At last! The (hopefully) clear and (I think) interesting points surgically removed from Mr Bierut's book. With apologies to the author for oversimplification, just repeating the essay's title, misunderstanding, misinterpretation, missing a few out and, well, for just getting it wrong at times...oh, and for not getting anything from number 53...
(Those are my favourites in bold).
01. There's more to Graphic Design than Graphic Design.
02. Understand the cultural context.
03. Don't assume your client won't let you do it.
04. Have something cool-looking to do when you can't come up with any other solution.
05. Good design can only happen when championed, client-side, by a strong individual.
06. Traditional Graphic Design histories focus too much on graphic design as objects and not enough on the context.
07. Grumpy old designers should cheer up and open their eyes.
08. David Carson: The non-thinking man's designer.
09. There's more to type than those Swiss would have you think.
10. Know who you're phoning.
11. It's still better to be an idealist (it just doesn't pay as well).
12. Reality is fake.
13. Design beautiful things for everyone.
14. Simplicity and consistency aren't always right.
15. The only real certainty is that we harm the environment.
16. Who's Mark Lombardi?
17. Form+Content=Icon
18. Integrate info into image.
19. To make your point you need to "sell" your point.
20. Place branding only works when you get near total buy in.
21. Great change can start from the most simple act.
22. People vote for what they like.
23. If you care about what you do you have to care about it's effect.
24. "Design" goes beyond "object" into "event".
25. Design is a facilitator - be aware of what you facilitate.
26. Bent content/Straight delivery.
27. The day of the nerd is nigh.
28. Re-read Catcher in the Rye.
29. Vladimir Nabokov: Father of Hypertext.
30. Nobody wants ideas on magazine covers any more.
31. When presented with the appropriate authority we generally will believe it.
32. A hallmark of our everyday life is our struggle to master technology.
33. Let's hear the real, complete stories behind designs.
34. Search hard for the clients that want to change the world.
35. We sterilise the written word.
36. Beware of meaningless taglines.
37. Ed Ruscha: Graphic Design as Art.
38. Paper clips are boring. Move on.
39. Herbert Matters.
40. Don't be afraid to be uncool.
41. "What is an airport but a border between two places?"
42. A concept drawing should excite the imagination.
43. Let's have more heated debates.
44. We often grow to love the ugly-familiar.
45. Vignelli's brilliant map didn't work because he ignored the cultural context.
46. ITC Garamond is not Garamond.
47. "We're here to make them [clients] think about what's dangerous and unpredictable..."
48. Design from the inside out.
49. When it comes to government funded ID project, isn't it about time we made it clear to the public what they really get for the money?
50. Deserving causes deserve better symbols than the generic "one ribbon fits all" solution.
51. It's taken me 20 years to work out how I got into graphic design.
52. Bruce McCall: The father of supersize?
53. -
54. We take comfort in the appropriation of recognised styles.
55. We comfort others by manufacturing authenticity.
56. Original expression soon becomes rip-off fodder.
57. You can't always simplify a complicated idea.
58. The bullshit helps clients feel comfortable with our intuitive decisions.
59. It's easy to knock a new name but only total buy-in will make one work (whatever it is).
60. "Graphic design is easy...so we kill ourselves trying to make it hard."
61. "...we're just one brilliant inspiration...away from tranforming our lives forever."
62. "There are only two ways to secure design's opportunities: reputation and personal relationships."
63. Graphic design credits are, invariably, over simplified.
64. If you think it's worth saying, say it again and again and again and again and again and again...
65. We all run the risk of being accidental plagiarists.
66. Fake becomes more acceptable the more time goes by, until we forget it's fake at all.
67. Life changing graphic design is too rare.
68. "It is only by association...that a logo takes on any real meaning" (Paul Rand)
69. Even the most iconic examples of graphic design enjoy a precarious existence.
70. Something about the invisibility of great experience design.
71. In business "innovation" is much more interesting than "design".
72. "You harmonize; then you customize." (Wilson Pickett)
73. Design by committee can work.
74. Making things nice is not the same as making things right.
75. "The success of every design project depends on a close give-and-take between designer and client".
76. Honesty is still the best policy.
77. What's the hurry?
78. Nothing sells like enthusiasm.
79. Don't look around on the treadmill.
Special thanks go to Michael for going to the trouble of writing them all and to whoever made him make them into a book so I could read them in the bath.