Technology over technique produces emotionless design. — Daniel Mall

You can’t do better design with a computer, but you can speed up your work enormously. — Wim Crouwel

Technical skill is mastery of complexity, while creativity is mastery of simplicity. — Christopher Zeeman

I chose these quotes because they reflect something I’m learning by being at KCAI. Before KCAI, I honestly thought that graphic design was something that people did almost exclusively on a computer. (After all, that’s what I was doing at my job back then.) Analog was old-school. People didn’t do that anymore. (Boy, was I wrong…)

But I now realize design is something that happens conceptually. It’s not tied to any specific medium or tool. And the computer is just that; a tool. As is my Xacto knife. It’s just another way to get something done. It’s the idea and the communication of that idea that really counts. Not how fast my computer is. (Even if it does have a buttery-smooth i7 processor.)

Just because a person is good with computers and design software doesn’t mean they’re good with design. (Photoshop filters, FTW!!!) …Which brings me to my tagline for this project:

Graphic design is not a keyboard & mouse.

I want this tagline to keep people grounded. Just because you own a pirated version of Photoshop doesn’t mean you know how to express an idea.

I feel like I’m fighting the war on bad design.

I hope I’m winning.