If you are used to whipping off papers the night before they’re due, running them quickly through the computer’s spellchecker, handing them in full of high-school errors and sentences that make no sense and having the professor accept them, “because the ideas are good,” please be informed that I draw no distinction between the quality of one’s ideas and the quality of those ideas’ verbal expression, and I will not accept sloppy, rough-draftish, or semiliterate college writing. Again, I am absolutely not kidding.

— David Foster Wallace

If only every company had a John Nack. If only every company allowed their employees to comment openly and honestly on their different offerings.

Nack’s appraisal of Adobe’s shortcomings in Notes from Adobe Installer Management is worth noting as a piece of honest and open corporate communication rarely seen in this day and age.

It’s refreshing to see two Adobe Engineering Managers responding to criticism and, better still, inviting feedback from consumers. In particular seeing a Senior Director of Engineering and Program Management stating: “I am the one to whom to direct your issues, concerns and questions (I have included my contact info at the end of this note). … If you send me your contact information, I will be happy to call you up to discuss in person. I very much appreciate your direct feedback as it is what helps us make better products.”

This is the way to build loyalty – start a conversation, see where it heads and respond accordingly.

Nack states that he has the following quotation pinned to his door, designed to, “help keep [his] eye on the ball about what really matters in [his] job”:

When Alexander the Great visited Diogenes and asked whether he could do anything for the famed teacher, Diogenes replied, “Only stand out of my light.” Perhaps some day we shall know how to heighten creativity. Until then, one of the best things we can do for creative men and women is to stand out of their light.

— John W. Gardner

Wise words indeed.

When you constrain a form, you can often broaden what people can do with it.

— Paul Constant

For once a strapline that doesn’t under-deliver: The ultimate resource in grid systems.

Courtesy of Antonio Carusone, the creator of the excellent AisleOne¹, The Grid System is an inspiring resource that’s well worth bookmarking. Minimally crafted typography coupled with a restrained, yet striking, grid meet well-researched content that results in an indispensible tool for the discerning designer.

The Josef Müller-Brockmann quote in the header underlines Malcolm Gladwell’s observation² that practice makes perfect:

The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee. It permits a number of possible uses and each designer can look for a solution appropriate to his personal style. But one must learn how to use the grid; it is an art that requires’practice.

— Josef Müller-Brockmann

Practice makes perfect.