iYes!
2007.08.08 08:30
The Apple event, yesterday, brought a lot of great new goodies for your favorite Apple geeks. Since I cannot afford a new machine, however, I am focused on the new updates to the iApps; iWork and iLife 08. Both of these suites have been updated with new features, functions and in some instances new applications (Numbers).
One of the cooler features, well there are tons but, the web gallery from iPhoto is something else…especially for plogs. Set up the gallery and allow uploading by email and you can update your cool web 2.0 image gallery on the go. One problem I had was not being able to publish from iPhoto and some quick research provides an update to the brand new app, already. I am guessing, since there is so little info, but there was an oversight in the handling of upgraded images. Ultimately, a quick update and restart the app and I had a test gallery up and running.
These 2 suites are some of the best values you can find and I would recommend them to anyone.
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Yo ho, a pirate's life for me…
2007.05.08 08:07
TresTriges has some very cool, albeit very expensive, shirts available. Being a happy former member of mousecatraz, I find this one the most appropriate.
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Internet Ad Competition
2007.03.15 12:13
I was a judge for the recent Internet Ad Competition. There was some great work submitted and the winners have been announced.
And, TMX Communications of Conshohocken, PA was recognized with the 2006 Top Agency Award. Congratulations to all the winners.
- Fishbowl Marketing for Shamrock The Vote
(Best Ads the Client Did Not Pick) - IQ Interactive for "Explorer" Video Newsletter
(Best of Show Email Message) - NASCAR.com/Datran Media for NASCAR.com Revs Up Fans with Email Marketing
(Best of Show Email Message Campaign) - TMX Communications for Find the Time Capsule Campaign
(Best of Show Integrated ad campaign) - Hornall Anderson Design Works for My Family
(Best of Show Interactive Application) - Wunderman Team Detroit for My Dream
(Best of Show Microsite/Landing Page) - Idea Integration for Sony Noise Canceling Headphones
(Best of Show Online ad) - Palm Communication for Oryctolagus cuniculus
(Best of Show Online Campaign) - Coldwell Banker Seal for Coldwell Banker Barbara Sue Seal eNews
(Best of Show Online Newsletter Campaign) - Ayzenberg Group for Mobile Suite Gundam: CROSSFIRE rich media creative
(Best of Show Rich Media Online Ad) - Profero for Mess With Your Mind
(Best of Show Rich Media Online Campaign)
And, TMX Communications of Conshohocken, PA was recognized with the 2006 Top Agency Award. Congratulations to all the winners.
Pulp
2007.03.06 13:33
Man, I do not know whether this movie is any good, but the posters are great pulpy goodness. Check out this wonderful homage to a bygone era of entertainment.
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MooTools
2007.02.27 09:31
Mad4Milk has released MooTools: MooTools is a compact, modular, Object-Oriented javascript framework designed to make writing extensible and compatible code easier and faster. Essentially MooTools provides a creative solution to animating items on your webpage.
Internet Advertising Competition
2007.02.27 09:19
The IAC is another award show dedicated to online advertising. Last year there were some pretty cool submissions that won and it should be a good year for the winners. Looking forward to seeing what the judges deem worthy for the awards.
Full Single
2007.01.30 13:14
Yetihotel is a site designed to promote the newest attraction, Expedition Everest, at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The design was picked up and is featured on Full Single. The site was really supposed to be much more of an immersive experience, but as projects tend to go had to be scaled back. Still a nice site, in my mind (although I am a bit biased), that has some custom AS code for the animations and reflects the feel of the ride.
Special Olympics Florida
2007.01.22 08:00
Special Olympics Florida is a charity that I have been involved with over the past year and half through work. "Special Olympics is a worldwide movement where one can act locally, but make a global impact. With over 300,000 competitions around the world each year, with training taking place every day, with family leaders, athlete leaders and volunteers extending our message every day, Special Olympics is no longer just an event. We are a movement, inviting the world not just to attend Games but to think, feel, and act differently about everything - to come help create a world of acceptance and inclusion for all."
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Gallery sites
2006.11.13 08:09
There seems to be an explosion of gallery sites, specifically sites geared to highlighting great work with web-standards. The mother of all these sites, in my mind, would be CSS Zen Garden; this site more than any other has showcased what good design can do when coupled with web standards.
Web Creme
CSS Mania
CSS Remix
CSSTux
Style Gala
Now I am all for promoting good work, but with the sheer number of these sites, the amount of duplication of efforts has begun to show itself. Some offer rankings, while others are just blind links to the site with nothing more than a screenshot of the site. There are, however, a couple of sites that stand out and provide more than a simple gallery of the latest and greatest. CSS Globe is hoping to add more to the conversation, as is CSS Beauty.
I think many of these sites will either have to begin offering more to their visitors, or they will lose their relevance to the design community. Providing examples of well-designed sites with no discussion on why they may be good or relevant is incomplete. As a design community, there must be a place to discuss the merits of good design and the cause + effect relationship it may have had on the project(s).
It is like grade school, where we were admonished to show our work, so we may gain some credit even if the final answer was wrong. Design is a speculative business and what I consider a fine design may not be universally held. Discussion of defined merits of a design and how it may or may not succeed in the marketplace is invaluable as we move the design community forward in the ether that is web 2.0.
Tutorial - Chrome in Photoshop
2006.10.22 23:02
Anyone who was alive in the seventies will hopefully appreciate this little tutorial. I remember airbrushing these type of effects a hundred years ago…in fact I still own several thousand dollars worth of airbrush equipment. One brush I bought for close to $700 weeks before an update to the Mac OS that made it a more viable solution for the type of work I was doing than the traditional way.
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Tutorial - Layer Adjustment in Photoshop
2006.10.01 08:23
An often overlooked method of working with imagery in Photoshop is the use of Adjustment Layers. This provides the means to retouch an image in a non-destructive way. When you select an image and adjust its Levels or Curves you have altered that image, but using an Adjustment Layer for that identical process provides the same results but without altering the original image. This allows the ability to step back to the original image for any reason.
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Tutorial - Transparent masks in Illustrator
2006.09.18 07:48
Photoshop is the king of image manipulation. Adobe has done some great things with the app over the years and it has shown in every new release. Sometimes, however, it is not the first choice for creating imagery. Your needs may require an image that needs to be resolution independant which would lead you to Photoshop's sister app, Illustrator. Although there are overlaps between the two applications, creating similar graphics require different approaches. Read More...
Photoshop Actions
2006.09.08 12:54
One of the great things about working on a Mac is the ability to customize and script almost every aspect of your daily routine with ease. This functionality extends to every application, either by inclusion within their code or by using AppleScript. Adobe has provided Actions within Photoshop for several versions now, but many artists I know do not use them to streamline their workflow. Read More...
Design is more than a service industry.
2006.09.01 09:08
Roger Johansson has a great site with insightful commentary, but one of his more recent musings touched upon a debate we have been having at work recently; his thesis was about the ten things a company should know before building a website. He references another designer, Andy Budd, who recently asked his site visitors what 3 things we, as designers, wished our clients knew about the web that generated a lot of input from the community. Both of these highlight the issue of how to approach your role with your clients. Are we merely a service industry, taking orders and fulfilling them, or are we providing more valuable counsel, such as an attorney or financial planner?
Having worked as a artist (read: layout, illustrator, graphic designer, photographer, video editor, compositor, web designer, programmer, chief cook & bottle washer) for nearly twenty years I continually assess where the industry is and in which direction it may be moving towards. My thoughts on this matter tend more towards the latter; we should be providing counsel for the client and their business requirements. Actively engaging with them and the goals of the business rather than simply fulfilling an order for one creative development project. Read More...
Having worked as a artist (read: layout, illustrator, graphic designer, photographer, video editor, compositor, web designer, programmer, chief cook & bottle washer) for nearly twenty years I continually assess where the industry is and in which direction it may be moving towards. My thoughts on this matter tend more towards the latter; we should be providing counsel for the client and their business requirements. Actively engaging with them and the goals of the business rather than simply fulfilling an order for one creative development project. Read More...
Tutorial - Distress imagery in Photoshop
2006.08.30 14:40
Often times we are called to create imagery that reflects a specified tone or incorporates certain imagery to coincide with other marketing efforts for our clients. Adding a sense of realism to a logo on a wall, or aging a icon on a T-shirt adds that sense of believability that makes your digital work stand out from the rest of the crowd.
This is another technique to add some more life in your digital composites using some good free textures available through a quick Google; Mayang's offers some great shots for free (limited to 20 downloads a day or you can purchase them all for $45) and where I got this background. Read More...
Tutorial - Faking 3-D in Photoshop
2006.08.27 22:28
Within the design industry we are sometimes called upon to make simple things look much better than they actually are…like a make-up artist at the Emmy's (aw c'mon did you watch the show?). One of the tricks that I have learned over the years is adding more depth to elements creates a better sense of reality to the image.
While I was working at Disney, we had to develop numerous events and broadcasts. Without the time to really develop a 3-D model, light it and render out I came up with a simple series of steps in Photoshop to provide more depth to a simple Illustrator logo or icon. These plates always seem to generate a positive response from all of the associated parties. Read More...
Flash 9 Alpha
2006.08.14 09:02
Adobe Labs has released the Alpha version of Flash 9. You must sign up to have access to downloads, but I would recommend signing up. There are some great options available from this type of pre-release software to their support forums. Read More...
Some Open-Source Resources for Design
2006.08.14 07:45
One of the greatest assets that the internet and its associated online communities is the availability of open source solutions to design problems. Some of these solutions are the ready availability of code examples that can be used in your project(s) to full-scale applications that provide complete solutions for today's designers. Read More...
Methodology explained - Part III Develop
2006.07.30 22:10
In a brief introduction to our approach to a project we have been going over some of the larger concepts in working towards a finished site. The third stage in our process is development. Once the finished concept is signed and approved by the client, we then move to actually build the site. During the development process, we move from designing the experience to creating the site. Read More...
Methodology explained - Part II design
2006.06.25 21:36
In the second phase, of a 5 phase process for developing any project, we start working on the design of the site. The design will incorporate much more than just how the site will ultimately look. The design refers to the structural integrity of the information architecture as well as the aesthetics of the visual design. In order to develop an appropriately immersive experience to solve my client’s problem we begin, as they say, at the beginning. Read More...
Some more reference sites
2006.06.20 07:55
There is always a wealth of knowledge just a few clicks away. Here are some more sites that I frequent to research projects and use as a source of inspiration while developing sites. Read More...
Methodology explained - Part I Define
2006.06.09 23:43
I have been working in this business for nearly twenty years, although my training stretches back to my early childhood, and I have worked in every form of visual communications during that time. Each medium has its own requirements and discipline, but within all of these business models, the common elements are quality work produced on time and in budget.
This is a business and we must ensure due diligence to solve our clients problems, increase their business and return a profit to our company (regardless of whether you own it or work for da' man).Any time you can streamline a process, or refine a workflow to enhance the quality of the work while increasing profitability ensures that you are a valuable member of a company. Read More...
This is a business and we must ensure due diligence to solve our clients problems, increase their business and return a profit to our company (regardless of whether you own it or work for da' man).Any time you can streamline a process, or refine a workflow to enhance the quality of the work while increasing profitability ensures that you are a valuable member of a company. Read More...
Cool Time Magazine site
2006.05.31 08:50
