After waiting for a long time, the results are finally here! The 2007/2008 RGD Ontario/Aquent National Survey of Graphic Design Salaries & Billing Practices is now available for download. This survey was conducted by RGD Ontario and its partner AQUENT, in cooperation with the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) and the Société des designers graphiques du Québec (SDGQ).
This is the fourth time a survey of this nature has been conducted in Canada by this Association and even though the results are not to be viewed as a nationally representative statistical sample of all graphic design professionals, it does provide a current reflection of what some in the design profession are currently earning.
Remember a while back when, with the full support of the GDC, Vancouver 2010 Olympic Committee (VANOC) put out an Request For Proposal (RFP) for Mascot Designs? Well the results are in. VANOC had a press conference to announce their 3 Mascots. First and foremost, congratulations go out to Vicki Wong and Michael Murphy, of Meomi Design for their design! Also, for those of you have been following the relationship between the BC/GDC and VANOC with regards to Spec Work, I have to give a lot of credit to the both parties who worked together to ensure that the RFP was done in accordance with GDC guidelines and had the full support and approval of the GDC.
As is the case with ALL public design (be it Communication Industrial or Architectural Design) reception to the results are mixed and blogs, list-serves and even TSN are starting to weigh in with opinions. The result may not be what YOU would have done, but they are an an expression of Canadian diversity with multiple stories and symbolism. They are simple, friendly and attempt to capture aspects of the Canadian spirit, culture, attitude, geography, athleticism, sports—even mythology—in a friendly way.
A hybrid of a bear and a whale? Why not. At least they tried to be clever. More aboriginal iconography? Certainly. It’s an attempt at being first-nations friendly without alienating other British Columbians. The best possible solution? Of course not. Is there ever one perfect solution with so many stakeholders?
Is it good design? Consider the audience and demographic before engaging in another bashing. Time will tell if it engages and communicates the message to a broad international audience—a predominantly younger audience—and brings the crowds to Vancouver.
Congrats to all involved!
On September 10th, the RGD Ontario broadcast a memo to their members announcing the resignation of RGD founder Albert Ng – a man widely regarded as the godfather of Design accreditation in North America – from their board of directors. More importantly though, along with his seat on the board, Albert relinquished his status as an R.G.D. member altogether. One day later, vice-president Jack Mlynek also resigned.
On September 21st, retired RGD member Ivy Li published a letter regarding the resignations.
You can read the official RGD Ontario response to her letter, signed by current President Nicole Vallée and endorsed by 5 Past Presidents, here.
The GDC National AGM was held recently in Montreal and was a terrific experience. During the long meetings many presentations were given about the activities of GDC across Canada. I represented the BC Chapter and gave a report about some of the great things happening out west, but after I was home and the dust had settled did I realize that I forgot to recount a tale about the great advocacy work done by Dean McNeil and our National Ethics Committee on behalf of me and my design firm. I’ll quickly share the story with you now.
My company has provided design and production services to CMHC for many years and enjoyed a good working relationship with them, so you can imagine our chagrin when we discovered a section of their RFSA (Request For Services Arrangement) that included an unpaid speculative design component as a mandatory requirement. In order to be considered for contract renewal, we were being asked to design a series of promotional banners and a full page advertisement according to some generic instructions and without compensation. Ouch.
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I had an epiphany years ago about what it means to “be productive.”
“Productivity” is defined in economic terms as the “amount of output created (in terms of goods produced or services rendered) per unit input used.” [1] Input, in the case of design, is a mixture of the physical materials involved in the creation of design artifacts, and the non tangible energy and ingenuity involved in the design process. In the case of my own design practice, I sincerely hope that the output I generate ultimately has value.
Saying that, of course, summons the incredibly complex, sprawling, and seemingly unanswerable debate about the nature of value itself. What is value? Who decides what has it and what does not? Do values evolve?
However unanswerable the debate may seem, it comforts me to know that there are a group of designers in Vancouver tackling the issue head on.
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Page 27 of the October issue of BC Business Magazine features an article entitled “Designophobia: Why Is BC So Afraid Of Good Design?” by Trevor Boddy.
The article describes the writer’s recent visit to Quebec, on an invitation from Design Montreal, “the civic agency charged with promoting design in all its technical and artistic diversity”, and his admiration for Quebec design and the factors there that make good design possible, which according to him, are “design education infrastructure, its advocacy of design competitions, its promotion of designers through media products and junkets.”
He then proceeds to diss BC’s attitude towards good design, the “deep-seated fear of design that will sooner or later make us losers in the new global economy, where design is a primary engine”. So far, so good, I can swallow that. But then he states that MORE design competitions, not just for logos/graphic design, but also for buildings/architecture, such as for the Olympics, would be a good thing. “That hokey 2010 logo was the subject of a design competition - and that’s good news - but the competition was badly managed after first blowing a wad on an extravagant ‘Olympic Design Symposium.’ ” He should have questioned the competition concept itself, not the fact that VANOC actually gave a meagre public briefing to all would-be entrants, and even charged them $150 for the briefing. The only thing extravagant about that is the gauging of designers.
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They will welcome the Olympians and Paralympians in 2010. They will be the most popular photo op among spectators. They will be the hottest gift for family and friends at home. And they are just waiting to be unleashed from someone’s wild imagination…They are the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games mascots.
Vancouver 2010 is looking for a creative genius (or team of them) to develop the mascots for Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic Games - with the full support of the GDC!
The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada [GDC] volunteer Executives work tirelessly on your behalf working with schools, associations and industry to improve the business of professional design in Canada. In 2004 we lobbied the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee [VANOC] for more appropriate design competition processes and recently local GDC Executives Yves Rouselle MGDC (President, GDC/BC) and Mark Busse MGDC (President-Elect, GDC/BC) met with VANOC Creative Services Directors Ali Gardner and Leo Obstbaum. With valuable input from BC Ethics Chair and GDC National Ethics Committee member Linda Coe, the GDC team helped VANOC finalize language and procedures for the newly announced mascot design request for proposals.
We’re thrilled to annouce that VANOC has adopted virtually all GDC guidelines and suggestions and have created a fair, equitable and professional RFP that meets with GDC’s approval and support. For those opposed to spec design competitions, this is a momentus occasion in Canadian and international design indeed.
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Steven Luscher, man about town, leader of the meetup.com’s Vancouver Design group, has decided to take on one of major, and majorly contentious issues in our profession: how do you explain graphic design. You mean, communication d
