The intent of the “shout out” series is to feature design innovators, gain insight into their creative process, discover how their philosophies influence my own idea generating/design process and offer you a chance for creative inspiration and growth. From a personal standpoint, I want to determine if this hybrid of creativity leads my designs down surprising, unexplored pathways ultimately expanding my own creative toolbox.
Shane Walsh
Favorite visual communication design quote Shane lives by
Design should never say, “Look at me.” It should always say, “Look at this.” — David Craib
Shane adds to Craib’s sentiment by stating it’s important that your concept relates to the product you’re promoting. Many advertisements are well produced, possess that all-important concept and utilize strong imagery. In the end, if you can’t remember what they’re selling, the message is completely ineffective. My suggestion: reflect on your own experience when you concept. How many times have you remembered a funny commercial but can’t recall who the message was for or what they were promoting?! Sure, it entertained; it got you emotionally connected, but failed to do its ultimate job, command you to take action.
Three self identified, descriptive words best describing “Shane Walsh”
• Logical
• Quirky
• Clever
Shane perceives his work as a reflection of himself and admits he tends to be awkward, overly calculated and sharp-witted. His smart, well thought-out, somewhat bizarre ideas create a vital connection between the viewer and what each unique idea is communicating.
How many times have you heard me say this before? Use your own voice, insight, ideas, perspective, your own... in your designs. Unique and one-of-a-kind means your work has a platform to stand out from the endless parade of other designs that consumers come in contact with. Shane’s approach supports my point brilliantly!
The Walsh design philosophy
In Ross Moody’s “Shout Out”, I cite Dan Stiles’s distinction between design as a service and design as art. Shane feels a greater sense of accomplishment through his client-based, design as a service work. His creativity stems from the restrictions established by his clients. Designers are problem solvers. You can’t think outside the box unless you’ve got a box. You can’t push boundaries unless you’ve got boundaries. It’s only with restrictions are we able to provide innovative results. There is no innovation without solving a problem.
Awards or publications featuring the design stylings of “Shane Walsh”
Shane was recently named one of CMYK Magazine’s “Top 100 New Creatives” and was featured in their volume 50 issue. Cover to cover, the focus of CMYK Magazine is on giving readers a truly inspiring visual experience. Each issue is filled with creative solutions from as many as one hundred talented artists and designers at all levels of the creative talent pool.
Shane has also had three projects published in the Portfolio Night annuals series. The Portfolio Night annuals are a collection of the best of the world’s largest advertising portfolio reviews featuring copywriters, art directors, designers and illustrators from all over the world. Work from the US, Canada, Brazil, Sweden, India, Lebanon, the United Kingdom are highlighted, and together represent the new benchmark for superb junior work.
A standout, defining moment in Shane's career thus far
Shane’s response to this question builds upon his previous answer. His most rewarding moment to date is when his work was featured in CMYK Magazine. Shane’s entire family rushed the magazine section of a local national bookstore chain and cleared the shelves of every issue they had in stock. He enjoyed receiving text message “shout outs” from old school classmates congratulating him on his accomplishment.
Creative influences connected to Shane’s work
There are a few creative influences Shane consciously thinks of when designing. One is the work of designer, Stefan Sagmeister. Walsh states, “I really respect and envy his work. [Sagmeister’s] designs are bold and offbeat. There’s a sprit to them that I try to emulate in my own work.”
For a long time Sagmeister took pride in not having a particular design style but this “ideal” became difficult to uphold. If your goal is to alter your stylistic approach for every project, it’s impossible to develop a new one on a continual basis without ripping-off historical styles or a particular designers' style. (1) It’s safe to say Sagmeister’s designs have a "look” to them. Open a design book and chances are you can point out a Sagmeister design or one that’s inspired by him. Even the scale at which he works is distinctively "Sagmeister" often using numerous smaller objects grouped together conveying a larger image. If Sagmeister self identified common threads woven into his work, they would be using hand made elements and experimental typography.
On a personal note, one of Sagmeister’s quotes, “Complaining is silly. Either act or forget.” struck a cord with me becoming one of my personal mantras. Perhaps it’s my “inner rogue” screaming out, but my version is more direct and reads like this, “Stop complaining. Either take action or shut up.” I tell myself whining about the problem accomplishes nothing. If I’m not willing to take action to change it, then others don’t need to hear me complain about it.
As a visual communicator, Sagmeister presses emotional buttons. His work is akin to someone’s hands tightly wrapped around your throat, pushing you up against the wall and forcing you to pay attention. Sagmeister visited and spoke at a university where I was teaching a few years back. Never meeting him prior to this encounter, I admittedly expected him to be as assertive and direct as his visual voice. I was surprised to discover he is in fact the polar opposite of the public, bold and direct “Sagmeister” brand. He’s a sincere, happy soul, kind and engaging in an extremely soft-spoken, gentile way. To this day, I laugh to myself at this realization for it reminds me what we communicate to our audience, what our audience perceives and what we really are can be very different things.
When our discussion turns to branding, Shane mentions he’s a huge fan of the branding and design firm, Duffy & Partners. Duffy & Partners’s work spans many media and design disciplines including corporate and brand identity, packaging design, marketing communications, digital experiences and branded environments. (2) Building upon Sagmeister’s sentiment on not having a particular design style, Shane respects how Duffy & Partners’s communication solutions project a completely distinct voice for each brand while at the same time, no “Duffy & Partners” signature look is readily apparent. In essence, any Duffy & Partners “style” is completely transparent when layered on top of the brands they develop. Shane aspires to create the same type of diversity in his own work and remarks, “Personally, I want to steer away from creating a specific "Shane Walsh look" that is easily recognizable.”
Shane’s words of wisdom to impart to other designers
“Surround yourself with creative people.” While this suggestion has been a hard one to live by since graduating from college, Shane believes surrounding yourself with creative people influences your work and motivates you to create better design.
What is your creative process? Do you have a routine you follow when you create?
Regardless of the type of project Shane is working on each begins the same way: RESEARCH! He suggests knowing everything you can about a project before starting. Ask tons of questions, learn the client’s expectations, identify your target audience and figure out how to engage them. Research the type of work your client has done in the past. Learn what the competition is doing. Only after conducting research does Shane pull out his sketchbook and concept as many ideas as possible.
Shane’s gotten into the habit of carrying a sketchbook with him at all times never knowing when the next great idea will strike. He elaborates on developing ideas, “they tend to come at the most random times like when I’m having dinner with friends or right before I’m about to fall asleep. I have a box full of old ideas scribbled on napkins, receipts, bills, invoices, whatever scrap of paper was near me at the time.”
When it comes to inspiration, Shane often references a collection of design books and old Communication Arts magazines. Communication Arts is the premier source of inspiration for graphic designers involved in visual communication. Communication Arts's editorials, feature articles and annual competitions provide new ideas and information, while promoting the highest professional standards for the field. (4) Shane also visits sites like FFFFound.com, vi.sualize.us, underconsideration.com and graphic-exchange.com whenever he gets the chance. He has a “Random Inspiration” folder on his desktop that holds endless snippets of visual inspiration he accesses whenever needing an extra a jolt of creativity. For printed work, there’s a collage of pictures ripped from magazines, menus taken from restaurants, art prints, old photographs, etc. hanging on his wall next to his computer to get his creative juices flowing.
Shane cautions, designers can get caught up in how creative an idea is and can easily forget the intended audience’s perspective. He gains valued insight when showing his work to family (a.k.a. those not engulfed in the design community) before officially submitting work to the client. I urge you to consider this extra step as a neutral buffer if you will. You receive honest comments/feedback from others not involved in the creative process and hopefully walk away with points you may not have considered previously.
Examples that represent the “Walsh” design aesthetic
Shane was asked to design a poster for a university blood drive. Initially, the job required one poster design. After completing the project, he expanded the poster into a series. Shane notes this design represents his aesthetic in several ways:
• An offbeat concept that isn’t muddied by needless additional design elements. While you don’t relate blood to drinking glasses unless you’re a vampire in a pre-teen vampire book series, Shane focuses his message and imagery on promoting a university blood drive to an audience of undergraduates where alcohol consumption is often connected to the “traditional” college experience.
• A visual hierarchy that’s established through a clean layout and the marriage of direct/witty verbiage and alluring imagery. In advertising the saying goes, “get ‘em to laugh, get ‘em to cry, get ‘em to feel something.” The thought of drinking a glass of blood certainly gets me feeling something. The resulting emotion showcases the power of his visuals and demonstrates how they support the message.
Nailing down these powerful visuals didn’t come as easily as the concept. Shane initially tried illustration but shortly realized photography would leave a stronger lasting impression on the viewer. He experimented mixing everything from paint to strawberry milk, but all concoctions lacked a realistic look of blood. A friend of Shane’s suggested strawberry jelly for it was used to create the effect of fake blood in a television show he recently watched.
Rusty Kilick Brewery Logo and Package Design
The Rusty Kilick Brewery design branched from a project Shane previously worked on. In the original concept exploration, he developed symbols relating to the idiom “Drink Like A Fish.” While the concept wasn’t used at the time, Shane had the keen sense to hold onto this exploration. The idea wasn’t appropriate for its initial intent, but became the pivotal player in this package design series. Shane is drawn to the fish interacting with itself. The concept, again, relates to Shane’s slightly off and unorthodox aesthetic finding humor in death consuming itself in such a gluttonous way.
Point of note: This is the second time Shane mentions jotting down ideas and revisiting them. Keep a design journal and record your ideas. OK, some of those ideas didn’t make it into your final design solution this time. When working on a new project you have a chance to reuse, recycle and reinvent them. These previously rejected concepts became an integral piece of Shane’s successful design.
Boardwalk Beer Garden Logo Design
Duffy & Partners’s Tall Tails logo is a mark Shane constantly thinks about when developing visual identities. Shane comments, “[The Tall Tails logo] wasn’t the first to showcase multiple ideas using positive and negative space, but it’s the one that resonates with me.” Shane’s formula: pinpoint two or more business attributes and mash them together when designing logos. In Shane’s example, it’s blending a beer bottle and a fence. The bottle represents the bar aspect of the Beer Garden and the fence emotes an outdoor, open-air atmosphere. Combining several unique aspects of a company affords you the opportunity to develop ideas that are special to that specific brand.
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| Duffy & Partners’s Tall Tails logo is a mark Shane constantly thinks about when developing visual identities. |
Shane “Walshian” design attributes
After reviewing Shane’s body of work, I’m going out on a limb here and taking a crack at extracting some elements that represent his visual voice:
The “Ellen DeGeneres” effect
I understand Shane feeling awkward at times. Now I ask you, aren’t we are all a bit awkward in our own way? This is what I like to call the “Ellen DeGeneres” effect. Stand-up comedian, television icon and entertainment pioneer (3), Ellen DeGeneres has an awkward and hysterical way of dealing with life’s moments. Ellen’s reaction to those uncomfortable moments is the genius behind her humor. It’s what we relate to and we’ve probably felt the same way in similar situations. The same holds true for Shane and his designs. He uses his humor creating a vital connection between the viewer and the design. It’s off the cuff and that’s what makes it special.
My bark is worse than my bite
I love the bite Shane’s work possesses. His solutions have some attitude… now he’s talking my language! Isn’t it our job to challenge the viewer? Force them to think about your message in a way they never have before. Looking through Shane’s featured designs, this biting wit is most prevalent in his Red Cross Blood Drive poster series but much of his work posses this tone.
Hand made, hand drawn, vector illustration
While Shane doesn’t speak to this point directly, there is no question he integrates hand made elements into his work. The reach of this technique extends quite far. I sense block print qualities, cut paper, gestural pencil illustration and vector illustration to name a few. I’m a huge fan of designers integrating different artistic mediums into their visual communication for it truly makes the design their very own.
Duality
Shane’s process of identifying a business’s unique attributes, combining them and ultimately creating an identity from this union is wonderful. The symbol is derived from multiple ideas that somehow manage to utilize the same positive and negative space. The resulting symbol is effective on numerous levels and connects to different brand attributes.
Texture
Look closely, there’s texture in there too. Crumpled paper, gritty pencil, photocopied and subtle gradients work to add a personal tone to the message. It’s far from overstated, acts more like a whisper than a shout, but texture is in there.
Shane Walsh’s influence on my idea generating/design process
As previously stated, the intent of the “shout out” series is to feature design innovators, gain insight into their creative process, discover how their philosophies influence my own idea generating/design process and offer you a chance for creative inspiration and growth. From a personal standpoint, I want to determine if this hybrid of creativity leads my designs down surprising, unexplored pathways ultimately expanding my own creative toolbox.
Shane forwarded his information and I immediately headed for the design examples to catch a glimpse of what he’s been working on. Now that you’ve reviewed them yourself, do you find a theme uniting the series? Did you notice all of his chosen examples are in one way or another connected to alcohol? This insight is not lost on Shane either, “WOW! I just realized that all the work representing my aesthetic is alcohol based. I swear I am not an alcoholic.”
While determining and concepting a design inspired by Shane’s process I consider branding and packaging alcohol. It’s a strong theme in Shane’s chosen work but my intent is to design something that represents “me” using some of his tried and true practices. Unfortunately, I’m not much of a drinker. I opt for branding, packaging and promoting a fictitious energy drink instead. Energy drinks are beverages claiming to boost energy through a variety of stimulants and vitamins. (4) I use the term energy drink loosely and don’t mean the typical drink that comes to mind. My drink jolts you with amps of inspiration when discovering you’ve hit the dreaded creative wall.
The more I think about this idea motivation drink, I realize it’s a metaphor for the role I often play working and mentoring creative teams. I enjoy cheering you on, pushing you to achieve your best and kicking you in the butt every so often when your ideas need some punch! In fact, this entire blog and “shout out” series are examples of me offering you that extra shot of creative encouragement! I’m giving a quick shout out to the designers in my DES253 Brand Experience class at Lehigh University. We’re currently working on a project entitled “If I were a product, I’d be ___.” Each designer is tasked with choosing a product that best represents his or her interests and personality characteristics. Once the product is chosen, they must brand it and promote it. Well kids here goes, if I were a product, I’d be “dezign zapshot energy drink.” The tip of my hat to my DES253 Brand Experience class elicits the point of this visual experiment; you influence me as much as I hope I influence you.
Some aspects of my hybrid design I want to highlight
• What’s in a name?
I want my choice of visuals and verbiage to express an intense surge of energy. The message and product is about me helping jump-start your ideas. In this exercise, I’m the product so the visual voice must reinforce I’m the one doing the motivating. The self-identified visual elements I use to represent “me” must be integrated into the message somehow.
As I am sure any of my DES253 students can attest, selecting a name for a brand isn’t easy. A name does more than identify your company, product or service. It tells customers who you are, what you do and more than a little about how you do it. Your name differentiates you from your peers, peaks customer interest and invites further investigation — if you do it right. (5)
Ever wonder why my company’s name is dezignrogue and not designrogue? Design states the general area of focus to the viewer. I opted to change the letter “s” to a “z” so it speaks to the phonetic pronunciation of the word in spoken conversation as opposed to the literal spelling of the word design. Also, there are so many facets of design I’m interested in from word and image, environmental, interior, interactive that stressing only one element of design (graphic) felt too constricting.
In the spirit of interjecting “me” into different facets of this fictitious product, I explore numerous ways to integrate dezignrogue into the name and come back to the “z” time and time again. The “z” is a bridge for it connects the entire concept together. “Z” is in “dezign” and in the drink’s name, “zapshot.” I chose “zapshot” for it instantly speaks to that jolt of inspiration and spark of creativity you feel when you’re inspired.
• Duality
I realize I talk about this one a few times in Shane’s “shout out.” Like I mentioned before, this line of thinking is wonderful and is worth the repeat. His process of merging business attributes to create a symbol that reuses the same elements in different ways in the same symbol is excellent. I layered in as many double entendres as possible throughout this hybrid design to connect back to Shane’s creative process:
• Shot as in drink and shot as in hit
The word shot plays into the duality of the overall message. A shot is a measure of liquor (1.5 fluid ounces) that is often drunk straight from a small glass. (6) In this case, the shot is the amount of liquid in the “dezign zapshot” bottle. Choosing shot directly connects my design to Shane’s subliminal and humorous infatuation with alcohol. The flip side of the word is the biting sting you feel when receiving an injection, getting hit, slapped and/or kicked.
• Z
I previously referred the “z” as a bridge because it connects the different pieces of this concept together. “Z” does double duty and plays a supporting role too. The more obvious is the drink’s name, but it’s also subliminally interspersed throughout the logo. The expressive starburst is created entirely by connecting Zs.
• Starburst
I’m laughing to myself at the thought of this one. Using starbursts in a design is another first for me. Maybe it’s just me, but I equate using starbursts to choosing the fonts Papyrus or Comic Sans when working with typography. There’s a method to my madness though. I want that intense visual punch of energy to come through loud and clear. What is more representative of this fast action than the expressive typography and graphics often used in comic books and the original Batman television series?
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| Expressive typography often used in the original Batman television series. |
• Wake up!
I told you “Z” is a major player in this message! “Z” has not only achieved duality but it’s made it to level three, yup, triality. The purpose of this drink is to get your expected, boring, uninspired ideas to wake up. You can Zzzzzz later. There’s brilliant work to do. So, yes, Z is definitely a heavy hitter in this design!
• Geometrically constructed type
I have a soft spot in my heart for geometrically constructed typefaces. When viewing a piece of visual communication, we often see basic geometric shapes (circles, triangles, squares) first. Perhaps I’ve conditioned myself to perceive geometrically constructed typefaces as clean and simple because their foundation is these basic shapes. Geometrically constructed typefaces are part of the visual elements I continually and consistently use to represent my brand. This is why they’re prominently featured in this hybrid design.
• Color in the lines
I don’t know when I started mindless doodling but I recall doing it as far back as elementary school. My doodle of choice is simple and quite repetitive, at times even monotonous. I could see the joy and surprise in the action if the end result was a different doodle each time, but it’s the same repetitive action over and over again. Want to know what I’m obsessing over?! Coloring in the negative spaces in letterforms (officially termed counters). Yes, I take your average “o” and do this to it “•” (it’s any letter with a counter, not just the o!) This simple act of coloring in the negative spaces in letterforms takes a reserved typeface and gives it one heck of a progressive voice that growls with attitude. Removing counters is all over my self identified visual voice. This is another tool visually connecting “dezign zapshot” back to me. It affords me to work with my cherished geometric type but presents it in a voice with bold emotive, in your face power that’s needed for this message.
• Cutting and direct tone
The verbal voice of this design is all about being up front and to the point. This is an extremely deadline focused industry. You get one chance to impress a client and must present extremely high-level designs in a very short amount of time. Add your creative dry spell into the mix and you understand why this idea wake up call is so blunt. The product gives you that extra push to cross the finish line holding onto work you’re proud of.
• Bye happy accident watercolor, Hellooo Op Art!
I tried to integrate my dezignrogue watercolor identifier into this design, man did I ever?! Unfortunately, every time I introduced it, the resulting voice was too calm. I want this design to visually shout not whisper. When cheering, who whispers? Now, I’m letting you in on a little secret. The “dezign zapshot” symbol, package and promotion as a whole are more reflective of me than my own dezignrogue identity. Did I confuse you with that statement?! My personality is a bit over the top and “animated” which has a tendency to make its way into my designs. Through much practice and self control, I’ve tamed the wild creative beast. I design a piece to the point I’m drawn to it, then take a few deliberate steps back and turn down the volume. I find this practice often results in a softer, more subdued and modern voice.
This design organically kept pushing me in a bolder, over-stated direction. Bit by bit I found myself referencing the over exaggerated and short lived (around three years during the 1960s) Op Art style. The term “Op Art” implies illusion and visuals often appear to be moving or vibrating due to precise, mathematically based compositions. Look at an Op Art piece for even a few seconds and it appears to dance and wave in front of your eyes. You know the piece is two-dimensional and static, your eyes, however, send your brain a message that what they’re seeing is oscillating and flickering. (7)
Visual connectors often employed to capture an Op Art style (7):
• Op Art exists to fool the eye. Compositions create visual tension in the viewer's mind giving works the illusion of movement.
• Because of its geometrically based nature, Op Art is, almost without exception, non-representational.
• The elements employed (color, line and shape) are carefully chosen to achieve maximum effect.
• The critical techniques used in Op Art are perspective and careful juxtaposition of color.
• In Op Art, positive and negative spaces in a composition are of equal importance. Op Art could not be created without both.
Do you understand why I’m so intrigued by the Op Art movement for this hybrid design?! Visual motion, vibration and movement support the intended shouting “wake up!” message.
Lastly, the Op Art inspired repeating line is a nod to Shane’s block print shading technique used in his Rusty Kilick Brewery symbol design. His line quality is textural and emotes a hand carved quality where mine is bold and graphic in presentation.
So at last, I present you my Dr. Frankendezign creation!
In conclusion
This experimental “shout out” series is far from complete. I’ll continue to champion learning the processes of those we respect and admire. This practice not only furthers our knowledge of graphic design, but also serves to continually present endless inspiration and countless methods of creation. Now, I offer up a challenge. Find who inspires you and ask, “How do you create?” You might be surprised by their response and have a chance to take an amazing journey.
Interested in taking part in the “shout out” series? Then by all means, give a shout out and let me know!
Blog Resources:
(1) http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/sagmeister.html
(2) Fast Company Magazine, Oct. 6, 2009. Joe Duffy: Forging a Creative Link With China, by Linda Tischler.
(3) http://ellen.warnerbros.com/about/bio.php
(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_drink
(5) http://marketing.about.com/od/brandstrategy/a/nameyourbiz_2.htm
(6) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shot_glass
(7) http://arthistory.about.com/cs/arthistory10one/a/op_art.htm
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