For reference, I’ve added a cap of the old version.

Now, I know that there are moral codes for designers out there. AIGA has one. The GAG publishes an entire tome on business practices and ethics each couple of years or so. So, no one can argue that ethics have not been covered. (They have.) However, their context seems to be rather blasé and business centered.

This is important. As a designer it’s nice to have something onto which I can fall back when getting into discussions about pricing, usage, rights, etc. My question—though—is why do ethics in design ‘end’ at professional relationships, business practices and contracts?

I’ve kind of touched on this myself, questioning the morality of allowing oneself to knowingly create ‘bad’ design. Mr. Draplin’s eloquently expounded anecdote is an even more horrifying example of this phenomenon; The Super 8 re-brand appears to be part of a Wyndham Hotels and Resorts’ overhaul of its budget brands (which included Days Inn). Draplin’s $15,000 Sunset Motel example appears to be more akin to forcing one’s younger sibling to give up his or her good Halloween candy just because he or she is younger and smaller and unexperienced in the ways that the world works.

I kind of think that we as designers should have some sort of Hippocratic Oath that has to be taken before becoming a professional designer. And, this oath shouldn’t just be about copyrights, fair usage and client relations; it should also cover ‘good’ design and perhaps there should be some sort of tribunal that those who break the oath would have to face. Or maybe they could run a gauntlet of design, kind of like the American Gladiators, only instead of Ice, Blaze and Thunder, the contestants would face-off against Sans, Baseline and Ligature.

Okay, that might be too much.

But, there are a few of us out there who struggle with the current state of professionalism in design. I’ve been in a lot of discussions on the subject (often stemming from self-doubt or bleak job prospective) both professionally and academically. Katherine McCoy of High Ground Design in Colorado presented an essay in 1998 arguing for higher professional standards in design (especially within education). It’s a little disconcerting, though, to find out that a crappy sign is worth almost half of my base yearly salary.

morality is such a slippery slope. How does one define moral, amoral and immoral, especially when related to design? I know that people who are amoral are treated differently in a court of law than those who act immorally. Was the company who re-designed the Sunset Motel’s sign acting without morals or against their morals? Did they knowingly take $15,000 from the motel owner in exchange for a sign that they threw together to make a quick buck, or was that literally the best they could do?

Either way, I don’t know that we’re necessarily f*cked. There definitely need to be changes, but I’m unsure as to what those changes need to be exactly. More pondering on this later.

Play me off, Keyboard Cat.

So, there’s a fashion show coming up, and I’m doing some design for it. Not fashion design, but designs for t-shirts and various other media (perhaps thongs, hats, cups, who knows). It should be a good time. Check out the sweet card artwork above. It’s on November 14th at the USF Tampa Marshall Center. Be there or be square.

And, randomly on the treadmill, I started thinking about really REALLY old stuff from 6th and 7th grade. I think it might be a sign as I start brainstorming my new site. But it was really random stuff, like Bilbo the Rabid Walrus and Newbus: the Dumbest Slug on Earth. I’m not even sure how they would play into my site. Yet.

Revisiting childhood sounds like a pretty good idea for a theme.

So, both movies were pretty GD awesome. Zombieland was kind of like an American attempt at zombedy much like Shaun of the Dead put a uniquely British spin on the genre. It’s not subtle. At all. But it was definitely a fun movie, even for those who may not generally go for the Zed word.

I appreciated a couple things specifically: first, the movie takes the ‘virus’ approach much like 28 Days Later which—for me—gives the whole experience a foot grounded within reality. It’s the whole ‘people connect better when there’s a bit of realism involved’ thing. Second, the humor grounded the characters a lot, again like SotD. When the the Michael Cera-esque Columbus hops on a motorcycle, he doesn’t ride heroically into the sunset. Instead the World of Warcraft shut-in whose virginity is ‘justifiably debatable’ handles the bike about as well as one would expect. In much the same way that Shaun was an average guy trying to save his girlfriend and mum, these are average people trying to find safety. And Twinkies.

Big downfalls? For me, I’m tired of computer-generated effects. When did it become cost-effective enough to digitally render smoke coming out of an engine rather than making a prop that actually emits smoke? And, one of the best elements of the film, Columbus’s rules for surviving Zombieland, are under-utilized. Sure, they pop up often enough, but out of 32, you only learn maybe 8 or 9. Although I could understand that it may have broken up the plot a bit here and there, a few more rules could have been pulled off successfully.

And Sweeney Todd capped off the night. I hadn’t seen the Burton/Depp version, but was pleasantly surprised. Again, a lot of odd CGI choices that annoyed the heck out of me, but overall a quality movie and surprisingly good on-screen musical. And, all of the actors could sing. It wasn’t like Mama Mia and the unfortunate casting of Pierce Brosnan. Yikes.

Just remember rule number four, the Double Tap. It would have saved Sweeney Todd.

I don’t mean to leave you just kind of hanging out, forlorn and lonely on the internets. We’ve had a tumultuous time together: I’ll get excited about you and write steadily for a couple days, and then I’ll get busy and will forsake you for months. Then I’ll come back and write feverishly before losing interest/drive.

Again.

So, how about we make a deal? Once a week? Fridays sound good? Awesome. Now that I have a research direction, you and I may be spending more quality time together.

XOXO

Phil

That’s right, loyal reader, Rick Astley has totally started sprouting. The first picture is from Day 06 (yesterday) and the second picture is from today. Somehow the little bugger mustered enough courage to finally break free from the soil and spread his joy to the rest of the world. Of course, Xena’s probably getting ready to bloom, but that doesn’t matter because Astley’s totally in the game.

Whoa! And I just watered him and there are now THREE sprouts. I have bore triplets!

Wow, I definitely need a better hobby.

To be honest, when I first saw the sign, I couldn’t remember what the old logo looked like. I remembered green, and white, but not a whole lot else. The Best Western crown kept popping up, as did the old Comfort Inn sun, but I never would have remembered the old script were it not for the interwebs. Thank you, tubes, for helping jog my memory.

A lot of people seem to feel very passionate about this re-imaging of this hotel chain, as can be seen in the comments of the above link. Terms such as “typographic genocide” and “generic” are thrown around, but I don’t necessarily think that either of those are the case. Sure, the typography has changed a LOT from a script to a slightly rounded sans serif, but I don’t think at all that it has necessarily killed the brand.

It seems that a lot of the nay-sayers cite nostalgia and the uniqueness of the script as being key reasons why Holiday Inn should have stayed the course. Admittedly, the logo isn’t as unique as it once was, but it’s also no longer dated. I’m not sure if any of my two readers are aware, but there’s currently a lot of debate as to whether or not cursive hand-writing should still be taught in school. If a writing style is being wiped out of a culture’s communicative lexicon, does it hold the same meaning as it once did? Would future generations (or even kids today) look back at the old Holiday Inn typeface and recognize it as humanist, if they no longer understand how cursive used to work?

Personally, I like it. I don’t know what it is about the mark, but to me it finally feels purposeful. It also seems more lively than the stodgy and antiquated script of yore. Even though the typeface has been neutered of its charm—charm used very loosely—the type has a very human flair, especially in the rounded terminals, the crossbar of the H and the bowl of the y’s descender. The green is generic-as-hell (nothing said Holiday Inn like that weird forest green) but it’s not entirely off-brand.

So, is it good? Yes. Will it last? Probably not. Is it better than poop on a stick? You bet.

As for little Rick Astley, I saw a sprout today. However, the seed was ON TOP of the soil, so I ended up burying it again, just in case. There is still hope.

I also aerated the soil, because I may have packed his soil too tightly. And then I think I drowned him shortly afterwards. Perhaps he’s a swamp sunflower. I sure hope so.

Oh well.

I’ll continue to water him and hope for the best. However, in the end, I’ll probably end up like the guy from Psycho, but instead of the remains of my mother in the attic, I’ll have a tiny flower pot filled with dirt on my sill.