Uniquely The Epitome

Designer or Illustrator

2012-02-02T03:30:00.000-08:00

Graphic designers generally have a concise message they want to communicate and might employee an illustrator to help create elements that solve the design problem.Keep in mind, unlike the design field, Illustration only implies a method or type of visual element–a representative style or technique. This varies from talent to talent.Design utilizes a set of standards generally established and considered to be a rule(s) for communicating clearly and effectively to a large set of narrowed perspectives.A designer may decided that an illustrator's style or technique will enhance or even solve the design/communication problem.

Modernly contemporary art

2012-01-30T18:02:00.000-08:00

You can only evaluate work based on the work you've seen by others. This is were the challenge starts and ends. Art is nothing more than a contrast that either resonates with you or goes completely unnoticed by an equal to, or greater contrast.Two great words; Skeuomorph→ and Umwelt→.Our individual perceptions, in my opinion, lie somewhere between these two words.Ideas are greater than facts. The idea of contemporary art, is just that, an idea. It's art that happens in your specific lifetime and generally overlaps modern art as you get older, wiser and just generally experience more in your life.And while I myself tried explain it, art requires no explanation. Everything created that is not considered art, is an attempt to explain something.

Google Real-Time Insight Finder

2012-01-18T16:12:00.001-08:00

Best fonts for printed documents?

2012-01-13T14:43:00.000-08:00

Fonts are the tools or devices used to recreate, publish or show a typeface.So this post title should actually read, "Best typefaces for printed documents."A font is used to reproduce a typeface, digital or analog. ;)

Since the post title implies that I was going to suggest a list of best practices for typefaces for print, I'll simply say this;
Try not to use more than two typefaces within typesetting that requires large quantities of text and information. Structure is more important than design embellishment. Having said this, it's also important to note that type used as design embellishment does not need to follow the same rules as type used in typesetting. There is a distinct, but fine line between typesetting as a functional form of literature and typesetting as design and embellishment.In the end, be consistent and concise.

Playful design

2011-10-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

Wisdom and experience often only provide polished iterations. In order to do something new, it's best to forget the rules long enough to break the old ones, subsequently creating new ones.Technique is making the perfect mistake.Play allows for this.

Critiquing other creative's work online

2011-10-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

I think it is okay.We have enough critics as it is. ;)
I think most do not comment for fear that said marketer or creative agency may one day be their employer.
A rule (in my opinion) that I try to follow, as is the case with any critical critique of creative; if you have a complaint or issue with the work, be sure that your critique is part of a solution. Let it be well thought out, not impulsive and arbitrary. If you do not like it and can not formulate a reason why, it's best to not convolute the information used to shape the work. Ultimately, this undermines the talent and help of everyone involved.

Design for the non-designer

2011-10-13T12:42:00.000-07:00

I do not believe you can instantly teach design. I do not think a few workshops will help either. Not without repeated practical hands-on demonstrations (a class). Subjective thinking versus objective while ultimately dealing with an individual's ability to remove themselves from all other types of communication (what one has previously been exposed too) in order to objectively review the work being presented–that's buddha style.

In my experience, information gathering prior to beginning the project is extremely important. This also means involving all decision makers initially and early on. Everyone who believes they have a stake in the execution should be involved initially, not at the end. Predispositions can not be brow-beaten, reversed/opened up, within a budgeted timeline and deadline-driven project scope. You risk going upside down with your client and team, financially. You may also creatively bankrupt your team because of multiple iterations.

An important factor while reviewing work is in evaluating the information initially provided and used to create it. Half a question will yield half an answer. Half an opinion is not a whole solution. Work is created based on the truths used to inform it. If that information changes in midstream, the work may need to be re-evaluated as a whole. For example, the sentence; Mary had a little lamb, would not make much sense with the words rearranged like this; Had Mary lamb little a. While you the reader may understand what the sentence is trying to communicate, you can only do so because you already know the correct order of words in which the sentence should be written. Familiarity in this case, corrects the mistake cognitively.

If I were to present the common surveyor with a new sentence, never before seen or read, such as; Brick more round, the one world making time a we're., you'd clearly have an issue with how this reads and what it's trying to communicate. Understand that design works in the same way. It's difficult, almost self-destructive, when you think it's okay to simply move, change, revise, edit, modify, marry, merge, eliminate, add or blend–things within a design solution. You are affecting the greater whole of the work and the greater whole should be re-evaluated because of the change to a small sum. We're making the world more round, one brick at a time.

An arbitrary comment, supported by verbal affirmation does not automatically improve the visual problem. Think about that statement for moment. Verbal comments designed to fix a visual. Verbal automatically correcting visual. It's a problem, for sure. Facts can guide creative design, but under no circumstances should it dictate the design. Changing one word in a sentence can affect comprehension of the sentence. The same thing happens with design. We're not all designers because we've seen design. And we're not all writers because we've read books. But of course, we all have it within us to be one and honing these skills start with looking at design and reading more books.

A simple rule that I use when working with non-designers or clients that really don't gravitate towards visual comprehension is: show a visual competitive analysis. Present the work against a back drop of your competitors work. This is a very simple frame of reference that leverages the surveyors knowledge more effectively. You'll get simple responses that aren't over-convoluted diatribes meant to sound intelligent–an honest reaction versus someone trying to respond without being embarrassed. This also allows the designer to evaluate the surveyors responses in relationship to the larger context.

In this case, I can validate my shade of blue against something more tangible that you consider to be a true blue, instead of mixing thirteen different shades and waiting for you to point at one. Money and time are lost for both of us. With visual competitive analysis, we leverage your knowledge ( or inexperience ) against many iterations of work produced by other companies (what you've been exposed to already) while I avoid billing you for an endless loop of revisions. We narrow things down perceptually, based on what's existing in the market and what you want to do in order to stand out.

In saying this, lets also assume that people aren't arriving to the table with preconceived notions of what the work should be/look/function like. By doing so, it inherently becomes brow-beating again.

Design is subject to what has been done before, nothing more. You can only evaluate my work based one the work you've seen by others. This is were the challenge starts and ends. Creating something new means not having a deprecated system to gauge the work against. Even (what may be considered someone) poor design can work effectively if it remains consistent and true to it's purpose.

The business of branding today

2011-10-10T16:00:00.000-07:00

Today, branding can instantly be restructured based on a participant's contribution. Wether positive or negative, a brand can react to the sentiment. I realize that latency in correspondence and response times vary from brand to brand, but eventually (and I hope soon), brands will be operating their own portals. Social networks are obviously too rigid for brands to fully express there ideas, products or services. I've written about this a few times over the years. By nature of the advancement of the mobile space, people spend less time in front of the big screen and more time being mobile. That's the point of smart phones. Subsequently, we may find ourselves with passive media entertainment again, while everything we think about the entertainment or even how we react to it, will be sent to the cloud for aggregation and observation. Creepy. 'The more free software we use, the less free we are.'

Mobile technology is/has closed a small gap between the dichotomy of web users; Searcher and Escapist. In doing so, people do not spend as much time in front of their computers, unless they're working or specifically tending to a few critical tasks. In a sense, they're there to get something done–use the machine as a tool. This gap will be widened again when retail and experiential spaces re-merge as a more engaging way for brands to communicate their ideas and services. Technology will take its place by our waist side. Like most new things, once we've figured out the practicality of the new, we'll begin to reshape it to function more like ourselves versus dealing with the awkwardness of new. I'm not suggesting that the terminal (TV or Computer/Set top box) will lose its place in the home.

Another thing to consider regarding technology as it applies to branding is that the learning curve associated with previous generations, will be almost non-existent in the coming years. I do not mean to say people will not need to learn new things, but they will certainly be less resistant to the act of learning something new. In most cases, it is almost unnoticeable for most power users today. People will most certainly be comfortable typing a message, installing a new update, modifying some HTML themselves and generally just comfortable with new software and hardware upgrades. The learning curve associated with the challenges of the technology industry 20 years ago will seem archaic. People are trusting technology and hardware as it becomes a part of our daily lives. New systems or methods of communicating a message, idea, product or service will either be remarkably new, mundane and unnoticeable or discreet and automatic. And if this becomes true, security might be the new commodity after transparency.→

As the technology and marketing converge; we slowly go from observation, participation and reciprocation through a permissions-based system to an almost eerily automated anticipate and delivery mechanism. Which would then make most of these anticipate and deliver mechanisms destructive to the greater whole of innovation and collaboration.→

An example could be;
RunKeeper→ has been tracking my runs for a few months, maybe even years. Throughout my membership on the site, I've posted a few updates regarding purchases of new shoes. RunKeeper has figured out that, on average, I get a new pair of shoes every 3-5 months. Saucony→ has (hypothetically) been a partner or sponsor on RunKeeper. Saucony sees an opportunity to serve me an ad, link, email or in-window pop-in (some interactive mechanism) for a new pair of shoes.

Anticipate and deliver through aggregation of sentiment.It's very close.

Junior or Senior?

2011-10-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

My thoughts on the title, wether implicitly used or discreetly managed, on working with Junior or Senior creative people;Seniors provide well-reasoned and rationale solutions based on strategic thinking. Often times, they can handle many projects at once, while collaborating with others on their respective projects.

Juniors explore and iterate, while learning the nuances of solving different problems within different types of mediums and client's respective markets.

This however, does not denote that any one person is more talented or has better ideas, than another. It is more suited towards those who can execute multiple ideas and work more collaboratively with others.

Defining a visual brand element

2011-10-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Semiotics and it's 3 branches;

      ▪ Semantics:
        Relation between signs and the things to which
        they refer; their denotata, or meaning

      ▪ Syntactics:
        Relations among signs in formal structures

      ▪ Pragmatics:
        Relation between signs and the effects they
        have on the people who use them

I've written about and explored this subject a lot over the years.→
It is the end-use of the visual element that defines its position within the broader visual language known as graphic design. So when the Jedi jargon starts flying, just look at how the components are being utilized and communicated to the prospect. End usage will help you refine and define its usage and place within the branding.

Big Apple

2011-10-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

Solving design problems

2011-10-05T08:57:00.000-07:00

1. Gather insight(s), which include the client's objectives and a competitive analysis. Your solution is dependent on the initial input used to guide it. Know your mediums thoroughly, too. Meet with a client, establish a relationship. You'll be dealing with a lot of narrowed perspectives: Your client, the market and any other estranged opinion(s) that may need to see the work.The relationship is critical. You're part of a larger team, even though you may be the wrist, there are many heads.

2. Iterate, but keep it collaborative–at the least, without driving yourself insane.Be confident in what you present and provide well-reasoned and rationale explanations. Some clients see it, others need to hear it. A good presentation supports both parties.

3. Establish timelines, milestones and cost of everything before hand. Granted, you can't scope a project without knowing the details, but once you've figured out what the project requires–forecast a timeline. You would be surprised in how easy it is to lose money at the end of the year. Your client should be aware of the time allocated for every step. Including a set of guidelines for revisions or when/if a project exceeds the initial launch date. Also, don't be afraid to implement a kill-fee.

Nike - Addiction

2011-09-08T10:00:00.001-07:00

Pale Blue Dot

2011-09-04T11:44:00.000-07:00

Carl Sagan:

"Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known."

See No Evil - UK

2011-08-26T11:54:00.000-07:00

Creative strategy fails

2011-08-19T15:27:00.000-07:00

I find it interesting when people within the agency and marketing world congratulate themselves on a successful strategy or creative idea. I find it extremely funny listening to the comments when a strategy or creative idea fails.

When my work fails, or rather, is not as successful as it was expected to be–I re-evaluate the process by which the strategy was developed. The criteria, the reasoning behind the strategy and the creative generated against the strategy. When I say strategy in the context of this post, I mean the rationale behind the media placement and the creative developed to support the overall strategy. In some cases, strategy is used with reference to the ethno-social demographic that would be most responsive to the strategy and creative. The word strategy, is used in many contexts, as is creative.

There is your overall strategy as a company, and there is your strategy for expressing your idea, message or service within the marketplace (creative development). These are two different things and should be treated as such. Identify the market and market the identity.

Creative might have been stellar with poor media placement; Media was exactly where your prospects are but creative may have been unremarkable; Strategy might have tried to dictate creative versus informing it; Creative might have been so abstract that the positioning or selling proposition made no sense.

I think the most important thing to remember is this, there are no bad ideas. Don't be so caught up with trying to solve the idea, as soon as you've had the notion. Especially when you may be working with a large team, as opposed to by yourself.

Oh–yea, remember that people are your demographics. And like all people, we're fickle and indecisive. After all, we're just human.

Mac 'n' Cheese

2011-08-18T15:56:00.001-07:00

Actelion Imagery Wizard

2011-08-13T18:44:00.001-07:00

Actelion Imagery Wizard from onformative on Vimeo.

Type | PBS Arts

2011-08-03T20:58:00.000-07:00

TESCO'S QR Codes: Shop from anywhere

2011-07-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

"Tesco's Mobile Retailing Strategy in Korea: Using QR Codes on Digital Display Boards in Subway Stations, Consumers can shop while they wait for the train and their order is ready at their home by the time they arrive."

Unfortunately, this wouldn't work within most New York City subways.
Still a great idea for anywhere else.

CSS Attacks

2011-07-07T22:12:00.000-07:00

How CSS can be used to query a user's browser history

Check out the Google Doc→ to learn more.

Facebook inside of Google Plus

2011-07-07T19:47:00.000-07:00

This extension was created by Crossrider→

40 Social Mechanics for Social Games

2011-06-28T22:33:00.000-07:00

40 Social Mechanics for Social Games (Raph Koster)

View more presentations from Flip Flap Man

On/Off the Grid

2011-05-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

Everything that is experienced, perceived, photographed, used and interacted with can be organized into a grid–static or fluid.
Which is to say; a rigid, strict or quite structure is always needed whenever presenting information in context to other information.
Wether intended or not, a grid can be imposed over the experience (either a tangible print piece or a 3-D environment). There generally exists a micro and macro way of experiencing something.

• If you have one word on a piece of paper, there is a grid

• This blog has a grid (all-though a week one)

• David Carson's work has a grid
may not look like a grid was used, but there is a discernible visual hierarchy that can be considered a grid. Which is to say, the information can be absorbed linearly.
The surveyor peripherally has acknowledged something as a starting point on the piece.

• Walking through someone's home (architecture)

• Fluid grids in web design re-populate into a new grid

• A grocery isle has a grid (wether easily noticeable or not)

Relevance to a grid and it's respective objectives lie within its ability to solve visual problems by creating obvious or understated cues between new and old contexts. Having said this, new grids are developed all the time. We generally just call it a style or system.

We're more exposed to designs, methodologies and grids today, than ever before. User interaction models are a great example of this. Intuitive understanding is dependent on what your communication piece is trying to solve.

If it is not solving or communicating anything–it can be considered art. And art requires no explanation or reasoning. Design is an explanation, Art does not require one.

Everything has a grid. An individual's narrowed perception demands it. The trick is in how long it takes someone to absorb it and understand the new grid. If someone doesn't understand it, it has failed. This happens when something is too new. Familiarity should never be over looked, but we should also always work towards moving the experience forward for the end user or prospect.

Gestalt's Psychology→
1. Law of Proximity
Elements that are closer together will be perceived as a coherent object.
If an element(s) is part of another group of elements, make it salient.
If not, provide enough negative space to suggest it belong's to another quadrant.

2. Law of Similarity
Elements that look similar will be perceived as part of the same form.

3. Law of Continuation
The eye tends to continue contours whenever the elements of a pattern establish an implied direction.
The visuals can guide the eye into a precise direction.
Movement is suggested but not clearly visible.

4. Law of Closure
Humans tend to enclose a space by completing a contour and ignoring gaps in the figure.
The eye will connect or disconnect the dots.
Negative space helps connect or repel objects and elements.
This usually implies a separate or isolated movement away from our initial introduction.

5. Law of Prägnanz
A stimulus will be organized into as good a figure as possible–symmetrical, simple, and regular.
Our eyes and mind will struggle to organize the visual data based on a comparison to visual data we've previously been exposed too.
We try to relate it to something familiar because it helps identify and clarify the visual data.
Despite the chaos, we will always try to organize the noise against what we've previously been exposed too.

6. Law of Figure/Ground
A stimulus will be perceived as separate from it's ground.
Logos usually participate in this illusion with reversals of figure/ground as well as false perspectives and forced justification

Information Junk Food

2011-05-15T21:34:00.000-07:00