Designer's Notebook

1 — note

Rules of a good designer

A good designer eats well and healthily

A good designer understands the importance of their profession

A good designer is kind

A good designer is polite

A good designer respects their clients

A good designer is curious

A good designer reads books

A good designer sleeps well

A good designer doesn't drink alcohol

A good designer works for the good of people

A good designer respects themselves

A good designer has strong health

A good designer travels

2 — note

What is good design?

For me, truly good design is an opportunity to make the world better. In everything I create, whether it's a sign or a company name, I'm guided by basic principles: simpler form, brighter color, richer content. Through ideas and persistence, the world changes for the better!

3 — note

What is good design for?

Good design means people will listen to you, watch you, read you, and visit you more!

4 — note

About modern music

Junkies groove to mixdowns under the mixes. Skits, cuts, crap — the whole place reeks of rap.

5 — note

Absolute fake

Absolute fakery will arrive in the very near future, in absolutely everything. It will happen fast and unnoticed. And by the time it's noticeable, it will already be too late. The high speed of society's degradation will lead to the total replacement of everyone and everything.

6 — note

Where capitalists worship

Banks and stock exchanges are the temples of capitalists.

7 — note

Art

Art doesn't entertain — it teaches. And if it doesn't teach, it's not art, it's a circus tent.

8 — note

Self-employment

9 — note

Fontanka 189. A cameo role

A story about a 25-year-old woman who spent 5 years renovating a large communal apartment building at Fontanka, 189. She oversees 8 apartments in Saint Petersburg. The author, director, narrator, and building manager are one and the same person.

10 — note

Candy design

11 — note

Photo zone. Trends

12 — note

Screenshots of planet Earth

13 — note

Water cooler

There are convenient and inconvenient water coolers, but it's almost impossible to judge their qualities until you actually start using one. Typically, at points of sale none of the coolers are fitted with a water bottle, so it's very hard to check the quality of the water delivery components when buying. That's why every display unit at a point of sale should be fitted with a water bottle and kept in working condition, so buyers can actually evaluate each cooler on offer.

14 — note

Logo constructions

15 — note

Duty

See every task through to the end — that is your duty!

16 — note

Fleeting inspiration

Fleeting inspiration helps solve the hardest problems. Pay attention!

17 — note

Depressive stickers for Telegram

https://t.me/addstickers/dizcard

18 — note

That's life

Afraid a big company will steal your idea? That's life.

19 — note

Why?

If you like my designs, why do you keep revising them? If you don't like my designs, then why do you order them in the first place?

20 — note

Fast, cheap, and good

You always have to pick two out of these three. If it's fast and cheap, it will never be good. If it's cheap and good, it will never be fast. If it's good and fast, it will never be cheap. Remember: you always have to choose two out of three.

21 — note

Planning the design department's work

Setting and solving tasks

Step 1. Meeting

Meeting topic: a monthly, two-month, or quarterly plan.

Meeting goal: determine which banking products need additional visual communication, and determine which channels that communication will be broadcast through.

Participants: representatives of the design department and the content department; a representative from each product.

Step 2. Design department

Order of setting and completing tasks:

(Note: some tasks involve the work of one or more designers, a photographer, an illustrator)

Defining banner formats for all channels.
Preparing templates for all formats.
Design templates based on standards and guidelines.
Content ideas for the products. (It's recommended to split this task simultaneously between the design department and the content department; after it's done, representatives of both departments meet to discuss and determine the best options.)
Preparing or creating visual material for the product (photos, illustrations).
Design templates with text and visual content.
Preparing and handing off finished content to the relevant departments.
Important: the priority for preparing or creating graphic and text content is based on the product's relevance (priority is determined at the meeting).

Step 3. Delivery

1. Using an FTP server with a structured folder system, where the folder name indicates the relevant department, the second level indicates the product, and the third level indicates the creation date (the date always helps determine the material's relevance, and lets you return to the archive if needed).

2. The file name contains the distribution channel and pixel size.

Examples:

smm / mortgage / 15.08.19 / inst_600x600.jpg

web / business / 12.20.19 / banner_1920x400.png

Tasks are tracked in an internal SRM system with shared access, so that from the very start of the calendar period and the start of work, dates are recorded for each specific task.

22 — note

Why isn't anything working out?

You know why nothing's working out for you? Because you haven't focused on what matters most!

23 — note

Designer and client

In the designer's opinion, 90% of clients are jerks. In the clients' opinion, 90% of designers are jerks. And while the two sides sort out their differences, the remaining 10% collaborate productively.

24 — note

Pleasure

Turn your work into pleasure.

To do this, turn routine work into an experiment by trying alternative ways of doing it. This will lead you to discoveries and new experience. Don't forget the rules!

25 — note

Animation lessons

26 — note

Business card grid

27 — note

The Grain installation

The installation is a stylized grain made of a durable material. Each year, thanks to an internal ecosystem, the grain sprouts.

28 — note

Mint park

An idea for greening a park area with mint

29 — note

Design?

30 — note

Talent

Talent in music, painting, film, and design is nothing without improvisation and daily practice.

31 — note

A free advertising channel

32 — note

The main advantage

Uniqueness is the main competitive advantage.

33 — note

Three constants

Three basic constants that define a quality product before it goes to market:

Form
Color
Content

They must be perfect! If one of the constants doesn't meet this requirement, or is missing, there's no point bringing such a product to market.

34 — note

Films about design and art

The Happy Film
Abstract: The Art of Design
The Many Lives of William Klein
Exit Through the Gift Sho
How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr Foster?
Beautiful Losers
Gerhard Richter Painting
Sketches of Frank Gehry
The Line King. The Al Hirschfeld Story
Blow-Up
Helvetica
American Look
Bomb it
War Photographer
Everybody Street
The Genius of Design 1-5
Jonathan Ive. A Designer with a Capital D
Diana Vreeland.The Eye Has to Trave
Jean-Michel Basquiat. The Radiant Child
Art & Copy
Indie Game The Movie
Manufactured Landscapes
The Art of Steal
Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus
Cutie and the Boxer
The Modern Russian Design
Objectified
Cave of Forgotten Dream
Paul Smith. Gentelman and designer
Why Man Creates
Future by Design
Roy Lichtenstein
Le mystère Picasso
Urbanized
Inge Druckrey. Teaching to See
Press Pause Play
Helmut Newton. Frames from the Edge
The Graffiti Artist
Clean Lines, Open Spaces
Factory Girl
Arakimentari. Crazy Japan Photographer
Beauty Is Embarrassing
Between The Folds
Bill Cunningham. New York
Drew. The Man Behind The Poster
Eames. The Architect and The Painter
Downtown 81. New York Beat Movie
Milton Glaser To Inform and Delight
Nightwatching
Style Wars
Basquiat
My arhitect
Vidal Sassoon the movie
In Vogue. The Editor's Eye
Women Art Revolution

35 — note

Holy cities

Name cities in Russia after Saints? The map shows cities in the state of California (USA).

36 — note

Responsibility

A manifesto in posters. Social, ethical, and moral responsibility: refusing everything that harms yourself and others.

Chocolate

1,800,000 children in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire — the world's two largest cocoa exporters — work on plantations.

Addendum

Phenylethylamine

Cocoa beans contain about 300 different substances. The most important of them are: anandamide, arginine, dopamine, antioxidants (epicatechin and polyphenol), histamine, magnesium, tryptophan, phenylethylamine, tyramine, and salsolinol.

Phenylethylamine is a chemical compound that serves as a precursor for some natural neurotransmitters, and its derivatives are psychedelics and stimulants:

Mescaline — a psychedelic, an entheogen from the phenylethylamine group.
Amphetamine — a synthetic central nervous system stimulant and appetite suppressant, a phenylethylamine derivative.
2C-B ("Siberia", "Tusibi") — a psychedelic of the phenylethylamine family.
MDMA — a semi-synthetic psychoactive compound of the amphetamine class, belonging to the phenylethylamine group.

The substance has an irritant effect on the skin and causes headaches.

Caffeine

Chocolate contains caffeine, which causes stomach upset, nausea, vomiting, and enlargement of the prostate gland in men. A single cup of cocoa or hot chocolate can contain anywhere from 6 to 42 mg of caffeine.

Caffeine contributes to a faster pulse (tachycardia) and a slight rise in blood pressure, which is why people who have had a heart attack are advised to cut down on chocolate (a 125-gram chocolate bar contains more caffeine than a cup of instant coffee).

Other

Cocoa beans can contain up to 0.1 mg/kg of mercury, a poison toxic to the body.

Cocoa is the most intensively pesticide-treated cultivated plant in the world! Cocoa is grown in tropical countries around the world on large plantations using large quantities of fertilizers and pesticides.

In addition, industrially produced cocoa beans undergo radiological treatment to destroy the excessive number of pests present under plantation-scale cultivation. This cocoa is used to produce 99% of all chocolate in the world!

Cockroaches live in cocoa beans, and they're very hard to get rid of. The chitin that makes up a cockroach's shell contributes to numerous allergic reactions. The chemicals used in growing and processing cocoa also cause allergies.

For men

Theobromine, found in chocolate, can cause abnormal growth of glandular tissue. This substance is twice as toxic as caffeine and can cause testicular atrophy and impaired sperm production.

37 — note

A tram ride

The tram is becoming less popular over time. Perhaps introducing a built-in audio guide that talks about the streets, stops, and landmarks passing by, and simply interesting facts — especially ones connected to historical figures or important events — would bring back interest and demand for this kind of transport, both among tourists and city residents.

Between stop announcements, the audio guide would briefly and concisely explain, for example, why a given street, avenue, or stop bears its particular name.

38 — note

Symbol

In Georgia, it's a bank; in Tatarstan, it's a treat.

39 — note

Impressions

Stories, music, paintings, books, and feelings are born from impressions. Design is no exception.

40 — note

Carrot

41 — note

Neighbors

A chat inside the wifi network.

42 — note

Archive & Concepts

Notes