DESIGN outside the box

Although my main interest lies with print design, I do, from time to time, get caught up with a piece of architecture. Generally speaking, I don't really understand the push to design buildings in a fantastical way for the sake of being fantastical. It seems an awful waste of money and resources to make a building into an arbitrary shape for the sake of making something that doesn't relate to anything around it.

I suppose I understand that the monotony of modern cityscapes is probably the reason many of us suffer from perpetual depression... But it seems like the building needs to have a function or a reason in order for me to truely appreciate its fantasticalness. Perhaps its just that, not coming from an architectural or spacial design background, the functionality or purpose isn't apparent, but I fear that many times the reason for building something out of place is purely for the self-importance of the architect or commissioner to leave their mark as being different.

The Ted talk shown here was referred to me by a coworker during one of our long commute-discussions. Although being stuck in the car for 4 hours every work day is a huge drag and can be a sacrifice in terms of work-life balance on those days, the opportunity to share experiences, stories, reflections on the day or other events and just basically working through ideas is invaluable. You learn about so many little tidbits of life and get new perspectives on seemingly unsolvable problems.

Yesterday we were talking about everything from marketing strategies and of tragedies of Groupon to the definition of prostitution and somehow this Ted talk came up. It profiles a company who's sole purpose is to think outside the box. But the results are by no means arbitrary or purely aesthetic, they truly take into account the idea of the human experience and although still fanciful and fantastical, can be distilled down to the very essence of an experience.

Who knew seeds are so... British?

Obsessed with Letterpress

If you haven't discovered Pugly Pixel, you're missing out big time. Literally, everything, including the kitchen sink, and then some... The blog site is chalked full of tutorials, tips and leads on design tools including a market place or subscription option for monthly goodies. I just discovered Katrina's site and have so far enjoyed learning how to tie a bow tie, collected some great new photoshop brushes and were inspired by cupcake colour palettes!

Check out her tutorial for creating digital Letterpress effects in photoshop. I get the oxymoron of digital letterpress, but hey, not all of us are blessed with the tools for the craft so if we can fake it with style and not cheese, its as close as many of us will ever get.

Enjoy! And thanks Katrina!

Reving up

Sorry for the silence of late. I've had tonnes going on and really want to explore all the thoughts whizzing around my head of late, but time has just caused forced TidBits to slip on the priority list. I promise I'll take some time in the next day or so to post!

DESIGN confidence

I just ordered Creative, Inc authored by Oh Joy!'s Joy D. Cho and Meg M. Ilasco (author of Craft, Inc.) and am antsy for it to come in the mail. Just recently, my freelance business has surged with a couple of jobs that offsprouted into several more and because I haven't experienced this level of interest before, am not about to turn any down incase the well dries up again.

I am learning some very important lessons in the process in terms of client relations, how to stand up for myself, when to keep my mouth shut, what battles are worth fighting and when do my design principles trump the payout... None of which I've really ironed out yet and constantly live in fear that I've screwed up somehow in how I conduct my "business." It's very weird to think of myself as running a business which just reinforces how badly I need to know more about the ins and outs of being a freelance designer.

I have resisted taking on "real" jobs because of my inexperience with business. I don't know legal mumbo jumbo and don't know how to make it work to my advantage (tax deductions, km for my car etc.) I just know that people know how to work the system and I am so naive that undoubtably I'll end getting taken advantage of.

The one thing I've taken away in the last 6 months is confidence is the key. Stand behind your worth, believe in your skills, stand tall and exude a professionalism that doesn't allow clients to undercut you. Confidence is something I struggle with a lot but have held my chin up and had the attitude if I can see myself as a strong, wicked professional, who can question it? Its a tough balance between having confidence and coming across egotistical. You need trust and not resentment.

Needing to not take things personally is second. Something I've had to employ a LOT during one of my latest projects where I was hired for my skills but have been widdled down to something a kin to a trained monkey. A tough lesson but gained respect from those on the team who know what's involved with doing the dance and delivering a product that meets objectives but keeps the masses happy. The balance of design principles vs. giving them what they want.

Anyway, I'm hoping this book, written by 2 sage women in the industry, will help clear up some of those tougher lessons and warn of impending scenarios that every freelancer is sure to encounter.

Below is the ladies uber-creative promo video for the book. So cute!

DESIGN subpixel rendering

GEEK MOMENT WARNING:

I have just been thrust into the world of online design, kicking and screaming. I feel safe and secure with my print world. There are edges, dimensions and, well, substance. But as I feared, the day has come where I needed to step up to the challenge or retreat into the world of out-of-touch designers who tote themselves as having a craft rather than embracing the fact that our world is changing at lightning speeds.

Don't get me wrong. I think it a fundamental necessity to know your craft and the basics before getting dirty in the flashy stuff, but at a certain point we, or I suppose I, as money-making professionals need to be able to deliver the goods or else clients go elsewhere, like to nephews and friends who know the programs but don't know how to design. It's important that if we want to have the right to bitch about bad online design and advertising, that we know what we're talking about. We need to take the skills we've learned and adapt them to the digital world.

The marketing coordinator I work with is keen to jump on any opportunity that might benefit us by reaching an ever narrowing audience. Working for a museum, the next generation is always the ones we need to grab and identify with or else we too will find ourselves as extinct as our specimens. Finding the balance between talking with a fresh and modern voice and still being relevant to our aging audience is tough. You want to appeal on some level to them all but yet not become too much of one or the other, unless of course that is the mandate of your museum.

So, full circle, last week I was presented with the task of designing 3 flash ads in 3 days and having never opened the program. So I took to free online tutorials (most of which were garbage) getting bits and pieces of advice from whomever passed by that knew ANYTHING about flash and losing a lot of hair. One of my tasks was to design an ad for mobile devices in 4 increasingly small formats, all the way down to 120x20 pixels at 72dpi. AND the files couldn't exceed 5KB. 5KB!! I didn't even know you could save that small!

As expected, type falls apart when you only have 10-15 pixels of height to work with. Although its a reality all web and online designers face, I was sure there was something that could be done.

Well, I found a bit of a solution and am sharing with all you type geeks out there:

Simulating sub-pixel rendering

Deke's Techniques | by Deke McClelland

View this entire Photoshop course and more in the lynda.com Online Training Library®.

DESIGN dna

I've been fascinated with HGTV's 'Design DNA' (really bad website...) but only catch it on occasion because for some reason my pvr refuses to record it as a series. Just between you and me, I think its jealous because it knows its a clunky, awkward, first generation piece of junk and has issues with me watching a show dedicated to objects of good design.

The show profiles products and objects with good design that we may take for granted because of just that; they're so well designed that we take their functionality and aesthetics for granted. It's so true how only once you get to know the background of some"thing" can you really appreciate it.

The latest episode I saw profiled the Jacuzzi tub (missed that segment), the Alessi bird kettle and the Umbra Oh chair. The one that really got me was the kettle. Growing up I'd been vaguely aware of the tea kettle that looked somewhat like a big-peoples fisher price play thing. When in design school, my Design History 101 instructor was going on and on about how when she worked for Michael Graves blah blah blah and brought up the kettle as a mastery of design. I suppose to her, knowing its background and particulars, it was an object of affection but I just didn't get the hype. All I knew was that "designer" people understood its virtues and I did not. It had a plastic bird on the end and a chunky handle. So what? Doubting my place in the design world, I squirreled it away and only took slight notice when it gained media buzz once more as an item anyone could get at Target. I'm sure millions of college students bought one because of the kitsch factor but, like me, didn't really get its significance.

After watching a 6 minute segment, something clicked. The thought and detail behind every element. The fact that it has evolved over its 2 decade lifespan to accommodate the new induction stove tops (something I only recently discovered as well though my 3rd house building project.)

I couldn't download the specific episode that talked about the Alessi kettle, but I below is segment profiling Pyrex and all its wonderful properties. Don't knock it till you watch it...

FUN rocket John

A friend of mine stars in this little diddy as Rocket John. I get a kick out of it each time I watch it. It's so great to see creative people just having a really good time with their craft. Plus, the music gets stuck in my head.