Never Sleep
October 7, 2009
I’ve been reading this book Never Sleep:Graduating to Graphic Design by dress code, also known as Andre and Dan. The summary of their book is that, “There is a major disconnect between the life of a design student and the transition to being a design professional.”
My girlfriend bought me this book after months of raving about it and now I’m too busy to finish it. From what I read so far though I have learned so much. One of the greatest quotes from the book that inspired me to this point, “we are taught in school that great packaging will not sell a bad product. If this is true, then maybe our problem is not with how we package our profession, but instead the product we are trying to sell. Graphic design does have the power to help make the world a better place, but until we begin to exhibit the potential we will be plagued by the question – ‘you do graphic design, is that logos and stuff?’.” I am often faced with the question, “What is graphic design?” and sometimes it is hard to explain to people who are unaware, but I am learning to become comfortable with what I do and see my self as a communicator through visual elements. Another great point made in the book is that if graphic design is all about communication why is it that people don’t understand what we do. I’m hoping to create work that translates to all people but as of now, it’s hard to do that because we are making art for our teachers whether we want to think of it that way or not.
Thinking gnorwwrong is really encouraged in this book. I find as expected that the better ideas come when you are not in your comfort zone. I need to push myself to go extreme and not settle for less in the ideas I come up with. When I’m working on a project I try to steer clear of help from other students because asking them usually limits the way I should be portraying the work I am doing. Not in all cases though, usually they are helpful, just not after I’ve already come up with an idea.
The design work that Andre and Dan have been able to come up with is phenomenal and the crazy ideas they have are worth taking a look at. I would recommend this book to anyone pursuing a career in graphic design after college.
