How to Sell Yourself the Legal Way

The New Normal

2010-10-22T15:39:00.005-04:00

A visual exploration of how we look now by Getty Images’ Creative Planning Manager Pam Grossman.

The New Normal is a phrase being used quite often in discussions of the economy and finances, yet its meaning, or rather our contemplation of its meaning, goes further to consider our lifestyles. New trends in households change the way we appear, and also the way we look at the world. Grossman breaks this conversation up into five segments: the new woman, the new man, the new couple, the new family and the new body – all of which are interrelated.

The New Woman is how we refer to the modern portrayal of women in marketing as professionals, wives and mothers – at the same time. Models, whether shown as a mothers working from home or a single businesswoman with friends, have a markedly relaxed, carefree and confident appearance. Women are now shown in a fashion-forward, socially comfortable way, yet still “totally in command.” Grossman credits Michelle Obama as the role model for this trend and marks the change in visual presence by comparing this new look to the former popular style of Hillary Clinton, who’s known for a more conservative wardrobe. Also, as both men and women are living longer, fashion trends of older generations are becoming more popular in the media. One example Grossman gave was the Advanced Style blog which is “proof from the wise and silver-haired set that personal style advances with age.” My personal favorite in the entry “Mary’s Shades,” posted on Sept. 17.

The New Man in advertising asks us to rethink our common perception of masculinity. More men are taking on “formerly feminine” roles, for example caring for children, and that in itself can be very masculine. Older men with teenage children are variations on this concept that is both strong and refreshing. What shows a stronger man than one who lovingly cares for and protects his family? This role is especially popular in photography of African-American men as they become more prevalent in advertising. Companies are growing more diverse in their marketing, and thanks to influences from figures as President Obama, the imagery of strong family values has come out full force in ad campaigns. Another result of showing men as family caretakers is the reinforcement of the term work being applied to parenting.

The New Couple is how we refer to the portrayal of gay couples in marketing. This is a riskier concept as many companies shy away from making political statements in their ads; however some have been deliberately doing this with clever, cheeky visuals. The use of “the new couple” in your ad campaigns can offer very positive feedback as it shows acceptance of gay individuals and an empowering a sense of diversity in your company – be it your consumers and/or your workforce. There have also been numerous ads showing gay couples with children, and in entertainment like the movie The Kids are Alright and the show Modern Family, incorporating the family values that are being emphasized in all of the segments discussed here.

The New Family describes “fusion families,” such as multiracial families, families with adopted children, step-fathers/mothers, grandparents, aunts and uncles being included in the nuclear family, etc... Once again the show Modern Family is a great reference as it offers numerous examples of what the term family can mean. For example, in addition to the acceptance of families with gay parents and bi-racial families, it has become very common for people to include their pets as members of their family. Advertising, especially for pet food and medicine, often personify animals and show how pet owners often spoil their pets with luxurious treats, high quality food and overall pampering.

Lastly, the phrase The New Body refers to the acceptance of more natural looking and full-figured individuals in advertising and media. This comes, happily, as a result of a nation-wide push for healthier body images for teens, especially young girls, a celebration of natural female curves rather than the celebration of the stick-skinny models of the runway and successful campaigns like Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty. This concept, I feel, is very strong, if not the strongest that we’ve discussed here, as it applies to everyone. It is often considered more for the benefit of females, although men are also victims of eating disorders and feel discrimination in ads showing half-nude underwear models. It seems an easy thing to laugh off but we’re all constantly barraged by ads for you name it and that takes its toll. I personally feel that ads should reflect us, the people who buy the goods and services, not the painted models. Leave the models to the fashion industry.

In all, the prominent themes we’re seeing in marketing are family values – no matter what your family looks like, a sense of social and environmental responsibility, and community service. As we face major issues such as acquiring sustainable energy sources and massive food recalls, we all consider healthier and “greener” ways to live our lives and companies are reflecting that as they vie for our business.

“Web Strategy for Designers” by Mark O’Brien, President of NewFangled.com

2010-07-14T15:14:00.001-04:00

Mark did an excellent job again, as this was my 2nd NewFangled webinar, putting together this presentation on web strategy and covered many different aspects of that subject. It has been a little crazy as I prepare myself for vacation, so my attention was a little scattered, however I did the best I could with notes and concepts. Enjoy!

Mark began by discussing the process (namely Phase 1) of designing and developing a site, stating first to “separate information design from visual design.” The two ask the client to make different decisions, and presenting both at once can overwhelm the client or leave you with inadequate feedback. Mark defines information design as pages, navigation systems, etc. – things you would normally show as blocks in a wireframe, however, Mark suggests the use of prototypes. Prototypes in this context are interactive mockups; not comps set up in a browser environment, but not a complete page either. You want to show the client something they can grasp and visualize how the project will evolve, but you don’t want to invest too much time into a prototype. This can be achieved by creating the pages of the site with placeholders and linking a simple navigation so that the client can click through the site. This achieves sorting out the sitemap and layout of main content elements on a page in one step – while saving paper! Then, Mark suggests using mood boards to present visual design: imagery, photography, color palettes and/or swatches, typography, et cetera. This will look more like a complete web page as you add the visual design elements to the information design of the prototype. Again this helps the client see where the project is headed at an early stage, and avoids conflict in the later stages of the process.

Phase 2 is the more developed and thorough design of the site, as well as the programming/building of the site with code; Phase 3 is then the content entry and launch of the site. Mark stresses us not to lead with design, but rather strategy! Once Phase 1 is complete, Phases 2 and 3 should be a smooth ride.

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail,” as it is said. That’s not to say, though, that the client won’t change the plan. ;)

The next section of the presentation, SEO 101, focused on how to improve your site and your clients in Google’s rankings (as they are the majority holder of market share for the past 9 years). The three key action items are:

Update your site as much as possible. “Google cares as much about your site as you do.” If you don’t update your site, the Google bot won’t visit you.
Descriptive title/meta tags are great, “think like a searcher” and use phrases that your users would search for.
Use Friendly URLs, make your URLs easy to remember and easy to communicate verbally if possible. Domain.com/webinar-notes/ is easier to remember and tell your friends about than Domain.com/Default.aspx?CFID=180264&CFTOKEN=e5d7f559c3207b0d-95Q09D7B-F1FF-998B-482320DDFC4FA23A&0.409669001124&tip=Yes, for example.

Another thing Mark stresses are h1 tags, Google looks for these specifically. If you’d like to use fonts that aren’t web safe, rather than using image text, Mark lists sIFR or cufón as alternatives. These offer real-time font substitution by accessing Flash’s font library (sIFR) or cufón converts a font to Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), then Vector Markup Language (VML) and finally to JavaScript/JSON. However, as is pointed out in the presentation, these techniques should be limited to h1 text or other small bits of information, as the substituting of a lot of text would result in (much) longer load times.

The next section discussed how to “[Use the website project as a long term foundation with clients.]” Quality is key when attempting to build long term business relationships, you want to focus on content strategy, you want to really be an expert of your work rather than producing something quick and cheap that’s looks and behaves sub-par. Google Analytics is an excellent tool for this, especially since it’s free, and should be set up in the programming stage to track progress from the very beginning. Your clients are going to be concerned with how much traffic their site is getting, but that is less important than what the users are actually doing once they are there. This is where those goals come in. By measuring the site with Google Analytics against the goals and content strategy you and your client established in Phase 1, you can obtain a quantitative result of how the site is performing and if you need to make changes. This empowers you both in an educational sense, and gets you a better closing rate – potentially growing your client base.

Once the site is live you want to make sure that you keep up with the content strategy and goals of the site. The client should be writing new content, as they know their business better than you, and updating the site regularly. This will ensure Google continues to index the site, bringing users to the content and those users (hopefully) to “a clearly defined point of engagement” or call-to-action (CTA) – this can be a graphic, text link, share widgets available via AddThis.com or ShareThis.com, etc.

Lastly, Mark touched upon the Mobile web market “…the most important communication development since the internet.” He stressed that you need to clearly discuss the difference between a mobile app and a mobile web site with clients. Personally I don’t have the resources or knowledge to build an app, most designers don’t. Also, don’t offer or get roped into building a free mobile site with the main site build. A mobile site has different vantage points, different obstacles and should be respected as the completely separate project that it is – it could add 100 hours to your project. If the client disputes this, you can always show them (if you have the device) what the full site looks like on a smartphone vs. an optimized mobile site. Users are becoming more accustomed to specialized sites and interfaces when browsing with their mobile devices; the zooming, pinching and flicking gets tired quick.

Mark O’Brien left me with another good quote to remember throughout my career, “You get smarter with every client,” and some good advice that I can act on immediately – install Google Analytics!! I keep confusing it with AdWords which is not free, but Analytics certainly is. Thanks again NewFangled.com!

The Evolution of The Logo By Dan Redding

2010-07-06T09:05:00.000-04:00

"Symbols are highly subjective and dependent upon cultural reference. The swastika, for example, is a symbol that was used by various cultures across the globe for over 5,000 years to symbolize a variety of positive meanings including good luck, life, sun, power, and strength. In fact, the word swastika comes from the Sanskrit svastika, which means “good fortune” or “well-being.” Sadly, those meanings have all been usurped by the atrocities of the Nazi party. No symbol has inherent meaning of its own, but when maligned by indelible association with war and unspeakable tragedy, a simple symbol like the swastika can be transformed into a potent talisman capable of eliciting an intense reaction from the viewer. Our complex emotional responses to rudimentary images reveals the profound depth of our relationship with the visual world around us."

Click here to read the full article on Smashing Magazine!

Pixels, Sub-pixels and iPhone 4's Retina Display

2010-07-02T13:48:00.000-04:00

High resolution displays have saturated the electronic market from TVs to phones, but how much of a difference are we paying for? It’s no doubt that there’s been a substantial improvement on computer monitors and televisions over the years but with the recent release of the iPhone 4 and its Retina display, I’ve been wondering how much of an improvement are we seeing? The Retina display aims to rival the 300 dpi resolution quality of a glossy magazine print, and does an exceptional job – but I want to know how. I want to know how to ensure my web content looks its best on all displays.

John Gruber, wrote on April 2010, “I believe the on-screen typography on the next-gen iPhones will be indistinguishable, or nearly so, from high-quality print. There will be four pixels packed into the space now occupied by a single pixel.”

My curiosity into the subject matter led me to investigate sub-pixel anti-aliased font rendering. I was a bit embarrassed to find out there were sub-pixels, but then I reflected on my moments sitting with my nose just inches away from my widescreen monitor with Photoshop zoomed in at 3200%. I had a feeling there was more!

In the article “Understanding Sub-Pixel (LCD Screen) Anti-Aliased Font Rendering” (©2007 Darel Rex Finley) Finley explains LCD display, font rendering (and how companies try to play up the improvements) and the various factors affecting the overall improvement of screen resolution upon previous technologies.

“Each pixel is represented in the physical screen by three little vertical bars: One red, one green, and one blue.” – Finley.

Each vertical bar (sub-pixel: red, green, blue or a transparent filter in the case of a grayscale display) is equally important in representing colors; however the green bar is the most influential player when it comes to brightness. “The green elements play the biggest role in determining how bright a pixel looks, with the red element playing a significant role too, and the blue element playing a very small role.” As the sub-pixels’ capacity to represent brightness perception is limited, increasing the number of pixels per inch only leads roughly to a 1.11x benefit. This information (Finley’s article) was written after the release of the first generation iPhone (“…that although the screen definitely has the RGB triplets that could support sub-pixel rendering, it appears that the iPhone’s software does not use it.”)

Bryan Jones, a retinal neuroscientist and photographer, analyzed the iPhone 4’s Retinal display on his blog, Jonesblog. According to his research and calculations, the normal (no abnormalities) human eye is capable of perceiving 287 pixels per inch. The Retina display of the iPhone 4 boasts 326 pixels per inch, “comfortably higher” than the human eye’s threshold.

So while there only seems to be a 1.11x improvement possible in relation to LCD display, packing 4 times the number of pixels into each inch makes a marketable difference.

Now, onto making content look awesome rather than awful on these displays. Using CSS to control for display resolution, you could simply multiply the size dimensions of your images by two, (i.e. 128x128ppi set to display at 68x68ppi). Another suggestion is to look into Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), which is another topic I need to research .

5 Drivers Influencing Mobile Marketing & Mobile Marketing and Retail: Engaging Consumer through and with Mobile Media: Webinars by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).

2010-07-01T17:21:00.001-04:00

The first webinar, featuring panelists from the MMA as well as the Anheuser-Busch Distributor Director of Marketing, Bill Gieseking, focused on the primary factors affecting mobile marketing by evaluating a six month case study of the Anheuser-Busch MVP Program. The MVP Program is a promotional tool in which the various brands of Anheuser-Busch hold sweepstakes via SMS/MMS messaging using keywords. This presentation was very informative regarding the current trends in mobile marketing, both in the U.S. and around the world. It was also quite impressive to see the results of the case study which compared results after 2 months, and again at 6 months.

The next webinar, Mobile Marketing and Retail, presented a lot of the same statistics and hammered home many of the same concepts; redundancy in this case was helpful though, as they expanded upon points made in the first webinar. This presentation focused on utilizing mobile media’s unique features, and how best to integrate your brand into the consumer’s life to create a global brand experience. Panelists included the MMA, as well as Microsoft Mobile and Best Buy.

The 5 Drivers Influencing Mobile Marketing:

Consumer Adoption. Panelists relate this concept not only to technology (devices, networks, and plans) but also to mobile media (the marketing content). Smartphones make up about 20% of the U.S. market; the remaining 80% is made up by featured phones with plain text browsers. A projection of the 2011 third quarter sees smartphones taking over about 50% of the market. This concept is enforced by companies such as Vodafone (or Verizon Wireless in the U.S.) offering the HTC Wildfire (a “lite” smartphone) for free with a new two-year contract. Ideally, users, whether of smartphones or feature phones, would have unlimited data plans to interact with brands freely; however unlimited data plan consumers represent only 40% of the market. This may sound limiting, but messages sent (including IM) in the U.S. in 2009 averaged 150 billion/month, equaling over 5 billion/day compared to 4 billion/month in 2004. Also, keep in mind that mobile marketing is not targeted solely towards phones; other devices include: tablets, gaming devices, netbooks, and eReaders such as the Amazon Kindle.

Mobile Becoming Central Element to Brand Strategy. Adopting mobile marketing is inevitable for a company that wishes to prosper in the coming years. Mobile devices are more accessible to consumers than desktop computers, for many reasons including budget, and so are very popular. For example, by making charitable donations via mobile devices possible, “Nearly $50 million [was] raised through mobile giving.” Mobile advertising vs. email marketing lets companies skip the process of writing up brief copy or full newsletters (depending on content), and there is no risk of spam. It also offers the possibility of immediate feedback. However, you must moderate the amount of information in mobile marketing so as not to inundate your consumers and risk opt-outs.

Market Sector Specialization Emerging. As a consumer, maybe it’s because my industry revolves around the web, I expect the majority of brands to have some mobile presence. In most cases a mobile website is perfect, allowing me to find what I need and move on, and in other cases an app is ideal. Which one a company chooses depends on their strategy and needs, they may decide to go with both. Considerations of how best to use mobile to reach out to consumers is quickly becoming a top priority in marketing strategies. Rather than being lumped in with online marketing, mobile is being recognized for its unique features in marketing. Mobile itself is universal, offering a global reach both in terms of accessibility (cell phones are more affordable and common than PCs) as well as a thorough branding experience interacting with the consumer via print media, online, television, and in the palm of their hand. Mobile devices are personal, being used for everything from alarm clocks, to calendars and so forth, and they are clearly interactive, giving great potential for building brand loyalty. An immersive brand experience is made available with mobile’s unique media paths: SMS, MMS, Email, Voice, Specialized content for mobile, Mobile web, Bluetooth/Wi-Fi, and Applications (there are 38 App stores including iTunes and Android Market). Other upcoming channels include NFC/RFID, GPS, and the Camera.

Consumer Acceptance Awareness Building: with Mobile Advertising, Transaction Fulfillment, and Mobile Commerce. Mobile marketing allows brands to further bridge the physical and digital brand experiences through multiple access points. According to the presentation: about 46% of consumers compare pricing in store via mobile devices, and 34% if which are smartphone users. In addition, mobile commerce has risen 40% since October 2008. Companies like Best Buy offer “Text OR Dial” and “Text to Buy” programs where the consumer can text a 7-digit SKU or dial a given phone number and enter the SKU to receive product descriptions, reviews, pricing, in-stock info, an option to purchase and more.

Growth Standards, Global Reach & Relevance of Mobile. A projection quoted in the latter presentation states, “In the next 5 years, people will be accessing the web via mobile devices more than PCs.” Currently less than 24% of the global population has access to a PC. The worldwide market is expected to send 5.5 trillion messages in 2010. In terms of apps, the U.S. has shown 15 billion downloads so far in 2010, and projects 50 billion in 2012. That says a lot about consumers and their devices but what does that tell us about marketing results? According to Microsoft Mobile, 17% of consumers surveyed recall seeing an ad on their smartphone (feature phones were not included in this survey), and of them 42% looked for more information, 36% went to the store in question, 35% used a coupon or promotion code (which could be used either in mobile commerce or with Quick Response (QR) codes), and 26% made a purchase. In a recent mobile campaign for Ace hardware, Microsoft Mobile reported an 8% rise in in-store traffic.

Tips for Mobile advertising Campaigns:

Have a clear call-to-action
Be sure to deliver your targeted message
Multi-platform, multi-screen (phones & other devices) delivery for greater impact (Make use of mobile advertising as part of a brand experience)
Campaign optimization

Both webinars were excellent and very informative. Panelists reviewed market trends clearly and discussed why they were relevant, allowing professionals in all aspects of marketing to gain insight from them. As a designer I feel much more confident recommending mobile marketing, and which types, to clients than I would have before (when my response would have been, “Because! It’s the future!”). The MMA is full of great information, check them out!

P.s. If you have any questions/comments on any of the data above please contact me for source materials.

Don't Do It Alone

2010-06-28T11:10:00.000-04:00

Excellent article on the importance of an office environment in the design field: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/06/27/dont-do-it-alone/ from Smashing Magazine.

5 Signs Your Website is Out-dated by 352 Media Group

2010-06-15T16:50:00.004-04:00

Peter at 352 Media Group did an excellent job of reminding his audience of five very common faults in web design, in a very brief and concise presentation. He covered issues that have seen a lot of attention recently, such as Flash usage as we approach HTML5 as a possible standard, as well as considering navigation in reference to screen resolution. The latter is equally important as the Flash issue with the number of netbooks, tablets and other mobile devices growing their presence in the market. Peter also discussed the causes, effects and remedies of such issues. This not only takes the sting out of the fact that your site may be out-dated (my portfolio certainly is and I seem to be dragging my feet on the redesign build), but it also informs why it’s out-dated and how to pull users back in without a total site overhaul. Peter mentions budget as a catalyst at several points in the presentation.

The 5 Signs are:

You have a Flash intro or splash page on your site that requires a user to sit through a slideshow before accessing the rest of the site. You’re delaying access to your site and risking site abandonment, Peter compares this to having a waiting room before entering a store. I don’t know anyone who enjoys the waiting room at the doctor so why bring that experience to your site?

Your homepage looks like it was designed by Dr. Frankenstein. This phenomenon can happen for many reasons but most often is the company’s resistance to remove information when adding new content. For example, you want to promote a new product, but a particular service call-to-action is still very important to users. Another reason is you may not want to spend (or have it) the money for a site redesign. Peter suggests homepage redesign rather than the entire site or call-to-action rotations, which are great for SEO – lots of content in a neatly contained area.

Another reason this may happen, as I’ve noticed working in an interactive firm, is the client may have a different firm design their site and then send it off to us to build and maintain it. This is all well and good, however due to legal and creative issues, the designs and access to source files are compromised. PSDs may be flatten and rasterized, if there’s a PSD at all; text is usually converted to an image – leaving the other designer like myself to play the typographical guessing game, (the client usually doesn’t know the design information and they shouldn’t have to) and contact between firms usually leaves the client in the middle asking for materials they may not understand. So you improvise, if materials aren’t available, you mimic the best you can and God-willing you have a good eye. Even so, drop shadows, image quality/resolution, and font-stylings may vary – just to name a few.

Your content is old, graphical or just plain missing. If your site is using image text for more than just call-to-action graphics, headers, etc. odds are you’re not ranking too high in searches. Even if you have a minimal amount of image text, you should have descriptive alt tags, and a good reason for choosing it. I get bored with the limited web-safe fonts, and designs are seldom restricted because of that. If a client wants “Fontesque,” that’s what we give them. However, you use it as an accent, for SEO purposes – as well as usability, you must be conservative. No one would visit a site written entirely in “Fontesque.” The web-safe fonts are for the body copy of your site, as they are easily read and well received by all browsers.

Also, be aware of your copyright line and keep it up-to-date. If you have a news page, set reminders to update the content, even if only once a month. Users who see that the site hasn’t been touched in a year aren’t going to value the information as this sends the message that you don’t either. Or worse yet, especially considering the economy, users may think you’ve gone out of business. Peter suggests a blog set up with RSS feed to post on your site. The blog can be updated by anyone who’s skilled enough to use Microsoft Word, and takes no additional effort to maintain your online presence.

You require users to create an account in order to buy from you. Users, myself included, get tired of giving away their personal information. It’s bad enough it’s already out in the wild thanks to poor privacy settings/options, and news reports of identity fraud can give you nightmares. It is reasonable though for a company to collect demographics and want to build their contact lists for email blasts, etc. However, requiring a user to create an account can lead to cart abandonment or site abandonment if introduced early enough in the process. Peter suggests offering Facebook, Google or Twitter logins, as that would apply to a majority of users and give you insight into your consumer base. Other suggestions include requiring an email address or letting users login as a guest.

Your menu needs its own navigation. Limit the number of tiers in your drop-down menus or fly-outs, and consider screen resolutions. Peter brought up netbooks as an excellent example of content showing up off the screen. Even if you have a modest menu and clear navigation, offer a sitemap, links in the footer and/or a search tool on your site. It can’t hurt to offer multiple points of entry to your content.

As a young professional building their skill set and continuing my education in the industry, I was very pleased with this webinar. Not only was the presentation great, but the sound was excellent – no migraine-inducing echoes, the pace was perfect – no tangents or unnecessary lag and best of all it was archived, which is how I found it. I absolutely recommend 352 Media Group’s webinars!

New Posts Coming Soon...

2010-05-25T18:52:00.000-04:00

After close to two years working as an Interactive Designer I finally feel as though I can offer something to others. Clearly two years doesn't make me an expert, but as I take weekly webinars for professional development, I will be posting brief synopsis on the presentations. This may prove useful as many of these webinars are not archived as I believe they should be.

I will also be updating this blog's description, my profile and my portfolio. I have redesigned my site, however as I experiment with jQuery it delays my launch date more and more while I try to add more fun ;). If I feel overly ambitious I may even stylize this blog as I should have in the first place!

An Inevitable Lesson

2009-06-27T11:59:00.000-04:00

To recap the past few months I've begun freelancing in my "spare" time since just like everyone else I'm feeling the economic crunch, and it allows me the freedom to choose my projects and do some more exciting stuff than what I'm handed in the office.

I'm currently working with Harbor Health Services in Hamden, CT to organize and cleanup their site a bit - no major redesign. Also I'm creating a site for A Touch of Color also in Hamden CT, which will be a full workload as there is no existing site nor content. It does however prove to be an interesting venture!

On to my lesson. I was approached in a bar in Milford by a man who owns an auto body shop and overheard me discussing web design with a fellow coworker. Never persue potential clients who you meet in a bar. The "website" is usually a facade. Anyway, I emailed him and called him up, set a time to meet and discuss an arrangement and decided to barter as his funds were tight and my car needs work. Well after driving over 50 miles to meet with him, early on a Saturday morning, and waiting 15 minutes for him to arrive to our appointment he says "Can we do this later me and my son really want to get out on the boat?"

What I took away from this experience was:
1. My time is valuable, and although I am patient I won't stand around and wait for someone to "throw me a bone" or beg for your attention.
2. If a person who owns his own business and flaunts his assets tells you he wants to barter - it's a waste of time. They don't respect or see value in your services and are looking to get something for free.
3. If you are freelancing for extra money and you dislike the client and their business etiquette from the very beginning - walk away, you don't need to bother with them and if you decide to stick with it, keep in mind how you're going to get what you need to get the job done.

As for the auto body owner, good luck finding a designer/developer to put up with your attitude long enough to make a "bargain." It makes me wonder if I went through with it, if he'd even do an honest job working on my car...

I officially eat my words!!

2008-12-15T16:56:00.000-05:00

As of my last one-on-one meeting with my boss I've been informed that I will become a new hire just in time for the new year!! Pending a meeting regarding employment terms, etc... I will be a full-time employee of Caffeine Interactive! I couldn't be more thrilled. (Unless he was offering to buy me a condo nearby so I wouldn't have such a long commute haha!)

Currently I'm using skills and tricks I've learned in the past three months to improve my portfolio, although I haven't gotten much accomplished the planning is becoming quite polished, and I am pursuing side jobs to experiment- mostly helping friends with their current sites' designs. I have major pet-peeves.

And... another big one for me personally, I'm finally catching onto writing my own code! haha It's terrible I know. But when you learn strictly from copy-and-pasting (my fault I never read manuals or reference books until now) you tend to get overwhelmed and not become comfortable with the structure of the syntax. Or maybe it's me, either way I'm happy! And all it took was a little DNN content addition. Repetitive DNN content additions. =p I actually had fun with it.

Hasta luego, when I upload new content to my portfolio, thanks for reading!

4: Formatting your art

2008-05-01T10:50:00.000-04:00

Cynthia Baron discusses formatting your artwork for your portfolio in chapter 4 of DDP. She points out helpful practices for artists of several genres such as motion graphics and fine art. For motion graphics, she states that a good practice is to take stills of animations and video and send those to employers, saving the demo reel or cd for later once you've hooked their interest. However, much of this chapter was related to print work, photography, and fine art as that requires quite a bit of work to produce a quality depiction of the art on screen. Digital art skips many of the steps involved as their is no need for scanners, etc... However in a following chapter, Baron states that once on screen art lacks a certain "finesse" and I got the impression that she is not particularly interested in digital art. I did find her chapter helpful, however there wasn't much substance there for a digital designer.

3: Research, no it never ends!

2008-05-01T10:29:00.000-04:00

Researching your current project is as important as researching the client you are designing for. The style and technique you have in mind for a particular job could be completely inappropriate for the type of business your client is involved in. For example I seriously doubt that Northeast Utilities would take me seriously if I designed their Annual Report with graffiti. When searching for employment, dedicating enough time and energy to finding the right fit for you can prevent bad experiences and wasted time--for you and your employer. "You could have used that time to find a more compatible situation." -"Audience" DDP by Cynthia Baron

While research is the most obvious starting point for any project, most students such as myself-though I am trying to break the habit-pull a great deal of their information from memory. Because we are students, this knowledge is undoubtedly limited and our designs suffer considerably. Research can help students develop style and broaden their skills as they discover new art forms and processes associated with the design world. One of which is mentioned in chapters 4 & 5 in "How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul" by Adrian Shaughnessy-- setting up and running a studio.

Granted this would be an extremely gutsy endeavor for anyone straight out of college unless you've just received your master's degree, but nonetheless it is valuable information to start thinking about. After all you would need to save up the money to invest in this task, so it's not such a poor idea to keep in mind--and if it never happens at least you'll have a retirement fund! Shaughnessy advises to work with a partner, one who's strengths are opposite yours. For example if you aren't so good at balancing a check book, it may be better to work with an accounting partner or a fellow designer who handles that well. This helps to alleviate stress on you and the business and encourages success.

9: How to write about yourself concisely

2008-04-10T09:50:00.000-04:00

I have created much of the written content for my site already, however I am in desperate need for proofreading-good thing they’re paying an individual to review our work! As I read chapter 9 of DDP by Cynthia Baron, titled “Creating Written Content” I reviewed my work for typos, bad grammar, verbal diarrhea and other errors. It’s never easy to proofread your own work so instead I proofread Baron’s, there’s a typo on page 178 in the first paragraph of the sidebar.

I have found over the past year that many of the professionally written texts I read contain typos and above all in the most ironic of places. For example within the first few pages of “Typography Workbook” (an excellent tool for those of us who are novices in the art of type design) by Samara, in a section labeled “Typography Fundamentals” I found five typos and was very disappointed-though after reviewing the credits of the book I didn’t find any “responsible party” such as an editor… I would like to say here that although I seem very neurotic, I do realize that no one is perfect and I laugh at my own misspellings and such (as they are usually pretty ridiculous).

In “Building Design Portfolios” by Sara Eisenman, the pages go on to showcase and review exceptional portfolios and their artists; another favorite of mine being Kevin O’Callaghan whose fifteen foot portfolio being transported via trailer got stuck under a bridge. The best advice I have gained on this topic from the reading has been to keep descriptions brief and to the point, don’t discuss your philosophy on art (being a student NO ONE wants to hear mine, and for good reason-I don’t have much of anything to say yet). I like art. Ha ha.

Your work should include your perception of the subject matter and say a lot about you as an artist-you don’t have to put it into words. Another point made is that you shouldn’t state anything that is obvious upon viewing the art such as “…the apple is placed in the center of the stage,” you can assume that the user is going to find that out for themselves. That being said it is a bit difficult to write a good description-especially for a website (at least when you do seven for the same professor, in the same class).

Clean-up in Aisle 8

2008-04-02T22:06:00.000-04:00

It has certainly been a while since my last posting as I got wrapped up in preparing my art work for my portfolio and organizing myself for my professional career. At this point in the portfolio process I am “cleaning up” some artwork and “optimizing” others. (I had to photoshop some recent pictures of myself to hide the bags under my eyes!)

In some cases as in my web design work from sophomore year, I have begun redesigning the sites with what I have learned in the following years such as appropriate use of typography- with which I am still rusty since I’ve had no formal instruction with that subject (it was the topic of an elective course that I thought I signed up for but turned out to be something else entirely!) and I have also matured stylistically.

For example, I now find it natural to avoid presenting a long text separated into large block paragraphs as it is difficult to read on a computer screen and most-myself included are unwilling to sit and be able to comprehend the point of the text without repeatedly reminding oneself of how irritating the task is-some may simply print it out and read it at their leisure if they must read it at all whereas others will skim the topic and abandon the rest.

In addition I have increased my knowledge of html coding and other scripting for the web, though not as much as I would like-and I do intend to concentrate on that after my portfolio is complete, and I can now fix errors like the code displaying in the navigation bar of a website rather than setting a layout property. I am also at the stage of my work where I am creating a working prototype or first draft of my final digital portfolio (I find it a best practice for my own habits and personality to break up tasks and focus on a few different projects at once in case I get a mental/creative block on one I can switch to another and continue along without wasting time).

I have renewed my subscription to Lynda.com in order to complete training videos on how to create a web site successfully in Flash and to keep in mind the purpose, user experience, etc… while doing so. I feel that this is a great way to refresh my skills and keep my train-of-thought organizes so I can work efficiently as I don’t have much time left! Ah, only four weeks left!

By this point in time I have seen in “Building Design Portfolios” by Sara Eisenman many examples of both professional portfolios, by both design firms and independent artists, “portfolios that got jobs” and successful and unique student portfolios such as Christian Steurer who used a newspaper format for his portfolio as a “[quick and simple way to effectively communicate his thoughts about his work to potential employers/clients and sent his it rolled up (like a traditional newspaper) sealed with a sticker that said ”Good designers make trouble.]”

In the other text required for my course is “Designing a Digital Portfolio” mentioned earlier in this blog by Cynthia L. Baron and she goes into quite a bit of detail discussing what type of portfolio is best for each type of artist, for example a multimedia designer would not necessarily benefit from using a print portfolio as an alternative along with a digital portfolio in contrast to using a demo reel on DVD with a digital portfolio. However, because I am presenting only 3 animations in my portfolio and 3 animated mobile applications-besides 7-8 web sites- it wouldn’t make sense for me to create a demo reel to showcase my art; a traditional print portfolio would work just fine if I printed out key frames of the animations that help convey the overall theme and message of the piece.

I do however need to go through the process of cleaning up files, cropping, adjusting color, contrast etc… and considering the other vast elements of good print design. Fortunately my art director at Northeast Utilities-Laurie Matthews is a perfectionist and if asked I’m sure would gladly point out what’s wrong with a piece-I envy her attention to detail!

Week 2: Style, Attitude, and Art

2008-02-07T12:19:00.000-05:00

This past week, aside from designing a collage-style poster for a diversity conference made up of thirty-three individual posters from all different departments at Northeast Utilities, I was faced with designing 24 logos and 12 refined compositions – for my professional career to come. I fear for my eyesight. In "How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul" by Adrian Shaughnessy, Neville Brody says during an interview "traditional graphic design ruined my eyesight." While I am not working in traditional graphic design, working pixel-by-pixel with my face pressed against a twenty-inch monitor is not what I'd call exercising good retinal health. Yet I rejoice in knowing that working at an in-house design studio is the type of great experience I need to mold me into the designer I want to become. The sometimes dull and sometimes crazy work load mixed with corporate politics and the "grin-at-bear-it" (with enthusiasm no doubt because my innumerable facial expressions give away my every thought) attitude is the kick in the teeth I've been craving. While I don't like being ripped apart (well to tell the truth I think I'm starting to enjoy the criticism) especially when I've just had my braces tightened (Pattie Belle! ha ha)
I need to know what I'm doing wrong down to the detail so I can go back and fix it. I want to fix my bad designs and improve my skills.

Designing logos is usually a task that I can handle happily although I’d rather do other design work; except when it comes to designing a symbolic representation of yourself, it gets pretty tricky. For example, with a company or another such client, you can come up with symbols and combinations of type based on what type of business they are in. I don’t want to limit myself by any means, and while I’m interested in 3D design it doesn’t exactly give me a lot to work with subject wise.

So I did some research beginning with reading Cynthia Baron's How to Design a Digital Portfolio, chapter 2 and I learned how to and how NOT to describe my work, and myself as an artist. For example, elegant is good, sexy is bad, especially with the title of my blog! My boss at then gave me two books to look through – one is Letterhead & Logo Design 7 and the other being The 7 Essentials of Graphic Design and both gave me great layout ideas. I also read the articles “Design a Logo of Letters!” and “Discover the logo in your name” from Before and After Magazine, which had great ideas as to how to combine, arrange, and distort letters and text to make a unique logo. In addition to these four resources I resohttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifrted to analyzing logos on various packing around my cluttered and stressed workspace, such as Ghirardelli chocolates, Stop & Shop seltzer water and Hawaiian Tropic lip balm.

I managed to produce several possible logos that if used, I won’t/ or shouldn’t be ashamed of in ten years and represent an ambitious, yet elegant style that I’m sure to grow into before my graduation from Quinnipiac this May.

1-What Type of Artist Am I?

2008-01-30T15:58:00.001-05:00

Our first meeting, Prof. Hastings mentioned HOW Design magazine, which I had just discovered a day earlier from my boss at Northeast Utilities in our artistic corner of Corporate Communications. It was an issue from October 2004 showing 160 winners from their "Self-Promotion Annual." So when I saw the website I felt compelled to further research self-promotion pieces and found a great article describing what to, and what not to do; such as mistaking your persistence as an attractive trait when your client just thinks you're a pest. "Heaven Sent" by Claire Sykes

Cynthia Baron in "Designing a Digital Portfolio," Chapter One, begins by expressing the various pitfalls of the artist's portfolio. To begin with, it is a complex process to begin creating one, and she also mentions how it is often difficult to upkeep throughout one's career.

In order to begin creating a design portfolio, whether traditional, digital or both, one must first decide what profession best suits their interests/talents. She makes a decision for students as to the purpose of their portfolio, Art, as they are not currently creating art in order to make a living and “Being a student is a transitional state.” (9) Baron continues to make helpful suggestions or insights regarding students and newcomers to the industry.

Once you can identify yourself in a particular profession, you know have some idea as to what type of portfolio is expected of you, whether you should stick to one signature style or vary your pieces, and how technically proficient you need to be. For example, a fine artist should be prepared with a traditional portfolio: slides as well as the original works of art. Also a fine artist need not be bothered with technological accuracy, as curators will be more focused on the art showcased in the portfolio as compared to a multimedia designer who is expected to have a flawless website. Broken links=no work.

Personally I see myself as a multimedia designer, as I wholeheartedly do NOT want to design signage, product labels, etc. the rest of my life, nor do I have the talent to rely on painting for a living-and I would not pay to see myself perform! I fell in love with 3D art through Maya last semester, and as much of a challenge Flash is for me-I wouldn’t have it any other way. I see Flash as one of my weaker points-as far as Action Scripting is concerned, which is why I want to design my portfolio in Flash. Though I still view my final product as impossible, I’m off to a good start!

At least I feel that way after reading "How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul" by Adrian Shaughnessy. In the first chapter, Shaughnessy discusses the "Attributes needed by the modern designer," including cultural awareness, communication and integrity. Cultural awareness is something that I talk about a lot but I'm not sure I have. I'm well aware of the attitudes of my generation, the attitudes that previous generations have towards mine, and the political atmosphere is chokingly obvious-it would be hard not to know what's going on around me-yet if I have a real cultural awareness in terms of the skill used by designers it is raw at best. Communication as well is something we all do naturally without noticing it, but Shaughnessy goes beyond contrasting stuttering and being "well-spoken" to pointing out how designers talk about themselves. I can talk for hours-try me. However when it comes to discussing myself or my art I am at a loss for words if you do not instruct me somehow with questions as to what you want to know. Even then I'm not confident in my responses and often clam up.

The author's advice here, as well as the advice of my Prof. Pattie Belle is to discuss why you designed the art the way you have in terms of design techniques and principles. For example, "I used the color green for an ad about eyecare because the color green is thought to improve vision." Now whether or not that information on the color green is true I'm not sure-but it shows that I have done research in color theory and found some useful and interesting information. The color green is actually the most "restful" color to the eye, and while I keep stumbling upon articles saying that the color has great healing power I tend to agree with Dr. Hagan and say that it does not directly relate to eye health-otherwise that would be great!

Lastly Shaughnessy points out that a vital attribute of a successful-not necessarily in monetary terms-designer is one that operates on the virtue of integrity. An artist that takes whatever job that comes along no matter what it entails will lose respect and suffer more in the long run in comparison to someone who refuses a job or two and falls behind on their bills temporarily. Integrity and morals are definitely something most Americans are looking for these days whether we act appropriately with that statement or not and it is so refreshing to be in the presence of a genuine person. That is something I hold in high regard for myself and I hope I will not lose sight of that in my coming career.

Well I know I need to work on communication, cultural awareness, integrity, and identifying what I'm going to do with myself-and accepting that you have a problem is the first step on the road to recovery!

The 1st Day of the Last Semester

2008-01-30T15:02:00.001-05:00

Is it clear that I'm nervous? The idea of having to build up my portfolio and put all of my skills and marketable features out for people to shop for isn't my idea of fun. I never feel as though I do myself justice-I have a feeling that this is soon to change.

Paper Sky

2005-10-25T10:00:00.000-04:00

Paper Sky
http://www.centrifuga.net/gab.html

Paper Sky is an animation designed using cardboard cutouts and crayon drawings. Though simple, the visuals are extremely effective. By taking these stick-figure drawings of people and cityscapes the designer tells a story of a very conservative world within a “box.” The day-by-day routine is very predictable, driving to work, coming home, eating dinner, going to sleep, etc. However, one morning the stick-figure man stubbles upon the real sky in his bathroom getting ready for work. He is utterly astonished; the look of amazement on his face conveys an emotion of chaos. What he once believed was the real sky, the limit around his dreary monotonous world, is just a cage holding him in. As he goes through his routine that revolutionary morning, he looks about with wonder. We see him researching at his paper computer, learning and considering what other false limits surrounded him.

The stick-figure man is the only character in the animation that experiences the epiphany. Not even his wife sees the real sky, which is why I think the real sky is an internal discovery more than a discovery about the world that the figures live in. I believe that the sky showing through symbolizes the beauty and meaning of life. There is so much more out in the world than “paper work” and traffic. By using paper/cardboard to design the world he created, the animator seems to be saying that if you don’t make time to enjoy life, you will become your work.

After the man saw the real sky peak through his little world, his facial expressions changed from plain and dreary, to happy and eager. The techniques used by the designer of flipping, turning, twisting, rising and dropping the cardboard pieces illustrates the feelings of chaos that occurred for this simple stick figure.

The music in the animation sounds like an accordion playing; the unique and slightly awkward sound of the instrument is the perfect accompaniment to the story. The sound starts off rough and jerky, matching the unpleasant commute to work and the lack of things to look forward to at your job. Then the sound becomes more rhythmic and drawn out, as if it were a symphony, as the stick figure man arrives home where he is happy. From that point on the music remains a wonderful flow of sound as the man looks at his world from a new perspective, an enlightened perspective.

I loved this animation beginning to end; I never appreciated the accordion until now.

Nightcrawler

2005-09-19T14:41:00.000-04:00

Nightcrawler
www.theplasticbox.com

Nightcrawler by Brian Moore, the prequel to the “Teddy & Anna” series, is the story of “three scoundrels,” a fat man who plays the narrator, Lorre who has “unusual talents” and young Veronika. The narration is carried out through subtitles between the suspenseful scenes of the animation. The cartoon starts out silent, then at the title screen a curious and repetitive music begins to play. The three scoundrels are all planning to steal a valuable treasure that belongs to the government called the “Nightcrawler,” of which Veronika is the first to get possession. The chase scene begins when Veronika boards a late night train and we see a zeppelin in the background. The two men board the speeding train by dropping from the zeppelin, and going through each of the cars looking for Veronika, at this point Lorre’s special power is revealed, his eyes or glasses shoot out light which may burn off the hair on your head, as it did to one man in the animation. Lorre reminds me of a character in this year’s movie “Sin City” where light was always reflecting off of the character’s glasses, the two seem very similar, however Moore’s character Lorre appears to be a robot towards the end when we see sparks fly out of his shoulder as he removes his arm. In the end Veronika gets away, but not with her Nightcrawler. The treasure falls into the hands of the narrator, but then flies off into the sunlight.

The animation “Nightcrawler” is done completely in grayscale with thick black outlines on the majority of the scenes. Movement is seen by relative objects passing to the background, such as the speeding train scene. The movement of the train is portrayed by trees on the sidelines appearing and then quickly shrinking as they go zooming back. The music, which retains a consistent base rhythm, includes more anxious rhythms during action scenes.There is little movement among the characters though, as the dialogue is expressed through text, which also acts as a transitional element from beginning to end.

G vs. G

2005-09-12T19:20:00.000-04:00

G VS. G
http://www.toddgallina.com/gvg/index.html

In the animation entitled “G vs. G,” Todd Gallina tells the story of a world where fans live amongst their idols “in harmony” on a planet known as “ALT.FAN;” then one day there is a debate about who is the better Godzilla. As the American Godzilla rises out of the surrounding ocean, and the Japanese Godzilla emerges from an iceberg, they manage to crush notable characters from Star Trek as well as Jar-Jar Binks from Star Wars. The two Godzilla’s meet up in the city and fight meanwhile destroying as many buildings, and the two baby Godzillas, with as minimal movement as possible. They then fall into the ocean, entangled, crashing into a “SeaQuest” submarine. At this point Todd Gallina asks the audience who is the victor, the American Godzilla or the Japanese Godzilla. I chose the Japanese Godzilla, the classic, who then rose from the deep blue and walked/swam off into the sunset followed by one of his rivals, Radeen. However, if you chose the American Godzilla, he rises up and then swims off into the sunset much like the Japanese Godzilla, except this one is chased, then attacked by a shark, (which looks similar to the drawings we see of a shark for a ‘Jaws’ remake during the cartoon).

In “G vs. G,” the background stood still throughout the entire duration of the cartoon. The major animation consisted of moving mouths, arms, and tails. In scenes such as the one with Captain Kirk of Star Trek, flipping amongst three positions animates the characters. This cartoon offers more movement, however, than “The Croc Files” also done by Gallina, in “G vs. G,” a handful of the characters sport moving eyebrows.

The color palette remains flat much like Gallina’s other cartoons, as he makes use of primary colors and thick black outlines. The colors are bold and offer no blending, or gradients. They do however work very well with the purpose of the cartoon and the audience it was meant for. Many of those watching this cartoon are interested more in the comical value versus the animation and special effects.

The numerous jokes and spoofs throughout “G vs. G” play host to a number of themes. The scene with Captain Kirk shows him proposing a mission to a curvaceous alien. There is a sexual connotation in his need to explore lands that man has never been before; and even after Godzilla crushes his friend, the Captain looks at the alien and says, “We don’t have much time.” But the main themes of the cartoon express a battle between old and new; elaborate special effects vs. plot; and the pathetic obsession of fans that go overboard.

P.S. I saw the “Invisible Woman,” did you?

Costume Dress-Up

2005-09-12T19:11:00.000-04:00

Costume Dress-Up
http://myscene.everythinggirl.com/webisodes/webisodes.aspx

“Costume Dress-Up” starts with the MyScene girls rushing through the door of one of their parents’ homes, the short dialog mentions a party and then we move to the next scene by way of a zipper moving up the screen. They all grab costumes out of the bags they carried into the house and despite one girl’s caution, put them on impatiently. The animation then cuts to a scene of each of the girls on a fantasy runway, then all together, as they picture their up-coming fashion show. The sound of the dogs barking acts as a transition from fantasy back to reality when the girls look over at their dogs; all of which are dressed in outfits coordinating to that of their owners. The dogs act as a transition throughout the rest of the cartoon as well, from when the girls first walk in the door carrying them, to when the cartoon ends on how cute they look in their costumes.

Movement in “Costume Dress-Up” is minimal but effective for its pre-teen audience. The characters present moving mouths, eyebrows, arms and dogs moving up and down as they dig through bags. The background remains still throughout the entire cartoon. We hear rock music play continuously, until the fantasy runway scene where we hear techno music, and then the rock music picks up again when the girls snap back to reality. The color palette is flat consisting of a lot of pinks, reds, yellows, and purples.

The MyScene girls represent a stereotypical group of teenage girls obsessed with fashion. They put a major emphasis on their appearance that includes little tank tops and low-rise pants. All of the girls are pencil thin and have flowing hair down to their waist. Although this appearance is expected, as are the attitudes of the girls, these messages do effect a large group of young girls.

First Post

2005-08-30T09:53:00.000-04:00

I HATE FRISBIES