Dan Germain

where was i?

I've been in the garden. And with the knee specialist. And in Barnet (see photo). But now I'm back, prompted by an email from someone called Emilie.

Next year I will be the Foreman on the Writing For Design jury at the D&AD Awards. Emilie from D&AD emailed me saying that it would be good to publicise this fact, hence this somewhat delayed blog post.

For all of you reading (Tom, Mum, perhaps Paul), I hope you are proud of this achievement and if you need to know what Writing For Design is, here is a definition...

"Copy, long or short, that is integral to a piece of graphic design, and where the two aspects work in harmony with one another."

In other news, the cartilage in my left knee has gone. That's now both knees. The next op is in a fortnight. Afterwards I'm going to take up canoeing.

my favourite designs

Went to see the Designs Of The Year show the other day. I was very impressed with all of the stuff that other people had made/designed. My favourite item was this lampshade.

And I also thought that the BMW made out of fabric rather than metal looked lovely too. I had a special photo taken of myself standing next to it.

Finally, congratulations to Bert Tennant and his newspaper gang for winning their bit of the show. I always knew they'd make it big.

dec the halls

An excellent Christmas gift:

Personalised Christmas decorations (aka DataDecs) from the people at RIG (Russell, Ben and Tom) – sized, shaped and cut according to data collected from some of my internet bits (twitter, flickr, lastfm and dopplr). Here's some info about how they were made, by a man called Andy.

 

some things I saw that are good

New Getafe kit, sponsored by Burger King. Score a goal, pop the shirt over your head and make like the King himself (he's printed on the inside). More here.

 

Some stuff called Help Remedies. Worth looking at this post for more pictures. (Nice spot by Tom)

And finally, the 5 most badass things ever done by jungle cats, if only for the conversation between the lion and the man at the bottom.

steve paskin

I learned a lot from Steve Paskin. Steve was an art director at Lowe during the time that we (innocent) worked with them, and he worked on most of our campaigns. He's a gentle, generous man, a great art director and a good writer, even though he might not consider that last bit to be his thing.

Before I met Steve I would always start off trying to have ideas by writing things and perhaps doodling a bit. Words would always feature heavily, as that's what I consider myself to be best at – writing. So that's where I thought my best ideas would come from. But then I started watching Steve, observing how he had his ideas, and he did it differently, usually by leafing through seemingly random scrapbooks and books full of photos and art, until he'd find something that might start a train of thought.

Now, this may not be a revelation to those of you who are art directors. This may be the way things get done. But for me it was new. And since I watched Steve do it, I've tried it myself, to good effect (good for me anyway). I came up with ideas that I would never have got to with words and scamps and doodles alone.

I've never worked at an agency and so I was always grateful to the creatives who'd let me sit in their office and talk crap with them, and watch them at work. Steve was one of those kind people, and one of the loveliest, most honest people I have met so far in advertising. Great artist, excellent ad man. You should have a look at his new site and get him to come and work his magic on whatever you're doing next.

paper paper shredder

Saw this in Creative Review and liked it a lot. Everything in the picture is made from paper. Even the coffee stains. Round my way, that's known as clever.

Made by Chrissie McDonald, photographed by John Short.

the designers republic is dead

The Designers Republic is dead, as read in Creative Review.

As a young man, I didn't know much about graphic design. I still don't really, but I have learned over the years what I like and what I don't like. And I think that I began learning by looking at record sleeves. They were the bits of design that I pored over more than any other as a young 'un. Could spend hours looking at every little bit of an album cover.

A sleeve that bore a tDR design was always a treat. The first Nightmares On Wax album (above) sticks out in my mind, as do lots of late 80s/early 90s releases on Warp (all of the LFO stuff for starters). They were always interesting and clear, with a few hidden bits of magic where it was least expected. You actually looked forward to see what the next one would look like.

I saw Ian Anderson (founder) speak in London a few years ago and he seemed like an excellent man - full of ideas, fairly opinionated, a bit rude, but in a good way. There's more from him here. I was happy to read that he plans to revive tDR, as a place where great design is done. It would have been rubbish if an era-defining design house was wiped out just because they weren't that good at being an ad agency.

restaurant review

Saw this menu last week. It looked great - about three thousand different types of oysters and lots of other good things too. It's a pity that the menu wasn't actually the menu at the pub in which I was sitting - they must have pinched it from somewhere on their travels and hung it up because it looked nice.

The '&' was the best bit.

In other food news, I was in a magazine today, talking about food. I like food.

free design work

There was a lot of rubbish in the big pile of mail I found upon returning from my holiday. I put most of it in the big green bin marked 'recycling'. Some of it I felt like burning out of spite but it would have made the office all smoky, like a kipper shed. So I didn't.

But I did like this postcard. So I kept it.

As with most good things, it's simple. Rather than blathering on about all the good work they've done, or spending loads on sending some piece of uber-designed foldout brochure with spot varnish nonsense, the students at Leeds are simply offering to show you how good they are.

I think I've missed New Blood, but I still might fill it in and send it back (you can brief them online too).

Any thoughts as to what I can brief them to do?

logo design 101

Spotted in the north, by my friends Lou and Mike. Sizzling good work.