Designing Mad Men
Michael Bierut over at Design Observer has a wonderful piece on the cable television show, Mad Men. Well on the first season anyway. Season Two begins later this month. Bierut writes from the perspective of a designer. About his own early career he writes:
One of my first bosses taught me an important lesson.
Good designers are a dime a dozen, he said. Coming up with a great design solution is the easy part. The hard part, he said, is getting the client to accept the solution.
"But if the work is good, don't the clients know it when they see it?" I asked.
My boss just looked at me silently for a long time. And then, with gentleness and no small amount of pity, he reached out and patted me on the head: Poor kid.
His comments on the main character über Mad Man, Don Draper, are just fabulous:
Don: It's okay, Kenny. I don't think there's much else to do here but call it a day. [Rises and extends his hand.] Gentlemen, thank you for your time.Client: [Baffled.] Is that all?
Don: You're a nonbeliever. Why should we waste time on kabuki?
Client: I don't know what that means.
Don: It means that you've already tried your plan, and you're number four. You've enlisted my expertise and you've rejected it to go on the way you've been going. I'm not interested in that. You can understand.Client: I don't think your three months or however many thousands of dollars entitles you to refocus the core of our business --
Don: Listen. I'm not here to tell you about Jesus. You already know about Jesus. He either lives in your heart or He doesn't. [Cut to Don's colleagues, who look alarmed. Don bears down with his argument. He never raises his voice.] Every woman wants choices. But in the end, none wants to be one of a hundred in a box. She's unique. She makes the choices and she's chosen him. She wants to tell the world, he's mine. He belongs to me, not you. She marks her man with her lips. He is her possession. You've given every girl that wears your lipstick the gift of total ownership.
[Pause. The client looks at Don, then at the ads, then at Don again.]
Client: [Quietly.] Sit down.
Don: No. [Evenly.] Not until I know I'm not wasting my time.
Client: [Conceding.] Sit down.Jesus God in heaven! Not until I know I'm not wasting my time! From the minute Don launched his this-meeting-is-over bluff, I was on the edge of my seat, and my lovely wife Dorothy will tell you that I literally clapped my hands at that line. For me, this sequence is as close to pornography as I ever get to see on basic cable.
The kabuki line was pretty good too.
Good stuff...dished up HERE.