How do you want the world to see you? Do you leave out all the unethical stuff and promote yourself as politically aware or do you take a warts and all approach? Or do you ignore the work and create a piece of self promotion that is a piece of design in its own right like the pentagram papers?
"Pentagram Papers will publish examples of curious, entertaining, stimulating, provocative and occasionally controversial points of view that have come to the attention of, or in some cases are actually originated by, Pentagram."
Caroline Roberts at Grafik writes on the blog "So much self-promotional material is boring, self-indulgent and a complete waste of the time, effort and the acres of expensive paper involved. Even design agencies that usually produce great work often lose the plot when they're faced with being the client as well as the designer."
Illustrator Ben Weeks sent out the above mailer illustrating his influences, clients and loves. Upon receiving it Roberts states "How refreshing then to receive this modest little mailer... it makes a welcome change from the majority of overblown self-promotional rubbish that usually arrives at Grafik Mansions."
Does anyone have any other examples of good self promotional work or any opinions about what makes good self promotion. Should it just be a show case of your work or can it be more than that? A comment on your design philosophy perhaps!
It seems a lot of designers use the vehicle of the book as a tool for self promotion; Stefan Sagmeister, Browns, Pentagram, SEA. Perhaps it would be interesting to explore the content and point of all these publications! The Felton Annual Reports for example are purely about Nicholas Felton, a concise report on his day to day doings. Is this incredibly egotistical? Who gives a shit how many cups of coffee he drank a day or miles he ran in 2009? But for some reason because he is documenting the normalness of his life and not preaching too us about his beliefs it seems self-deprecating!!
http://pentagram.com/en/publications/pentagram-papers.php
http://www.grafikmag.com/index.php?m=GR&sub=GRdetail&id=109
http://feltron.com/
About Self-promotion, Adrian Shaughnessy writes in How to be a graphic designer without loosing your soul (p121):
ReplyDelete"Fame in graphic design circles is a bit like fame in dentistry; it doesn't travel far...no-one is interested in the thoughts of graphic designers beyond he confines of graphic design... When exposed and cross-examined outside the cosy world of design, graphic designers tend to come over as self-centred and only interested in graphic design.
"The lesson is simple: we must not confuse admiration and respect with fame or celebrity. A number of groups have sought to acquire fame and celebrity by hyping themselves and behaving more like boy bands than design groups... The ostentatious gesture of the bravura book project is a typical ruse: a big fat book arrives on the scene, stuffed with visual pyrotechnics, which on the surface appears to show the group as dynamic and boundary-stretching, but on closer inspection is revealed to be egotistical and pointless graphic doodling. And for those who play this game, it is dangerously easy to believe your own hype. It usually ends up with some sort of implosion or dramatic reversal of fortunes."
He backs this up with the fact that immediately after his 1988 one man show at the V&A and the publication of his best-selling book Neville Brody went bankrupt and had to seek work abroad. And Peter Saville won 'best graphic designer' two years in a row then failed to make the top three the following year!