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1,000 Tips, 1,000 Pictures
and a Game of Connect Four
Matteo Cossu
8
We conceived this book with the idea of a text-
book in mind. Nevertheless, when trying our
hand at the challenge of giving it a didactic
slant, we were faced with a harsh reality. Do
you remember high school? Or better yet, junior
high? Long hours of staring blankly at a book
alternated with chewing pencil tops and read-
ing the same sentence over and over again. The
texts seemed endless even when they were only
short lectures–and it seemed they were trying
to ransack our teenage angst-ridden thoughts.
In an attempt to deconstruct the essence of
a textbook, we traveled back to those pimply
years rationalizing what it was that drove us
away. Grief, despair, and a recess of that angst
still emerged but the answer was clear: those
books imposed their knowledge on us. If we
wanted to teach without wearing the uncom-
fortable shoes of a teacher, if we wanted to ad-
dress important and interesting issues in con-
temporary graphic design without being cocky,
presumptuous, or uselessly scholarly, then we
were called on to fi nd a new concept. A book
that would be, yes, didactic but at the same
time direct, non-exclusive, and that transmit-
ted knowledge from peer to peer. As we tied
all the elements together it became clear that
it was like a puzzle, or a game of wit. A lot like
Connect Four. We’d hereby like to describe the
whole book-making process while...playing the
game against ourselves.
We began from disc one–analyzing our book-
shelves and the design bookshops noting that it
would be very interesting to put out a new kind
of publication on the subject; something that
had communicative strength and possessed a
desire to share and a will to expose the day-
to-day, step-by-step reverberation of design.
The title inscribed itself perfectly in our per-
ception. It’s a fact that the old Sanskrit root of
the word “thousand” points to tavas, the suffi x
for “strong.” This concept of strength is exactly
what we appealed to in order to push through
the foundation idea for this publication.
This book aims to be more about designing
than design. We intended to reveal the daily
practice of the craft more than just the exhibi-
tion of the crafted. Hence, our concept traveled
on these model tracks, and slowly took form. We
needed a format that could condense as much
information as possible; something that would
be easy to read, quick, and attention-capturing.
So the idea of the “tip” was born–a small but
useful piece of practical advice, encompassing
the widest gamut of formats and expressive
forms and explaining the most varied aspects
of the trade. We explained to contributor de-
signers that they should envision the tips as
if in the context of an instruction manual; in
a perfect framework of cross references and
links, like a cut-through image of their own cre-
ative essence, or of their more global approach
to design. We briefed designers on this general
intent, but we steered especially clear of im-
posing any restriction in length or style of writ-
ing. We are strong believers in graphic design
as a desire, a dreamy thought of expression,
with its applied facets of course, but with the
ultimate goal of entertainment, reinterpreta-
tion, and visual proposals—new visions of old
ideas. In one word, creativity. And just like that,
it was time to move to disc two on our meta-
phorical connect four board.
The texts from the designers yielded bewil-
dering results. We couldn’t have asked more
of the designers and they have been terribly
responsible in this respect, following the brief
to perfection, each one interpreting and cus-
tomizing it to the fullest of their talent. The fi n-
ished tips represent all the tones in a range
that goes from conceptual one-word keywords,
to wisdom–enriched quotes, up to mini-essays.
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Ze Paz’s (www.zedapaz.com) very personal reinterpretation’s of the classic Connect Four game.
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10 1,000 Ideas by 100 Graphic Designers
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Inside the 1,000 the designers made space for
themes such as inspiration seeking, designer’s
block, the genesis of the idea, the conditions
most likely to generate an idea, the diffi culties of
production, the different infl uences, the ethics
involved in designing and communicating, the
most appreciated textbooks, and the creatives
each of us look up to. But this is no strictly the-
oretical book. There are also a lot of less glam-
orous aspects, such as the production side of
design and the countless times we curse our
printers, software, deadlines, bosses, clients,
interns, or the weather. Another important
part of the tips was dedicated to sharing actual
details such as fi nishes, color combinations,
fonts, add-ons and plug-ins, and special soft-
ware. This is particularly meaningful, because
it means that many designers still have their
feet on the ground. It means that many of them
still see the design process as a sort of house-
building in which the mason-designer needs
not only an instruction manual and a project,
but also solid, direct advice, shared and given
unconditionally.
As you will see just by fl ipping through the
pages, this book also has a very strong graphi-
cal identity, rich and heterogeneous–someone
might even argue against a certain lack of uni-
formity. Nevertheless, this graphical connota-
tion is an editorial choice and a direct conse-
quence of the brief. Designers were asked to
supply ten images to go along with the ten tips.
As for the texts, we wanted the images to as-
sume a somewhat didactic incline in the quality
and theme of the images supplied. In conclu-
sion there was complete freedom regarding
theme, technique, and format. It’s been a point
of dispute whether under this rule the publica-
tion would lose order and certain rigidity nec-
essary for ease of comprehension. We believe
to have made the right choice. We were again
amazed by the richness of the material that
started to happily fi ll our mailboxes, both virtual
and real. The material supplied to us is even
more diverse and distinct than the texts them-
selves. Many designers decided to advise the
reader about the numerous abstract aspects
of designing. Some decided to investigate the
pros and cons of order versus chaos fi nding,
as Plato did, the overlapping limbs of both (see
the Timaeus); others instructed on the attitudes
to keep while dealing with clients, providers, or
the clerk that won’t give back correct change.
Featured in the book you’ll see illustrations–
beautiful hand-drawn sketches, lo-fi post-it
art, ironic vectorials, iconic vectorials, and
austere typographic visuals. Custom-made il-
lustrations had the advantage of being more
direct, but banality never even surfaced in any
of the projects. Other designers decided to ac-
company their tips with photography–beautiful
and meticulous, like in the case of Tom Cram-
shaw’s black–and–white renderings of tropical
plants, or the no-less gracious hand-picked
impromptu pictures of Heesun Seo reminding
the good old times of Polaroids more than the
glacial unfriendliness of this digital era. Her
subjects are in motion representing stillness,
or still, representing motion. Lighting is bright
and cheerful or unlit and contrasting. On an-
other plane, Jessica Scheurer used darkness
that tinged everyday objects to illustrate her
ideas. In between, rests a full kaleidoscope of
photographical expression and assorted mixing
of techniques.
All these images have one common denomi-
nator, and it would be erroneous to think that
designers took this task lightly, providing just
any old picture. The 1,000 pictures share a col-
lective origin–spontaneously or through more
complicated processes they were conceived to
express or accompany the content in the text.
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1,000 Tips, 1,000 Pictures and a Game of Connect Four 11
This observation lead us to move disc three.
We asked ourselves how to interpret all these
connections that designers made. Between
their intent of communicating and sharing wis-
dom, between their choice of words and writing
style and the picture they selected to illustrate
the two above. Believing that such a mountain of
data could defi nitely be mined, numbers plotted
and conclusions drawn, we realized the need
for a smooth ramp to take the reader on this
printed journey. We thought that this could be
achieved by accompanying this more practical
prologue with a bird’s eye theoretical view on
design. We decided to put it all in the very ca-
pable hands of Luz del Carmen Vilchis Esquivel,
PhD. Through the outlook of her experience in
the academic side of graphic design, she dis-
sected and elevated all the design jargon into a
lucid recollection of what it is to be a designer,
what it means to understand design and, most
importantly, how visual messages are coupled
with written word with the intent to pass on
knowledge.
When we had to make the selection for the
100 designers, we based ourselves on the fact
that any level of experience has precious view-
points that are interesting to share. Included
are designers of all levels. Some of them are
pioneers in their fi elds, most of them have seen
their work endorsed and prized in international
awards, the great majority of them is regularly
featured in graphic design blogs and special-
ized magazines. But there was no formal fi lter
of age or “experience” in the selection. The
100 designers or studios that take part in this
book range from industry gurus, to indepen-
dent artists cross-pollinating into design, to
fresh out of school students with exceptional
perspectives and views on design.
We are strong believers of the horizontal
aspect of graphic design. And although–as in
any discipline–there is a now, and there is a
then, hierarchies are made to be subverted,
and we believe that any creative person, no
matter the experience or the preferred fi eld of
expertise can enlighten or guide the reader.
Because our life experiences are all inevitably
one of a kind. Our creativity becomes compre-
hension through life experiences. And magi-
cally, as coming out of a brainstorming tunnel
there we were, the fi nal move of our strategy,
the diagonal section connected with disc four.
And the game was closed.
Knowledge is strength, and freedom is
strength. But freedom can only come from the
transmission of what we know, from teaching
and from passing on the skills that we got from
others. Freedom comes from being part of this
cycle that takes any discipline, not only graph-
ic design, to continually shape itself into new
forms, melt and dry to melt again in an endless
Heraclitean continuum of reinventions.
All in all, we want these 320 pages to rest
undusty on your shelves, we’d like to be in-
cluded in your daily routines, to be there with
the cereal and with the deadline-driven-late-
night-slumber-eyed-coffee-tasting last mouse
clicks before handing in, smartly dressed but
with mismatched socks. We want you to carry
the book in your oversize bag, we want you to
use it as your grandmother’s cookbook when
cooking for your sweetheart, or better we want
you to keep it through the years and maybe use
it as a gift for the next generation of graphic
designers this world will see.
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