FUNNY LOOKING
Twelve designers were asked what design was making them laugh lately. Sadly, their answers didn’t encompass that much design.
• The new Mac commercials (“Hi, I’m a Mac”)
• Chip Kidd’s cover for Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs
• Saul Bass’ credit sequence from Around the World in 80 Days
• Sean Adams’ AIGA Los Angeles poster promoting a lecture
with Dana Arnett
• America (The Book), designed by Pentagram
• Martin Parr
• Anything by Christoph Niemann
• Graphic design websites with the cheesy intros with words flying
by: “Smart Creativity,” “High Impact Branding,” “We Work Hard and Play Hard,” “Solutions that Work,” “Strategic Thinking,” “Challenge Our Thinking,” “Inspired Strategy,” and “Innovative Brand Building.” Especially funny when there’s a little ™ next to those sentences.
• The artwork of Jim Riswold. He was making these huge cakes for fascist dictators in history. Total genius.
• The British illustrator Paul Davis
• Rick Valicenti’s “Suburban Maul” photo illustrations where he put the logos of box stores on McMansions
• Can’t really think of anything
• Christoph Niemann
• Christoph Niemann
• Dot Dot Dot
• Weird graphic vs. human juxtapositions: a 6-foot, 300-lb. woman wearing a tight, pink T-shirt that says “Baby Girl” in sparkly script on it; a shirt that said “I’m still angry about my parent’s divorce,” which would be funny on a 30-year-old, but it was on a 13- year-old.
• Someone on the street in the East Village recently handed me a button that read “Ban Republican Marriage”

BRINGING BACK THE LAUGH
Despite an industry that might not be in on the joke, these designers continue to weave wit into nearly every aspect of their work—and they’re having more fun doing it, too. Consider these keys to designing humorously when planning your 2007 fiscal calendar. Whip out the whoopee cushion, and get ready for one hilarious year.

1. GET SERIOUS ABOUT YOUR CLIENTS
OK, so you have a client list that’s heavy on the dental equipment suppliers. I know what you’re going to say—humor won’t work for them. But even the most banal of clients could benefit from a playful logo or a semi-entertaining annual report. If not, it’s your job to find some new ideas. “I would probably have stopped doing my job if I didn’t feel that there’s a fair chance that my clients appreciate my jokes,” says Niemann. “But nonetheless, every day I have to spend a good amount of time being a humor-lawyer and argue, nitpick, and . ght for every little aspect of a metaphor or punchline.” “It is all about relationships,” says Victore. “We need to work with the right clients who have the same goals as we do. We pick them and, if the relationship goes bad, we fire them. And hopefully they have a sense of humor about it.” Victore especially looks for clients who can help him spread his messages of political and social change. That doesn’t mean that he can’t use humor, either. In fact, two recent exhibitions of political posters, Design of Dissent and The Graphic Imperative, showed the heaviest topics of all—racism, 9/11, AIDS—being tackled (and toppled) with graphic wit. If these clients can benefit from serious humor, so can yours.

2. DESIGN COMEDIC PRODUCTS
In our gruesome postmodern quest to be entertained, our senses of humor have become complicated. The 1995 laughs, or even the 2003 laughs, just aren’t doing the trick for our overdigitized lifestyles. So if visual puns and one-off ads don’t make us laugh, what does? Designers are designing in context more than ever, which means the truest design wit is embedded in the process of rebuilding familiar visual tropes—the joy of mimicking, spoofing, and parodying. The delightfully witty products of Blue Q, many concepted and designed by Modern Dog, continue to keep us laughing with their dead-on references of pop culture—but is it the idea or the look that’s funnier? America (The Book) was named by several designers as an example of hilarious design, yet when Pentagram took this project on, Paula Scher has said, it was not due to its graphic potential but “in service of the joke.” Sam Potts has designed several pieces on the Dave Eggers/ McSweeney’s end of the laugh spectrum and deciphers the difference between that breed of visual humor and regular design wit. “The broader McSweeney’s humor is entirely content-based, not design driven,” Potts says. “There’s nothing funny or even terribly original (sorry, Dave) about the fundamental McSweeney’s journal or design. Garamond 3: not really very funny. The writing is everything.” Eureka! You’re funny by association.

3. ADAPT BRITISH HUMOR
Now that we’ve remade their reality television shows (American Idol) and their fake reality television shows (The Office), isn’t it time we visually reappropriate their perplexingly understated sense of humor? I spoke with two British designers, who actually agree that British designers are better at using humor. “Massive generalization, of course, but I would say yes,” says Clive Piercy of Ph.D, who opened his practice in the U.S. (no doubt to appear funnier in context). “English people are good at self-deprecation. An almost totally alien concept over here.”

In fact, looking at the humor of any other culture will likely provide that spark of perspective sure to give your design an esoteric kick in the pants (I recommend watching Japanese game shows). British people just happen to be the funniest. “Wars have started over smaller questions than that!” says Greg Quinton of the UK firm The Partners. “But yes. I think that may just be the scale thing, it’s much easier for us—we know our small audience so much better.” Knowing your audience? Now that’s a trend that should wash over this country like Earl Grey tea. Rent Monty Python DVDs.

4. DRAW FROM EXPERIENCE
The world’s funniest designer is Christoph Niemann. He’s best known for his New Yorker covers and his 100% series (Princeton Architectural Press), books of fiendishly clever drawings by he and partner-in-crime Nicholas Blechman. Almost every funny designer interviewed for this piece pointed to Niemann as the graphic wit king. Even though he calls himself an illustrator, Niemann is single-handedly holding down the funny end of design. “I wish people would always laugh at my jokes,” says Niemann. “Good illustration is supposed to make you laugh, cry, think, or whatever the situation requires. Illustration has this ‘funny reputation,’ but a lot of the best illustrations are quite the opposite of funny.” Beyond adding random scribbles and animated creatures to all your design work, use illustration as a model. Use it for the get in/get out jokes, the perfect interaction between words and visuals, and the ability to poke fun at the world around you. Illustration works as an icebreaker, says Victore. “I think its purpose, for the most part, seems to be the ‘teaspoon of sugar’ effect.”

5. MANUFACTURE YOUR OWN SICK JOKE
If design’s current state doesn’t provide much room for fun, drop everything and turn to personal projects: namely, designing for a specific audience where you can be sure to control who’s buying into your charm. Several designers pointed toward product design as the only place design humors them anymore, especially witty housewares, which have dominated the market with their gentle visual jabs. “I find the giggles, guffaws, and moments of enjoyment come more often in 3D, where architecture, furniture, and product design enjoy playing with our expectations physically,” says Quinton, who points to a porcelain milk carton by Jatta Lavi.

“Philippe Starck seems to only take on projects where he can indulge his cheeky personality,” says Piercy. “The most beautiful thing that I’ve seen recently, and felt compelled to own, was a set of flatware by Marc Newson, who took the generic plastic knife, fork, and spoon, and the most generic paper plate [with the fluted edge] and reproduced them in bone china. Perfection. Spectacular.”