What time is our paper due?

Another reason why MIA's site is bad...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24510864/wid/11915829?GT1=40006

It could cause seizures. Also, remember to use your designing powers for good, not evil .

Webby Awards

Check out the winners and nominees. Some unreal stuff in here. I'm gonna del.icio.us this to remind me when I need design inspiration.

USA Today ad

I know that people have a lot of leniency with what they say/imply about celebrities, but I was wondering what you thought about this:

http://www.wwtdd.com/photo.phtml?post_key=5772&photo_key=12612

Apparently mug shots are in the public domain, but I can't help but think this was pretty tacky. It just screams "I lack creativity but still want a lot of attention."

Plus the graphic design sucks. The end.

checkin sites

can anyone remind me how we check our sites through the web to make sure everything is in order?

flash sweetness...

i came across this guy's flash portfolio today.  it's pretty amusing...

http://www.andyfoulds.co.uk/flash_design.html

have fun!  i wish i was good at flash.

p.s. for all the bubble wrap popping fans out there, try "therapy"

Font Management

Does anybody know of a good font management system? Is anyone else old enough to remember "Suitcase?" I've got oodles of fonts, and I wish that instead of looking through the whole list I could just looks at the "sans-serifs" or "Moderns" or whatever.

Oh the irony

Does anyone else find it slightly ironic that a camp made to be accessible to persons with disabilities left out the alternative text information for pictures on their Web site?

I wanted to use the same ones they had and when I went to copy it found that it did not exist.

Evolving Web sites

This article comes from the UK newspaper site www.Telegraph.co.uk. I'm sure there must be other articles about this too since the sources are guys from the U.S.--there's even a UW professor cited.

Anyway. The article, Web pages have 'come alive and started breeding,' reports that for a while, Web pages have been changing or evolving to keep them up-to-date with user preferences.

What scientists have now created, is software that, once a site is set up, treats the features of the page like genes. So every time the page gets refreshed, the software randomly changes or mutates the page. Thought that was kind of cool.

Illustrator question

Does anybody know how to put a border around a photo in Illustrator without having to draw a separate box around the photo?

Interesting design column

Ed Henninger writes a column addressing design issues and giving tips to work around them. Some of his insight is pretty interesting. I was reading through it today and found myself guilty of some of the aspects he brings up such as Cuzicans.

http://www.henningerconsulting.com/columns.html

more on ads

Thought this article was an interesting extension to the conversation we started in class on fashion ads. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/fashion/10TELLER.html

Ideas for Revamps?

If you ever thought that there weren't that many creative things you could do with a business card, check out this website. It's amazing what can be accomplished in such a teeny-tiny space. Some of them are a little over the top, namely the one printed on a clothespin, but some are pretty cool.

My favorite is the address sticker placed on used metro cards. Funny AND environmentally friendly.

Final project?

In light of the several time intensive projects due in the upcoming weeks, I was looking through the syllabus and noticed that we also have a final project due not too long after some of our other projects are due. Does anyone know what this entails?

PS Express

a good review of the new, free photoshop express

Dreamweaver Question

In my identity website, I have a table nestled within a table (the big table is for main page layout and then within one cell I nestled another table for navigation buttons). The trouble is that I can't get the border to disappear. These ugly, think, almost beveled edged appear and the properties palette below will not let me select border (Brdr) as transparent. Any ideas? I would most appreciate it as the Dreamweaver book I've looked through haven't mentioned this as a problem.

money, money, money...MONEY

http://www.coroflot.com/community/salary_survey.asp?gclid=CIu4se3kupICFQJLxwodpU3Ebw

this website surveyed designers (of all kinds) in 2007 to determine salaries... pretty interesting to see what you're going to be making in this field starting off. It also compares the salaries between corporate agencies, freelance and consultants (who make the most...). Plus everything is in info graphics!

good news is that graphic design salaries rose in 2007, and the US is 3rd when it comes to paying their designers. Bad news is that we're located in the least lucrative part of the country.

NY Times Interactive piece

I am absolutely in love with this interactive slide show about Mad Magazine's fold-ins from the New York Times -- I love the idea, the execution -- it's awesome.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/03/28/arts/20080330_FOLD_IN_FEATURE.html



Edited: I had an extra quote at the end (from trying unsuccessfully to link the article in the proper way). But it should be fixed now.

Fun with Photoshop

So this is probably not the MOST graphic design-related post I could have made, but I just wanted to pass along this awesome Photoshop creation that my friend found. Prepare to amazed/creeped out.

http://pixeloo.blogspot.com/2008/03/homer-simpson-untooned.html

(The linking is not working, again. Sorry!)

Postscript: If you go to the main page, you can see a side-by-side comparison as well as some of the images the artist used to make this.

NY Times graphics director

I came across this Q & A with the graphics director from the Times and thought it highlighted a lot of interesting things about graphic design, especially with infographics.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/business/media/
25asktheeditors.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin

the link thing didn't work when I tried it the first time, so unfortunately, you'll have to copy and paste...

The eyedropper tool

So I figured out the vexing question about the eyedropper tool and using it in Photoshop and Illustrator to choose colors from a place other than those programs.

To do this, choose the eyedropper tool in either application. Then move your cursor over your work area. Click the mouse button and hold it down. Then drag your cursor over the color you wish to choose from elsewhere (web browser, desktop background, etc.) Then let go of the mouse button when you are over the color you wish to choose.

This works in both Illustrator and Photoshop, but sadly not in InDesign.


And on a side note (shameless plug), that place I work at, STS, has a program called Ask A Trainer on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights from 7-9 in the Open Book Cafe (1st floor, College Library). The purpose of the service is to answer software questions students may have. So if you have a question about some of the software we are using for the 411 projects you can check the STS Web site to see if a trainer familiar with that software is working, and then come in and get help. If the person there does not know the answer: we take your email, ask the rest of our staff the question, and guarantee an answer within a couple of days. I'm working tonight and I'm usually bored.

Photoshop Question

I am using a photo in my logo that has a white background. Even after I crop it in photoshop and it looks like it should just be white around the edges with no border, when I put it into Illustrator it has a faint gray line around it. Any ideas why this is there or how to get rid of it?

MIA---not the band this time

I was MIA today for class and I was wondering if someone would be so kind as to tell me what I missed. I was also curious as to what the future of our websites are in terms of future projects--are they going to be incorporated into the final package, etc.? If someone knows this and has time, please enlighten me! Thank you!

web site design

while brainstorming ways to improve my home page (and as i watch the results from today's primaries) i jumped online to check out clinton and obama's web sites:



i really like the intro page to obama's site, and am debating doing something similar to ease people into a site that has a lot of information. what's nice is that it's easy to skip if people aren't interested in "joining the movement". so, i'm wondering, is an intro page annoying? or can it helpful in cases where the home page tends to get cluttered? maybe i'm way off and this is simply a PR push that has nothing to do with usability? any thoughts? thanks!

what's on a home page?

I'm having trouble deciding what I want my home page to contain, content-wise. There are about three subpages that would normally have content that I feel could also act as logical stuff to throw on the home page, but I'm worried that if I do that then it would take away from the subpages since I would only have 5 of them. Basically, I don't know if I want the home page to have some biographical info about myself, a few random photos that would change automatically, contact info, or anything from the subpages.

I would love to do something with flash, like make a quick montage of photos or images and text or something like that, that would only show up on the homepage, so i could leave the info to the subpages, but I obviously don't know how to do this yet.

Did anyone else have this problem?

Another cameo by M.I.A.'s Web site

I found this article in ID magazine, a design industry trade magazine that my roommate subscribes to (and is awesome) about a trend in web design with designers choosing deliberately tacky, 'old-school' designs. From an artistic perspective, I kind of dig the so-ugly-it's-amazing element to the site's, but from a communications one, it's a bit trickier, I think. Although I noticed that the MIA Web site was actually surprisingly navigable considering all the crap going on, it was still far from user-friendly, which begs the question of how edgy can a Web site be while still getting your message to viewers?

http://www.id-mag.com/article/BacktotheFuture

Site navigation

I found a site that has a bunch of navigation shemes. Thought it might be helpful

site mock-up

Hey guys

Quick question: Katie said we should use Illustrator when doing our site mock-up for tomorrow, right?

Hope everyone's having a delightful evening!

Web site inspiration

I found this Web site when brainstorming ideas for my own. It shows some picks for the top 10 Web sites in the world. They seem to agree with Katy in design ideas because their number one choice is apple. Check it out!

10 best designed Web sites in the world

Annual Reports, UW Style

UW-Madison's annual report from 2006-2007. It seems pretty basic to me -- the color scheme is something the university has been doing online for awhile, with the red and gold, and the layout is relatively unimaginative (Where are the pictures going to be? My guess is right-aligned) I also don't really get the blue font with the red and gold accents -- it seems like a strange departure from a familiar color scheme. I like the use of bolding throughout the body text, though.

http://www.chancellor.wisc.edu/AR2007/about.html

A side note: The picture of the Theta Chi fraternity on page 16 is one I dug up for a University Communications story from the archives. If you can ever make it in there, the archives at Steenbock have some of the coolest historical photos. Just boxes and boxes of history tucked away in one of the more obscure libraries on campus.

OMG, does it really get worse than this?

Alright friends, brace yourselves for this one. This gives the "World's Worst Website" a serious run for its money. It's the unfortunate mistake of M.I.A., a UK hip hop group. I defy anyone to maneuver past the homepage, let alone attempt to find any relevant information. WARNING: do not stay on it for too long. I don't want anybody to seizure or suffer from a brain aneurysm on my behalf.

http://www.miauk.com/

Just a quick note

The third button on the posting menu, a green dot with a chain link, will create hyperlinks so people can go directly to a site instead of having to copy and past the link. That may also solve some of the formatting issues people have been having with links that extend past their posting box.

Best Band Logos

Here is a fun little link to the best logos of all time (some of which I considered when creating my band logo for this class):
http://www.spinner.com/2008/02/15/best-band-logos-no-25/

Ethics and Photo Editing

Check out these two images from the two Detroit papers' sites (click to link to site). Both have text stories about the possible suicide of a news anchor that read pretty much the same. But the photo editing choice of deciding to run her promotional headshot vs. her police mugshot changes the way the story plays on the page.
Which would you have run?

NYT infographic

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/23/movies/20080223_REVENUE_GRAPHIC.html

I found this infographic to be really interesting as it shows movie revenues over the years. Although it looks complicated at first, the instructions on how to understand the graphic make it much easier to comprehend. I thought this was an interesting way to show industry trends over time.

Logo Redesigns

I found this interesting site about best and worst logo redesigns. Some of these logos included big names such as at&t, KFC, etc. I just thought it was interesting that I didn't even realize that some of these logos were actually redesigned at all!

http://www.aclevercookie.com/the-best-and-worst-logo-remakes-of-the-century/

Awesome logo

I was at Houlihan's this weekend with my mom, and I saw a centerpiece promoting VH1's Save the Music program (they're donating all profits from their delicious mini-desserts to the program, so you can feel good about ordering three... I did), and I noticed that Save the Music has a really neat logo design, so I thought I'd put it up here.

Transfering Logo to InDesign

I know we may have discussed this in class but does anyone know the best way to use an Illustrator logo in InDesign? I have just been copying and pasting it, but I've noticed it looks all jagged. I changed the view to the highest quality, and it still occurs. If the solution is photoshop, how do you take just your illustrator logo and make it into a jpeg of the correct size?

Thanks,
Clare

You've taken us to the moon, now take us through your website

For whatever random reason, I was looking at the NASA website (http://www.nasa.gov) just now and was struck by some of the navigational faux paus we discussed in class. First off, there are three navigational options that would confuse anyone (even a rocket scientist). Secondly, NASA misjudges common human reasoning that says web designers put the most important information on the homepage. Most of the homepage material seems like the more entertainment-based stuff, which doesn't seem appropriate for a branch of the US Government.

PS If you ever want to remember what bad sites look like, google "(insert state here) department of education." These are some real threats to human reasoning.

Interactive Name Trends

Here is a cool example of interactive. Drawing from the UW census bureau you can get do a real time review of the 1000 most popular names since the tracking started in the 1890's. It shows a line chart of how the name has ranked over the century. I'm not making it sound that cool but it is! Go see!

http://www.babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

Web design examples

This site shows lots of different of Web design examples. It was created by people trying to lure print graphic designers to the Web. Each page uses the exact same content but has different design layouts.

You can click on the links to the right to view different layouts. It has some bad ideas but a lot of good ones as well.

www.csszengarden.com

Cows are important too

http://www.designobserver.com/archives/031854.html

I found this story while browsing Gawker this afternoon. It discusses the importance of cover design for all magazines—even dairy trade magazines.

lecture links

WP street racing: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2008/02/16/GA2008021602416.html

everyblock: http://www.everyblock.com/

newsweek wildfires: http://www.newsweek.com/id/61516

nyt data project: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/11/25/nyregion/20071125_DNAI_FEATURE.html

liberians in minnesota: http://www.startribune.com/local/11608761.html

cost of cashmere: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/specials/chi-china-cashmere-flash,0,3780800.flash

ethics and design

this is a great piece on ethical considerations in developing breaking-news infographics that also applies to multimedia.

Text as art

I just thought I'd share this blog post about the recent trend in text as art. I remember learning about this concept in a design fundamentals class-- just one more reason to get good at typography!
Here's the link:
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2008/02/mini-trend-numbers-and-letters.html

Photoshop Podcast

I found a resource that can help keep your Photoshop skills sharp. It's a videocast (podcast with video) called "Photoshop Wednesdays." Each week they give a mini tutorial (less than 5 minutes) on some aspect of Photoshop, one tool or one concept. The video portion is a follow-along of the computer screen, like what we see in class. And it's free!

You can find it by doing a search in the iTunes store for Photoshop Wednesdays. (Actually, if you just search for Photoshop you'll find lots of podcasts, but I can't vouch for those.) If you don't use iTunes, I think you can also subscribe at the website of the people who produce the podcast at oneminutetip.com. Enjoy!

InDesign Color Format

I'm working on a file and I suspect I may have accidentally made it RGB rather than CMYK. But I can't remember how to:
a) Check on that or
b) Change it if I need to.

If you know, please tell me!

White Paper on White Space

The following excerpt is from a new e-newsletter I get on marketing topics. This one is on the subject of white space in design. I downloaded the white paper that they reference and found the study and an interesting discussion of the social history of white space as visual rhetoric. Thought I’d share.

(From "Get to the Point" an e-newsletter from Marketing Profs.com)
---------------------------------------------------------------

How Saying the Least May Achieve the Most

Clearly the things you say and show in an ad can convey something about your product. But how about what you don't say or show?

A study has revealed that ads containing considerable white space lead customers to perceive the advertised product as more prestigious, sophisticated, trustworthy, higher in product quality and leadership, and lower in risk than the same ad without white space.

Researchers note that these associations hark back to the minimalist movement, a reaction against artwork perceived as deceptive or full of illusion. In advertising, the less-is-more approach to graphics is a response to the text-heavy, authoritative, "scientific" or "information"-type ads of the early to mid-20th century—examples of which include, for instance, extolling the digestive benefits of smoking Camels or drinking Schlitz beer. The removal of excessive imagery and language makes the information in the ad appear more truthful, and makes the advertiser appear as if it has nothing to hide.

The Po!nt: If you are trying to create a sophisticated and trustworthy brand image, consider saying less—not more—in the ads you create.

Source: "How Nothing Became Something: White Space, Rhetoric, History, and Meaning" John W. Pracejus, G. Douglas Olsen, and Thomas C. O'Guinn. Journal of Consumer Research, 2006. Click here for a PDF of the report.

how google got its logo

There is a really interesting piece on wired.com about how google got its now-famous logo, with the evolution of different types and designs and the story behind them.

This was the first version of Google's logo:










Who knows what the world would be like if they had gone with this:

Hillary can't resist Axe

Thought this new ad campaign by Axe brought up a lot of issues... just to name a couple: a cheap shot at the only female candidate in the race and the very obvious alteration of a photo.

http://jezebel.com/355158/scent-of-a-woman

There's also another ad where the Obama pin is replaced with a McCain one. Axe smells good, but not that good.

Illustrator document into Indesign

Hey guys,

I didn't have a chance to ask in class today but I thought maybe someone would know why I can't open my logo in InDesign without it being really weird looking with jaggy edges and some parts of the logo not even visible. I tried copy and pasting it, opening it in InDesign, dragging it in, etc. Maybe I'm not doing it right??

Software aids

Hey all,

After today's Photoshop training there seemed to be a lot that there wasn't time to cover, so I figured I would give a plug to my job...

I work for group in DoIT called Software Training for Students(STS). We teach courses in various software such as Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver, etc. If you want to know more you can take the classes, but something that may be of even more use, you can download the manuals for our classes as well as practice files from the STS Web site. www.wisc.edu/sts

You can then keep them around for later reference. Before I graduate I am going to make sure I download all of them to a CD just in case I ever need them.

Some of the topics such as layer masks and some of the image retouching tools that we were not able to cover can be found in the Photoshop 2 and 3 classes.

Politics and Site Design

A 202er led me to a great piece today, comparing the Obama and Clinton campaign sites to the "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC" campaign. What do you think of it?

too easy to be hard

I'm working on my stationary package on a library computor, but when i open a new documnent, it asks for measurments in picas. i don't see anywhere to switch it. this is too easy a question to be hard, but i'm stuck

Tech logos

Check out this post I got from an alum. Covers the evolution of tech company logos. You might also get some ideas for revising your identities.

Get rid of parts!?

Ok, I'm pretty sure we learned this today in class, but how do i get rid of a section of my image that i don't want...?

Jezebel link

Here's the link to the Faith Hill coverage on Jezebel.

Maxim's Print People

After learning of the importance of a a crew of good print people, I realized that Maxim's print people either suck big time or got layyyzayyy.

How much trouble can a print company get in for messing something up this badly? How often does such a disgrace go unnoticed?

The pages' edges weren't cut straight and the headings were cut off on a lot of the pages. You can even see the CMYK color guide thing at the bottom of the pages!

Nicely done Superbowl ad

While I was busy procrastinating and watching Superbowl ads online, I came across this one for the new Yukon hybrid SUV.

http://creativity-online.com/work/view?seed=zaEcZCHr&playlist=428

I think this one really stuck out from the crowd because it is so simple and the images, while really only combinations of black lines, help greatly in getting the message across. Even though the design is abstract, you know the story behind the man who is continuously pushing pebbles up a hill and so you understand what they're getting at without them having to come right out and say it.

I thought it was really effective.

Package Printing

Since we have begun our discussion on printing, I've noticed that food packaging (wrappers for granola bars, containers of butter, for example) always have all the colors (CMYK) used on the package printed in circles or squares beside one another somewhere on the packaging. Why is this?

Ads too obscene?

As I was reading through some news Web site I came across this gem.
http://hamptonroads.com/node/452689

Apparently a Abercrombie & Fitch store had two in store displays confiscated by police and the manager was given a citation for obscenity for the displays.

I guess that answers some questions talked about in J-School classes concerning whether or not ads are becoming too sexually charged.

Outsourcing design

Charlotte Observer is taking a bunch of its ad design overseas, as it kills 25 of 41 jobs and outsources design work abroad.
Think it'll have any effect on quality? Positive or negative?

Exporting pdf files from Illustrator

Is anyone else having any trouble exporting to a pdf file from Illustrator 3? I'm not even getting it as an option. And I can't do the print-pdf thing either apparently. Any ideas?

Color resource

Just got this link from a friend. A tres cool tool to pick coordinating colors. It defaults to mono but check out the contrast, triad, etc., to see nifty combos.

A year in Iraq

This is an Op-Chart from the New York Times titled "A year in Iraq" and published on Jan. 6, 2008. With data provided by the American and Iraqi governments and news media organizations (the independent Coalition Casualty Count in particular), the designers created a visual display for the "type and location of each attack responsible for the 2,592 recorded deaths among American and other coalition troops, Iraqi security forces and members of the peshmerga militias controlled by the Kurdish government."

I found the chart interesting because it illustrates a gruesome and serious subject in a very aesthetically pleasing manner. I'm not sure if the color choices were quite appropriate. I also felt it could have used more contrasting graphics to represent which type of soldier died. Overall the designer's successfully portrayed the war's enormous death toll in a less conventional way.

Something to think about.

Here's the link to the chart (where you can actually read it) and the accompanying story: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/06/opinion/06chart.html?_r=1&scp=8&sq=graphic+design&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Design Resources

I thought it might be handy to have a specific thread for us to post useful design resources that we want to share. Here's a link to the stock photography site that I like best:

http://www.istockphoto.com

Elle Magazine blooper?

Elle Magazine (inside cover) January 08

Is it just me, or does it look like Victoria Beckham's armpit points out, away from her body, unnaturally? It's no surprise to me that fashion magazines edit, trim, and airbrush their models, but this mistake makes that fact glaringly obvious. Unless only the back of her dress is white, I'm surprised this was printed...

Unconventional Website

I came across this Website on a design blog - it's for a book written by a performing artist and writer.  It goes against everything that you think of when you think Website, and I think it's pretty cute and funny - maybe less is more?  Keep scrolling using the pink arrows at the bottom of the page!

http://www.noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/

Her other main website is also an interesting mix of art, writing, and design - it's an art project that asks people to complete tasks/assignments and then submit their own interpretation of the task through signs, drawings, photos, and text. It's a different kind of "interactive" feature than I've ever seen. You should check it out:

http://learningtoloveyoumore.com/hello/index.php

Logo Trends

One of my co-workers at University Communications, the PR office for the university, posted this link on our internal blog the other day, and I thought it was an interesting look at what trends exist in logo design as well as what types of companies share similar logos.

http://logolounge.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=540

above all things ... ethics

Let's roll, people. It doesn't matter if you're old world or new world, decision-making matters. Check out this new case of "what in the world were they thinking?" in Golfweek magazine. It's the kind of thing that costs designers jobs. But it has far more than pragmatic implications.
What are designers' responsibilities? What kinds of process problems might have led to this debacle? If you were the youngest person in that shop and saw the cover mockup, would you have said anything?