Comments on: SXSW: Six months of prep and now it’s all over

By: Alberto

Alberto — Fri, 24 Mar 2006 19:10:55 +0000

Hi Mark,

I’m looking for Tschichold’s “Penguin Composition Rules”. Does “Penguin by Design” includes a reprint of this seminal style guide?

By: Ahren Gerber

Ahren Gerber — Wed, 22 Mar 2006 00:53:01 +0000

I thought we needed more time because of the breadth of of the topic. Overall, I liked the the panel though. I wish I was a little more ballsy, and asked some questions :-).

I whole heartedly agreed with people on both sides of the argument. So, I left the panel scrathcing my head for a bit. But it’s an important discussion to have.

By: John Y.

John Y. — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 07:38:47 +0000

"I feel like we needed another hour at least.”

How about a followup session next year? Continue the discussion and we can see how the medium has grown in the intervening year?

By: Ladislav

Ladislav — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 18:07:43 +0000

I have a question about “Penguin by Design” by Phil Baines: it is just a collection of Penguin covers or the photos are commented in detail (type, grid, color) by the author? Thanks for your tips.

By: Chris Kavinsky

Chris Kavinsky — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 05:44:49 +0000

We got to talk a little afterward, but wanted to again say that your panel was a great kick-off to the conference. I’m guessing at this, but I think the half that really agreed with you are probably people from the traditional (print) background, while the dissenters likely are experienced in interactive design/coding only, or at least primmarily.

By: Mark Boulton

Mark Boulton — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 10:30:36 +0000

Steve: I’ve personally had a lot of feedback regarding the Penguin books example (I’m not sure if the other panel members have). It’s not really of a question of amount of information, but rather the presentation of the information which has to be used; small or large.

Donovan: Those are some interesting points. As Jason (or was it Khoi?) pointed out in the panel, there’s a disposable nature to the medium, which in the same sense as some packaging design, could be seen as damaging to the longevity of what we produce. However, hopefully with the maturation of art direction on the web we can hopefully see some thought going into narrative, emotion and storytelling, rather than, as Khoi said, ‘pushing pixels around’.

There’s certainly more to be said on this. I felt like we needed another hour at least!

By: P.J. Onori

P.J. Onori — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 05:55:04 +0000

Congrats on the presentation. I must agree - the ideas where half the people strongly agree and the other half stronly disagree are the most fun. :)

Good job.

By: Donovan Cronkhite

Donovan Cronkhite — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 23:52:57 +0000

I agree, that was a great way to start off my first SXSW. I can always tell a good panel when I leave the room with more questions in my head than answers.

I had a million things rattling around in there after I left that room. Was there more thought put into those Penguin book covers because the designers knew that their work would be published for a long time, unlike many web people who know their work will be wiped out in a year or less? How lasting is our work on the web, will anyone look back on our work (or will they even be able to?) and derive inspiration like I do from art deco posters? What is the role of the online world in helping teach the print world (like your posts on grid systems)? And on and on and on…

Great job Mark and the entire panel, very well done.

By: Nick Shipes

Nick Shipes — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 22:33:06 +0000

I also had the benefit of attending the panel and the discussion was highly captivating. As others have stated, I agree that it was nice to actually have this discussion, especially with the web not really quite ‘there’ yet. Most times it seems we overlook this problem and rather continue our typical approach to design on the web.

Great discussion Mark.

By: Steve Bissonnette

Steve Bissonnette — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 14:18:50 +0000

You guys did a very good job of kicking off the event. Very inspiring - your comments about seeing your brother come out of design school went off well as an example - and it was nice to hear people talking about not letting the “design” melt away in the 2.0 fry pan.

I did have a question but didn’t get to ask it - along the lines of the PENGUIN comparison and that the book covers and the website homepage that were given as examples - contain a much different volume of info. The design of the covers has always touched me because they are stripped down to the bare essentials and for the most part are strong singular works. The site on the other hand has so much more info that must be conveyed. I wanted to ask about dealing with the volume of information that sometimes needs to be presented and how we can work around/within that constraint.

Cheers again on the great job Mark.

By: Travis Schmeisser

Travis Schmeisser — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 11:57:43 +0000

Great job it was nice to hear an open discussion and what you all thought, whether agreeing or not. First panel I saw and it was a great kick-off.