Shameless arrogant self promotion or a genuine heartfelt appeal?
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- uan0
1) I think it's uneasy because of the money involved. if it would be just to express the designers solidarity or to raise awareness of the cause it would be very ok.
2) It's also uneasy, because most of the designs presented are weak. like tweets from photoshop.
- mrghost0
2,
the core of the problem is not that the designer stands to gain publicity or even money in exchange for their works in reference to an event. If the event is a team winning a championship game or a world record being set, etc. In this situation I think that a commemorative design is appropriate.
the problem is that the event is recognized internationally recognized because of its tragic nature. Like I said earlier, the number of deaths cannot be counted yet. To profit from this is shameful. To create a fucking t-shirt that celebrates it is embarrassing.
A proper memorial is in order and the people of Japan will be the ones to create it.
two words can surmise my feelings: too soon.
- sry for the typosmrghost
- yeah too soon. A lot of people arn't sensitive to the reality of these situations.Dodecahedron
- 20
@mrghost:
i think the sooner the better, actually. calls to action now are more likely to engender a charitable response than doing it a month later. i feel like any profit gained from this (in the form of another portfolio piece, say) is only a side-effect of having gotten people to donate via selling posters. yeah, it would be shameful if you sold a bunch of posters and only donated a fraction of your profits, but if you are donating 100% of your profits? i'd give you a pat on the back and say good on ya.
i don't think it's shameful or embarassing to be making stuff on the subject. it's already on everyone's minds. not sure i'd wear a shirt with a bandaid and a big red spot on it, myself, but selling such an item i think is all right.
@uan:
yeah, a lot of those designs are weak sauce ):
- i agree that people need info on what has happened. but do these designs provide that?mrghost
- they seem mostly to be shallow references in order to gain publicity via proximity to the eventmrghost
- the opposite of info... even the video footage that shows the chaos is more helpful than these shirts and printsmrghost
- hm, i don't think their primary function is information dissemination.2
- i think that their primary function = enticement to buy them and thereby donate a little.2
- its a pity that people need a reward even for such a minimal effort.mrghost
- cannonball19780
It's self serving under the guise of being well intentioned. "Look at this project I did for this cause. Look at my concept." is what comes out of it for the designer, which is opportunism.
I also think it's a crock of shit that design thinking can't be applied beyond the purchase funnel of a merch operation. It underlines just how narrow-minded your practice is.
Then there is the fact that being a designer is not intrinsically linked to being a human being. Send some money or fly out there and haul sandbags if you want to be helpful and stop wasting paper.
- SteveJobs0
corporations often do this as well for publicity. a recent example is the homeless man with the golden voice. everyone and their dog was lined up to give this man a second chance at life offering him a job and even a mortgage. maybe we're just jaded, but it's hard to see all of this as a genuine effort to help... though maybe that speaks to a much larger problem with our society.
- utopian0
AT&T, Verizon offering free calls to Japan
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/stor…- while their phone lines are busy as hell. they are promoting to clog it up even more.pango
- utopian0
T-Mobile & Sprint are also jumping on the PR Bandwagon...
http://getcell.wordpress.com/201…
- 20
i think it's better than the most common alternative - i.e. doing nothing.
yes, making a poster or whatever might not be the best way to help, but if it's what someone comes up with, it sure beats doing nothing at all. if even one sale is made and one dollar is donated to charity that otherwise wouldn't be, i'd say it was a net gain for humanity.
- I agreemonospaced
- 100%monospaced
- I disagree. Bad posters = loss of paper value and underlying ill will. Net loss.cannonball1978
- poster = publicity = awareness and awareness leads to fundraising. Definitely a positive net.monospaced
- I doubt the public awareness value set against lost intrinsic value of the paper.cannonball1978
- er, not a net loss if the poster maker donated $.2
- Be quiet I am right you are wrong.cannonball1978
- autoflavour0
Bandaids are for scratches, Japan has its leg broken and is bleeding violently
- autoflavour0
dont get me wrong, I think fundraising for disasters and volunteering is a very noble thing, but i question whether products need to be produced to achieve this end..
- monospaced0
- also, +1 to QBN having a real design discussion worth havingmonospaced
- +1 for SAVE FERRISuan
- hellobotto0
Given the tone of some comments so far, I feel compelled to preface with a note that I'm one of the many folks whose trying to raise money for relief efforts by offering items.
I choose to err on the side the designers' intentions are on the side of charity and not shameless self-promotion PROVIDED:
- They allow reputable entities to freely raise funds off their work. If the Red Cross wants to leverage the popularity of your design, then you should be willing to give it up. It's fine if they want to give you a nod, but nothing more because who cares who made it provided it's helping people.
- They provide a heads up to people if they can't secure 0% overhead. The means to produce the items I'm selling currently aren't free of production costs. Since I've been unable to get free and clear production, I'm including a disclaimer wherever possible recommending folks donate directly to a preferred charity in order to maximize their donation. It's only right you disclose as much as possible so folks looking to donate are fully informed. In the end, if a sale only generates a dollar to donate, that's still a dollar more than doing nothing...it's then just a matter of trying to promote efficiency in the process.
- They don't use the artwork in a case study. If the designer/artist wasn't solicited by a charity, then it's in poor taste to use a crisis like this as a long standing case study to try to win yourself work. You don't put on your resume how many pints of blood you donated each year in order to give yourself an edge. When it comes to this kind of effort, the designer/artist should try to be as invisible as possible.
- They make themselves available to anyone who may have a civil question about their intentions. If you're willing to put yourself out there for charity, then you're willing to put yourself out there to be held reasonably accountable. You ask a lot of folks when you ask for a donation; you shouldn't be put off when they demand understanding from you.
This all being said, I'd be curious what kind of thought leadership could come out of transforming a debate like this (a debate I've heard during the peak of AIDS awareness efforts in the 80s/90s, Katrina, the flooding in Iowa and Tennessee, etc.) from a question of "tacky vs. thoughtful" into "how can we do more through design?" and "what more can design do beyond printed materials and swag?" There's a lot of individual soapbox comments in this thread, but how could we use that skepticism to drive some constructive innovation?
I agree, a well-designed poster advertising a charity blood drive would be better than a screenprinted, letterpressed, double-embossed with a clear varnish poster of a red circle. So can we hear more of those ideas from the creative thinkers that make up this community? Otherwise this conversation is just self-righteousness for the sake of being self-righteous.
- thanks for presenting your point of view in a reasonable manner.2
- autoflavour0
there is a whole merchandise industry popped up over night..
Japan had a earthquake and all i got was this lousy tshirt..
- autoflavour0
as for what designers can do, that is a good question. i was just thinking about this hellobotto..
musicians would normally have a benefit concert, but they arent making stuff specifically for it..
but yep, designers dont really have a means to contribute without spending money to make money.
I guess i feel uneasy for the lack of accountability.. while i would assume the guilt of not donating the money to Japan would drive people, watching all this "Pearl Harbor" and "God Is awesome cause he gave japan a earthquake" shit.. really makes me wonder about the process of giving this money.
do people really need to have a product to compel them to give money? cant we just give money without getting something in return?
I am not cynical about people intentions, i think its noble for people to help, i am just curious if it helps that you have to create something to raise the money.
- design = arrangement of elements for an outcome, not making productscannonball1978
- sorry, i meant to say arranging elements onto a tshirt to sellautoflavour
- to then raise moneyautoflavour
- autoflavour0
i guess the thing that really gets me is people will buy a "I donated money to Japan" tshirt, and then will wear it around with this smug sense of self worth, as they gave $10-15 to a cause.. half of which would not make it there as it they had to BUY something ..
You want to help, Donate directly to the red cross.
Go give them $100..
but dont then go around bragging about how much of a community minded person you are. just do it, and move on.
- The smugness falls on the shoulders of the person wearing the shirt, not the designer created the artwork.hellobotto
- the smugness wouldnt exist if the designed didnt make the shirt to begin withautoflavour
- So it's the sports car manufacturer's fault that men have mid-life crises?hellobotto
- we arent talking about sportscars, we are talking about Natural disastersautoflavour
- The analogy stands. An object is just an object. You can't credit the object for making you a hero or a jerk...you bring that into the equation yourself.hellobotto
- no, it doesntautoflavour
- car sales men are assholes anywayDodecahedron
- autoflavour0
i guess the thing that really gets me is people will buy a "I donated money to Japan" tshirt, and then will wear it around with this smug sense of self worth, as they gave $10-15 to a cause.. half of which would not make it there as it they had to BUY something ..
You want to help, Donate directly to the red cross.
Go give them $100..
but dont then go around bragging about how much of a community minded person you are. just do it, and move on.
- hellobotto0
Autoflavour, good questions. No, folks don't need to get something to give something. Look at the number of people that text their donation, or drop some money in a Salvation Army kettle without breaking stride.
In cases like this though, I think some people are looking for something material to feel united and remember. In the present, we are compelled to unite in midst of devastation and uncertainty. In the future, it helps to have a material good to help us remember when our own memories start to fade and fail us.
- i would normally agree with you, but no one needs a commemorative mug from Zazzle saying "Hit Japan with a Heartquake"autoflavour
- heartquakeautoflavour
- yupmonospaced
- Guys, I'm not saying there isn't some tacky shit. Lord knows, I wish it all looked decent.hellobotto
- autoflavour0
people are too attached to being apart of something, feeling they need to be seen to be helping.. its a sad fact of society that people desire this.
it saddens me, but it is unfortunately the world we live in.
- SteveJobs0
autoflavor, i agree with most of what you're saying, but i think it is normal human behavior to want recognition. we're all born with the need for acceptance, and this is one way we can gain that quickly. i think the perversion is when it's taken beyond the human element and done for profit. that's straight-up selfishness and greed and that's really what should be condemned.
- but it doesnt only need to be done for profit.. its such a grey area.. people will do it for the recognition of helping.. instead of just because they want to helpautoflavour
- Like when non-profit executive directors pull an obscenely high salary yet try to make you feel guilty for not donating to their organization.hellobotto
- how many non profits or community organizations have you ever worked for? all the ones i have, no one ever makes much at allautoflavour
- makes very much money.. even the directors.. often the directors on the board are volunteerautoflavour
- http://www.charityna… ...page 8 of the PDFhellobotto
- I'm not saying they don't earn it. But it can overshadow the notion of selflessness.hellobotto
- The NPs I've done work with vary from the folks who are true crusaders driving Fiestas to those rolling up in Benz...hellobotto
- ...but they are all good-hearted folks. I mention the pay aspect as part of the "gray area of perception" convo.hellobotto
- autoflavour0
its a crazy grey area.
i have friends who are musicians, and they have raised tens of thousands of dollars by organizing benefit concerts.. yet to my mind, that is something completely different.
they are using an existing audience to raise money..
but i cant help buy feel half of the people are doing it partially as they want to help, but also as they see it as an opportunity for exposure ..
you cant call them on it, cause they will with just say its their true purpose in life..
but yep.. altruism requires no recognition.
- i had to chuck in crazy bitch, just to liven up the debateautoflavour
- my friends raised money for other disasters, not for Japan.. obviously.autoflavour