February 2012
1 post
If you're going to spend big bucks on a Super Bowl...
I didn’t watch the Super Bowl last night, but my many design and ad friends on FaceBook did, and through their posts I caught a glimpse of what ads were running in near-realtime. I had a look at the Acura (and NSX-specific) sites after the NSX ad ran, and saw this little gem pop up on my phone:
Same sort of thing when the Fiat Arbath ad ran:
…but not Honda:
From experience,...
January 2012
2 posts
Testing testing...
We’re testing out posting and transferring posts to tumblr from our Joomla-based blog. Stay tuned for more tumbling….
December 2011
1 post
Describing a visual process demands an...
Saw this yesterday out on the internets. It’s a nice visual explanation of how to set your side-mounted rearview mirrors to avoid blind spots. Worth sharing here because it’s a great example how how pictures can often tell us more than words. Sure, you could explain the same thing in a couple of paragraphs, but for this situation, where you are describing a visual process, with visual...
November 2011
1 post
Circles
Some days designers get to actually design. And make things that support the design. Today was one of those days for me.
One of the concepts I’m working on for a non-profit client centers around the Ensō, a symbol of absolute enlightenment, strength, elegance, and the void, among other things. So today, I practiced my ensō painting:
Here’s one of my favorites:
The act of...
October 2011
3 posts
Only Furries can Prevent Forest Fires
I can only imagine what this ad says to a particular portion of the internet that likes to dress up in furry costumes for the purposes of, um, super-happy-fun-time.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m just saying that maybe the Ad Council copywriters might want to reach out to more than just furries when educating people about forest fire prevention.
AT&T's cheaper unlimited data plan for new iPhones...
Yes, yes: Apple fanboy that I am, I preordered an iPhone 4S this morning, via AT&T’s website. And, while the rational part of me knew this was coming, I was still a little shocked to get this message:
If you’re upgrading to new iPhone hardware, no more of the unlimited voice AND unlimited data combo plan for you. The cheapest data plan available is a 200MB per month option for...
Insanely Great
Growing up, I was a Commodore Kid. I learned to type on a Commodore PET, and we had a VIC-20 and a Commodore 64 in the house. But at school, we had these cool machines called the Apple IIe, on which I first learned BASIC and LOGO (remember that little turtle?) Later, in high school, The Macintosh hummed along in our English classroom while we worked on our literary art magazine. In my senior year...
June 2011
5 posts
Never underestimate the value of a good pizza...
Like these. Get thee to Hops and Pie, people.
Constructive criticism makes the world go 'round
I saw this tweet making the rounds this afternoon:
Really? Well, judging from some of his other tweets, I suspect he’s engaging in a bit of twit-humor. But let’s extend this a bit and see where it takes us, shall we?
First, let’s talk about the difference between anonymous and authenticated comments. The former, while great for whistleblowers and catching criminals, is a poor...
Your mission for today, kids: find something in...
cracked iphone screen by Patrick Hoesly on Flickr
As you cruise through your Friday today, look at the objects, environments, and experiences you encounter. How could you make them better? How could they better engage their users, or serve their intended purpose?
For me, so far today, the best example I have is my iPhone. Yes, that iphone. I’ve dropped it three times today so far, and...
29 Ways to Stay Creative
nice motion graphics work, and (more importantly) good advice, from To-Fu.
29 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE from TO-FU on Vimeo.
My favorite is “Stop trying to be some else’s Perfect”.
-via Tim Sidell’s bloggie.
Standing Desk: loving it.
Just a short post on something you might have been following: my newfound love for the standing desk. I built this out of a Herman Miller RED Orbital Series tall file/printer stand, and a desk from the same collection (the spare parts were repurposed into a low-slung file cabinet). The 3M AKT200SL articulated keyboard tray holds my keyboard and Wacom tablet at the perfect height, and there’s...
July 2010
2 posts
Skateboarders: Why Do You Ride?
I‘ve grabbed a blank deck and will be making art out of it for Bordobello, an event hosted by AIGA Colorado to raise cash for their mentorship programs including Youth Design Denver, a designer summer internship program, Access Gallery, a local initiative promoting the power of people with disabilities and AIGA/CO’s annual scholarship.
Now that I have my skateboard, I want skaters out...
Good Advice
I’ve gotten a lot of good advice. But some of the best work advice I got came from my dad. Specifically, from a list my dad had posted in his office, written down on a piece of notepaper. Lest you think he was some dour workaholic, here he his, dispensing some managerial advice to one of the project managers, Jim:
It’s good wisdom for anyone who has a job, with projects, and stuff...
June 2010
3 posts
Simpler is better
Did a small photo shoot for a client today: product photography for an iPod Nano. As you can see, the studio was set up on the fly, using available light. It worked perfectly. No assistants, no rental gear, no leased studio time. This cuts down on overhead, obviously, but more importantly it allowed us to get the project this image will be used in moving along more quickly. Sometimes simpler is...
The Diagrams of Summer
I live in a sports-crazed town. One of just a handful of cities that has a football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and soccer team. Did I mention the Lacrosse team? Or the mass of team kit-outfitted cyclists here?
In any case, it’s summer, and even though baseball isn’t my Most Favorite Sport (I’m more of a soccer guy, and it is a World Cup year, and all), but the Rockies are...
Commercial Photographer Website redesign
We just launched a site for commercial photographer Carl Socolow. Carl is based in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania, near Harrisburg. He has a great eye, but his old site was outdated and needed not just newer samples of his work, but also a new way to present them. We’d worked with Carl on his personal site, showcasing the documentary work he’s done (especially in the Mexican village of Mata...
May 2010
7 posts
Who needs a boring old executive summary? This...
One of our longtime clients, the Colorado Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting, and Prevention (COAPPP) —now called Colorado Youth Matter— asked us to design a booklet that summarizes their snapshot of HIV prevention and sexuality education in Colorado’s classrooms. The content included summaries of survey information and analysis collected throughout the state, as...
Brothers typeface, FTW
I recently acquired the Brothers typeface from Emigre—a lovely face designed by a bona-fide sign-painter; I’ve since been looking for appropriate applications for it. In designing the identity for this year’s iteration of an annual fundraiser (you may recognize the surname in the organization), I found one:
When dealing with designs that have to convey a lot of typeset...
