“Design Vigilantism” As a designer I can’t not design. I critique local signage and stationary constantly. As much as I’d like to help, though, the task at hand is overwhelming, even in a town of 30-40,000 people. There’s a LOT of bad design out there. I literally, physically cringe every time I see the logo of a local plumber, where the P at the beginning of his name is formed by a misshapen antique manual water pump. Or the appliance repair shop that has ripped off the M&M candy characters and plastered them on the side of their van.

“Most of the CSS-only forms available suck” - JeffHowden.com

Speak Up > Design Cliches

I’d like to declare some highly-localized graphic ideas dead. I’m sure a lot of other small towns have their own examples.

Living in Montana, stylized mountains and rivers should be KILLED. The woodcut illustration should have its life-support plug pulled. Even more locally, there is a mountain range at the north end of the Helena valley called “Sleeping Giant,” due to it looking - you guessed it - like a giant lying on his back. That silhouette has appeared on everything from beer to dentist offices and beyond and 99% of the time it’s executed poorly (that being said, someone has asked me to do a logo and, you guessed it, it has to have the sleeping giant in it - I guess I don’t feel strongly enough about the cliche to turn down the business).

Yet Another Image Replacement Technique

Designers equal to programmers? While I have never felt like I was paid more or less on average than programmers (developers) in my office, I have often felt that my work was not given anywhere the level of importance that theirs has. In fact, it’s still a struggle to get myself included on web application projects as the interface designer (beyond creating “buttons” or a “header”), a role I typically excel at in my sleep.