The Paperless Dystopia

As a fan of technology and a part of web development community I love to see the latest trends where businesses create solutions that help elminate paper trails or solve having those huge filing cabinets of invoices and paperwork. Companies like Enliven Software are at the forefront of these type of solutions.

But there’s another darker front that is also occuring. People are actually reading the printed word less and less these days. Newspapers and magazines which used to be quick reads are now being replaced by quick clicks over to the latest news websites or blogs. Twitter gives you that type of information instantly. Absolutely fantastic but what a sad world it will be when we have lost the experience of turning the pages of a good old book or magazine or digging through a newspaper and discovering little gems of articles hidden within the folds. The tacticle experience is something that just can’t be replaced virtually. Also that sense of wonder and nostalgia with older books as your browse that old antique book store. Not staring a dead screen but hold a nice leather bound book with some worn paper.

I recently visited a paper store in Ann Arbor called “Hollanders.”  They have a viariety of decorative and commerical papers for artists and printers as well as book binding supplies and unique gifts. I’d forgotten how wonderful different papers are. Intricate package designs with unique paper stock give such personality to a design piece and a whole different creative layer to your design work. You simply don’t get that in a web design or downloadable PDF. The hand made papers are especially impressive where they actually put leaves into the fabric threads of the paper. Each piece of paper is intricately unique and begs to be felt and examined closely. The vibrancy of colors and pigments in combination with texture are a more visceral experience that we’re continuing to lose upon each generation after us and that experience can’t be recreated in a design program.

I admit myself that I don’t read a good book as much as I’d like and I will continue to try to read paperbacks more often now as I feel inspired by the tradition of paper again and it’s craftsmanship. Technology can be cold but when we work with materials and paints and papers we get back in touch with our humanity a bit more. It’s something that we can all connect to across different societies and languages. So next time you see some interesting paper texture stop and examine it closer and appreciate it, It’s a fading art form.

Below are some samples of the paper from Hollander’s that I took photos of. If you are ever in downtown Ann Arbor I highly suggest you stop in.

Eye Candy vs. Informative Design

We’ve just recently launched a very large website redesign for CATA. I was thinking how this site truly showcases the differences between visual eye candy design and useful informative web site design. While CATA’s makeover is still visually appealing the quality of the design comes from a underlying thought process of what information should be displayed and where as well as what users will need to do with it. The information architecture forms this foundation and the design is merely there to support that. In fact the best designs for the web are the ones where the user doesn’t even notice the design, it just falls to the background and the purpose and content rise to the surface. They simply and intuitively know where to go and how to get there because the design guides them and doesn’t distract them from doing what they need to do. While I’ve done many heavily branded and thematic designs as a web designer where the visual treatments are weighed heavier it’s important to not allow the artistic elements to outweigh it’s usability. Your website still has a purpose and relevant information to provide to it’s users.  Your web audience is an inpatient group so the quicker you guide them to the info the better. If you put that as your main focus you’ll find a clean effective appealing design will naturally follow. Everything else is just window dressing.

roadster go-kart coolness

The ultimate 3-wheel roadster for the value price of $39,995.00? Check out some more pics of it.

Can you speak technology, design, and Klingon?

“Hab SoSlI’ Quch!” translated from Klingon means “Your momma has a smooth forward” …yes that is the ultimate insult from a Klingon. 

It occured to me the other day that sometimes clients really don’t know what the heck we’re talking about as designers and programmers. You might as well be speaking Klingon. That’s not a slam on the client’s intelligence (or on Klingons.) It’s more of a failure on our part in effective communication. If a doctor starts talking medical terms, I have no clue what he’s talking about either. But a reputable doctor will have a good bedside manner to compliment their medical knowledge. Their ability to relate the information to the patient in a clear and friendly way really helps distinguish them from other professionals in their field. I think designers and programmers can take a lesson from this. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our little world of technology buzzwords and designer lingo we forget that our clients aren’t apart of that same crazy world. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a acronym in our business.  Here’s an example of a typical conversation.

“We’ll be taking your XHTML and .ASP files along with your css and image directories and uploading those up to your host domain through a FTP program. It’s behind our a secure firewall so it may take a while. Shouldn’t be a problem though.”

All the client heard was “blah blah blah.  Shouldn’t be a problem though.” 

So let’s say that in some terms they can better relate to.

“We’re about ready to launch yourname.com once we upload the files to your website. We’ll have it live on Wednesday by 5pm so your customers can get  started visiting it then.”

There, done and to the point. The client doesn’t need to hear how you did everything or your fancy technical terms. What they do need to know is how it’s affecting their business in clear concise words and what the next step is in the process. You are also not talking down to them and if they want to know the nitty gritty details, you can help guide them through those as needed. Remember they can teach you just as much about their business as you can teach them about yours. Great business relationships are a team effort so make that client apart of your team. Save the Klingon talk for the next Trek convention. 

Most billboard designs are bad even at 70 mph.

Yes it’s another rant about poor design in the media. Much like my beef with movie poster design, another one of the glaring eyesores on the design community is that of poor billboard design and their lack of creativity. I generally don’t like billboards anyways as they are more signs of consumerism in our society that pollute scenic views. If you go to Europe, you’ll find very few large signs. Most advertising there is just small signs above the businesses with no commercial billboards cluttering up the roadsides like here in the states. So if it’s blocking my view of the tree-line, you’d hope that it would at least be an attractive design. Not only are they usually hideous, they’re often unreadable especially at 75mph with a semi truck hauling rusty propane canisters in front of me.

Below are a few examples of some typical billboard ads. Notice the small text, poor font usage, no rhythm or reason to it’s layout. Much like web surfers who have notoriously short attention spans you need to grab a drivers attention the same way with clean precise text that gets your message across in seconds. Keep in mind that they’re talking on the cell phone, eating, putting on makeup or balancing their checkbook at the same time. You have to make that initial impression so memorable that your company names remains in their brain…even if they don’t remember the phone number you plastered on the layout or the web address just getting that brand recognition is critical so that they might look you up later. A common problem is that a designer will just simply blow up their yellowpage ad to 500% and feel that’s good enough. Well it might work in the yellow pages (that’s a whole other topic) but on a larger scale format it’s not the same way of viewing. The reader is certainly not up that close and if they were it’s probably because they hit it with the car trying to read it. “If you can read this then you’re too close”

Let’s have a look at some poor implementations…

Come to Lavender Court..where you too can push old people on swings. Yup that’s about sums it up. Can’t really read the amenities and is that text “Elegant Living” or “Elephant Lying?” Not a good font choice for readability when you’re going down the highway. How about saying 6 homes starting at $664,000 for a bold headline, if that’s their major selling point make that standout along with maybe 3 of the most critical amenities. Those logos along the bottom serve no purpose along with the tiny photos of the interior.

 

 

Never use tiny photos of the things you’re trying to sell on a billboard. Make those images stand out and make that text work with it. This is so dull you could swap it out for a funeral home and no one would know the difference. “All our coffins must go! We’re clearing out the old dead to make room for the new!” This is a British billboard by the way, but is everything there really this dull?

 

 

But font sizes don’t matter. It’s not just that that the small text is so unreadable, it’s that the whole design is so dull. Remember you can still get your information across and provide it in an attractive manner instead of beating your design with an ugly stick. Try some strong font combination and colors that make your brand apparent. That poor quality photo of their entrance-way probably serves the purpose of you recognizing it quickly but I sure don’t get any warm fuzzies about going there and the ad certainly won’t stand out visually. If I’m bleeding and driving I’d definitely miss this sign and probably just pass out near a Taco Bell.

 

 

Whose billboard is it anyways? These guys really are hilarious on TV but on this billboard it makes them look like suspects in an Amber Alert. Difficult to read text that’s kerned way out of control, poor font usage and the obligatory star burst. Yes it’s blue and yellow text on a red starburst (eyes still burning), that goes out to you color blind folk out there. By far the worse example I found.

Now finally here’s some great billboard designs. you’ll notice some consistent themes of large imagery that strengthens branding, clear text that’s concise but more importantly it’s eye catching, and often times clever in what it says or how it’s visually presented. Simple, creative, effective. That’s what billboard advertising should be.

Usability Testing: Part of your Basic Web Development Survival Kit

 

“Usability Testing Castaway”

We’ve been working closely with MSU Usability Center to conduct testing on a  high profile website client. This testing came after the fact we built the site but now I can see the benefit of testing through iterative phases. While not cheap to conduct an organization that truly wishes to make their site focused and effective should definitely consider running their site through this valuable process.

The testing entails a series of questions they ask typical users to run through in finding some information in the web site or to perform a specific task such as purchasing something. The subjects are monitored on video and they’re encouraged to verbally talk about their process as they decide where to go as well as offer up suggestions that would improve their experience. Meanwhile we as developers watch the testing in another room and can’t seem to yell loud enough through the wall “click on the link that says e-commerce!!” all the while they were just looking for a link that says “Buy this item here.” I think we as web developers and designers often forget that we’re not the typical average user. We often fall into traps of using jargon and terminologies in our sites that an avergage user wouldn’t understand. Many times this is the verbage coming from the organization but they too aren’t the typical user. They come from the perspective of how their business runs and already have their own biases in using internal terminologies that can further confuse a user. If you want to make a happy customer they need to achieve the goals of your site, enjoy the experience and come back. A effective useable website will provide them answers quickly and be presented in a logical layout that strengthens your branding but more importantly accomplishes helping your user find what they need. A happy customer means a happy website owner.

Often during the study we noticed a simple thing of how something is labeled would confound and confused users even if it made complete sense to us.  Simply adjusting the verbage to something more simple and clear to the customer and not to expectations of the organization or developer increases click through rate immediately and drives them to the answer they were looking for to begin with. We should always be conscious of how the site is reading right down to how we verbalize the links or the sub headlines. User center design starts and ends with the users and the sooner we can have them involved the better the site will be.

Is It Halloween yet?

Below is my latest design work. A promotional poster for John Carpenter’s Halloween that I created on the Wacom Cintiq 12WX Digital tablet. It’s a very comfortable and easy to use digitizer that allows me to draw in the most natural way, directly on the actual screen. It’s got a pretty hefty price tag of $999 but in comparison to my Intuos this just blows it out of the water and well worth the investment. I finally feel like I’m back to real sketching and illustrating except now I have a “undo” function built in. The tablet also  has a great feel to it with the pen and active digital eraser as well as the customizable buttons and track pads on either side of the drawing surface to program all your shortcuts. There’s quite a few cables for it for the DVI, power, and USB hookup but it’s pretty easy to setup, install, and configure. The Mac immediately recognizes it as a second monitor and in no time your sketching away.

 This poster has landed me an opportunity to work with Cinema-suicide.com to do movie posters for their midnight film showings at a local theater in New Hampshire. I can’t expressed how excited I am about this opportunity. It brings together my love for b-movies, horror, sci-fi and my love for illustration in an all you can eat buffet of coolness.

 

here’s a video of the Cintiq in action.
 

I Didn’t know Quicktime could do that.

 

Apple always makes great interfaces

I found this neat little feature in Quicktime Pro that allows you to import a mask layer image directly into your movie clip. Basically I needed to crop down a movie but not actually shrink the content to fit into the smaller window. I Only needed to crop off the extraneous data at the bottom of the clip so it would be a much smaller file size when I imported it into Flash as well as being more in tune to the shape I needed for the background of my animated header. (I do not in anyway condone the use or creation of animated headers..please consult your physician before attempting to make your own animated header.)

 

So heres how. First open your quicktime movie and go to “Window” then “Show movie Properties” and you’ll get this nice little dialog box. Can you sense the power? It does a lot of other nifty things but I just wanted to crop my film.

 

You’ll notice that you can choose a image to create a mask in the left box. I quickly created a image in photoshop the full size of my movie which is 380 by 216. Then in my image file I create a thinner black box where my movie would play through and saved the file out as a 2 color .GIF. Quicktime then cuts away the white and crops down to the black box automatically. I select the “extract” button in the upper left and blam! I now I have a perfectly sized self contained movie file with the extra stuff cut away. Very handy! Hey I know it’s not rocket science but it’s the little things that impress me.

1st Annual Mid-Michigan Creative Alliance Studio Crawl. By the time you say it…it’s already over.

The Mid-Michigan Creative Alliance (formerly Lansing Ad Club) put on a nice event called the Studio Crawl I attended earlier today. It was a chance to tour professional creative studios specializing in graphic design, video production, and photography. It ran from 3:00pm – 6:00pm which was no where near enough time to explore all these great spaces and talk with some wonderfully creative talent.

Signed-up…got started…made a u-turn
Vision Creative was the closes to our offices so we stopped in there first to pay our entry dues and get our maps. I felt $5 was more than reasonable for this event. Of course I realized I only had a single dollar bill in my pocket at that point…luckily I still had a blank check in there (in case I had the spur of the moment feeling of paying a utility bill.)

Vision has a very nice space. Lots of brick work exposed on the walls. Vision has a sort of modernized industrialized feel to it that suits it well. There’s exposed duct work and smooth curved color walls to contrast against the rugged brick and metallic pillars. I Loved the open floor plan. They also had a neat lower-level space with multicolored walls where they showcased some of their portfolio pieces even the Artemis folder they did a while back. We enjoyed chatting with Cameron and some of his co-workers but it was time to get moving on. Too little time and too many places to see. When we left we made a u-turn on Grand River to avoid construction…illegal? Probably, but a good shortcut suggestion from Cameron.

here’s some photos from Vision Creative

You’ll feel right at home at Tria Design
Next we headed into Old Town Lansing and stopped at Tria Design. It’s a large victorian older home that’s been converted into a nice cozzy office space that sits across the street from Elderly Instruments. Warm colored walls with energetic vintage paintings are everywhere and there’s even a full kitchen up stairs amongst the other office rooms for those late night design jam sessions. The studio is run by an all women business team and they’ve made it into a very inviting warm environment and are putting together some nice print work. There’s also a very sweet lab that greats you at the door.

here’s a blurry photo from Tria Design..I best never become a photographer

Ciesa Design…If I could design my perfect office space you would be it.
Ciesa is pretty much the ideal creative environment. An inviting colorful entry way and stylish front desk with hardwood floors. Some of their best poster work from their various sponsored BWL events adoring the wall under some unique shaped lighting. The conference room had a impressive LCD with a mac-mini hooked up for client presentations running a Keynote of their space rennovation. There was free popcorn as you strolled their stunning wood deck overlooking the river. A great place to relax and gather some creative inspiration. Downstairs a secondary meeting room with a full kitchen and additional offices as well as room to grow for their expanding staff. Attractive warm colors stretching into each room and tall high beam ceiling with exposed duct works adds to the creative atmosphere. Creative eclectic furniture including original pieces from the restoration of the building break up the spaces and shelves of great resource material and design magazines are around in various offices. The photos I took don’t do this place justice. This is how you make an office space.

photos from Ciesa Design

Such Video…such a cool space
Upon entering Such Video your immediately struck by the giant vintage art decco mural on the brick wall facing you. At first I figured they painted themselves but turns out it was actually there when they exposed the wall. They mentioned the upstairs studio has an original Coca-Cola mural on it. Amazing, and what a great unexpected touch to give their space a unique feel for clients and employees. Such Video does some great high-end video production for commercial/business uses.

Their studio setups are maxed out with the latest editing software and equipment spotlighted in some mood lighting and there’s even an area in the back where they do green screen effects (perhaps where I can film my battle with a hell demon beast for my own b-movie?) We were shown a few samples of their latest work and I was very impressed by their vision and creative edge. Hollywood quality in our small town.

Most interesting was their website which was a 3d object fly through that represented a bookshelf of interactive elements. It took nearly a year for them to get the site together and the attention to detail and quality of it’s presentation show through. It goes to show you need to take your time and build your brand. Do your best on your own work to show others what you can do for them. It’s worth the time investment.

photos from Such Video

Pace and Partners Hip High-end Agency.

Pace was our last stop right before the 6:00pm cut off time even though I wish we could have toured many more places. Pace has an expansive professional creative space that overlooks the Grand River. Their strong theme of red and metallic textures are evident throughout the studio and make for a nice high scale environment as a leading ad agency. Meshed metallic and the popular exposed duct work carry you through the space leading to a large open deck over the river from their larger picture bay windows for that space to get away to for inspiration from nature. There’s also a neat alcove in the office that contains a wide selection of design materials and soft cushy furniture that I would never leave. I talked with Jack Hedler there who is a skilled copywriter and all around great guy. I’m going to be sending him some of b-movie reviews for pointers on my writing style and skill. He knows of a few other people I should talk with as well. Awesome.

pictures from Pace and Partners

The End of the Day
So it was such a great experience and has gotten my creative fires burning again. I made some good business connections as many of them we’re interested in what Artemis could offer as well and in seeing my work. In talking with the other creatives I found some good resources to help me with my own creative endeavors and to network with. It just goes to show there are some great hidden secrets in Lansing with a booming creative culture that is enriching the community. I hope I can become a big part of that.

Cool hip package design can make the sale.

Over at Shuellers books in East Lansing there’s a small gift area I like to browse before I begrudgingly pay $50 for a design book. I can often find a few stocking stuffers there the night before Christmas or on a frantic rush for a last minute Valentine’s day present.

They always have some unique gifts that catch my designer’s eye. In particular there’s some great items from a company called BlueQ and it’s not so much the products themselves which is usually just an average assortment of lip balms, mouths sprays, soaps, and air fresheners, but it’s their stunning retro package designs and their edgy sense of humor that really makes them stand out from other gift ideas.

I personally love vintage style and retro designing and these are some great examples of it. It just goes to show that packaging design can sell if you do something unique and creative when given something ordinary to promote. Now if I can just fine someone willing to pay me to design them some Totally Awesome 80’s cologne packaging. “Smell like a 1984 Camaro’s interior after a summer BBQ. Cut-off Quiet Riot shirt not included.”