anitra nottingham

In November 2003, the culmination of 18-months of work on a new signage system was about to be unveiled to our Executive Leadership Team at Banana Republic, including then-CEO Paul Pressler. That meeting was scheduled for 8AM on Friday morning. We were staging it at the Embarcadero store which was to open for business at 10AM. We had to be quick.

Thursday night, I stopped by an ATM in our old neighborhood to grab some cash for the next day. I should mention that I used to live in a really bad neighborhood.

[A stolen runaway van full of porno that crashed into my house on Christmas night. As I mentioned, we used to live in a really bad neighborhood, but this one is part of another story...]

One of my most unusual and memorable jobs came after a year of studying overseas. I was in my Program Director's office going over transfer credits when his phone rang. A film production company was looking for production interns for an upcoming film being shot in the area — The Vernon Johns Story (starring James Earl Jones).

This is also a story about being in the right place at the right time as he handed the phone to me — and by week's end I was on-set... but not as a production intern. At the time, I had a passion for vintage cars (and drove a 60s Ford) and they asked me to be the Picture Car Coordinator (I was also a stunt driver in one scene and a patrol cop in another (0:34)). The movie was set in the early 50s and my job was to find and secure period cards for filming in the pre-internet era and have them ready when the Director called "Action!". It was a hell of a lot of fun finding — and driving — these old cars. However, it was not easy.

One afternoon, while moving the cars hurriedly around the set, the Director sternly pulled me aside. He said, "I've been watching you all day and I have one thing to say: Slow down."... I replied, "I'm sorry, sir, but there's so much to do and I'm the only one here to do it". His response: "This is my set. When you look stressed and hurried, other folks pick up on that vibe. They become stressed and hurried. Others become stressed. Then folks make mistakes and people get hurt. It's not worth it. Get your stuff done. You'll be stressed — but act like you're in control. Don't let folks see you sweat. It's a perception thing."...

One of my favorite classes to teach at the Academy is called "The Nature of Identity". Not only do the student have a few more classes under their belts, but it's a hell of a lot more fun to talk about branding for three hours than, say, grid-systems. The focus of the class, however, isn't your typical "logo design" class. Instead, we ask the students to manifest a renewed "soul" for their chosen company — to question what the brand is truly about. We even dip into a bit of Plato's Theory of Forms to reflect on what it means to know a thing (and who knows it best — and why).

For instance, National Geographic isn't simply selling a magazine, are they? They're really selling the idea of adventure and education. Or Victoria's Secret isn't just peddling underwear, but they're purveyors of sensuality. And when you boil it down to these basic elements, the new directions for a brand can be amazing. This class is often more about storytelling than the creation of an identifying mark... and it's certainly more than slapping said mark on a coffee cup, baseball hat and delivery van.

We ask the students, to choose a "dead, dying or defunct" brand, so Victoria's Secret really isn't on the table, but the options are still pretty wide and it's always a treat to see... And this term, the projects were some of the best yet — mainly because they were /all/ good. As an instructor, we take for grated that one or two projects will be at the top end of the curve — and likewise some at the bottom, but this crew delivered an unusually high caliber of work and I wanted to share it.

The main deliverable for the class is a book. Many of these were wonderfully covetable and I hope to have some photos to share soon. In the meantime, below are links to each of the student's projects — a simple website to give the project a virtual presence and a link to an issuu.com file which lets a reader page through the book in 2D, digital format. Take a look — there's some really great stuff.

[Kristen Libero's integration of the identity and graphic system for Sega]

...

Howard Johnson's // by Stephanie Yu... This is an especially bold project for an otherwise very quiet designer. I think it's her best project yet and uses language in a way she's never done before to give a very appropriate tone to the book and brand.

link to site / link to book
--

Barbasol // by Laura Donaldson... I'm really keen on the simple mark Laura developed as well as the upbeat verve the book took.

link to site / link to book
--

Dr. Scholls (Scholls) // by Marsha Adibrata... like Stephanie, Marsha used language to evoke a new sense of style (and comfort) for this tired brand. The logo is pretty kick-ass, too.

link to site / link to book
--

NewsCorp // by Mary Lowe... The was by far the most adventurous and topical of the bunch and Mary put together a great story about this dystopian future-focused brand that we've come to know more about in the news this past year.

link to site / link to book
--

Sega // by Kristen Libero... This is the rare instance where all of the pieces really work in harmony: the mark, the graphic system, the color system and the physicality of the final piece.

link to site / link to book
--

Girl Scouts of America // by Aino Horsma... At their onset, the values of GSA were pretty groundbreaking for their time, but as times have changed, they really haven't. Aino tells what might happen if they did.

link to site / link to book
--

Fredericks of Hollywood // by Morgan Sterns... Looking back, Morgan identified "innovation" at the heart of Fredrick Mellinger's original brand and re-built it from there. Her use of photography is especially compelling.

link to site / link to book
--

The Seagram Company // by Knut Synstad... Seagrams isn't just selling whiskey, but the opportunity to unwind and Knut unfolds this story in a bartender's guide sized brand book.

link to site / link to book
--

Vanity Fair (VFair) by Cecilia Bissoli... Vanity Fair offered women comfort that lead to confidence. Jumping off from this point, what would the next generation of Vanity Fair offer? Cecilia explores this.

link to site / link to book
--

AOL // by Alaine Anhalt... The internet provided a new access to information. At the forefront of this wave was AOL. Alaine outlines what this could look like for the next phase of AOL?

link to site / link to book
--

Tupperware (TupperSystems) // by Eric Lo... If Tupperware can help you to organize your kitchen, why can't they take these same ideas to help you organise your life?

link to site / link to book
--

Baskin-Robbins // by Eva Chan... Eva identifies "wonder" as a core-element of the Baskin Robbins brand and reenvisions a future that isn't all about ice-cream, but something more encompassing — fun.

link to site / link to book
--

Smith + Wesson // by Alyson Payne... In the vein of "the pen is mightier than the sword" Alyson looks at the evolution of a firearms brand that doesn't involve firearms.

link to site / link to book

One of the things I've been hoping to compile is a Point-of-View on internships. We have many great firms that look to our students as interns — and when the balance of time-commitment, compensation and expectations are in line, this is a fantastic opportunity for both student and mentor. Hopefully, as a department, we'll get some consensus on this and be able to post it soon.

In the meantime, as a personal take: an unpaid internship is neither good for the student nor the long-term health of any industry and simply devalues efforts across the board, especially at entry-level. Here's an interesting turn in the saga of "Unpaid Internships" worth reading:

"In August 2011, when Diana Wang began her seventh unpaid internship, this time at Harper’s Bazaar, the legendary high-end fashion magazine, she figured that her previous six internships – at a modeling agency, a PR firm, a jewelry designer, a magazine, an art gallery and a state governor’s office – had prepared her for the demands of New York’s fashion world..."

Read more...

Students: It's been said before that success is gauged on results, not effort... this is true at all levels: at school as well as in the real world. But what does this mean: results v. effort?

If you think about it more than a few minutes, it's often glaringly obvious. By now, you know what good work looks like (and what it doesn't) and you know that in order to secure a good job in the competitive marketplace, you need to have good work... the chasm is "how to get there". As instructors, we'll push you to do good work -- often based on your own objectives, not ours. We show you good work. We relay stories on how other students (and we) got to the point of doing good work. But ultimately, we can't do the work for you and you can't copy someone else's path to success -- this is something that has to come from within.

[Image: Lewis Hine]

But sometimes a story works best to illustrate a point, so here goes:

If you're going to use a quote to back up your point-of-view:

1: Please make sure you know whose quote you're using. Does that person's values match with your goal? Are they worthy of quoting (i.e.: Are they noteworthy in their field?)

2: Make sure that the specific quote isn't taken from something larger/longer that might prove contradictory.

For instance, if I'm going to look for a quote to support my point-of-view on the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and that everyday people are just looking for a decent quality of life (and that's a good thing that should be supported), I might look for a quote to support that point of view.

"Ask yourself whether the dream of heaven and greatness should be waiting for us in our graves - or whether it should be ours here and now and on this earth."  - Ayn Rand

... ask yourself if Rand herself would support the movement. Do her other writings point in a direction that would support your views? (Quick answer: no...)

When I was nine, I really sucked at Space Invaders. Those little buggers always got the best of me and I’d sit for hours and try to defeat the marching drones to no avail. I was beat. I got fed up. I unplugged the console and put it in the closet. Done. Bye Bye, Atari 2600.

I kicked ass. Like a zillion points. Hours of pixelated carnage.

I later realized, though, that I didn’t get better at Space Invaders by practicing Space Invaders. If I had sat for years in front of the console, I doubt I’d have gotten much better.

It took me standing up, unplugging the thing, putting it away — and going out and doing other things — that helped to improve other skills. The time away allowed me to be the master of the 8-bit gaming console. What could this mean for a design student who hasn’t yet found their way? Sometimes standing up and stepping outside for some fresh air is a good thing.

If you've come to this site via Imprint.com or Salon.com, thanks for stopping by — and thanks to Aaron for the feature and passing it on to Salon. As you might note, this is a pretty new blog-thing, so feel free to check back every now and again (and check out the Facebook and Twitter links, too).

(At least not that I've found...)

Earlier this week, we were reviewing final projects in class. A student presented an idea with merit, but with an unimpressive formal follow-through.

I asked: "This seems like a less interesting way to present this. Why'd you do it this way instead of that way?".

Their response: "This way was easier"...

[Easy has become a commodity.]

This began a class discussion of "easy" in design... particularly while still in school.

In many industries, easy has become a commodity. Much of the above should honestly not be hard, but we've made it inordinately complex for one reason or another and many folks — from Staples to Kinkos to Southwest have attempted to streamline these more-transactional endeavors.

However, when it comes to the element of "easy" in design — particularly for early practitioners — choosing the easy way (versus the right way) just doesn't seem right.

Maybe because if were easy, it'd be less special. If it were easy, folks would do it themselves and not hire us to crack the hard nuts. It seems, too, that — in order to have good design — we also need a bit of mediocre (and maybe some bad) design to truly appreciate the good parts and give us a nod as to how to refine and evolve what's not working as well.

Granted, this notion is still in it's early stages — after all, it really only came up formally in the past few days unlike the Why "It" Matters spiel which has been circulating in my student forums for a while and has had a chance to evolve a bit. Maybe I have it all wrong.

What are your thoughts? Should design be easy? Easier? Why isn't it easy? What are the repercussions if there were a Command-shift-D keystroke that made good design automatic? Sure, we'd be out of a job, but we'd be surrounded by awesomeness.

The comment forum is open.