A quick christmas monlogue on loss

2016—the year we seemingly lost everyone. Though we needn't loose sight of what's ahead.

Let's be fair, we haven't lost everyone but we have lost a few faces, this lovely face being one of them—even if he does hate baked goods. I use the terms 'loss' and 'lost' because it's the most common way I can describe their situation; for something is lost when it is forgotten and I disbelieve any past person is lost, any past knowledge is truly lost – unless clearly sabotaged of course – lost is an end point, and we're yet to truly reach that.

My life thus far has had few large milestones, though I myself have achieved these by hard work and perseverance they have almost always been achievable by a quick turnaround of rubbish misfortune. The misfortune being that of loss of sight, loss of life and loss of independence.

Aged 16, the cusp of 17, I lost my great aunty. A christmas table favourite, a woman without malice and eventually life. As she past, she left a cheque brandishing my name and just enough digits to buy 40-hours of driving lessons. A pass of the highest privilege, of freedom and of misfortune. Betty's misfortune was her loss of life, her loss of Christmases to come—though to me it was my automotive advantage, with a gain as great as life-long knowledge of the roads. With this the term loss is insignificant, for she will be missed but prominently remembered through the advantages held in my life.

Though this year has seen the passing of many idols, myself included very moved on January 10th when we lost all contact with Major Tom; nothing quite took me back further than the passing of my Grandfather. It's common knowledge he was quite important to me and I've certainly used this platform to express my feeling on said topic; aside from all the heartache, empty chairs and missing hugs—I don't see this as a loss.

Geoff was his name. As Geoff lost his sight, he gave me his car, so I could put my driving license to use. As he lost his independence, he supported my parents to help me exist in university, as he lost his knowledge he was lifting me up with mine; financially giving me the headspace the focus on making the most of my education. Now as his will becomes legally relevant and he lives an existence of peace and rest, he's buying the foundations for my future, my mortgage, my life.

He isn't lost and I do not feel loss. He is no longer with us, but as it stood before the doors he opens and the future he creates makes his loss irrelevant. David Bowie isn't lost because he's brought us the the audio space we live in today and Geoff isn't lost, because he lives in the walls of my home and he's the paper to which my accomplishments are printed upon.

I stand to disbelieve loss exists in the sense we believe it to, these is no loss when you make it a gain, an advantage. As I see is, the world isn't your friend or you're enemy—everything happens as a result of a decision which you did or did-not make. That said, you don't get to choose where you start, but your choices dictate where you go from there.

If this is full of spelling mistakes, I apologise but it's Christmas so grammar checking can bugger off.

A beginners guide to a design beginning

So perhaps you are just thinking about getting into design, or perhaps you've been learning for a while—it's never too late to reinforce the foundations.

Whether you never seen the toolbars of Adobe glory, or you've spent the past two years groveling your tutors inbox; it's always a good time to check where you are standing and what you are standing upon. If below you resembles a brutalist concrete lake of knowledge then maybe you're alright, but if it's loose sand, slipping as you slowly assess you feet—perhaps rebuilding would be the best idea.

Now looking down at your feet, what are you wearing on them? Shoes share a surprising amount with design—trendy ones look great for about a week but can't take you any further than the bus stop without excruciating pain or humiliation. Traditional boots will get you to the bus stop, over the hill and back again but they're not exactly up-keeping with modernity; with their rivets and cowhide structure. Flip Flops get you nowhere but to the shop for a loaf of bread and a reinforced stereotype of the student demeanor. If you are wanting to follow design, you'll need a range of shoes or some crazy interchanging modern shoe that likely only exists in the annals of Nike HQ.

At the start, you'll need those sturdy traditional shoes to keep your balance on the sand, learning the principles of structure through being immersed in the 'shoes' that existed before you. Once you've worn these shoes through, and they have holes large enough for your design toes to poke through, staring at the modern world around them. You can patch these holes with the spliced fabric from those nice trendy new shoes, but make sure you leave one or two open—a gentle design toe breeze from the modern world is always a pleasant luxury.

The next most important thing after shoes, is books. Now that you aren't going to make toe shaped dog mess truffles as you walk, it's probably best you put them to use in which to carry yourself to books, many many books. Though you are still possibly standing on the unstable sands of innocence, you can just about support yourself with the propping up of books against said sand.
The Walden Rules on Books™ is this; read everything, everyday and use what you've learnt to discount or devour the information you have been presented. If you aren't sure how do this, you can start by using a simple formula.

• Respected author + respected publisher = trust
• Unknown author + respected publisher = slightly trust
• Respected author + respected review = trust
• Unknown author + unknown publisher = no trust (this also includes me)
• Respected review + unknown publisher = slightly trust
• Any guide on Pinterest = no trust

note: anything that has been published to paper has gone through much more screening and trail than anything digital, thus can be trusted more easily. THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO NEWSPAPERS.

Now, you might be slightly more sturdy standing on your tower of sand and papyrus with your mildly hilarious patchwork shoes, but you know what kid? You've got knowledge under them knees!

There is a lot more to both learning and practicing design aside from pretending that it has anything to do with legs, feet or shoes. What's important is stand alongside all this, you've either got a strong man-made foundation or the knowledge, papers and materials in which to do so.

Go build that foundation, a cornucopia of knowledge—like a birds nest in Phaidon's waiting lobby.
Gud luk sweet child.

Design isn't done at the computer

I was once told "Design is everything you do when you're not at the computer" – I feel I may have quoted this before, but I'm far too lazy to check.

tippety tap tap

The quote "Design is everything you do when you're not at the computer" seems both counter-intuitive and fully intuitive. If you are reading this at the start of a design education, it may seem bizarre to hear that design isn't the physical production, it isn't the posters, logos and websites you see if you search 'Design' in a particular search engine that could be misspelt as Goggle.

It's a lie if I tell you that those posters and logos are not design, but they are not the whole existence of design. It's also a lie if I told you that no part of design is done at the computer, as these logos and websites were most definitely created at the computer.

Though these items are part of design, they are the final part, they are the production—whereas the term design is almost completely encompassed by the process. From the public eye, Design, or more specifically Graphic Design is a logo on a leaflet, a box on a shelf and a website on the internets, though in reality it's everything it took to reach that logo, leaflet, box and website.

If we were to break it down as simply as possible, we'd have three particular principles that existed in all good design, emphasis on the good. Disclaimer—Good design does not describe pretty design. Good design, is design that serves it's purpose with maximum efficiency. Pretty design is just pretty.

1. Research and Knowledge: (45%) The design that anyone creates is built upon the foundation of research or knowledge. The process, structure or influence can be conjured either from the existing knowledge of a senior, well practiced designer—just as a more junior designer can create work from research in the same manner. Note that knowledge in this sense does not directly reference knowledge in design, general knowledge and intelligence of the world they exist in, is a significant tool in a designers toolbox.
2. Development and failure: (45%) As design works in the most part as a supply and demand industry, orbiting around clients, failure is both inevitable and necessary. In it's simplest form, you only ever finish a project by developing away all the wrong choices. How do you carve an elephant? Chip away every bit of stone that doesn't look like an elephant.
3. Production: (10%) Production encompasses the final part of design, from choice of paper stock, to printing methods, size and shape. This is the part you'll see and feel, but realistically the part you have the least actually control over. You'll chose how it should all look, but often you may be in total mercy to your printer. This differs for things like web design and furniture where the production may take the longest of these three sections, though it's percentage does not.

Looking at the title of this post, the claim that design is not done at the computer still seems outlandish, but if you assess how much of the above would actually done at the computer, I can safely say you may be now starting to be indoctrinated into the Walden Way of Thought™ – Free 1-Month trail if you sign up now and pledge an eternity of allegiance.

There is a story about Picasso that might help me convince you to join my radical blog based design cult, the story goes a little like this.
Picasso was sat on a bench in Paris when suddenly a wealthy woman recognises him, runs up to him and demands she have her portrait drawn by him, to which he politely agrees and begins sketching. After 5 minutes of the woman siting as still as her small back, weighed down by copious amounts of jewelry would let her, Picasso exclaims that he is finished, hands over his artwork to her and vocally invoices her for £50,000. She at once stands up in horror and expresses to him that she would not pay this price as he took barely five minutes to produce her portrait. To this Picasso addresses the woman and tell her "But my dear, it's taken my whole life in which to make this portrait in five minutes".

If my story telling is anywhere near worth it's salt, hopefully I'll have explained how design is not created at the computer, just as Picasso's art was not just purely created on that single sheet of paper to which the lady's portrait was held. The finesse and quality of Picasso's art was fifty plus years in the making and the drawing was merely it's production, just as design is finalised at a computer but built upon hours of history, strain and failure.

Side note: The point that design isn't done at the computer seems ever more poignant when you assess that until twenty years a go design on a computer was either a non-existing phrase or complete science fiction. So if there are any readers from the early 20th Century, please read the instead as Design isn't done at the Drafting Table.  

Just the tip: Printing

So, this worked quite well last time—so I'll give you just the tip again; you saucy buggers. 

This time, it's printing, the make and break of a good project. Bad printing is the printers fault, but ultimately in the clients eyes it'll be your fault. On top of that, if you haven't got your process right it will be your fault anyway. It's very unlikely when using a good printer, that you'll get anything back other than what you asked for—they are specialists just like yourself, but they can only work with what you've given them.

I once heard the saying "Every good president has an even better woman behind him" in reference to Obama's term in office, and I feel the same can be said for a designer. Every good designer will have a good printer behind them and in the same vane, every printer has good files behind them. So hopefully these tips will help you make sure that you can keep your printer happy.

Tip 1: Start your day right.
Not with a bowl of horribly sweet cereal but in-fact making sure to set up your documents correctly. Are you working with something that will be printed? Make sure it's CMYK, make sure it's 300 DPI and make sure you've got the right dimensions. If possible try creating the work as flexible as possible, using vectors and high quality scans where possible—because if you are making an A5 flyer, it's very possible that could easily become an A2 poster.

Tip 2: Always expect your printer to be busy.
Taught to me by my tutor, he explained that you should always plan for your printer to be busy. You'll never really know how busy they are, but if you give them no time to produce lots of work; you'll either get rubbish work and nothing at all.

Tip 3: Know your onions.
Shallots are the small ones. Understand?
Try your best to understand what you are asking for, as it'll help your printer understand what you need. Things to keep in mind are which process it might need, what type of printing are you asking for, what paper stock would you like to use and even what type of printer will be printing the work. Are you using pantones, can they print pantones? It's impossible for anyone to understand exactly what you need, if you don't know that yourself.

Tip 4: Treat as you would want to be treated.
The printer is providing a service to you, just as you are to someone else—so don't be a prick.
They are quite literally in the same industry boat as yourself, so if you start rocking that boat, shouting uneducated profanity at them because you weren't aware of what you actually needed, then you will also sink with them; getting very damp shins in the process.

Tip 5: Get a copy of the print handbook.
For a steal of under £10, I've found this little booklet stupidly helpful. From being able to quickly reference a large variety of paper sizes to having visual representations and test prints of various processes and pit-falls. It's always on my desk and it's just that lovely little cue I need to make sure I'm doing it correctly.

See you next time sexy pants; love Vincent x

Just the tip: Relationships

'Just the Tip' is a new idea of mine, to give tips on various things with slightly sexual undertones—this should work right?

un-related but mildly fascinating 

For every person out there that feels either slightly scorned that their skills haven't bloomed into what they desired or they have blindly bummed their way into a position because of their choice of drinking hole, the term 'It's not what you know, but who you know' always seems to be strongly factual. For me, though it's in the right ethos it's not quite spot on—it's about relationships, good or bad, in conjunction to your knowledge.

As far as I can tell, you have three types of relationships; Good, Bad and Neutral. These can move around, shift and alter with almost anything you do. Clearly it's not that easy to figure out how these could change, because with all these relationships depend on people and people are bastards. Sexy Bastards! (sometimes) I told you it would get a little sexy.

Good relationships get you good work, well paid work, lots of work or a mix all. Bad relationships get you bad moods, rubbish pay or poor projects. Neutral relationships are those you've either not fully developed, cut off from or are yet to start. If you can figure out which category your clients fit in, you can likely deal with them better and hopefully follow this months 5 tips much greater.

Tip 1: Don't burn your bridges. The client you just said goodbye to could be the worst person on earth, of whom you spit towards, each evening before you sleep, but it's likely his contacts might not be. The woman you just swore at when the email came in could be design's answer to Margret Thatcher but just like ol' Maggie; she'll know other humans and other humans mean other possible clients. (duh)

Tip 2: If you want lots of relationships, make lots of relationships. Trump didn't win the election by staying at home and calling an entire religion rapists on his own! No, he went to find other xenophobes who also believed practically everything that is fed to them.
Meet anyone you can, attend everything you can get to and speak to everyone. I know it's scary, but if you look around the room of that small print event you've attended; I'm pretty sure there aren't any imposing dictators in attendance. Though I hear Kim Jong-Un loves a good Riso show, so watch out.

Tip 3: Loosing a relationship isn't always a bad thing. Don't take a 2-foot stinker on their desk, but if they are driving you to madness, perhaps financially unfollowing them would be the best point of action. Saying goodbye can be just as pleasant as when you said hello.
Once said by a wise, loud, talented and slightly unstable friend of mine – "Nothing is more important than your mental health!"

Tip 4: Business relationships and personal relationships are separate things. These two binaries need to be managed, and if you risk to mix them, then understand what you are doing. Your mother will always be your biggest fan, but likely not your best agent. Your friend will always like your work, but might not 'actually' like it at all. Try your best not have sex with Mr. Billpayer or orally-pleasure Mrs. Invoice-Sender. These tips can be totally ignored and still work, but make sure you know the rules before you break them.

Tip 5: Email is alright, phone is better, coffee is best. To have a strong relationship with anyone, you need to actually know who that person is—meeting in person is the champion of all for this, but not always accessible. So if it is the unachievable, emulating a cuppa, in whichever form that takes is the next best thing you can do.
Knock on doors, ring doorbells and be a ruddy bother for the people you want to meet, because whether they like it or not, you'll eventually meet them and that's the only way you'll progress from the stalemate of anonymity.

Assuming I can think of anything else helpful to give tips on next month, and that this isn't sent into the depths of blindly ignored blog posts; you'll likely see another one of these soon!
I hope this was some-what helpful, love Vin x

A creative conscience—when is work wrong?

For most creatives, they live by a set of rules – no tobacco, no oil, no drugs, no offence to others – but where do we draw that line, of when work becomes wrong?

If you own a company that's otherwise deemed bad by society, you can pretty much count on that most creatives won't take on your work; and even if you find one that might, you'll likely not get anything portfolio worthy. This seems fair enough right? Surely no creative would want to attach their name to making drugs look more desirable—but where do you draw the line between acceptable and evil?

If you open up google maps, you can see a very clear wiggly line, viewable from all digital celestial crafts, defining where Russia starts and Finland finnishes (geddit?) That's fair enough, there is a clear line to show the divide between two binaries – in this case two countries – but who drew that line and if you were down at ground level, could you really identify that line so clearly?

It's all well and good saying that making tobacco desirable would be a disaster for your conscience, but do people really feel the same way about doing the same for alcohol? I'm not convinced they do.
I mean, they both hold roughly the same health benefits as each other; that benefits being less-than-zero.

I couldn't think of a studio in existence that would happily brand a strain of heroin but it's often a dream project to brand some new artisan high-caffine coffee brand, both are technically drugs but one is more acceptable because society views it differently. Heroin isn't a pleasant opiate and certainly hasn't aided many lives in it's time around this planet; but our coffee trade supports poverty exploitation, global warming and a lot of tax dodging so it's not really a saint either—looking at you Starbucks.

If we take Kalashnikov for example, they are the creator of the worlds most famous portable death machine, the AK47. Now like any business on earth they'll have branding and with a global trade to append to, they'll likely want strong, military grade branding at that. Someone has to do it, but that someone is creating the stamp of a murder weapon. Should they see the job as money to pay their bills or should they associate themselves all deaths produced by said items, due to being part of the process of purchase. Is the weapon any less grotesque to brand when seen as an item of liberation or freedom fighting than it does when an item of torture and horror?

The real question I'm asking is, do your morals actually matter? Surely they will to you, but if society saw certain things differently would your morals change, or should you just perceive yourself as a problem solver and make a disconnection between yourself and your final production?

For myself, I'd struggle to work with anything that stood against my morals, just as I think anyone else might—but lets not forget that what we perceive as evil right now, may be a lot more innocent in days to come. Remember cigarettes were once healthy and being gay was previously a choice.

The point I'm posing is, whether it's a pharmaceutical drug or the spoon-heated kind—why is one more acceptable than the other? It's a matter of perspective being upheld in an industry built upon objectivity; it seems just as bizarre as it does common sense.
I'm asking when is work wrong, or even if we should be the ones to judge what is wrong and what is not—are we to provide a service and cut ties with it or should we see ourselves responsible for the sale of every product embellished by our work?

I mean, I can imagine feeling very proud if my work helped a small cereal brand increase it's market share by 15% but I can't say I'd feel the same if it was firearms in the hands of dictators; but realistically would my design be the prime factor for this increase or would it just be part of it, or could I disassociate myself from being part at all? I did help, but I didn't create the product. Is that just pleading ignorance or perhaps a personal mindset—I didn't kill anyone, but I didn't stop it either.

Am I complicate to death, or just the bi-product of a global misjustice? Did I help the liberation front, or did I fill the eyes of someones last snapshot on earth? I only did the logo, right? I'm not sure really.

The question is when is work wrong? Do we hold ourselves accountable for creating desire in an object that would not desire ourselves or should we draw a line to allow the consumer of a product make their own mind up and create a distinction that you are creating the visuals for a person or company rather than desire for it's consumer. I personally stand by my own morals, but it's still a question whether in the world of work, that my morals really matter at all.

The graduate slump

So you've finished, you're free—now what? Incessant wallow and confusion, that's what!

pic unrelated – was titled slump, so I went with it

In 2016, the Walden Institute of Social Sciences recognised 'The Graduate Slump' as a natural post-graduate phenomenon—it's basic premise being a feeling of misdirection with freedom and accomplishment. The study followed a single subject through three months of graduate status, noting the visible effect determined by termination of formal education.

When formal education has been a constant in your life for 18 years, the completion of this structure is something that left me feeling a little dumbfounded. When your compass has always pointed true north to the top of the education tree and upon reaching that point you are now surveying the graduate landscape. To know which direction you should jump is certainly a task of which I'd never known the likes. It scared me a little.

Around me, I can see various friends with abudances of talent, given enough freedom to live a life without any. For me, I get a slight 'silver spoon' approach to this as I had a job lined up straight after graduation but I can see given 36 avenues of direction, choosing the correct and career inducing path is about as easy as cleaning a bag of chips off the floor before your mildly overweight labrador scoffs at least half.

All this freedom and indecision very quickly depreciates into a slump, a graduate slump. The feeling and mindset of great confusion hosted by all your achievements. Finding yourself sitting doing nothing because there is too much you can do; not seeing the woods for the trees, and every other cliché statement you can think of.

Freelance, Agencies, In-House, Murder? 

After escaping three years of immense pressure, pushing you towards your future—you are now stood knee-deep in the middle of the field, THE FIELD OF WORK!!!! IN THE FARM OF INDUSTRY!!! spooky.

Now you are thinking – Yes, I know this feeling. What should I do?

Well, honestly you shouldn't take your answers from me, but I'll give you some if you'd like it. I mean, you are taking advice from a disgruntled young fellows poorly curated internet blog, so perhaps you should really seek advice from someone else.

Just do something. Anything. It doesn't matter if it's shite, because if it is, so what.

The only way to stop yourself from not doing anything is to bloody well do something—make a dance to some terrible Abba B-Side, draw all over someones suburban property or set fire to your right leg whilst reciting Hippocrates in a slam poetry fashion. 

It doesn't matter what it is, just do something, put it on instagram, put it on a blog and reap in the moneyz boi. Or alternatively you could just do nothing—it's only £40,000 of debt after all.

Be an arsehole (a poem)

This is not based on an real life people, just people in general. A range of rhyming words to live by—you arsehole.

Most of the time you should be nice,

Most of the time it's really rather hard,

I see your emails of multiple 'minor' changes,

It's bloody 10pm you sloshing tub of lard.

This started out great,
I was even excited to begin,
The desk holds three beers,
One pasty, a litre of Gin.

I don't want to send a nasty email,
But I find it hard to resist,
It's later than I'd like to admit,
"One more thing" your email hissed.

How about bloody well no,
I can't make diamonds from your coal,
"Feck off, I'm going to sleep"
You get to sleep if you can be an arse with a hole.

It's not enough just to be an arse,
It's too common, in both the human and vole,
You might loose this job,
But you will get sleep this evening,
So pretty please,
Be an arsehole.

Pingu was an arsehole and he did alright.

There is no such thing as a female designer

Like The Jabberwocky or a working-class tory—Female Designers DO NOT exist.

I know what you are thinking, I've got ovaries and I'm a designer; or even shouting Paula Scher repeatedly at the top of your lungs. PAULA SCHER! PAULAAAA SCHERRRRRRR!

The point I'm making here is not that having XX chromosomes blocks you from using adobe software, but that in an industry developed through creativity we shouldn't accept that anyone who choses to follow the design career path is anything other than a designer.

It sounds a little counter intuitive but if you give me the chance, I'll explain myself to you. I think it's easier to understand that there is no such thing as a female designer when you analyse the last time you heard someone introduced to you as a male designer. This all stems from a debate that's been roaring for a while, but was ignited for me when Prince's touring band brought light to it, lit up by burning torches of anger and frustration.

3RDEYEGIRL were the band that toured with Prince until his recent death, and would you believe it that band holds no male members—which the media can't help but highlight. Rolling Stone reports Meet Prince's New All-Female Band just like ever other media source, of which none of them were lying at any point. But the issue here is something the band addressed themselves; why are they listed as all-female?

Why is that point noted? As if it's important that there are no male members in the band. I mean, how on earth could they have done so well being all-female, just female; they are women for goodness sake! It's vitally important that we note that women have achieve this on their own, they are female musicians of course, not musicians—being just musicians could mean they are also male, and clearly they are not male.

As illustrated by others, and now dissected by myself—there are no such things as female designers, they are the unicorns of the design industry. Female Typographers and Female Illustrators also don't exist, I'm quite sure.

I want to make it clear that any creative should not be defined by their gender, let alone labeled and assumed. Female Designers, are designers and have only the 'female' addition because it proves poignant to define that they are not the standard, they are not male—pointing the finger that by definition they could not compare to normal designers, pointing the finger to a male dominated industry.

You may hear the term 'We need feminism' or 'I need feminism' but I believe, if you are a human of this earth and just by chance you are a designer too, you need feminism because; no woman on earth walks up to another person and refers to herself as a Female Designer. So it's time others stopped doing so.

All Designers are Frauds!!!!1!!!1!!

"There is no such thing as originality anymore, so you might as well give up" Isaac Caplan-Wilson, 2016

My friend Isaac isn't known for mincing his words, and if there was ever a way to get straight to the point, he got the point, in a direct line and left trails of fire behind his sharp fiery tongue. Subtly was never a strong point in Ike's vocabulary.

If you disagree with that statement, then maybe you should have a look at the design around you; the witch-hunts and accidental rip offs that grab the heads of designers and submerge them into the deep water of internet hatred.

AirBnB, the Tokyo Olympics & Beats are all rip offs (accordingly) whether the creators knew about it or not and they deserve to hung drawn and quartered for their disservices to the world. But is it not just possible that eventually, within a couple of years that two different people could stumble upon the same solution for their design problem. I mean there are only so many solutions for companies that share industries and the same initials.

Théâtre de Liège vs Tokyo 2020#Tokyo2020 #ThéâtredeLiège #plagiat? pic.twitter.com/u64MpWBAI2

— Olivier Debie (@OliDebie) July 28, 2015

 Or perhaps these designers are straight up Snake Oil Salesmen, digging through endless design specimen books for a logo to directly copy and pass off as their own with complete ignorance of the truth, or perhaps they are just an unlucky sole at the brunt of an angry mob of internet 'experts'.

We'll likely never know the full truth of any of these cases, but it does seem true that there is no longer and originality in design, even without knowledge you are constantly copying someone else. You might as well unplug your computer, burn your sketchbooks and snap all your pencils—you'll forever be stumbling through the dark, standing on past designers toes whilst the public stand viewing through the double-sided mirror that is the internet, hurling educated abuse at each movement you make. You cretin.

So we have two possibilities; you accept you'll never be truly original and give up or you ignore everything that stands for and create your own originality. Look at it like a vegetable patch—you buy the seeds and you grow some carrots and you're bloody proud of those orange spear shaped vegetables because they didn't die and you got to eat them with your tea that night. You didn't create that plant, nor did invent the carrot but you did make them. You grew them, you watered them and you took care of them; they might look like every other carrot but you made them; they are your own originality.

If you think you are always producing completely original work in an industry that has existed as long as the mass printed page (see Gutenburg Bible) then you are a fraud, because there likely isn't much that hasn't already been done—so you need to create your own originality. It would be a fair argument to say that all design is fundamentally based on inspiration, thus making nothing truly original in the global sense. So I say to the (Isaac) you sir are both wrong and right, but wise but also ignorant. You are kind of like the bible; yeah, it's fantastic to 'Love your neighbour as yourself' but it's completely stupid to believe everything you have and have achieved is thanks to an ethereal spirit.

But as always, this is just my perspective on things. Just as someone can be a christian and follow the bible as a book of guidance and non-fiction, people can also believe that originality can no longer exist; which ironically they both seem as plausible to exist as each other to me. I mean, if we can fly through the air in a steel cylinder, send imagery and sound through an invisible network and observe galaxies that may have already destroyed themselves, I don't see why originality could no longer exist and a man on a cloud couldn't dictate my actions through this exact writing.

It's all a matter of perspective, knowledge and opinion m'dear. 

post-student_pricing_guide.pdf Vol. II (R.Scott Edition)

Pack it up, pack it in, let me begin. I came to win & nobody knows any more words than this, here's another volume of my pricing guide.

As you may have seen, I recently shared my thoughts on how you should price yourself or at least how you should think about pricing if you are new to this game—the game of pain. I honestly I thought I did quite well with that post and it seems that there is a general consensus that it wasn't all that bad too, but I find that without comment, without critique there is no way I can be happy with it. I guess I'm a bit of a masochist.

As always, good ol' Robbie Scott comes through for me, he drives right into my Facebook living room and lets me know exactly what he thinks and it should be obvious that this is something I respect—I can't be arsed to read between lines or figure out what someone really meant, I just want to know what they think.

He shared a few extra items that I should have considered and to me, they made a lot of sense. I didn't feel like these items should be merely added onto that said post, I thought that they were so well considered and planned that it deserved some recognition. It's not only Robbie that made comment on things that should be added, but his always seem to float from a a height of trail, pain and experience; despite only being a wee lad.

These things worth noting as contributed by Robbie Scott:

Set Your Rate

Even if you are not working by the hour, it helps for you set a price for certain items and processes.

"You need to have a base price which is the minimum value of your time which is non negotiable."

This helps you set your standing with any client, if they know their lowest – as do you – it's a easier process for pricing but also, it's a good indicator to how you regard yourself and your work. The client may never see your lowest rate but you'll know it and that will help your keep a strong chin when they want to try and slash £200 off the final price.

You are essentially paying your own wages

"A common mistake is taking a job which doesn't pay enough to cover your time and often post grads will end up paying themselves less than minimum wage and end up working 15 hour days."

A lot of times you'll think less of yourself when pricing and more of the client. You'll think—I can't charge that much! But realistically you are providing them with a service, they are hiring you because they cannot do it themselves; so as far as pricing is concerned, this is the time to be selfish.

Specialist Skills

When entering into any project, or pricing for anything you need to assess whether they are hiring you for anything that would require specialist skills; skills outside of your job title and outside of the standard brief. "for example photography, video, After Effects, retouching etc—you can also set a different rate for those skills."

Say you are designing a leaflet, but they also ask for you to sort the photography for them; that's another skill and process that you'll need to provide; this adds to the cost. You are basically removing the need for them to hire a photographer, so why should you do the job of two professionals at the cost of one.

Don't be taken for a mug and you'll keep Captain Scott happy. For which he clearly is.

Totally stolen from Facebook

Bad design isn't always bad

Pizza shops, hairdressers and newsagents—they all have terrible design. But is it really terrible?

Now, I won't be standing here trying to argue that their design is actually well done or that it's any good; but I do want to argue that bad doesn't mean bad. This is the point where you re-read what you've read and come back to here just as confused as before.

I want to put across to you, that those ugly looking and badly formatted signs you see on your drunken walk home are actually less bad than you might think. If you can put you mind into that post-pint state and see through the hangover haze, these simple designs were a beacon of hope and hunger for your self-inflicted weekend disabling.

The crisp, clear monogram might work in that posh restaurant but Papyrus is king in the Chinese take-away. There is comfort in the poorly designed, the visual ignorance if you like.

Raid any draw in your kitchen and you'll find a menu laden in poor colour choices teamed with a 'printers special' * logo, you'll see at least 6 fonts and it'll be barely readable—but Chicken Korma is clear enough, is it not?

Whether the designer of these logos, leaflets and signs is aware of it or not, they are creating a comfortable bad. Imagery that is simple enough to not exclude, intimidate or offend anyone. It's certainly not good design, thus is must be bad design—but this doesn't make it bad design. Understand? No? Me neither.

A photo posted by 📸 (@skyltbild) on Jul 23, 2016 at 4:04am PDT

Bad design isn't bad when it's in the right place. Mario's Pizza Shack doesn't need the NASA Brand Guidelines, it just needs to tell you it's going to infringe on Nintendo's copyright and sell you a reasonably priced Ham & Pineapple. It needs to be reliably shit, because you don't always fancy going to Pizza Express, sometimes you just want to boost your cholesterol on the sofa. y'know.

What I'm saying is, in some cases bad design isn't bad design; it's just badly designed which in turn makes it good design for the people looking for comfort in bad design. The people without preference in spotting good design or the people that are bad for spotting good design but made bad decisions with various good substances and now seek anything bad for them, usually under the banner of bad design—which we now know is good design because of how bad it is. Get it?

Perhaps bad design is only bad when it's not suited, it's bad not when it looks bad but when it's works badly. Let's look at it like it were maths, which perhaps is bad design on my behalf but who cares?

• Logo made by printers + Large corporate business = bad
• Crisp, strong logo + Large corporate business = good
• Logo made by printers + Local takeaway = good
• Crisp, strong logo + Local takeaway = bad (if done too well)

If you are now looking back and feel that you disagree with me, then feel free to cry in a corner. Because you can clearly see that Snoop agrees with me, and if you think Snoop is wrong then you better check yourself. Love Vincent x

* a printer's special is a logo created by a printing company. It's a derogatory term I made up today to describe a particular genre of branding. "Oh are those your new leaflets?" "Yes, they were really cheap! They even designed my logo for me." "Wow! That's a printer's special if ever I saw one"

a_mildly_educated_post-student_pricing_guide.pdf

Every creative student on earth has the same issue—"how the fuck do I price my work?"

See that GIF above? Well that could be you, rolling in the money—even if you aren't an Indian lady! (mad right?) It just requires you run over a couple of steps through your head and don't sell yourself short; even though it seems very fair to do so at the time.

Preface: Almost every creative subject studied at university will cover the chance for you to get some freelance work and unfortunately almost every single subject is not respected as 'real work'.

Every man and his dog would love branding for his god-awful business, every millennial wants illustration on their walls and for some reason everything needs a website now-a-days. See here.

The only problem is, the majority sees these as 'non-essential' and don't really want to part cash with something they reckon they "could do themselves". Every early creative knows this in the back of their mind and the majority of clients know it too. They know you don't have the piece of paper that says BA(Hons) yet, so it's fair game as far as they're concerned.

So lets me share a couple of tips with you, to help you understand how to price yourself.

Freelance doesn't mean free of charge: This seems really REALLY obvious right? WRONG!

I haven't really encountered it myself but there is a large percentage of people that will see the word free and instantly assume the above.

Exposure doesn't buy beers: "This would be great exposure for you!"

Yeah man, a logo I designed hanging above your estate agents without any credit to myself will be great for my career—hey, let me do this for free for that privilege!

NO x 1000 – It might work well in my portfolio, but I could just create any logo ever, for my portfolio, so this is not a valid outcome. Pay me or leave me.

Charities, non-profit and work without pay: When it comes to work of this sort you need to ask yourself two questions.

Did whomever is asking for free work approach you or did you approach them? It's a question or morals really. If they approached you, they are looking for free work and will likely be a nightmare to work with. If you approached them, then you are offering a service with gratitude. 

And secondly Does the person you are creating work for get paid for this? if they are getting paid from your hard work, then you've been ripped off—but if they aren't being paid and you two are both working payment free, then perhaps you are just being helpful.

Working by the hour: A difficult choice, with no real easy answer.

If you are an illustrator or artist alike, don't you dare think about working by the hour; whereas with design you can justify working by the hour because it's easier to predict the time it might take to do most jobs, especially if you've done them before.

With that said, I suggest you avoid doing so if you can. Use it as an idea for pricing but don't hing on working by the hours unless you've got a solid contract that allows for changes and cancellations.

Rights, terms and usage: Though you might not have thought about it too much—where, how and how long the work you are creating will be used, changes how you should price it.

Student doesn't mean cheap: You might not know everything but that doesn't mean you aren't the right person for the job; don't allow yourself to get into the mindset of 'I'm a student, so this is too much' though, I got my main freelance experience producing posters for £20 each. My time and work was worth more than this, but they were so frequent that the learning from the work was worth the sacrifice in money. It's a difficult decision but I reckon you might know when you see one. 

You're worth more than you think: No explanation needed.

The PPP: (Practical Pricing Process)

Guideline Prices

• Student £10 per hour
• Graduate £15 per hour

Use these as guidelines to raise your price, lower your price or estimate a cost without working by the hour. I am not an expert but I find whenever anyone else does one of these they don't actually talk figure so it doesn't help any one. It's worth considering that you may want to reduce these figures if you are doing work that you aren't knowledge on or raising it if it's work that you are confident with.

Time

• A long deadline? Lucky you! (+0%)
• A short deadline (+10%)

Do you have years or minutes?
If you have a long time you needed price for extra hours, it just means you have more time to ponder and return to it; but on the other hand if you have nearly no time at all the complete the project, then you need to raise that price because you are making it priority number one.

Client

• Local Business (+0%)
• Large Business (+10%)
• Charity or Non-Profit (-20%) Just to be nice

When pricing it's best to understand who you are pricing for and how this will effect the work you produce. If it's a local business it might just go in their window, but if it's a larger company it could go on billboards and be circulated for years.

Costs

• Are you printing?
• Do you need to buy anything for the client or the project?

Don't cut yourself short, if you need 200 meters of silk to complete the project, make sure to add the cost of that alongside the pricing of the work.

Changes

Changes take time, time costs.

When pricing make sure to allow time and costs for changes; but be lenient. It's okay to allow three changes but when it comes to changes everyday, adding extra items or changing the whole project—you need to price accordingly. THIS IS IMPORTANT because the client will not always see things the way you do and is best outlined in the contract.

Contracts

It seems cold, but there is little to no reason to not work with a contract with your client. It gives you both security with the work and lets you know where you both stand.

Deposit

• Under £100 (No Deposit)
• £100 – £400 (33%)
• £500 + (50%)

Deposits allow safety on both sides. If the client drops out you haven't lost hours without pay and vise versa the client knows you aren't just going to drop out on them. It also means you can survive whilst working on the project.

Disclaimer: Though I have done my fair share of Freelance, I've only been doing this for three years so take my words as a guideline more than anything. You'll know when you see the worth which of these apply and which don't. You'll under sell yourself and you'll get screwed over—this happens to everyone.

You'll lose work and you won't always get it right. The hardest part of being a creative is being paid for it (until you hit the big leagues) so stick at it!

Political Types

When you vote, you vote for the manifesto, the policies and not the person—or at least you should. Usually this doesn't go to plan and political parties are clicking onto this; with politicians becoming more of a brand than a person.

Trump gets it

Think of any brand you know, any brand you love—it has a particular typeface doesn't it?

Because words are how we decode the information around us, with fonts making the visual representation for all words around us. Typefaces and Fonts are the core for almost any branding structure, developing a sense of warmth, trust or safety in a brand; this is exactly why politicians embrace them so heavily.

Imagine Donald Trump's full campaign set in the god awful Amatic – which I've secretly used before – that wouldn't allow much trust his loyal minions. Trump is a man that sets his words in BOLD and SERIF because clearly he's strong and traditional, right? I mean, there aren't strictly any fonts that print Xenophobia that well.

Trump mostly sets his punchy messages in Akzidenz-Grotesk BQ Bold Extended a strong favourite of mine and the original G when it comes to sans-serifs. In the world of typography this font holds more weight that Trumps campaign in the swamps of Mississippi—described as The Snob's Helvetica by a certain Andrew Byrom.

And when he's not shouting that we should save veterans or build walls, he wants to inform you that he is the best way to make America Great Again! in a mix match of every font available to his small fingers. I can't quite nail down exactly which one because sometimes it's FF Meta and other times it Times New Roman but it's always with a fauxed sense of traditionalism and knowledge.

On the other hand, we have a black man. Barack Obama.

Just as he ends his term in office, he retires a surprisingly strong branding system backed with a spine built upon Gotham—a strong, alternative, modern sans typeface. For the man rising through the ranks, beating racism down with a strong manifesto and a highly notable wife; it couldn't be more fitting that the right font for the job shares the same name of the crime ridden metropolis that Bruce Wayne keeps in order. If you haven't got it yet, I'm comparing Obama to Batman—the original alternative hero.

Things are no different here in Britain either; we have strong branding for the innovators and we also have idiots hiding behind warm branding. 

But what if someone changed up  the formula, for good or for bad; made a politician as local, friendly, modern and relatable as they all try to be? What if someone who did this was someone I can't shut up about, someone I've spent good amounts of time with? What if they were Swedish? What if this was done by PJADAD?

C'mon you had to have seen this coming.

They saw it coming

In 2009, when I was merely a young boy (15) PJADAD was working hard creating a political branding system; for the CUF (Centerpartiets ungdomsförbund). A system aimed at the youth of Sweden, it employed comical noses, bright greens and as always a strong sand-serif. They described their system as a trojan horse, working it's way into not just displaying the political party but creating a link between voter and politician, a unifying item.

With the green nose supporting a clear link to the wild and colourful branding of the party, it was a clear sign that someone supported the party and when worn created a sense of obvious unity in ideology, like a trainspotters badge collection or a memorial poppy.

The idea of obvious unity of thought isn't new but is effective; even Trump caught onto this one.

You know them Swedes know whats up.

I know this final bit has nothing to do with their choice of typeface, but although type was a prominant part of my message here it's not the whole story. All these politicians chose to represent themselves through various typefaces because of the connotation of the imagery of their words. PJADAD's branding was no different but instead of the typeface being the masthead for their communication they used relative humour and human connection.

Their use of typeface for brand reinforcement and the development of a clear visual connotation both proves and disproves my point. Their words display who they are, but the visual link their followers embrace defines what they see.

Stranger Things are happening

It seems that the world is currently mad for another TV show; but their are Stranger Things at work with this one. (geddit?!!!)

It may be 2016 but it seems that the whole world is obsessed with the 1980's, fairy lights and quite strangely, a Parisian 'Art Nouveau' serif. As is always with TV show trends, I try to distance myself from them, as although I don't doubt that it makes for great watching, I just don't feel that need to fit into the current 'hype' for whatever is currently exciting and 'life changing'.

I've seen Game of Thrones come and go and I watched Breaking Bad about 4 years after everyone forgot about it—through all these shows I could see people sharing excitement, screen caps and theories on how the plot might pan out; drawing in everyone's interest like a Netflix Blackhole. This is how those shows exist and how their popularity grows, to which Stranger Things is no different. I know of it's existence because of my friends and I feel a sense of recognition when I see that lovely type appear.

The point I have here is, you likely came to this post because you saw the title-card in the thumbnail, or read the name in that font we've all come to know so well. This show has flipped the standard hype train on it's head. Nobody is sharing images on Winona Ryder, they all want a bit of that sexy lettering. They all want their name to look like it's just burst out of an original Lucas Arts production.

Everywhere I look I can see peoples names, business and mottos spelt out in a soft glowing serif—ITC Benguiat to be specific. It seems that every word looks pretty in this lettering style and as hard as I try, I just cannot make it look ugly. Even the ugliest phrase I could think of still looked pretty swell. (see below)

I couldn't think of a more ugly sentence than this

The reason why I'm waling on about this is because it's a massive change in the market to see fans resonating with a typeface; with lettering rather than  a character, an actor or various quotes. From day to day everyone sees typefaces and has their own favourite and least-favourite fonts whether they study design or not; but this little piece ingenious branding has captivated the average person to lust over type like I've never seen before.

It's not everyday you see the world obsessing over typefaces, looking at letterforms like beautifully crafted structures—just how I see them. It's a fine and dandy moment when you see great design become recognised, but when the design is just right and it captures the ideals of all the gleaming eyes of the Netflix audience; it's a real thing of beauty. 

Promotion for a TV show doesn't often hinge so strongly on a typeface alone, but with a bit of effort, some talented designers and what looks like really strong script writing; the world could care that little bit more about type design.

We're going through changes

Remember that terrible cover Ozzy did with his daughter? Yeah I wish I could forget.

Well as shite as it is, it's poignant to what I'm trying to convey. As Ozzy so shamelessly tells us from his ornate arm chair, 'we're going through change-eee-ereees', once again reiterated by a melancholy Kelly; what a lovely blog post this is shaping up to be ey?

Well, we are going through changes and as a recent graduate none more than myself. As a side result of these changes, this blog and my work are feeling the chain reaction of these movements.

When I started this blog, it was way before university under recommendation of my cousin and was just a proving ground for me to start confidently analysing and critiquing my own work, despite the fact it was all around the same quality as Trump's political campaign.

Upon reaching university, I grabbed my defibrillators and shocked this blog back into action; using it as a platform to display the work I was producing weekly in university and the bits of freelance I was doing on the sides. This worked as a solid formula for me—I could share, destroy, praise and laugh at my work; alongside post random crap every now and then.

Now, as I've changed I've realised this needs to change with me. No longer can I just post works in progress or the second I've completed them. I'm still working at the same rate of production I always have been, but now, the work I create has copyright issues and would likely upset employees if I was debuting them before they could. You can likely agree it's become a much trickier field than before when I could just whack something on paper and share it with you all.

Along with the rules of the work changing, the actual content I wanted to post changed too. I found as I read more, I wanted to write more and with an ever growing footing in the design industry I no longer needed to post every piece of work in hopes of scoring myself future projects. I found I liked arguing with the status quo, I liked pissing all over Helvetica and I've loved the conversations I started in response to my words. Shoutout to Robbie Scott – my friendly devil's advocate.

Couldn't find a suitable GIF so have a hip-hop reference

Now I've listed every possible variable, every change and everything ever; let's look at how this works for me. As everything changes arounds me, it's only suiting for me to adapt—design has never stood still and anyone that twiddles their thumbs at last years 'trends' is quite likely to fall off the train. Arriving at my door this week was my degree certificate; my poorly signed, soon-to-be-framed ticket to the train of multidisciplinary momentum.

As far as I can tell, design has never changed but it's always in constant development. All the concepts are the same and it's always going to stand to be a mixture between concept and visualisation; art for a purpose if you will. The point with highlighting these changes is to shine the light in the face of the obvious, nearing future. 

I've always described myself as a sponge, and changing has just become nature when it's part of your fibre; your learning and existence. I want to change this blog's platfrom, it's contents and it's structure—this might just happen but for the moment it's just part of the whirlwind that is my leap into a post-graduate existence. It's like hyper-puberty for full grown creative adults.

Strawberry Ice Cream

At 05:10am, 26th of July 2016 – my grandfather Geoff 'Gromps' Walden passed away.

My grandfather is Strawberry Ice Cream. His dessert of choice. His memory.

For a couple of years his health has been on  my mind as he dipped in and out of hospital with various ailments—all the visits making me weaker and undoubtedly him weaker, but he stuck on in there until Tuesday morning, when he passed away surrounded by his family. 85 years & 4 days old.

My grandfather is Strawberry Ice Cream. Everyone knows this flavour and I've never met anyone that doesn't like it—it's humble in it's existence but solid in it's standing. The flavour isn't over the top and despite being kept in the freezer; it's surprisingly warming. It's impossible to be sad with a bowl of it, sat in front of you, looking up at you so pleasantly. My grandfather wasn't just any Strawberry flavoured frozen cream dessert, oh no. He was the Carte D'or kind that you'd always have in the house, but only gave to the people you really really liked.

As a designer, I know you could package Ice Cream however you like. You could emboss the tub, drown it in colour and make it any exciting shape, but why? My grandfather didn't come in a tub, what you saw was what you got. He didn't need to be packaged to be loved, he was just himself and that was more than we could have ever asked for. Perhaps when he started to deteriorate, an outer packaging to hold him together would have been helpful, but he exists without superficiality and that's the man he was.

Just like the strawberry flavour he was straight to the point; you'd ask "You ordered a Chicken Basket? What's that then?" – and after a short pause – "Chicken in a basket" he'd reply. He never climbed Everest and he never made it to the Moon but what does that matter? He taught me how to tie my shoe laces with a wooden clog he has crafted in his shed just that afternoon. Eat your heart out Armstrong.

Being a Designer, I look at everything in my world from that perspective, and rightfully so because however you look at it—everything on this earth has been designed. I can design a logo, I can design a website and I can design a typeface but I couldn't design my life. I got given this man by chance, by conception and without knowing it, the one bit of design that I couldn't influence is likely one of the most important design choices I ever encountered.

My grandfather is Strawberry Ice Cream, he is one of billions of flavours worldwide, but he changed my world, he made me happy and he'll never leave me for as long as I live. He can go on offer, he can melt but he'll never cease to exist. That is the beauty of his existence. I love you Gromps.

The latest greatest hiatus status

It's been about two weeks and a couple of days since I last posted anything, and it's been niggling me constantly since.

Problem was, I didn't know what to write about. It's not so much writers block as much as it was overkill. I went to London, did freelance, died in the heat, went home cried about my grandfather and missed a friend. I did so much that when it came to sitting down to write, it felt both tired and redundant to do so. But I've smashed that chain, broken through the wall and now I'm here again; did you miss me?

I thought instead of being angry about something, I'd let you know what had happened to me over the latest greatest hiatus status. Potat-ers. Well, let me tell you, I've done things. Yeah. Things.

I'll try break this down chronologically—probably the best way to tackle this.

Early July, I was down in London for New Designers 2016, exhibiting my wares and selling myself to the corporate big wigs of London. It was as hot as it was busy, standing there in a sweaty t-shirt, right in the centre of Islington's Business Design Centre. We had air conditioning (unlike many other exhibitors) and even then it was still a rather unpleasant existence.

Have you ever tried to convince someone they should pay you for freelance work whilst your back perspires like a dog in a hot car. I could feel my shoulder blades panting as I shuck hands with the head of humour for Hallmark; quite ironically it was almost the kind of thing you'd expect to see on one of those newspaper cartoon cards that they so heavily produce.

There I was, for a 5 days of the week, stood with sandpaper business cards in my hand and sweat patches bigger than my ambitions. Somehow this worked; I was in contact and in demand by quite a few people to my absolute surprise. I mean, I'm confident in my work and myself but heck, when half the room thinks you went for an armpit-only dip in the sink, it's a little difficult to be 100%.

Aside from this, Universal Music, Moonpig, Hallmark, River Island & Amazon didn't seem to mind at all. These companies, alongside two or three others wanted to speak with me, see my portfolio and care that I existed—it was a lovely surprise. But here's the issue.

All these people were interest in me and my work, but none wanted to commit. I liked and loved the people I spoke to, I found great interest in their opportunities but they all had one thing in common; placements. I went to London on the hopes of grasping at some southern freelance work, but everyone I spoke to had a different idea. They didn't want to give me a contract, nor did they want to give me a brief; they wanted me to come work with them for a set period of time instead.

This isn't a loss at all, but as a graduate it's exactly what I don't want. I've been through two placements already, even one in Sweden; so now, after 18 years of education, I'd kind of just like to be paid. Don't get me wrong, some were paid placements but they still aren't actually a job.

This is an issue that I think doesn't sit with the companies but the industry and it's graduates. Everyone is so excited to fit into the industry that they'll take almost any path into it they can, and big businesses have caught onto this. They know they can cycle through multiple fresh graduates each year, every year. End cycle, begin again.

As a graduate, the one thing you have over all middlewieght and senior designers is that you are fresh. You have just come out of the showroom and your polish is shining brightly in sun—your ideas are different and you are right on trend, finger on the pulse; counting as each movement passes you by. If someone hired you, they'd have new blood, new ideas and a whole different way of approaching projects and this is your highest selling point!

So imagine you are a big business. Fresh ideas, for little money on constant rotation would be the dream right? Backed up by senior designers that can apply these new ideas to solid visuals and concepts; that's the dream. Well if you don't give anyone a fixed contract, don't offer freelance but hand out placements like cigarettes in the 50's, then that's exactly what you'll get.

I am very grateful for the offers and interest I received but unfortunately like every other graduate this year, I'm in more debt that I can deal with and I'd kind of hope that this banking stranglehold and three years of back breaking hard work, that I could sort of pay my bills this month. Please? 

P.s. Remember just after that wicked cool GIF I said "instead of being angry about something" Yeah, me too. Sorry, I'm just a terrible keyboard warrior. Love Vin x