Dynamite designs done daily at DawsonDoes
Cutting edges belong in the kitchen
Nowadays, a lot of young designers are doing really flashy designs: jumbled, unreadable type all over the page, weird color combinations, freaky photos and graphics — you know the stuff. They call themselves “edgy” or “cutting edge,” yet they slavishly emulate other people who are emulating still others. Kinda makes you wonder who they’re designing for, doesn’t it? Well, for the most part, they’re designing for each other; they’re designing for their portfolios; they’re designing for their egos. They’re not designing for their clients, because they haven’t learned to design with the client’s needs in mind.
I’ve managed to last in this business for over thirty years (which is no mean feat, when you think about it) by presenting the client’s message in a way that makes it appealing to the reader. When flashy gets in the way of that message — flash without substance — the design has failed. You don’t survive if your designs don’t work. Period. End of story.
Good design, you see, is about the message. Sure, you want visual impact, but visual impact itself usually isn’t the message, it’s just a way to draw the eye to the message.
Dawsondoes thinks that type should be readable, graphics should be interesting, and cutting edges are best used on tomatoes. I try to do really appealing designs that stand the test of time because they work.