Brendan Murphy, senior graphic designer at Lippincott in New York and Pittsburg State University graduate, came back to the PSU campus for homecoming weekend and spoke at a symposium. He spoke of his work for Lippincott and how he came to be where he is today. Brendan was an inspiration for many reasons. He expressed how much of graphic design is based around the need for communication, and how important writing is in this field. He mentioned that he probably spends about 75% of his time writing, 5-10% drawing, and the rest on administrative work. This just goes to show how important the ability to produce good writing really is in graphics communication. The inspiration I got from this is to not neglect focusing on writing even though many would think writing in the graphics design field would be minimal. He also expressed that general communication is very important when making changes, bringing up the example of the recent logo change that GAP tried to implement. His take on the change and the upset it caused was that there was not enough communication involved with the change. I would agree with this statement because the logo change was sudden and happened without GAP communicating anything to the public about their intention to redevelop their logo.
Brendan showed off a few of his projects which brought about more inspiration. One example was his redesign of the common handicap sign which portrays a person in a wheelchair. The common one seen in many public places makes the person in the wheelchair seem immobile and stagnant while Brendan?s design gives the image a feel of movement. His reasoning for this new design, he said, was that the one seen in most public places makes is seem like someone with a handicap is incapable of fending for themselves. The new design however, makes the person mobile despite their disability. As Brendan said, we should recognize people for their abilities not their disabilities. This made a point that it is important to examine how simple things such as a handicap sign could be communicating a certain message about someone or something that may be interpreted as somewhat negative or demeaning.
What was truly inspiring about Brendan is that he came to Pittsburg State University on a track scholarship and went on to be Senior Graphic Designer for Lippincott, a company that has developed and worked for General Mills, Chevron, Campbell?s Soup, Coke, Infinity, McDonald?s, Duracell, and more. It shows that nothing is impossible if you truly apply yourself. One of the points Brendan made was that it is important not to fall in love with technology. What he meant by this is that technology is constantly changing and the person using the technology must change with it. He added to this point by saying, ?you will get hired for your ideas not your ability to operate machinery or programs?. I think that is very important to remember in a field like the graphics field because although you may have the knowledge or ability to operate a design program, if you do not have good ideas, you will have nothing worth producing when using the programs. This shows how important planning, brainstorming, and idea generating is to good design. On an average project Brendan said that he does anywhere from 300 to 3,000 alternatives to a logo design or project branding before reaching the final piece.
A final point to make is that Brendan mentioned how much he works with other fields and industries when creating a brand experience. Again the need for communication is important when working with people from audio fields and people who focus on other things like scents when creating a brand experience.
Overall there were a lot of interesting points and ideas brought up during the symposium and it was great to hear from someone who is so successful who graduated from the same college I am attending.
No comments:
Post a Comment