Thursday, October 30, 2008
Invaluable tutorials
While scanning graphic design sites, an article on creating "Grunge" brushes in Photoshop caught my attention. veerle.douh.com, impressed me as great place to scan for solutions or to a use some of your spare (read sitting there trying to come up with an idea) time to stimulate your mind. I'm not a big fan of brushes because they look so, well, brushy. That said, if you take the time to try learn a particular technique and perfect its execution the exercise alone is worth it. They say learning something new keeps you young.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Quick, slipshod review—creative tools—Behance
If you are a student, you are probably creating on raw anxiety and adrenaline resulting from roommate problems or a resolution thereof. if you are a little further along in your creative career, you have likely been exposed to various creativity incubators, capturers, developers and organizers. These usually involve movable tabs, clips, stickies, even magnets, a "motherboard" repository of some sort, and "nodes," individual pads, binders or folders that replicate the organization steps for each individual on the team. Tasks are usually broken down in some categorization system. Something like: Do now, do later, blow off. Some are more Freudian than others. If one of the action categories reads something like, "rub this card against yourself in private," then email me and let me know what dark little hole you found it in—or better yet, dow what it says and afterwards, I'll buy it from you.
If you are still reading, How Design/Behance describes one company's effort to sweat-out your creative solutions. Their basic premise follows the norm, "I think—therefore, I am on deadline without an idea." One thing most creativity/productivity tools have in common is—The Action Step.
The next step usually leads to a special creativity jumpstarter known as "Shopping."
Everybody is more creative when they have just purchased and eagerly await, (read: got to put off for another day or two at least) their new, mondo expensive set of tabs, stickies, binders, folders, sleeves requiring numerous specialized refills available only from the innovators of this wonderful system and your big, UPS deliverable to street addresses only, shipping $14.95 or FedEx overnight $64.95, Motherboard!
In the HOW® article, the author takes stunningly dull photos of stacks of work and the many household uses you can put little tabs to. It all looks very, "I wish I worked at a place like that."
The article references the designers' "Moleskines" too. I never paid much attention to what these were actually called, other than, very expensive, sexy pads found in art museum book stores. Well, they really are Molskines® and guess what. More shopping!
If you can read the red special internet price, you can see where this is going.
So a bear walks into a bar and asks the bartender, "How much for a beer?"
The bartender replies, "Five bucks." Then goes on, "We don't see many bears in here."
Then the bear says, "At five bucks a beer, you won't see many more."
If you are still reading, How Design/Behance describes one company's effort to sweat-out your creative solutions. Their basic premise follows the norm, "I think—therefore, I am on deadline without an idea." One thing most creativity/productivity tools have in common is—The Action Step.
The next step usually leads to a special creativity jumpstarter known as "Shopping."
Everybody is more creative when they have just purchased and eagerly await, (read: got to put off for another day or two at least) their new, mondo expensive set of tabs, stickies, binders, folders, sleeves requiring numerous specialized refills available only from the innovators of this wonderful system and your big, UPS deliverable to street addresses only, shipping $14.95 or FedEx overnight $64.95, Motherboard!
In the HOW® article, the author takes stunningly dull photos of stacks of work and the many household uses you can put little tabs to. It all looks very, "I wish I worked at a place like that."
The article references the designers' "Moleskines" too. I never paid much attention to what these were actually called, other than, very expensive, sexy pads found in art museum book stores. Well, they really are Molskines® and guess what. More shopping!
If you can read the red special internet price, you can see where this is going.
So a bear walks into a bar and asks the bartender, "How much for a beer?"
The bartender replies, "Five bucks." Then goes on, "We don't see many bears in here."
Then the bear says, "At five bucks a beer, you won't see many more."
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Creative customer service
Creativity, it's said, is 5% sweat, 95% presentation. Being self-employed or owning and running a small office teaches you a lot about customer relations. It also deprives you of the working model for office/client/employee procedures you would find in a typical working office.
When I took my studio personal and rented my office out to another firm in a similar business, they asked me if I would "mentor" them some about customer relations and office management. The glow of the new digs wore off quickly so the mentoring never happened. But I am an occasional customer and our interaction led to some thoughts about customer service.
When your client has an impossible deadline and you deliver on time — then the client doesn't show up for days, even weeks to pick up the work — you ask yourself, "If they did't need it that badly, why did they have this impossible deadline?"
One explanation is the timing of the phone call. Say the job is done, on your counter, and you call and let the client know it's ready. Now they have to wrap that task into whatever else they have to do just as they had to wrap their deadline into their entire list of obligations. New information often makes deadlines flexible, sometimes making them non-existent. So the urgent job sits, along with the deadline, gathering dust.
When you are creating something for a client's tight timing, letting them know the job is definitely going to be on time, ahead of time, gives them the opportunity to fold your work into their project. Giving them a heads-up a day prior to delivery can make you look like a hero and strengthen your relationship with your client.
Just make sure you deliver when you said you would.
When I took my studio personal and rented my office out to another firm in a similar business, they asked me if I would "mentor" them some about customer relations and office management. The glow of the new digs wore off quickly so the mentoring never happened. But I am an occasional customer and our interaction led to some thoughts about customer service.
When your client has an impossible deadline and you deliver on time — then the client doesn't show up for days, even weeks to pick up the work — you ask yourself, "If they did't need it that badly, why did they have this impossible deadline?"
One explanation is the timing of the phone call. Say the job is done, on your counter, and you call and let the client know it's ready. Now they have to wrap that task into whatever else they have to do just as they had to wrap their deadline into their entire list of obligations. New information often makes deadlines flexible, sometimes making them non-existent. So the urgent job sits, along with the deadline, gathering dust.
When you are creating something for a client's tight timing, letting them know the job is definitely going to be on time, ahead of time, gives them the opportunity to fold your work into their project. Giving them a heads-up a day prior to delivery can make you look like a hero and strengthen your relationship with your client.
Just make sure you deliver when you said you would.
Monday, October 20, 2008
A thousand words about web templates
Yes, a remark in that same comment spun off another recollection. csszengarden demonstrates the range of ideas CSS, cascading style sheets, can turn into reality. Though the site's name obviously influences many of the solutions, check out "Revolution!".
The layout is simple, the Post Constructivist elements combined with a graphic floral, all on a rich, deep background. However, many of the other sites here, and in my experience, most of the sites I see, it grabs my attention. Moving on, the right column is too wide for comfortable reading and there isn't much payoff as you move down the page. But the designer has showcased the subject with his own creativity at the forefront. More about this later.
The layout is simple, the Post Constructivist elements combined with a graphic floral, all on a rich, deep background. However, many of the other sites here, and in my experience, most of the sites I see, it grabs my attention. Moving on, the right column is too wide for comfortable reading and there isn't much payoff as you move down the page. But the designer has showcased the subject with his own creativity at the forefront. More about this later.
Who cares about creativity
A comment raised a question in my mind, "Why creativity?" I haven't fully answered that question because I assumed everyone wanted a unique design. Creativity isn't an end in itself, but a process that aids someone who communicates graphically.
My clients have goals they want to achieve—they come to me to implement the graphic direction, and sometimes the marketing, to get where they want to go.
A great deal of my professional work is creating identities. Each approach is unique, creating an image, icon, logo, that speaks visually to the personality, scope and professionalism of that client's endeavor. I often use similar geometry, handled in a unique way, to convey subtle differences.
Both of the above logos are for builders, both builders work as general contractors assembling their crews to fit the project.
The logo on the left is for a builder who works on small to moderate sized projects, one house at a time. He is also a carpenter on his projects. The logo on the right is for, again, a single individual but who works on much larger projects, not just what you think of as "homes." He is often building small compounds, salvaging historical structures on the site, creating massive homes, guest houses and other custom buildings. Finally, each builder has a unique, memorable personality that comes through in their work.
Future posts will better describe the role of the creative process and how it applies to various subjects.
My clients have goals they want to achieve—they come to me to implement the graphic direction, and sometimes the marketing, to get where they want to go.
A great deal of my professional work is creating identities. Each approach is unique, creating an image, icon, logo, that speaks visually to the personality, scope and professionalism of that client's endeavor. I often use similar geometry, handled in a unique way, to convey subtle differences.
Both of the above logos are for builders, both builders work as general contractors assembling their crews to fit the project.
The logo on the left is for a builder who works on small to moderate sized projects, one house at a time. He is also a carpenter on his projects. The logo on the right is for, again, a single individual but who works on much larger projects, not just what you think of as "homes." He is often building small compounds, salvaging historical structures on the site, creating massive homes, guest houses and other custom buildings. Finally, each builder has a unique, memorable personality that comes through in their work.
Future posts will better describe the role of the creative process and how it applies to various subjects.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Digital sketches
These are sketches for a site I was creating for Finegan Thompson in 2007. Three splash page designs, mocked up with the same images in different formats. I don't write html very well so I work with a web jockey who can translate my ideas into online sketches. From there, we have a system for filing components, delivering them sized and optimized and quickly putting rollovers, Flash, whatever into the online mock-up.
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