GRAPHICS SEPTEMBER, 2010
STANDING for
CHILDREN Simon Berry is trying to get Coca-Cola to use its distribution channels to help save lives in developing countries.
DESIGN
SIMPLE
ISso
that’s WHY IT IS SO
COMPLICATED -Paul Rand
2
CONTENT
Coca Cola saving children’s lives.
SIMON BERRY
2
How to teach Graphic Design to kids
FOLLOW THE STEPS
3
DESIGN
DESIGN
1
DESIGN
DESIGN
DESIGN
DESIGN
DESIGN
DESIGN
GETTING IDEAS
4
Interview with a Graphic Designer
Veerle Pieters
DESIGN
DESIGN
Portfolios that speaks for themselves
DESIGN DESIGN
DESIGN DESIGN
DESIGN
DESIGN
DESIGN
3
STORY
Talking to
about saving children’s lives Simon Berry is the founder of ColaLife, a campaign that is trying to get Coca-Cola to use its distribution channels to help save lives in developing countries. For over 10 months, Berry has been using the convening power of the Internet to rally people all over the world to lend their support and skills to a campaign that could change the way multinational businesses engage with developing countries. Simon Berry ColaLife is a simple campaign – asking CocaCola to use its incredible distribution capacity to get medicines, such as oral rehydration salts and high-dose Vitamin A tablets, to dying children in developing countries. We are currently in a prototyping phase where we are developing the ColaLife ‘aidpod’, a medical carrier case that can slot securely in between the Coca-Cola bottles transported in crates around the world. The aidpod container fits in between the necks of the bottles in a Coca-Cola crate, and is designed to carry ‘social products’ such as oral rehydration salts, vitamin A tablets and water purification tablets.
4
What is ColaLife? Before ColaLife, Berry had spent 12 years living and working in developing countries on the British aid program. He later worked as Chief Executive of rural regeneration charity ruralnet|uk, which he founded in 2002 to help rural communities improve and strengthen their local economies. More recently, Berry worked at Defra (the UK Goverment’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) on the implementation of Defra’s Third Sector Strategy and Greener Living Fund. Following his recent activity blogging at the G20 Summit in London (he was one of 50 international bloggers invited to the event), Berry spoke to Kate Andrews about ColaLife and his progress harnessing the distribution channel of the world’s best known brand.
5
How did the project start? In 1988, while working as a development worker in remote north east Zambia, conscious that while I could buy a bottle of Coke anywhere, 1 in every 5 children under the age of five die in these areas, from simple causes such as dehydration through diarrhea. To tap into Coca-Cola’s distribution channels was an idea I had over 20 years ago, but it never went anywhere until I began using new social media technologies, such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr for example.
6
What has been happening over the past six months? Since the launch of the campaign and due to the immediate power of our Facebook group, I was invited by Salvatore Gabola, CocaCola’s Global Head of Stakeholder Relations, to a meeting to discuss the idea further at Coca-Cola’s European HQ in Brussels. Other than building an early relationship with Coca-Cola, during this meeting Gabola made a commitment to include the ColaLife idea into the research already planned, as part of the corporation’s commitment to the Business Call to Action, in East Africa. Furthermore, an agreement was also made to report back on the research as it progressed, all of which could be
reported on the ColaLife blog. Last year, ColaLife was nominated for the NewStatesman’s New Media Award, and showcased at London’s digital media festival, 2gether08. It was also featured on BBC Radio 4’s iPM program, and on the BBC World Service. The Facebook group, which has now reached over 8,600 members, has been a key to the success of the campaign. From it not only have I gained many new international connections and ‘front-line’ insights, but voluntary support has led to viral animations, PR, the build of the campaign website and supporting photography. In October last year the ColaLife idea was entered in Google’s Project 10 to the 100th, and in November, I returned to Africa to introduce ColaLife to the local workers and families this is been
set up for. The ColaLife blog continues to inform the global audience of the story and its progress, and even includes a conversation with people in Tanzania. In April 2009, I was nominated by members of the ColaLife Facebook group and selected to join 50 bloggers from around the World to blog at the G20 Summit where I was able to talk to Bob Geldof about the campaign. Our conversation was captured on video by Lloyd Davis, a fellow G20 blogger.
How is the campaigning progressing? Over the last three months ColaLife has been building a relationship between Coca-Cola and an international NGO in the hope it would lead to trials of the ColaLife idea in Tanzania. On April 21, at a Business Fights Poverty event
in London, Coca-Cola announced yourself: thank-yous are free and their confirmation to run these tri- will come back to you tenfold. als later this year. Be flexible and open to offers. OthWhat have you learned so ers may help, but have other priorities. So be patient, persuasive far from doing the ColaL- and pragmatic – once you engage with bigger players it’s like riding a ife campaign? wave – there’s no point haranguHold on to a clear, simple vision, ing, use the momentum and be but don’t try to control everything prepared for the next one. Use a – facilitate. Value every conversa- ‘multi-channel’ approach – with tion, remember names, make links. potential supporters everywhere, The trick is to be dogged without you need to be everywhere too. being dogmatic – you won’t have My big break came once I had all the answers. Listen! The knowl- 5000 Facebook users with me. edge is in the network, so find Getting online isn’t everything – some and get plugged in. Always I use face-to-face meetings and carry publicity – I’ve used Moo traditional media too – but it can cards – they look special and I’ve build support amazingly quickly, even ebauctioned a ‘first edition’ and you don’t have to be an Interset on to raise funds. Go with the net wiz to do it. stones that roll to get some early wins. Then, don’t keep success to
7
HOW TO
TO
HOW TEACH
GRAPHICdesign TO
kids
BY CARL HOSE
1
Careers in graphics design are abundant and present career opportunities now and for the future. Children who show an early interest in art might be encouraged to put their interest in the arts to use in a career field that will be both financially and creatively rewarding. Learn how you can encourage your kids to pursue their artistic interests and a career in graphics design.
Have your child begin tracing exercises. Using tracing paper have her trace images from any of a variety of print material (for example, magazines, newspapers, brochures), then ask her to add something new to the image to make it her own.
Create challenging design exercises. Ask your child to create a logo for his favorite cereal. Have him make up his own cartoon character, first outlining and drawing it and then filling it in with color.
3
2
Purchase art supplies for your child--a quality set of lead and color pencils, sketch pads and erasers. Buy a drawing desk for your child and find a special area where she can work. These tools will encourage and help improve your child’s interest in art.
8
4
Buy age-appropriate graphics software for your child to acclimate him to designing on the computer. Have him draw his name as opposed to writing it. Teach him how to draw each letter separately and how to create shadow effects. Ask him to integrate a picture with his name that he feels best describes himself.
Download the free version or the extended pay version of ArtRage and have your child take advantage of the realistic paint and drawing tools to create designs. This program will teach her how to use a variety of art design tools and help her get a feel for more advanced graphic design techniques such as layering. ArtRage is simple to use and appropriate for younger children.
5
6
Explore graphic design tutorials on the Internet with your child and walk him through the process (see Resources). This is the best way to increase his knowledge and expand his graphic design skills.
IDEAS
As the economy spirals out of control, more and more designers are emerging in the industry.
Portfolios
that speak for themselves We will find that there will be more freelance designers, reasons why; easy to start-up, can work from home (looks tempting for people that get laid off, or their hours cut back), can make extra money on the side, and its a fulfilling career choice. After posting the Industry leading web studios last week… I turned the other direction to look through designer portfolios. These portfolios are not just good they are great… a good portfolio isn’t just a few good projects, it’s a relation between the portfolio itself, and its content or projects.. and in most cases quality before quantity. So if you are looking to redesign your portfolio or give it the extra something it needs…. I encourage you to look through these great portfolio pieces.
9
ABOUT A GRAPHIC DESIGNER
VEERLE PIETERS Veerle is a graphic/web designer based in Belgium. She is a renowned designer and speaker and is considered one of the fifty most influential female bloggers. She founded Duoh! and is the author of one of the webs most beautiful (and popular) blogs, where she gives an insight into her experience within the design industry as well as a range of design and web development tips.
A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY I’m living in Belgium. I went to school in Mariakerke, Gent. I began my career in 1992 as a freelance graphic designer under the name of “Duoh!”. As a child I always loved drawing and considered it a hobby. I always thought it wouldn’t be possible to make this my day job so that’s why I studied tourism until I discovered that you could actually study graphic design. That may sound crazy now, but if you put it in its context and time frame (1987) it wasn’t very well known that you could actually study that. I always thought about it from an artistic point of view and believed there wasn’t a future in it. Studying graphic design changed that, and from that point on my hobby became my passion and income. You have an amazing, illustrative, colorful approach to design. Where do you get inspiration for such unique work? Everywhere really. Just by looking around. I think people differ in the way they look at something. The first thing I see is the color and then I’ll see the shape. Even if I judge art-
GRAPHIC DESIGNER 10
with print I always feel a bit more scared. Scared to make mistakes. Could be technical or a simple typo. A mistake in print can have big consequences because it’s final and you can’t undo. With web design you can undo your mistake. In print you have so many factors you need to think about. If you could redesign anything… a favorite movie poster, an album cover, a product, etc… what would it be and why?
work, I’ll see its colors first and then the composition. How do you keep up with the latest web technologies and standards? Do you sometimes prefer designing for print because you don’t have to consider how you will code it or do you look forward to that challenge? I like the challenge of coding and yes I always look forward to it. There are times that I prefer designing for print because of certain limitations in web, but
a design. With client work, you have a focus and a direction that
you can clearly follow . (if you are briefed properly of course), which makes it in my opinion easier. Also, every client is different. On one hand you have clients that value your opinion, appreciate your work, listen to your advice and see you as an expert that are easier to work with.
I honestly haven’t thought about this before really, but if I have to mention one thing, then I guess it would be the album covers of my favorite music label, Naked Music. Some of them use a nice illustra- What advice would you give to tive style, a style I can someone just starting out as a defind myself in. Their mu- signer? sic gives me inspiration. I think the most important thing Please speak about the is to stay passionate about what importance of personal you do and don’t lose that drive to projects vs. client work constantly learn new things. Also, for you. believe in yourself and stay true For personal projects you are your to yourself. own client and in my experience this can sometimes be tougher to deal with. You have complete Carte Blanche which makes it a bit of a challenge and most designers, including me, aren’t easily pleased if you design something for yourself. I think this is probably the case for most designers, or the fact that you feel the urge to constantly tweak 11
live on the
side of life.