Some words from "Old School"

I'm currently freelancing at an Ad Agency and I had a discussion with a Senior Creative Director about layout and design.

The following monologue was something like this: "There is too much shitty design out there. The problem is no body wants to learn because they know everything already. They go to "Portfolio Factories" and they develop a style, and they come in here and look at their book. This is a menu, this is an ad for oil change, this is letter head. If they have enough different kinds of pieces, they all look they same even though they are all used for different customers and markets. Why? Because they have developed a style, but haven't learned the fundamentals of design. Design is a science: placement, balance, color and typography will always work, but todays New School is about breaking boundaries for the sake of breaking them, and it's sloppy and bad. I can tell at a glance whether that ad was done by a new school or an old school person.

I think that a particular style is sign that the artist has found a comfortable niche, but from there refuses to grow and and will stagnate.

Advertising is different from Fine Art. You do need an eye for aesthetic detail, but you aren't trying to capture the essence of a subject. You are trying to make your client happy, and for that you need to take yourself out of the equation, throw personal style away and have the ability do many different kinds of styles, whatever it takes to get the job done.

I was thinking to myself, maybe they should have monthly meetings where the old guys teach the new guys, and the suits the basic principles of design as refreshers. They can have beer and snacks.