Envy is an odd sensation. It occurs “…when a person lacks another’s (perceived) superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it.” It overlaps with jealousy also; a misfiring of electrical signals in the brain, leading to feelings of anger, resentment, sadness and disgust towards another person.

It’s a pretty negative emotional state but as far as I’m aware it’s a pretty universal emotion. Very few people are completely immune to it

And yet… from this mire comes something good. A desire to be better. At least on my part. The folks listed here have all made me jealous at some point over 2011. I’m not ashamed to admit it. And it’s compounded by the fact that, of the people in the list that I’ve met, I can testify that they’re all extremely likeable people. You really don’t want to like people who make you jealous

A lot of what I see in their work is – what I incorrectly perceive as – effortlessness. Of course, that’s not the case. They all work just as hard, if not harder than anyone else. The red thread, however; the quality that joins all of these artists and image-makers together is a confidence and a belief in their work.

So, without further ado and presented in no particular order, the talented fuckers that have had me frowning at my screen over the last year…

—
Carl Burgess
Website
Twitter

—
Jonathan Zawada
Website
Facebook

—
Mario Hugo
Website
Twitter

—
Kyle Bean
Website
Twitter

—
Jo Ratcliffe
Website

—
Tom Darracott
Website
Twitter

And that’s it. Well, that’s not true, there’s a lot more people I could mention here but I wanted to keep it vaguely focussed. Be interested to hear your thoughts , and I wish you all an excellent 2012.

_ C

It’s not something I make a deal of noise about but Words are Pictures has, until now, been effectively a side project, shoe-horned in around my full-time job(s) over the last 7 years. I haven’t ever committed to it as my sole source of income until last week when I finally left my position as the Senior Designer at Grey in New York. A position I held for over two years and had some good times while doing so.

You can attribute this decision to a number of things. I was raised in a very traditional working class area and the idea of not having regular work is alien to me. The concept of not having a wage at the end of each month, actually, is pretty terrifying. Also, the economy right now is bullshit, so, walking away from a job – and a good, well paying one at that – in this climate might, to some, sound pretty obnoxious. And they may be right. It’s certainly not something I’m going to enjoy explaining to my Nan.

But, I turned 30 this year and I figured it’s now or never. I’m a married man these days and you get this one, small window in your life where you have very few pressing commitments. I’ve saved some money and have decided that The Words are Pictures Studio should shudder into life and become my sole (soul) focus.

So what does this mean? Aside from the immediate pay cut, doing my own taxes and a drop in my credit rating.

Well, hopefully it’ll mean better work from me. It used to be the case that I could only take on projects if my full-time work wasn’t busy, and even then it would be completed in my own time. And that can be frustrating, for obvious reasons, and because the whole industry can feel very cyclical and seasonal at times. I don’t think anyone I’ve worked with has ever felt cheated as such; I’ve always been honest about my situation and the time I can spend on projects.

Another problem was that I could never take on work that clashed with accounts I was working on at whatever agency I was at at that time. I’m hoping, also, that it will mean more diverse work. With more time to experiment and try new things, I’m hoping to create some interesting projects for myself in addition to any commissioned pieces. There’s some writing I’ve been meaning to get on with, a couple of book projects etc and a series of work I’ve wanted to get on with for a while.

In August, knowing that this was on the cards, I moved into a larger space in Brooklyn with a view to use that as some kind of a base. I’m also conscious that I want to give myself a reason to come into Manhattan (I’m fully capable of becoming a hermit, forgetting how to talk to people and sitting at home n my underwear) so I’m looking at spaces around the city at the moment too. It also means I don’t have to give awkward excuses to students wanting to intern for me. Up until now I’ve kind of had to say “I’m flattered you’d like to work with me but, I won’t really be there in the day so… I don’t know, you could tidy up or something…?”

And that’s it really. Not massive news to a lot of people I imagine, but a real life shift for me nonetheless, so send me (((good vibes))). I’m really excited about it and look forward to sharing the fruits of my labours soon.

_c

Our parents had their issues in the 60′s and 70′s with The Man (but we all know how that turned out) and it seems like our generation is similarly pissed about the financial inequality that is so rife today.

I’m inclined to agree; hyper-wealth is pretty disgusting but, it’s also a by-product of capitalism and designers need to be careful which side of the fence they fall in this debate as it’s actually something which affects us all at the very basest of levels. Even more so when getting involved with this particular situation as there aren’t one but many fences to fall from.

I studied Economic Theory at school from age 16-18 (long story) and, OK, I kind of nosedived. It really wasn’t for me but I got the basics and I understand the models that lead to the kind of profits that huge corporations see. Do I agree with it? Maybe not, but do I understand them? Yes.

A lot of the guys taking home these 7 figure pay cheques have lived for what they do. Wasted their 20′s at the office; pulled 80 hour weeks,; slept at work; sacrificed marriages and relationships; ignored their kids… whatever. That’s their decision. You see that same kind of dedication (and stupidity) in all industries, including ours. I’ve seen so many people sleep at the office that I stopped taking notice. It’s pretty diseased but, some people won’t be told.

But let’s look at those at the top of their game in the creative industries. Find me a famous photographer with a day rate of less than $25k. In fact, fuck that, I saw $350k spent on a 2 day(!) shoot with a particularly notable female photographer for a tequila account very recently. Anyone out there protesting against that? What’s the going rate for a Hirst print these days? Get me a print out of Karl Lagerfeld’s bank account. Executive Creative Directors at big U.S. ad agencies clear the one million mark regularly. Diane Von Furstenberg has a yacht that moors occasionally in the Hudson River. Jessica Hische recently posted on her blog a case study where she was asking $70k for an illustration for a single ad campaign – http://www.jessicahische.is/obsessedwiththeinternet/andhelpingyougetpaid/the-dark-art-of-pricing.

It’s a little too easy to point fingers at guys in suits.

Just because you wear jeans and a t-shirt to work, doesn’t mean you’re exempt. The creative industries are not poor by any yard stick, and for a designer to get involved here they either need to have a crystal clear conscience and immaculate balance sheet or be ready to walk away from what they do for a living.

It’s part of the capitalist model that allows us to set up our own studios. To set our own day-rates and to work with famous brands. For those famous brands to even exist, in fact, and have budgets to spend on marketing and to employ you to do something you enjoy for a living while getting paid. That same model allows guys with weird haircuts to own skyscrapers. And the very same model means there’s millions of people in First World living on the poverty line. Which sucks. But for a designer to be out there creating anti-capitalism slogans or t-shirts is misguided.

You think the world needs your limited edition poster? Would society crumble if you didn’t release that t-shirt or rebrand that law firm? Wow that business card is nicely embossed; must be pretty important stuff? Take a step back.

I’m not trying to cheapen what we do, I love my job. And I’m not saying you shouldn’t have an opinion here, as you definitely should, but you should also give it a lot of thought before weighing in. This is the first and probably last I’ll have to say on the subject but just bear in mind there are a lot of folks far worse off than you, would you trade with them? You may think you’re a part of the 99% in this instance, but on a global scale you’re very much a part of the 1%

I combined a fresh and clean treatment of their existing logo over some lovely imagery by a couple of emerging photographers who might get some work out of it. Clean typography, nice and open, not crowded out and not really looking like anything else in that arena. The work felt fresh and modern and attractive.

The ECD on the project said I’d nailed it and that he’d “love to decorate his apartment with these pieces”. No lies.

Great. pat on the back, brief solved, move on to the next one.

But no. Hold your horses. This is advertising. On a global scale. You can’t just spend two weeks on something and be happy with it, God forbid. This brief was for a launch NEXT JULY. At the earliest.

2012.

The world may have ended before this sees the light of day.

So what’s happening next? Between now and then? Another two weeks for me to ‘drill down’ into the project giving me time to ‘test drive’ the look and feel and ‘kick the tires’ til I’m happy with it. I love those terms.

But I was already happy with it? I’d already kicked the tires? But, ok well, yeah I guess I could refine the placement of the type here and there, tweak this bit a little, see how it works in a couple more formats?

And then? Another presentation. Followed by?

Research.

Round 1.

Of, possibly, 10.

40 people made to sit in a room for 3 hours and talk about air freshners and discuss how my work makes them feel.

And how do they feel when they look at my work for 3 hours? Probably pretty bad.

I’ve spent the last 8 years working in advertising and I’ve never heard of one good thing come from a research session.

“It looks a bit like a perfume ad”.

“I don’t like sky”.

“That guy’s eyebrows are shaped strangely, he looks like he might attack me”.

Serious. That came up once.

And this will go on and on. Maybe 10 rounds of research with revisions in-between each until the nice clean work I just presented has been malformed into something bland and uninteresting and dull.

Welcome to the global marketplace.

I strive, in all my work, to maintain an energy and an immediacy. A lot of that comes from experimental techniques that you simply can’t recreate over and over again, and where that’s not possible, I just try to not over-think stuff. There are very few of personal pieces that have taken me longer than 2 days to complete. I just don’t have the patience. Commissions where there are comments from art directors etc naturally take longer.

Now, I’m definitely all about the craft, but I think, as a designer or image maker, learning to know when to step away from a project and put a lid on it – especially when you have a wobbly, meandering project with no real deadline (“I’d like a logo for my coffee shop that I haven’t even found a space for yet”) – really dictates the quality of the final piece.

A lot of work ends up dry and overworked, particularly in the branding field -corporate ID’s regularly take 12-18 months to complete – and, on a personal level, I just think that kind of a timeline undermines your ability to make decisions. When you have to rely on research sessions and design by committee you will always end up with something that’s offensive to no-one but also interesting to no-one. Work that’s inherent desperation to communicate on a mass level just seeps out of it and no-one pays any attention. Noise.

I spent 3 years in (what was) a start up working for clients where you’d have half a day to design a poster. Now I don’t endorse those kinds of deadlines either, but that kind of work certainly put me in good stead for the future.

Learning how to make a call on something is part of your job. Have an opinion, don’t be trampled and know when to walk away from something.

You won’t always get it right but you will learn from it.

I took a brief for a massive phone company in Japan around 5 years ago. The brief that stole Christmas. Over the course of 3 weeks (over Christmas) the brief changed completely 4 times and accrued some 11 or 12 rounds of revisions, at which point I said ‘Fuck it. You clearly have no idea what you want and, more importantly, no respect for my processes. I think we’re done here’. And I took my files and walked away. Just in time for New years Eve.

It was a tough decision to make at the time but an important one and something that I stand by.

And that’s really all I have to say about that.

_ C

I recently found myself in a situation where my work found it’s way onto a catwalk show at New York Fashion Week. For a lot of designers this would be a dream come true – myself included – but, sadly, the work appeared unbeknownst to me.

It was a re-appropriation of a type treatment I created several years ago and, to make matters worse, it actually looked really good on the clothes. However, no attempt to contact me had been made, no permission given on my part and, worst of all, no credit offered. The type treatment had never been released publicly so the offending fashion house, I assume, had simply found a decent resolution image online – there are several – scaled it up and smudged it a bit to hide the pixelation.

So, I get it. This is the age of information – misinformation in some cases – and work gets tweeted, ffffound and blogged that many times that the paper trail, if any, often goes cold and it can be hard, if not impossible, to track down the originator of the work. Not so with this piece; a simple Google search of [law prohibits me from giving you the details but two very obvious adjectives describing the type] would’ve yielded all the information you could want; it was one of my more known pieces. However, it’s a two way street, and the work was brought to my attention by a fashion conscious friend who saw the collection being well received on a few blogs. She emailed initially to congratulate me.

I’m told this is a pretty common occurrence in the fashion world. It’s happened to me a couple of times but usually somewhere low key and untraceable like a street vendor in Turkey. But it really sucks when you see it in high profile scenarios like this. Three people I know recounted personal experiences where their work had ‘inspired’ collections and in two cases they were able to obtain reimbursement, in the other, sadly, it wasn’t a ‘pixel for pixel’ overlay and they were unable to claim anything and also found themselves out of pocket with lawyers fees etc. My story has a happy ending, luckily, but how we got there was just weird and frustrating.

I have wanted to do more work in the fashion arena for a while so, initially I had my agents reach out, deliver a light slap on the wrists and suggest that, as it was old work and as they clearly liked my stuff, that we should work together on something original for their winter collection. Seemed fair enough.

Silence.

I gave it over a week before I reached out myself, wondering if my agents had come across as heavy handed. Softly softly kind of thing. No reply. Eventually I decided a more head on approach. The company has a Facebook page and was happily showing their new collection, complete with my work on there. I filled out the form and  had to supply links to the original work, the work that I felt was in violation and a short statement and, lo and behold, Facebook agreed with me and took the images down.

Within 3 hours. Insane. I’m a complete dirtbag in the grand scheme of things so fair play to them for keeping a tight grip on this kind of thing.

24 hours later I was hit with a heavy – and equally condescending – legal letter from the offending party’s lawyers. They had reviewed my work alongside the ‘original work’ of their client and decided I had no reason to claim any kind of infringement had taken place. It was an entirely original piece as far as they were concerned and the fact that I was seeking any kind of reimbursement meant that I was clearly out to scam their client. This from a fucking lawyer… They seemed pretty convinced of it’s authenticity to the point where even I was examining the work, looking for differences… But no, there were none, and furthermore they wanted me to contact Facebook to retract my claim and repost the images or I would suffer the consequences in court.

So now I was pissed. I spoke to my agent and, whilst I was annoyed, I knew it wasn’t going to be for a huge amount of money and I didn’t want to have to drag it through court as that very quickly becomes an expensive hobby. On principle, however, I wanted to fight it, and was willing to pony up a few quid to do so. Why should someone else claim my work as theirs? Luckily, my agents told me they deal with this kind of thing 5 times a year and that they would cover all costs. Very well then, I said, sick ‘em.

I spoke with a lawyer my agents use, provided them with my original work and they promptly got in touch with the fashion house’s representatives.

One email and they caved. Literally within the hour.

The offending line was pulled and, as no sales had yet been made on it, no money changed hands. I was a little disappointed. After such a build up and seemingly confident letter I was expecting a fight. But apparently not.

Theres a message here, and it has to be don’t be scared when someone fires a legal shot across your bows. It’s more often than not bullshit and they’re just trying their luck.

Everyone who’s ever copied someone else’s work knows what they’ve done and they rely on designers and illustrators not having the financial means or the stomach for a court fight. But if you genuinely believe someone has stolen your work then you have to pursue it. If someone sends you a legal letter then you pony up the money to seek legal counsel and get a genuine, legal reply sent back on your behalf. The more often designers and illustrators fight back in instances like these, the less likely it will be to happen in future.

Now, if anyone in the fashion world wants to work with me legitimately, then you know where I am.

You can smell a copied and pasted, boiler plate email a mile off and they really don’t go down well. I reply to 95% or more of people who contact me but when it’s a lazy email I just switch off. I don’t have a standard response that I just paste and send so you shouldn’t have a standard email.

For my part, I think there’s much better places to intern than with me. I’m one guy and I work alone most of the time. Unless it’s a collaborative piece of course but the paid projects that come in are usually too few and far between to warrant having someone spend 3 months over the summer sat staring at the back of my head. For that reason I’m not currently taking on interns but be sure to know that I will be posting about it when I am looking for help.

So, I tweeted about it the other day and got a lot of responses asking for advice. Not that I’m any real authority on the matter but my thoughts are these.. This is ABC stuff but apparently not for most people.

1. Send anything but an email. Write a letter, design a mailer; anything that shows you’ve put some thought into it. Don’t just email with a CV attached, people want to see the kind of work you’re capable of.

2. If you want to contact multiple studios, by all means do so but don’t send them the same damn thing. Tailor it. Mention work of theirs that you particularly like, why you want to work with them, what you think you’ll learn etc. “I find your work really inspiring” is not good enough, you can say that to anyone. There’s no need to suck up but be genuine.

3. Spelling and grammar. Seriously, this is really important. Foreign students, OK, you’re allowed some broken English etc but the fact is, you’re trying to get work in a field where communication, information, legibility and clarity are key. If you mis-spell internship in the subject bar things don’t look good. This has happened.

4. Be nice. Again, I can’t stress this enough. Why would anyone want to work with someone who comes across as arrogant?

5. P’s & Q’s! If a studio can’t take you on this year but takes the time to get back, say thank you! Would it kill you to be polite? This is the real world where people don’t have 6 week+ deadlines. If a busy studio has taken the time to get back to you, it’s the least you can do to respond in turn.

So, to reiterate: a tailored, genuinely interested, well put together and polite first point of contact will get a much better response than any carpet bomb email enterprise.

Good luck!