My name is Michael Shumate and welcome to Logo Design Theory.
In the graphic design world there are three types of practitioners: Professionals, Prima
Donnas and Artsy-Fartsies. Which kind am I? Well, to be honest, I’m sure I’ve been
all three kinds at different times. Maybe everybody has.
Let’s talk about it.
Prima donna was originally a term for the principal woman soloist in an opera production,
and literally means the “first lady.” But the term can also mean “a temperamental
person; a person who takes adulation and privileged treatment as a right and reacts with petulance
to criticism or inconvenience.” Now, if we call someone a prima donna, it’s an insult.
It implies a person who is rude, proud, self-centered and opportunistic—in other words, a talented
brat. While we can see that artistic achievers are
sometimes afflicted with these negative human traits, we ought not swallow the lie that
their creative achievement came because of those traits. It came in spite of those negative
traits. In contrast, a professional has both pride
and humility. Here is a simple definition of a professional:
a person who can do a good job and who works in good faith
for the benefit of his or her client. A professional puts the client above self.
He or she takes appropriate pride in putting the job first and in being capable of consistent
excellence. The humility is recognition that the performer
is not the center of attention. The performance is.
If I go to see my dentist and he says, “How about a root canal today? You don’t really
need one, but I love to do them,” I would consider him to be terribly unprofessional.
I would never return and would do what I could to see that he didn’t ever practice dentistry
again. If I consulted a lawyer about a simple matter,
and he suggested that we launch a lawsuit, when much more direct or less costly methods
had not been explored, I might feel the same. Any professional I hire is supposed to act
in my best interests. Artsy-fartsies are so enamored of the experience
of doing something they enjoy that they do not see or care if what they want is in the
best interest of the client. This tendency is not confined to artistic professions as
in the examples of the lawyer and dentist just mentioned.
Designers, being in an artistic occupation, often have to prove they are not artsy-fartsy
flakes, but rather, can be a valued part of a whole business team. We can and should be
key players that bring specialized expertise and prove that good design benefits a business.
If we want to be perceived as professional, we’d better act like professionals.
And so it is in corporate-identity design: a professional branding designer is one who
creates identities in the best interest of the client, not one who does what feels most
“creative” or what might get recognition from peers. A professionally designed identity
is one that will work well for the client in all situations, not in just some formats.
As these videos unfold, I hope that I will be able to explain each design principle clearly
enough that we will agree, in the end, that there are solid principles of identity design
that we can adopt to become, in every sense of the word, professional designers.
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