(You can buy this as an 11×17 poster from my online store here.)

When I was teaching Intro to Graphic Design, I would give a speech very similar to this comic. A lot of times people use a pencil to represent graphic designers (because we’re creative? We write things sometimes?), but I think this is a better analogy. Designers use creativity, but we are precise and analytical and, well, all the other things I mention in this chart.

Consider this my ode to designers.

A lot of times (especially lately) people have asked me what designers do. Or rather, assumed what designers do. Here’s what we don’t do:

• Sit on our asses until an idea strikes.
• Play around all day.
• Make things just look pretty.
• Throw things together.

We actually:

• Consider the best solution to problems.
• Edit content to better make a point.
• Edit a layout to better emphasize content.
• Wonder how to best reach the goals of a project.
• Think about how one change may have 1,000 ramifications to other moving pieces of the project.
• Research what tools can best get the job done.
• Pay attention to every detail of the final result.

I’m sure I missed some. Help me fill them in the comments.

Buy the poster here.

Happy holidays, all.

Kristen just moved into a new apartment, and I wanted to make her new unfriendly place feel like a home, so I came up with the idea for this poster/comic/update. Took a while to get it just right, and now I really appreciate Marian Bantjes.

I’ll probably put this for sale as a poster or maybe a tote bag, but I need to finish the Kickstarter fulfillment before I can worry about that. If you really are interested, be sure to keep an eye on the site (either through RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or just visiting a lot) for details.

Last night, as we were in our weekly Super Art Fight staff meeting, we struck gold. You see, for years Jamie Noguchi (also on wikipedia) has been giving the same advice to everyone. It’s the advice that helped me to start this comic, helped us to start Super Art Fight, and has generally helped a lot of people get things done. That advice, in it’s purest form, is this:

Fuckin’ do it.

So, armed with Adobe Illustrator and 5 minutes, I set out to do Jamie proud and created the Jamie Noguchi System (™). The outcry for a poster available was immediate, and who was I to say no? So, taking the JNS to heart, I submitted it to the HilariAwesome.com store. Now you too can get things done the Jamie Noguchi way.

I encourage all of you to stop what you’re doing now and start doing what you need to fucking do already. Then do it.*

“I wasn’t getting anything done. Now I am.”
—Ross from DC

“With the FUCKIN DO IT system, I’ve gained 30 pounds, incurred thousands of dollars of crippling debt, and my family refuses to look me in the eye, but I can finally say, without a doubt – I did it!“
 —Marty from Baltimore

“I used to just sit around thinking about if I should do it. I’d spend days thinking about it. It was damn near crippling. Then Jamie came along and gave me the strength I need. Thanks to the Jamie Noguchi System now I FUCKIN’ DO IT!”
—Brandon from Baltimore

“The Jamie Noguchi System™ helped me self publish my first print collection! thanks Hilariawesome!”
—Lee from Indianapolis 

“I met a girl once…”
—Greg from DC

Buy the poster here »

#fuckindoit

(Click to make bigger)

This is a poster I made for the Super Precious art show on blockbuster movies. I normally post this kinda thing on my Tumblr (and I did) but thought I’d share it here as well. It was really fun to make and write, and I owe much of the writing to my friend and Super Art Fight co-host Marty F’n Day, who is much more of a movie buff than I am (I haven’t bought a DVD in about 7 years and he owns everything on Blu-Ray). It was really fun to write and make all the little parody jokes, and we actually wrote more but couldn’t fit them. If anyone wants prints, let me know and I’ll post them on HilariAwesome.com (the online store of The System).

It was really fun to play with all the tropes of movie posters. The over-done grit and all the tiny type at the bottom (which is both funny writing and in Univers Ultra-Condensed). I’m mainly proud of all the texture on it, that’s not a style any client ever asks for so it’s fun to have a chance to experiment with stuff like this.

I’d happily do another parody movie poster, and am looking for ideas! Feel free to write quotes to use or movie ideas in the comments, I might use them.

Today’s comic/poster/thing (which is available as an 11×17 print) is based on an experience yesterday I had after seeing the adorable wedding RSVP website of Jessica Hische and Russ Maschmeyer (jessandruss.us). Most of you will just look at that site and say “aww cute” or “that’s nice” or something. But every designer I showed it to had pretty much the same opinion, that I will now describe as The Creative Shitstorm. Here’s some highlights from what that swirl of emotion feels like, pulled from conversations in the last few days (and I swear only some of them are mine):

• Fuck, that’s really nice.
• Dammit, why am I not making awesome shit like that?
• I need to stop everything shitty I’m doing and only do awesome things.
• Crap, I’m incapable of that level of quality.
• That’s it, I either need to give up my career or the rest of my life.
• Why aren’t I dating a graphic-designer-creative-type that I can collaborate on awesome projects with like that?
• I want to get paid all the money in the world to do amazing projects that everyone loves.
• Shit, well back to the email I was writing to a client about why the color I chose isn’t “too new” and they still have to pay me.

That led to me tweeting “I need to work harder to be better at things.”

I think all artists feel this way sometimes, and it is probably the best example I can think of artists “toiling”. In my case it’s led to missing out on time with friends, gaining weight, losing sleep, failing in relationships, and hopefully getting a little better at what I do. There are days when it is the worst thing in the entire universe.

But at the same time, in some way it’s actually healthy. It’s a fire that makes you refocus and hopefully decide to improve for it. Double down on your goals. And that is important because it’s the only way to improve. Have goals and do lots of work, and decide that you want it to be good. If you want it to be good and you keep your eye on what you think is good and think about what makes it good, you can’t help but get better. At least, that’s my hope, and I’m trusting that process.

Who’s with me?

Thanks to SCSpooner for sending my way this part-typography-part-sci-fi (that’s-a-lot-of-dashes) poster, an eye chart of all letters from well-known sci-fi logos. Can you name them all?

CHECK OUT THE WHOLE POSTER »

At least, I will now.

This comes from a collection of posters advertising against Syphilis, collected at the  “The Passion of Former Days” blog, which are worth checking out if you have a moment and want to see some interesting posters. I just can’t get over the design decisions that led to this poster. Can you see a Don Draper-style meeting between a “creative” and his boss on this project?

BOSS: “Good news, Jimmy!”

JIMMY: “What’s that, boss?”

BOSS: “The eggheads and pointdexters over in R&D have finally come up with something useful. Seems as though Syphilis is now curable.”

JIMMY: “Criminy! Can’t wait to tell the wife! She’s been on my back about getting that checked out for ages.”

BOSS: “Don’t I know it. Anywho, we need a new campaign to let the world know. Something with some whiz-bang. A real socko poster that says ‘Hey, got Syph? Not for long!'”

JIMMY: “Hmm, maybe it’s the Syphilis talking, but what about dinosaurs?”

BOSS: “A sexually transmitted disease poster featuring an extinct animal. I don’t know if it’s my Syphilis talking, but I think that’s gangbusters. Can we set the whole thing in Neuland?”

JIMMY: “You bet your ass we can, boss.”

BOSS: “Jimmy, this is why you’re our best ad man. You really keep your finger on the pulse of things. Real cutting-edge thinking. That’s what’s gonna beat the Krauts, don’t cha know.”

JIMMY: “Now if only they’d find a way to get rid of my herpes!”

BOSS: “That’ll be the day, Jimmy. That’ll be the day.”

And oh good, now I have the “Syphilis” tag on my website. Let’s all hope that doesn’t come up much, or if it does it goes away quickly.

Thanks to @ryanqnorth, @dirtbagg (via @annakrentz) for all the linkage that brought this to my attention.

Made something silly and posted it to my Tumblr, goes along with all the other “poster jokes” I’ve put there recently. They’re a fun change of pace from The System. If you like these “poster jokes”, let me know. Think they should go here on the site?

Rosscott.Tumblr.com »

It’s true. Most popular comics in the archive are:

• Being Angry on The Internet…
  (339,127 Pageviews)
• Being Mad in Traffic
  (251,204 Pageviews)
• Sharing Things on The Internet
  (289,963 Pageviews)
• I Played Super Mario Brothers Growing Up
  (114,971 Pageviews)
• People Can’t Drive
  (90,138 Pageviews)

Oh, and what’s that? A new poster? OKAY! It’s only $10 and is, as you can guess, AWESOME. For more jokery in the description, or to purchase, click THIS HERE.

I’ve been making some posters lately and putting them up on my Tumblr (rosscott.tumblr.com). Some just for fun, some things I’m working on, and some that are for actual projects.

This first one (above) is for the Death Star Art Show, which is next weekend in Baltimore. Here’s some details:

On Friday, October 7th 2011, Baltimore area artist will pay tribute to the horror genre and a galaxy far, far away. Whether it is a mash up of your favorite movie monster playing an intergalactic bounty hunter or a direct reference between Dracula and the Sith, we got you covered. Death Star Art Show is proudly presented by the mega powers of Charmed Life Gallery and Super Art Fight.

You should click here to see the official Tumblr site for more details and more of the amazing artwork that will be at the show.

As for the “28 Parsecs Later” piece, the response was pretty great, so I’m going to make it available from the HilariAwesome store after the art show.

Also on Tumblr lately you can see my take on Wilford Brimley as Cthulu, a motivational typographic poster, and something about poop. I can’t garuantee a schedule, but I’m having a lot of fun doing these posters so there will probably be more soon. Every time I do one all I can think is “I went to school for this.” Then I laugh and cry a bit.