365 down, 366* to go

Just in case you hadn't noticed (and there's no reason why you should, of course), today is this blog's first birthday. And to me it feels like a coming of age; like I'm now big enough to hang out with the grown ups. And let me tell you it feels good, just like Nina Simone in fact.

Now I'm not one to run the numbers, but there are other design blogs that started around the same time as me which appear to have achieved phenomenal success. As for me, all I've managed is the position of number 51 on a list of 50. Oh, the ignominy. (Actually, I was originally in a much higher position, but then others started barging their way in, upset that they'd been excluded.) On the upside, though, if you do a Google search for 'Cow Gum' you'll probably end up here. Which is something I hadn't expected a year ago.

But numbers don't matter to me, because I'm writing this for you. So, if you've got this far on this post, thank you. I appreciate it. If it's your first time here, welcome. And if it's not, thanks for coming back.

Now, I have a plan of action for the next year. I think it's only fair on you that the next year isn't going to be a simple matter of repeating the past year. So I've added two new categories over there on the right. The first of those is called '52 fonts you could use instead of helvetica'. Not that I've got anything against Helvetica, but I thought it might be interesting to have a very personal look at fonts that I particularly like. It was partly inspired by Richard's first-rate guest post while I was away. But also, way back last December, I'd written a list of things to post about - and one of those was an A-Z listing about design. But it never happened. So I'm going to combine the core idea with the theme of typeface selection and give you 52 stunners - one per week, and two per letter of the alphabet - over the course of the next year. I'll do the first selection next week (what I can tell you is that the first will be Albertus and the second won't be Arial). So, do come back for that.

Next up is a chance for you to get involved, and to contribute your own observations. It's a category called 'bad design decision' and was inspired by the exchange that followed on from my post about recycling bins. Because I think the fact that a council should use two sizes of recycling bins in different colours - one green, the other the same black as its regular rubbish bins - is stupid. And, fundamentally, a 'bad design decision'.

Let me explain a little further: some years ago I was commissioned to design a leaflet by a national body (it was basically a guide to architecture and gardens) and a week into the process the client took me to one side and explained, quite politely, that I was thinking too much about the project. Actually what he really meant was that I was asking too many questions. Suffice it to say that when he retired 15 years later he proudly told me that that particular leaflet was one of his personal favourites from his career in commissioning design. Because, you see, the one thing that you can't do as a designer is think too much. It's like telling David Hockney that he uses too many colours in his paintings; or telling Stevie Wonder that he uses too many notes in his music. In short, if you don't think about something enough then you'll probably end up with a 'bad design decision'.

Let me illustrate what I mean. Now, when I'm not designing, I'm a keen cook. And the one thing that any reasonable cook needs above anything else is a good sharp knife. Now, I've never had any professional training as a cook, so I've never mastered that chefs' technique of using the back half of a large knife to chop vegetables and herbs, and I therefore prefer to use a much smaller knife. And, you know, the world is full of kitchens with blunt 'sharp' knives; so I always take my own when I go away. And consequently lose them. So I always like to have a small selection to hand, which means buying one when I see one.

Now the type of knife I prefer will have a serrated blade - here's an example of a good one:-

(I bought that at HEMA.)

And I recently bought a set in IKEA; here's one of them:-

Of course, when you buy knives these days, you can only get them in those 'impossible to get into without a very sharp knife and a spare half an hour' packs. And this one had a lovely serrated edge sitting there in its pack on the rack:-

But get it home and start to use it, and guess what? The other side of the blade isn't serrated:-

Which means that when you use it to chop vegetables the knife will move to the left when you apply downward pressure. Which is fine if you're right handed, because that slight leftward movement is towards the remainder of the vegetable that you're cutting. But if you happen to be left handed, as I am, that leftward movement actually makes the cutting action impossible. Which means, for the 10% of the customers who buy it, this knife is completely useless. And all it needed was serration on both sides of the blade.

It's not what you would expect, is it? - discrimination from IKEA. But it is a perfect example of a 'bad design decision'. So forget about those machines in IKEA which show you how they test opening a kitchen drawer a million times; not enough thought was put into this simple little knife.

And, because I'm left handed, don't even get me started on fish knives:-

*The next one's a leap year, in case you'd forgotten.

Comments

[Ben]

52 fonts you could use instead of helvetica = looking forward to that. Sounds good.

Happy birthday.

[davidthedesigner]

Thanks Ben. I'm sort of thinking that X might be difficult, but at least I've got 50 weeks in which to ponder. Maybe I'll have to resort to the 'X as in foX' technique.

[Richard]

I thought you were going to ask us for our bad design decisions. I think that would be cool. Andy Altmann has talked about the "draw of shame" that, perhaps, we all have.

Still, I think both your ideas will be great.

[davidthedesigner]

An interesting thought, Richard - a sort of 'things I wish I hadn't designed' - though I'm not sure that I'd have too many designers contributing to that.

In my case I think it probably comes down to allowing myself to be bullied by a client (actually, being a Taurean, that's not very often). But I think my bad decisions have been business rather than design ones. (Oh, and the cowboy boots.)

[minxlj]

I'm also a leftie, and that kind of thing really irritates me - somehow they think that we as only 10% of the population don't matter! And specialist leftie products cost twice as much! How hard would it have been to make that knife serrated on BOTH sides?? Or if it was a product cost decision, why not make a leftie version too?

And the irony of needing a sharp object to get into a package containing a sharp object...I despise these stupid 'anti-customer' plastic sealed devices!!

And by the way - Happy Birthday!

[davidthedesigner]

Well, look on the bright side Leanne (that's minxlj to the rest of you) - at least left handers will always get a warm welcome on this blog.

[davidthedesigner]

And right handers too, of course. There's no discrimination here (well, not unless you call me Dave).

[david george]

Just a short note to say Happy Birthday to your blog.
Always interesting & thought provoking I look forward to the next year and more to come.