Michael Beirut – Contextual Research

I decided to watch Michael Beirut’s video in the contextual research task we were asked to do. It was an eye opening experience in terms of Graphic design.

He spoke about the 7 rules in Graphic design which are 7 very important rules to think about when you chose graphic design as your profession.

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7 RULES

1. There are no little problems.
2. Work with what you got.
3. Less is more, except when it isn’t
4. Without no problems, there would be no solutions.
5. If you can’t make a good idea work, maybe it’s a bad idea.
6. The client is always (eventually) right.
7. Sometimes you just need to get the heck out of the way.

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He spoke about issues and design problems that he had encountered during his life working with graphic design and how to think outside the box to solve them.

One that stood out for me was when he was supposed to design a sign for the american magazine “The New York Times” for the building, but it wasn’t supposed to cover the view for the people working there. There was many trial and errors but the final design was extremely clever and worked perfectly.

Here is what the final design looked like. 

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He also spoke about how to revive old designs into new logos for older companies that wanted something new. What to think about when creating a logo for a company or a building, what’s their thing? How do I represent them in the best way possible?

One that struck very close was a man called Seymour Chwast that he quoted saying “If you’re digging a hole in the wrong place, making it deeper doesn’t help anything.”

I felt that it’s something more people should think about, myself included. He also spoke about experiences where he had been in that situation but managed to solve the problem by just starting over.

It was a very relatable presentation, and I think that more people should watch it to be able to learn and start to think a little bit more when creating and designing. Because I will from now on, have these 7 rules in the back on my mind when creating in digital design.