Issue 33 May 2003

www.bamagazine.com

Before&After

How to design cool stuff

A Tale of Two
Republics
He a writer, she an artist, they
started Banana Republic as
an excuse to travel. Their work
was called the best catalog
concept ever it was literate,
entertaining, a make-believe
world expressed in design. Within
a decade, Banana Republic was
grossing a quarter billion
dollars per year. After that, they dreamed up
The Republic of Tea, and, incredibly,
did it all again. Mel and Patricia
Ziegler, who know more
than a little about putting
together a good page, have
a few words for you about
the art of the idea.

Inside B&A
Back to the future

Well, that didnt take long. Some of you loved it, some hated it, but our adventure
with the tabloid page lasted just two issues. The deciding factor? A survey showing
that 97% of B&A readersstatistically, everyonearchive and refer to their back
issues. For that, a tabloid simply doesnt work. In returning to a standard page, we
explored adding loop stitchingstaples that slip over binder ringsfor the ultimate in archival friendliness, but postal machinery would not permit it. So were
back to a regular magazine format,
which is more practical in every way.
A bit of brilliance at Veer.com

Have you ever bought an image online,

only to discover that up close its not
quite what you thought it was?films
grainy, eye contacts wrong, whatever.
Its especially exasperating when youve
based a design on an image that looks
great as a comp, but then fails at full
resolution. Veer.coms new Image
No surprises Focus sharp? Eye contact good? Veers
ImageZoom lets you detect trouble before you buy.
Zoom is the answer weve all needed.
Just click and zoom to inspect an image
at any level of detail before you order it. Veer has executed this little gem so beautifully that were certain it will soon be imitated everywhere. Check it out.
Those invisible teens

How to design cool stuff

John McWade Creative director

Gaye McWade Editor
Gwen Amos Design editor
Contributors
Chuck Green
John Odam
Hatsy Thompson
Editorial offices
Before & After magazine
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& After, How to design cool stuff (ISSN
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additional mailing offices. Postmaster:
Please send address change to: Before
& After, 2007 Opportunity Drive, Suite
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2003. Copyright 2003, JMS Publishing
LLC. All rights reserved.
JMS Publishing LLC
John McWade CEO
Michael Solomon Chairman

RUBBERBALL.COM

Writes reader Doug Reynolds: Im 47 and my client

is about the same. The job is to design a logo and
look that appeals to teenagers. I started research by
asking my two teenage daughters and their friends
what they like, then looked at what other companies who market to this demographic are doing.
I found that corporate design for teens typically
comes from much older folks, and the teens are
restricted to choosing what they like from looks created by non-teens.
Question is, how does one design for an age
group not visible in the design world? How do I find
out what works for a group 30 years younger?
Great issue.
Readers, talk to us.

Before&After

Before&After

Issue 33

www.bamagazine.com

Design
UCKY
T
N
E
K
clipsMINE

John McWade

ER
SUMM
CONCEESRT
SERI

ParkWorks, a logo
as good as perfect

Lorem ipsum dolor sit

amet, con
sectetur adipscing elit,
diam non
numy eiusmod tempor
incidunt ut
labore et dolore magna
aliquam
erat volupat. Ut enim
ad minimim
veniami quis nostrud exercitatio
n
ullamcorper suscipit laboris
nisl
ut aliquip ex ea commodo
consequat. Duis autem vel eum
irure
dolor in reprehenderit
in volupt
ate velit esse molestaie
son conse
quat, vel illum dolore
eu fugiat
nulla pariatur. At vero
eos et accusam et justo odio dignissim
qui
blandit praesent lupatum
delenit
aigue duos dolor et mole
stais
exceptur sint occaecat
cupidat
non provident, simil tempor
sunt

A beautifully
organized
portfolio site

Oh, our exasperating clients

More!

Flat shapes and soft

grays give a 2x 2
newspaper ad boldness and depth.

dense
, invitat igtur vera ratio

tated fidem. Neque hominy

infant
aut inuiste fact est cond
que neg
facile efficerd possit duo
conteud
notiner si effecerit, et
opes vel forunag veling en libaral
itat magis
em conveniunt, dabut
tutunbene
volent sib conciliant et,
al is adtissim est ad quiet. Endium
caritat
praesert cum omning
null siy

The power
of the logo
Why is a logo so
hard to redesign?
Because to the
client, its full of
hidden meaning.

24

Page layout

Design in small spaces

How to
strengthen
a small ad

in culpa qui officia deserunt

mollit
anim id est laborum et
dolor fugai. Et harumd dereud
facilis est
er expedit distinct. Name
liber a
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impedit
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accommodare nost ros quos tu paulo
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cum memorite it tum
etia ergat.
Nos amice et nebevol,
olestias
access potest fier ad augendas
cum conscient to factor
tum toen

The news
in 9x 6
The color whirl!

Cool a hot
skyline
Turquoise blues
and verdant greens
refresh a sweltering
city scene.

B&A interview

Why fuss with

whole pages when
you have only a
little to say? Design
this newsletter
postcard instead!
Tell your story in
this surprisingly
effective space.
By Chuck Green

10 14

Photoshop

A beautiful abstract in two clicks

A tale
of two
Republics
How can places
that dont exist be
so compelling? A
conversation with
Mel and Patricia
Ziegler about the
Banana Republic,
The Republic of
Tea, and how ideas
take flight.
By Hatsy Thompson

18

12

Issue33

PHOTODISC.COM

Before&After

Before&After

Issue 33

www.bamagazine.com

Design
clips

Letters from readers, ideas, techniques and items of general interest

image sharp edges that reproduce easily

and well in all media, at all resolutions,
exactly what you want in a logo. Frosting
on the cake: It makes an excellent animation; check out parkworks.org.

Is this a perfect logo?

Its close. ParkWorks is a non-profit
organization that raises money to add
playgrounds to inner-city schools in and
around downtown Cleveland. For its logo
it called upon Epstein Design Partners,
whose Anne Toomey came up with this
beauty. Simple and full of life, her tree and
its shadow are a brilliant juxtaposition of
urban and nature. The image is instantly
and deeply understandable. Cut-frompaper shapes convey childlikeness and
playfulness, yet bear an air of sophisticationnot easy to do! More, they give the

Similarity and repetition are key to good design. Note the tree
trunk, building and windows are all trapezoids (okay, trapezoid-like).
Note, too, the repetition of threesthree branches, three leafy
bulges, three windows, and three major elements (leaves, trunk,
building). Why three? The odd number, says Anne, keeps the image
asymmetrical; with even numbers, things
tend to start lining up. Similar quantities
are also at work here (right)the tree is in
halves (trunk, leaves), and the whole image
is in halves (tree, earth).

The emphasis subtle and exactly right, urban is expressed in

shadow, while nature is in the light and the dominant position.
epsteindesign.com

LowerUPPER
UPPER
Utopias short descenders and unusually narrow overhangsnote the
r belowcontribute to its excellent
letterfit; each letter tucks neatly
against the next. Its squarishness can
be seen in the bowl of the p, whose
height is the same as its width.

Before&After

Issue 33

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The new faces of B&A

Before & Afters new text typefacethe one
youre now readingis Utopia. An Adobe
Original, Utopia was designed by Robert
Slimbach in 1989 specifically for use in
text. Its slightly square overall, evenly gray
with excellent letterfit; its easy to look at
and undemanding to read. This is important. In choosing Utopia, we specifically
sought a face that does not project much
personality of its own, to not compete with
the many designs that we show.
Our new sans-serif face, used in headlines and captions, is Vectora. Designed in
1991 for Linotype-Hell by Adrian Frutiger,

Vectoras x-height is an incredible

85% of the cap height. Because of
this, ALL CAPS in a line of lowercase
type blend beautifully in, giving you
another level of emphasis.

Vectora is a slightly condensed, sharply

defined typeface whose most distinctive
attribute is its extreme x-heightlowercase letters that are nearly 85% the height
of the uppercase. Result, uppercase letters
fit beautifully without adjustment in a line
of lowercase, and line leadingthe space
between linescan be so tight its a negative value. In fact, the tighter its set, the
better Vectora usually looks.

Presentation window Everything happens here

A beautifully
simple site
Karen Barrancos online portfolio
shows excellent visual organization
The hard thing about a Web site is
getting it organized for the viewer
what happens where, and in what
sequencein a way thats obvious and
consistent. If what you need is a simple
brochure online, take a cue from Karen
Barrancos Special Modern Design,
a portfolio site thats unusually well
organized. Designed around the idea
of a presentation stage with off-stage
controls, it is so intuitively presented
that its almost wordlesspractically
the Holy Grail of design:
specialmoderndesign.com

Design axis

Main menu
Runs the show

Three permanent zones on a neutral background Everything

on the site (like most sites) has one of three functions: presentation,
navigation or contact information. Key in this case is that the functions
do not mingle, overlap, or change position or appearance. Presentation
happens in one window; navigation is handled off-stage. Note that
the background is a neutral value, against which both white and black
typethe highest possible differencestand distinctly apart. Note
also the neutral (read: plain) typeface, set in all caps. The rectangular lines that form are like the
pagean important similarity. The point of the plainness is to not upstage the presentation.

Scrollable rsum and other text-based information use Flash technology to

keep the screen scroll-bar-free. PDF link quietly appears only where appropriate.

(Almost) no-reading navigation Clicking a main menu item presents a graphical submenu, where each selection adds deeper submenus, whose arrangement
and smaller size intuitively convey their parent-child relationship. All selectable
menus are yellow, a consistent identifier. Active, they turn dark, which recedes.

As any salesman will tell you, keep your name in front of the customer,
and make it easy for him to reach you. Advice beautifully followed, name, phone
and e-mail access are always here at whatever point in the presentation a contact decision is made, the viewer has instant access.

Before&After

Issue 33

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Design
clips

RUBBERBALL.COM

Q
Oh, our exasperating clients . . .
Do you sometimes find yourself tearing
your hair out over a clients mystifying
graphical directives? Like when for no
apparent reason he asks you to make this
picture bigger, or she wants that word red?
Youre certainly not alone! But what do you
do? Three reports from the front:

It seems that B&A likes concepts on the

layout side of things, like those from
Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef
Muller-Brockmann, which I love. Do you
have any recommendations for any color
theory books? Ive been using Albers, but
havent found anything else that I like.
Gregory Leppert, via e-mail
Students of color
wont improve
on Albers, whose
famous book, Interaction of Color
Color, has
often been called
the bible of color
interaction. For the
layman, however,
color theory comes
with caveats. The subject is deep, technical
and often obtuse. Albers book and others
like it are full of good doctrine but nearly

Before&After

Issue 33

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I know its not a design question, but I would like to have

some comments and advice
on the difficult part of our
business: the meeting of
different points of view and
tastes, those of the client and those of the
designerthe one who pays to get something he likes, and the one who is paid
to satisfy. That satisfaction sometimes
involves doing things that you dont really
like, junky but pleasing to a client and
your wallet. I never really mentally and
politically resolved that question. Im sure
that your readers would be pleased to
know your experienced point of view.
Mario Desaulniers
Qubec, Canada

devoid of illustration, a baffling characteristichow can one learn about color,

or anything visual, without seeing it? As a
result, the book is excellent in a classroom
environment, but suitable otherwise only
for the serious. Master it, however, and
youll reap real dividends.
Design editor Amos tells us that her
preferred textbook
supplement to
Albers is Understanding Color:
An Introduction
for Designers, 2nd
Edition by Linda
Holtzschue (John
Wiley & Sons).

I read your online article on lettering. It

was great, but I was wondering what you
would do if the letters were the same; for

Loved your articles, in particular Simplify

in issue 32. I love simple. Its hard sometimes for a client to buy simple, though.
They want to fill the entire page. I guess
they think theyre paying to have an entire
page printed, so it should be covered!
Ugh! How can you get clients to understand the need for a simplified message?
Maybe I should show them your article!
Heidi Jones
Clare, Michigan
Many times I design what I believe in my
heart and know in my mind to be solid
design founded on the principles that Ive
studied and the craft I am continuously
honing. Yet the client butchers it.
As the most simple and common

example, M & MIm just thinking of a

business name of M & M Design Center
and wondered if you thought that it was
workable graphically.
Bonnie Marinaccio, via the Web
Have you ever had a
totally original idea in
the middle of the night
that in the light of day
turned out to be something youd already seen? Bonnie, its certainly workable graphically, but before you
start designing, you should check out the
availability of that name youre considering. Our guess is that its not a good idea.
Last year I lost five newsletterstwo
monthly, three bi-monthly; over $10,000,
a fourth of my annual income! The

Mario refers to the difficult

part of our business. This is
often where our relationships
with our clients bog down.
Why is this? Why is it so hard
to communicate with clients? Why cant we
get them to do what we want them to?

L
I
K
A

BEFORE & AFTER MAGAZINE

2007 OPPORTUNITY DRIVE #10
ROSEVILLE, CA 95678

PO BOX 667
NEW YORK
NY
10012
U.S.A.

Ouch! A loss of workespecially if unexpectedcan be a very difficult blow.

The fact that you lost these jobs to a
teenagerwho cant have any experience
at allseems to say one of the following:
1) Your colleague is blind
2) The newsletters werent important
3) Your expertise wasnt showing
Sounds like its time to show off your
stuff by seeking projects more in line with
your experience. Get out from under that
ceiling! Itll be more rewarding creatively,
and youll probably be paid better, too.

tives. Take the conversation away from

the details and move it to what it does, not
what it is.
That said, even with an agreed intent
you still have to give the client the chance
to express his opinion about the design.
However, you now have a context to discuss possible changes. Will making this or
that change better help us to achieve our
objective? After making another version of
the design, you can compare the two, using
the intent as the criteria for choosing.
The key to all this is the creative brief.
It is the document that should always be
developed with the client that he signs off
on before the creative work begins. Without it, projects are much harder than they
need to be. With it, and with a commitment to using it, life gets easier.

reason? One of our staff members just

bought a Mac for his teenager at home, so
his kid can do it for free.
So, one no longer needs training or
experience, just a Mac! And ptui on my 30
years of experience, eh?
Sally Rae Upham
Geneva, IL

To make life easier, give the client what

he wants. Does this mean change a design
whenever the client says change it? No, not
at all. Heres what it means.
Give the client what he wants by finding
out upfront the intent of the job, writing it
down, and agreeing with the client to that
intent. Then do the design work. When
the time comes to review drafts of your
designs, make the review in the context of
whether they achieve the intent. The discussion should not be about whether the
text should be left or right justified, or what
color a line is. The discussion has to first
take place at a higher level. Did we accomplish what we set out to accomplish? Does
this design achieve its goals? Is it clear and
easy to understand? Measure the work
against a clear set of predetermined objec-

TYPEFACE: HELVETICA NEUE LIGHT

example of what I mean, Ill take a proof

to a client for approval. Inevitably, copy
that I set left-justified for a reason comes
back marked please center typewhich
throws everything out of whack!
Whats the best way to tell a client hes
wrong and Im right without seeming difficult or being arrested?
T. J. Vanderstoop
Whitby, Ontario, Canada

No project too small

Talk about limited! Heres the assignment: Design a 4 x 2 mailing label
using one typeface, uppercase only,
black on white, no art. The exercise in
minimalism that you see here arrived
in our office via New Yorks Museum
of Modern Art. It would be hard to get

simpler, yet the result looks designed,

not just placed. Note how the extra
letterspacing alone gives ELIKA its
high-tech character.

Before&After

Issue 33

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Design
in
small
spaces

Flat shapes and soft grays give a 2 x 2 ad boldness and depth

How to strengthen a small ad

Set above the sparkling North Yuba River in the rugged backwoods of Californias Sierra Nevada, the Kentucky Mine
Summer Concert Serieswhose namesake reaches back to the Gold Rushis
low-budget entertainment under the
stars. Volunteer townspeople pitch in
to take tickets, staff concessions, present door prizes. Advertising this event
is equally on the cheapa 2 x 2 spot
all summer in the local weekly, which
itself is something of a Gold Rush relic:
printed with black ink that could be
mistaken for tar, on cheap stock, with
half the ads pasted up by hand the way
Abraham Lincoln did it.
Problem is, small ads tend to get
equally small effort from the paper,
often being tossed together, sometimes
in minutes, by an inexperienced staffer
more interested in lunch.
But a small, simple ad can be done
well in a short time. The goal is an ad
that looks good, prints well, stands out
on the page, andespecially importantdraws interest. The key words are
keep it simple and be bold. Have a look.

SUMMER
CONCERT
SERIES

KENTUCKY
MINE
SUMMER
CONCERT
SERIES
SUMMER
CONCERT
SERIES

Before&After

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Its the right idea Theres plenty of fiddling

at these concerts, all right, and the typeface
Caslon Antiqueconveys the splintery, earthy
character of the Kentucky Mine, but the centered composition is static, and the raggedy
detail is too small to make an impact.

KENTUCKY
MINE
SUMMER
CONCERT
SERIES
TINTS: K100, K60, K40, K20

Headline forward Three closely spaced grays

20%, 40%, 60% soften the ad and recede together,
so the headline in black stands forward. Visual
weight is in the center. Whats evident now is how
even the spatial volumes are. Note, left, that SUMMER CONCERT SERIES fits the spaces below and beside it almost exactly.

Bold means simple First step is to simplify everything, which means eliminate detail. We encounter
detail in the photo and in the fine, small typefaces.
This violin has an excellent, descriptive silhouette, so
in Photoshop well replace its grays with solid black.
(Open the image, clear the background, lock the pixels, and fill with black.)

KENTUCKY
MINE
SUMMER
CONCERT
SERIES
TINTS: K60, K40, K20, WHITE

Midrange, light Whats fun with gray is how easy it

is to manipulate emphasis. Here, white headline and
dark violin share the stagea midrange background
(above, 40%) allows both white and black elements
to stand apart equally. Headline makes it obvious
that white, normally regarded as a passive backdrop,
is actually a color like any other. Dont forget.

Normal leading

Negative leading

KENTUCKY
MINE

KENTUCKY
MINE

Bold means dense Above left, type set normally

has extra leading, which is correct for text, but as a
headline its too airy. Without ascenders or descenders, all caps can be set with negative leading; the
block below is 25/17.5.

KENTUCKY
MINE
SUMMER
CONCERT
SERIES

Note the overlap. This is

a small point of interest
but also tension; the
two shades must always
be different.

KENTUCKY
MINE
SUMMER
CONCERT
SERIES
TINTS: K100, K60, K20, WHITE

Bold means big Uncropped in the original and

small enough to fit the space, the violin seems to
float mid-air, weakly. Get major. Scale it up much too
large for the space, anchor it to the bottom and push
it right. The eye must now move into the violin, while
the descriptive neck sends the eye skyward. Result:
We have some visual action in this space.

Bold means heavy The raggedness of the original

type was the right idea, but the font is too light,
too full of white, and like the violin appears to float.
Above, the superheavy typefaceBlock Heavy T
set in all caps and tightly compressed squeezes the
white out. Park it in the top left corner; note how it
fills the corner and radiates into the space. Action.

KENTUCKY
MINE
SUMMER
CONCERT
SERIES

KENTUCKY
MINE
SUMMER
CONCERT
SERIES

7 p.m. EVERY FRIDAY

JULY 11 THROUGH AUGUST 29
KENTUCKY MINE AMPHITHEATER

7 p.m. EVERY FRIDAY

JULY 11 THROUGH AUGUST 29
KENTUCKY MINE AMPHITHEATER

TINTS: K80, K60, K40, WHITE

TINTS: BLACK, K60, K40, WHITE

Midrange, dark As the field darkens beyond 50%

(above, 60%), the adat least this onetakes on a
sense of nighttime, mood, even sensuality. Its here
that white begins to come forward and black recede,
opposite the original effect. The thing to remember
is edge. The less contrast between edges, the quieter
and less demanding the image.

Black Black has power; the more black, the more

power. This little ad will get noticed. When black
is the primary background, however, use white
judiciously. Here, the white violin has made edge a
limiting factor; the extreme contrast overpowers the
small gray type atop it. A solution is to gray the violin,
or put the type elsewhere.

Now add depth In solid black, every object sits on

the surface conveying the same level of information.
But there are four distinct thoughts here: the mine,
the series, the violin and the page. By adding only
two values of gray20% and 60%we separate all
four by depth, violin in front, page in back; Kentucky
Mine in dark gray gets major billing.

N N
Keep in mind that any given gray looks lighter
against black than against white; adjust accordingly. The Ns above are both 50% gray. (Cover
each side and compare.)

Before&After

Issue 33

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The color whirl!

How to
cool a hot
skyline

Whew! You can almost feel the heat. Reds,

oranges, yellows and golds radiate from

every molecule; even the water is hot. San
Diego, a famously balmy city, never looked
like this in real life. But the assignment is
to create a brochure coverone a convention bureau would like, or for any event in
which the city itself is part of the attractionand this dramatic, golden skyline
is the photo we have. So the challenge is,
how do we cool it off so visitors wont come
expecting to swelter? The answer is found
on the color wheel between ice blue and
yellow, in the turquoise blues and verdant
greens of springtime. Watch.

Find the palette in your photo

Every photo has a natural color
palette; first step is to find it
and organize it. First reduce
the photo to a manageable
number of colors; easiest way
is to create a mosaic using
Illustrators Object Mosaic function (Filter>Object Mosaic). Working from the biggest areas (sky,
skyline, water) to the smallest, extract colors with the
eyedropper tool. For contrast,
pick up dark, medium and light
pixels of each color. Sort your
selections by color and each
color by value. Its obvious just
by looking that this palette is
very narrow.

Sky

Skyline dark

Skyline light

Water

Position your selections on the

color wheel. (Hues are the middle
ring; shades outer, tints inner.) All the
colors in this image are in the yellow-orange, orange-red range, quite
unusual. The sky is somewhat yellower, some shades are darker than
our chart, but this is the zone.

10

Before&After

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Cool

Warm

The color wheel is an artificial device, good but not

perfectcolors in nature arent so evenly distributed,
whose purpose is to show color relationships. Also
visible are values (dark-light) and temperature.

Cold

Hot

Now widen the range . . .

Color is made darker or lighter by adding black (a shade)

or white (a tint). Black and
white, being color neutral, do
not change the color . . .

but only the value. As a result,

any one color plus its own
tints and shades always coordinate naturally. Such a palette
is called monochromatic.

San Diego

Coldest Monochromatic blue

note the dark,
medium and light
is very cold and has
the highest contrast. Blue and orange are opposites;
they have nothing in common. High
contrast means high energy.

San Diego

Low-contrast tints are soft and undemanding. A baby products convention.

The opposite, or complement,

of the warm oranges is blue,
the coldest color.

San Diego

Warmest Because
of its proximity to
yellow, monochromatic yellow-green
has the most color
in common with
the photo and yields the warmest
image; it doesnt really cool the skyline
very much.

San Diego

High-contrast corner highlights the

checkerboard; light colors recede.

Adding yellow to blue yields

the cool rangethe colors
of water, new growth, springtime. These are peaceful colors, tranquil and refreshing.

As with a single color, all the

hues that share a color (blue
in this case) coordinate naturally. Any color in this range
will work with any other.

San Diego

San Diego

Cool Coolest,
prettiest and most
refreshing is a
mix of blues and
greens; the greens
share yellows with
the photo, while the blues provide the
ice. The colors shown here have similar value, soothing low contrast.

Moving toward
yellow warms the
image slightly; the
dark blue-green
corner adds contrast. Now that you
have the idea, youre on your own;
working in just this narrow range youll
find many interesting variations:

San Diego

San Diego

Vivid green freshens like damp grass,

dark corner is a visual anchor.

Light yellow-green downplays the

name, drawing attention to the city.

Before&After

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11

Photoshop 7.0

A photo can be too real. Photoshops Posterize feature can create . . .

A beautiful abstract in two clicks

In the old days, posters were made by hand
and generally silkscreened onto paper or
board. To do this efficiently meant that an
image could have only a few flat colors, not
the unlimited gradients of a photograph.
This limitation resulted in a lot of innovative artworkbold images that were often
stylized or abstract, and visually arresting.
Photoshops Posterize feature is designed

Select . . .
the entire image

Make modern art

to mimic the
flat colors of the
silkscreened poster.
It does this by reducing a
photographs many gradients to just
a few. The key to an excellent result,
however, is to first apply a Gaussian Blur, then Posterize the blurred
image. Like this:

Gaussian Blur . . .
about this much
(Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur)

Select . . .

Posterize
4 levels
(Image>Adjustments>Posterize)

Gaussian Blur . . .

Left, any image

blurred sufficiently
and then posterized
makes a totally abstract background instantly. The blurrier,
the more abstract.
Change colors Once
posterized, color shapes
are flat and therefore
easily changed. Set your
Magic Wand to zero tolerance, select any area,
and refill it with new
color (below).

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Erase imperfections Good photos sometimes

have bad spots. Here, high-contrast stripes are ideal
for posterizing, but the cables are unsightly. Posterized, they simply disappear.

Posterize

Select . . .

Gaussian Blur . . .

Posterize
3 levels

How many levels?

Posterize in very few
levels, usually only
three or four. What you
want is difference; a
dozen levels (above)
defeats the illusion.

Set a mood
Photoshop can see things we cant, which makes every outcome
a surprise. Reduced to three steps (above), the barely-there
gradient of the original sky acquired a single sharp edge that feels
deliberately artistic. Deep indigos and violets set a compelling
night mood.

Whip up a refreshing invitation

You saw this photo last issue at work on a business card.
But one image can live many lives; look how easily it
can be disguised as a handsome invitation for your next
backyard barbeque.
Select . . .

Gaussian Blur . . .

Add color
Eyedropper directly from the poster
for perfectly coordinated colors.
Here, analogous colors (side by side
on the color wheel) make very little
contrast with the glass, so feel soft
and mellow, and leave the high-contrast cherry as the accent point.

Posterize
4 levels

Its summer!
Join us
Friday at
8 to
celebrate
our new
patio!

TYPEFACE: TRIXIE PLAIN

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13

Page layout

It looks like a newsletter

and works like a newsletter,
but its all on a postcard!

THE
NEWS
IN
9x6
By Chuck Green The benefits of a newslet-

ter are legion. A newsletter keeps you in

touch with your audience on a regular basis, it provides a venue for promoting your
products and services, and its a way to
voice your ideas. But its challenges are substantial, too. Writing, designing, preparing,
and printing an eight- or sixteen-page a
newsletter is no small task.
From challenges spring solutions! Presenting the news in 9 x 6the postcard
newsletter. At a fraction of the cost in sweat
and equity, this small format offers nearly
every benefit of a normal newsletter, and
many advantages. Less space means less
writing and faster production. The condensed size means substantial savings in
printing and mailing. Especially valuable,
it requires less of your audience; it arrives
open and ready to read, and your story
is seen and heard in condensed forma
significant advantage for those with only
a passing interest in your subject matter.
Heres how to make one.

B&A RECOMMENDS A longtime contributor to Before

& After, Chuck Green is a master of the creative small
project. He is the host of ideabook.com, and the author
of several useful design books, including Design
it Yourself Newsletters ($25, Rockport Publishers, ISBN
1-56496-767-0), in which this article originated.

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Send newsletter signals

A postcard newsletter presents information that readers typically see in another formmultiple 8.5 x 11
pages. This layout sends the same signals by using a
conventional nameplate with the publication date and
volume/issue information. A news letter, even one
published by a business, is ideally a forum of ideas. In
other words, to be most effective it should be equally
as interesting to someone who doesnt buy your product or service as it is to someone who does. Save the
hard selling for your brochure, and write your copy in
news formwho, what, where, when, and why.
Follow mailing regulations
Before you print anything that you
intend to mail, show your layout and a
sample of the paper you plan to print it
on to a mailing expert. To find a United
States Postal Service Mailpiece Design Analyst in your
area, visit http://pe.usps.gov and select Mailpiece
Design. They can provide advice and issue rulings regarding acceptability of a particular piece for USPS automated postal rates, which are generally significantly
less expensive than first-class rates. Plus, they can help
you interpret regulations, test the appropriateness of
paper, even review your artwork. Knowing the rules
can save you lots of time and money.

Design a w-i-d-e nameplate

Background first
The nameplate is the visual heart of this newsletter. Where do you get such a
wide, skinny image? Easiest is to crop a sliver from a larger image. Look for the
most expressive part; youll be surprised at how easy such extreme cropping
often is. If your image isnt quite right, below are several alternate techniques:

Create the illusion of continuity First make a wide panel, fill it with color
eyedroppered from the image, then blend the image into the panel. (In Photoshop, use the gradient mask or feathering tool.) Crop.

Make a collage Combine many images artfully! Here, each coin and bill
was scanned separately, then arranged. Crop.

Use text as graphics Set colored text in layers (there are three here) and
adjust the opacity of each layer. Crop.

Then the words . . .

Side 1
Side 2

The newsletter name

is a stack of three or
more words. First step
is to rank your words in
order of importance.

Set the keyword in caps

and lowercase, the rest
in all caps. The uniformity of the caps makes the
words neater to stack.

Create contrast. Set the

keyword in fancy script,
the support words in
plainer faces (complex
vs. simple).

Rank the words by using

size, spacing and color.
Increase letterspacing in
small words; tighten it in
big words.

Stack the words, then

adjust the size of each
to a single width. One
column wide is typical.

Fine-tune the emphasis with color. Above,

top, white FUND is too
prominent; bottom is a
more even balance.

TYPEFACES FUND: COPPERPLATE 33BC | SKYSAIL: BICKHAM | TEXT: MINION | adobe.com | ILLUSTRATIONS SKYSAIL
NAMEPLATE COLLAGE STEVE RAWLINGS, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, AND CURRENCY COLLAGE (BACK, BOTTOM) MATTHEW
COOPER, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: ENCORE IMAGES, LTD., +44 (0) 1372 220 390 | en-core.net | SUPREME COURT: DESTINATIONS:
WASHINGTON, D.C., DIGITAL STOCK/CORBIS | corbisimages.com

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15

Graphical sidebar is the focal

point of side two (below). The
cartoony rectangle mimics the
nameplate in style and color,
maintaining artistic continuity.
This is a vital design element
that keeps the postcard lively
and engaging. The sidebar can
be a tiny, stand-alone article, or
it can be a caption or quotation
from the main article. Note the
contrasting white initial cap.

Design a vertical nameplate

What a horizontal nameplate has in drama, a vertical nameplate has in practicality; you can fit in the name plus lots of stuff.
Below the name is a defining phrasea five- to fifteen-word
statement that describes the scope of the newsletterand below
that, a mission statement. To the right is the date, volume and issue
numbers, and the publishers name just above the lead article. Four
text columns on a nine-inch postcard are perfect. One type family*
(Roman, italic and bold) is plenty.
*MYRIAD | adobe.com

Create a playful version

of the word stack
Remember, create visual interest with
contrasts. Here you can see contrasting typestyles, sizes, case, spacing,
value, color, shadow depth and background. Thats a lot!

Playful typestyle* contrasts with plain block

caps. Note size contrast.
*SPACE TOASTER | chank.com

Use artwork to establish a style

Use a collection of images illustrated
in a similar style and color palette,
and after a few issues your reader will
begin to recognize your newsletter
on sight. The key is to find a collection with depthenough images that
speak to your subject. Look for images
that help you tell your story. For example, instead of a piano to illustrate a
story about a hot pianist, try using a
piano thats on fire. Be imaginative!

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Darker green bar sets

off top from middle;
RICHMOND in white now
really stands apart.

Duplicate PLAY! to make

a shadow for depth. (Or,
in InDesign, just click
Drop Shadow.)

Borrow some background colors

What color should things be? The best
place to get beautifully coordinated color
is to eyedropper it from the picture.

Redgreens vivid
complement (opposite)
completes the contrasts.

Stretch the idea!

The beauty of the postcard newsletter is that most of its visual impact is in the nameplate, a design-it-once space that makes
a recurring impression. Its a challenging and interesting space to
design, and it can be configured in endless ways. Idea starters:
Combine artistic styles
A flat antique engraving
contrasts beautifully with
a 3D photo sitting right on
the page.
TYPEFACES GILBERT: COPPERPLATE 33BC
| LANDSCAPERS: BICKHAM | ILLUSTRATIONS
LANDSCAPE: PICTURESQUE LANDSCAPE
ENGRAVINGS | visuallanguage.com | CAN:
CMCD EVERYDAY OBJECTS 2 | photodisc.com

Make a series
Small images side by side
here, client photos mixed
with royalty-freemake a
gorgeous nameplate.
TYPEFACES NEW: COPPERPLATE 33BC |
NEIGHBORS: BICKHAM | ILLUSTRATIONS
HOUSE INTERIORS and EXTERIORS: COURTESY OF
J.R. WALKER and COMPANY | whywalker.com |
CLOSEUPS: HOME COMFORTS | photodisc.com

Stretch a scene
Good photo but too short?
Fade smoothly into a background. Bonus: More space
above the name to write.
TYPEFACE: COPPERPLATE 33BC |
ILLUSTRATION: CORPORATE MOTION CD |
rubberball.com

Focus on a point
No need to touch the top
or even be rectangular!
Here, ordinary clip art
(right) becomes a throughthe-mist focal point.
TYPEFACES FANTASY: COPPERPLATE
33BC | TRAVELER: BICKHAM | ILLUSTRATION:
TASK FORCE IMAGE GALLERY | nvtech.com

Create a
theme
The best looking and
most memorable newsletters are those that
have a visual themea
repeating combination
of illustration style,
typestyle and color. Be
disciplined about this;
once youve established
a look, dont deviate
for the sake of novelty.
Ideas:

C95
M15
Y30
K5

C25
M25
Y20
K5

C5
M10
Y15
K0

TYPEFACES HEADLINE: RALEIGH

GOTHIC | agfamonotype.com | TEXT:
ITC GARAMOND LIGHT COND |
itcfonts.com | ILLUSTRATION HOME
COMFORTS | photodisc.com

C50
M60
Y0
K0

C75
M50
Y0
K0

C5
M60
Y90
K0

TYPEFACES HEADLINE: DOGMA

BLACK | emigre.com | TEXT: ITC
FRANKLIN GOTHIC BOOK COND
| itcfonts.com | ILLUSTRATION
TASK FORCE IMAGE GALLERY |
nvtech.com

C80
M40
Y70
K30

C90
M50
Y20
K5

C20
M90
Y90
K10

TYPEFACES HEADLINE: RACER |

adobe.com | TEXT: MINION COND
| adobe.com | ILLUSTRATION
ANTIQUE BOTANICAL
ILLUSTRATIONS VOL VII |
visuallanguage.com

C0
M0
Y0
K100

C0
M80
Y90
K0

C15
M10
Y10
K0

TYPEFACES HEADLINE:
INTERSTATE ULTRA | fontbureau.com
| TEXT: NEW CENTURY
SCHOOLBOOK | adobe.com |
ILLUSTRATION CORPORATE
MOTION | rubberball.com

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17

Interview

Excellent design conveys care, craftsmanship,

professionalism. It is beautiful to see and fun to do. But
the best designdesign that moves hearts and minds
and mountainshas something more. It expresses a
concept, a great underlying vision. Vision is what gives
purpose to design. In fact, its fair to say that without
a vision, design is only surface manipulation. Mel and
Patricia Ziegler, the subjects of B&As first interview,
are all about visionthe art of seeing and thinking and
imagining worlds that do not yet exist, and that will
need design to bring them to life. Listen in.

A Tale
Tw
Repu

By Hatsy Thompson Sometime in 1978,

a very unusual catalog began to appear in

mailboxes across the country. From the
Banana Republic Travel & Safari Clothing
Company, its sophisticated, eclectic design
married hand-drawn illustrations with
whimsical descriptions of functional yet
stylish safari-inspired clothing. Real and
would-be adventurers happily partook of the
imaginary world it evoked. Ten years later, the
catalog was grossing a quarter billion dollars
in annual sales.
Banana Republics creators, Mel and
Patricia Ziegler, met at a Xerox machine at
the San Francisco Chronicle, where he was
a writer-turned-reporter and she a
painter-turned-courtroom artist. The
story, possibly somewhat apocryphal, is that the couple sat down
one weekend, she with sketchpad
and he with pen, and conjured up
what trade magazine Catalog Age
called the best catalog concept
ever. Retail stores followed,
with life-sized giraffes,

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ILLUSTRATION BY H. CRAIG HANNAH

e of
wo
ublics
Catalog that built an empire, here a classic
Banana Republic cover mimics a find-theanimals-hidden-in-the-picture childs puzzle.
Meticulously made painting of an imaginary
expatriate watering hole uses witty, improbable juxtapositions to gainand sustain
our attention. Look at Mark Twain and poet
W. H. Auden reading each others works. See
F. Scott Fitzgerald gaze into dancer Isadora
Duncans eyes. Watch Ernest Hemingway
challenge zebra Livingstone (a clothing
store with a mascot!) in chess. Even the captions language contributes whimsy: number
18 is le garon, un vrai Parisien (the waiter,
a true Parisian); the cover artist painted for
his supper.
Notice how carefully composed this painting is: For
example, follow the river of patterns created by
dancer Nijinksys harlequin diamonds, the
zebras stripes, the
chessboards squares,
Picassos shirt stripes,
and the zebra sketch
in the lower left corner. What else can
you find?

Typical catalog page features no fewer

than seven fontswithout yielding typographic Babel. Each font serves a specific
function: two contrasting decorative fonts
in mauve comprise the page headline; an
old-fashioned typewriter font identifies the
product; mauve italics convey historical
and technical tidbits about fabrics; various
sizes and weights of a Roman serif font, in
black, describe product features; a stencil
font provides the phone number; and callouts are handwritten. Used consistently
throughout the catalog, these font and color conventions enable readers to find their
way within its densely filled pages.
Also note the juxtaposition of illustration stylesthe hand-drawn dresses, the
engraving of the Indian woman, and the
flat-patterned page border that echoes the
sari border. Clever copy sustains the travelling expatriate dream.

thatch-roofed huts, bush

planes hanging from ceilings,
and jungle jeeps frozen midhurtle in display windows.
The couple sold their flourishing republic to The Gap in
1983 and presided over it for
another five years.
Their next venture, The
Republic of Tea, was founded
in 1991 to show, through the metaphor of tea,
the lightness of taking life sip by sip. Once again,
they used a catalog to conjure an imaginary world.
Blending Mels words with Patricias illustrations, they
infused all aspects of the business with tea-related
themes: the company was composed of ministries
(Mel was Minister of Leaves and Patricia
Minister of Enchantment), customers
were Dear Fellow People of Tea, and
labels featured a mysterious teapot
floating among tea-leaf clouds, mango
mountains, persimmon wildflowers,
and cottages made of vanilla beans
and almonds. The Zieglers sold
their second republic in 1994. |
BOB KRIST

Designing to a vision
The Manhattan store,
circa 1985. Colors,
fabrics and natural
materials of every
kind sustained the
off-on-safari fantasy in
every nook and cranny
of the business.

Tea mind
How do you design a feeling?
Pat found that with enhanced
collageXerox machine and
watercolorshe could juxtapose
textures and colors to evoke flavors, sensations, a sense of place.

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19

When you conceive a new

business, where do you start?

conceptual, visual, contextualand then

design from that central impulse.

P | Genuineness communicates stronger

than the most refined design.

M | We begin with a need. Somethings

missing, and it becomes obvious to us. Or
we begin to notice something we hadnt
really noticed before. But I dont think a
business truly comes into being until you
have a name for it. If you cant say it in a
phrase or a word, its still fuzzy. Everything
funnels through a name.

P | There are a few first elements that

characterize the energy of a new idea. In
Banana Republic it was adventure, surplus,
tropical, humor. These qualities seemed to
evoke palm leaves, old fashioned typeface,
yellowed colors. In The Republic of Tea, it
was tea mind, refined taste, philosophical leanings. These qualities suggested tall,
elegant containers, dream-like images.
You look into every nook and cranny in the
business. You dont leave any empty places.
Everything is designed to fit.

M | We didnt have any money when we

started Banana Republic, so we just did
whatever we could do and liked to do. We
played Cole Porter albums in the stores. We
drew zebras and palm trees together. We
sold khaki and safari clothes because we
wanted to. We published a catalog because
I knew how to write and Patricia knew how
to draw. We drew on what we knew and put
it all together.
Then it became its own entity. Our
original idea was a safari clothing company. But most people werent taking
safaris, they used the clothes to travel. And
we wanted to become more accessible
and less esoteric, so we started to imagine
the travel metaphor. Then we had a travel

How does the design for a new business

take shape in your minds?
M | We dont work from visuals, we work
from a concept. The concept becomes the
umbrella, and everything fits inside it. We
bring all the disparate elements together

Why was the design you did for the early

Banana Republic so compelling?
M | It was genuine.

The Banana Republic sold products

by the trainload because it first sold
a daydream; that was its key. Every
idea, every word, every picture, every
page , every effort contributed to the
dream. Above, Mels Journal takes us
on an imaginery trip along the Inca
Trail to exotic Machu Picchu.

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Handcrafted pages belied sophisticated composition. Note

the safari scene behind the products above; this is the
establishing shot a filmmaking technique that gives the
reader a sense of place. (Cover the scene with your hand and
see the difference.) Designed-in humor was also a powerful
element; left, an invisible man yawns in his nightshirt. Invisible
models were a common theme in the Banana Republichow
easy they made it to envision yourself in the garment!

So many people give

up their intuition and
then borrow it back. All
we know how to do is
love what we love and
then have fun putting it
out there.

bookstore. We started a magazine. If you

called our catalog center and were on hold,
there would be tapes teaching you different languages. It became playful. People
understood that the whole thing was about
playing and having fun and being whimsical and enjoying yourself and not taking
yourself too seriously.
When you began to sketch The Republic
of Tea, what did you intend?
P | I wanted to evoke the feeling of tea
mind and then bring out the specific
character of each tea. I was searching for a
way to create an evocative world that didnt
really exist. The medium I settled on was
enhanced collage using a Xerox machine
and watercolor. Juxtaposing different textures evoked the subtlety of flavors, a world

of tastesclouds made out of grapes or

chrysanthemums and bird feathers used to
create mountainsides.

The more you relax, the more it comes into

focus.
P | You cant separate design and business.

Design played a key role in the success of

your businesses. How do you understand
design, and why is it so important?

M | Its been the seamless integration of the

concept and the design and the product
thats made anything weve done successful.

P | Design is communication. Design communicates the feeling, the taste, the message, the spirit of a product. Its the web
that holds everything together.

Youve said that good design just goes away

and leaves a feeling. What do you mean?

M | Design is a language that people

knowalthough they dont know they
know it until they start speaking it.

P | Good design doesnt float on top. When

the concept and the design arent married
at the bonewhere somebody has an idea
for a product and then you hire an outside
designerthey float as two separate things.

P | Design is letting down filters, just receiving as objectively as possible and letting the vision come into focus on its own.

M | Good design works together, all of its

pieces. And its not just the design: theres the
concept, the way it fits, the way its marketed,
merchandisedit all has to fit together.
Youve used the word soulful to characterize good design. When is design soulless?
P | When it second-guesses the audience.

Letting down filters

With tea-leaf clouds,
mango sunsets and
water made of
blue sky, a page
from Patricias
sketchbook (right)
illustrates what she
means by letting
down filters and
letting the vision
come into focus on
its own. These early
sketches defined
The Republic of Tea
look, and expanded
into the line that you
see in stores today.

M | In our culture, the producer is separated

by such a vast chasm from the consumer
that the process has become charmless.
Somebodys sitting up there thinking, You
know, what we need this month . . .
Weve never used a focus groupI find it
an unbearable experience! So many people
give up their intuition and then borrow it
back. All we know how to do is love what we
love and then have fun putting it out there.
You seem to view ideas as pre-existing
entities that youre able to detect and make
tangible.
P | Yes. Ive always seen our businesses as
things you could walk around and see but
were ethereal until they were made material.

WORLD BOOK

M | What most people tend to see are the

solid piecesthe yous and the mes and the
desks and the stores. But theres all this energy going in all different directions between
all kinds of objects.

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21

Influences, says Pat, come from everywhere:

from art or architecture or the newspaper,
walking down the street, the old drugstore
on the corner. You could get a visual idea
from a symphony or a concept from a smell.

P | And if we pick up pieces of color and

texture and start applying them, a business
becomes a sculpture that anyone can see
and even add pieces to. Then it becomes
visible enough that others can see it and
add more of what it needs.
M | Weve created businesses as imaginary
places, almost as art pieces, almost like a
movie or a play. The Republic of Tea was a
whole world where tea drinking, tea growing, tea culture was paramount. We defined
a whole culture: although it was vaguely
Asian, it wasnt Asia, just as Banana Republic was suggestively South American or
tropical or African. And then the imagined
becomes real. There is now such a place as
The Republic of Tea!

You also seen quite attuned to what people will want next.

How do you help yourselves generate new

ideas?

M | I like the metaphor of bird mind.

Sometimes you look at a flock of birds,
and all of a sudden every one of those
birds takes a right-hand turn. How do they
all know theyre supposed to turn right?
Theres something larger: the flock itself is
a living organism.

M | Were wild brainstormers. There are no

rules, just wide open space. You cant be
too stupid. You have to just take it all in.

P | You can see this in trends. Keds have

been around for fifty years, and all of a
sudden you notice one kids wearing them
and then another, and then all of a sudden
theyre out in every color and everybody
wants them.

P | Influences come from everywhere: from

art or architecture or the newspaper, walking down the street, the old drugstore on
the corner. You could get a visual idea from
a symphony or a concept from a smell.
M | You have to be porous.
P | Whenever we start something, I notice
my latest attractions. Why do I find
Keds interesting all of a sudden, when
theyve been there forever? Or a Mexican

Feathers

Fabric
Leather

Professional layout even in sketchbooksnote (above left) models toes beyond the page border and penline frame
around her left sandal. Also, physical fabric samples, not just drawings, were key to envisioning the finished goods.

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Logos for imaginary affiliates (left)

were designed as carefully as if they
were real. Note the metamorphosis as
they traveled from sketchbook to catalog page above. Toll-free phone number
was part of the look, and everywhere.

Mel: I like the metaphor of

Bird mind. Sometimes you
look at a flock of birds,
and all of a sudden every
one of those birds takes
a right-hand turn. How do
they all know theyre supposed to turn right? Theres
something larger: the flock
itself is a living organism. Pat: You can see this
in trends. Keds have been
around for 50 years, and
all of a sudden you notice
one kids wearing them and
then another, and then all
of a sudden theyre out
in every color and everybody wants them.

CORBIS | Arthur Morris

muralist? Just by having something in

the making, I start noticing what Im
attracted to. I take all the things that are
drawing my visual attention and put them
next to each other. The pattern they make
becomes one of the design answers.
M | And you need to do this in a collaborative setting. One of the exercises I often do
with any company Im involved withIll
sit at a table with a bunch of people and
Ill put a teacup in the middle of the table,
and Ill say, Thats The Republic of Tea.
What does it want? Then everybody can
be part of the creative process. We can all
mute our individual egos and listen to the
greater pulse of the combined and shared
experience.

What advice about design would you give

someone starting a new business or reworking an existing brand?
P | See yourself as the audience. Find the
part of you that relates to the audience for
a product. And then open every sense. Is
this reaching you? Is this letting you feel
and hear and know or taste the product?
Design is about trying to communicate
the essencenot just the product, but all
the values of the company, all the ideas
everything. | B&A
The Zieglers live in sunny California. Writer
Hatsy Thompson lives outside Boston, a
Colonial-era settlement known for having
a tea mind of its own.

From sketchbook to catalog

Patricias sketchbooks demonstrate
how she juxtaposes what she notices
to see what results: here she combines sketches, photos, swatches,
threads, feathers and words to uncover new possibilities for sandals,
satchels and sarongs. Notice that the
satchel carried by the green-tanktopped woman (far left) is drawn with
fabric and strips of leather.

Part of The Gap since 1983, todays Banana

Republic has safaried far from its groundbreaking roots, although visual traces
remain. Below, heavy window framing suggests cargo crate or steamer trunk of the
world traveler.

Who thinks like this?

Not focus groups. Jeep-,
rhino-, and biplaneshaped cardboard gift
boxes (right) were the
imaginative products of
a playful porousness.

Before&After

Issue 33

www.bamagazine.com

23

John McWade | The power of the logo

24

Before&After

Issue 33

www.bamagazine.com

PRODUCTION NOTES
Is the worlds first PageMaker studio still using
PageMaker? No, we recently standardized on
the Adobe Design Collection, which includes
InDesign 2.02, Photoshop 7.0 and Illustrator
10. Our computers are new 17 Apple iMacs,
(running OS X), which we like, and whose physical attractiveness starts a lot of conversations.
Biggest surprise: the screen display. Sharp, saturated, brilliant whites, jet blacks, its a quantum
leap from our suddenly drab, blurry CRTs. In fact,
even our printed pages look a little dull in comparison, which is saying a lot, because our workhorse office printer is brilliant. The Xerox 8500
applies intense color not with ink or toner but
with hot wax, color so vibrant that it sometimes
surpasses the actual magazine. And thats saying a lot, because the printing of Before & After
is state of the art. Unlike our rickety early years,
the new B&A is handled computer to press via a
100% PostScript workflow by Dome Printing
in Sacramento. Our InDesign files flow from a
Creo Platemaster server to Flight Check for
file review, then to Preps for page imposition.
From there, a Creo Proofsetter makes digital
Matchprint proofs using the same laser and
dots that image Fuji thermal plates on the Creo
Platesetter, with Creo Square Spot technology.
B&A is printed at 175 lines per inch on a Heidelberg web press. The quality result of this high
tech speaks for itself. Funny, though, is that after
years of compensating for dot gain, we now find
ourselves compensating for slight dot loss.
We are brand new to InDesign, and so far are
especially impressed by its Paragraph Composer,
which is the finest typesetting software weve
ever seen. We miss some of PageMakers interface features, though, such as the simplicity of
clicking anywhere to start typing, and moving
the view freely with a single-key grabber hand.
Practice will change this; we had PageMaker for
18 years, so many of our expectations are born
of familiarity more than usefulness. InDesign is
excellent and full of surprises. Stay tuned.
Just as much as the Web, color in five years has
changed the look of everyday communication,
and now plays a part in every aspect of design. In
color, consistency is everythingkeeping a color
the same across all media. To this end, we have
standardized as much as practical on Pantone
nomenclature. We list the four
process inkscyan, magenta,
C80
M30
yellow and blackby percentage
in the manner shown here. C80,
for example, means an 80% tint
Y40
of cyan. K means black. Where
Process
color corresponds to a Pantone
standard, we also list the Pantone name, although the printed
color is only a simulation.
0

They blew up the logo.

And then it was over.
The flag hoisted by three firemen in the
rubble of 9/11, remember that?
When one business acquires another,
what changes first?
Lets talk about your logo.
Why would you redesign a logo? There
are many reasons. If a company changes
product or mission or market, a new logo
will reflect the new day. An old image may
look dated. Tastes change.
Whatever the case, and whatever the
logo, the thing to know is that the subject
is serious.
As a designer, you most likely think
first in terms of aestheticsthis image is
prettier than thator about what each element symbolizes. But be careful. What an
image symbolizes to you has no bearing on
what it means to the client. To the client,
its the old logo that has meaning.
Why? Because everyone who works for
a company has to some degree adopted
an identity. We bring to a job our education, abilities, ambitions, and take from it
income, friends, lifestyle. We identify these
experiences with the company and infuse
its logo with personal meaning, whether
the logo is artistically attractive or not.
The logo is not just a graphic any
more than a flag is a piece of colored cloth.
Thats why its so hard to design. Youre
working on sacred soil. Im exaggerating
only a little, but Im not kidding.
Thing is, a client asking for a redesign
will not be aware of thisthat what he
knows and values about his company is
attached to its logo, and that hes asking
you to replace it. Hes asking for a new flag.
Advice: If you feel qualified, do the job.
Before unveiling it, prepare your client. Tell
him he can expect to feel uncomfortable
at first, because youre replacing what he
knows with a foreign thing. Tell him to not
look for his familiar symbolism in it. It is
being changed. But assure him that once
his choice is made, his old meaning will
gradually be transferred to the new logo.
Then show him your best work.

K3

me, not for political reasons, but for design

reasons. What we see here is a 69-ton British Challenger II tankseriously heavy
metalnear Basra not long ago crushing a
portrait of Saddam Hussein.
A portrait.
How much does a portrait weigh?
Do you need 69 tons of armor to ruin it?
Before you say of course not, Id like to
suggest that maybe you do.
Thats what I find amazing.
When Saddam Husseins statue in central Baghdad was topplednot the real
Saddam, not the actual person, but the
metal imagethats when people flocked
into the streets, when all knew the end was
at hand, that the regime was done.
Its like this. When one nation invades
another, the first thing it does, as soon as
it is able, before the fighting is over, before
the government is installed, the first thing
it does is replace the flag.
Theres a famous image taken in Berlin
at the end of World War II of allied armor
destroying the despised swastika atop Nazi
headquarters.

REUTERS | Chris Helgren

THE IMAGE BELOW is amazing, at least to

Pantone