2024 Graphic Communication

I'm not designing since I'm a fulltime teacher (except if like one of my instructors you think we are kind of teachnig designers...) but from time to time I'm still doing a little bit of it. Specially for associations.

Oftenly that could start with a bad attempt by an amateur and I offer to do better!

This is a poster for a street bands fest. Using the picture this amateur (part of the board) drew.

This poster won't be in any book about graphic design neither an inspiration for students: there a compromissions, dictated choices, preferences which give less visual impact but members feel conforting, in resume: I designed a poster.

Of course I also designed the flyer and the Facebook bann:

My students are talented #2 : school flyers

Looking into my blog I've seen a note published in December 2022 about some of my students works BUT I've never shown what some of my others students were doing at the same time: 

Well, no, this isn't my students' work this is from a profesional graphic designer.

Based on what my pre-Baccalaureat students had made.

Please let me explain.

Some flyers introducing the school diplomas needed a update. It has been asked to my colleague and myself to make a project with our students about that but there was yet an idea: making something like the new flyers for the post-Baccalaureat diplomas:

I made a kind of a workshop so some of my students could tell what they were thinking about those, which datas they were able to catch and finally to ofeer my ideas.

I resumed there observations and thoughs in a survey (for which my previous experiences in user design allowed me to precise some ideas). First thing is that they were missing informations with this kind of dynamical graphism: there were looking after datas they couldn't find while it was written on the document.

And I asked them for proposal:

Alrigth these are not designer's sketches but that's not what we  ask them.

We can see an horizontal lines structure.

Like on a lot of apps or websites where you scroll.

The graphic designer was able to understand and to use that. It's a sublimation as I really thought he would have a hard time exploiting my students sketches. In the end we have the graphic architecture, the hierarchy and the content my students were asking for!

And what about my colleague?

She doesn't even made anything with her students. I couldn't be at the next meeting but she was and she simply said that my observations were right..

#mystudentsaretalented #lesson #communication #schooling

If I Were A Designer #26: Souvenir

My challenge to introduce a design project per week during one year has seen a second idea coming to life (but still without me...): a "poor piece of a souvenir" (2cv bolt, rock...) but presented on a rich support:

I recently went to visit the Image Mine Museum which is a museum about mining (you can tell by the name) anthracite and you exit by a shop where you can buy anthracite under different forms including... a wooden written support:

 

Can we agree that my proposal was nicer, less "DIY small work"?

If I Were A Designer - 21bis: Wooden Bic pen

More than ten years ago I challenged myself with a trend: making one design project per week during one year.

One of those ideas was a 4 colours Bic pen (a every day tool for my design job) with a body in a bit more precious materials (and maybe more comfortable) like leather and wood:

2 years ago I've seen that the brand made it (without crediting me for the initial idea) with a leather 4 colour pen!

Do you feel it's expensive as hell? Be quiet as here comes the idea in its afordable version: the 4 colour Bic pen in wood:

Well that's still not really comfortable and it still costs more than twice the plastic one when it seems to be a fine wooden on a plastic body (and you can feel that the pens have a rough surface to ride on or asmaller one to compensate the wood eight) but this was my idea!

Of course I bought one (actually its sold by 2).

Repost World Design Blogs

 20 years ago I was in Cuba for a training period.

Yep, like that.

A few years later the website AdmirableDesign (created by Gérard CARON) started a blog platform to share about design all over the worl (made by Joris BEBIN).

I participated with my cuban experience, also with deutsch and finnish ones.

I loved this exchange platform but then it went without maintenance and died.

I wanted to have a trace from this. Actually the idea emerged when I started to teach in 2015!

Every year since I've been saying I wanted to repost all of this as a good resolution.

It's 20 years since I've been in Cuba so I decided it was time to find and restore these archives as to repost these.

Also to repost the articles I wrote for the main site AdmirableDesign and why not my famous A Blog of Comics about Design (it should be published on Insta too, that could be a pretty way to make it alive again).

It will take time (I didn't started yet to search for it) and it will be on my other blog (sorry, only in french): design-et-identite.blogspot.com
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