The Glyph: August 2008

Friday, August 29, 2008

You Know Your A Graphic Designer When...

You watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials

You can spot bad typography from 100 yards away

You look upon a well-designed project with either: sympathy OR extreme jealousy

You tell stories of exacto-knife inflicted wounds with grizzled sort of pride

You buy a CD or DVD for the artwork, even if you have no idea what the actual music or film is like

You know what “kerning” is and you really, really like it.”

You give your relatives a lecture about color spaces and profiles when you email them your vacation photos.

You maintain a grid system for your refrigerator magnets.

You sit at work for eight hours straight just looking at your monitor, waiting for a spark of inspiration that doesn’t come.

Looking at a menu makes you go “hmmm, ITC Baskerville italic” rather than “mmm, lunch!”

Apple+Z is the first thing that goes through your mind if you drop and break something.

You know that rivers are more than just water.

Kerning and leading on your shopping list actually matters to you, and you don’t see a problem with that.

You know that “bleeding” doesn’t hurt.

When deciding on the right crop doesn’t involve a choice between corn or wheat.

You’ve considered naming your children things like ‘Kern’, ‘Pica’, and ‘Serif’.

You can understand everything on this list.

Where is the Donkey?

Something time-honored appears to be missing from the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Do you know what it is? It’s the Democratic donkey, the symbol of the Democratic Party. Read the article by Steven Heller about campaign graphics. (Steven Heller is the co-chairman of the MFA Design program at the School of Visual Arts and is a noted author on graphic design subjects)Click the Title to read this article.