Why Design Jack

Occasionally I get emails to me at martin@designjack.co.uk that begin with Hello Jack. A reasonable mistake, I think, but one that makes me think I should explain the name I use as a designer.

I think the design bit is pretty much understood. Jack was used in middle English to refer to a man whose name isn't known, or perhaps doesn't matter. In nautical terms, the jack was an unskilled seaman on old sailing ships, the expendable doer of work – hence Jack of all trades.

So, carefully back tracking for a moment, it doesn't mean I'm unskilled, but is rather a reference to the idea that design is a back ground trade (for the most part). As a designer, I work to make your project communicate with its audience, look attractive, be usable, rather than for my name of glory. It is an acknowledgement of myself as a worker rather than an artist.

...the great thing about graphic design is that it is almost always about something else. Corporate law. Professional football. Art. Politics. Robert Wilson.
...Not everthing is design. But design is about everything.

Michael Beriut,
Warning: May Contain Non-Design Content
in Seventy-nine Short Essays on Design
(Princeton Architectural Press, 2007