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by Andrew Lam-Po-Tang
One of the things I have noticed is that designers rarely refer to other designers' work or thinking when in the presence of their clients. What is strange about this is that in most other fields (law, marketing, etc.), when someone cites someone else's work or thinking, it usually makes them appear well-informed, even scholarly!
So I have wondered, "why is that?" Why don't designers cite other designer's thinking more often? Given the number of design books, annuals and magazines that you find in every studio across the country, 'lack of reading material' is surely not the reason. It must be something else.
I think it is because of a perfectly understandable fear of being accused of 'plagiarism' or something like that. While I can understand the concern about plagiarism when it comes to the specific visual solution, I don't believe it hurts the designer to refer to key works or thinking of great designers.
For example, look at Wally Olins book, Corporate Identity. He has carefully articulated three approaches to constructing an identity based on the type of organisational structure. This is valuable, useful thinking which has widespread application to most clients.
Unless you happen to be going up against Wolf Olins studio regularly, it can't hurt to let your client know you care enough about design to be well-read on your own specialisation. What do you think?
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The views expressed this article are not necessarily those of AGDA. Please note that the information in this article is the opinion of the author only. I can therefore accept no responsibility for actions taken on the basis of this information. Copyright Andrew Lam-Po-Tang (andrew@lam-po-tang com), 1998-2008. Permission is granted to freely copy this document in electronic form, or to print, for personal use. Reprinting for non-personal use will require the express permission of the author (which I will generally be very happy to give).
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