Used in situations where two adjacent characters would bump into each other, there are two types of ligatures, standard ligatures and discretionary ligatures.

Most people are acquainted with the ampersand, the celebrity of the ligature world, but that is comparable to the ability to identify Jim Morrison–it doesn’t mean you know the entire Doors discography nor the history of Classic Rock. Knowledge of design holds a certain amount of cultural capital in our society, and although some seem to have a certain proclivity for it, for most it takes effort, training and practice to speak it fluently.

We had a recent situation where a client wasn’t versed in design language and we failed to interpret. In this particular situation, the kerning (space between letters) came into question. Actually, the design had been kerned, but it was re-kerned and resubmitted only to have it returned with the same comment. As a designer being able to take criticism is a required skill, but there is no guarantee that a client has the vocabulary to communicate the issue. Resolution finally came when we switched to the telephone and were able to ask the client to point out the problem, it turned out that the “letter spacing issue” was that the “f” and “i” were touching.

It was a ligature.

To us, it was design love and attentiveness; to them, it looked like an error. We were speaking different languages. The fact that the client did not know what a ligature was flew under our radar, but had we stepped back from their initial comment and considered its context we may have saved time and irritation for us all.

So why hasn’t the ligature passed into the realm of common visual vernacular? Why don’t they feel as natural to clients as layouts designed with the golden ratio? One reason ligatures have not saturated the designscape is that in recent history many typefaces did not included them, so the designer had to choose to change faces, or create them by hand. However, with the dominance of OpenType, this seems to be a problem of the past as many typefaces are equipped with a large variety ligatures. Another force working against the pervasiveness of the ligature is the designer’s nightmare–the dreaded word processing program. Fortunately, fixes have been created for Pages and you can now choose to “use ligatures” and Microsoft Word 2010 has added support for OpenType ligatures, (for help enabling them you can find a tutorial here).

Technical functionality is not the only hinge when it comes to ligature use; personal taste is also a factor. To some, the use of ligatures is on par with the choice of serif or sans. With roots in early writing, some see ligatures as carrying a certain rare elegance, adding class and refinement to text. On the opposing side, some view them as antiquated, traditional and superfluous. Lovers of the ligature will argue that they are not merely ornamental, but efficient, replacing two letters with one and simultaneously increasing legibility–exuding the modern ideals of form following function.

Ligatures are a decision that every designer must make for themselves. To me, they are something special; so efficient, so thoughtful, so graceful, so salacious–and when I come upon them in life, I can’t help but smile, as I imagine two letters making love.

So we pose the question to you, are ligatures an element of typographic style you cannot live without? Should we as designers come together and create guidelines for their use? Or, are they archaic and a tradition that needs updating or better yet, to just go away?

We’re often asked by client to rationalize why they’d pay us more than the next guy for a project. One answer we give is “reduced uncertainty”, as in the knowledge that you’ve spent a premium on a team with the experience, process and motivation to live up to the standard set by the agreed to budget.

So when I read Win Without Pitching author Blair Enns’ blog post Why I Charge More with his generous offer for us to use it as our own, I thought it would be a good addition here:

Dear potential client,

The more we charge you, the more pressure we put on ourselves to perform for you.

The client who grinds us on price is the least satisfied. He gets less attention from us and is most likely to be pissed off at us. And we don’t really care, because to be honest, we resent him. The very fact that he is on our roster reminds us that we’re part prostitute. For him, we’re doing it for the money and as it isn’t very much money we’re not troubled by not doing it well. He pays us a paltry sum, we perform poorly, he gets angry and we resent him. We can have that type of relationship if you like.

The client who pays us the premium gets our best work. He’s the one we wake up in the middle of the night thinking about, wondering if we’re doing all we can to earn his money. When he calls, we jump. Hell, we call him first. We take pride in moving his business. We try to make ourselves indispensible to him. We imagine that he winces when he opens our bill (he doesn’t say), but he thanks us for all we do for him. He’s the one we worry about.

We’re great at what we do, but if someone hires us without giving us the resources (money, time, access) to do a great job, it’s easy for us to rationalize poor performance. When a client gives us everything we ask for, he removes all the obstacles to a high quality outcome. There’s no way for us to rationalize anything less than perfection.

There is no greater pressure than the pressure we put on ourselves, and the only way you can add to our own sense of pressure is to pay us well. Yelling won’t do it. Neither will threatening to pull your business. Our deep sense of obligation comes from you paying us well enough to dispatch all of the excuses. Then we have to prove to you, and, more importantly, to ourselves that we are as good as we say we are.

So, we’ve given you our price and it’s the price that we need to charge to bring a deep sense of obligation to the job. Will we work for less? Probably. Can you negotiate with us? Sure. We can have that type of relationship if you really want us to be that type of design firm and you want to be that type of client.

Let’s just understand each other before we get started.

If you’re a designer and reading this, this is but a taste of the kind of wisdom we’ve been given by Blair Enns in recent years. And if you live in Vancouver, you won’t want to miss his workshops being hosted by GDC/BC and FunctionFox on February 9th. Information and tickets are available here.

Matt recently wrote a great article about why he was excited about the upcoming Icograda Design Week Vancouver 2010 conference.

This week Icograda released this animated promo video about the theme of Design Currency created by Rethink, Giant Ant Media, Todd Smith Design and Wave Productions—all studios in Vancouver, BC.

The coolest thing for me is that the video is old school flipbook animation, not computer trickery. The production team literally printed and photographed 2,180 custom bills to create the effect. Here are some behind the scenes photos showing how they did it.

Pretty cool work guys—well done!

Jim Rimmer died last week and I really wasn’t sure I wanted to post anything online after writing a tribute post for my recently deceased friend Leo Obstbaum. Losing people takes the wind right out of your sails. Then I found the following letter which was part of the nomination a group of us submitted for the Order of British Columbia last year. Unfortunately Jim was not selected as a recipient.

Dear Eric,

It was very nice to speak with you recently and learn of your nomination of our friend Jim Rimmer for the Order of British Columbia. As you know, I was the Executive Officer with the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada who nominated Mr. Rimmer for a Fellowship within GDC—our highest honour in the nation within the profession of graphic design. I did so in order to recognize and bring honour to this man and his remarkable achievements and contributions to our profession and industry.

I am convinced that Jim Rimmer is one of Canada’s living national treasures, and one of the finest British Columbians I have ever had the pleasure to meet. He’s so much more than the designer, illustrator, printer, publisher, and one of the few remaining typography and letterpress craftsmen alive today. He has been a teacher, a mentor, a kind friend, and inspiration to a very long list of printers, type designers, publishers, students, teachers, design firms, type foundries, and book lovers throughout his long career—a career that has lasted six decades and is still going strong.

Mr. Rimmer is an example of what dedication to a craft can accomplish. He is an amazing, creative, faithful traditionalist, but managed to remain relevant by fearlessly embracing new technologies that may have seemed at the time to render his previous training obsolete. Yet all the while he has managed also to keep alive the craft of hot type, hand-cut prints, letterpress lithography. Jim’s books and prints feel good, they smell good, they read well. His books are cherished by many as not only things to read, but things to admire and enjoy. Jim is one of the only remaining masters and should be cherished.

But that’s not the only reason I feel Jim deserves recognition. Jim has inspired many young people to rediscover the craft behind his type, prints and books. He has inspired numerous generations of designers; designers who now work as the visual storytellers of culture. Those creative professionals are now spread across this land and across the world, each of them remembering the lessons that this quiet man who showed them the way. The way it used to be done: by hand. But also showed them how the skills of that craft are relevant today in this fast-paced world of computers and digital media. The day we lose Jim Rimmer will be a sad day indeed, but he will leave behind a lasting legacy and an army of design practitioners better for having known him.

And to know Jim Rimmer personally is truly a pleasure. He’s such a generous and humble character, always respectful, encouraging and kind, often going to great lengths to help others with no need for credit or recognition. Many have described him as a maverick, a renegade even, quietly following his own path. And that too is a great quality that many British Columbians can proudly relate to.

I am humbled when I consider Mr. Rimmer’s history and contributions as both a craftsman of old as well as an innovator with creative genius, and wish to enthusiastically support your initiative in nominating him for the Order of British Columbia. He is a shining example of what the caliber of person I wish British Columbia to be known for.

Note: The typeface this letter is composed in is Jim Rimmer’s Albertan, named after his lovely wife Alberta, which he first hand-engraved for his private press in 1980.  It’s still as wonderful a face now as it was nearly 30 years ago.

We miss you Jim.

[photo credit Robert McCamant/The Caxtonian]

Not sure if Bansky has hit Berlin or not really, but now you have a better chance of finding out. Adidas has created an iPhone app that acts as map and guide for locating street art in Berlin. So, if you’re tired of yet another museum or monument, take to the street gallery with the Urban Art Guide. Backpacking ain’t what it used to be.

This American Life – Live! Encore
Monday, May 11th
Ricmond SilverCity Riverport
More info

I’ve already got my tickets, see you there!

In a world full of crime and comic books what we really need are people dressed in costumes saving our behinds. The World Superhero Registry is a place for serious people who want to adopt a superhero persona and help our society against crime. Who hasn’t been to a superhero movie and felt invincible afterwards, unfortunately most of the people on the site look more like Kung Fu Panda than say Batman or Spiderman.

That being said, good for them for doing good and trying to help people.

Watch the CNN coverage or visit the World Superhero Registry site.

Bill Buxton is so cool. He’s Canadian, a massively talented designer, and arguably the world authority on interaction and usability design. What’s not to like? Oh, Buxton does work at Microsoft as their Principal Researcher, but I forgive him for wanting a big paycheck and working for the world’s most powerful software company. I’ve even had the pleasure of shaking his hand after he gave a stirring lecture at a conference some time ago and since then have been a big fan.

His book, Sketching User Experiences: Getting The Design Right and the Right Design, argues that sketching, prototyping, and iteration are essential parts of the design process itself. And I must say I agree—especially these days where the complex marriage of increased media with information appliances and reactive environments makes the convoluted behaviors of the devices we use as important as human behaviour itself.

In 2007 Buxton presented an excellent lecture about his thinking in this area at the Stanford University Human-Computer Interaction Program where he discussed the design process itself, from the perspective of methods, organization, and composition. See Bill Buxton’s Stanford lecture about sketching interactions on YouTube.

It’s certainly no secret that we’re huge fans of GDC, the national design association in Canada, and the various events they produce. So, I’d like to encourage any and all creative professionals that work within the communication design industry in and around Vancouver (yes, that includes you graphic designers too) to attend the upcoming 2009 Salazar Awards featuring a special keynote presentationby the briliant Michael Osborne of MODSF at Emily Carr on May 8th. Last year’s event was a total sell out, so reserve your Salazar tickets before it’s too late.

For tickets to the Salazar Awards, click here.

That same weekend is GDC’s annual POGO Conference—which stands for Perspectives, Opportunities, Guidance, and Open-learning—including rare studio tour opportunities, creative workshops, and portfolio critiques by some of Vancouver’s leading design experts. This weekend of learning represents a unique and powerful opportunity for recent design grads, young designers looking for advice, or aging design wonks just looking for some fresh perspectives and networking opportunities. Last year a few attendees landing terrific jobs as a result of attending the portfolio reviews alone!

For tickets to POGO, click here.

It’s time again for Likemind Vancouver, this time on Friday, April 17th at the Starbucks at Nelson and Mainland. Come join this growing group of very cool people for a cup of coffee and some terrific conversation. Here are photos from the last few events. Join Likemind Vancouver on Facebook to keep informed of upcoming events.

See you there!