Craig Oldham - Blogs - Good or Bad?

I emailed Craig Oldham asking him the same few question's about Blogs.

Although he took a while to reply, due to how busy he was, I was most grateful when he sent me the e-mail with the answer's to my question's in.

Question's and Answer's;

1. Would you recommend that students produce a blog? If so why?

There's no right or wrong answer here as it depends on what the blog would be.I see the blog as an opportunity for expression, whether expression in creativity, practice or theory, but what I don't see the blog as is an opportunity for show and tell. If you want to show and tell then get a website, not a blog.

So, if a student was going to have a blog it should be to promote their personal and creative development and not simply link to other peoples work that they think is cool and will then subsequently imitate. Not that I think linking is bad, on the contrary it can be very good, just as long as the reasoning behing the link is critical in approach and expression, saying why they like something and equally why they don't. 

When it comes to putting their own work on blogs this again should be to add something to the work or give the student the chance to review, summarise and reflect on the design work they have undertaken. It should become a critical examination in an honest account of what is good, what is bad, and what, in hindsight, one might change. Then the often simpler of tasks—putting a finished project to the world—will improve you as a designer, forcing you to reflect on your work.

2. A lot of students aren't safe with putting there design's up on blogs due to the idea getting stolen. What would your opinion be on this?

Being honest and frank, as I can only be, I find this idea to be ludicrous.

Students are all too concerned about ownership of ideas, who came up with what, and who takes credit for that. The majority of this is irrelevant within education. Design isn't a solitary exercise and every designer should share their ideas with other creatively minded people, they should seek criticisim of their work not praise to further their development. Sure, some people are influenced by ideas, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

In terms of the close quarters of education, if your idea is stolen, it become obvious to everyone that it has been so I wouldn't worry. Take the moral high ground.

If you don't get your work out there then what's the point? Peter Saville says, "Graphic Design is for others, to others" so if you keep your work in the closet then you're not really a Graphic Designer.

3. People see blogs as a way to publicize themselves and there work, but a lot of blogs don't get a lot of hits, so what should the purpose of a blog be?

I think I covered that in my rant on question one, but to try and expand, I think they should be 'interested'. Now that's not a grammatical error, I meant to say interested and not interesting. People that think they are interesting are almost always not. People who are interested in things become enthusiastic, and enthusiasm is personal which makes someone interesting. Which rounds nicely to me saying that you should be critically interested in things which will develop you.

4. Finally, what's one positive and negative about having a blog?

Good: if used right, becomes a development tool, similar to a diary.

Bad: everybody has one, and anybody can get one.