the perceived value of your currency amongst it’s competitors. Let’s face it, money is a money-making business and the more stable your currency, the more value it has in the world.

Currently the Rupee is represented in the marketplace with a letter-pair (Rs), as are other countries; Venezuela (Bs), Bolivia (Bs), Belarus (Br), Pakistan (Rs), Hungary (Ft), Indonesia (Rp) and Switzerland (Sf). Top economic currencies all bear their own unique symbol and this is where India has set their sights. A simple mark will aid them

Now, India has released the five finalists in this design contest, and [frankly] I’m not impressed. My concern with the five final options is they don’t look like typographic forms. If this symbol is to be become a part of the countries and the worlds culture, it must conform to the same rules letterforms do. There are still people grumbling over the euro sign.

Three things that will make the final design a success:

1. It must be is simple. Can it be duplicated by hand in three strokes? If it is, then the people will adopt it.
2. It must conform to the rigors of typography. Will it look good on a computer screen and print well? If it does, then the countries will adopt it.
3. It must make sense. Does it connect you to nation? If it does then the world will adopt it.

I hope that the Indian government can achieve this, the world is watching closely, well at least it’s graphic designers are.

Really, really?!?!

I'm a bit confused here, didn't they get rid of the "express" already?

Riding the elevator, this morning, with a pleasant employee of this courier service, I joked about the name and he tried to explain to me that the the company name is not Federal Express, just FedEx. I smiled in response, not willing to spend all seven of my flights trying to timeline the history of the company name.

Will there come a day when when Landor is hired to do FedExEx? We can only hope.

RETURN of the ...

It's been a bit of a delay since my last post, c'est la vie.

No surprise the economy has played it's hand in what could be on record as the slowest start-up year in history. Unfortunately a few devastating personal matters took their toll to round the year out. After realizing my entrepreneurial effort was moving at the speed of moss, I partnered with two other start-up businesses. Why start one, when you can start three? Well, what do you know, the other two have gained traction right out of the box.

The second biz, can be classified as collaberation between, an ad guy, a photographer, a set producer and yours truly. Our model is simple, bring together complementary creative talents in a compelling setting and offer that to corporations to partner with charities so all benefit. Do good, get paid. Well, our idea has the corporations excited and the project is moving close to the start line. I've been around long enough to not get too excited until the ink dries on the contract, but my greatest excitement is to see this "crazy" idea work out so well, so soon. We have the next two project mapped out using this current model and I'm really looking forward to building this "side" business up.

The third business started with the premiss of; "I have a good idea of an ad for Brand X, let's sell it to them!" Of course this is a daunting and most impossible task to undertake, but what do we have to loose? So, that same set producer, a director/photographer and me met on a Monday to talk about it. We chose a name, a general creative model and discussed the first client (an up and coming fashion designer, who is winning the PR battle). But before the first meeting was over, the client called us and wanted to meet with us the next day. So, we brainstormed the pitch, structured it out and broke. On Tuesday afternoon we met the potential client, pitched him the 30 second spot and he loved it. We have our crew, our shot list, our location, our models and now, we shoot the spot this Thursday. Just over two weeks, from pitch to shoot. So that's a positive response.

What about biz number one? Well, I've been busy all last month and I have had four solid client leads in the last week. I may have to move office space, increase size and steal away a great young designer to come and work with me, because it looking to be much more than I can handle solo.

So what gives? I don't think the economy has snapped back, that's for sure. But I do believe that many companies are spending the remainders of their budgets to ensure more money from Finance next year. I also believe that networking has paid off here, I have been laying the foundation all year and nudging things along where I can and now there is life. Finally, I think some reckless abandon has been good here. I tend to plot, plan and move cautiously. Here I tossed some caution to the wind and choose to act and react. It seems to be working.

More to come...

Vision

I was talking with a fellow designer they other day and something slammed me in the face, maintaining vision.  He commented that it was great that I have the time to plan and plot what sectors I am looking for new clients.  So the question  presented itself; How do I maintain this point of vision when I am deep in the work? 

I know it's not an impossibility, many of the design firms I consider "successful" clearly keep this vision.  Though I have seen many a designer/firms new business growth suffer due to being buried in work.  What separates the two?  Is it staff, is it personality, or is it something else?  

Most businesses start off under staffed,and most problems can be solved with more resources aka. people, but that takes time and money to acquire. So that rules out the first option.  I believe personality may be a large factor.  Personality drives the culture of a firm, if the culture is one of curiosity and development, they will most likely search for new challenges.  

But what is the X factor?  Website, mailers, brochures, business lunches, seminars, call lists?  These are all even sum items, they offer no unique advantage to competitors, save various content.  I feel it is what we do with these things that make the difference.  It is how we get our message out there that drives the clients toward us.  Referrals, word of mouth, press and awards.  These things are the great return on our investment in our own brand.  They allow the proper growth to happen to allow us the ability to maintain that vision.  I really hope that the foundation I am laying will offer that to me in return.

Subject Hunting

I've been digging through my old files looking for some interesting material for the comic book project.  The subjects all seem too big to tell in my single panel per installment format.  They range from; a space epic, period adventure, fantasy adventure, spec ops adventure, teen girl superhero and a geo political superhero story.

I thought I'd keep posting things until something comes to the surface, or one of you stops me.  This post features the seed of the space epic, be kind this work was done almost 20 years ago.