I’ve been having a lot of Mid Century Moments as of late, perhaps because I am about to hit the Mid Century Mark myself this year. Or perhaps it’s because I have always been drawn to the aesthetic. I’m not a purist by any means, and I am wont to mix and match a little more than most are comfortable with. Here are a few things that caught my eye and distracted me from Mubarak today.
Basking in the warm glow of fiberglass,
Mrs. Knightly
In the digital era, it seems that print ads are a thing of the past. Not so! However, I do think (my opinion only) that it is that much more important for print ads to be striking, attention grabbing and quickly informative. In a world where staying on a web site for 10 seconds is unheard of, viewers are accustomed to efficiently absorbing information from a variety of sources and will click off, turn the page or look away when the subject matter is not immediately of interest. So, with that in mind, D-Lists has compiled a list of their favorite print ads and I’d like to pass on the findings to you. Enjoy!
Caption: Put yourself in a mink’s place. Don’t buy animal skins.
Animals suffer like we do!
Caption: Put yourself in a pig’s place. Help us stop anesthetic-free pig castration.
Animals suffer like we do!
As a marketing and design firm with a very varied client list, we sometimes run into the question of white space. Some clients wonder why we “don’t just fill up that space?” Here’s the definition of white space, so sayeth wikipedia:
White space should not be considered merely ‘blank’ space — it is an important element of design which enables the objects in it to exist at all, the balance between positive (or non-white) and the use of negative spaces is key to aesthetic composition.
When space is at a premium, such as some types of magazine, newspaper, and yellow pages advertising, white space is limited in order to get as much vital information on to the page as possible. A page crammed full of text or graphics with very little white space runs the risk of appearing busy, cluttered, and is typically difficult to read. Some designs compensate for this problem through the careful use of leading and typeface.
Judicious use of white space can give a page a classic, elegant, or rich appearance. For example, upscale brands often use ad layouts with little text and a lot of white space. Inexpert use of white space can make a page appear incomplete.
Our design team could go on and on about how important white space is, and I support them completely. That said, and in support of white space, I offer you the following websites that have been deemed “excellent use of white space”:
Want a show-stopper? Then hop on trend with full image backgrounds. A large scale illustration or photo background instantly grabs your viewer’s attention, adding life and creating a more dynamic and engaging look and feel. These over-sized backgrounds are great, but should be used in the right setting. Sites that already have image galleries make great candidates, think photography studio, design agency, fashion designer, illustrator, or even a picturesque resort. Beware, the most common issue with large backgrounds it that they have to conform to many different screen resolutions, so make sure you test, test, test and use an image large enough to fit the width for the most commonly used screen resolutions. Check out these images below for this new trend in action.
These days anyone who has an opinion about anything can instantaneously share it with the world. Of course this has its positives — but when it comes to branding, it has its negatives as well. Recently a number of big brands have redesigned their logos and gotten a lot of flack from designers and the general public alike. Think about the uproar among many die-hard Portland Timbers’ fans when the refreshed logo was released to the public. Or the recent upheaval over the redesigned Starbucks logo. And, of course, who could forget the Gap logo debacle?
Of course, everyone has, and is entitled to, their own opinion. That being said, it is problem when companies start listening to every opinion from anyone who happens to give their new brand a cursory glance and feels like sharing their thoughts. A true analysis of any new or re-designed logo is welcome. However, the analysis should be based on whether the logo is an intelligent, well-executed design solution that is appropriate to its intended audience. The problem is that the discussion often turns into more of a popularity contest than an analysis and devalues the branding process by assuming that it is a matter of making a pretty picture.
Another blog, Graphicology, put it like this:
“Clearly the design of a brand will be engaged by the public in some way, and it’s important they know for what it stands. But it’s not important that they like how it looks.”
As a final note, here is a quote from Duffy and Partners on the subject:
“Many can create something beautiful, but so much more goes into creating a great identity. The hoops we need to jump through these days are endless and sometimes we are fighting winless battles along the way. But without being involved from the original brief to the actual launch and all the steps in between, how could you possibly render a legitimate opinion?”
Hello dearest blog readers. It’s been quite some time since I’ve written on here and I wanted to spotlight this year’s favorite Christmas present.
My darling lady-friend picked me up a Rii Mini wireless keyboard/trackpad. This thing is awesome. For less than $40 you have a rechargeable, USB keyboard and trackpad with a back light and a laser pointer. It’s great. When I was feeling very lazy during the break, I could sit and watch episodes of Dexter on my computer without having to drag the mouse to the couch or get up to start the next episode.
Some people complained that the track pad was hard to use, but I don’t think so. It’s a very small touch pad, so it did take a little getting used to, but the mouse pointer moved nice and precisely when I moved slowly, and zipped across the screen when I moved quickly.
One complaint that I have is that when I hold it with both hands, my left hand must be sitting on top of the radio transmitter, because the range gets limited. I’ve gotten used to how i should hold it, but it was a little annoying at first.
Either way, I highly recommend this little device. It’s fantastic.
I ran across this today while watching some skateboarding videos on my lunch hour and it totally blew me away. The idea is simple, project a video onto a giant surface — like the facade of a building. It doesn’t matter if the building is not a flat surface.
ACDC Vs Iron Man 2 – Architectural Projection Mapping on Rochester Castle from seeper on Vimeo.
It’s called Architectural Projection Mapping. This one is done by a Seeper, an interactive arts and technology collective, but there are many other companies doing similar projects. From what I have read, this is more popular in Europe but is now spreading to the U.S. Can’t wait to see one of these on a building near me! Lots of potential here.
Here are a few more examples:
3D Projection Mapping from anema on Vimeo.
The LightLine of Gotham from seeper on Vimeo.
If you live in Portland, Oregon or the surrounding metropolitan area, you probably have Comcast as your internet provider. And because most of us like things to be simple, you probably have them for cable television too. In my neighborhood, we don’t have a choice. There is no Qwest or Clear Channel to provide us with competitive rates and services.
Across the United States, people are cutting their cable television at an alarming rate (Technologizer). Some of them are doing so in protest of the monopoly held by large companies, others because they have simply lost interest in the product and are choosing to read rather than flip through 225 channels hoping for something worthwhile to spend their time watching. For many citizens, the economy has dictated that corners must be cut, which has caused us to eat out less and find alternative forms of entertainment.
Enter WII, Netflix, HULU, and probably a dozen other alternatives to that $80.00 ‘basic’ cable bill. My household disconnected cable for “all of the above”. It made us mad we didn’t have a choice in providers, we started reading more and it just didn’t make sense to pay so much for so little. Realistically, if we are patient, we can watch Dexter commercial-free in a few months, or sooner, at our leisure for a lot less than it costs to get it “Right Now”. We’re okay with that and our quality of life has not suffered since we reverted back to Rabbit Ears. In the technology world, this is called “Good Enough”. Cable was more convenient, but we’ve found work-arounds that are satisfying enough to offset paying for “On Demand” television. In fact, a lot of it is On Demand, you just have to know where to find it. Read the rest of this entry »
Perhaps you’ve heard, but maybe you haven’t… either way, Portlandia, a 6 part original sketch comedy series, premieres on Friday, Januray 21, 2011 on the IFC network.
Portlandia was created, written and stars Fred Armisen of SNL and Carrie Brownstein. The series is based on the creators’ hilarious and fairly absurd rendering of our fair city and promises to create laughs, but not at our expense. Portland is known for being hip and chock full of creative types, but even to some Portlanders, the image conjured up by the media of who and how Portland is can be obnoxious. Portlandia plays on these stereotypes while following the lives of fictional characters: a feminist bookstore owner, a glass blower, and so on. The series is shot on location around PDX and producers have made every effort to fill open positions of all types with local talent and crew. Most of the scenes are improvised rather than using a strict script and will feature guest appearances by Heather Graham, Jason Sudeikis, Steve Buscemi, Kyle MacLachlan, and more. Read the rest of this entry »
Interns are the best! Thanks to Kyle for assisting the Zoom team with all sorts of helpfulness, but specifically, for helping us meet our blog deadlines.
Lets be honest, we all struggle with being creative from time to time, especially when we have a project where creativity needs to be emphasized. Luckily, the wonderful blog, zenhabits.net, which is one of the top 25 blogs in the world, has a great post about The No.1 Habit of Highly Creative People. The post states that solitude is the most highly effective habit in being creative, followed by participation. Although these habits may seem to clash and cancel each other out, the key is to finding balance between the two, and that is when you will find that your most creative ideas flow from your mind. Although the article is a little short, I believe it holds a lot of great information on building your creative habits that you will surely benefit from. You can also find many more interesting and helpful posts about simplicity, health & fitness, motivation and inspiration, frugality, family life, happiness, goals, getting great things done, and living in the moment at zenhabits.net.
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