Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network Interview with Peet Pinaar from Clio Awards

TAXI >> In your opinion, what is the biggest difference between art and design?

Peet Pienaar >>For me design is always a vehicle for something else and Im not sure what art is.

TAXI >>You once said your design isn't always produced as a keepsake—but people don't throw it away. What do you think is the main reason for it?

Peet Pienaar >>I think it because of a lot of reasons, one maybe because I was making art before, and then maybe because it is very important for me to try and make something as beautiful as possible for me. (I know this will typecast me as an aesthetic designer, but what is beautiful for me I believe is very developed because I am so conscious about it)

TAXI >>What is the key ingredient in your design process?

Peet Pienaar >>Alone time thinking about something, I am not sure if I like saying it because it’s trying to typecast me trying to understand what I am doing. It’s really important not to know because the known is boring. Maybe the ingredient is trying to be fresh and develop all the time but it’s not always the case although a lot of effort does go into achieving it.

TAXI >>I read that you painted before but stopped and went into performance art because you felt that art was too self-indulgent - the same reason for your transition from performance art to design. What do you think of designers whose predominant design philosophy is self-indulgence?

Peet Pienaar >>Whow they must have too much money! I suppose you have that in all industries and sometimes it is important when the design is there to only carry a concept. But most of the time you look at that stuff in one year and you think what a waste.

TAXI >>Do you see yourself being involved in performance art again in any way?

Peet Pienaar >>No, but maybe in performance design, I would love to design a new walk for cat walks.

TAXI >>As a consummate award-winner, how has your perspective of awards evolved from, say, 10 years ago?

Peet Pienaar >>I'm not sure if I can be honest about this question, all I can say is I don’t think someone is a good designer because they won an award.

TAXI >>Having experienced from a wide spectrum of the visual and performing arts, how has it affected your current work or manner of thinking, design-wise?

Peet Pienaar >>It has influenced they way I think and I am not scared to slate the artworld, but I am not sure how much I think different from other designers as I am not them. But I do think it made me brave.

TAXI >>Your guest stint as guest art director with VISI has generated an unprecedented slew of feedback and comments from the readers. Was that the intended response? What did you have in mind when you started the project?

Peet Pienaar >>My idea was to make it as exciting as possible. I knew it was a risk, and to be honest I can’t believe they actually let the wolf out between the sheep. I think allot of reaction was from designers from other magazines who had to defend their own design. The best of it all was that the sales went up 20% and it was the best selling issue of all time for Visi.

TAXI >>What is the WORD which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years.

Peet Pienaar >>AFRICA

Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network Interview with David Baldwin from The One Club

TAXI >>Hi David. I heard your band's latest album Twice the snake you need promises "ten hard-rocking, satanically-contracted songs about antiquing, two-headed snakes, misplaced geishas, and a futuristic world where pants are forbidden", and got to play in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. How's life as a rock band member coming along? Any plans for a tour in the pipeline? David Baldwin >>Well, I’m not going to quit my day job. What’s been so fun about the Pants! experience is that it has been the best agency self-promotion piece we’ve ever done. It has also been a set of experiences that I will never forget and has been a heck of lot of fun. Our picture actually hung in the R&R Hall of Fame for a year. Pretty cool. TAXI >>You've said in a previous interview that young creatives should think in terms of ideas, not ads. What do you do to source for new inspiration?

David Baldwin >>What I mean by that is that the world is full of ‘ads’ but there are really very few great ideas in our industry. I guess the way I would define it is that a great idea is one that spawns an almost infinite amount of other ideas. As opposed to a one shot ad that is the beginning and end of the conversation. As far as inspiration goes it’s more about being aware of what’s going and then connecting the dots in a new way. So really, I guess just be open and curious about everything.

TAXI >>What do you think of the idea that inspiration is something that can be taught in the classroom?

I don’t know that inspiration can be taught. I think it’s more likely to say that inspiration can be caught. In a classroom environment it’s more about having an inspiring teacher more than anything else. Expertise is about learning distinctions so that’s what the classroom is about, teaching the distinctions of the business and new ways to think. Inspiration is so much bigger than that.

TAXI >>What are some of the big ideas you're having currently?

David Baldwin >>We’re having a lot of fun right now exploring what advertising even is these days. For instance, we needed to launch the FullFrame Documentary Film Festival’s new website, an evolution of something we’d already done. So instead of doing an announcement campaign, we burned the old one down and created an event around it. Apparently, someone in the ‘virtual theatre; on the site was careless and threw a cigarette on the floor and the whole thing went up in flames. We called it the world’s first internet fire.

We also did some work for Polaris ATV’s where, again, instead of a traditional campaign, we had the CEO of Polaris challenge CEO’s of their competitors to a Duel on their machines. The Polaris CEO, Tom Tiller, is a rider, he rides the machines every day. You can’t say the same for the CEO’s of Honda, Yamaha and the rest. It got a ton of buzz in the ATV category. I don’t know what to call either of those because while they have some traditional elements involved, their not traditional campaigns. It’s tremendously fun in the business right now. You can pretty much do anything.

TAXI >>Have you ever experienced any faltering of passion for your job? How do you keep yourself constantly interested then?

David Baldwin >>A friend of mine recently got out of the business, a very well known individual. I asked him why he left such a visible, successful job and he said, “Because everyday was beginning to feel like the movie Groundhog day. The same conversations over and over again.” I have felt that way before.

You find yourself having the same discussion with clients. But the truth is I still get the same rush whenever we do something that is cool and then the numbers go up in the marketplace, or when someone in my agency has a breakthrough, or when I see inspiring stuff come out of other companies. I also still feel like my best work is ahead of me. I suppose that when I don’t feel that anymore it’s time to get out.

TAXI >>You've said before that the best advice anyone ever gave you is to never present from opinion but rather from facts. Have there been instances where this approach failed you?

David Baldwin >>All the time, but it’s still better than just trying to convince clients to do something because it’s ‘cool.’ Of course, there are rare times when that is the reason and there are facts to support the position. I can give you an example of that. Years ago, my agency at the time handled the business-to-business side of Polaroid.

We were working on a campaign talking to professional photographers. Part of our media strategy was that the campaign must win awards to truly have reach beyond the media buy, if we won awards it would be a demonstration to photographers of the creative uses of Polaroid film. This is a great example of something we advise all the time, ‘Don’t just say it, be it.’ That’s was the argument when we presented the work. The campaign featured fantastic photographers and won awards in virtually every show it was entered into.

The response to the ads from photographers was so high that a direct company Polaroid was working with to handle the DR portion of the campaign thought the response numbers were a typo and changed them for a presentation to the client. The campaign outperformed traditional DR metrics.

TAXI >>You've lived in so many cities, and you said you love them for vastly different reasons. Currently, which is your favourite city to live and work in? Why?

David Baldwin >>That’s kind of like asking you to name your favourite Beatle. Can’t do it. Okay, John Lennon.

TAXI >>You've said before that the best advice you've received is "to be responsible for yourself". What does that mean actually? I've always wondered: Was advertising meant to be responsible to the client, the product or the consumer?

David Baldwin >>This is a business that opens up possibilities in your life. Want to live in Asia? Want to direct? Want to write a book or a screenplay? Want to produce a comic book for your client? You can do it. I don’t know of many other businesses that allow you that kind of possibility and freedom. There certainly aren’t many other businesses that would have allowed me to mix my love writing/playing music while actually keeping my day job. You can do anything you want to. So do it.

On the second question advertising is meant to be responsible to and should delight all three. But if I had to pick one, the most important constituent is the consumer. They know when they’re being manipulated, they know when they’re not being respected and they’re smarter than anyone gives them credit for.

TAXI >>What is the WORD which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years.

David Baldwin >>Two words: Creator’s rights.

Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network Interview with Myrna Davis from The Art Directors Club

TAXI >>There was some controversy surrounding the "Pimp My Brand" ad. What was the intended response to this ad? Myrna Davis >>The title and image of ADC’s 85th Call for Entries poster were parodic, and the work as a whole was a satiric, inside-industry commentary on the co-opting of "urban" (black) culture by mainstream (white) culture. The word “pimp”--as in MTV's popular show, "Pimp My Ride”--was intended to suggest that brands, like cars, that are subjected to extreme makeovers can become preposterous and silly. MacDonald’s, for example, invited hip-hop artists to mention the company in their songs, and hip-hop designers to rethink their uniforms. The Call for Entries poster concept targeted advertising and design creative professionals, but the target of the satire was corporate.

ADC’s 86th Call for Entries poster on the subject of Armageddon also has generated strong reactions.

TAXI >>In that respect, how could one differentiate or make any judgment between satirical commentary and cultural exploitation in the advertising? Or is there any difference at all?

Myrna Davis >>ADC’s “Pimp My Brand” poster was by and for industry insiders about cultural exploitation by corporations for profit. It was not directed to a general audience.

TAXI >>Given the complexities surrounding the expectations of advertising and its target markets, I've always wondered if advertising meant to be responsible to the client, the product or the consumer?

Myrna Davis >>It should be responsible to all three—pragmatically to the first, strategically to the second, ethically to the third.

TAXI >>After the hoo-ha, what is your perspective of the usage of loaded and potentially offensive terms in advertising?

Myrna Davis >>Taste is subjective, and the same ADC Call for Entries posters that offend some garner praise from others. Work that generates discussion in the industry has been effective for ADC in attracting attention and therefore more entries. Advertising to the general public faces the same strategic considerations, but approaches that generate controversy may not be an effective choice if the desire is to appeal to the widest possible audience.

TAXI >>How do you get the public to understand the ADC's point of view when ethical concerns about advertising are raised?

Myrna Davis >>We feel strongly that ADC’s Call for Entries posters have been ethical, even if misunderstood or disliked by some. We encourage dialogue and respond to concerns by articulating our intentions through the press, in ADC programs and exhibitions, and by letter and conversation.

TAXI >>Our cultural and social backgrounds influence our beliefs and values, and also our ability to accept ideas. How does ADC plan to reconcile and manage creative differences to the extent that the end product (advertising) remains provocative yet tasteful?

Myrna Davis >>ADC has, in fact, held an ongoing series of panel discussions under the “Creative Differences” rubric. When a poster such as “Pimp My Brand” raises issues about race in the workplace, for example, even if based on misinterpretation, we are interested in entertaining serious and formal discussions about them. One mission of ADC is to provide a forum for examination of such issues.

TAXI >>What is the WORD which you think would reside and reverberate in the design world for the next 10 years.

Myrna Davis >>DESIGNISM. Coined by Milton Glaser, DESIGNISM is ADC’s newest initiative, an actual and virtual platform for inspiring and connecting designers to address challenges confronting our planet.

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