May 17
Illustration
Wow, here's a new low...
The Dallas Mavs are offering $1000 for the design of a their NBA uniform—$600 for first place and $400 for second.
$1000.
It is pure exploitation. Hey Mavs, how about asking a bunch of players to play for a season and promise to pay the one who makes the most points a fraction of what you'd normally pay each player?
These folks clearly have no understanding of the research and work that goes into producing an identity. Nor do they respect the need of other professionals to make a reasonable return for their work.
The offer...
Cuban's view of design...
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May 15
Print Design
Pretty interesting. StreetArt Agency out of Ekaterinburg, Russia has developed a corporate identity for Malina.am, a new Internet TV channel. The art director is Andrei Kolokolov.
Various elements of the identity...
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May 13
Photography
I like these unusual photographs created for SuitSupply by Carli Hermes. They were used in a nicely designed insert from the Wall Street Journal.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
Example 4...
SuitSupply.com...
About the supplement...
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May 10
Illustration
I featured one of Peter Hoey's illustrations in The Desktop Publisher's Idea Book more years ago than I would care to recollect. And he has remained a mainstay of many top publications in the years since.
So I was pleased, but not surprised, to open the Wall Street Journal recently to find an illustration in his signature style on the front page of a special investment section.
Peter teamed up with his sister Maria in 2001 and their illustrations appear in magazines and newspapers, plus they are doing some animations for advertising.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
The Hoey team's website and store...
A sample from a flip book titled, Out of the Habit...
And their studio's Facebook page...
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May 7
Graphics Tech
The headline reads, "New Product Innovation to be Delivered Exclusively Through Adobe Creative Cloud." In short, what they're saying is that Adobe Creative Suite 6 is the last edition of the CS and all future products will be available by subscription only.
The press release says, "...The company will focus creative software development efforts on its Creative Cloud offering moving forward. While Adobe Creative Suite 6 products will continue to be supported and available for purchase, the company has no plans for future releases of Creative Suite or other CS products. Focusing development on Creative Cloud will not only accelerate the rate at which Adobe can innovate but also broaden the type of innovation the company can offer the creative community."
My reaction is, "Good!" I signed up for the program a couple of months ago and I don't see a down side for anyone who uses the CSs on a regular basis — for $600 per year ($49 per month) you have access to the entire suite of Adobe products. $600 compared to buying or upgrading to a new product every couple of years for hundreds more.
This, eventually, will save Adobe hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue lost to piracy — and that, hopefully, will keep the cost to subscribers reasonable. Again, "Good!," you and I have been subsidizing that piracy for for long enough.
Adobe also announced (Wacom ain't going to like this) its first hardware device, a pressure sensitive stylus and an electronic ruler (below).
Press release: New product innovation to be delivered exclusively through Adobe Creative Cloud...
Press release: Adobe unveils major update to Creative Cloud...
Adobe's big picture view of the Creative Cloud...
Adobe CEO: The Truth About Creative Cloud by Lance Ulanoff...
Adobe scraps Creative Suite software licenses in favor of cloud subscriptions by Jackie Dove..
Adobe Moves Software Out of the Box and Into the Cloud by Steven D. Jones...
Adobe also announced its first hardware device, a pressure sensitive stylus and an electronic ruler...
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May 6
Typography
Louise Fili not only produces great work, she has a knack for hiring great talent — Jessica Hische got her start there. But today, I want to point you to a few projects produced by another terrific designer, John Passafiume.
First is a series of ten book covers art directed by Louise Fili and executed by Passafiume that commemorate the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy.
The book covers and an interview with Fili...
An interview with John Passafiume from Method & Craft...
Describing his hand-drawn thesis, Passafiume explains, "I developed a debilitating case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome heading into the spring semester of my senior year. I was forced off of the computer--faced with a difficult task of graduation without the crutch of technology. This prompted the hand-drawn (Process), which visually documents 700+ hours with a Bic mechanical pencil over the course of 90 days."
Passafiume's thesis titled "Process"...
About the making of a poster for the School of Visual Arts in New York City inspired by NYC subway lettering...
Passafiume's Website...
And his Dribbble.com page...
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May 3
Illustration
I suspect most designers have seen an episode or two of the AMC series Mad Men. It provides us with a pulp fiction-like look inside a 1960s, Madision Avenue advertising agency (hence "Mad Men") against the backdrop of a rebellious time in United States history.
Today I want to point you to a behind the scenes look at the making of the opening sequence to the show. As Cara McKenney, the producer of the piece for Imaginary Forces, puts it, "This was a new show and a period drama at that, with no-name actors, on a network with no success in developing original content."
The opening sequence was produced for AMC by Imaginary Forces...
Here's an interview with the creative team that produced the opening...
An aside: Sixties-era model Gita Hall May, whose image appears in the sequence, is suing Lionsgate for failing to seek permission to use it...
And while we're at it: A nice collection of behind the scenes photographs of the set and players by James Minchin III...
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Apr 22
Copywriting
I heart proofreaders and copyeditors. They have a tough, mostly thankless job — the very nature of which is to demonstrate, at best, how careless and inattentive their client is, and, at worst, how downright illiterate.
So, when I get a solicitation from a proofreader, my radar goes up and I scan it for any possible problems in the hope I might find something to point out. Not to be helpful, but to get some gut-level payback for all the times an editor or proofreader has made me feel like Cro-Magnon man.
It was the receipt of an email message from a proofreader last week that got me started. Horrors, I thought, they are using two spaces after each period! I dashed off an immediate reply, "Two spaces after a period? I exclaimed, "I thought those of us who have abandoned typewriters were using one?"
"It's just a style choice," replied the proofreader, "not actually incorrect."
"I understand," I said, "but it is clearly considered a mistake if you include it in text for publication. That would seem to be an important issue for a proofreader."
"As a designer," I explained, "if I had you proofread a document and you allowed double spaces, I would have to correct them myself or be corrected by an editor down the road."
If you doubt the near-universal application of the rule (and, god forbid, if you use two spaces yourself), you have only to look at any top selling publication from a major publisher. In a quick look, I couldn't find a single contemporary book or magazine with double spacing following a full stop.
Is this minutia? Yes, but it (momentarily) made me feel superior to someone who is doubtlessly more intelligent than myself. Of course now I will suffer the countless corrections of my grammar, punctuation, and veracity that are sure to follow.
Here, for you minutia men (and women), is some further discussion...
The Chicago Manual of Style...
The Modern Language Association...
Mignon Fogarty...
For the broad view...
Interested in the topic? Get The McGraw-Hill Desk Reference for Editors, Writers, and Proofreaders ...
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Apr 19
Illustration
To paraphrase Woody Allen: I am not a hypochondriac — what I am is an alarmist. Hence, I don't typically spend a lot of time looking a medical illustrations.
But there is no escaping it, medical illustration is a fascinating segment of the illustration and graphic design professions.
I received an email recently from Karen Clark, the studio manager
at the AXS Biomedical Animation Studio in Toronto, Canada — she pointed to their work and I wanted to share it with you.
Which lead me, of course, to dig deeper...
Watch for the AXS Studio's 3D Brain 13 seconds in...
A great, funny animation piece from the AXS Studio...
The AXS website...
From The Association of Medical Illustrators: The 25th Edition of the Medical Illustration Sourcebook...
If you care to brave it, a History of Medical Illustration by Benjamin Mandel, MD...
About the profession from the American Medical Association (67KB PDF)...
While where at it, Hypochondria: An Inside Look by Woody Allen...
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Apr 17
Books
"In professional interactions, it turns out that most people operate as either takers, matchers, or givers. Whereas takers strive to get as much as possible from others and matchers aim to trade evenly, givers are the rare breed of people who contribute to others without expecting anything in return." That's an overview from the publisher of Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam M. Grant Ph.D.
I point you to it because I know lots of designers fall into the givers category and I think you'll want to read the insights about how you can operate without being exploited.
Thanks to Brain Pickings and Maria Popova for pointing us to it.
An Wharton interview with Adam Grant...
For the Harvard Business Review: In the Company of Givers and Takers by Adam Grant...
Grant's Wharton bio...
Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam M. Grant Ph.D....
A website dedicated to the book...
Are you a taker, a matcher, or a giver? Find out here...
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Apr 12
Photography
The Good Web Guide quotes the creator of this website, Chris Wild, as describing himself as a "retronaut" — someone who "goes back in time using just perception;" we travel in time he says in "that tiny, tiny moment, just before we grasp the fact that our beliefs are wrong."
I love the idea, but I love Retronaut.com more. Wild serves up what is, perhaps, the most intreguing collections of imagery I've seen on the web.
Thanks to Bonnie Larner for pointing us to it.
Example 1: Artforms of nature...
Example 2:The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover shoot...
Example 3: Interior of the Public Library of Cincinnati...
The Retronaut.com website — note that the image displayed is often just the first of, in many cases, an entire collection...
An article about Wild from The Good Web Guide...
The concept and the piece from The Good Web Guide led me to a wealth of film ephemera on YouTube. I found this ride through San Francisco in 1900 particularly haunting...
But this is closest to what I think Wild describes as a "retronaut" experience — a wonderfully enhanced piece from England during the Edwardian era...
If, for some odd reason, you are unfamiliar with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, buy this immediately...
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Apr 10
Photography
Teehan+Lax — a design company in Toronto, Canada — is at it again. A couple of years ago I posted about their generosity in supplying Photoshop PSD files of the iPhone and iPad GUI.
Their latest contribution to the design community is a wonderful tool for creating hyper-lapse image sequences called Google Street View Hyperlapse.
It is a tool that uses data from Google's Street View API to help you define, capture, and create camera moves on Street View sequences.
First, a demonstration...
And the details...
If you want to custom code it you'll find it on GitHub...
Don't say I didn't warn you — get started looking a these hyper-lapse videos and you're going to get stuck for at least an hour...
How is it done outside of Street Views? With cameras, dollies, and imagination. Here's one example...
Here's the device used in the video above — I want one...
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Apr 8
Web Design
The Shard — as in shard of glass — is a 72-storey skyscraper in London that opened to the public in February.
Today, I want to point you to a website designed by Francesca Panetta for The Guardian (the British national daily newspaper). It features a 360-degree, augmented-reality panorama of London, which not only presents the spectacular view but also points to places of interest and plays sounds from the city.
Nicely designed website. An experience not to be missed.
The view...
An article about The Shard...
An interview with the architect...
The building's website...
The architect is Renzo Piano. On his website, they call the building the "London Bridge Tower"...
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Apr 5
Illustration
I thought it would be good to qualify this post as not to tie up the folks who aren't interested in such trivia. What is Popeye surface-to-air launcher crayon set? It's a set of crayons produced during World War II that is now part of the collection of crayon aficionado, Ed Welter — one of thousands of sets he has found, rescued, and documented for his one-of-a-kind collection.
As a graphic designer, this stuff fascinates me on two levels. First, I was a crayon user. I don't remember how many sets I burned through as a kid, but it was the ultimate creative tool — a way of getting ideas on paper fast. And second, I love ephemera and old crayon sets (particularly their packaging), offer an interesting look at the designs and styles of the hundreds of years since crayons were first invented — Wikipedia tell us "The word "crayon" dates to 1644, coming from (chalk) and the Latin word creta (earth)."
If you're curious, here's enough to get you started.
This video piece by Patrick Rosenkranz offers a good introduction to Welter and his collection...
This is Ed Welter's website. There are some broken image links but all of the content can be access through this table of contents...
The "crayon" page from Wikipedia.org...
An article about Welter from The Oregonian...
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Apr 3
Illustration
In Vietnam, plastic model manufacturer Tamiya enlisted the help of Ogilvy to create a campaign reintroducing it to the next generation Vietnamese. Jay Furby and Todd McCracken of Ogilvy in Ho Chi Minh City contracted with Cirkus animation house to produce 3D digital representations of model parts for a ficticious line of products — five famous conspiracy theories and they called it "Put it together."
I like the idea of using a product in such an unexpected way.
The Moon Landing...
Roswell...
Marilyn Monroe...
JFK...
Elvis...
The Cirkus website...
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Apr 1
Marketing PR
Do you or your client have a commodity product? Something that has no real, distinctive advantage over its competitor?
Then you drop the product into a story. You present it in a way that gives people a reason to take notice of it.
Here is a smart, real-life example of how it's done.
The Commodity Challenge...
The Redgate Design Website...
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Mar 29
Graphics Tech
Have you heard about Prezi? I hadn't. It's a next generation presentation tool — certainly an alternative to PowerPoint — but a very different type of tool.
The idea with Prezi is you create a big poster-like layout, populate it with all the parts of your presentation, and then using the software features to animate the telling of your story by zooming in and out of various parts to reveal as may levels of detail as you want to build into it.
To present it, it appears you can then either click through the finished program as you would a convention presentation (with the added interest of all types of effects, pans, and zooms of your layout), or you can, using other production tools, output it to video complete with a soundtrack.
It's pretty cool. I'm sure purists probably think it is gimmicky, but I think, it has potential. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts.
In another life, one of my jobs was to create corporate presentations and multi-projector slide shows. Compared to today's software, creating a multi-projector slide show was amaziningly complex process and many times more expensive.
One thing I am certain of is this: The key to any type of presentation is — video, audio, and static images — you'll never have a good presentation until you have a compelling idea, an interesting script, and a clear understanding of timing and visual storytelling. You can do all the cool moves in the world and but without the goods you're just going to end up with Waterworld.
A bit of slide show trivia. 78 percent of all multi-projector slide shows created in the between 1970 and 1990 used one of two themes for their soundtrack: 2001: A Space Odyssey or Chariots of Fire. (I'm just making that up but if you can rememeber that far back, you'll probably agree.)
Thanks much to Gregory Duchesne (and his daughter) for pointing us to Prezi.
Introduction...
This is how it works...
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
Prezi.com is software as a service (SAAS), meaning it is hosted on the cloud. Here's the website...
Lisa Larson-Kelley will help you learn to create your presentation on Lynda.com through this new course: Up and Running with Prezi. (Note: All lynda.com courses have a few clips marked in green that you can preview for free. And, if it looks good, you can get a free week of full access to all Lynda.com tutorials by signing up using the banner below.)
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Mar 25
Basic design
Would you take a few moments to share your thoughts? I'd like to hear your answer to the question and I'd also appreciate it if you'd point me to resources — bloggers, professional organizations, studios, advertising agencies, and so on — that you turn to keep up with design trends in your part of the world.
To be clear, I'm not looking for international resources — my hope, instead, is to get an idea of what distinguishes, if anything, the graphic design business in your country from the United States.
There might be differences regarding technical details, measurements, religious or political influences, language and typography, legal restrictions on professional practices, pervasive color palettes, trends in design styles, particularly influential individuals or organizations, and so on. What are those differences? Where do turn to discuss them or learn more?
The reason I ask is I'd like to write an article examining this issue. Please send you answers to chuckgreen(a)ideabook.com and use the "Subject:" "design by country."
Thanks in advance for anything you're willing to share.
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Mar 22
Photography
It's called The Commons and it is a colaboration between many large institutions — libraries, archives, museums, and so on — and Flickr, the photo management and sharing application.
As they explain it, "The key goals of The Commons on Flickr are to firstly show you hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer."
And, regarding the Rights Statement, "Participating institutions may have various reasons for determining that 'no known copyright restrictions' exist..."
As always, it is your resposibility to read the small print and to determine what you can actually use and what situations you can use it in.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
Example 4...
Example 5...
Example 6...
Example 7...
Example 8...
The Commons home page...
About usage plus a list of participating institutions...
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Mar 20
Copywriting
I picked up some good ideas from these pieces on writing humor. Humor and graphic design? Absolutely.
I think we shouldn't shy away from the possibility of using humor, comedy, jokes, cartoons and such, to communicate idea. They are, afterall, well understood ways of seeing, understanding, and relating to ideas. Plus they offer the potential for producing something that is refreshing and out of the ordinary.
"Graphic design is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, abnormality, hobbies and humors." George Santayana
In no particular order...
10 ways to improve your writing while thinking like a comedy writer by Leigh Anne Jasheway...
How to Write Like a Cartoonist by Scott Adams...
Dave Barry On Humor...
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Mar 18
Ideas 101
I happened to see a scene from the film Vatel recently and was fascinated by the elaborate, mechanical set designs. The film's set designer, Françoise Benoît-Fresco and art director, Jean Rabasse received an Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration in 2001.
I'm curious if this type of mechanical display was an invention of the filmmakers or if such displays were common in the 1600s. If so, is there a term for the craft?
One of the set designs...
A still of another set from Vatel...
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Mar 15
Ideas 101
Perhaps a bi-stable spring with flexible display? That the name of the design patent Apple submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office a while back. There is much speculation Apple is developing a computer bracelet or iWatch. Can you imagine designing pages for a screen that wraps around the users wrist?
The new Apple Patent...
The entire application with illustrations...
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Mar 8
Web Design
I haven't done this before but I want to use today's post to point you to a developer I've been working with. Yes i'm being very specific, but bear with me, this will be useful to the folks who use the Movable Type content management system.
I've been working with Mihai Bocsaru, a developer in Romania, for four or five years now. He is a Movable Type expert of the first order and I can't recommend him more highly. In addition to his development services, he recently started a service for upgrading Movable Type websites. If you've ever upgraded your CMS for security reasons or to add new features, you know it can be a can of worms.
I can tell you from experience that Mihai and his crew makes if pretty painless.
Mihai's development company is Pro-It-Service.com...
and his Movable Type upgrade service is MovableTypeUpgrade.com...
Why am I still using Movable Type?...
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Mar 6
Color
Design-Seeds.com is a site you can use to discover interesting and inviting color palettes — palettes that can easily be reinterpreted for use online or in print.
It reminds me how many decisons a good photographer sometimes makes before they press the shutter release — about subject matter, composition, atmosphere, depth of field, lighting, focus, color, and so on. (To me black and white is often a the boldest of color choices.)
You can, of course, do this yourself by opening a photograph in Photoshop and using the eyedropper tool to sample different areas of the image.
Thanks to my friend Bruce Schneider for pointing us to it.
An example...
The home page...
If you're interested in finding the source of any of the images, copy the image URL to the Tineye.com reverse image search engine and you may find the source.
A random search using Tineye.com...
We talked about another great color resourse here...
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Mar 4
Illustration
In his proposal, Lucas explains, "The Lucas Cultural Arts Museum will be a center highlighting populist art from some of the great illustrators of the last 150 years through today's digital art used to create animated and live-action movies, visual effects, props and sketches."
"I'm a storyteller at heart," he says, "and I understand the power of a visual image to tell a story. I know how works of art can ignite children's imaginations and even change their lives. They changed mine."
An interview with George Lucas about the museum...
Proposal for the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum (1.6MB PDF)...
The proposal location is the former commissary site in the Crissy Field District of the Presidio....
Lucas mentions that he originally wanted to be an illustrator but was discouraged by his father. In the proposal he mentions three of the illustrators who most influenced him...
Norman Rockwell...
N.C. Wyeth...
and Maxfield Parrish...
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Mar 1
Marketing PR
A voice-over professional is an off-camera actor/artist who performs the audio portion of a production — radio, TV, film, web video, and so on.
I'm in the process of producing a short for a client that will appear on the home page of the website I am designing for them. I haven't hired voice talent in a long time so I had to reacquaint myself with the business. My search led me to some resources you might find useful if you have a similar need.
Voices.com...
Voice123.com...
VoiceJockeys.com...
News about the industry...
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Feb 25
Print Design
"Off Book is a web-original series from PBS Arts that explores cutting edge arts and the artists that make it."
The piece on graphic design, for example, features commentary from and work by design heavyweights Debbie Millman, Drew Freeman, and Steve Attardo. Trying to explain what you do to a non-designer? These five to seven minute pieces are a good place to start.
The Universal Arts of Graphic Design...
The Art of Web Design...
The Art of Creative Coding...
The Off Book homepage...
Debbie Millman's website...
Drew Freeman's website...
Steve Attardo's website...
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Feb 22
Marketing PR
Humor me — pretend for a moment that you care what I think.
I believe that consumers will ultimately reject the current form of social media marketing more virulently than they have "junk" mail, telemarketing, and Ginsu steak knife commercials.
Why? Because (first of all), they have some problems in common...
They are often perceived as an unwanted interruption
They require some form of avoidance by the consumer
They regularly provide access to unscrupulous sellers
They are difficult to opt out of
But social media marketing has one more, highly-important advantage or disadvantage: it makes the interaction very personal. Advertisers use the interests and information you contribute to discriminate against you — algorithms that dictate the results your searches, or what you have access to, based on your age, race, sex, socioeconomic status, and so on.
Over the last two decades, the web's liberation of information and access has won the interest and participation of billions of people. I believe that the organizations that use social media to manipulate the consumer will ultimately cause a wholesale rejection of its platform.
(Don't get me wrong, this is not a dig at ethical, transparent marketing — there are clearly many organizations that turn out important, informative, and entertaining messages that we all use, to one degree or another, to make buying decisions.)
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Feb 20
Copywriting
Scrivener is a tool especially designed for people who work on long or complex writing projects -- book authors, journalists, academics, lawyers, scriptwriters, and so on.
I've tried it out and I think it is the type of program that, if you are willing to commit, could easily become a very integral part of your workflow. (There are both Mac and Windows editions.)
Programs like Microsoft Word want to be everything to everyone and, in my opinion, end up overwhelming you with mountains of unnecessary features. This program provides very specific features for very specific tasks. I like the way they think.
A video introduction to Scrivener...
The Scrivener website...
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Feb 18
Packaging
That's the question Pratt Institute packaging design student Aaron Mickelson attempts to answer in his Masters Thesis: The Disappearing Package.
In it, he proposes a series of smart designs that self-contain their contents and eliminate packaging waste entirely. As he explains, he has the luxury of not dealing with the manufacturing or distribution challenges, but he'll definitely get you thinking.
The Disappearing Package...
Pratt Institute's Graduate Communications + Package Design (GradComD) program...
Aaron Mickelson's website...
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Feb 15
Marketing PR
I don't normally recommend products I don't use myself — but MailChimp will be an exception. MailChimp is an email-marketing service that provides some of the most advanced tools in the industry. I use Constant Contact to send my email newsletters, but I have really come to enjoy and appreciate the Resource Guides MailChimp offers provides to their subscribers and non-subscribers alike.
Titles cover topics such as...
> Transactional email
> Common email marketing rookie mistakes
> How to manage your list
> Email security
and so on...
Some of this information, of course, relates specifically to the MailChimp platform, but lots of it will be useful to anyone sending email for marketing purposes.
I like it when companies are confident enough about the value of their products that they aren't afraid to share their ideas.
The MailChimp Resources...
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Feb 13
Illustration
Beginning in the 1920s Austrian philosopher Otto Neurath began developing an international picture language — Isotype, an acronym for International System Of TYpographic Picture Education.
As the Isotype Revisited organization characterizes it, "Isotype was a method for assembling, configuring and disseminating information and statistics through pictorial means."
"Its initiator, Otto Neurath, described it as a 'language-like technique' characterized by consistency in the use of graphic elements. The basic elements are pictograms - simplified pictures of people or things, designed to function as repeat-able units."
The designer Neurath teamed up with was Gerd Arntz whose work, I'm guessing will be familiar to you. I point you to it because, to me, it's interesting to understand how their work clearly influenced modern-day information design.
International Picture Language, The First Rules of Isotype, by Otto Neurath...
An introduction to the idea...
A website dedicated to the work of graphic designer Gerd Arntz...
Isotype: Representing social facts pictorially by Christopher Burke (762KB PDF)...
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Feb 11
Illustration
I don't know whether or not you want to use this particular service, but I like the result. ThingLink is used to "create rich images with music, video, sound, text and more."
An example of the Thinglink service...
How it works...
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Feb 8
Photography
Prelinger Archives is a treasure trove of advertising, educational, industrial, and amateur films produced by and for US corporations, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, community and interest groups, and educational institutions.
The good news is, as I understand it, that the films are free to use however you want. Obviously, I'm not a lawyer so you should confirm this for yourself by reading the "Rights" section (left column) of the the Prelinger Archives home page at the Internet Archive.
Getty Images is licensing broadcast quality clips from many of the same films for a fee. Why pay? here's what they say at Prelinger.com:
"Prelinger Archives allows free access to many (but not all) films from their collection on the Internet Archive site. However, the Internet Archive does not provide written permission to use any material, and the user therefore assumes all risk when repurposing Prelinger footage. By way of contrast, when you license Prelinger clips from Getty Images, Getty Images will indemnify you against claims for copyright infringement relating to copyright in the footage clip. Getty Images charges for this service."
Again, I am not declaring this material is free to use, you must perform your own due diligence.
On with the show.
Example 1: Destination Earth (1956)...
Example 2: What Makes A Good Party (1950)...
Example 3: The Mailman (1947)...
The Prelinger Archives home page at the Internet Archive...
Browse the archive by subject...
The Field Guide to Sponsored Films...
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Feb 6
Typography
There are plenty of design lessons to be learned on this site dedicated to stills of motion picture titles. Designer Christian Annyas explains, "I've seen a lot of movies over the years. To prove I've sat through at least the first ten minutes of them I started making screenshots of the titles."
The resulting collection, which begins in the 1920s and extends through the current day, offers an interesting timeline of typeface design and period aesthetics.
An example of an early John Ford film, Prisoner of Shark Island (1936)...
The home page...
You may recall another title design collection we visited back in 2009 — The Art of the Title Sequence...
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Feb 4
Packaging
I hesitate to point out that the work you are about to see is, as I understand it, work that Fred Carriedo created for class projects at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco. Yikes, is every bit as talented as some of the best designers I know.
Rather than focusing on the aesthetics of the designs, I suggest you dig into the way he uses perforations, die-cuts, types of paper, printing techniques, and such to create pieces that give me a sense that I want to interact with them.
To me, this is fabulous stuff, loaded with insightful ideas.
Example 1: Transform..."Detail from a conceptual experimental book and conference collateral that addresses the topic of evolution and the future of communication, technology, and design."...
Example 2: Sugar Deli Food Center... "The final project for my Package Design 2 class... I chose to redesign the Sugar Deli Food Center in New York and work with a modernized picnic concept based on the "Now Serving No." tickets you often see in delicatessens. Each items carries a unique number with a description of the item on the label"...
Example 3: Empire Vineyards... "Package Design 3 / Project 1. Design Objective: Design labels and packaging for a line of wine, liquor, or beer. I chose to design and brand my own vineyard based on the research I conducted"...
Carriedo's website...
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Feb 1
Photography
I admire Sam Jones' ability to navigate what is sometimes the most dicey, difficult part of doing creative work — dealing with other creative people. Many, as you know, are saints. Good people who go out of their way to be gracious, who respect what you are trying to do, and who see your work together as an opportunity have an enjoyable, productive experience.
Then there are the not so good people. I remember (for example), a video shoot, years ago, with a high-strung actor who pretty much terrorized the set for a day. We were working on a promotional piece for a client and this gentleman was the central character. There was nothing to be done but to ride it out, make the best of it, and be certain never to write him into another script.
Clearly, Sam Jones has some magic about him that gives those who work with him — even these big names — the confidence to let him do his work. It occurred to me, looking at his work and seeing the many people he has worked with, that engaging and managing people is a not often discussed talent of the best creatives. Yet it is among their greatest assets.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
There's lots to see on Jones' website...
An interesting sidelight, Heidi Volpe interviewed Sam Jones for The Daily Edit about the design of his website...
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Jan 28
Marketing PR
I was reading a story recently that compared the life spans of people living in two places. The people in one place, the author explained, live twenty years less than the people living in the other place. Then she went on to make the case, using statistical data, for the cause.
I have no idea whether this particular case was credible or not — it could be exactly what the author speculates or there could be some underlying cause that she missed entirely — in this type of case, it's very difficult to know. But I have learned to question.
It did get me thinking (again) about how much and how often we use statistics to make a point, sell a product, or promote an idea. And it reminds me about the special responsibility we have as marketers to use statistics and data in an ethical way.
Here are two books on the subject that you might find interesting. (Haha... then you will be skeptical too.)
First, How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff. It is one of the rare non-fiction books that, after over 50 years in publication, stands at 1,715 in the Amazon Best Sellers Ranking. In part, the description explains it, "runs the gamut of every popularly used type of statistic, probes such things as the sample study, the tabulation method, the interview technique, or the way results are derived from the figures, and points up the countless number of dodges which are used to fool rather than to inform."
And second, Don't Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in Thinking by Thomas Kida. It explains Kida's "'the six-pack of problems' that leads many of us unconsciously to accept false ideas:
"We prefer stories to statistics
"We seek to confirm, not to question, our ideas.
"We rarely appreciate the role of chance and coincidence in shaping events.
"We sometimes misperceive the world around us.
"We tend to oversimplify our thinking.
"Our memories are often inaccurate."
"In a complex society where success--in all facets of life--often requires the ability to evaluate the validity of many conflicting claims, the critical-thinking skills examined in this informative and engaging book will prove invaluable."
The original edition is online here: How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff...
Purchase the most recent edition here: How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff...
Don't Believe Everything You Think: The 6 Basic Mistakes We Make in Thinking by Thomas E. Kida...
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Jan 23
Learning
The United States Postal Service is a critical resource for graphic designers — it delivers a hefty percentage of the materials we create and many of the products our clients produce.
And I fear that the uninformed think of the USPS as nothing more than an antiquated bureaucracy that is being killed off by a confluence of mismanagement and better technology. Nothing could be further from the truth.
What follows is the first well-researched, clearly written piece I've seen about the true plight of the Post Office. It poses a question we've been needing to address for the last decade: Do We Really Want to Live Without the Post Office?
Thanks to Karla Humphrey for pointing us to it.
From Esquire magazine: Do We Really Want to Live Without the Post Office?...
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Jan 21
Marketing PR
I'm cursed, I see design and marketing everywhere.
Recently I was watching a clip from the film Glengarry Glen Ross in which Alec Baldwin plays the role of a particularly abusive, unscrupulous salesman. The scene is spellbinding and it got me interested in how he played the role of such an intense character so believably.
Which led me to an episode of Inside The Actors Studio in which Alec Baldwin mentions a pivotal lesson he learned from one of his acting coaches, Mira Rostova.
Forward the show to minute 7:30 and you will hear Baldwin discuss how he learned to play such a role. In part he says, Rostova taught him how not to dominate the other actors in a scene or to attempt to make his characters seem invincible. "...That's the death of acting," he explains. "And you see that all young actors, a lot of them, they do that. They think that acting is to have a kind of intensity that is an artificial intensity and to have a kind of domination, sublimation schematic to the scene that is the death of all scene work."
It occurs to me that acting has some substantive similarities to marketing — and that the same point Baldwin can be applied to both. An artificial sense of intensity is also the death of marketing. When you attempt to infuse your message with a level of artificial intensity, it ceases to be believable. That, to me, is very wise and important insight on acting and marketing.
Inside The Actors Studio — Alec Baldwin ...
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Jan 18
Learning
An old discussion surfaced this week and I'd like to hear your opinion about it. The question being, is it necessary to recognize the trademarks of third-party brands in materials you create for your clients? (I'm talking about word marks here, not design images.)
First, a disclaimer: The content of this website is offered for informational and educational purposes only — it is not legal advice. I recommend you check into these issues for yourself before taking any action.
My understanding has always been that it is only necessary to recognize the trademark of a third party when there is the potential for confusion or misrepresentation. In that case you mark the text with a trademark declaration (TM), a registered trademark symbol (R), a service mark (SM), or one of the prescribed citations designated by the trademark grantor.
Yes, trademark owners would like us to help them build brand recognition by adding marks, but it is my understanding that actually doing it is more of a courtesy than a requirement.
As you'll see listed below, lots of organizations declare trademarks (TM) and many go to the added expense of register those trademarks (R) with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. They publish very strick-sounding rules about what you must do in order to use their word marks but the question is what are the actual legal requirements. That's where it gets cloudy.
Furthermore, when I do label trademarks, I was instructed a long ago that it was sufficient to mark the first or most prominent use of the word or words only.
That said, I'd like to hear how you handle this issue.
Trademark marking requirements from the International Trademark Association...
An in-depth discussion of the topic from The Cover Pages...
About the law: What is Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act?...
Examples of corporate trademark guidelines:
Apple...
Adobe (137KB PDF)...
Google...
From the International Trademark Association: A Guide to Proper Trademark Use (275KB PDF)...
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Jan 16
Learning
Or as George Nelson said, "I have never met a designer who was retained to keep things the same as they were."
Commercial furnishings pioneer, Herman Miller, Inc., hosts an ongoing series titled, "Why Design." As they explain it, "Before we decide what we do and how we do it, we like to begin by asking the question "Why?" In Why Design, a new video series, we explore the world through the eyes of our designers, and share something of why we value their point of view."
Why Design?...
About George Nelson...
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Jan 14
Web Design
Apple's Mac Developer Library does not contain all there is to know about designing Apps and Icons, but is certainly a good place to learn the basics. Lots of this thinking applies to just about any type of web design.
An introduction...
User experience philosophy...
Design element guidelines...
Icon design guidelines...
The front door of the Mac Developer Library...
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Jan 10
Web Design
Here's a thoughtful evaluation of some recent responsive website designs by Jesse Gardner over at Plasticmind.com. Jesse is the VP of Technology at Simply Recipes which, over the holidays, had a few days with over one million unique visitors — so he has some cred.
Jesse Gardner evaluates four responsive designs...
Nishant Kothary talks about how the new Microsoft homepage came to be......
This is PARAVEL, the group Kothary recommend for the job...
I'm working on a responsive design for a client in recent days and came across some of the same sites Jesse did. I am particularly enamoured with this site by One Design Company. Both for the reduction formula (break points) and for the scheme they use to stack the pages — I like that it allows you to sort of browse the big picture before you "look inside."
The Coop
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Jan 7
Learning
We've all had those moments. You're climbing a ladder toward a goal and you suddenly discover that the ladder is on the wrong wall. If you manage designers (or other professionals who spend lots of time in cognition), this could be one of those moments.
Daniel Pink makes a compelling argument (with proof), that money is not necessarily the motivator we think it is.
Dan Pink's TED talk: The puzzle of motivation...
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink...
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Jan 4
Learning
The controversial subject of designer certification has raised its ugly head once again. If this doesn't scare the heck out of you, nothing will.
"Not every well known designer has a formal education. Nonetheless, education is at the core of tackling the problems and challenges of our ever-changing world. A formal design education combines theory, history and design engaged with sociology, anthropology and the environment. Design should not be driven by aesthetics, but by a deep understanding of design principles, its history and the evolving practices and methodologies of our field."
That is the first of five proposed edicts that would earn you a capital "D" in your "Designer" title. A campaign christened as CertifyD proposed by Esteban Pérez-Hemminger at Pratt Institute.
Ironically, the first sentence points to the primary problem with entire argument: "...Education is at the core of tackling the problems and challenges of our ever-changing world."
First, no it is not. Formal education is certainly one way of learning some aspects of the design but it is by no means "at the core" of it. And the very nature of that statement demonstrates the obvious problem with certification: As soon as you allow someone to define what a designer is and does, you narrow the scope of those possibilites.
What the author has not yet discovered is that design is opinion, not a structured, hierarchal reality that can be articulated like algebra or law. Whether a particular designer is qualified to tackle a particular project — for a particular client, in a specific market, at a particular time — is easy to determine. The designer shows what they have done for others in the past and proposes what it is they can do for the new client in the present.
If proponents of certification think they can somehow insert themselves into that process and substantively improve the outcome by certifying the designer they are simply opening the door to corrupt the most rigorous of standards: the meeting, the portfolio, and the brief.
The edicts...
A video of the event: Designers are obsolete...
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Jan 2
Web Design
I point you to this website for three reasons.
it's a good reminder that the internet is not magic — it is, in fact, a tangible system of interconnected computer networks that is designed, constructed, and maintained by real people and their organizations. I fear that many of us push a switch and expect something to happen without appreciating the enormity of what that takes.
Second, the Google Data Centers Gallery website is a good example of responsive web design — a simple, clean design that automatically adapts to the device on which you are viewing it. If you're on a desktop or laptop, narrow the window of your web browser to see how the same page adapts itself to tablet and smartphone screen shapes and sizes.
Third, I like the design. Responsive layouts tend to use simple shapes, briefer/larger text, and more illustrations. I suspect 2013 will be the year that responsive design goes mainstream.
Happy New Year.
Google Data Centers Gallery...
The case for responsive web design...
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Dec 31
Illustration
There should be terms for distinguishing between an illustrator who modifies their style for each project versus an illustrator who is sought out for one particular style. Something like an "interpreter" versus a "stylist". Clearly, Steve Simpson is the latter.
Be sure to take a close look at the details of his larger illustrations — there are many stories within stories.
In the bio from his website, Simpson offers this introduction to his work, "Steve takes an organic approach to his projects, blending the disciplines of design and illustration. He spends a great deal of time on construction, shape and problem solving at the pencil stage. Continuously re-drawing until a balance of aesthetics, key brief considerations and client satisfaction have been realized. Approved pencils are then worked up in Photoshop using a limited palette of carefully chosen colours."
Brilliant stuff.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
Steve Simpson's website...
And his blog...
Simpson names Jim Flora as an influence...
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Dec 28
Illustration
Andrés Moncayo is an Art Director at McCann in Colombia. I particularly like his dimensional illustrations for Mareol: a nonprescription motion sickness remedy.
His use of light and shadow made me do a double-take. Honestly, I wondered for a moment if I was looking at a paper model.
An illustration from the series...
In detail...
Nope, this GIF animation reveals the story...
A second illustration in the series...
The series...
Moncayo's flickr feed...
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Dec 24
Basic design
It is a long standing question and I believe the answer is your's alone to decide. But few would argue that art is not the foundation of design and therefor, we can gain great insights and inspiration by studying those roots. The Google Art Project is a wonderful resource for doing just that.
As they explain it, "The Art Project is a collaboration between Google and 151 acclaimed art partners from across 40 countries. Using a combination of various Google technologies and expert information provided by our museum partners, we have created a unique online art experience. Users can explore a wide range of artworks at brushstroke level detail, take a virtual tour of a museum and even build their own collections to share."
Example 1: From Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, In the Conservatory by Edouard Manet...
Example 2: From Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Narihira and Nijo no Tsubone at the Fuji by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi...
Example 3: From Centraal Museum, Tobacco Tin...
The Google Art Project website...
The Google Art Project YouTube channel...
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Dec 21
Web Design
Designer Atle Mo created Subtle Patterns as a way of giving back to the web community at large. He curates a large collection of free background patterns that that can be used for both personal and commercial work. Very nice.
The Subtle Patterns website...
Instructions for customizing the patterns in Photoshop...
Atle Mo's website...
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Dec 19
Print Design
In the last few weeks a team of designers at the University of California have received a painful lesson in brand ownership. It's called "don't mess with my logo".
It's a fairly common problem: branding works. If you spend a lot of time and effort building one, you must understand that you can't just barge into the room and change the wallpaper. You've got to be diplomatic about how you make the transition. In some cases people simply don't like change. In others, a majority of those effected might not like the new solution.
In this case, it appears, the reaction was negative on both fronts. I even saw a comment from an internationally known type designer on one blog that simply said, "The new logo sucks" — that hurts.
The design aside, you'll see one seemingly silly, actually serious mistake was made in the video used to roll-out the design: they show the existing University of California seal unceremoniously wiped off the page. That was a very bad idea.
A monogram is "a mark composed of one or more letters". Ironically, in defense of the design it was later argued that it wasn't the seal that was being replaced at all, just the university's existing monogram. Oops. Ouch. Over.
The new monogram for University of California...
From Brand New...
A sample of the banter...
From the blog of Vanessa Corrêa, Creative Director at University of California...
The end of the new monogram for University of California: The brass bails out...
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Dec 17
Illustration
I love the stark, simplistic illustration style that is so popular these days, but my heart is warmed by Mikael Eriksson's wonderful old school, realistic illustrations. He makes it seem new doesn't he?
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
Mikael Eriksson's portfolio...
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Dec 12
Graphics Tech
Near field communication (NFC) has been around for a while but it is just now becoming into play in a big way because more smartphone now incorporate the technology. (Some are speculating that the next iteration of the iPhone will include NFC capabilities.)
In a nutshell, NFC is a standard the allows two smartphones or similar devices to trade information by bringing them into close proximity of one another (I've read roughly 4 centimeters or 1.5 inches). You've likely seen the technology been touted as a futuristic way to complete a credit card-like financial transaction.
But what is particularly interesting to me is that you can also attach a paper-thin NFC chip to a printed piece or even embed it within printed material. That means you can instantly connect the reader of your business card, poster, brochure, or other collateral piece, to virtually any online source.
If you're not already on board, it's time to start thinking about ways of incorporating this up and coming technology into what we produce.
Here's the idea...
Moo has introduced a business card with an NFC embedded inside...
Case studies form SMARTRAC (a manufacturer of NFC transponders and inlays)...
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Dec 10
Graphics Tech
If you don't, I encourage you to take a close look at all of the privacy, security, and search settings of the web applications and search engines you use — because that's exactly what they do.
For those who are unaware, many environments include algorithms that record the fact that you like "A" and assume by it that you'll like "B". And based on that accumulated data, they begin to feed you more and more of what they perceive are your interests to the exclusion of other perfectly valid, useful information. It is what Eli Pariser calls a "filter bubble".
I bring it to your attention because I would seem to mean that we are less likely to stumble across the material we're not looking for — and that those chance encounters, to my way of thinking, serve up some of life's most profound learning experiences.
Don't get me wrong, I want to see content providers compensated for what they provide (I am one) — and for advertisers to reach their audiences. But I don't believe in someone else deciding what I should see, and hear, and read about — and certainly not without it being explained up front and prominently.
In his TED talk, Pariser quotes Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, as saying, "The power of individual targeting — the technology will be so good it will be very hard for people to watch or consume something that has not in some sense been tailored for them."
Yes, every platform obviously needs to determine what data it chooses to present, but when you show me one thing and the next person something different, that's when I begin to worry. In the interest of transparency I'd like to know, first, that you're doing it, and second, about the assumptions you're making in deciding what to show.
Eli Pariser's TED talk...
10 Things You Can Do from Pariser's website...
There are mentions of the issue in this recent conversation form the NYT: Are We Becoming Cyborgs?...
The WSJ, Holman Jenkins article from which the Eric Schmidt quote was taken...
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Dec 7
Web Design
Analytics consultant LunaMetrics.com has just updated its comprehensive image sizing cheat sheet for these social media sites: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest.
Thanks to my friend Jessica Jones for pointing us to it...
The sheet...
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Dec 3
Ideas 101
Though Stefan Sagmeister is often billed as a graphic designer, I think of him as more of an artist — in either case, he is clearly an innovative thinker. So it is no wonder that two of his protégés — Hjalti Karlsson and Jan Wilker — peeled off during a Sagmeister sabbatical to form a studio of their own — karlssonwilker.
Though I think of their work as experimental, I point you to it because I think you'll find the seeds of many worthwhile ideas.
First, click on "Work" to experience the menuing system...
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
This is particularly interesting: In the store they share digital artifacts — sketches, in-process drawings, quick ideas, rough layouts, and so on...
The karlssonwilker Reel...
Sagmeister today...
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Nov 30
Ideas 101
Looking for something a little unusual for your favorite graphic designer? These picks will get you started and each land you in places with many other ideas. Enjoy!
1. Sentinels Playing Cards from theory11, $6...
2. Elemental Blocks from Uncle Goose, $34...
3. Jessica Hische Letterpress Print (signed and numbered), $40...
4. An original Bob Staake Doodle (you design the subject matter), $40...
5. UPPERCASE Magazine subscription, $80...
6. iPhone Stencil Kit from UI Stencils, $27...
7. Midwest MXMW t-shirt from United Pixel Workers, $24...
8. Mountain Goats Gig Poster from Delicious Design League, $20...
9. Pentel Sharp Kerry Mechanical Pencil from JetPens, $20...
10. 365 Typography Calendar from Kit Hinrichs and his team at Studio Hinrichs, $36...
11. Cinemover with cheese deck from Move Your Camera, $88...
12. Seth Godin Marketing Guru Action Figure from Archie McPhee Figure, $5...
13. Linotype: The Film DVD, $25...
14. Bottle of Speed of Light from The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co., $14...
15. The InDesign Ideabook, 300+ templates on a dual-format CD-ROM, $60...
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Nov 28
Web Design
I want to point you to an interesting discussion on Quora about the ultra-simple design grid and tiles being used on Microsoft Windows 8 and within application interfaces created using its Metro design language.
It seems that increasing numbers of designers are abandoning the skeuomorphic-rich interfaces that have been so prevalent in the ramp up years of personal computing.
The term is new to me. In the digital world, a skeuomorph is an object the visually emulates an object in the physical world in the hope that the viewer will associate a similar action or feeling to it. In other words, a designer might use a three-dimensional button with shadows and reflections to communicate that, like a physical button, it begs to be pushed.
Why is Microsoft headed backwards with graphics?...
From Fast Company: About the Windows 8 redesign...
This NYT article points to possible design changes at Apple...
If you're interested in the nitty gritty...
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Nov 26
Marketing PR
Even if you don't agree these are the "best" you will certainly appreciate the quality of the storytelling and the (often amazing) production values.
10: Carlton Draught, "Beer Chase"...
9: Axe, "Susan Glenn"...
8: Procter & Gamble, "Best Job"...
7: Chrysler, "Its Halftime in America"...
6: Red Bull, "Red Bull Stratos"...
5: Old Milwaukee, "Field Cut Off"...
4: DirecTV, "Charlie Sheen"...
3: Wideroe Airlines, "Grandpa's Magic Trick"...
2: Nike, "Jogger"...
1: The Guardian, "Three Little Pigs"...
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Nov 21
Basic design
We are living in a world of seemingly perpetual breakthroughs. How do designers do it? By looking at a problem and throwing out all the preconceived notions.
Here's a beautiful example: In late 2011, Zhang Yue and his Chinese-based construction company, Broad Sustainable Building, built a 30-story building in 15 days; now it intends to use similar methods to erect the world's tallest building in just seven months.
How you build a 30-story hotel in 15 days...
An article from Wired Magazine about the Zhang Yue and his company BSB — Broad Sustainable Building...
BSB's website...
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Nov 19
Marketing PR
Here is a smart, insightful, and uplifting new manifesto by Seth Godin: We Are All Artists Now. I'm not pointing you to it because Seth is a well known writer and some might find it useful, I'm suggesting you read it because it is brilliant and important.
This little nugget is a new fundamental...
Quality Is Assumed
We assume that you will make something to spec.
We assume that the lights will go on when we flip the switch.
We assume that the answer is in Wikipedia.
All we're willing to pay you extra for is what we don't assume, what we can't get easily and regularly and for free. We need you to provide the things that are unexpected, scarce, and valuable.
The manifesto gives you a taste of his upcoming book, The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?
The ChangeThis.com website...
We Are All Artists Now (427KB PDF)...
You can pre-order the The Icarus Deception here...
Seth's blog...
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Nov 16
Graphics Tech
The Oxford Dictionary USA Word of the Year 2012 is GIF. In large part, that is because Joshua Heineman started playing with GIF animation in Photoshop based on old stereographs he found through the New York Public Library.
"One evening in my final year of college," he explains, "I was downloading digital snapshots to my laptop when I got a fleeting sense of 3D as the preview screen flicked quickly between two similar shots. I located the individual photos and flipped back and forth between them continually. The parallax effect of minor changes between the two perspectives created a sustained sense of dimension that approximated the effect of stereo viewing. When I realized how the effect was working, I set about discovering if I could capture the same illusion by layering both sides of an old stereograph in Photoshop and displaying the result as an animated gif."
The rest, as they say, is history. At the end of his introduction on the NYPL Stereogranimator website, Heineman says, "This is my Frankenstein's monster. Now, thanks to the NYPL Labs team, this is your monster, too. Enjoy."
Get out there and GIF!
The Oxford Dictionaries USA Word of the Year 2012 is GIF...
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
Create your own GIF The New York Public Library's Stereogranimator website...
The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) file format has been around since the early days of CompuServe — in fact, they developed it...
I've been doing rudimentary animation for many years. Back in the dark ages we did simple animations for presentations using IBM Storyboard. Anyone else remember that?...
I previously pointed you to this perpetual world of GIF animations...
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Nov 14
Illustration
That's no exaggeration. If you appreciate maps and information design, you could easily spend days searching the OldMapsOnline Portal. In short, the site is a visual search engine for finding online historical maps across many different map collections around the world. It is simply amazing.
And that's just the half of it. My friend Daniel Will-Harris introduced me to the David Rumsey Map Collection — one of the many collections the OldMapsOnline Portal incorporates in its searches.
It is easy to get lost in the Rumsey Collection too. It not only offers countless conventional maps, the also includes photographs, illustrations, and many pieces that I would classify as information design.
The OldMapsOnline Portal...
The David Rumsey Collection, Aerial photographs of San Francisco, 1938...
The David Rumsey Collection, illustration of the Maple Grove Herd...
The David Rumsey Collection, information graphic of the Geographical distribution of indigenous vegetation...
The Rumsey website home page...
Browse the collection by category...
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Nov 12
Typography
Adobe has taken another step on the web font front. First it acquired Typekit, a paid service that allows you to choose from a library of typefaces and easily apply them to your web pages. Now they have launched Adobe Edge Web Fonts, a free service that allows you to apply open sources typefaces in much the same way.
Adobe's first open source typeface family, Source Sans Pro, was released in August.
Adobe Edge Web Fonts...
The announcement...
How it works...
Source Sans Pro: Adobe's first open source type family...
Adobe's extensive conventional typeface collection is available here...
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Nov 9
Web Design
I created a web store for a client recently using Big Commerce. It's my first experience with this particular platform and I must say I am favorably impressed. (I also have some experience with E-Junkie, Volusion, VirtualCart, Magento, and a couple of others.)
I assure you I did my homework. To me, there are at least five prerequisites to buying into this type of "software as a service" (SaaS):
A robust feature set. Big Commerce has a robust feature set, a comprehensive set of tools for designing and marketing the website, and a client-friendly interface for capturing and processing orders.
Reasonable price. My client is paying $25 per month for the site and no transaction fees — that is a bargain. I liked Shopify too but I couldn't justify the additional transaction fees in this particular case.
Good corporate reputation and outlook. TechCrunch reported in September that Big Commerce had raised it's funding to $35 million and that "The company, which has 30,000 clients and is profitable, also launched an application for merchants to list inventory on Facebook." The company's sales, marketing and support teams are headquartered in Austin, Texas, USA and their engineering and product team is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.
Exceptional technical support. I used Big Commerce live chat support many times as I ramped up, as well as their comprhensive knowledge-base and video tutorial library.
Active user community. I can't emphasize enough how important that figure of 30,000 users is. It gives the organization the momentum and capital necessary to keep the platform current with ever-changing technological and user interface advancements.
If you find yourself in need of an e-commerce platform, this is a solid one. Now is a particularly good time to sign on as they have recently begun rolling out a new interface and website. My experience has been a good one.
Full-disclosure — I was impressed enough that I signed up for their affiliate program so if you use this linke to sign up, I'll get a small commission if you decide to open an account.
The Big Commerce website...
Here (from BuiltWith) is a current list of the most common platforms listed by the number of users...
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Nov 7
Illustration
Adam Hill is all over the place — in a good way. I love how he is able to bring a very different look and feel to each of the pieces he produces. That, to me, is the mark of a truly talented designer.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
An interview with Adam Hill...
Hill's website...
Hill's Flickr account...
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Nov 5
Marketing PR
It sounds hokey, but people really do create their own jobs by following their passion. Sometimes you have to be a little crazy, but that's part of the satisfaction in doing it. Today's post was a nice reminder for me.
Wendy Tsao decided to start a business making one of a kind soft toys based on children's drawings. It sounds as if she started out to make money but found that true wealth was in finding her passion.
"In the beginning," she explains, "I treated it as a business, which is fine. And then one day, I started to receive a lot of attention and inquiries, as well as advice on how to grow the business. But the thing is, I realized that Child's Own Studio is not just a business for me; it's really a craft. On some days, when I'm good, it's an art form. And that's where I want to be. Making good art."
Thanks to Daphne Gray-Grant, The Publication Coach, for pointing us to it.
The child's drawing...
The resulting soft toy...
Tip of the iceberg...
Wendy Tsao's website
Daphne Gray-Grant's website...
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Oct 31
Learning
There are lots of folks out there that attempt to outwit Google in an attempt to improve their standing on search engines. I have never been one of them. I figure the best way to optimize websites it to focus on improving the value and quality of what you offer — trying to fool people into buying stuff they don't want or need is not only unethical, it's a conscious choice to take the most difficult path.
That said, Google is happy to share some of the many ways you can optimize websites to provide information in a way that gets you pushed up the page on its search results. If you want to know how to do it, all you have to do is tune into what they're saying and showing.
Sign up for future Live Webinars or look through the library of Recorded Webinars further down the same page...
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Oct 29
Learning
CreativeMornings is a monthly breakfast lecture series for creative types that takes place in cities all over the planet — from Milan to San Francisco to Sydney. Each monthly event is free of charge and includes a 20 minute talk and a 20 minute question and answer period.
The good news is, if you're not in one of the aforementioned cities, you can watch them online here...
The Creative Mornings website..
Ben Chestnut from MailChimp.com...
Kelli Anderson from KelliAnderson.com...
Jason Fried from 37signals.com...
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Oct 26
Illustration
To me, Kagan McLeod illustrates with a wisdom that seems deeper than his experience. I'm not saying a young illustrator is not as capable as an older one, I'm just saying his work seems so effortless that he looks like he's been doing it longer than he has — since 1999.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
The artist at work...
McLeod's website...
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Oct 24
Illustration
The Present & Correct website is a thing of diagramatic beauty — is that a word? I particularly appreciate the thoughtful, unique layouts of the illustrations. But the products are interesting too — have you ever seen a circular wooden ruler? I hadn't.
Eraser Pick & Mix...
A Circular Wooden Ruler...
The Wood Atom Set...
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Oct 22
Learning
In May of this year author Neil Gaiman gave this keynote address to the graduating class at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. I point you to it because, not only is the advice spot-on, but because I think you may find it uplifting.
Design is opinion and it is not always clear that my opinion is a very good one. So occasionally I think it is important to be reminded that others struggle too, and that the way moving forward is always to focus on making good work.
The address...
Neil Gaiman's website...
Here is one of Gaiman's latest book. I have not read any of them, have you?...
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Oct 19
Illustration
This is fresh stuff no? Part of the value of studying the work of a talented illustrator and designer like Chris Jinkins is in parsing the work to identify what makes it tick. For example, in this case, I'm seeing some consistency in the use of similar line weights, earthy color palettes, an almost exclusive use of all caps type, and designs that all communicate a subtle sense of wit.
I'm not trying to box him in, just trying to see if I might find a formula to apply some of the same rules to a future project of my own.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
A short video about the playing cards...
You can purchase the Monarchs Deck here...
Jinkins' full portfolio...
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Oct 17
Learning
This growing collection of video tutorial are designed and produced by two folks who know their stuff: interaction and product designer Russ Maschmeyer and letter and illustrator Jessica Hische.
Their idea is to provide a basic introduction to HTML & CSS for non-web designers. I point you to it for two reasons: First, you might want to show it to someone who is new to the process, and second, for the sheer value of the design and layout of the tutorials and website. They are clean, simple, and interesting to look at.
Describe pic link...
Jessica Hische's website...
Russ Maschmeyer's website...
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Oct 15
Illustration
We've been treated to many feats of visual dreamwork in recent decades but none more compelling than those curated, edited, and created by Michael Benson.
Since the early 2000s, he has researched, stitched together, and rendered an awe-inspiring collection of images cobbled together from the vast database of photographs taken by spacecraft in the last 50 years.
Today we celebrate the publication of his latest book Planetfall: New Solar System Visions published this month by Abrams, which features imagery from the new, more powerful cameras of more recent probes.
I point you to it because it strikes me as an excellent example of the astounding results creatives can achieve by seeking out, re-casting, and embellishing works they did no invent. In other words, I don't always need to be the inventor to make a valuable contribution.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
A gallery of images featured by The New York Times...
Dr. Jim Zimbleman, from National Air and Space Museum discusses what it took to create the final images...
Benson's new book: Planetfall: New Solar System Visions...
Michael Benson's website...
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Oct 12
Typography
If you can get excited about proof that "highly assimilated letterforms increase ambiguity," hold on to your hat. Bryan Reimer, Bruce Mehler, Joseph F. Coughlin, researchers with MIT's AgeLab, "...have found that dashboard displays using the more open and differentiated lettering found in the 'humanist' family of typefaces are easier for people to read quickly than displays using the more uniform and tightly spaced letters of the 'square grotesque' style. Male drivers, in particular, can process messages in humanist lettering about 10 percent faster, on average."
Seriously, this is pretty interesting stuff. As we travel the amazing path new technologies afford us, it is this type of discovery that (ultimately) will improve communication on a visceral level. It will also, I think, create new classes of utilitarian versus aesthetic approaches to design.
Thanks to my friend Jessica Jones for pointing us to it.
An overview of the research...
The new release...
The white paper: An Evaluation of Typeface Design in a Text-Rich Automotive User Interface (4.3MB PDF).
I assume the term "humanist" refers to a classification of typefaces (devised by Maximilien Vox in the 1950s) that imitate early humanistic manuscripts)...
Frutiger is the humanist typeface tested...
Eurostile was chosen as the standard because it is often used in automotive applications...
Monotype Imaging sponsored the study. It owns Linotype which, in turn, owns the trademarks to typefaces such as Eurostile, Frutiger, Univers, and Helvetica...
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Oct 10
Illustration
I really like lyrical, narrative illustrations by Craig Frazier. His work reminds me a bit of Seymour Chwast (see my last post).
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
Craig Frazier's website...
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Oct 8
Illustration
Horror of horrors. I realized that I have not done a post about Seymour Chwast! Not that you don't already know him — he's (by all measures) one of the most influential designers and illustrators of the last one-hundred years.
I realized the omission as I was about to point out how another illustrator's work conjured up Seymour Chwast and, when I went to find the earlier post I did about Chwast, I realized there was none.
In any case, you'll see his influence on design in 2012 when you look at his work. I became a fan way back when I was a kid. In its heyday, the 1960's and beyond, Pushpin was the quintessential design studio.
From the AIGA Design Archives, a compilation of Chwast's work...
Push Pin Studios...
A book of illustrations: Seymour: The Obsessive Images of Seymour Chwast...
A biography of Chwast by Steven Heller from the AIGA website...
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Oct 1
Learning
A few posts back I pointed you to a new forum for learning about integrated branding — here's another. This one, Google's Creative Sandbox, provides the names of people, the companies they work for, and the tools they used to create some impressive projects and campaigns. In this case you'll even find details such as the number of lines of code written, the number of photographs taken, and so on.
For example: A project for Herman Miller...
The Creative Sandbox website...
Creative Sandbox Submitter's Guide (291KB PDF)...
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Sep 28
Learning
Here's an experiment worth noting...
"What happens when legendary admen of yesteryear are given cutting-edge digital tools to revisit their greatest moments? If Google's Re: Brief is anything to go by, you unlock the creative potential of new media advertising."
As they explain it, "With people spending more time online than ever before, it was time to put digital advertising to the ultimate test. We selected four of the most iconic commercials of all time, and asked the legendary creatives behind them to re-imagine them for the digital age. These advertising icons defined the mediums of the past. Now they're back to help shape the medium of the future, prove that great ideas come first, and inspire a new generation of creative minds along the way."
I found it interesting that the veterans seemed to view the current technology as very complicated. In reality, achieving the same production values and communicating the messages are far easier than they were when these ads were created.
About the project...
The project documentary...
Volvo...
Coca-Cola...
Alka-Seltzer...
Avis...
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Sep 26
Basic design
Though I believe it is important not to view one's self as a statistic, I thought these definitions and predictions from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics were worth pointing to.
Graphic Design...
Art and Design Occupations...
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Sep 24
Illustration
I'd classify Colin Johnson as both an illustrator and an artist (it looks as if his commercial work is mainly editorial). I am particularly fascinated with his intricate, small collages (check out the page sizes). There's a link below that shows the process.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
Johnson's website...
A step-by-step look at his collage process...
Johnson's advice for illustration students (aren't we all?)...
An interview with the artist...
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Sep 21
Ideas 101
The folks at Beakbane Marketing in Toronto, Canada are working to create a resource for the marketing industry: A site that will document some of the many pieces and parts organizations create to build their brands. Collateral, packaging, advertising (print, radio, TV, online), identity, and so on — the whole of which we think of as of the integrated brand.
As they explain it, "There are many sites on the Internet that show astonishing advertising or that show phenomenal online communications. Or clever corporate identity. Or beautiful products. But there are no sites that show how savvy managers are creating brands with a singular vision that are expressed coherently across diverse modalities."
The website is IntegratedBrands.org and you are invited to join in by adding your client's brand or another brands that interest you.
Here, for example, is how the tourism folk in Newfoundland and Labrador are developing the brand for their region of the planet...
Print advertising...
TV spots...
And so on...
The IntegratedBrand.org home page...
I've written more about integrated branding here...
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Sep 19
Learning
Timothy Prestero heads a nonprofit dedicated to "creating new products that allow social enterprises in developing countries to offer improved services and scale more quickly."
His experiences in tackling the complex process of designing products and bringing them to market has taught him some important lessons. I point you to this because I believe some of his advice translates quite well to the field of graphic design.
Thanks to my friend Owen Zanzel for raising the flag.
Timothy Prestero TED talk...
The DtM project portfolio (5.6MB PDF)...
Prestero's Design That Matters website...
You might also want to read, Prestero's article for Innovations a journal published by MIT Press: Better by Design: How Empathy Can Lead to More Successful Technologies and Services for the Poor (670KB PDF)...
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Sep 17
Illustration
Here is yet another example of how a smart, talented illustrator has transformed their work into a bit of an industry. I spotted this shopping bag at a retailer recently and it struck me as different and interesting. So I did a little investigative work and tracked down the illustrator, Fiona Hewitt.
Hewitt bills herself as an expert in "Asian Kitschology." As she puts it, her inspiration comes from the years she spent trawling the flea markets and junk shops of Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
Fiona Hewitt's Website...
Hewitt's store is WuAndWu.com...
An interview with Hewitt...
Gotta have the shopping bag? Here it is...
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Sep 12
Print Design
This invitation from the Minneapolis, Minnesota branding firm Cue is, to me, full-strength design. Full-strength means it works on many different levels: the concept, the overall look and feel, the typography, the color palette, the diversity of patterns and shapes, and so on.
When it happens, it's a joy to see.
The Emerald & Ruby invitation for the Children's Theatre Company...
Two other examples of out-of-the-ordinary work produced by Cue — the first...
and second...
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Sep 10
Illustration
These vector mosaic icons of beer bottles created by illustrator Inaki Soria Izquierdo got me thinking about how we translate photographic imagery into graphic objects. His illustrations look almost as if he pixelated a photograph to and extreme and stylized it. In any case it got me wondering how I'd do something similar.
If you're using Adobe Illustrator, there's a pretty easy way to do it (below). You simply place an image and use the "Create object mosaic" option.
You'll also find a few links to illustrator Charis Tsevis who creates complex mosaics using other techniques.
Izquierdo's ultra-mosaic beer bottles...
This tutorial from Vector.TutsPlus.com offers a good orientation...
The IKEA mosaic campaign from Sweden by illustrator Charis Tsevis...
A detailed look at the same illustrations ...
An example by Tsevis that is more like the beer bottles...
Tsevis' website...
Tsevis' blog shows some of the other effects he uses and discusses his toolset...
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Sep 7
Print Design
While we're on the subject of emblems (my last post) check out this glorious collection of bicycle head badges. Need some inspiration? I particularly like the wealth of ideas for integrating typography with imagery.
The Bicycle Head Badge group pool on flickr...
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
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Sep 5
Print Design
I really like these bold, old-school emblems designed by Richie Stewart at Commoner. They are not only distinctive, you can imagine how versatile this type of stark, on or off design is in everyday use.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
The Commoner home page...
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Sep 4
Print Design
One of my clients, Click2Mail.com is sponsoring a sweepstakes with a major league prize — a 6-night trip to Paris! (You don't need to buy anything, just give them your name and address.)
The big idea behind Click2Mail.com is that you can create a direct mail piece (postcard, letter, booklet) and send it to your mailing list right from where you're sitting. For less than it costs to print and mail it conventionally.
You don't need a USPS business mail account, you don't label, sort, or drag boxes to the post office -- all you do is create a PDF and load it to your account along with your mailing list. (You can but lists through them too.) You can even personalize individual mail pieces with a process similar to "mail-merge".
They mail Standard, First-Class, Priority, Certified, and Reply Mail all over the US and now they're starting to mail directly into Europe through France (Maileva) — hence the sweepstakes. The only hitch is you've got to sign up now, it ends September 15th.
Win a trip to Paris...
How Click2Mail.com works...
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Sep 3
Web Design
It seems to me that there is an ever-increasing chasm between the fields of web design and web development. (I'm using the terms here to distinguish between the design of a website [web design] and the programatic execution of the design [web development]).
And, thought I know many designers who dabble in development and developers who dabble in design, I don't know many who are experts at both disciplines. Even among the most talented developers, it is rare to find those familiar with more than a few platforms.
When it comes to content management systems, for example, developers often specialize in one or a few, such as Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, ExpressionEngine, and so on. Currently I am working on projects that require development on no less than four platforms: BigCommerce, Joomla, Drupal, and Movable Type.
So where does a designer find a developer? Certainly my first choice is to get a recommendation from someone I know. But beyond that, I must search developers out.
Today I want to point you some of the many sites dedicated to, among other things, connecting designers to developers. I have some personal experience with Elance.com but I have not used any of the others. So I'm anxious to hear how you find developers and about your experiences in the process.
Haha... I'm still looking for a Joomla freelancer... do you know a great one?
Elance.com...
Freelancer.com...
GetACoder.com...
Guru.com...
oDesk.com...
toptal.com...
Vworker.com...
Want more choices? Here's a big list complete with reviews (a bit out of date but comprehensive)...
Who's using what content management system...
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Aug 31
Learning
This fall marks the launch of the new MFA in Products of Design track at The School of Visual Arts in New York. As I read it, it is a kind of a hybrid reinvention of the conventional industrial design program.
At its core is the idea of exposing students to what Michael Chung, one of the instructors, characterizes as the vast spectrum of knowledge necessary to address the complex design issues of the future.
I'm pointing you to this because I think it's valuable to see how educational institutions are attempting to upgrade their curriculums to address fast-changing professional realities. This, I believe, is a encouraging sign.
MFA in Products of Design... the mission...
There are three curriculum paths: Making, Structures, and Narratives...
One of many video introductions by instructors: Michael Chung on Video Storytelling...
The faculty...
The SVA website...
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Aug 29
Ideas 101
The Designer Fund is an angel fund for designers. As they explain it, "We're looking for the best entrepreneurial designers in the world who have amazing teams, missions and products that create positive social impact. We're interested in businesses whose success can inherently produce social good in domains like education, energy, environment, food, health, creativity and productivity."
Its a new world isn't it? I love the idea that capital is not longer a barrier to entry. With resources like the Designer Fund and Kickstarter, the barrier to entry is now great ideas. If you've got one and have the ability to articulate it, there is no reason you can't play it out.
The bad news is, we have no more excuses.
The Designer Fund...
An article on FastCoDesign.com on the phenomenon of designers founding startups...
An earlier post about Kickstarter...
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Aug 17
Web Design
The next generation of websites is being designed in a very different way. Instead of creating different designs for each device (desktop, tablet, mobile) the next generation of websites is being designed as a collection of elements that are automatically rearranged for the device on which they are viewed.
It's referred to as responsive web design and, if web design was chess, responsive web design is three-dimensional chess.
I've found it a little hard to get my head around, but I'm beginning to like the idea. There is room for distinguishing your design from others, but the fact that you're designing a layout that will be recast in three or four different ways offers a new and exciting challenge.
If you're not familiar with the process, here are some links that will get you started.
First, some examples. Got to the actual pages and resize your browser to see how they respond as you shrink the width...
The idea seemed to catch fire with this article on A List Apart by Ethan Marcotte...
This is no "flash in the pan." Here, for example, is Google's whole-hearted endorsement...
This presentation piece by John Polacek has some excellent links...
There are many sources offering frameworks and templates that are slowly perfecting the process. One example...
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Aug 15
Typography
Here's beautiful custom typeface commissioned by creative agency Saturday from the pan-European design collective Underware. It, like many great typefaces by top typeface designers, was designed exclusively for use by a single client — in this case, MrPorter.com, a men's luxury-goods webshop.
If you have the resources, there's nothing quite so un-usual as a typeface that is your's alone. This one, to me, is particularly distinctive.
Mr Porter...
The typeface in use on MrPorter.com: Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
The creative agency Saturday commissioned the typeface from Underware...
Thought this was interesting too... a media kit that explains the inner-workings of MrPorter.com (12.2MB PDF)...
These are some of the Underware typefaces you can buy...
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Aug 13
The Archive of American Television posts in-depth video interviews (in some cases hours long) with folks involved with the writing, acting, producing, and directing of television programs. The example features a four-part interview with Vince Gilligan, the originator of the series Breaking Bad.
The index (my term) divides the interviews into segments and summarizes each with a text blurb. You simply read down the list until you find a segment you're interested in and click it to see that portion of the interview.
Nice way of doing it.
In the right-hand column click the "Interview" tab to see the index pane...
In case you're interested: the list of interviews...
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Aug 8
Illustration
If you doubt the power of branding, take a look this project designed and illustrated by Tad Carpenter.
I believe graphic design is becoming more important with each passing day — some people get that, others don't. First and foremost you've got to have a great product. But once you've made it to the table, you've got to distinguish yourself through your packaging and presentation. Organizations that pay attention to the details are the ones that will survive and thrive.
I love the fact that the folks who started this burger place found a designer to collaborate with.
Tad Carpenter's Yeah! Burger...
A more detailed collection of images on flickr...
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Aug 6
Learning
In academic and media circles Edward Tufte has long been touted as the master of data visualization. If that is the case, why do I find so much of his work (and the explanation of it) nearly incomprehensible?
Sacrilege? You tell me.
In a recent interview with Advertising Age he said, "Graphics are at their best for really large data sets, as in sparklines for time series and NASA's photographs of the Earth. Sensibly-designed tables usually outperform graphics for data sets under 100 numbers. The average numbers of numbers in a sports or weather or financial table is 120 numbers (which hundreds of million people read daily); the average number of numbers in a PowerPoint table is 12 (which no one can make sense of because the ability to make smart multiple comparisons is lost). Few commercial artists can count and many merely put lipstick on a tiny pig. They have done enormous harm to data reasoning, thankfully partially compensated for by data in sports and weather reports."
Really? Only "Sensibly-designed tables?"
Is "100 numbers" a hard number or does it have a margin of error?
Are "commercial artists" less intelligent than artists who are not paid for their work?
Hmmm. Mr. Tufte is one of those experts who seems to know exactly how everything should be done and how inadequate everyone around him is at doing it. Yes. If I read far enough and analyze long enough I see some of his points and sometimes agree with his assessments. But I think too that there are often ways of doing things that don't fall within these margins or the perceptions of a single human being.
Edward Tufte: The AdAgeStat Q&A...
Tufte has a new exhibit opening in September. What follows is a document that previews that exhibit. All Possible Photons: The Conceptual and Cognitive Art of Feynman Diagrams (3.4MB PDF)...
Tufte is the author of Envisioning Information
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Aug 1
Illustration
This is really interesting. Invisible Creature is a team of brothers — Don and Ryan Clark. Their work is superb and who does what is, at first blush, completely transparent.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
The whole portfolio...
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Jul 30
Illustration
The winners of the Best Illusion of The Year Contest for 2012 have been posted. I point you to them again this year because I think they offer valuable insights into ways of capturing interest through visual means.
The contest is held by the Neural Correlate Society, a nonprofit organization that, "promotes scientific research into the neural correlates of sensory perception, awareness, and cognitive experience."
The 2012 finalists...
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Jul 27
Illustration
Illustrator? Animator? Architect? Designer? Typographer? I'm not certain what to call Bradley W. Schenck. Instead, I'll just direct you to his web page labyrinth and you can decide for yourself.
The Celtic Art Works...
Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual...
The Toaster With TWO BRAINS...
The Webomator...
About Bradley W. Schenck...
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Jul 23
Print Design
There are two types of people in the world: Those who care about writing instruments and those who don't. Which one are you? If you can pick up a ballpoint pen without thinking about its design and functionality, you are far too sane and practical to care about this post — you may leave the room.
If, however, you are so obsessed, you will LOVE JetPens.com — and, by the end of this session, will have shelled out at least twenty or thirty bucks you hadn't planned on spending today. Sorry.
These are a few of pencils and pens I've purchased in the last few years.
My favorite: The Pentel Sharp Kerry Mechanical Pencil...
Uni-ball Alpha Gel Shaka Ballpoint Pen...
Retro 51 Tornado...
Zebra Tect 2way 1000 Drafting Pencil...
The home page...
I reviewed the Pentel Sharp Kerry Mechanical Pencil for CoolTools...
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Jul 20
Copywriting
As its author, Maria Popova, defines it, "Brain Pickings is a human-powered discovery engine for interestingness, culling and curating cross-disciplinary curiosity-quenchers, and separating the signal from the noise to bring you things you didn't know you were interested in until you are." The quality of the definition gives you a taste of the type of information you'll find there.
What got me headed in this direction was the list of Henry Miller's 11 Commandments of Writing included in the ZinZin's Naming Guide I mentioned last time. Brain Pickings, a wonderful collection of insight-insights, presents Miller's list as well as tips on writing from David Ogilvy.
How to write? These are two of the masters — at two ends of the spectrum.
Henry Miller's 11 Commandments of Writing & Daily Creative Routine...
10 Tips on Writing from David Ogilvy..
The Brain Pickings home page...
Maria Popova's Twitter feed...
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Jul 18
Marketing PR
We all profit when someone, who is good at what they do, is confident enough to tell us how they think. I recently stumbled on a particularly valuable set of insights published by ZinZin, a naming and branding agency.
It doesn't get much better than this. I assume we are reading (for the most part) the philosophies of ZinZin's chief executive, Jay Jurisich — formally the co-founder and creative director of branding agency Igor.
Why reveal your core ideas? Because, while there is lots of science to naming, the spark, the magic of naming, is an art.
The ZinZin Naming Guide (923KB PDF)...
The Compendium of Amazing Names...
The ZinZin website...
ZinZin/Jay Jurisich's Twitter feed...
No surprise that Jay Jurisich is an artist...
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Jul 16
Learning
I'm going to veer off my regular track today to discuss something I feel strongly about: good customer service and the lack of it.
Why discuss customer service in the context of marketing and design? Because you can spend a fortune getting people to try your client's product or service, but if they or their employee does a poor job of serving the customer, their entire investment — the storefront, the office, the inventory, the marketing materials, and so — can all be lost in a matter of moments.
I want to propose a different way of thinking about customer service — a simple concept that you can share with others that doesn't take a lot of explaining. Here it is. Chuck Green's new rule of customer service:
Treat every customer as if they were the friend of a friend.
That's it. A simple, easy to understand maxim that, if everyone were to follow, would turn bad customer service good overnight.
By the friend of a friend I mean someone you don't necessarily know much about, perhaps whose name you don't even remember — just someone who you recognize as the friend or acquaintance of someone you care about.
How would that change things? Because you would treat them as if there was some consequence to your encounter.
If you recognized the person walking up to the proverbial counter as the friend of a friend, wouldn't you turn your full attention to them for a moment?
Wouldn't you be certain that they were treated well by your organization?
Wouldn't you be slightly embarrassed, perhaps a little protective of them, if your organization let them down in some way?
And, if they were unhappy with how they were treated, wouldn't you say something to assuage them -- something to lessen the tension or improve the situation?
Of course you would.
It is that simple recognition, that tiny little distinction, that separates good customer service from dismal customer service. And the oddest thing about it is, it costs absolutely nothing to provide yet it is something that can clearly make or break an organization.
So I ask anyone who accepts a paycheck for interacting with customers and clients: Isn't it your ethical responsibility to act in a manner that does so much good for the organization? Isn't it clearly better for the customer, you, and your organization all around that you extend yourself in this way?
And here's an even larger question (the toughest one of all) &mdash a question every employee should ask themselves: If you acknowledge the importance of good customer service and you're still unwilling to provide it, is it fair or ethical of you to continue to work for the organization that employs you?
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Jul 11
Web Design
The good news is high definition imagery is approaching the highest definition the human eye can articulate. The bad news is, the next step is going to be a painful one.
Why? Because, for the next generation of high definition devices, most everything we're designing today is going to need to be produced at a higher resolution.
I didn't really pay much attention to this until my son Rob brought his new MacBook Pro by the other night for me to drool over (no worries — no actual drool).
He showed me that when you view conventional web pages and typical applications on the MacBook Pro's super high resolution Retina display, it looks a little fuzzy. Yes, fuzzy.
That's because the most of the images created for websites are not high enough resolution to display with their normal clarity. I'm not saying they look terrible, I'm saying, if you look closely, you'll notice a very slight blur (there are some simulations of this in the links below).
And that points to a very significant issue for designers as we go forward. To produce images that look good on the next generation of high definition displays, the formula for graphics will have to change. Actually it already is, it's just that not a lot of designers have adopted the newly changing standards.
I'm not telling you this because I have an easy fix — I'm telling you this because the issue needs to be on your radar. The following articles explain the issue from various points of view and point to some developing workflows.
Peter Svensson writes... First Look: New MacBook screen is epiphany...
From Mashable.com... New iPad's Retina Display Reduces Eye Strain, Expert Say by Peter Pachal...
From Apple support... MacBook Pro: Frequently asked questions about using a Retina display...
The differences...
Thomas Fuchs made a splash recently with this article... Flowchart: how to retinafy your website...
From bjango.com... Designing for Retina display...
And... Designing for Retina display, part two...
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Jul 9
Ideas 101
Alex Knapp of Forbes estimates the cost thus far of finding a particle consistant with that of a Higgs boson has cost the world $13.25 billion. The problem is that explaining the significance of the discovery is almost as complex as explaining an annuitized life insurance plan — 99.9 percent of us don't even understand what we don't understand about it.
THAT is the ultimate challenge of graphic design. To use words and imagery to break ideas into pieces that are digestible to the audience they are designed to address.
I like these links on two levels. First, I'm curious about the importance and ramifications of the Higgs boson discovery and in seeing how designers, writers, scientists, and others are going about communicating this highly complex event.
If CERN spokesperson Joseph Incandela's statement, "We're reaching into the fabric of the universe," doesn't capture your interest, I'd like to know what does.
The announcement from CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research): The discovery of a particle consistent with a Higgs bison...
From PhdComics.com: The Higgs Boson Explained by Jorge Cham...
From HowStuffWorks.com: What exactly is the Higgs boson? By Jonathan Atteberry...
From ScientificAmerican.com: What Is the Higgs Boson? By George Musser...
From MinutePhysics.com: The Higgs Boson, Part I...
From NationalGeographic.com: The big science of the very small...
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Jul 6
Print Design
Here's a thoughtful documentary filmmaker Hanah Ryu Chung describes as, "A humble exploration of the world of print".
"I hope", she explains, "for the film to stir thought and elicit discussion about the immersive reading experience and the lost craft of the book arts, from the people who are still passionate about reading on paper as well as those who are not."
Thanks to Janine Vangool at UPPERCASE magazine for pointing us to it.
Epilogue, The future of print...
The documentary website...
An earlier post about UPPERCASE magazine...
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Jul 4
Marketing PR
Seth Godin points us to an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal: Your E-Book Is Reading You, Digital-book publishers and retailers now know more about their readers than ever before. How that's changing the experience of reading.
Telling people what they want to hear is nothing new. The precise science of mentally and emotionally serving up exactly what they desire is. I like the idea of understanding how to meet people's needs and to provide products and services that suite them. But I'm not crazy about the idea of perfecting everything to fit within the clearly defined wants of the market.
That, to me, would seem to narrow the amount of energy that is devoted to produce new ways of doing things or ways of doing things that the majority doesn't much like. Isn't it often the counterintuitive and rebellious ideas that end up producing the most powerful impact?
Research and analytics have their place, but let's not lose the spontaneity of trial and error — it is a core principle of the creative process.
From the Wall Street Journal: Your E-Book Is Reading You...
An accompanying video clip...
Seth Godin's insight...
Seth's latest book: We Are All Weird...
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Jul 2
Lou Beach uses collage and assemblage to tell stories. He's been around for a long time creating editorial and commercial work.
Last year Houghton Mifflin Harcourt published 420 CHARACTERS, a book of short fiction pieces. (420 references the one-time 420 character limitation of a Facebook post.)
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
Lou Beach's website...
Beach is the author of 420 CHARACTERS...
An interview with Beach about his book...
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Jun 29
Learning
Thank God, someone finally said it. To me brainstorming is like eating a raw oyster: I'm supposed to like it, I want to like it, but it just makes me gag.
Vindication, at long last, has come from Susan Cain's insightful piece for the New York Time titled, "The Rise of the New Groupthink".
In part she says, "Conversely, brainstorming sessions are one of the worst possible ways to stimulate creativity... But decades of research show that individuals almost always perform better than groups in both quality and quantity, and group performance gets worse as group size increases."
More on Susan Cain later.
The Rise of the New Groupthink...
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Jun 27
Web Design
Simply put, an Application Programming Interface (API) is a structured process through which you access data that another party chooses to make available to you. APIs are used by many organizations that compile and organize various types of data, for the purpose of encouraging others re-use the same data in ways that make it of value to a wider audience.
Sometimes access to the data is free and anonymous, some sources require that you identify yourself and pay for using it.
So who cares? We do. Designers, marketers, and their clients can use APIs to create a "mashup" — the action of combining data from two or more sources to make something new and different.
Coding the API data once you have accessed it may not be something every designer is prepared to tackle, but knowing the types of data available and being aware of what might be possible is important.
To that end I'm pointing you to some further explanations of the API process and I've listed some examples of the many types data available through APIs.
Here James Williamson explains APIs as part of his Web Design Fundamentals class (below)...
(That video segment is from this Web Design Fundamentals class on Lynda.com)
I like how Chrys Wu explains the process in this article: Beginner's guide for journalists who want to understand API documentation...
Example 1: The API to The New York Times...
Example 2: The API to Google Maps...
Example 3: The API to Zillow Real Estate and Mortgage Data...
ProgrammableWeb.com's API Dashboard...
About writing API documentation...
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Jun 25
Print Design
Print is still the best way to deliver many types of messages
I consider myself pretty neutral on the relative value of print versus online communications. I'm as comfortable producing a brochure as I am a web page.
But I sense that print is getting a bad rap — it seems, is becoming a second class citizen. For what it's worth, here's a heads-up: Print, in many cases, continues to dwarf digital in the response category. There is some science to the assertion that a message in hand trumps its digital counterpart.
Digital (obviously) is a highly effective and efficient way to communicate, but let's not lose track of the fact that print is still, in many cases, the best way to cut through the clutter.
Here's some proof... (Thanks to Karla Humphrey for pointing us to the Millward Brown piece.)
A summary of the DMA's 2012 Response Rate Trends Report...
A Millward Brown case study on Using Neuroscience to Understand the Role of Direct Mail (725KB PDF)...
The Royal Mail's Mail Media Center on What is neuroscience and why is it important for marketers?...
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Jun 21
Learning
Early in my career I worked as a freelance designer in Richmond, Virginia. Contrary to what you might think, Richmond has long been a hub of the advertising business, primarily because Richmond Professional Institute, now Virginia Commonwealth University, has been churning out art, design, and advertising graduates since the 1930s.
I worked for a bunch of advertising agencies, among them, Brand Edmonds Bolio (when Lu Matthews was an art director), Siddall (when Stan Matus and Peter Coughter still had their names on the door), Webb & Athey (for Dee Webb and the irascible Dick Athey), and The Martin Agency (when Harry Jacobs was the creative head and Mike Hughes was still an up-and-comer).
Haha... as Dickens said, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness..." I spent countless days and nights creating storyboards, comping ads for presentations, building those signature presentation boxes (that Diane CookTench and Chris Overholser dreamt up for Siddall), and pasting-up and produced literally hundreds of print pieces.
I'm reminiscing because it was reported locally today that The Martin Agency, now a big force in advertising (Walmart, GEICO, Moen, PING, Pizza Hut) and it's Creative Director John Norman, are parting ways after just two years.
I don't have the slightest idea what happened, I lost track of local agency goings-on soon after the web caught my eye. It just reminded me of how volatile a business advertising was then and is today.
From whatever angle you view it, the design and agency business is a grand soap opera. A full length feature soap opera that tells idealized tales of falling in love, courting, marriage, and the divorce of clients and agencies and agencies and the people who populate them. It is a business that, by its nature, builds great expectations, reaches exhilarating heights, then — sometimes graciously, sometimes rudely — steps aside and watches helplessly as these players or those wither away or crash and burn.
What's the point? I love it — the whole mess — design and marketing and the relationships between clients, agencies, business people, and creatives. It's high-theatre, artistry, commerce, and psychology all rolled into one. If you have a penchant for drama (and a strong stomach) you won't find a more interesting, exciting, unpredictable way of making a living.
The marriage...
and the divorce...
Today's Martin Agency...
John Norman...
will reportedly be replaced by Joe Alexander...
"Like sands through the hourglass so are the Days of our Lives"...
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Jun 20
Illustration
We all dream. I guess that's what I like about illustration is that, in cases like this, you get a sense of how someone else imagines something. To me, it's just plain interesting to see the interpretation of an idea without the encumbrance of an explanation.
This is some brilliant stuff.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
Wiens' view of Birdhouse City...
(It's a real place)...
His Drawger blog...
and website...
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Jun 18
Mary Meeker is an analyst and a venture capitalist for Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers. As they say, when Meeker speaks, the investment world listens. Here is her recent presentation for to D: All Things Digital.
An interview with Mary Meeker...
Meeker's slide presentation...
A summary from the Washington Post...
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Jun 15
Illustration
I appreciate a good icon — simplicity is tough to achieve. I'm impressed by these. I think Tim Boelaars has created something very much out of the ordinary.
The icons...
A recent interview with the designer, Tim Boelaars...
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Jun 13
Graphics Tech
Email design is a world unto itself. You'd think it would be easy, but as anyone who has done it knows, it is a format fraught with all types of issues — there's the marketing side, the design side, and the technical side. There's lots to know and lots to try.
My son Jeff Green specializes in email design and knows lots of the technical ins and outs. Recently he shared a couple of links that caught my attention and have gotten me interested in delving deeper. Hope you find them as interesting as I do.
New school marketing...
Example of one of many full-sized images...
The Retail Email Blog...
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Jun 11
Photography
I'm guessing most non-designers don't realize the amount of work it takes to photograph and edit product shots. It can take hours to shoot and edit a single image.
These videos reveal the reality of, first, the lighting and photography of a wristwatch, then the cleanup and editing.
Behind the scenes of product photography by Alex Koloskov (yes, the audio is poor)...
A time lapse of the post production of the same photograph by Genia Larionova...
Some background on the videos...
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Jun 8
Learning
As you know, my posts are always design-oriented. This may not appear, on its surface,to hold to that rule, but I believe the message is as appropriate for seasoned designers as it is for the students for whom it was intended.
It is the transcript of a commencement address by high school English teacher David McCullough Jr. to this years graduating class of Wellesley High School in Wellesley, Massachusetts. It struck me as something every designer (and human being) would profit from reading.
Why? Because we're growing a culture that's getting ahead of itself and, as designers, understanding such shifts is paramount. McCullough says, in part, "No longer is it how you play the game, no longer is it even whether you win or lose, or learn or grow, or enjoy yourself doing it... Now it's 'So what does this get me?' As a consequence, we cheapen worthy endeavors..."
Stick with me here, you're going to see the connection.
Thanks to my friend Ken Cheetham for pointing us to it.
You're not special...
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Jun 6
Learning
If you've watched The Pitch on AMC you've seen a little slice of how advertising agencies go about pitching accounts. It dresses a very complex process in deceptively simple clothing. While most designers will never lead a team of executives into a board room and pitch a multi-million dollar account all designers do, in their own way, struggle with many of the same issues.
To that end I invite you to read (along with me) an interesting book about the pitch process: The Win Without Pitching Manifesto by Blair Enns. Yes, I have not read it, but I have done enough research to know that it is well thought of by those who have. Right or wrong, this provocative paragraph from the introduction convinced me it was worth pointing to:
"The forces of the creative professions are aligned against the artist. These forces pressure him to give his work away for free as a means of proving his worthiness of the assignment. Clients demand it. Designers, art directors, writers and other creative professionals resign themselves to it. Trade associations are powerless against it. Consultants and outsourced business development firms earn their living by perpetuating it. And conferences put the worst offenders from all sides on stage and have them preach about how to get better at it."
I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts (use the "Comment" area below).
Introduction to The Win Without Pitching Manifesto...
The complete book online...
Blair Enns talks about taking control...
In case you missed it, The Pitch on AMC...
The hardcopy version of The Win Without Pitching Manifesto...
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Jun 4
Ideas 101
A friend recently asked me about a problem every designer has struggled with...
You have acquired some design business and the interested, engaged person who awarded it to you has handed you off to the person in charge of managing the project. The problem is, the manager has no design sense or any of the enthusiasm for your work that the high-up did. To compound the problem, they want you to, in essence, carry out their vision for the design which is, in your view, off the mark. What would you do?
I replied:
If this is a decision-maker, I'd blame myself. It's my job as a designer to produce work that wows my client. If I can't figure out how to wow the intermediary or at least satisfy their need, I won't have the account long.
If the decision-maker is nit-picking the design, I try to communicate Article 7 of my Design Constitution about Aesthetics. Again, it's on me. Once they understand where I'm coming from, if I can't make them happy, no matter how difficult they are to please, it's on me. (I'm not suggesting you send your client the Design Constitution, just that you incorporate it in your thinking.)
If, however, this is a person between me and the decision-maker (an intermediary), I'd try to (subtly) get the decision-maker involved. I would copy them on emails to the intermediary and explain what I'm doing and why I'm doing it in genial terms (it's very important to avoid being confrontational — that demonstrates an inability to successfully cope with everyday difficulties). Then, if the intermediary makes tries to muscle their way around, the decision-maker can see who's being unreasonable and who isn't and, hopefully, wave them off.
All that said, a great designer will find a way (in most cases) of satisfying everyone's primary need. Design is opinion and part of being a designer is recognizing that others have opinions as well. The question becomes: How can you move forward in a way that respects the opinion and acknowledges the needs of everyone involved. That's called leadership.
Your turn: How would you counsel this designer?
The Design Constitution (160KB PDF)...
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