This short clip is by the well known designer, Michael Beirut, who is a partner and graphic designer at Pentagram. The clip is short, simple, and to the point. Enjoy!

This guys work is profoundly interesting and engaging. I have to hand it to those who can elevate the craft of Street Artwork and transform space into communicated experiences.  Take the time to watch this video!

I am a fan of this new site that I stumbled on today. It has a decent set of amateur fonts created by designers from Canada. Some of the fonts on there are quite nice, especially Fabrica, and Collator. Take a look for yourself!

Go to: http://practicefoundry.com/index.html

Wow. This morning, some changes happened in Washington I did not expect to see, at least not before this presidency ended. Bi-partisanship has been slim to come by in DC recently, but I am optimistic that this latest bill that passed will have a good effect.

Last month Tim Geitner slammed the “aggressive” stealing of American business technology and intellectual property last month by China. A month later, in response, America passed a a currency bill that would basically stick it to all Chinese exports.Two quotes sum up what happened in a nutshell:

“We’re seeing China continue to be very, very aggressive in a strategy they started several decades ago, which goes like this: you want to sell to our country, we want you to come produce here … if you want to come produce here, you need to transfer your technology to us,” Geithner said in September.

“We are in trade war. But today we’re fighting back,” said Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown in response to passing a currency bill that he was in support of in October.

Now it’s (this drives me crazy, make sure you use the right version. Same goes for there/they’re/their etc) kind of a backwards (there is no elegant way to include ‘ass’ into a word) way of getting China to focus on the real problem: Businesses are hiding behind borders and have not been playing fair with each other; ripping off ideas and even business structures. I guess this is the only real way to slap China on the wrist for it. Even though it may not even be up for vote,  Republican House Speaker John Boehner has called it “dangerous.” I am no economist and I can’t quite grasp the entire picture of what this currency bill will do, but we know right now cheap goods for sale from China have flooded the market and removed the competition for production on US soil. The concept of Made in America has been dead for awhile. If you’re buying a screw, buy American Steel Zinc and you’ll save yourself a headache with the stuff they ship from overseas.

Opponents ie. some of the Republicans argue this is some how going to be a job killing bill, but I don’t get that. If it costs too much to ship and be tar-riffed to America, then there will be a demand vacuum that can be filled by production in our own country. Meaning more jobs here, less jobs there. Whether it is spoons, or baby cribs, or wares for Walmart’s shelves. It’s about time we start seeing some “Made in America” signs ie. American Steel Zinc screws and bolts.

Economists tell it like it is do we have the “rest of the story” or do you have something to add to this?

Sources:

http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-fury-us-senate-passes-currency-bill-031120201.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/23/timothy-geithner-china-very-aggressive-stealing-technology_n_977509.html

When I see postings like this: http://www.thedisciplesofdesign.co.uk/2011/01/a-little-familiar/

My blood boils..

Everyone in the creative industry knows that intellectual property has been disrespected in the global market, but no president has dared to fully say anything about it. The logic for the perpetrators: if we can get away with it in another country, than why not? Why not? … Besides the obvious moral and ethical issues that go a long with stealing, their is not much to stop these crooks.  We need global intellectual property protection. Their needs to be laws in place here and any country that claims to have a free market trade agreement.  Will it ever happen and have any strength in our life time? Who knows. But if your running for president or your working for a candidate, please get them to defend IP rights whether it is in the creative industry or the software industry, pharmaceutical industry or any other industry. And if your in the Republican party this is the key place to get the independent votes, we want someone with back bone to stand up for IP rights.

With all of the down and out stories we hear about on a regular basis, it is great to hear a story such as Hubway being brought to Boston by New Balance. On the surface Hubway has a similar business model to Zipcar and the Velib, a Biking system in Paris France. Basically as a customer you pay a small annual rent cost and you can use their bike between any of the biking terminals throughout the city. Why not ride instead of sitting down for your daily commute? And it is being run by the private sector. Sounds good to you? Sounds good to me.

Taking a look at their newly created site, I dig the simplicity of their new brand identity. And I enjoy the name itself, the word Hub can be defined as many things: the central part of a wheel, a connection point for things or locations around it, and also as a description of Boston. Combining ‘Hub’ with ‘Way’ obviously challenges the notion of riding passively on the subway or highway.  And the brand color is also interestingly similar to Zipcar, done on purpose maybe? It does seem like a cost effective pricing model as well. Currently they have advertised on their site a price that seems even cheaper then the cost of owning and maintaining a bike.  For $60 a year you can pick up a bike at any time and travel throughout Boston year round. Not a bad price for students. But good luck to bikers trying to commute in our less than predictable winters, 8 months out of the year are decent biking months, albeit hardcore enthusiasts I have seen commuting by bike even in January. There are a ton of benefits for Hubway one obvious one that comes to mind is the lack of needing space to store your bike, especially for students who have limited space to place a bike.

I guess the big question is if it works in Paris and we have a similar climate, how it will fair year round in Boston? And how many bikers would be willing to give up owning their bike to be a member, or are they solely trying to attract new cycling enthusiasts?  All good things to wonder but I am happy that New Balance, a local shoe company, is starting this project in Boston!

To find out more Visit TheHubway.comFull Credits:

The thought of creatives becoming certified has been on my mind for several years since entering the job market, and watching globalization affect our industry.

Recently, I have seen articles written in Communication Arts and more recently in Ad Age about this topic as well. If you are wondering why there is such attention to this topic? The reason is,  the industry has been turned upside down and shaken like a snow globe, and the job market has become increasingly competitive for everyone inside. This is due to cheaper labor worldwide entering the creative market, and new practices such as crowd-sourcing, which it can be debated lowers the value of creative.

Because of this new pool of talent, quality control has been on the mind of many creatives and supporters of NO-SPEC, an organization that focuses its efforts on stopping those from giving out creative on speculation to get a job. Their argument is that speculative work devalues the work and the industry. Supporters of NO-SPEC have in the past raised the idea over forums of having a certification process, to remove any doubts in clients that who they are hiring can do the job. This idea came about because of crowd-sourcing and how it has affected the design industry and the fear of how it could affect it ( this topic was raised well over two years ago on Linked-in forums ). In the recent past, crowd-sourcing was being purported as the end all be all. But now, it is quite clear that the work will always speak for itself. So if I am right that the work speaks for itself alone why do we need certification at all? Well I’ll try to answer this more clearly below, some argue for certification but in short I don’t believe that our industry needs certification.

Who would certification benefit? In a perfect world: Clients & creative professionals who acquired accreditation would benefit. That is because accredited professionals would then stand out in theory from the larger body of so-called unaccredited experts in our industry. In reality: I do not think a critical mass of creative professionals would sign up for any new bureaucracy, nor would existing organizations be right or ready to handle this task, and lastly that potential creative clients would know or care about certification enough to raise the demand for creative professionals to sign up.

What would it really mean? It would mean that every freelancer, studio, and agency’s body of work would need showcase that they are an accredited organization worthy of being professional. ( Adding bureaucracy to a service industry costs money. ) Now in the Ad Age article the author suggested that this would help out the little guy, I say it would not, it would actually only be a burden to the little guy and be an extra expense.

Would anyone pay for it? Agencies would, if there was a critical mass wanting to be a part of this and if clients viewed it as another arrow in their quiver. And Graphic Design Studios & Freelances alike might choose certification if it meant anything to their clients and if it were affordable. But it really raises the question what comes first the chicken or the egg. Is certification the egg for a healthy creative industry? That I do not know and although I do not agree with adding bureaucracy, I do think that in the long run it would add value to creatives that wanted to pay for this type of international certification process.

Why now? Many in the creative industry argue for certification now more than ever because advertising professionals and design professionals feel that everything has and is changing in the industry and that to be an expert in the field clients need to be able to see proof of it. Basically professionals are arguing now more than ever for quality control. That is a legitimate concern, but a never ending battle that may not require a certificate as much as a degree, recommendations, and a portfolio.

My closing thoughts: I think that we do not need certification at all, it would add a bureaucracy to an already strapped industry. And creatives of all paths need to only stand behind the success of their past work. I do think we need to be advocates for our industry and tell it how it really is for those that do not know. And I think we need to be crystal clear about what services we provide and what it is our clients really need, being blunt and honest is my answer. If we want people want to take our industry seriously, than we need to continue to prove that we as business owners can back up our claims for our services, and leave it up to the consumer to decide. It is that simple in my opinion.

What is your answer? Do you think creative professionals need certification and if you are a creative professional would you want it or pay for it?

Note: I know there are some places that have certification already for graphic designers and I am just curious as to where, if you know of any please link them and I’ll post them in as a resource link.

MortierBrigade created a facebook application to raise money for the Pakistan flood victims via Facebook. It’s called Share If You Care.

SHARE IF YOU CARE.

Client: Pakistan 12-12? (Caritas international – Doctors of the world – Handicap international – Oxfam solidarity – Unicef Belgium)

Contact: Paul Delbar
Agency: mortierbrigade
CD: Jens Mortier, Joost Berends, Philippe De Ceuster
Copy: Arnaud Pitz
AD: Sebastien De Valck
Producer: Patricia Van De Kerckhove
Website: viaVictor & Dataweb (Application development)
Media: Facebook

This submission comes straight out of Belgium from the agency mortierbrigade.com . Check them out too if you get the chance they have some funny video work on their site.

Find out more here about Google & Verizon:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/05/technology/05secret.html?_r=1&hp

Find out more about Comcast and NBC here:

http://www.betanews.com/article/ComcastNBC-Universal-merger-talks-extended-another-45-months/1279044026

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