- [Instructor] This is my process.
I sit down at my desk and start sketching concepts.
My sketches are tragically indecipherable.
I even need to write notes to myself
to remind me what I was drawing.
I'll start with the most apparent ideas
that first come to mind and then branch
into different directions.
After a couple of hours of this, I'll take a break
and then realize, boy, that first idea was pretty good.
Often, we discount it as too obvious.
But that's just the point.
People rarely follow through on the obvious
so it's refreshing when it happens.
Cipe Pineles poster for Parsons is a perfect case for this.
To convey the school's three campuses,
Pineles creates a masterful representation
of the apples as a symbol for New York,
orange for Los Angeles and grapes for Paris.
She didn't abandon the idea as too obvious.
We often see these symbols.
She applied them in a novel way.
The message is clear and compelling.
Designing materials for a donor recognition panel
can be a dull task.
Set all the names in Caslon, in nice rows.
When I designed the oversized wall graphic
for AIGA's Capital campaign, I went with my first sketch,
a big X that stood for multiplication.
And to highlight the setting, X marks the spot.
Communicate the idea of the building performance
was the assignment for this issue
of "Architectural and Engineering News."
Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar solved the problem
by simply photographing a crack in the wall.
This is a clear indication that something
is awry with the structure.
The bonus is that almost perfect white cover
that is completely unexpected, in an atmosphere
of every magazine with a face on the cover.
Jennifer Morla is a true wizard with form and materials.
Some designers might find a project celebrating
the anniversary of Clorox Bleach to be dull.
Jennifer blind embossed the cover, made of
the same plastic as the Clorox bottle.
There is no need to add words or even color.
The material is the clearest signifier to the viewer.
The solution seems so improbably obvious
that upon seeing it for the first time
I immediately thought, why did I think of that?
That's high praise from a designer.
In the same vein, when tasked with a book about baking bread
and great bakers in New York, Cipe Pineles, again, turned
to the subject and let it provide the solution.
Hands represent the process of kneading
and working the dough.
This alone is a good symbol.
But Pineles takes it one step further
and makes them out of bread, for a book on bread,
makes perfect sense.
The next time you sit down and discount that first
and most apparent idea, the one you're sure others
will criticize for being too obvious,
remember, nobody does the obvious.
That's the surprise.