Designism - 10/06

For anyone looking for greater purpose in their work and lives (and who isn’t in these tumultuous times?), a recent evening event at the Art Directors Club here in New York was worth attending. The ADC invited leading creatives and authors — including Milton Glaser, George Lois, Tony Hendra, Kurt Andersen, James Victore, Jessica Helfand and Stephen Heller — explored how today’s creative professionals can use their skills and talents to instigate positive social change. Club Vice President Brian Collins (Ogilvy’s Brand Innovation Group), who developed the idea, explains,:“Designers like Milton and George built their careers around work that had social or political consequences. We think today’s creatives want to hear from people like them, people who use their abilities to create a more enlightened culture. ‘Designism’ addresses the question of how you use your career to make the world a better place. By giving this movement a name, we hope to provide young designers and creatives with a way to connect to their craft and add new meaning to their lives.”

The event took place just as presses started to roll on this issue of GDUSA, so there is little time to give you details. But here are a couple of quick observations. First, just to be in the same room with the likes of Milton Glaser, George Lois, Jessica Helfand and Stephen Heller is awe-inspiring, especially in the context of the good works and community service they perform. Second, Myrna Davis, the ADC’s Executive Director has to be commended for bring this event to life and, more, for reenergizing the ADC and making it a lively, meaningful and welcoming place. Third, I was struck, as I sadly often am at designer events, by the gratuitous anger and immaturity a presenter. In this case, the outburst came from Mr. Victore, a self-declared anti-authorian, who apparently chose to work out some daddy issues by vulgarizing the event with foul language, childish graphics and a hateful (expletive deleted) tirade against President Bush. I understand that George Bush makes some people crazy. But there is a bigger issue for the sake of our community: graphic designers have enormous power and influence (that is what this event was about, after all) but that image is undermined within the broader society when high-profile wielders of the power cannot behave or communicate in a respectful way in a public setting. If you don’t have respect for this President, have some for the Office. If you can’t summon that, have some for your profession, your audience, your colleagues, your fellow presenters, yourself. Here’s my point, which some of you will not like to hear: Being an “artiste” does not give you license to insult the intelligence of the rest of us, or to confuse good works with blind rage at authority, however mildy amusing it may be in a high school sort of way.

While waiting for the event to begin, I noticed a quote stenciled on the wall overlooking the speakers. From Bill Bernbach, founder of Doyle Dane Bernbach, it states: “All of us who professionally use mass media are the shapers of society. We can vulgarize that society. We can brutalize it. Or we can lift it to a high level.” That is the essence of Designism.

Civility and Continuity

The annual Lindenmeyr Munroe Corporate Reports Show in Manhattan is a chance to eat, drink, catch up with old friends, see many of you — and, oh, yes, I nearly forgot the main purpose — to review the latest paper samples and promotions from leading paper suppliers. In addition to being a good time (thanks to the talents of organizer Carol Weinberg), just attending the event reminded me once again why I have always felt an affinity for the paper industry. Let me back up for a moment. My wife, a talented reading and testing specialist, recently asked me to take the popular Myers-Briggs personality profile. Actually, she answered the test questions for me, evaluated me on the basis of the answers she supplied, and thus proved — scientifically and beyond a shadow of doubt — that she is right. About everything.

Dirty laundry aside, Myers-Briggs does, in fact, accurately describe a bundle of my personality traits. I tend to be traditional, moderate, patient, persistent, and evolutionary. Perhaps that’s why I am drawn to those attributes in the great specifier paper mills, whose corporate cultures are rooted in long timelines, stewardship, continuity, service and responsible solutions in the face of change. It also explains why there is more civility, constancy and institutional memory among paper people than any other industry. I miss that in the rest of the world.