by jon bosworth jaxvillain@yahoo.com
When it comes to design, EU feels like we are in a unique place to be a sort of looking glass. When you are flipping through our paper, you can see that we adhere to a strong design ethic. We want to make it easy and pleasant for you to navigate our publication. We want you to be able to scan the pages to find the information you are interested in. And that is just the visual design. There is also a design to the editorial. We don’t adhere to Associated Press style guide, or any specific style guide for that matter, because we want the writing in our newspaper to appeal to you, the real person in the real world. We write in the language that Jacksonville speaks at work and in our homes and at backyard barbecues. We do this because it is important to us that we identify with the real you. We don’t care to identify with the snooty people that announce that “sentences shouldn’t end in prepositions,” because the truth is, we do end our sentences with prepositions. That’s what we are about.
And this is the point of design across the board. Design is something that everyone does. From the moment you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning, through selecting the clothes you are going to wear, the type of car you drive, the type of furniture you buy, and even the type of words you use, you are designing yourself. Why do we do it? Part of it is marketing. It sounds cheesy, but you dress the way you do to identify with a certain circle, or to identify yourself from that circle. Whether you are designing yourself to highlight your individuality or to blend in with a peer group, design is a thing that comes from within you to reach into the environment around you. Design is also a thing that we grab onto in the environment around us to bring the outside world into our minds or hearts. And that’s just personal design.
Graphic design, both on the Internet and in print, is taking the necessities of a medium, be they sales or information, and then manipulating the presentation to appeal to the target audience while also effectively facilitating the objective. Design isn’t like painting or creative writing, where you start off with no rules, no limits and no requirements. Design is taking real objectives and concrete necessity and applying a creative touch that directs those goals.
One of the common factors that we heard from most of the interviews we did with local designers in every area is that restrictions dictate creativity. Few felt that the restrictions placed on them inhibited creativity, but rather they create a jumping off point that cultivate the creative possibilities. A stylist is restricted by the hair of their customer, a set designer is restricted by the space, an event designer is restricted by the number of electrical outlets, a music producer is restricted by the abilities of the band they are working with and the interior decorator is restricted by the building, but all of their designs are directed by a customer or user. The purpose of design is informed by that direction.
What are your restrictions and how can you work through them? If money is a restriction, read what Mackenzie Marchy says about making your own things. If fear is your restriction, read what Daryl Bunn says about taking risks. Reduce your restrictions until you find that you are able to invent a way around them. A way that is unique to you. Once you find that place where you are able to come up with unique ideas, you become the designer and you are releasing the real you into the world through the thing you design.
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EU Critic’s Choice Awards
