2011 ISTD Awards

So this morning I was delighted to receive my copy of this years International Typographic Awards (ISTD) booklet through the mail. An e-mail earlier this week informed me that my copy was on its way which lead me to wait in anticipation for the remainder of the week. Now I'm not saying the book was a disappointment, far from it, in fact ISTD always produce gorgeously designed books (it's expected of them). I did however feel a little let down by the content.

I would like to state right now that I am not questioning the quality of any of the featured designers work as the work truly is beautiful and in some cases very inspiring (plus I never got in myself so I don't exactly have a leg to stand on in bagging on someone else's work lol). I do however have an issue with a repetitive comment made by the judges throughout the book that certain projects and how they were executed were 'original'. I may lose my head (or worse... my membership) for saying this but I beg to differ. Yes all the work was of a very high standard and great but I would hardly say anyone was doing anything  particularly new. With a lot of the projects I felt as though I had seen it before, perhaps not as controlled or as well executed but certainly with a similar core. It left me wondering if there was anyone out there with a truly original and "far out" idea, and if so was their work just not deemed good enough for ISTD? Perhaps it just wasn't polished enough, which is a fair reason to be overlooked... to some extent.

Overall I just wish I had turned the pages of my nice new book to be blown away with design that made me rethink the entire world of design. Maybe I'm asking a lot of a little A5 book but shouldn't we as designers be trying to push boundaries and scare one another? It's easy to scare the general public, but shocking other designers is part of the fun.

Anyway this will probably be my last post as I imagine a barrage of designers are ready to knock down my door and take me away, never to be seen or heard from again. In all honesty the work is great, just not what I had expected. Perhaps I had just built it up to much in my head.