News & Ideas.

The traditional 64-page, full color printed Annual Report stands at an interesting junction. On one hand, the Annual Report is an excellent device to inform company shareholders of their intelligent investment. On the other, it often takes more than 64 glossy pages to convince investors, institutional or individual, that their hard-earned dollars were put to good use — especially when corporate earnings don’t exactly beat analysts’ expectations. Certainly, company profits could be spent more wisely than printing these 64 pages, thousands of times.

What to wear, what to wear… Most professionals habitually ask themselves this deceivingly simple question each and every weekday morning. It’s a valid question, with a solution usually made infinitely easier by looking for helpful cues around the workplace; construction workers throw on jeans and work boots, accountants select between a black or blue suit, and nurses slip into their scrubs. Graphic designers, on the other hand, have had a difficult time throughout history defining an appropriately unique look, and have, for the most part, resorted to inheriting the fashion trends of other professions. In an industry whose practitioners solve complex visual problems on a daily basis, it might come as a surprise that the most perplexing visual problem is what to put on before heading to work. Even so, designers remain undoubtedly confused when it comes to personal attire, and this isn’t simply a problem of individual identity; evidence suggests the dress code conundrum has been an underlying crisis for an entire occupational demographic since graphic design’s inception.