Hi guys! We’ve been asked by a lot of people in the past couple of day where was our Term 3 Infographic. We took a couple of days to refine it and it’s now online for your viewing pleasure. click on the thumbnail below to view the video and don’t hesitage to visit our blogs and leave comments.
It’s funny when they (faculty) tell you stuff like “Network, Network, join a forum, post your stuff on blogs…” well I just posted a link on the mograph forum yesterday and there you go, one day later, somebody writes an article about it!
Some of you may have heard of a quarterly literary journal called Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, or simply, “McSweeney’s.” It is a bit of an unusual one too. The first issue printed only pieces that had been rejected by other publishing houses. From there, there have been many other odd creations! I particularly remember one which was about riding a rollercoaster and consisted of several paged of “eeeeeee” and “aaaaaaaaah.” Quite brilliant.
In any case, the man who runs McSweeney’s, Dave Eggers, is also in charge of a non-profit called, 826 National, which is “dedicated to helping students, ages 6-18, with expository and creative writing.” To achieve this goal, they offer “tutoring, field trips, workshops, and in-schools programs” all totally free to students and schools who need their assistance.
Now, the reason why I bring this up is part of how they pay for all this; through themed stores. Namely, a Pirate Supply Store in San Francisco (the original), a Superhero Supply Store in Brooklyn, a Spy Supply Store in Chicago, a Space Travel Supply Store in Seattle, a Monster Union (much smaller store) in Michigan, and finally a Cryptozoology (the study of creatures that may not be real) store in Boston. The Boston store is not quite open yet, but the 826 location is already running.
Each of these stores is brilliantly designed, down to the last detail. A case in point is that of 826LA, a Time Traveller themed store that opened just last year. Here are two of the “unique” products they sell:
After all that exposition, I would like to point you to the blog of the designer for the Time Traveller store, Stefan F. Bucher, who wrote a fun piece about his involvement. There are tons more pictures to enjoy too!
For those of you who haven’t had the chance, be sure to try and get to one of these stores! I visited the one in San Francisco and simply loved it (well, I like pirates too^^), but all of them look to be a blast. Check them out!
I would like to invite you to checkout and be apart of my final project titled “the Organic Web.” Here is a brief explanation of the theory behind the project.
“An Organic Information Visualization System is a system that aims to improve the typical experience on the internet. It has been developed by looking at that complex world we live in, studying the way information is presented to us daily on a subconscious level, and applying it to information visualization on the web. Its origins exist in the cells of living organisms, where life grows and decays, where its colour or size might tell us about its health or age. And where its skeleton will leave a story of what was.
In an Organic Information Visualization System there are two key factors that separate it from others systems. Those two things are, change over time, and user effected environments. The environment, referring to the space where the information is represented, is created with a set of rules. These rules are similar to the laws of nature. What lives must eventually die, every action has a reaction, and there for an effect on the environment.
What this means is that the actual site should change with the passage of time and as users interact with it. In essence it should exist as a living organism. Data should all be created with equal visual presence, and let a ratio between age and user activity to determine the visual presence within the site’s structure. Content that receives more activity from users should appear healthier and more prominent within the structure, while data with little activity should lose presence over time. As long as the environment exists this evolution should take place. The result therefore is unpredictable, but completely logical.”
I am still working on some optimization and content for the site, but feel free to check it out here
Here’s example of a message being well communicated without the need of fancy design. The timing and content of the titles at the beginning of this little home-made video are great; they just gets the message across.
Almost two million views and counting. Courtesy of Jadyn and myself.
The Web designer wall just posted a collection of 32 websites designed with grid layouts. it’s worth checking out for people into interface design. Editorial sites, blog design, column based layouts. check it out here
Most of you probably have no idea who I am. So a little intro: I used to teach UX and Branding at VFS. I was browsing through the blog and saw a lack of UX on here, and thought I would share an old RSS feed that I find useful:
Hi guys, as some of you know, my computer crashed yesterday, no big deal, Time Machine saved my butt.
While I was waiting for my computer to be restored I stumbled upon an application called Mozy, it is an online backup application, they give 2GB for free, or unlimited space for I believe 5 bucks, not bad, here’s a link, since it is a referal from me, you get an extra 256MB and so do I.
Compose an aesthetically pioneering 15-second or less animation or motion graphic video that illustrates the theme of “See What’s Possible.” The winning work must incorporate or close with the Adobe Photoshop logo and will be used by Adobe as part of an upcoming Photoshop marketing campaign.
I’ve been playing around with c4d’s Xpresso and decided to show my first experiment, the music is controlling the birth rate, the size of the particles and when there’s a high peak the particles switch to a separate group and start rotating.
Following up on Brett’s post about the opportunity to get some free business cards from vistaprint.ca, I thought I’d share a couple of thoughts on the subject of business cards based on my own experiences through the years.
You’ll never use 250 so don’t buy 500.
It’s almost funny how many times I’ve gone out to buy business cards and thought, “wow, getting 500 cards is only 25% more expensive than buying 250.” Speaking as someone who has had to throw out boxes of old business cards at least a dozen times in my career, don’t fall for it. As young designers, how likely is it you’re going to keep your visual identity for even a year? My experience is that it’s rare - you’ll probably want to change it within 6 months. How likely is it that your phone number will even stay the same? Or your e-mail address? (note: don’t use hotmail, yahoo, or other generic e-mail addresses for your business cards - it always looks a little cheap.) So the advice is, buy the lowest number of cards possible
Business cards for Digital Design students?
No one ever thinks they need a business card while being a student. After all, we generally think of business cards as things we use to get jobs or contracts. But in actual fact, when you apply for a job you’ll already be sending them your portfolio, resume, and cover letter. Your contact info will be all over the place. But what about the people you meet at design events? Or when you’re introduced to an actor or cinematographer or sound designer you might want to collaborate with later? Or someone who might have freelance work down the road? Business cards are for maintaining a connection that would otherwise fade from memory. Usually I forget people at conferences about half an hour after I meet them. A business card that leaves an impression helps me remember them and feel like it’s worth my while to maintain some contact.
So what does that mean for me?
Here’s some basic suggestions for Digital Design students. I hope faculty, students, and alumni will give their own thoughts on this and disagreement is always agreeable:
Term 1 and 2: You’re going to be meeting a lot of people and it’s hard to tell who’s going to play a role in your education at VFS or your future career. But at this stage you also don’t know what your focus is going to be so you don’t want to spend a ton of time on this. My advice is, design a fairly simple, elegant one-sided business card that has some design element (picture, symbol,…etc) that connects it to you and who you are. Show it to your design instructor (Robin or Jen are both great for this but any of us can give you feedback.) Then find a free deal like the vistaprint one or something similar and get a bunch printed. Don’t give yourself a goofy title like “design genius” - people get turned off by that. Don’t be afraid to put “Design Student” as a title - professionals often admire people who aren’t afraid to say who they actually are. Don’t give out your cards to your DD instructors or other DD students but do give them out to alumni and soon-to-be alumni.
Term 3, 4, 5: You’re probably starting to get focused on some specific area of design. It might be motion, interactive, communication, or some other sub-discipline. If your earlier cards still work for you then great - don’t worry about doing something else. If you’re feeling like those cards don’t represent you, then take advantage of what you learn in Print Design in term 4 and print your own. You don’t need a lot. Seriously. At any one time I really only need to have about fifteen business cards. This is an okay time to take a few design risks and see how they turn out.
Term 6: Now your focus is either on getting a job or going freelance. Either way your probably going to need to design new cards. You’ll get a lot of help in Employment Prep (with Keiron) and Portfolio Development (with Miles) on designing your identity and setting your career direction. There’s a lot more thought that has to go into these cards because they have to represent your professional identity. I won’t go into detail here because you’ll get formal help with this at the right time. But I will say this: paper matters. When it’s your professional identity and you’re putting yourself out in the marketplace printing on cheap card stock or free card products. Focus on quality, not quantity. You’re only likely to use at most 30-40 of these cards before you end up in a position and they risk becoming obsolete. You’ll use probably a quarter of these on people who don’t need them (like parents, friends…etc.) However sometimes this is still a good idea because those people give them out to other people they meet who might be in your field.
There are tons of examples of great business cards out there, but here are some innovative ones that might give you some ideas:18 Business Card Designs
