There are all sorts of chislic debates and arguments about what is or isn't chislic, and is it actually as amazing as most people rave about.
This is not one of those stories, what people classify as chislic or if they like it or not means nothing to me. I don't care if people think ranch wrecks the chislic experience. I drown my chislic in a sea of ranch and I will travel in the name of chislic.
I have driven to places strictly out of promises of cubed goodness stuck to toothpicks.
I called the Tea Volunteer Fire Department because when I heard they were throwing down on their 9th annual chislic feed I had to get the details.
I talked with 1st Assistant Chief Steve Oberle about this fundraiser that is calling all chislic loving taste buds to Tea on Friday.
The 9th Annual Chislic Feed is on Friday from 4:00 pm till 8:00 pm at The Tea Event Hall.
Adults can get in on the chislic feed for only $10 and children under 8 years old only $5.
The fun and fundraising doesn't end with the chislic, there us more entertainment at the Prairie View Event Hall.
There are a limited number of tickets available for Dueling Pianos at the Prairie View Event Hall following the chislic feed.
If you would like tickets to Dueling Pianos call Steve at 605-728-5523.
All proceeds from these event will go towards equipment needed by the fire department do their job caring for the community they love.
I fully support any firefighters who fire up the chislic!


Dare it ! Take the jump ! we have you covered.
Linking the things in different places helps with priority.
We love to be Rogue in our Logic . . .	confused ?
Rogue Logic is being unpredictable and yet logical; both at the same time. Research (no idea why they do it) says 93% of what humans do is predictable because every human move is logical. May be being predictable is a normal expectation, however, we believe world's best creations were completely unpredictable that surprised us with their capability. Unpredictable solutions have been simple solutions to complex problems. Out of this basic notion Rogue Logic was born.
These are just a few we have ready	. . .	more in pipeline.
We have built products which make life easier for data driven organizations, which nowadays covers almost everyone. Our products are created for the collecting, collating and linking data across various platforms and sources. Every organization is getting complex either due to incresing data, system upgradtion and responding to different events. This is where our products empower you to cope with the challenges of integration simillar data spread across various formats into single ecosystem. Why not make data collection for reporting and analytics simple for everyone and we decided to just do it.
Here we go bragging again . . .	Remind us when its too much.
A bunch of programmers with skills of designing and developing software in world's most complex fields. Don't get us wrong we are not just geeks but also leaders in business and management. But again, as engineers the most advanced side of our brain loves to build cool things.
Information ? Drop a note.
Man, we've been on the road for some time now. Looking forward to talking to you.
It's fitting that my first article on Big Data would be titled the "Master Map-Reduce Job". I believe it truly is the one and only Map-Reduce job you will every have to write, at least for ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) Processes. I have been working with Big Data and specifically with Hadoop for about two years now and I achieved my Cloudera Certified Developer for Apache Hadoop (CCDH) almost a year ago at the writing of this post. So what is the Master Map-Reduce Job? Well it is a concept I started to architect that would become a framework level Map-Reduce job implementation that by itself is not a complete job, but uses Dependency Injection AKA a Plugin like framework to configure a Map-Reduce Job specifically for ETL Load processes. Like most frameworks, you can write your process without them, however what the Master Map-Reduce Job (MMRJ) does is break down certain critical sections of the standard Map-Reduce job program into plugins that are named more specific to ETL processing, so it makes the jump from non-Hadoop based ETL to Hadoop based ETL easier for non-Hadoop-initiated developers. I think this job is also extremely useful for the Map-Reduce pro who is implementing ETL jobs, or groups of ETL developers that want to create consistent Map-Reduce based loaders, and that's the real point of the MMRJ. To create a framework for developers to use that will enable them to create robust, consistent, and easily maintainable Map-Reduce based loaders. It follows my SFEMS – Stable, Flexible, Extensible, Maintainable, Scalable development philosophy. The point of the Master Map Reduce concept framework is to breaks down the Driver, Mapper, and Reducer into parts that non-Hadoop/Map-Reduce programmers are well familiar with; especially in the ETL world. It is easy for Java developers who build Loaders for a living to understand vocabulary like Validator, Transformer, Parser, OutputFormatter, etc. They can focus on writing business specific logic and they do not have to worry about the finer points of Map-Reduce. As a manager you can now hire a single senior Hadoop/Map-Reduce developer and hire normal core Java developers for the rest of your team or better yet reuse your existing team and you can have the one senior Hadoop developer maintain your version of the Master Map-Reduce Job framework code, and the rest of your developers focus on developing feed level loader processes using the framework. In the end all developers can learn Map-Reduce, but you do not need to know Map-Reduce to get started writing loaders that will work on the Hadoop cluster by using this framework. The design is simple and can be show by this one diagram: Notice: Please note that all designs, suggestions, code, and other writing on this web site are of my personal opinion and not the opinion of my employers and all the Intellectual Property and other information is from my Personal Projects and experiences outside of my professional work.
I mean, sometimes I enjoy the limelight, but other times I enjoy other things.


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Genetics Biology Cell Biology (cytology) Conditions and Diseases All Topics
Microbiology | Protists | Cell Metabolism
What cellular structure is vital to maintaining the correct balance of water and salts inside animal-like protists?
Which is not one of the major phyla of animallike protists?
There are four major phyla's of animal-like protists. These four are sarcodina, ciliophora, sporozoa, mastigophora. With ciliophora being the main one.
Describe the role of animallike protists in the environment?
Some live symbiotically within other organisms. Others recycle nutrients by breaking down dead organic matter. Many animallike protists live in seas and lakes, where they are eaten by tiny animals, which in turn serve as food for larger animals. *Directly from a biology book*
Are spirostomum multi-cellular?
No they are unicellular protists.
How are protists different from bacteria?
Protists can be uni or multi cellular but bacteria is only unicellular. No Answers protists can be uni or multi cellular but bacteria is only unicellular
Are euglena unicellular or multi-cellular?
Euglenas are unicellular protists.
How are protists different than the bacteria?
No Answers protists can be uni or multi cellular but bacteria is only unicellular
Importance of Kingdom Protista?
Protists are important because much understanding of interspecific competition comes from the study of protists. Also, in medicine, certain protists are used to study the relationship between chromosomal structure and aging. Plus, multicellular protists, such as slime molds, provide valuable insight about the chemical signals used in more complex organisms to coordinate cellular activity.
Why is the kingdom Protista important to humans?
Protists are extremely important in ecological and medical research. In medicine, certain protists are used to study the relationship between chromosomal structure and aging. Muticellular protists such as slime molds provide valuable insight about the chemical signals used in more complex organisms to coordinate cellular activity.
What kind of organisms do cellular respiration?
organisms that do cellular respiration are bacteria, protists, fungi, plants, and animals.
How do euglena expel waste from there body?
"A contractile vacuole is a sub-cellular structure involved in osmoregulation. It pumps excess water out of a cell and is found prominently in freshwater protists [like Euglena].
How are protists different from animals?
Animals undergo sexual reproduction, whereas protists have asexual reproduction. Animals are also multi-cellular organisms, protists can be single celled. Some protists are multi-cellular, but they lack specialized tissue (another characteristic often seen in animals). Protists are sometimes called (incorrectly) as "unicellular animals". they are different because one is microscopic and one is not
What are the main characteristics of all protists?
The cellular structures of this organism may have been different from those found in modern protists. (:
What is the job of the nucleus in protists?
It is same as others.It controls cellular activities.
What is uni-cellular?
Unicellular organisms only have one cell - and include Prokaryotes, most protists and some fungi.
What is a basic difference between protists and fungi?
Protists are mostly unicellular and live in colonies, but fungi are multi cellular and may be found individually.
What structure do all protists have?
The protists do not have much in common besides a relatively simple organization[3] - either they are unicellular, or they are multicellular without specialized tissues. This simple cellular organization distinguishes the protists from other eukaryotes, such as fungi, animals and plants. Protists live in almost any environment that contains liquid water. Many protists, such as the algae, are photosynthetic and are vital primary producers in ecosystems, particularly in the ocean as part of the plankton… Read More
How do protists exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide?
Gas exchange in protists occurs as simple diffusion of oxygen and carbon dioxide across the cellular membrane.
What is a protists cell type?
Eukaryotic. This means that it has advanced cell structure, including a nucleus. Protists were the first Eukaryotes.
Are protists only prokaryotes?
Protists are not prokaryotic. They are a group of eukaryotic organisms that are quite diverse. They are usually simple in structure.
Which kingdoms include both unicellular and multi-cellular organisms?
fungi and protists
What is the function of the eye spot in plant like protists?
The eye spot in plant like protists function as a sensory structure.
What structure controls the water balance in protists?
Contractile vacuole
Is archea and bacteria and protists microscopic organisms?
yes. they are microscopic because they are single-cellular organisms.
How are protists different from plants?
the best way to tell the difference between plants and plant-like protists is that plant cells are part of a bigger structure , where as plants like protists are always unicelluar
Firm protective structure that gives the cell its shape in plants fungi most bacteria and some protists?
The cell wall is the firm, protective structure that gives the cell its shape in plants, fungi, bacteria, and protists
Is chloroplast a plant structure?
Mainly it is plant structure. But can be seen in algae ans some other protists too
What is the colonial flagellate hypothesis?
Multi-cellular animals also called metazoans came from protists which were colonilized. These colonies of protists formed hollow spheres. These protists which were linked together into a hollow sphere may have had some form of specialization to then make tissue.
What are five different multi-cellular organisms?
Fungi animals plants certain types of protists
What do organisms in the protists and archaebacteria share?
Neither of them have a nucleus or bond organelles. They also both single cellular organisms.
What is the basic unit of structure in protists and monerans?
Cell. Becuase CELLS are the basic unit of structure and function of all living things.
What structures are not associated with the locomotion among protists?
setae is the structure that is not associated with locomotion of protist
What is a unicellular animals?
Most people think that amoebas, paramecium and others of the sort are animals. But they are protists. All animals are multi-cellular.
What are fungus like protists?
Funguslike Protists § heterotrophs that absorb nutrients from dead or decaying organic matter § lack chitin in their cell walls § Three types: ► cellular slime molds ► acellular slime molds ► water molds
Are protista and bacteria the same thing?
No. Protists are a general group for eukaryotic organisms that are not plants, animals, or fungi. As eukaryotes, protists have a cellular nucleus and membrane-bound organelles. Bacteria are prokaryotes and lake a nucleus or organelles and are generally simpler.
What are differences between plants and protists?
The best way to tell the difference between plants and plant-like protists is that plant cells are part of a bigger structure, whereas plant-like protists are mostly unicellular. Animal-like protists are even more different- for example, they are heterotrophs, so they can't make their food and don't have chloroplasts.
How are protists and plants similar how are they different?
Protists and plants are similar because there euckaryotic.But they are different beacuse The best way to tell the difference between plants and plant-like protists is that plant cells are part of a bigger structure, whereas plant-like protists are always unicellular. Animal-like protists are even more different- for example, they are heterotrophs, so they can't make their food and don't have chloroplasts.
Is the primary characteristic used to classify the types of animal-like protists?
Sexual reproduction is the primary characteristic used to classify the types of animal-like protists. However, determining if the protist is multi-cellular is also another primary characteristic.?æ
Euglena protist with what?
Euglena- protist with flagella these protists move pulling themselves with long whiplike structure called flagella
What structure is found in only plant cells?
Plastids and cell wall are only present in plant cell or in plant-like protists.
How protistan molds differ from fungi?
All protists are eukaryotes. This means that their cells contain a nucleus, a membrane-bounded structure that encloses.
Do protists use cellular respiration?
Yes. All living cells use respiration. Respiration refers to chemical pathways that harness the energy in fuel and release the waste products.
How might the classification of protist change in the future?
New classifications of protists are attempting to present monophyletic groups based on structure, biochemistry and genetics.
Is yeast a protist?
Microorganisms with a eukaryotic Cell structure are termed Protists, of which three major groups are recognized: algae. protozoa, and fungi. So the Answer is No.
Multicellular protists are grouped with unicellular protists because multicellular protists?
Multicellular protists are grouped with unicellular protists because multicellular protists are very similar to unicellular protists. A protist is any organism that is not a plant, an animal, a fungus, or a prokaryote.
What is the outermost structure of a plant cell?
The outermost structure of a plant cell is a cell wall. Plant cells have cell walls for extra protection as they cannot move like animals and protists, whose outermost cell structure is the cell membrane, a thinner protective cover.
What are the three main groups of protists?
Animal like protists Plant like protists Fungus like protists
What is the difference between protists and bacteria?
Bacteria are prokaryotic, unicellular organisms. The cell structure is clearly different in having no true nucleus nor membrane surrounded organelles. Some protists are unicellular, eukaryotic organisms with a true nucleus and membrane-bound organelles.
Different types of protists?
The three different types of protists are as follows: 1) Animal-like protists 2) Plant-like protists 3) Fungus-like protists
What best describes all protists?
The answer is: Protists are organisms that are classified into the kingdom Protista. The protists form a group of organisms that really do not fit into any other kingdom. Although there is a lot of variety within the protists, they do share some common characteristics. All protists are eukaryotic. That is, all protists have cells with nuclei. In addition, all protists live in moist environments. Protists can be unicellular or multicellular. Protists can be microscopic… Read More
Are protists prokaryotes?
No, protists are eukaryotes.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Wordpress Logged Out Users I'm trying to add a link in my header.php file that disappears after a user logs in...So the link only shows for logged out users...Can anyone help with this?

A: In your header.php file place this code
<?php if ( !is_user_logged_in() ) { ... } ?>

Place your link inside the { } where the ... is.
See Function Reference - is_user_logged_in() and its related functions for more information.

A: global $user_ID,$current_user;
get_currentuserinfo();
if ( $user_ID ) { .. }

You can get the current user login.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


The Industrial Advisory Council (IAC) is made up of leading alumni/alumnae from Purdue's School of Aeronautics and Astronautics. The IAC reviews and addresses issues related to the mission and the vision of our school and serves as a link between our school and industry and government. The IAC meets twice a year, in the fall and spring. The current members of our IAC are listed below. We are extremely grateful for the efforts of our IAC members in helping our school move forward.


We service the entire state of Oklahoma including the Catoosa area and will help you with and answer your questions about Generac Installation for residential and commercial use. Service, repair and installation - we do it all!
Generators are amazing machines that permit you to continue with your life when everyone else is waiting on the power to come back on. This is particularly the case if you stay in our storm-prone state. Electrical power can be out for days or weeks as a result of the damage caused by each of these disasters. Having an auxiliary source of electrical power provides assurance, safety and security, comfort, and convenience for your family members in your home or your employees and clients at the workplace.
We recommend calling us on the phone for the best solution to your concern regarding Generac Installation. Our service area in Oklahoma is quite large and we have installed and serviced generators from one end of the state to the other - even Catoosa!
When you phone us, you can also be directed to our support staff that know about your model and can offer you with the technical specifications or details that you require to keep your device running in excellent shape. From circuitry to batteries to oil changes, you can be assured that when you call us, you can find the most up-to-date info and assistance offered anywhere.
If you are considering purchasing a new standby generator and getting it set up at your residence or business property, there are very good reasons that you should purchase the generator from an authorized Generac dealer like us and not a big box store.
First, a regional dealer will be around to help you with service after the sale. On the other hand, you never know who you will speak with when you call a retailer and locating the exact same contractor may be difficult.
Secondly, suppliers know of the current specials and price cut programs offered. Also vital, dealing with a neighborhood Generac dealership means that you won't experience any warranty problems that may arise if a non-authorized installer is hired to install your generator.
Call us today for help with your Generac Installation questions in Catoosa, OK.


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Now You Can't Even Make Fun of Hitler
Several weeks ago YouTube announced that it was taking down all the parody videos of Hitler's explosive speech to his general staff — in which Bruno Ganz channels the ghost of Hitler and does a compelling embodiment of instantaneous psychotic rage — based on claims by the creators of the film Downfall that the viral spoofs infringed their copyright in the film. Although this was, and is, rather controversial (see criticism here), the elimination of the video clips was not undertaken with anything like German efficiency, and many of the clips remain up and running, including perhaps the best clip of them all — the one where Hitler bitterly complains about all his videos being rudely yanked from the airwaves and lambasts Constantin Film AG for conspiring against him with the likes of Rommel and the rest of the ungrateful staff officers.
Frankly, faux Hitler may have a point. Since the spate of video spoofs first appeared on the web, rentals of Downfall have dramatically increased, moving the film out of the "it was nominated for an award but now you can't find it" category into a late-night Blockbuster favorite. Given the intrinsically dour nature of the film (which is about Hitler's last days), one could reasonably conclude that the YouTube publicity resuscitated a film that had only been seen by a handful of people since its release in 2005.
The RIAA Will Sue Your Grandma
And Not-So-Free Books


ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus is an open source help desk and Enterprise IT Management Software division of ZOHO Corporation that simplifies IT management with affordable software that offers the powerful features the largest of enterprises demand.
This software provides an integrated platform where users of any organization can generate their request for IT resources. You can easily keep track on an organization's IT requirements and assign duties more efficiently using ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus.
This tutorial will help you to learn how you can install and configure ManageEngine ServiceDesk Plus on your Linux Ubuntu 16.04 step by step.
1. Download the application package for Linux using the command below.
2. After your download is completed you have to assign the required permission to the ".Bin" file, you can do this by the below command.
3. Start the install progress after you set all the required permission by the below command.
4. Choose the option 1 to accept the license agreement, but press q first.
5. Type 0 "Zero" to continue and hit Enter.
6. Select your country from the available options.
7. Enter valid email address to use it with ManegeEngine.
8. Select your edition from the available options, for me I will select "Enterprise" edition.
9. Enter 0 to continue then press 1 to confirm all the selection and start the installation.
10. Now ManageEngine is installing.
11. After the install progress is completed, use the command below to start "Service Desk Plus" server.
12. MangeEngine is usually using port 8089 to work, so you need to allow its port, use the below command to allow it.
13. Now you can open Manage Engine from your web browser by entering your IP address following by ':8089″.
After this tutorial, you should be able to install ManageEngine Service Desk Plus and configure it with your own edition and also configure to work on the web browser.


Show Off your Pearly Whites | Give That Dog a Job!
What does being a helicopter mom have to do with Johnny getting his teeth cleaned? Well it's an ongoing joke at work that I'm "that' owner. Any Vet or Vet Tech can tell you that certain owners are just a little more paranoid about the well being of their pets. In Johnny's case he is very healthy, and will probably live forever 😉 but he is turning six in about a month and had started to develop a very small bit of tarter. While it was probably less then 99% of the dental cleanings we do, I would rather take care of it now and not need to worry about doing a full dental cleaning as he gets older.
Johnny waking up after his cleaning. His tongue was out for quite awhile but is now back in his handsome face!
At work we offer what are called Conscious Sedation Dental Cleanings. The dogs are placed under a heavy sedative that is easily reversed as soon as the cleaning is finished rather then being under a constant anesthetic like they are for normal surgery. Since Johnny has always been healthy, only had minimal tarter, and had blood work done a few months ago with no issues, I decided this would be the best option for him.
Given his behavioral history I was worried that he would be too stressed or anxious and override the sedation but yet again Johnny proved me wrong. He waited in a kennel with Thor in a quieter area of the hospital until it was his turn. I held him during his pre-surgical exam and while there was some distinct shaking it wasn't quite as severe as it normally is when he see's a vet. After his sedative injection he quickly fell asleep and my co-worker scaled and polished his teeth while I monitored his heart rate. I also filed his nails and cleaned his ears as he started waking up. From start to finish he was only under about 30 minutes.
Dental health is SO important for us and our pets and now Johnny's teeth look just as good as they did a few years ago!
From a training standpoint I was beyond impressed. There was absolutely no barking or huffing/puffing before his surgery. Only later in the afternoon when the boarding staff was walking a large dog did they react. Once he was fully recovered and I was off for the day I had him out on leash while Thor was getting love from the girls and he remained relatively calm. He had no desire to go up or say hi to anyone but I'm fine with that, for now.


If you are suffering from hip pain or impaired mobility due to a hip condition, injury, or other hip-related problems, surgery may be an appropriate treatment option when nonsurgical treatment is ineffective. Hip surgery can be performed as traditional open surgery or as an arthroscopic procedure, also known as hip arthroscopy. Open surgery typically involves one complete, sometimes large, surgical incision that gives your doctor complete access to the desired procedure area. A hip arthroscopy involves a few small keyhole-sized incisions, versus one full incision, to allow your doctor to access certain areas of the procedure site.
The type of surgery that your doctor recommends will depend on your medical needs — some procedures may require full access to the surgical site, while other procedures may only require limited access to the surgical site.
Here at our practice, we specialize in the use of arthroscopic surgery in the treatment of hip-related conditions and injuries.
When is hip arthroscopy needed?
Hip surgery can be performed as one of two types of surgery — open surgery or arthroscopic surgery — each involving different approaches, pros, cons, recovery times, and results. Platelet-rich plasma therapy may also be recommended during surgery to help promote healing and enhance recovery time.
A hip arthroscopy involves your doctor making a limited number of keyhole-sized incisions near the required area of operation. Your doctor will then gently introduce a thin medical device equipped with a light and camera into the appropriate incision hole. A TV monitor then displays images of the hip, allowing your doctor to view the surgical site on screen, assess your joint, and complete any required treatment.
What are the benefits of hip arthroscopy?
If you are experiencing hip pain or a decrease in hip mobility, a consultation with an orthopedic specialist may be the first step towards discovering a treatment and recovery plan that is right for you. Dr. Burrus is an experienced fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon who is dedicated to providing high-quality, specialized holistic care. Call 512.477.6341 or fill out the form on this page to schedule an appointment.


The Oklahoma City school board has voted unanimously to change the names of three schools named after Confederate generals.
One of these schools is named after Oklahoma's own Stand Watie, a Cherokee Confederate General.
Blog by Allan Wall, published October 26th, 2017, on VDARE.COM.


Search through our listings of foreclosures for sale in Shelby County. Find cheap Shelby County foreclosed homes through our foreclosure listings service in Alabama including Shelby County bank owned homes and government foreclosures.
Our listings make it possible to find excellent opportunities on bank owned foreclosures in Shelby County and great bargains on Shelby County government foreclosure homes for sale. The Shelby County area offers great deals not limited to foreclosures in Calera, as well as other Shelby County cities.


#Afrobeats: EME boss, Banky W, debuts with a hot new music video for his Afrobeat single 'Jasi'. Song was produced by the talented MasterKraft, now playing on Nigeria Music Network.
"Empire Mates Entertainment is proud to present the official video for Banky W's "Jasi". The song was produced by MasterKraft, and features additional background vocals by EME starlet Niyola. The hilarious clip was shot in Lagos, Nigeria and London.
"Jasi" highlights Banky W's playfulness AND versatility. Very few artistes worldwide are able to change styles as effortlessly as Mr W can… and here we see him temporarily set aside his "King of Afro-R&B" crown to pull off this Afrobeats/Afropop club banger, and it works quite well. The video also shows his acting skills as Banky plays more than one role, in the same scene, in the vein of an Eddie Murphy or Tyler Perry.
Shot by Uber Director Sesan, the video is quite hilarious and features cameos from MasterKraft, and Lynxxx… and we hope you have as much fun watching it, as we did filming it. Here's to Africa's most versatile Artist, Banky W."


text:
Rick Poynor | Essays
Agency or Studio? The Dutch Design Dilemma
Ontwerp: Total Design book designed by Total Design, 1983
In 1983, on a visit to Amsterdam, I saw a remarkable book in a bookshop on Leidsestraat. Its shape was completely irregular. I understood a certain amount about typography and graphic design by then. I knew it fascinated me, but had yet to engage much with the history of the subject. The book, Ontwerp: Total Design by Kees Broos, had just come out and I bought it with great excitement, knowing it was unlikely to be available back home. In 1987, Wim Crouwel was the first graphic designer I interviewed for a magazine.
I begin an essay about Dutch graphic design in such a personal way because the subject is so close to me that it is impossible to disentangle these early encounters from my subsequent commitment to the discipline. It is hardly news to a Dutch audience that Dutch graphic design went through an extraordinarily inventive phase in the 1980s, but perhaps an outsider's view can still shed some light on the degree of impact the country's graphic design enjoyed overseas in those years.
There is a well-worn line about the Netherlands appearing to be some kind of heaven for graphic designers. The cliché holds true because that's exactly how it seemed. Total Design, Studio Dumbar, Jan van Toorn, Anthon Beeke, Hard Werken, Wild Plakken, to name only the most obvious, were titanic figures able — as it seemed from afar — to seduce or even bend clients to their will, unless (remarkable thought) the clients actually sought such challenging work. In the 1980s, Studio Dumbar, the most emblematic Dutch designers for the British, entered project after project into the D&AD awards in London and won again and again. We had nothing to compare with this awe-inspiring level of graphic sophistication, originality and swaggering self-belief. Visits to the Netherlands, further meetings with Dutch graphic designers, and a growing knowledge of the Dutch design tradition powerfully underwrote my sense, in the late 1980s, that graphic design had much to offer and was worth writing about.
Poster designed by Studio Dumbar for Holland Festival, 1987
It is reasonable to ask, though, what exactly it was we were so enraptured by in Dutch graphic design: what were we celebrating? It was the brilliance of its graphic and typographic form. By degrees, since then, we have moved towards a situation where many of the assumptions about advanced graphic design's inherent value as visual culture that were taken for granted among designers before the 1980s, during that decade's design boom, and on into the 1990s, are now seen as misguided and no longer relevant to our circumstances today. As the century ended, the sticking point for many disillusioned design-watchers became form itself — the very attribute for which Dutch graphic design was once so highly prized. The repudiation of form as a valid pursuit in its own right wasn't a specifically Dutch development. Nevertheless, Carel Kuitenbrouwer's article "The New Sobriety," published in Eye in 1995, was early to note a profound quietening down in Dutch graphic design after the turmoil of the 1980s.
After slow beginnings in the Netherlands and Britain (among other places), this yearning for formal sobriety became an international phenomenon within forward-thinking graphic design, a heartfelt reaction against the coercive visual overload of an increasingly spectacular global culture. Graphic excess had precipitated visual burn-out and elaborate kinds of formal expression could no longer signal anything trustworthy or meaningful. As Jop van Bennekom observed in HD: Holland Design New Graphics (2001): "Form is so worn out in the nineties." That curious book, styled like a chunky, throwaway, airport bestseller, remains a revealing document of its moment, but compared to Dutch graphic design's glory days, when the work was often distinguished by what Gert Dumbar liked to call "stylistic durability", a decade later HD contains few images to set your attention on fire and little worth lingering over. Dutch graphic design, I felt then and still feel today, appeared to have thrown its beautiful graphic baby out with the decade's excessively soapy bath water.
Visual branding versus free spirit
However well intentioned the motivations that underpinned some designers' embrace of the new visual simplicity, it soon became just another fashionable style ripe for commercial exploitation. There was a time when much Dutch graphic design looked unequivocally Dutch because it came out of a Dutch modernist tradition of typography and montage to which it continually referred, even as it introduced new devices and directions. This tradition was still apparent in the 1980s within the postmodernism of Jan van Toorn or Studio Dumbar.
Poster designed by Paul Schuitema for Berkel ham, ca. 1928
Poster designed by Jan van Toorn for DeBeyerd art center, 1984
Today, Dutch graphic design is much less obviously Dutch. Instead, its habitual graphic routines and styles of address are determined by international conventions of advertising, marketing, branding, fashion and popular culture. The most renowned Dutch "design" company of the last 15 years, KesselsKramer, is in reality an advertising agency, and co-founder Erik Kessels is regularly invited to speak about KK's irreverent and humorous campaigns at international design conferences. Another way of saying this is that Dutch graphic design, once so vividly defined as an aspect of national visual culture, now feels much like everyone else's graphic design. Most Dutch graphic design no longer leads the world in purely graphic terms because it has been obliged to fall into line with the imperatives of a globalised economy. Like graphic design everywhere else, Dutch graphic design mostly exists now to serve the market and the market's needs must come first.
Poster designed by KesselsKramer for Hans Brinker Budget Hotel
Studio Dumbar, where strategy director Tom Dorresteijn has been a 50 per cent partner since 2005, exemplifies these changes. Dorresteijn's concept of "visual branding" is explained in the Vision section of the Studio Dumbar website (the term also has a whole website of its own) where it is followed by a brief section titled, with heartbreaking poignancy, "Free spirit". In this other, apparently rather recherché kind of design, we learn that "the designer has only one challenge: to see how far his or her creativity can go." The new statutes of graphic design could hardly be made any plainer. Most of the time the designers are reined in, their creativity apportioned and constrained by the branding task. Once in a while, a benevolent client in the culture sector happens along and allows them to run around free and do what they want, like in the old days.
Somewhat anachronistically, Studio Dumbar still describes itself as a "studio". This is a word that immediately implies a connection to art, conjuring an image of a small atelier where a creative person or group undertakes work of personal significance. Many Dutch design companies, like those in other countries, now prefer the term "agency". De Designpolitie, a design team that fully embodies the contemporary ethos of Dutch graphic design, describes itself as a "graphic design agency". Lava, recently named "European design agency of 2010", also uses the term, explaining that it "belongs to a generation that has positioned itself between the traditional design agency and an advertising agency". This is the point, of course: graphic design is ever more closely entwined with advertising, an activity whose commercial exploitation of the public sphere many graphic designers used to resist as a matter of principle. "Agency" is a service-orientated, marketing-friendly word. It makes designers sound more biddable.
Smooth and predictable visual procedures
The website rhetoric that contemporary Dutch designers use to explain their methods to prospective clients is just as revealing. "Thonik's style is attractive and effective. Clear concepts are conveyed with a minimum of means." (Thonik) "A lot of our work is concentrated, stripped to the bare essence." (De Designpolitie) "Design is not art. We have no specific visual style. We always try to find a unique design solution." (Lava) These statements are noteworthy not because they are inherently unsound but because they are absolutely standard rationales for a design company to offer. I have been hearing sentiments like these from British designers for the past 25 years. They originate from the "idea-based" design espoused by American and British designers in the late 1950s and 1960s, which was rejected in these countries in the 1980s and 1990s by younger designers, who argued that these shop-worn and often patronising methods of public address were no longer adequate to deal with the complexities of contemporary life and communication.
The wheel has now turned full circle. While the return to idea-based design might have begun as a necessary attempt to purify design of self-indulgent noise that risked obscuring the message, the outcome today is a smooth and predictable set of visual procedures that pose few challenges to client or viewer.
Poster designed by Lava for Museum of Communication
Poster designed by De Designpolitie for WK Amsterdam football tournament, 2004
Poster designed by Thonik for Grachtenfestival, 2010. Amsterdam city brand by KesselsKramer
These designers are naturally aware of the Netherlands' prodigious graphic tradition and, as if to reassure themselves and their design colleagues that they belong in its ranks, they sometimes invoke their forebears, even as they assure potential clients that everything will be simple and effective. Thonik follows its declaration about clear concepts and minimum means by stating that it "also has an anarchistic side and we regard each project as a chance to experiment." De Designpolitie's online profile informs visitors that "its members were brought up in the Dutch design culture and rich tradition of Dutch art, design and tolerance." Their ruthlessly stripped-down designs, they claim, are both critical and communicative. The inherent tension of trying to have it both ways and relate to the great Dutch tradition of graphic design, while moderating the visual freedom that gave it life, can be sensed in a comment that Hans Wolbers of Lava left on Dorresteijn's Visual Branding website in 2007. "I must tell you honestly that I am not very keen on theories," writes Wolbers. "One sees regularly all kinds of 'brand' gurus selling an incredible amount of bullshit. Personally I place more and more belief in talented creatives that touch the right chord."
This is another version of Studio Dumbar's "free spirit" plea: stop trying to micro-manage the design process with an endless stream of self-justifying concepts, precepts and admonitions. Trust talented and committed designers to come up with truly fresh and surprising visual ideas, and then trust visually aware viewers to respond to them. Accept the subjectivity of the creative process, the element of chance, the things you shouldn't even try to control. Eventually, the wheel might even turn again.
Perhaps it sounds as though I have fallen out of sympathy with Dutch graphic design. The disappointment, as I have tried to show, comes from the strength of admiration that preceded it. Dutch graphic design's astonishing, inspiring achievements showed what could sometimes be possible in visual communication. Its innovations provided unusually exacting benchmarks that could be used to assess graphic design anywhere. I can only suggest that it would be dishonest now — and self-deceiving on the part of Dutch designers — not to apply these benchmarks to the contemporary graphic design scene.
The authentic historical voice of Dutch design
One of the most encouraging and energising developments in Dutch graphic design has come, since the end of the 1990s, from a perhaps unexpected direction. In Word of Image: Metaphorical Thinking in Dutch Graphic Design (2004), Jan Middendorp reprises the frequently heard view that Dutch designers are "no great theorists", preferring instead to concentrate on the practicalities of making things work. Wolbers voices his own reservations about the perils of theorising in the statement above. But the idea that theory-averse pragmatism is particular to the Dutch has always seemed questionable: first, because only a minority of graphic designers anywhere are ever much given to theorising; second, because some Dutch designers — Crouwel and Van Toorn to name but two — have always been prepared to reflect trenchantly on the ideas that support their design methods.
In the last decade, two design groups, Experimental Jetset and Metahaven, have taken this commitment to intellectual reflection to a higher plane. Although it hasn't been widely remarked, which may serve to underline the continuing paucity of close critical attention given to graphic design, both teams consistently offer some of the most cogent thinking about the discipline, its present condition and possibilities, happening today. In each case, independent critical reflection becomes an inseparable component of everyday practice. Nor are these the usual tiresome, spirit-crushing bromides about branding and marketing. Metahaven has recently published a book, Uncorporate Identity (2010), and both studios — they are emphatically studios — are interviewed in Iaspis Forum on Design and Critical Practice: The Reader (2009). Since space is limited, I will concentrate here on Experimental Jetset, the longer established team.
Poster designed by Metahaven for CAPC Musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, 2008
Poster designed by Experimental Jetset for Helvetica documentary, 2006
In Experimental Jetset's uncompromising statement of their position, we hear the authentic historical voice of Dutch graphic design, a reminder of how the country attained its elevated position on the global design stage. The three members, Erwin Brinkers, Danny van den Dungen and Marieke Stolk, explain that "the reason we exist as a studio is because we have a singular aesthetic/conceptual vision, a very specific language we speak." (See Studio Culture, 2009.) They are only interested, they say, in working with clients who understand this vision and who expect them to bring "a specific viewpoint, an aesthetic/conceptual language, an ideological approach" to the table. Clearly, this is a radically different style of self-presentation from one that promises a chameleonic ability to adapt the design output to fulfil a client's expectations.
Experimental Jetset have a self-conscious relationship with the Dutch design tradition, most clearly seen in their frequent tributes to Wim Crouwel, the elder statesman most revered today by young designers outside the Netherlands. As a viewer, I have sometimes struggled with the Crouwel-esque modernism of Jetset's visual palette. This doesn't excite me greatly in 2010, even though I appreciate the source and understand the thinking — their desire to stress the materiality of design and create objects rather than images — that led them to these stark visual conclusions. It is characteristic of their clarity as commentators, though, that they freely admit the drawbacks of their hero's former empire. "Total Design signalled in many ways the beginning of the sort of studios that we very much dislike: large communication conglomerates, where the actual practice of graphic design is overshadowed by branding strategies, marketing theories, advertising models, etc." In their view, the over-complication of the commissioning and design process has been caused by layers of marketing and communication people who create unnecessary work to keep themselves employed.
"We feel we are now at a point in history where we actually have to go in the opposite direction," they say. The solution to the bloating of the design business is not for design "agencies" to grow even bigger, but for marketing to shrink. Resolutely, Jetset remains a three-person studio that only takes on what it can handle. Here again, we encounter a variation of the "free spirit" argument, only his time from a studio that has found a way to make freedom of manoeuvre a central plank in its self-determined charter. If we care about graphic design — Dutch graphic design — as a still potentially limitless means of visual communication, then this modest proposal from one of the most thoughtful studios now at work in the design field must be correct. The future of graphic design, if it is to have one, can only lie in focusing on graphic design. Dutch designers who refuse to give up the ideal of studio practice are keeping the flame alight.
This essay first appeared in the Dutch Design Yearbook 2010 (NAi Publishers, Rotterdam, 2010) and is republished here with permission.
A Dutch translation of the essay is available here.
Comments [23]
Designers are like children, we crave boundaries, rules and principles to keep us sane. It is simply that.
Although you refer to Dutch design agencies, where then would a company like why not associates fit into your pre-conceived logic based on a websites 'about' page? They sport the term 'associates', they're known for dismissing theories and yet have the selling statement on their studios website.
Designers are organisers yet no self-respecting design on the planet wouldn't cringe when the time comes to sit down and organise a statement. However, it offers a chance for self-reflection and more logically, self promotion. A means to an end for obtaining work, regardless of the size of a studio. Some things are just default.
Bill Gates is extremely rich but he still provides a letterbox for his postman.
I came away from this article better understanding the tension personally feel bridging the creative and commercial world within myself. It was a call to action for me to not abandon the creative ideals of my roots. Fantastic read, thank you for the insights!
g86studio
Last wednesday there was a debate with Poynor / dutch agencies, i'll check out if this event was recorded and post links here shortly.
This isn't complicated, it's simple.
Do you want to look bad or good?
I can't imagine why any client would choose looking bad (although many do). While looking bad may be more affordable regarding the cost of the designing:
It Costs The Same To Implement
For every 1,000 signs and every 1,000,000 pages or tablets or templates or web/mobile impressions, the cost is not affected by the aesthetic quality of the design.
Design can't save the day if the product or service to which it refers is no good. All things being equal, it couldn't be more obvious to seek out the highest quality. Even for generic brands that want to look cheap, there are high-quality ways to look cheap in a thoughtful and strategic way.
Call me an agency or a studio or a partnership or a toothpick.
Someone recently said that creative design is the most important least important thing in the world.
Adam Rotmil Partners
The last sentence feels like a final ultimatum in a relationship where walking away is the only way. "Re-start".
Setting a challenge for a new generation of designers is great, but we need to make sure the challenge relevant. Is it reasonable to expect groundbreaking work from such an old medium? Or is this exactly the point being made?... What isn't mentioned is how the medium for Graphic Design has shifted. The way I understand it, when Total Design were creating exciting work in the 80's - desk-top publishing played a new, inseparable and integral part of the design process. They embraced this new design medium and toolkit. The tools for the Graphic designer have shifted again. Some of us are working with networked 'pages' and dynamic 'words'. Resulting in a whole new aesthetic, projects like http://www.lust.nl/posterwall from LUST is just one example.
Good food for thought. Thanks Rick.
Paul - if you manage to get a recording of the debate, I'd love to hear it.
Cheryl Gallaway
I'm speechless. Living and breathing as a graphic designer in corporate america, where profitability is paramount, this is like an electric shock. That this dilemma is felt so deeply is astonishing enough. Thank god for Dutch graphic design and all those non-Dutch designers who are keeping the flame alight.
Tim, the only "pre-conceived logic" is the conviction that words have fine shades of meaning and that we should take care when we use them that they express what we mean to say.
Describing designers' statements about their work as "just default" suggests a process that isn't given much thought. I would suggest that the language designers use to describe what they do requires great care for two reasons.
The first reason is practical. Words, too, are an expression of identity and designers routinely claim to be experts in this. If the words are clumsy or bland or obvious, then what does that say about the creative sensitivity of the designers? If the assumption is that potential clients won't care about the quality of the words, then this doesn't bode well for the quality of any creative relationship.
Remember, too, that designers often have an input into the words used in design projects (commissioning writers, undertaking editing, etc). Well crafted writing on the designers' website is a good sign that they will handle words carefully in their projects.
The second reason for taking care is philosophical. Putting something into words is always a way to test it — writing is thinking. Other than selling their services, which is a given, what do designers have to say about what they do that sets them apart from other designers? What is the point of view, agenda or position that underpins their work? And how is this position different — is it actually any different? — from those of all the other design companies out there?
That's what I'm interested in here: designers who have a position.
Rick Poynor
I worked in the Netherlands from the 1970s to 1990s in communications, corporate filmmaking, and architectural photography. I would suggest that another factor in the decline and blatant commercialism of studios/agency was their contempt for content, audiences, political stances, or even simple readability of texts, and their foisting of reverence for design for design's sake. This, coupled with Crouwel's Total Design approach -- a term uncomfortably close to Goebbel's mid-WWII call for "Total War" -- marked a departure from the foundations and potency of Dutch design in the first half of the 20th century.
Stephen Lewis
Thanks for the response. I did enjoy reading your article, but I must admit that the forewarning of a 'controversial article' on Design Observers twitter feed had me eager to form an opinion.
When I referred to default, I was purely referring to a 'statement' having to exist and not the content that exists within a statement.
For me, the complexities that exists within a design studio are vast and intangible. Having a single position or an elaborate poise, no matter how well conceived, will always fall into critical and paradoxical territories. With numerous designers operating within teams and with different tasks and challenges at hand I think the nature of a statement will never give justice to the underlying work that goes on in a design studio. That said, I am more than aware of the power of words and how essential they are for organising information to communicate intelligence. It is by no coincidence that the most revered designers are superbly articulate and fascinating to listen to.
Word and imagery are complimentary in design, their successful marriage is essential for intelligent design, but trying to separate one from the other in order to portray a sort of zeitgeist of dutch design today is perhaps the nature of the controversy in this article.
Having studied Graphic Design in The Netherlands and worked at an well-known agency in Amsterdam I feel obliged to defend what I know to be true.
There is no doubt that design —all over the world— has experienced a rounding of personality. Ideas, visual styles, practical techniques, etc. have all felt the influence of their neighbors; perhaps now more than ever. The internet, the mass sharing of designs and ideas has averaged us out in some respects. This is not the fault of agencies or designers, but instead a by-product of the 'new' world we live in.
It is estimated that there are currently 2 Billion active internet users; over 500 million of which use the exact same design (facebook) everyday. Half a billion people, from every corner of the globe, exposed to the exact same visual language? Of course this will have an effect of the world's understanding, expectation and comprehension of design. Design once spoke to the local audience, now it speaks to the world; naturally, this has changed the fundamental rhetoric of the design. We are getting closer and closer to a more connected world; the more we become one, the less we are different.
Design is the process of practical problem solving. Such practicality is defined by the initial problem, aesthetics and logic. It's an interesting topic, but it is not fair to criticise agencies because their work doesn't tickle your fancy. At least, that is how it seems.
Youssef Sarhan
Cheryl, you ask whether it's reasonable to expect groundbreaking work from such an old medium. Historians would argue that graphic design is a relatively young medium — the term has only been used widely for about 60 years. Why should the expressive combination of type and image be exhausted after such a short time, especially when we have so many uses for it? Is photography exhausted? Is cinema?
As for whether Lust's poster wall represents an entirely new aesthetic, isn't this a digital elaboration of a highly familiar 20th-century aesthetic: the collage made up of overlapping elements? The new element in Lust's project is the randomness that results from clicking on the image and thereby modifying it.
But the much-celebrated possibility of this kind of instability and mutability (which also goes back decades) doesn't make static forms of image-making and message-making redundant. If anything, the existence of these alternatives encourages us to think even harder about what the static image is best suited to do. The contemporary Dutch designers I mention in the essay are all still engaged in producing this kind of "old" graphic design, as seen in the posters shown above.
That brings me to Youssef's curious point about it not being fair to criticise things that don't "tickle your fancy." If we were to follow this highly restrictive precept, then no one could criticise anything they didn't like. You thought the meal tasted bad? Perhaps it just didn't tickle your fancy. What this overlooks is that our experience of many meals gives us benchmarks for comparison. We may have very good reasons for not thinking something has been well cooked and presented. The point is to move beyond the first subjective impression to investigate the factors that lead something to seem obvious, unimaginative, flawed and so on.
The process doesn't have to be negative either. We can learn just as much about the essential qualities of a medium from trying to decide why something strikes us as being engaging, deeply imaginative, well resolved, etc. In short, how does it work?
The future of graphic design is to have i one, can only lie in focusing on graphic design.
Another way to describe the distinction between these two types of practicioners could be: do designers want to help define a client's strategy, or do they want to be the strategy? A shop like Experimental Jetset and others that are known for a signature approach and look will be commissioned by clients who have already gone through a strategic process - formal or informal - and decided that that is the look they want. Then the studio, doing what it does, is the strategy that has been decided upon by somebody else. Much like an illustrator of photographer is commissioned based on the evaluation that their style is right for the project.
When design shops want to help define the strategy, they have to be more stylistically versatile, and not attached to a personal vision. One style/ vision is not right for all projects, clients, and audiences, and a truly open and empathetic approach to strategy will not generally lead to one house style.
What may have happened is that in the desire for greater power and profits, design studios moved upstream into the strategy business, which by definition I believe, necessitates straying from a singular or personal 'artistic' vision.
Kate Howe
Interesting article!
Logosafari.com
I think it's interesting to posit the commercialism of the agency against the visionary pursuit of the studio. I think another duality to think about is whether we make things or whether we research and talk about things; or in other words, are we designers or are we consultants? Craftspeople or experts? And finally, it's interesting to consider the original meanings of each word: agency implies a social interaction, while studio implies an individual pursuit.
To an American designer, the more individual path might seem too similar to an artist's vow of poverty, while the other too blatantly commercial and soulless (as well as inevitable). The typical Dutch design student graduates from a state academy with an opportunity to acquire government grants to help initiate a studio practice. The average American designer graduates from a private art school with tens of thousands of dollars in loans. It's not so much a reflection of an aesthetic approach to design as it is one of overall cultural values. So I think the criticism of criticizing design studios based on personal taste is fair, because it doesn't take into account the socioeconomic reality design happens in. On the other hand, given higher taxes as well as stricter labor laws, an agency like KesselsKramer is probably a lot more difficult and costly to run in Holland than say an Ogilvy and Mather or Crispin Porter Bogusky in America.
But i think these questions are lost here because the analysis limits itself to only to a surface manifestation of graphic design. Saying that Dutch Design is so good doesn't say anything new or interesting, and it's been said many times over. As Youssef points out above, design in even the last 5 years has been rounded out by the internet. In some ways, many of the historical examples above are evidence of a design context just starting to become aware of globalization (and you can see this in other aspects of popular culture of this time as well, such as film and music). But a sense of what is happening now seems to be missing from the article. This is evident in the analysis of Lust's poster wall in the comments. Viewing it simply as a reworking of 20th century aesthetic approach strikes me as missing the point. In one sense Lust's project completely flattens all aesthetic approaches by demonstrating the ease graphic design's algorithmic simulation; on the other it highlights the flow of information through networks and the designers role in conducting that flow.
The concentration on design's "surface manifestation" — an odd way of dismissing something potentially so rich in form and meaning, so fundamental to graphic communication — was entirely deliberate.
After a public debate last week in Amsterdam, prompted by this essay, a founder of one of the design companies I mention above made a point of telling me privately that the historical work I cited was simply of no interest to him. That, too, I would suggest, reflects a personal taste. I understand this designer's point of view — creative people always have their own preferences, which often exclude many other possible approaches that nevertheless remaining interesting and valid for others. But the rejection of whole swathes of historical work (not that the 1980s is so very long ago) tells us nothing useful about this work's meaning and value to viewers, or its power to inspire those who have the eyes to appreciate it, now or in the future.
The present lack of interest in certain kinds of form-making is doubtless only a temporary phase. The longer it persists (in some quarters) the more likely form is to re-emerge with force at a later date as the next generation of designers wonders why its elders have been ignoring these excellent resources, assuming that is, that the constraints that increasingly act on graphic design have left these future designers much room for manoeuvre. During the audience questions at the debate, Gert Dumbar underlined the point by making wave movements with this hands; these things ebb and flow.
Why, in any longer-term strategic sense, would designers want to cut themselves off at the knees by flattening "all aesthetic approaches"? I'm happy for graphic designers to satisfy their very obvious will to power by directing the flow of information through networks. But can we please have something interesting to look at too?
In my opinion Rick makes the wrong comparison, historically speaking. Of the mentioned studio's: Total Design, Studio Dumbar, Jan van Toorn, Anthon Beeke, Hard Werken, Wild Plakken, only the first two did any serious commercial work. The rest never really had to delve into the challenges that a commercial environment poses to good design. I know Hard Werken would have loved to, though. A regret one of their members once spoke about was that they never managed to attract big clients in the way that SD was able to, never having the chance to test their skills in 'the real world'.
Instead today's big studio's should be compared to the likes of Tel Design and 2D3D, besides Total Design. Total Design was not as relevant to the kind of Dutch Design Poynor talks about, in terms of free spirit and a ruthless anti-commercial, anarchistic attitude in the early nineties. I would say today's studios are a lot more interesting in these times than the commercial studios of the eighties and nineties were in theirs.
The work the admired studios put out in their peak according to Rick, was in a time when computers weren't even around. Ok, TD had one computer costing a few million guilders with operating costs that nearly put them out of business. Life was slower, developing a single logo (not even thinking about any visual language surrounding it) could take months if not years. There was much more time for reflection, a thorough concept phase, a first round of design, a complete start-over, a drink, a party and living life, with your design benefiting from your worldly experiences. Graphic designers were scarce and, let's be honest, nerds. They did a thing not too many people knew too much about and indeed: there were fewer marketing people blocking their creative splurges.
These times are definitely over. Clients have changed, budgets have changed, the world has changed. Design studios not so much compared to the rest.
The attitude of 'bending a client to your will', using their budget for the studio's creative experiments with the ultimate agenda of the Advancement Of Graphic Design i.e. your standing in the eyes of other designers, seems hopelessly outdated and arrogant.
Rick rightly points out that studios make something different for every situation but I fail to see fault in that. One can call this chameleonic if your premise is that clients are good for nothing except giving you money to make your art on their corporate letterhead. One can also argue that today's studios are in a sincere, grown-up dialogue with their clients. Should we by default mistrust commercial clients and push our own aesthetic agenda? Or simply make design that works in the real world. Ever seen the quirky, artistic and sometimes irrational short movies Studio Dumbar made a year ago for the Dutch Design Awards? There is a place and time for everything.
It is remarkable that one of the examples of 'good' contemporary Dutch graphic design, Metahaven, is purely an academic exercise. They effectively have placed themselves out of any situation where they can bring about any real social change. Sure, they create wonderful posters and research projects, but do they change the world? Its recent commitment with Wikileaks does nothing except boost their 'subversive' profile. It is a wet towel.
I have more sympathy for Thonik that used their skills to create a hyper-effective identity for the dutch Socialist Party in a bid to get them as much voters as possible. That is the same party who is trying to reverse the privatisation of all those wonderful clients of back in the days like KPN (former Dutch telecom) and TNT (former Dutch post). The two companies that played a vital role in shaping the Dutch Design, who now have almost completely put aside their role of cultural sponsor. And why should they commission Design for Design's sake when they have to fire thousands of employees?
The right thing to do according to the essay and it's predecessor the First Things First Manifesto, would be to collectively stop working for them, those evil big clients. Stop the dialogue and don't participate. Still, the Hema, a company that basically sells household products has done more for Graphic Design than, lets say, the Rijksmuseum. I will choose the hard-working honesty of their identity designed by Koeweiden Postma any day over "strategies in public space"-bullshit propagated by 'intellectual' designers.
Mark, thanks for your comments, which prompted a few thoughts.
You suggest I make the wrong comparison. I'll answer that with a quotation from William Drenttel's "A Conversation with Daniel van der Velden of Metahaven," which summarizes my own view:
"The fact that something is small, or comes from a small place, is indie, or underground, in my view does not inherently invalidate its comparison to something bigger and more recognized."
>They did a thing not too many people knew too much about and indeed: there were fewer marketing people blocking their creative splurges. These times are definitely over. Clients have changed, budgets have changed, the world has changed.
Clearly this is the case: these changes are the starting point for the essay. But you present this statement as though it were the last word on the subject and a reason to accept things as they stand. The fact that the world has changed is no reason not to ask critical questions about these changes, their causes and their implications. There can be no resistance, no alternative, without a clear sense of purpose. The world will change again — but see below.
>Should we by default mistrust commercial clients and push our own aesthetic agenda? Or simply make design that works in the real world[?]
This is an over-simplification of the issue and a false opposition of aims. The reality of any reflective designer's position will be much more nuanced. Again, see this quote from the Daniel van der Velden interview:
"Our business model is this: you have to take everything as an opportunity and be very entrepreneurial about your work. You have to mix paid assignments with self-directed work; don't assume that self-directed work is going to be the final solution. It won't be. Design and clients belong together."
The issue is one of balance: what are your aims as a designer and how can you achieve these aims in terms of the work you take on?
>Sure, they create wonderful posters and research projects, but do they change the world?
We are too quick in design to make claims and criticisms based on the increasingly glib yardstick of "changing the world."
First, because the implicit assumption is that changing the world is inherently a positive activity. It isn't necessarily so. Many changes are, of course, pernicious and damaging.
Second, because even if we mean change in a purely positive sense, this assumes that there is, or could be, some way of measuring the amount of change and then assigning it a value. The implication is that more of something (in this case change) must always equal better. Maybe you would like to live in a world where value is assigned numerically. I wouldn't. Fortunately, much of what we value most in cultural expression resists such crude attempts at valuation.
How do we measure these putative "changes" in any case? Many people's lives are changed, they report, by subjective encounters with the arts and with new ideas. And the same might apply to "wonderful posters and research projects." But these highly personal responses are unquantifiable in any meaningful sense. What is vital, though, is that a rich and diverse culture continues to make these intensely meaningful experiences available to people. Why can't design also be the medium for these experiences, as it has been sometimes in Dutch graphic design?
>I will choose the hard-working honesty of their identity designed by Koeweiden Postma any day over "strategies in public space"-bullshit propagated by 'intellectual' designers.
This is a false distinction, in my view. Are you really suggesting that "intellectual" designers are neither hard-working nor honest? Both kinds of design, intellectual and pragmatic, are possible and necessary.
Hey, you are saying today's studios are too commercial ("serving the market") and then proceed to compare them with an activist group like Hard Werken. That is a bit of a leap that is not so easily justified with a quote.
I wholeheartedly agree with you that social commitment is lacking in the Netherlands right now, but it is unrealistic to expect the Hard Werken kind of commitment from big studios who choose to work with big clients. I did not see that kind of commitment from TD, Studio Dumbar, Tel or other big studios that chose to work with big clients in the previous century, so why expect it now?
However, I would expect that kind commitment from groups like Metahaven, who build their reputation on being critical, cloaking themselves in words and images of activists but end there: beautiful, well-executed but empty words and narcissistic statements only seen by their 'stakeholders', to use a marketing term. To 'change the world' is not my glib yardstick to measure a design by, it is what the work of 'activist' designers suggests it will do.
Call me crude, but for me an important measure of the quality of a design is how well it works and if it does what it promises in a visual sense. If a mind-blowing confusing poster is the most effective way of getting your point across, that will work for me on the same grounds, but one will only seldom encounter such a situation with commercial clients. Not because their evil marketing minions would kill it but because they have a different message to get across than, let's say, a design festival.
Mark, just to be clear, at no point in the essay do I say that "today's studios are too commercial" in such bald terms, though that might be the conclusion a reader draws for him or herself from the points I raise. My central concern here is the issue of inventive visual expression and the factors that enable it or inhibit it.
I further suggest that the "studio" approach and mentality has proved conducive to formal (and conceptual) experiment in Dutch design. For me, form matters in its own right — both aesthetically as a source of pleasure and for its meaning. I don't expect a commitment to formal experiment to come from big commercial companies and that's certainly not what I'm asking for. On the contrary, I support Experimental Jetset's idealistic call for a slimming down in design that places a renewed concentration on graphic expression. This would mean "serving the market" (i.e. the client's commercial need, where there is one) while also serving the public by producing sophisticated visual communication that extends and enriches our visual culture. Design that neglects the latter task also neglects its responsibility to the public sphere.
Metahaven's position — see Bill Drenttel's interview — is in my view much subtler than you paint it to be.
as much as i agree to the observation of rick poynor about dutch (graphic design) having lost its unique position as much i disagree to the analysis drawn from this observartion though.
there is a fundamental difference in the design landscape of today and back then in the 70s/80s. in fact the work of studio dumbar and total design made an important contribution to that change by creating intriguing examples for the power of graphic design - also beyond printed matter. graphic design has become very important to more fields/disciplines than just that realm of what we used to call "graphic design" - advertising, branding, digital media, product design, fashion design ... graphic design today is ubiquitous: on mobile phones, in TV, exhibtions, media installations, art, books, magazines, user interfaces ... even the dutch pavillon for the venice art biennale incorporates a graphic designer next year. this is good news for graphic designers - but it does make their life not any easier. the whole field is in total flux: we are educating today in art schools and colleges design students for jobs which are not even existing yet (but might exist by the time they graduate).
to formulate a "position" in this "mess" is much more challenging as compared to 30 years ago. to formulate a position as a design community on a national level (as this happened in the 80s in netherlands) has become mission impossible. as our societies are in a constant development of fragmentisation our visual cultures can only function on a micro level of fragmented communities and (sub)cultures as well.
apart from that: netherlands is a country who tragically has lost its identity some few years ago and is struggeling to find a new one at the moment. how can one expect from a country/culture like that to create a visual culture which could be recognized beyond its own boarders?
as much as i recognize "experimental jetset" and "metahaven" as important figures in the dutch design culture:
to name "experimental jetset" as the design studio who had mastered the challenge described above is rather nostalgic. and "metahaven" constantly stay behind the expectations they are rising themselves about their work and approach. as much as they are brilliant thinkers, writers and analysts i see a big gap in how they give their thoughts a form which would live up to their own ambitions. but: it works quite well in their own fragmented community and this is as much as one can achieve probably today.
and before i forgot this (a sidemark): "bending a client to your will" always has been a designers myth resulting from a frustration of designers with their own clients. even more - this myth draws the ugly image of an ignorant, autistic designer who is not able to communicate with a client and make his own processes transparent so that a client could understand them (which eventually is the source of the frustration since the client might very likely reject the designers' proposals). from my experience there are only two kinds of clients: there are clients who a dumber than oneself and others who are smarter. it is always a good idea to work with the latter ones. one has to be prepared though that the smart clients also have one or two ideas which might be worth to consider. i think that gert is simply an intelligent guy who found intelligent clients who trusted him and worked with him in a dialogue and on eye level - that is the secret of his success. and yes - he knows how to entertain designers in a design conference and tell them funny stories about the stuff he build into his design without the clients noticing ...
Florian Pfeffer
I have written a few afterthoughts inspired by Florian Pfeffer's comment in my Observers Room blog.
http://observersroom.designobserver.com/rickpoynor/entry.html?entry=24058
Even if we mean change in a purely positive sense, this assumes that there is, or could be, some way of measuring the amount of change and then assigning it a value.
[email protected] marketing company
Rick Poynor is a writer, critic, lecturer and curator, specialising in design, photography and visual culture. He founded Eye, co-founded Design Observer, and contributes columns to Eye and Print. He is Professor of Design and Visual Culture at the University of Reading in the UK.
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Supreme Court defends Alito from allegations that he leaked outcome of major 2014 case: 'Uncorroborated'
Posted by Chris Enloe | Nov 29, 2022 | The Blaze | 0 |
https://www.theblaze.com/news/supreme-court-defends-alito-leaking-allegations
The Supreme Court is officially defending Justice Samuel Alito over accusations that he leaked the outcome of a landmark 2014 case.
What are the accusations?
Earlier this month, the New York Times published a letter written to Chief Justice John Roberts in July in which Rev. Rob Schenck accused Alito of leaking the outcome of Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. to a mutual friend before the court announced its ruling.
The New York Times did not provide direct evidence to corroborate the allegations but did point to circumstantial evidence.
Still, Alito denied the allegations, as did the central figure in the story, Gail Wright, a mutual friend of Alito and Schenck.
After the Times' story, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) sent a joint letter to the Supreme Court demanding answers to the allegations and whether Alito had committed ethical violations.
What did the Supreme Court say?
Supreme Court legal counsel Ethan Torrey responded to the letter on Monday by defending Alito from the allegations.
"Justice Alito has said that neither he nor Mrs. Alito told the Wrights about the outcome of the decision in the Hobby Lobby case, or about the authorship of the opinion of the Court," Torrey explained. "Gail Wright has denied Mr. Schenck's allegation in multiple interviews, saying the account given by Mr. Schenck was 'patently not true.'"
"Mr. Schenck's allegation that Justice Alito or Mrs. Alito gave the Wrights advance word about the outcome in Hobby Lobby or the authorship of the Court's opinion is also uncorroborated," Torrey declared.
If doubt from key players in the story — Alito and Wright — and a lack of direct evidence are not enough to squash the allegations, Torrey also pointed to the fact that Politico, which leaked Alito's opinion of the case that overturned Roe v. Wade, was aware of the allegations but chose not to publish them over a lack of evidence.
Torrey wrote:
Politico reports that despite several months of effort, the publication was "unable to locate anyone who heard about the decision directly from either [Justice] Alito or his wife before its release at the end of June 2014." The New York Times stated that "the evidence for Mr. Schenck's account of the breach has gaps."
What was the response?
Whitehouse and Johnson responded to the letter on Tuesday by complaining that it "did not substantively answer" their questions.
"Through legal counsel, the Supreme Court reiterated Justice Alito's denials but did not substantively answer any of our questions," the lawmakers said. "The Court's letter is an embodiment of the problems at the Court around ethics issues.
"The assertions of fact by the Court's lawyer emerge from darkness, and overlook important facts like all the contemporaneous evidence that Mr. Schenck in fact knew both the outcome and author in advance and acted at that time on that knowledge," they added, overlooking the important fact that no direct evidence corroborates the allegations.
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he Third Circuit Court of Appeals has thrown out the FCC's decision to make some joint sales agreements attributable as ownership interests, saying the FCC "improperly" enacted the rule. The court also chastised the FCC for not completing its quadrennial review of media ownership rules and concluded the FCC had "unreasonably delayed" action on defining an "eligible entity," which is key to its promoting of minority and female ownership.
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