whatimeantwasthis

As I sit here reviewing what are possibly the world’s ugliest graphics, and certainly the most hideous I’ve been forced to help produce in almost two decades of museum design work, I’d like to remind anyone and everyone considering the use of a committee to “help” your designer design something—don’t. Just don’t. Nothing good can come of that. You will waste weeks, if not months. You will churn through thousands of dollars better spent elsewhere. And, in the end, you will have something that will make decent people feel sad or throw up in their mouths.

Additionally, I would like to point out that the fact that you have read a magazine, own a computer or have used your phone to snap a Hipstamatic image does not make you a designer. I think it’s fantastic that we all have so many more tools and technologies at our fingertips in these modern times, but the downside is that having them makes people think that they know what to do with them. We’ve all seen the websites, the print ads, the brochures, the flyers, the signs and the branding done by someone who “has a program” or by a company that wanted to save a few bucks by “doing it in-house,” which usually means tossing the job to an overworked secretary or the boss’s nephew (he has Photoshop!). Our environment is not better for your frugality and/or self-confidence.

If you want good design, hire a competent professional. Keep reminding yourself why you hired them in the first place—because you have no idea what you’re doing. Don’t assemble a group of people with a dearth of experience and an excess of personal opinions to second-guess what your professional is doing. When you do that, you are WASTING YOUR MONEY and making the world that much more unpleasant. There are some outstanding designers out there who make cool stuff and will make you look very good indeed. Don’t be afraid to use them!

NB: I am a content developer and writer, not a designer, although my work has me collaborating with graphic designers on a continual basis. I have no personal economic dog in this hunt.