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Jan
6
Create365: Pristine Wilderness
Filed Under creativity, graphic design | View Comments
A friend moved to Alaska over the holidays and put out a general call for someone to create an Alaska-themed avatar for her.
My contribution is today’s creative offering:
Original photo by V. Orange. No infringement on copyright intended.
What I didn’t realize is that my fonts haven’t imported into GIMP for some reason, and given my current luck I didn’t feel compelled to push my luck. I don’t know that it’s quite what I wanted as a result.
I’ll have to wait and see what she thinks of it. Edit: I just heard from her, and she loves it. As usual, I’m my own worst critic.
Apr
5
The writer learns the design side
Filed Under art class, content development, graphic design | View Comments
There are different ways to learn, to develop processes. My favorite is experimentation. I like trying to figure out the best way to bring my vision to life.
For example, a few years ago I thought it would be fun to figure out how to write a graphic novel. I was just starting to really get into manga, and I’d learned about a world manga series that had been designed, in part, to help boost SAT verbal skills. It sounded like a great idea, so I started playing with it as a storytelling medium with an toward using it as a curriculum vehicle. I actually got pretty far with the script, but my lacking artistic talents put a quick stop to the project.
Right now, I’m consolidating everything from that project into digital files so I can archive it, get it out of the way of my current project, and still have it if I ever feel like pulling it out and playing with it. When I wrote the script, I included with each chapter my vision of how each page would be laid out. At the time, I was just trying to get some sort of flow. I made a small attempt to be mindful of where scenes started and ended within the pages.
I wish I’d been so mindful with my layouts. In putting things down digitally, I’ve discovered some interesting problems. For example, my placement and panel sizes give no real sense of hierarchy to the scene. Even better, for some reason I insisted on giving small boxes a lot of art and/or text and larger boxes little art and often no text. I actually drew out the first chapter, and then discovered that you can read the bubbles without ever being drawn to look at the art. While the story has flow, the layout doesn’t.
Once upon a time, I used to be good at laying out teacher guides, how-tos, and wayfinders. Now, I feel completely lost just trying to create a graphic novel. Same design principles…need more practice.
Oct
30
Branding concerns
Filed Under graphic design | View Comments
Yesterday, I went to replenish my tea supply. I’m a huge fan of Oregon Chai, and a long-time Celestial Seasonings addict. Both companies are in the process of revamping their look, and I’m not sure I’m okay with that.
Oregon Chai used to sport one or two toned boxes so you could visually tell what flavor you were picking up. The original flavor was in a box with a yellow body and a purple top. Well, not the boxes are their color for the body, but they all now sport a yellow top- essentially the reverse of the original. This one really isn’t that big a deal (except that it looks a bit odd).
Celestial Seasonings’ boxes used to be part of the experience. The company runs out of Boulder, Colorado and had a quirkiness to their boxes that seemed to carry with it that oddness that is patently Boulder. Artwork and quotes covered the box, almost wrapping it in a story. The quotes are still there. The artwork has been stylized to look more 2007 than 1997. The stories are gone, and so is the quirky look. The box now sports a two-toned design- one color fills the majority of the box, and another covers the top.
In fact, it looks a lot like the Oregon Chai design now. Perhaps this is the new packaging brand for teas, and we can expect something similar out of Bigelow, Twinings, and Good Earth soon?
The point of design in packaging is to make your product stand out, not homogenize your niche. I don’t feel like these two are accomplishing that.
Sep
9
This week was slightly more interesting
Filed Under education, graphic design, reading | View Comments
Things have been utterly crazy this week. The only books I’ve read have been two manga volumes late this week. Those who follow the Notebook have probably noticed it’s been conspicuously absent all week. iGoogle has some sort of connection error (that I can’t find any information on) every single night right as I get home from work (or right after Ghosty’s show, as was the case last night), and it lasts for an hour or two. And don’t get me started on work…aside from the fact that the new director is also from Texas. That makes three Texans in director or lead instructor ranks. (Remember that I live in the Puget Sound.)
So, the aggregator isn’t empty for a change, but some of what’s in there is just a reminder to myself to get some things done.
Let’s start with one of my favorite math blogs, Let’s Play Math. (I do have to see how other people do what I’m doing with Dead Bunny, after all.) Denise has been putting up old newsletters, and some of her work centers around Egyptian math (Very funny. You can all stop acting scandalized now.) It’s been rather interesting, but what I’m linking to here isn’t math as we tend to think of math. It’s an old favorite game that I didn’t realize is Egyptian in origin.
Next in the aggregator is a Wired article on the trend of virtual schools, and I only have it here to remind me to include virtual schools in my search for a new job.
Then I have a link I’m just saving to give to my best friend. It’s an interview with Maki Murakami, the manga-ka for Gravitation.
Another post in the aggregator reminds me that I do actually need to get my act together and interact with 100 Bloggers this month. The problem is, I have the perfect post for the first criteria, but I think I wrote it at the end of August.
Finally, there’s a post on the Muller Formula from one of my new favorite blogs ColourLovers. It really seems to be about hue and brightness, but I wanted to look over it some more.
OF course, the week wouldn’t be complete without a quote, and I happen to have one from a man I seem to be collecting a lot of quotes from :
“The important thing is not to stop questioning.”- Albert Einstein (Source)
Very sage advice, Mr. Einstein.
All right, I have save the world before going to that place I really just don’t want to go. I might even read some email along the way…
Mar
13
The truth about design
Filed Under graphic design, web design | View Comments
As I’m reading through my aggregator and reading list every week, I find topics that make me think, “Wow! This needs to be shared.” I generally resist the impulse for a few days, waiting to see what the fallout is.
You see, good blog posts seem to inspire some sort of fallout, whether it’s positive or negative.
That happened with this posting of five design principles. I thought all five of them were fairly obvious. Technology servers humans. Experience is designed with the user in mind Design should never be obvious or overly complex.
Seems pretty straight forward, really. The standard things you cover the minute you set foot in any basic design class.
Sure enough, though, designers of various breeds were weighing in on it. Working Solo actually pointed me to the post to begin with with Leah’s post on how design is contextual. It’s true. Try taking an experience out of the context it was intended for, and you can almost guarantee yourself a baffled audience.
However, that same point was being contested by Mark Boulton, a designer who has pretty much seen it all (and tends to have an interesting take on it). In some ways, Boulton’s rant reminds me of the portfolio on display at the Art Institute downtown. The Industrial Design students have pictures of some of their work, along with an explanation of what the item is and where the student envisioned it being used. If not for the description, I’d have never guessed what half of the items were, but there was a definite creativity and usability to the items I could identify. It’s a blending work.
So…design is usable, but can be artistic. Design is contextual, but doesn’t have to be dry in its context. (I’m pretty sure that’s oversimplifying a complex question.)
Nov
28
Lines convey interpretation
Filed Under content development, graphic design, web design | View Comments
I’m reading an e-book this week that’s got me thinking, not as much about the content as the organization of the content. This was one of the aims of the book, so it’s successful in that!
It’s filled with flowcharts to help give the concepts in the book a visual element. The book is seeking to show how much the topic defies organization by trying to impose organization. When the book is merely illustrating the book’s own structure, the lines in the flowchart are straight. When it is trying to demonstrate the nebulous nature of the the topic, the lines are curved.
Now, many studies have been done on straight lines vs. curved, or organic, lines, but this e-book really uses the lines well to help convey the intended meaning of the flowchart.
It’s almost inspirational from a design standpoint.
Aug
1
Do you have your White?
Filed Under graphic design, web design | View Comments
My fourth-edition Strunk and White lives on a book shelf under my desk for quick reference. Mom always told me I’d need one.
She failed to tell me that I’d be pining for a hardcopy of The Elements of Design to sit right beside it.
Basically, someone took White’s principles, and interpreted them from a design perspective. The result is this useful quide that I’m sure will be as used as my Strunk and White has been!
May
23
Keep design concepts simple
Filed Under graphic design, web design | View Comments
In designing any sort of work, it’s so easy to get bogged down in the details of the design and completely lose site of the audience you’re designing for.
Let’s face it. Very few of us design for a vacuum. We all assume that somewhere down the line, somebody is eventually going to see our work. I don’t know about anyone else, but this understanding is actually what plays into my finally trying to develop versioning practices. I want to be able to hand someone the answer when they ask me how I arrived at a creation.
With this idea of the audience in mind, it figures that we should keep our design friendly for that audience, and that means keeping things as simple as is realistically possible. It means weaving a story into the design that can capture people’s attention and hold it until you are ready for them to walk away. Ultimately, if you think about it, that is what we are trying to accomplish. To keep someone engaged until we have communicated our purpose, our story, our theme, our view.
Apr
9
This great article suggests that managers need to create more “white space” in their workplace, but I think the metaphor can be further extended into all areas of one’s life.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, white space is an important part of anything published. White space is necessary to give the eyes a chance to relax between processing text and images. Otherwise, the eyes start suffering from strain, and they soon stop looking at what you want them to look at.
I think the concept of creating more “white space” in one’s life is an interesting one. One that many of my friends will be speaking to me about once they see this and it sinks in. When you don’t step back and take a break once in a while, it leaves you empty, and then you’re absolutely no good to your business.
Perhaps I can start by physically adding white space to my to-do list, as a visual reminder to add it to my daily activities as well.
Mar
8
The strangle hold of the modern copyright
Filed Under content development, creativity, graphic design, web design, writing | View Comments
Those who create and those who use those creations are finding it more and more difficult to work within the legalties of the current copyright laws. I remember learning about copyright laws in the museum law class I had to take in grad school. That was only a few years ago, and things have become even more strict.
If you haven’t had the opportunity to check out Creative Commons, you should, especially if you create anything. Creative Commons allows you to share your work on your terms. I haven’t yet used this, but I thoroughly intend to have a CC license on much of my work by the end of the year.
