Greetings Thank you for subscribing to my twice-monthly briefings. You've made it possible for me to develop a unique perspective on our industry.
If you've been around computing for a while, you might catch yourself thinking we've plateaued. That we've reached a spot where we can catch our breath. Then reality strikes... yet again.
I read a quote the other day by Kathy Hepinstall, former Creative Director at Chiat Day and Martin Agency, she said, "It used to be charming for a creative in advertising to be a technophobe. Not so anymore so climb out of the tar pit, Dino."
True yes? There is no rest for the designer. We've got to stay informed and know the techitory. I hope, in a small way what we do here aides you in keeping up with creativity and technology.
Be well, Chuck
Check out my Adobe InDesign Ideabook: 315 template files in 19 different categories Everything from brochures, newsletters, and direct mail to packaging, calendars, and books (one CD works with both Mac and PC). Use two or three files and you'll pay for the entire book and disc...
An elastic website
In a world of websites that look, increasingly, as if they were pickled in the same jar, Justin Lerner's JLern.com stands out. I like the elasticity of it, the color palette, and the fact that it all fits on a single page.
Justin Lerner...
Here > http://www.jlern.com/
Here's the mobile redirect version - it also works well...
Here > http://m.jlern.com/
The page above is a new design that replaces this now archived version...
Here > http://www.jlern.com/archived/
The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies relaunches
I almost never repeat a link here but after a long hiatus Lou Brooks, Doctor of Art Supplies, has re-opened the doors of the Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies. A better, newer, collection of recent commercial art history.
The front door...
Lou Brooks, of course, is a fabulously talented designer and illustrator. This is his website...
Here > http://www.loubrooks.com/
Design as action
The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis and the Smithsonian Institution's Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, in New York have co-organized an international exhibition titled Graphic Design: Now in Production - what is being called, "an ambitious look at the broad-ranging field of graphic design".
As the exhibit's website describes it, the exhibit "explores how graphic design has broadened its reach dramatically over the past decade, expanding from a specialized profession to a widely deployed tool." The work featured, "explores design-driven magazines, newspapers, books, and posters as well as branding programs for corporations, subcultures, and nations".
Whether or not you are able to visit the exhibit, I encourage you to order a copy of the exhibit catalogue, a 225-page book that includes hundreds of examples plus twenty-some opinion pieces on the recent history and current state of graphic design by the exhibit's curatorial team and others.
The irony is graphic design, as Ellen Lupton puts it, is "about doing something in the world" or pragmatics - and the very nature of such an exhibit is to look at the work and describe it (for the most part) outside the context for which it takes action. It will fascinating to see how well the exhibit is able to bridge that divide.
I'm anxious to see it - here are the venues:
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis through January 22, 2012
Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York, May 16, 2012
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, California, September 30, 2012
Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas, July 19, 2013
Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, Winston-Salem, NC, Oct 24, 2013
A quick overview...
Here > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pmRknCYP6A
Read the research on global mobile use -- from all angles You don't need to read the research to know that many workflows and types of communication are shifting from desktops and laptops to mobile devices. One stat says there are already 1.2 BILLION mobile Web users worldwide. That's WEB users. Another asserts that 87 percent of the world population or 5.9 people are already mobile subscribers. Wow, I realized we were in another big technological shift, but (I must admit) I didn't fully appreciate the scope of it.
How will all this effect you and your business? I encourage you to read some of the research. That's what I've been doing. As my clients get more deeply involved with mobile, I do too. And if you need an orientation on the subject, mobiThinking's Global mobile statistics for 2012 is a good place to start.
The link below will take you to the full listing plus I have chosen a few other reports and linked you to them, just to give you a sense of the depth of research available.
mobiThinking's Global mobile statistics for 2012...
Here > http://mobithinking.com/mobile-marketing-tools/latest-mobile-stats
Have you collected your free week of Lynda.com?
I signed up recently as an affiliate of Lynda Weinman's wonderful training website. To me, it is THE venue for learning how to use all of the top design-oriented software programs and for discovering more about the design business and its community. One of the perks is that I get to offer you 7-day free trial of the entire collection. What's in if for me? I get a small commission if you end up signing on after the trial.
Click here for a 7-day free trial to lynda.com From the "restate the obvious file"... If you use Adobe InDesign, I hope you're plugged into this best-of-the-best resource: InDesignSecrets.com. The tips, newsletter, and podcast are always interesting and timely. Authors David Blatner and Anne-Marie Concepcion and a long list of smart contributors will keep you up-to-the-minute on all things InDesign and Adobe.
Here > http://indesignsecrets.com/
Another stunning example of high definition shot on the Canon 5D Mark II -- a digital SLR Camera -- amazing. If you've never been to Yosemite, it is proof of the divine.
Here > http://vimeo.com/35396305
Here are example images produced using the new Lytro light field camera. It uses a sophisticated set of lens and software to capture multiple focus levels within a single image. That allows the person viewing the image to explore different levels and to zoom in and out. (Click to focus, double-click to zoom.)
Here > https://www.lytro.com/living-pictures/1698
To everyone who ever conducts job interviews...
I have run into a couple of colleagues lately who, after they were interviewed for a position, did not hear back from the potential employer (no less hear back from them in a timely manner). I believe the folks who told me, but I find such treatment unimaginable.v
If you're guilty of this offense, give me a moment (I can tell you the truth because I'm not in the market).
What I want to say is this: No matter who you interview, if someone has gone to the trouble of coming to shake your hand and tell you about themselves with the understanding that you might hire them, you are REQUIRED by any measurement of human decency to contact them in a timely manner and to give them a status of the process.
Maybe you're still considering them, maybe you've decided not to hire anyone, maybe you hired someone else, or maybe you haven't made a decision in the days since you spoke with them - the point is you OWE that person a thank you and an update - in writing or by phone. Period.
It doesn't matter if you're the CEO of a publicly traded corporation or the manager of a small business, you need to build a timely, meaningful response into your hiring process. If you delegate the responsibility to others and you're not clear if and how they follow up, you are equally at fault if it's not getting done. (It is not surprising that many of the most powerful people I've dealt in my career are also some of the most cognizant of other people's feelings - that's one reason they got to where they are.)
Disagree? I'd love to hear your thoughts. I just hate to think that anyone who has the wherewithal to hire someone else needs to be reminded to "do as you would be done by".
From the Ideabook.com Design Store Tintbook CMYK Process Color Selector: A palette of 25,000 CMYK process colors in print... Here > http://www.ideabook.com/store_tintbook.html Color Harmony Guide: From French designer Dominique Trapp... Here > http://www.ideabook.com/store_color_harmony.html Communicating With Color: Based on Leatrice Eiseman's seminars on the psychology of color...
Here > http://www.ideabook.com/store_pantone_guide.html
Would you support a rating system that reveals how much a particular image was digitally altered?
This paper, mentioned widely in recent days, addresses the digital alteration of photographs. Eric Kee and Hany Farid are the authors of A perceptual metric for photo retouching, published by the Department of Computer Science at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH.
I found this passage and much that follows to be most interesting, "We propose that the interests of advertisers, publishers, and consumers may be protected by providing a perceptually meaningful rating of the amount by which a person's appearance has been digitally altered. When published alongside a photo, such a rating can inform consumers of how much a photo has strayed from reality, and can also inform photo editors of exaggerated and perhaps unintended alterations to a person's appearance."
You can image the ramifications of such a rating could be both good and bad. Thought the authors devote much of their focus to "...highly idealized and unobtainable body images," I can image particularly practical uses of the technology such as detecting the amount of retouching used in creating that mouth-watering photograph of a hamburger.
Interesting, the acknowledgements tell us, "This work was supported by a gift from Adobe Systems, Inc., a gift from Microsoft, Inc. and a grant from the National Science Foundation...".
Describe pic link...
Here > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/Hany_Farid/Papers/Entries/2011/6/9_A_Perceptual_Metric_for_Photo_Retouching.html
About this newsletter I try to remain as objective as possible about the information I share here. Unless I tell you otherwise, I receive no compensation from the organizations and people mentioned except for occasional product samples. Comments? Suggestions? Write me at [email protected] -- Chuck
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