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PagePlane.com http://www.pageplane.com/ Chuck Green points to innovative and interesting examples of graphic design, web design, illustration, typography, and marketing. en Copyright 2012 Wed, 16 May 2012 19:42:47 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.38 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Meet illustrator Erwin Kho I point you to Erwin Kho because, first, his illustrations are beautiful, and second because his illustrations are absolutely unique. I just haven't seen anything like them and it's exciting when someone, out of the blue, takes you somewhere you've never been.

In case you're curious, trom what I've read, the tool he uses is Cinema 4D, a program we talked about last year.

Example 3...

Erwin Kho's portfolio...

And his blog...

The Cinema 4D website...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/illustration/erwin_kho.html http://www.pageplane.com/illustration/erwin_kho.html Illustration Wed, 16 May 2012 19:42:47 -0500 Why design education must change The older I get the more I realize how little I know. It's a fact of both my life and my profession. That said, I think what makes me a decent designer is that I'm always willing to learn and, for the most part, unconcerned with making studied mistakes.

Today I want to point you to a couple of articles on Core77 by Don Norman, one of the founders of the Nielsen Norman group. They discuss the growing complexity of the design professions and a warning that we need to improve design education.

But here's the takeaway: don't wait around for the ship of education to make its slow turn. To be a great designer you're going to have to know something about design and science. Norman points to the fact that there is plenty of misinformation about our trade — lots of it being propagated by design schools.

Why Design Education Must Change...

Design Education: Brilliance Without Substance...

About Don Norman...

Norman is an author of Living with Complexity...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/learning/design_education.html http://www.pageplane.com/learning/design_education.html Learning Mon, 14 May 2012 20:07:20 -0500 A designer (and portfolio) worth following If you're interested in user interface design, here's a rather extraordinary portfolio. Jason Wilson has participated in a few projects you might recognize.

For Facebook...

About Wilson...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/graphics_tech/a_portfolio_and_designer_worth.html http://www.pageplane.com/graphics_tech/a_portfolio_and_designer_worth.html Graphics Tech Fri, 11 May 2012 13:07:54 -0500 A surprised mind It doesn't happen often, but occasionally I see something that surprises my mind — such experiences are, to me, creative sustenance. I hope these images by photographer and artist Murat Germen have the effect on you that they did on me. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Murat Germen's Muta-Morphosis...

Asif Naqvi's Living Design offers a less complete but easier to access showing of Germen's work...

An earlier post about Living Design...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/basic_design/designer_surprise_your_mind.html http://www.pageplane.com/basic_design/designer_surprise_your_mind.html Basic design Wed, 09 May 2012 00:07:20 -0500 An exercise in design perspective Imagine you are Gerardus Mercator, the cartographer who produced the world map in 1569 that forever changed the world of navigation. The map was the Nova et Aucta Orbis Terrae Descriptio ad Usum Navigantium Emendata: the "new and augmented description of Earth corrected for the use of sailors".

Now take a few minutes to watch the video below. It is a composite of a series of time lapse sequences of photographs taken by the crew of International Space Station expeditions in 2011.

A composite view of the Earth from NASA images edited by Michael König...

Next, take a look at Mercator's map.

Gerardus Mercator's 16th century map...

My point is this: The video reveals the amazing details of the terrain Mercator was attempting to map. By comparison, his map was, in large part, inaccurate.

It got me thinking about how much I think I know and how potentially inaccurate and uninformed my efforts could be. I mention it because I think it's occasionally necessary to step back and acknowledge the limitations of our experience and knowledge. And to make a renewed effort to dig deeper and do better.

Mercator's work, of course, was genius. Maybe your's is too. But let's not forget that we all have much to learn, and even more important, that we don't know what we don't know.

An indepth, fascinating Wikipedia article on the Mercator 1569 world map...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/learning/design_perspective.html http://www.pageplane.com/learning/design_perspective.html Learning Mon, 07 May 2012 23:22:28 -0500 What every graphic designer needs to know about money illustrations As the United States Secret Service says, "The law sharply restricts photographs or other printed reproductions of paper currency, checks, bonds, revenue stamps and securities of the United States and foreign governments."

Yet, occasionally, I see advertisers using photographs and illustrations of currency in a size and proportion that is a violation of the law. These links point to the seriousness of the issue.

Official guidelines from the United States Secret Service...

A cautionary story about how an innocent promo went wrong...

An interesting aside: The design changes made to United States Currency in the last decade...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/print_design/money_illustrations.html http://www.pageplane.com/print_design/money_illustrations.html Print Design Sat, 05 May 2012 00:01:26 -0500 Meet illustrator Keith Negley The first time I saw Keith Negley's work I thought, "What medium is he using to create his illustrations?" They seemed too organic to be fully digitally produced and too digital-looking to be completely hand-painted or drawn.

Negley explains that he uses lots of different mediums — pencil, charcoal, tempera, cut paper, collage, and so on, — but that, more often than not, he uses ink and acrylic paint in combination with parts and pieces he creates using Adobe Illustrator.

No wonder they have such an unusual, storybook quality to them.

Example 2...

Negley's website...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/illustration/keith_negley.html http://www.pageplane.com/illustration/keith_negley.html Illustration Wed, 02 May 2012 12:25:31 -0500 A noteworthy minimalist website design I like the simplicity of this site created by the London design studio Spin for furniture designer and manufacturer Matthew Hilton.

The Matthew Hilton website...

Its journal/blog..

The site was designed by Spin in the UK...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/web_design/matthew_hilton_by_spin.html http://www.pageplane.com/web_design/matthew_hilton_by_spin.html Web Design Sun, 29 Apr 2012 20:47:30 -0500 Ever dream of seeing one of your illustrations on the cover of The New Yorker? As a kid, we always had a copy of the latest issue of The New Yorker magazine on the coffee table in our living room. I doubt I ever read a story, but I loved looking at the covers and the cartoons.

I grew up thinking, one day, I'd have one of my drawings on that cover. I figured I could draw more realistically than lots of the artists who illustrated New Yorker covers so why not? I guess it didn't occur to me, at a young age, that it was not that the artists couldn't draw realistically, it was that they were actively avoiding such realism.

In any case I've always been interested with the process so I was excited to find BlownCovers.com, subtitled the "New Yorker covers you were never meant to see". In hosts a weekly cover design contest juried by none other than Françoise Mouly, the current Art Director of The New Yorker.

Ms. Mouly explains the submission guidelines:

"The themes on the Blown Covers website closely mirror what I suggest to the New Yorker artists I already work with. This blog and contest are informal and not affiliated with the magazine but I'm always on the lookout for ideas."

"The theme for each weekly cover contest will be posted Monday mornings. To enter, please send sketches on the week's theme through the submissions page or email your sketches to blowncovers at gmail dot com. I prefer sketches to finished work and good ideas to good drawings. The deadline is Thursday at noon."

"Please keep submissions confidential in case they are selected for later publication. The winning sketch (according to my own subjective whims) will be posted on this site on Friday."

If you too have thought your illustrations deserved the attention of The New Yorker's worldwide audience, you have only to grab Françoise Mouly's attention and convince her of it. Good luck.

Past Themes and Winners...

The next week's theme...

About Françoise Mouly...

An example of an actual cover..

2012 cover archive...

2011 cover archive...

2010 cover archive...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/illustration/ever_dream_of_seeing_one_of_yo.html http://www.pageplane.com/illustration/ever_dream_of_seeing_one_of_yo.html Illustration Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:55:46 -0500 Two must-have tools for gathering intelligence about online technology use If you design websites you're always looking for the next best technological solution and ideas for matching your client's needs with available products and services.

The BuiltWith Search and Trends tools offer a good way to gather data about who's using what and what the trends are. BuiltWith analyzes a specific website and returns information about the technology that drives it. BuiltWith Trends, among other things, tracks the number of websites using each technology within specific groups — widgets, email hosts, payment providers, and so on.

Both of those are free. For a subscription, you can sign on for an even more powerful set of tools for finding and refining similar types of data.

If you're responsible for recommending online products and services, BuiltWith will surely become part of your toolset.

An example: What are the top content management Systems?...

And another: Which e-commerce platforms grew the fastest last month?...

Analyze a specific website using the BuiltWith search tool...

There are also free BuiltWith browser extensions that make it easy to analyze pages as you move around the web...

For Chrome

The advanced tools...

And a website optimizer...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/graphics_tech/online_technology_trends.html http://www.pageplane.com/graphics_tech/online_technology_trends.html Graphics Tech Wed, 25 Apr 2012 19:47:34 -0500 Today, a new website from The British Monarchy Today my friend Grahame Berney points us to a website that just went live. It is, "A new website about Queen Victoria's life, using material from the Royal Archives, has been launched by Buckingham Palace, as an educational and public resource to mark the Diamond Jubilee."

I thought you'd want to take a look.

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee Scrapbook...

And while you're in the neighborhood:

The official website of The British Monarchy...

The official website of The Queen's Diamond Jubilee...

The Royal Collection...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/web_design/today_a_new_website_from_the_b.html http://www.pageplane.com/web_design/today_a_new_website_from_the_b.html Web Design Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:11:52 -0500 Meet illustrator Chris Gash Chris Gash's illustrations regularly grace the pages of The Times, The Globe, The Post, and other prodigious publications. To me, he draws like a designer — meaning his work is clear and purposeful.

Example 1...

A nice little animated piece...

Gash's blog talks a lot about his process...

And his Tumblr page with some different perspectives...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/illustration/meet_illustrator_chris_gash.html http://www.pageplane.com/illustration/meet_illustrator_chris_gash.html Illustration Fri, 20 Apr 2012 22:50:32 -0500 A rare look inside Apple headquarters Years ago I was a member of the Microsoft Small Business Council, a group of six or eight authors and business owners chosen to put a face on Microsoft's small business efforts. For the announcement Microsoft flew us all to Redmond where we met its marketing team and got a look inside the headquarters.

Since then, I've always been interested in the culture of the big software and hardware companies. So I couldn't help myself when I saw this link from applegazette.com offering a look inside Apple headquarters.

I've been through Cupertino and the surrounding valley several times but I've never visited the Apple headquarters. Suffice it to say, what I have seen is fascinating — it's an intellectual, technological theme park. If you've never been, be sure to put it on your list of places to visit.

Inside Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California...

A bird's eye view of the Apple Campus...

The Apple organization chart from the May 23, 2011 issue of Fortune....

Sadly we won't see another image like this...

Haha... the Microsoft Small Business Council...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/learning/a_rare_look_inside_apple.html http://www.pageplane.com/learning/a_rare_look_inside_apple.html Learning Wed, 18 Apr 2012 23:11:52 -0500 How a great photographer creates an opportunity for something extraordinary to happen Some photographs look so effortless that you're tempted to think, "If I had the same equipment and opportunity, I'd have captured something equally as good." But then you remember that it is one's ability to control those details that dictates the quality of the result. It is access to the proper equipment, the knowledge of how to choose the right props, the wherewithal to assemble the players, and so on, that makes it possible for something extraordinary to happen.

Art Streiber is one of the most esteemed, prolific photographers on the scene in 2012. Here, I want to point you to a few of his many fascinating "ensemble" photographs.

Streiber's website...

An in depth interview with Steiber from Diego Guevara's THEE BLOG...

Stockland Martel, representative of Streiber's work...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/art_streiber.html http://www.pageplane.com/art_streiber.html Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:58:34 -0500 A lesson about how we perceive photographic imagery In the early 1900s, Russian chemist and photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii conducted a photographic survey of the Russian Empire. Between 1909 and 1915 he captured images from eleven regions of, what is otherwise, a thinly documented area of the world. What makes the images so unique is that he photographed them using an elaborate system that allowed him to reproduce the final images in color.

What I find instructive is how eerie they seem. Though they were taken 100 years ago, these vivid, high resolution photographs of people and places look as if they were taken on a movie set last week. Eerie, perhaps, because I'm just not used to seeing images from this long ago in natural color and my brain has a hard time finding them believable.

It's somewhat analogous to how the filtering effects applied to Instagram images inflence our perception of photographs folks are taking today. In that case, the effects remove the images from reality. (In case you're interested, here's a look at some new filters Facebook plans to offer now that they have acquired Instagram.)

Thanks to Russel Lacy for pointing us to it.

The complete gallery via the Library of Congress...

There are several venues that have edited and compiled some of the more interesting images in various forms. This is one of those compilations...

How it was done...

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]]> http://www.pageplane.com/photography/a_lesson_about_how_we_perceive.html http://www.pageplane.com/photography/a_lesson_about_how_we_perceive.html Photography Fri, 13 Apr 2012 11:14:44 -0500