The Blog

I read Problem Solved a year or so back and I still find myself dropping back into it now and again to read over certain chapters. It explores ‘problem solving’ in design through a variety of chapters which include the titles “The Nothing Shocks Me” and “The Nobody Reads Anymore” problems for example. It gives the reader useful advice on how to deal with problems that are inherent in many briefs making the book a continually useful resource. Johnson provides an informative discussion with many design examples that often aren’t well known award winners but instead are just good simple pieces of design that we can all appreciate and relate to. Overall I found the book engaging, well written and a useful resource for information on the design, advertising and marketing fields.

On completing 1984 I consider it to be a very interesting and engaging novel. At first I felt confused by elements of the plot detail but when I realised that this was intentional on Orwell’s part in order to help the reader empathise with and relate to the main character who is himself confused by the world he lives in I enjoyed the steady and systematic release of information and explanations.

I can’t help but feel at a loss though that I could not read this at its time of publish in 1949 as I feel that the impact of the novel must have been so much greater in its contemporary climate as after the elation of the defeat of Germany, to be presented with such a bleak future offers few prospects and would be both disheartening and believable in conjunction the the current climate.

1984 is a well crafted and well written novel that I will try to remember and draw from with regards to copy writing, creation of empathy and systematic information release (almost like a teaser campaign) within my own work. Up till now I have looked at other examples of copy writing from advertising and design and have not considered literature as a source of inspiration. Not because I didn’t consider it worthy, but simply because it didn’t occur to me as I do not often read a lot of novels.