Poster for the primary conference for the Python programming language (“PyCon”) by Idan Gazit, who said of his work: “it turns out that design is a lot of work, just like code.” As a graphic designer who has also done some Python, I say to Mr. Gazit: Your posters’ is excellent work. And also yes, the small percent design practitioners whose commissions require their authorship — as with your poster — are quite hard at work.
I know that the fresh-out-of-art-school know-it-all twats are often the loudest and most prominent members of the graphic design rank-and-file. But despite whatever impression they or anyone else might give you: pure visual communication isn’t napkin-sketch bullshit, nor is it circuitous intellectualism; it’s laborious work — work that is often thanklessly misunderstood by non-practitioners.
It is also awesome. The corollary to the demands of design work is that it is highly rewarding, across many modes of thought and action. E.g. the summer before I studied architecture, I did construction work, and it made me into a non-pasty, non-neckbearded, physically tough guy (however briefly); stereotypically librarianish artisan-book designers are often surprisingly fast and strong as well, from working every day with cast-iron presses and antediluvian guillotines; if Mr. Gazit’s poster is to be rendered on something like a sheet-feed Heidelberg Speedmaster, he may find a range of new and enlightening challenges ahead, if he’s to shepherd his work through an on-press gauntlet. Few schools can teach ink trapping minutiae, soft-proofing mental gymnastics, or the niceties of decorum when talking to alcoholic printers’ assistants over late-night sandwiches.
I don’t want to be a snotty asshole about it, really — I love (love!) the praximal union of physical and mental challenge that one may find in the less topical, unglamorous subprocesses of design practice. I do hope Mr. Gazit is aglow with pride for his design, and that the final printed product affords him and the PyCon staff with an equally rewarding sense of accomplishment. I am also personally psyched that the core Python community (whom I also love) has a distinctive and memorable poster this year at PyCon. Keep up the hard work, guys. Yes!
