Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending the first ever Square Tomato’s first Brown Bag Lunch. Larry Asher (Owner at School of Visual Concepts and Creative Director at Worker Bees, Inc.) was to speak about his “not-exactly-a-book” book and the future of digital advertising. For me especially, this whole event was a testament to social media, down to the way that I heard about it. The invitation to attend this informal “book talk” at the office in downtown Seattle was extended to me via Square Tomato’s Facebook feed.
This book talk had two parts. The Medium and the Message. I use the phrase “book talk” very loosely here. Yesterday’s presentation was indeed a talk about a book, but also about books, publishing, media and the new changes and challenges we face in the age of nonbooks. A book is a bunch of paper pages bound to a hard cover. A book is a presentation of information and ideas. With the rising increase of e-books and digital media, we need to stop and examine what a book can be. Newyorker writer, Ken Auletta, says: “If the same book is available in paper and paperless form, Amazon says, forty per cent of its customers order the electronic version.” (Newyorker article) In the case of Do or Die by Clark Kokich, it’s an app, an versatile multi-media, interactive book (App-book Do or Die).
Larry Asher is one of the brains behind the app-book. He remarked how much the world has changed due to new technology, showing a picture of Pudong (Shanghai) and its transformation after a mere 20 years (1990-2010). He compared that to the Internet and digital media. How people get their news and entertainment is very different from how it was twenty years ago. In 2008, Charlene Li publishes Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies and answers the question: How will we, as companies, survive in this unfamiliar terrain? She discusses how businesses can participate in the new social medium.
Larry Asher and Clark Kokich answer the question: How will we, as advertisers, survive in this unfamiliar terrain?
It’s fun to see what comes out of my noggin. I start with a reference photo and a palate of red, blue, yellow, white and black and end up with these things. An accident of how much pressure to put on the brush created a thick bold line that inspired more like it. Reminescent of Bob Dylan as rendered by Milton Glaser.
Day 2 of the 30 day challenge. The prompt: Draw Your Favorite Animal.
My favorite animal: dan. (that’s an animal, right?) by YokosoYoksurama by Dan Helton
The final design looks something like this. I replaced the company branding with “me-ipsum.”
Today, at the internship, I got an assignment: redesign a training course completion certificate for a heath care company. I was clarifying the verbal creative brief with my project manager. He relayed the mood adjectives and I made a mood board. It wasn’t so much a mood board as much as an answer to what does a certificate (specifically “non-academic”) look like?
I used three different programs to create this. I started with making vector shapes for the logo accessories. (These things are elements done in the brand’s style, but not the logo itself. Then, I used photoshop to get some embossing effects, then I put my images into InDesign then added the text. My design reflects corporate minimalism with attention to texture to give it an “authentic” appeal. I’m going to continue to play with it. It doesn’t have that “ahh…” moment. (That sigh of relief, when you thought you might fail and then at the end, it turns out you like your design.)
Thanks to the dryer machine effect of the Internet (the idea that you will never find that other sock and that you’ll never find the author of something that’s been circulating around so much), I don’t know who started this 30-day challenge, but I stumbled upon (using the discovery engine by the same name) Allison Lehman‘s design/photography blog where she starts the 30-day challenge. She found out about the challenge from a pin on Pinterest. So it goes.
I want to encourage everyone to start this with me. I know that people give themselves reasons not to create and perhaps it’s because a lack of an audience. Here I am (and a few others that have already signed on) to start the challenge with you.
The first “showing” is tonight. We’ll post our stuff and in the evening (I’d say by 11:59pm, but if you’re late, who cares?) and congratulate each other on another day worth living because we got to create. Each day there will be a different prompt (as listed above in the image). If you skip a day, you must move on to the next one on the list. If you want to join for a prompt you are excited about and only want to do a few of them, that’s fine. But, it would be better received on the anointed day when we are all comparing notes about our favorite words, or food or whatever.
You can email me your image at katarina@countissarts.com and I’ll post it up in the gallery post I’ll make on this blog.
Recap of the Rules:
Follow the prompt of the day.
Choose whatever medium you want.
Share (with your favorite social media) in the evening.
Day 1: Yourself. I’ll be looking forward to tonight’s showing!
Responsive Design Research: As part of my last assignment in Web Design Bootcamp, I am to take snapshots of Responsive Websites in the Summer of 2012. (What is Responsive? I love this article that answers that question.)
The first step in any research project is developing a system for collecting information. I decided that it would be important to include the date of when I accessed the website. Sometimes websites change and I wanted to show a moment in time, a website trapped in amber. I originally started designing my presentation in InDesign. I thought it would give the best option for my research because I could use Master pages to make subsequent pages faster. My biggest problem was when I tried to upload InDesign files to my blog (here) and I couldn’t do it. I imagine that there isn’t a very good Indesign file hosting service because the files are so big.
Microsoft Powerpoint has Slideshare. SlideShare is an online slide hosting service. This is a great place to store templates, that way if I want to work at home and then at work, I can just download the template slide and all my styling and positioning is going to be identical. And I won’t have to worry about links. Also, it annoys the heck out of me when presentations are vertical –something people are want to do when they are designing in InDesign.
Feel free to download this PowerPoint for your own research. I know sometimes the part of making the frame for the content is a little intimidating. (Click here and then click download.) This initial research (as pictured above and in the template) is formatted from a tweet from Smashing Magazine. Their find of this site and analysis inspired me to start on my homework. (I probably would have set the assignment aside if I didn’t see their tweet on this cool responsive design solution.)
responsinator vs. screenshot in Safari Browser (this is a snapshot of erskinedesign.com)
As part of my last assignment in Web Design Bootcamp, we are to take a snapshot of Responsive Websites in the Summer of 2012. (What is Responsive? I love this article that answers that question.) This is a fun exercise. We are the Darwins of the Web, looking for interesting variations on the finch. They prove that there are trends in Web Design and they evolved that way for a reason, but there’s always a few sites that are innovative. Because they have thought through some usability features, they have added value to the site. As we get better with responsive (perhaps strict industry standards) we (as designers and developers) can better enhance Web experiences and usher in a new era of technological development as Steve Jobs ushered in a new era of music listening.
In our design/developer toolbelt, we have Responsinator and Responsive Design Bookmarklet to ease the Responsive Testing Process. (There are a bunch of these sites, if you want to shop around. I like Matt Kersley‘s because it seems more indie. Let me adjust my hipster glasses as I say that.) They shrink down the website for you (and in the case of Responsinator, it adds a grey version of the device whose screensize that is). Chris Pederick (Web Dev Toolbar Extraordinaire) also offers features to streamline the process.
A friend of mine recommended the TED talk app. This is a great way to recruit new viewers to the TED world. TED talks are beautiful. They are amazing presentations that present interesting ideas in a relatable way. Presented visually, orally and in manageable chunks of twenty minutes, TED talks bring information to life. And sometimes, not-information. These bits of “not-information” are merely pieces of a puzzle to humanity and all of its strangeness. I call this intellectual peacocking. “Look at how clever I am,” they seem to say. And it works. I am mesmerized, inspired and rejuvenated. Watching TED talks helps refuel my passion for technology, entertainment and design.
Are we ready for neo-evolution? by Harvey Fineberg. I think the answer is definitely not. This talk is great because it explores all our desires as humans. Don’t we want to be more creative? Remember more? Live longer? What if we could change our genetics to make that happen? Should we? This talk raises a lot of questions that circle around one of the greatest scientific achievements so far: genetic modification.
I don’t think we’ll ever know all the ramifications of switching around a few cytosines. A translucent water flea has more genes than any other animal on the planet (zooplankton: 31,000 genes, the average human has about 20,000 to 25,000), but it’s not necessarily the number of genes. A theatrical play with four actors can be very complex.
Theo Jansen: My creations, a new form of life. This is a classic TED talk. There are a few more in a similar vein. Many makers create interesting bio-mimicking devices. They are beautiful because they are geometric and organic. They subtly propose a future of beauty and wonder, where machines walk. This particular invention– Janson calls them “Strandbeests”– are kinetic, made with recycled materials and present a method of one of the greatest hurdles our machines encounter: uneven terrain. (Other fascinating beasts: big dog, gecko, and robots)
Aimee Mullins: It’s not fair having 12 pairs of legs. This TED talk is representative of a recurring theme: Different is an advantage. Taking what others might perceive a weakness and making it a strength is powerful. For Aimee Mullins. The fact that she has prosthetic legs makes her an example of what the future of augmentation is. Augmentation is options. It’s the remarkable idea that when your legs give out. Your knee becomes too weak, just get another one. Get a pair of legs for every occasion. It’s fascinating because of the politics of disability. Can we exploit her for fashion by strapping on a pair of “art legs”? or is it empowering for her to be a symbol of beauty?
Jill Bolte Taylor’s stroke of insight. A psychonaut’s most interesting adventure. Jill Bolte Taylor had the interesting (albeit, not something we want to happen) experience. This particular stroke left her with the memory of its graduation. I love it when people explain how their brain happens to be. What it feels like. The details of revelation, understanding, confusion. Even the simple stuff like when people lament going into a room then forgetting why they are there. That stuff really gets me. Having stuff in common (and not in common) with these stories reminds me of how similar and how different our brains work. The concept of differing neurology intrigues me. It leads to better understanding and compassion.
Ursus Wehrli tidies up art. This is definitely one of those TED talks, a speaker presenting a series of art/design projects that are very clever and interconnected by some method/theme/ innovative use of materials (some other good ones: using fishing nets, ipads, chocolate). Wehrli is one of the funnier ones. Mostly for art nerds, but some non-art-nerds might recognize a few of the works.
Kevin Slavin: How algorithms shape our world. I’m tickled pink by anything that visualizes an algorithm. My favorite are the paths through grass where you can see how many people wanted to shave off a second or to off of their trek by cutting a corner. I love maps where it is colored by dots represented who tweeted about a thing. With our technology, we can make more trends visual. Communicating information takes on a new level.
Joshua Klein: The intelligence of crows. This is one of my favorites. I am a huge B.F. Skinner fan. If he was of this century, he would definitely be a TED speaker. This crow talk is a variation on the “pigeon dance” experiment. If you can make a pigeon “dance” using food as an incentive. Imagine what you can make the smarter bird do?
Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds. I relate to this talk a lot. My mother thought I was autistic as a child because I was a little late in talking. This is a TED talk about how an autistic-diagnosed person has a different perspective and in the case of many, including Temple Granin, this outsider view gives fresh insight into solving problems. It’s encouraging for people (like myself) that feel like they are in a very socially driven world, where extroverts get their opinons heard first because they are the loudest. (A great TED talk about the power of introverts might change your mind.)
Jane McGonigal: The game that can give you 10 extra years of life. Kind of a corny inspirational talk. She motivates the audience to shake hands with their neighbors and wave their arms in the air. But, the idea of “life is a game” really got to me. (I wrote about it after watching the video.) I think about that idea a lot, now. When I am sitting around, trying to tell myself it’s time to wash dishes or something. That it’s a game. If I get to them now I get extra points. Points that are uncounted for now. When I was little, my family had a system where chores were part of a game to earn pudding and that kind of stuff. My mother was big on budgeting games. Game contexts are a really helpful framework where you can interact with your friends and family in a way that’s empowering for them and for you.
Stefan Sagmeister: The power of time off. This talk represents a principle that many of the upcoming innovative firms incorporate into their businesses. It’s the idea that you are productive when you are not focused. New things come about by cross-polination, experimenting and having fun. This doesn’t have to be achieved by year-long sabbaticals. Hack-a-thons and Google’s 20% time, we can have fun and make things that we want to make. Cultivating the spirit of creativity should always be considered a good use of company time.
