Dripbook | Blog | Graphic Design Studio.

Make peace with the client…(not the client to pieces).

Constantinos Papaconstantinou — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 07:04:55 -0000

How many times have you faced the demanding, impatient, not well paying, not-really-knowing what-he-wants client?

I Bet enough times to recognize him from a mile away. But what doesn’t work with these clients? Is it he? Is it you?
I bet most of us, usually answer it’s the clients fault. “He doesn’t let us create quality design. The time is not enough. He comes and changes my idea to something unrecognizable. He thinks he knows everything…and my work is worthless to his eyes.”
Well in graphic design there are always 2 sides. You and them. But is there really something that makes you enemy? I guess not. You both want to create something beautiful. A piece of design that his bussiness will gain from it and you, as a designer, will be proud of.

Client Design vs Yours (I really hope yours is even better than these...:P)

Well, usually the main problem is that your pride, or your preconceived ideas of what your clients visual communication should be, don’t let you think what he really wants. Despite the fact that we tend too consider ourselves something between artist and God and thus unmistakable, there are sometimes that the client( you know, the one who pays the bills) has something very clear in his head about what he wants.

So what? You are the designer. You know everything. Well, what I am suggesting is to reconsider what your job is. Is it to create “art”? Is it to have the client happy? Or is it the combination of both? I understand that most of the time you have very good reason to react like that, but think for a moment what your clients feels.
He pays (hopefully for you) a good amount of money and he wants to get something he likes. And besides that, since when did you become a specialist in any market? Each market (e.g. food market or clothes market) has different rules and different visualization. You might have the super artistic-beautiful and eye-catching design for the fast-food restaurant in your area but does it work? Are you sure you know better a market then your client who’s been established in that with his knowledge and hard work?

So, make peace with the client!

Just give him the chance to teach you. After sometime you will be in position to offer better solutions to your clients since you will have explored a vast variety of markets. But working and not listening to what the clients wants is totally wrong. You miss the chance to be taught from a great range of professionals about the specific markets and become a great designer after a while! Take care!

Siggeir Hafsteinsson rocks Goldie's new Sine Tempor.

Alex Wright — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 13:08:39 -0000

Siggeir Hafsteinsson, keeping it hot up in Reykjavik, Iceland, sent through his latest project, the album art for the upcoming Goldie album called Sine Tempor. Here's a look at the new work and a small chat with Siggeir about the work:

Q: Your work really reminds me of the architecture of Santiago Calatrava. It's rare that you see a graphic designer so fully embrace forms of biology, just as with Calatrava's architecture. What are your feelings about the influence of biology on your work?

A: First of all, thank you for that compliment. I haven't really thought of it that way, for me it's more like wings. But the Sine Tempor project is kind of organic.

Q: This work is highly symmetrical, which embraces the physical sides of biological structuring more than the conceptual, emotional, or spiritual. Can you describe the role of symmetry on this work. How is it important to the final product?

A: I've been working on this project long before Goldie wanted it for his album. So it's just been evolving and has gone thru many stages of experiment. But the symmetry is what holds it together.

Q: What is the new Goldie album like? It seems like there are a lot of rumors around about it's name, who is guest appearing, etc.

A: I've been listening to drum & bass since the early days and always been a huge fan of Goldie's music as well as in his art so it's a real honor for me to be able to do his cover and other work we're doing together. I cant really talk about the music and who he's working with. But if people remember "Timeless" which was masterpiece then all I can say is that this one is too.

Q: Describe how you became involved with making the album art for his new album?

A: My best friend Agzilla has been friend with Goldie for years and he was doing a drum & bass gig in Iceland which Goldie was playing at. So I did this poster for it and Goldie liked it and asked me to do the art for his new album..

Q: How did you come to make the work that you did based on the specifics of this album? What made you make what you made?

A: Like I said I've been working on this project for a long time so when Goldie came along It made me more ambitious about taking my original art to the next level design vise. I made art for the cover and also 13 individual art pieces, 1 for each track for online selling.

Q: And, what's Iceland like these days? What are other projects you've got on those geothermic back burners?

A: In the last hundred years it has 3 times been as cold as its is now. There is a new Metalheadz web opening soon and we're doing a lot of crazy merchandize for the label. And I'm planning a exhibition on the Sine Tempor art. Each piece is printed on aluminum 1x1m and then varnished with high gloss. so I've got some exciting things going on..

Q: Do you want to say a bit about your creative process, how you produce your work?

A: It all depends on what kind of project Im working on. If Im doing corporate work I usually have an idea in my head before I start sketching in the computer but for the art kinda work there is no special process, I usually just sit in front of illustrator and experiment until I come up with something Im satisfied with.

See the whole Sine Tempor book here , and see all of Siggeir's work here .

We design history!

Constantinos Papaconstantinou — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 02:27:54 -0000

We design history!

How does that sound to you? Interesting? Scary? Maybe ...false?

Having designed a lot of historical books through years and having managed original documents about historical events I can assure you that this statement is absolutely true.

Think about it for a moment:

When you refer to the past where do you stand? Architecture, newspapers, advertising, anything we create! From political/propagandistic brochures or posters of the WWII to the first pages of newspapers, to early books of Aldus!.

You want it more extreme? Most of the great painters of the Renaissance like Leonardo da Vinci or Michael Angel were somehow like us: they designed what they were ordered to do so...ok, it was not anything like a brochure or so but you get my point!

"OK! Our work is important.Now what?"

Well what I'd like to point out is that when we design we ought to think that what we create might define the aesthetics of an era. Ours.

For the historian of the future our design will be an evidence of our culture,our wealth even our way of life. They will surely, as todays historians do, look at our work and define how our society was in our times.

So, keep this little information in mind when you design. Following every little trend out there it'll sure make you feel more "up-to-date" but do we really offer something great in history?

Look at your designs and think: Would I like these to be the past of my grand children?

Constantinos Papaconstantinou

Graphic Designer