Now you don't need a designer

I was looking for an online printer and I came across this site. It explains why you no longer need a designer to do your cards. They offer a bunch of templates. Just pick your industry and go from there. Of course I had to look. If you're a dry cleaner, then there are all these choices to make. The designs are about as sophisticated as clip art from Word. However, I did come across another site recently that does have some fantastic design. http://inkd.com/
The only problem is two-fold. One, you're buying a template. That means that the business down the street from you can also do the same. Your brand? What brand? You're buying a design. A design that easily show up from a competitor. Try setting yourself apart with your services or products when from a visual point of view there is nothing to do that. What you have here is a better looking version of Word. Second, I have a problem with designers that take concepts that were done for a client and try to resell them. It's an ethics issue and one that I do not participate in.

umlauts

Recently I've noticed a trend in design. Maybe it started with the annoying graffiti style posters everyone for Bruno. We have enough graffiti in Chicago, so I'm not a huge fan of marketing designed to look like some punks took a spray can to a building. That aside, it's the umlauts that caught my attention. I remember as a young designer being fascinated by those two little dots over a letter. They made everything look so cool. But reality took hold. In this country, adding an umlaut is not as easy when you work on a computer. Plus, not everyone knows what one is. How it changes the pronunciation of a word. With that said, I hope this isn't something that continues.

Be careful when naming your organization

A fellow designer of mine from Indiana had mentioned that their local baseball team had undergone a new name and logo. The name is in reference to Johnny Appleseed, who is the local hero of Fort Wayne. They named their team The Tin Caps. Unfortunately, they're called The Pot Heads by everyone else.