elbowruminations | Graphic Design Trends, Tips and Reviews graphic design thinking for everyone

How does a blog start? Well, if you’re Elbowruminations, it starts over the phone, in the summer of 2006.

“I have an idea,” Neil was saying. I was in Vancouver when Neil called from Calgary. We were getting ready for my year-long stint with Elbowroom, and Neil was pitching me one of our first collaborative projects. “Whether it’s a newsletter or a website, I don’t know, but we need to figure out a way to talk design with our clients on a regular basis.”

“When you get to Calgary,” he continued, “Let’s figure this out.”

Neil’s idea to transmit design-related content to our clients, suppliers and friends eventually transformed into a widely-read graphic design blog covering everything from new technology to corporate re-brands. Two years later, Elbowruminations has now published a total of 140 posts, which have garnered 105 comments from our readers. Today is our two-year anniversary of the first post on Elbowruminations, and we thought it would be fitting to mention a few highlights of our first couple years.

1. THE LIBRARY DEFENDERS

I think one of the most exciting times to be a design blog like us is when the people responsible for the design piece you just critiqued end up stopping by to defend themselves. Case-in-point is the Calgary Public Library.

Neil posted a piece dressing-down the Library’s mystifying transit ads, labeling the ad “a few letters short of a bad first novel.” Library representative Grant Kaiser was quick to visit the comments section. “Libraries face 200 years of stereotyping,” wrote Grant. “With a $100 million advertising budget perhaps we could begin to fight it.”

We’re not looking to make people angry or hurt their feelings, but we’re excited when they start thinking more about good design. Out of this post and its comments came a design contract and a great relationship with the Calgary Public Library. What more could we ask for? Kudos to the Library for keeping an eye on their web reputation. It demonstrates a progressive, evolving institution – which ends up reflecting very well on the Library after all.

2. LONDON CALLING

Next stop is London. When the logo for the London 2012 Olympics hit the web, Elbowruminations was one of the first design blogs to cover the craziness. It was a zoo of activity around here, with a flurry of comments and inbound links helping to bring graphic design perspectives to a globe of Olympic spectators. While our thoughts on the London logo have evolved a bit, the initial eruption of discussion and noise was a joy to be in the middle of.

3. SASKATOON BLADES

On my favourite posts put together by Neil is his review of the Saskatoon Blades logo. I’d asked Neil to supply his “favourite design contribution of 2007” for our year-end round-up post, and Neil’s submission was a review of a logo for a hockey team in the middle of the Canadian prairies.

To this day, I’m still not certain if he was serious or joking, but regardless of its angle, it accomplished a couple of things. First, it was a glowing, honest and humble tribute to small-town Canada – you never get those get of adjectives on a design blog. Second, it served as an ironic roast of the design industry: in the midst of a post peppered with poise and pretense where people were gesturing grandly about global issues, Neil went in the exact opposite direction and headed to the hockey rink.

4. THE BRANDING OF CANADA

Speaking of Canadiana, Neil mentioned over email that the Branding of Canada post was one of his favourites from the past couple years. A thorough look at the visual identity of our country, this post took a tour of the stamps, passports, flag, currency, signage, and typeface of Canada. The tour led us to the conclusion that Canada’s visual brand was consistent, strong and visually appealing. Interestingly, this assessment of Canada’s awesomeness was recently affirmed by Future Brand, a New York consulting firm, which surveyed travelers and discovered that Canada’s brand is second in the world, second only to Australia.

5. THE SECOND YEAR

In 2008, we started trying out a few new things on this blog: first, we decided to get personal. With the recent site redesign, we dropped the corporate facade, showed our faces, and brandished our opinions. The design industry has always benfitted from candor and honesty, and we realized there was no point in pretending to be a huge design blog.

Second, we decided to narrow our focus. Our new tagline is “graphic design trends, tips and reviews” which is a big step away from the old tagline, “Graphic design thinking for everyone.” The thing we realized was, this blog ISN’T for everyone: it’s for small business owners and people interested in design. By making our focus and audience clear, we’re already seeing a sense of ease in the comments, and a renewed sense of clarity in our posts.

We hope you like the new approach. Our intent is to continue to bring you well-informed perspectives on the graphic design industry, in a way that makes you think, laugh, or at least come back again later. Tell us how we’re doing — if you’ve got thoughts about how we can do this better, some tips for stories we should cover, or even if you just want to share reactions to our two-year commemorative post, please leave a comment below. You’ll be richly rewarded with a lingering sense of satisfaction.

When I consider trying to explain the place, importance and nature of designers, it often doesn’t translate well. This 6-minute video from the UK Design Council provides a bite-sized explanation of what design is all about, and does a fantastic job. Best quote: “If engineering can be summarized as the relationship between nuts and bolts, between two man-made things, then design is about the relationship between man-made things and people.”

Thanks Olivelife!

At first glance, Marble Slab Creamery is just another ice cream store with an average looking logo. If you do find the opportunity to be a customer, you’ll find such a frustrating lack of attention to good design principles, it may make you feel like your customized ice cream cone has melted all over your hand and down your sleeve.

I’ve been to Marble Slab a handful of times, and each time, the lines were long and the menu boards incoherent. Perhaps the Houston based franchise has a more educated following in the United States, but as an average ice cream cone eater in Calgary, I remain baffled each time I go. To appreciate the issues here it’s important to understand the basic premise of the store which is to select basic flavours of ice cream and choose “mixins” such as popular chocolate bars, gummy bears, cookie dough, or chocolate chips, etc. Once you’ve selected your customized concoction, it’s mixed together for you on some kind of small marble slab by a competent staff member.

From a design perspective, there are several flaws that serve to slow down product delivery time, create long lines, confuse customers, frustrate graphic designers and provide the opportunity for Marble Slab to lose potential revenue when people fail to understand the premise or are discouraged by the wait.

Confusing Store Presentation
Firstly, the store is presented in such fashion that leads you to believe that this is a standard ice cream store where you line up to look at the flavours and select based on what they have that day. I find myself waiting in line, frustrated that the people in front of me are preventing me from making an informed flavour decision. Instead of presenting basic, common and consistent ice cream in glass cabinets, why not use this space along the glass to help customers understand the ordering process? For example, Step one, choose a flavour, step two, choose your mixins, step three choose a cone. It might also help to have a sign outside the store, clearly stating that making your own ice cream flavour is the reason you are lining up. This concept needs to be spelled out in order to speed up the decision making process and reduce line up times. At the location I was at in Market Mall, there were signs all over the place advertising cakes, quarts, and bonus offers. This certainly doesn’t help with basic customer comprehension or streamlining the purchasing process.

Mysterious Menu Board
The menu board at Marble Slab is a modern wonder of confusion. Chock full of text, devoid of photos and blocked by ice cream cones, cameras and shelving. Every time I’ve ordered, I’ve paid without question because I had no idea what I had ordered or how much it cost. There are so many types of waffle cones to choose from, some chocolate dipped, others vanilla or cinnamon. Even now, having a photo for reference, I cannot calculate the price of a typical ice cream cone. To remedy this problem, step one: remove obstructions from the customer’s view of the menu board. Step two: simplify. Depicting choices with photography is the easiest way to convey a concept. Make sample concoctions easily available closer to the front of the store, and define the ordering process here as well. Perhaps it might be a wise idea to have a separate menu board to outline other products like cake, pie, and milkshakes. Ice cream cones, because of the complexity of the ordering process should be front and centre. Step three: list the mixins! Incredibly, there is no mention of these on the menu board.

Purposeful Advertising
I’ve received coupons for Marble Slab at various events which was the reason I went for ice cream the first time. Strangely enough, the main message in any advertising I’ve seen is “the freshest ice cream earth”. It’s baffling to me why Marble Slab does not make it more clear their mission of providing customized ice cream solutions. Fresh ice cream seems gimmicky and absurd. We are talking about frozen food here after all. The opportunity to separate ones self from the competition by advertising what makes Marble Slab different has so many appealing benefits, it’s simply strange they haven’t chosen this marketing route in such a customizable world.

Ice cream is fun and easy to eat and perhaps mixed with some practical design sense, it won’t have to be so hard to order.