Did Quark Quack Its Last Quirk?

In 2002, I started working in the industry as an assistant prepress technician. Back then, we were on working Power Macintosh computers in the advanced operating system of “Classic Mac”—we couldn’t possibly trust the new OS X! We prepared files in QuarkXPress 5 and sent them to a film marker to eventually make plates and begin the printing process. Adobe was just starting to filter into prepress departments with InDesign 2, but like OS X, it was also not to be trusted.

At this time in the industry, the only software that could successfully communicate with plate setters and filmmakers was Quark. Yes, it had its quirks, but it always got the job done. Designing something in InDesign and trying to get it successfully onto a printing plate could spell disaster for my keyboard—InDesign was always the whipping boy for me!

Fast-forward to 2013, and you can clearly see that the tables have turned.  Adobe has totally taken over with CS 6, and those who refuse to make the switch only use Quark. I cringe when I get files in Quark. Just recently I received a magazine file in Quark, prepared perfectly and packaged appropriately. After doing our due diligence of loading the customer-supplied fonts and then opening the document and relinking any missing images, all seemed to be well. Our esteemed prepress technicians made print- and screen-ready PDFs, and we distributed them to the client for review.

This is the shocker: All the caption fonts were incorrect, and there was an entire image missing on one of the pages. After receiving this news from the client, I questioned our prepress technician. Much to my surprise, the response was, “I’m not surprised”—this is a known occurrence with Quark these days! Upon further investigation, we determined the fonts were there (we had to manually switch it), and so was the image. But the image was hidden—not behind something, just blank, gone! It came to our attention that a new feature called “content aware” text wrapping was used to wrap text around the image without placing a proper clipping path in Photoshop. So, the question is, why is Quark releasing features that are not totally fleshed out?

The moral to this story is: Quark, you quacked your last quirk for me! If a software provider who was a leader in the industry allows itself to be overtaken in a market it once dominated, it should cease to exist. You can’t take back market share when you are releasing versions that have so many “quirks” that it doesn’t make sense to use. So, today the only useful feature of Quark is the hidden Easter egg—the little alien that marches onto the screen to delete your object. When you get frustrated with Adobe products, open up Quark and hit this key command—it will make you feel better, and then you can quit Quark and go back to Adobe!

Tell me—do you use Quark and have a full keyboard of keys, or does it look like mine?

Author: John Mehl

 

How Smelly Is Your Design?

In the world of design we’re brought up to understand there are certain rules to follow when laying out a piece. Guidelines exist to help designs resonate with our intended audiences. For example, in photography the “rule of thirds” teaches us to divide our shots into a grid format and place our subjects in any of the nine sections—none of which is dead center. The phrase “form follows function” is another example that’s been around for a century. It reminds us that an object should be designed considering its function first and that this will determine its form.

A poor creative team, on the other hand, may spend hours deliberating about the appropriate message for a direct mail envelope. In reality, it’s the shape of the piece and the color of the design that humans connect with first. Content always comes later.

These rules exist because they’ve been tested over the years. Through the use of eye-tracking technology and decades of focus groups, we’re able to say with certainty where eyeballs go when they look at design.

But what if we did more than just followed the rules of design visually? What if we triggered other senses beyond sight? What about taste? What about smell? We’ve been to the grocery store enough times to know that giving away food samples is one of the most ingenious forms of marketing. From the sizzle of the frying pan and the smell that fills the aisles to the moment you take that tiny toothpick and take a bite––you’d swear you’ve never eaten such good sausages.

Well, that full-blown experience is a marketer’s dream. There isn’t a limb on an advertiser’s body that he or she wouldn’t give up to utilize scent in an ad campaign. The limbic connection between smell and memory is the perfect recipe for all things nostalgia. Freshly mowed lawns, our mother’s baking, and even the smell of Play-Doh all have the potential to elicit something deep within us.

It doesn’t look like Smell-O-Vision will be put to practical use anytime soon. It does seem, however, that a team out of Belgium has figured out how to express both scent and taste using stamps. The Belgian post office, known as Bpost, has produced more than 500,000 smellable/edible stamps celebrating Belgium’s world-famous chocolates and chocolatiers.

While it’ll be a bit before I see myself licking an already-licked stamp, I can’t deny how effective it might be in triggering those chocolate-driven memories stored deep inside me.

The Belgians are breaking the rules—those zany rebels! What else can we come up with to more effectively reach our consumers?

To learn about how those chocolate stamps are made, check out this video: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21388234

Author: Eric Swenson

Ways To Make Graphic Designers Cringe

BuzzFeed released 17 hilarious, cringe-worthy designs that are sure to make you feel uncomfortable. Here’s a taste, but be sure to check out the entire list on BuzzFeed.

1. Kerning

7. The “I just learned Adobe Ilustrator look”

12. Way too twee

Author: Eric Swenson

How to Encourage and Harness Creativity

In my March post entitled “Only Read This If You’re Really Creative,” I attempted to push aside some of society’s preconceived notions about creativity and suggest better ways to think creatively.

I came across an interview of Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile in Fast Company that works nicely with those initial thoughts. Although this article was published eight years ago and Amabile’s research was conducted eight years before that, her findings are as relevant as ever. “The 6 Myths Of Creativity” discusses—as you might guess—six common misconceptions that we all should do our best to expunge from our thinking.

1. Creativity Only Comes From Creative Types

Everyone has creative potential. It’s important that leaders of organizations recognize that and do their best to harness ideas from those who could be most capable. This is not to suggest that everyone is necessarily good at being creative. Professor Amabile recommends that one should consider the following factors: experience, technical skills, talent, the ability to think in new ways, and intrinsic motivation. It’s this last quality that is hardest to find. Having the passion to come up with ideas is one thing, but the ability to continue to push through—even after countless rejections—is the trait one should look for in a creative type.

2. Money Is A Creative Motivator 

On a day-to-day basis, Amabile’s research found that people don’t think about their compensation. And when people were told that bonuses could come from good ideas, they were less willing to take risks. People preferred instead to work in an environment that both supported creativity and was in line with their skill sets. Leaders need to understand where their employees feel most comfortable. If the work is too simple, they’ll become bored; if the work is too hard, they’ll inevitably become frustrated. It’s important to find the right balance.

3. Time Pressure Fuels Creativity

Many creative types claim that they do their best under extreme pressure when a deadline is looming. Professor Amabile, however, found the opposite to be true. Ideas are best when they have time to marinate and develop. They’re more thoughtful and robust. In the advertising and marketing worlds, account people should strive to give creatives the time they need to develop a well-rounded idea. It’ll be worth it in the end.

4. Fear Forces Breakthroughs 

If you’ve ever listened to an Adele or Alanis Morissette album, the thought probably crossed your mind “Boy, being depressed really lends itself to creating brilliant music.” While there are always exceptions, the fact is, there is a direct relationship between being happy and being creative. Interestingly, Amabile’s research found that a happy day often led to a creative mindset the following day. Stay positive!

5. Competition Beats Collaboration

There’s a belief that competition fuels great ideas. And while that may be true initially, collaboration and competition are really the best formula. When a person works autonomously, he or she often misses out on valuable information for that project. The sharing of information and the bouncing of ideas off one another is a more effective approach to building the strongest idea.

6. A Streamlined Organization Is a Creative Organization

“Leaner is meaner” is very far from the truth. Amabile and her team of researchers followed 6,000 employees in a company that was going through massive layoffs. The fear and subsequent loss of morale affected creativity dramatically. Six months after the layoffs occurred, people were still shaken up. Layoffs are a fact of life, but leaders have to work extra hard to restabilize the environment.

Author: Eric Swenson

Cartoon Yourself – Easy Steps to Transform Your Photos into Cartoons

In all my life, I’ve never found the value in getting a caricature or sketch of myself drawn. And at certain points in my life, it certainly wasn’t a lack of vanity holding me back. Maybe it just boiled down to wanting to ride the Viper at Six Flags instead of getting my mug airbrushed. Whatever it was, I sort of regret missing out on the experience. That is, until I found out recently that I could do it myself.

Wing-Ki Lo, a fellow Vanguardian and friend of mine, recently gave a presentation that demonstrated how simple it is to cartoonify oneself using Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop. In 20 minutes, she took an adorable photo of her son and transformed it into a cute, lovable cartoon—the perfect recipe for a one-year-old’s first birthday invitation.

Over the years, “Kiki” has drawn many special-occasion cards for employees here at the shop. From retirement cards to baby showers, she’s become our in-house designer for all of the fun events that make our company and its culture unique.

Take a look at some of her samples, along with a step-by-step video that shows how, with a few pen tools and layers, one can transform photos into comic book caricatures.

Your author, Eric Swenson

Wendy’s Wendy Gets a Makeover – The Strategy Behind the Execution

If I asked you to name a brand of cranberry juice, is there any other brand you’d mention that wasn’t Ocean Spray? If I told you to think of a vacuum cleaner, would you most likely think of Hoover? And it would be fair to guess that when you think fast food, there’s no question––the first company you think of is McDonald’s.

While these industry behemoths continue to squash the competition, it’s often the second- or third-place companies that spend the most time duking it out. I think what fascinates me most about that process is the strategy. Last week, Wendy’s announced the launch of its new brand look and feel. It’s the first change the company has made since its last update in 1983. And while it may be clear to Wendy’s what the new objectives are, I wonder if that message will be received the way it was intended.

Wendy’s has been doing well over the past year or two. I’ve even written about it here. Newly appointed CEO Emil Brolick has been making tangible changes that are having substantial impact on market share within the fast food industry. Wendy’s “Fresh, Never Frozen” campaign, for example, suggests that the chain’s offerings are high quality. The baked sweet potato and the portobello mushroom cheeseburger recently introduced to the menu are just two more additions that the company hopes will be game-changers.

These successes have built upon a strategy that I think might serve Wendy’s well after the release of its new logo: If we’ll never win the game, then why play? Wendy’s may never top the likes of Mickey D’s or Burger King, so perhaps they should move into a new arena. (This vaguely reminds me of Apple’s original positioning to outperform Mr. Gates.)

This new step, as I’ve come to understand it, will try to make Wendy’s feel less like fast food and more like relaxed dining. In addition to the logotype changing, the restaurant’s aesthetics are meant to change inside as well—from new, lounge-like chairs to natural lighting and new uniforms for employees. In essence, Wendy’s aspires to be a classy fast-food joint that’s not as nice as Panera but better than its competition.

So if that’s the intent, it begs the question: Does this new design accomplish that “premium”-level look and feel? Well, from what I gather, an exorbitant amount of research went into it, which, if you’re in the industry, basically means the original concept was destroyed. And my instincts tell me this logo seems far too safe for such a bold move in strategy.

Care to share your own opinion? Comment below!

Author: Eric Swenson

Art and Technology: The Balance of Innovation and Harmony Throughout the Ages

The relationship between art and technology—wide-ranging, polarizing, and constantly fluctuating—is among the most influential factors throughout the course of human history. Certain periods of time witnessed art in a position of prominence; others featured technological advancement. Art and technology have always had a complementary and complicated relationship, but in 2012, this relationship has reached a pinnacle of complexity. In order to interpret the present or predict the future of these intertwined fields, however, one must first look to the past.

By the year 1492—which marks the European discovery of the Americas—Leonardo da Vinci had entered the twilight of his life, but more than 500 years later he is still considered by many to be the single most influential historical figure the world has seen. The reason for such a legacy can be found in the aforementioned relationship between art and technology: to this day he is considered the embodiment of their dualistic role for man. The European Renaissance—ranging (roughly) from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries—is the period of time credited with man’s emergence from the Dark Ages; more importantly to the topic at hand, however, the Renaissance represents the first climax in the relationship between art and technology.

Man’s approach to technology (i.e., science and mathematics) prior to the Renaissance can be encapsulated by one inherent characteristic of the human race: fear of the unknown. In the sixteenth century, Nicolaus Copernicus provided the first proof of the heliocentric astronomical model, which proposed a solar system that revolves around the sun (rather than the earth); this radical concept was met with tremendous resistance, and the majority of the opposition originated from the Catholic Church. The Church was arguably the most powerful entity in the world at this time, and it strictly opposed any source of knowledge or truth outside its walls. The recently introduced and rapidly spreading scientific discipline, therefore, was considered an enemy of the Church. So while the Renaissance sparked the rise of technology, the prominence of art would continue for several more centuries.

Graphic design only became a profession in recent decades, but it nonetheless evokes the art/technology relationship from the time of Copernicus and da Vinci. In fact, it’s hard to imagine a field in which art and technology are better united. Graphic designers are artists, but they would not exist without modern technology.

Modern technological advancement—beginning in the twentieth century and exponentially increasing ever since—is unprecedented in both its rapidity and complexity. Cutting-edge technology is only cutting-edge for mere days or weeks, whereas in the past, a single advancement could define an entire generation or represent an evolutionary milestone (see: fire, wheel). The only constant today, it seems, has been mankind’s emphasis upon—and, in recent years, fetishism of—technology, to which art is a distant second. Maybe the Age of Technology will continue for centuries and art will be considered a luxury. We can’t know now, but we can be certain that the dynamics between art and technology, with mankind as the backdrop, will forever remain fluid and mysterious.

Art is no more important to man than technology, or vice versa. Creativity is neither better nor worse than logic. And a time period with more artistic innovation than technological is not inferior to its opposite. Developments in both fields, however, will prove to be infinitely relevant to the business world.

Is a marketing/communication company’s creative department involved in technology as much, if not more, than art? What does the future hold for the industry? What’s the next billion-dollar idea? Because of the way he was able to balance his interests in art and technology and thus excel at both, Leonardo da Vinci was able to theorize on concentrated solar power centuries before the invention of electricity and conceptualize a helicopter long before the steam engine was created. The potential is limitless for an individual, entity, or business that achieves such balance, harmony, and innovation between art and technology.

Author: Ryan O’Connell

A Governors Island Graphic Design Exhibit Worth Seeing

In early June I wrote a post about the graphic design show on Governors Island called Graphic Design—Now in Production. As I mentioned, the show set out to demonstrate the power and influence graphic design has on culture.

A few weeks ago, I finally had the opportunity to make the ferry ride out there to experience the exhibit for myself. (An aside: Governors Island was great; I highly recommend you go and see for yourself!) Upon entering, you’re presented with a definition of graphic design that prepares you for the work you’re about to see. It states: “Graphic Design gives shape to thousands of artifacts we encounter each day—from posters, magazines, and books to film titles, Web sites, and digital interfaces. Graphic designers employ words, images, and a vast array of materials and processes to produce the visual messages that surround us.”

The text continues by suggesting that over the past fifteen years graphic design has expanded drastically and has empowered designers to be producers with the ability to author, publish, and instigate.

One of the first things you see inside the exhibit is a wall with a long line of corporate logos, with the original logo for each company next to its current version. Then, equipped with a handful of tokens, you go down the line and vote, one by one, for the logo you prefer. It felt like the 108 bronze bowls at Wat Pho, the Buddhist temple in Thailand (also worth seeing, but not as easy to get to by ferry).

There’s a lot of talk about branding, and not just for corporations, but for other members of society as well. A brand is more than just a logo––it “consists of a larger visual and verbal identity as well as the perceived values that both define and set apart an organization, a community, or even an individual,” the wall text states.

Designers Jonathan Puckey and Roel Wouters created an interactive video that really blew me away. Viewers had the ability to insert themselves into specific frames of the film. More than 34,000 people contributed to the collective whole. The effect was really cool, and the designers said that they were influenced by Andy Warhol and Jean-Luc Godard. Take a look at a clip:

A section on books caught my attention as well. There was a great exhibit on how, in an era of extreme content competition, publishers—often the authors themselves—are coming up with new ways to break from the pack. From bindings and paper stock to the jackets themselves, book designers have to be both creative and cost-effective.

You still have a chance to see the exhibit this weekend (the last day is Labor Day). Check out the images below, and head on out before it’s too late!

Auhtor: Eric Swenson

Angels, Safe Hands, and the Potential of Interactive Advertising

These days it’s hard to get your message across. With the amount of advertisements and information a person is exposed to on any given day, it all starts to become white noise. Sure, you can bombard me with half-naked girls and shiny cars, but there are so many half-naked women on television these days that I tend to tune it out (unless it’s Heidi Klum, of course). What really grabs my attention is not only a really impressive ad, but one I can interact with. These ads are not only creative and unique, but also encourage interaction and engage the consumer. What a compelling idea! If you can get consumers to not only notice your advertisement but interact with it as well, the chances of them remembering it are huge. To show you what I’m talking about, here are two examples that were very impressive––I must say, they blew my mind.

Axe Body Spray

The above video was an ad for Lynx/Axe body spray inside London’s Victoria Station. Remember what I said about being bombarded with girls? This ad literally bombards people with “angels” on an overhead screen, making the virtual women appear to be standing right next to the passerby. What a bright idea––as you can see from the video, everyone loved it. People of all ages wanted to get on the screen with the angel.

Sweden’s Safest Hands

Swedish Post – Sweden’s Safest Hands from Ourwork on Vimeo.

This campaign takes a more subtle approach than just throwing girls at people, but it is just as effective. Here the Swedish Post created an app to promote how efficient and safe it is. It turned its advertisement into a competition via a smartphone app, getting people involved and offering real prizes to the winners. Just a brilliant idea––who doesn’t like winning prizes?

It’s clear that companies are increasingly using and incorporating technology into their ads and products. There is such constant change in technology and advertising right now that to try to keep up is a lot of work. Looking at these two examples, it is clear that there are tons of innovative, great ideas out there that are just waiting to be explored.

Will you be next to really embrace this technology and create something innovative?

Author: Rory Jacob

How Do You Make a Onetime Donor a Longtime Donor?

In my June 20^th post, Should You Rely on Design to Boost Your Direct Mail Response Rates?, I wrote about the factors contributing to the success of a direct marketing piece and how getting the ratio right––or wrong––can dramatically affect the outcome of your mailing. Related to this, Christine Birkner’s article “Give—and Give Again” in Marketing News magazine outlines essential strategies for cultivating repeat donors. It’s great advice that I’m certain to add to my toolbox of marketing techniques for clients.

Birkner details five key components to getting that donor you love to keep sending you the money you need. Her first point is to stop thinking of donations as onetime transactions and, instead, to think of donating as something that occurs in cycles. Through my own experience, I suggest talking to donors as “partners” in whatever goal you’re trying to accomplish. If you’re a recipient of President Obama’s constant stream of fundraising emails, you’ll know that he and his team are very anxious to make you see that nothing’s over until it’s over. This is the same principle.

Next, Birkner writes that your organization should sell its story. In advertising, we often talk about keeping the message consistent in the various channels you use to communicate (as challenging as that may be). This idea is important to remember when you solicit potential donors. Be sure to talk about who you are, what you do, and why it’s beneficial. If your story departs from the original message, you dilute your objectives and confuse the reader.

Birkner’s next point is that you should break with the status quo. I agree and suggest that you don’t do what’s been done before just because it’s been done. If Steve Jobs and Apple hadn’t chosen to break with conformity and innovate, who knows where they’d be today? Take a chance. Push the envelope and track your risks. Test, and then test again. You’ll never know how effective a change was if you don’t record the results.

I believe strongly in the importance Birkner’s fourth point: Express your gratitude. Your donors need to feel appreciated. They should be recognized and praised, and it should happen quickly. Use other channels, too, if you can. Consider using social media or a telephone call just to thank them. Then, follow up with a second thank-you and encourage a second gift. According to a source in the article, “If you can get somebody to give a second gift within the first three months, their retention rate skyrockets.” It’s important to get the feeling of a conversation going as soon as possible.

Finally, tell donors what’s working. I know I’m often guilty of spending too much time thinking about what goals our clients have and making sure prospective donors know what they’re donating for. I sometimes fail to tell these same clients, however, that they should be giving progress updates to donors who may be wondering, So your theater is raising money to get better makeup and costume design tools, and I just donated $50––what have you done with my money?

A situation like this is the perfect opportunity to bring donors into the story. Tell them how you were able to buy some great stage makeup for Audrey in this year’s performance of Little Shop of Horrors. Or how the bellhop’s costume in Grand Hotel had the audience roaring in laughter. These little peeks at the specific improvements made possible by their donation dollars are the perfect way to demonstrate return on investment.

When 40% of your direct marketing campaign is supposed to be a great offer and you’re working with nonprofits, it can be a tricky sell when the benefit to the donor is simply a feel-good high. Applying these principles may be the thing you need to keep that onetime donor donating.

Author: Eric Swenson

Should You Rely on Design to Boost Your Direct Mail Response Rates?

I love a good challenge. A client of mine came to me the other day with a good one. He, an employee of a NY-based university, said that the school was about to begin soliciting alumni for donations. The school had done this twice before but had less-than-impressive results. Could I help him?

I really appreciate when clients think like this. So much of agency marketing work relies on coming up with smart ways of executing communication solutions. This, however, was a situation where we got to be a part of the process—where we were able to help find the solution, not just execute it.

In direct mail, there’s a concept known as the 40-40-20 rule. That is, 40 percent of direct mail success depends on a well-planned mailing list, 40 percent on a compelling offer, and 20 percent on creative work. Unfortunately, I’d say most direct mail actually operates more at 15-15-30. (And yes, I know that math isn’t right.)

Before I continue, let me say now that we really love this client. This has nothing to do with marketing naïveté (well, maybe some) or competence levels. These are smart people who have only just begun this process––they’re just not sure of the best way to approach this. And that’s where we come in.

We told them to look closely at their audience: Who are these people? When did they graduate? Where do they live now? Have you heard from them since? By segmenting their list into manageable demographics and psychographics, they can better target their potential customers. People are not interchangeable, and they shouldn’t be treated that way.

Next, consider the offer. What would it take for you to open a #9 envelope? What would make you take action? If you hadn’t heard from your alma mater in 20 years and suddenly it began asking you for money, how would you feel? And thus, what incentive would it have to offer in order for you to contribute your hard-earned dollars?

If you’re looking to improve the effectiveness of your direct mail campaigns, take a look at this ratio. Eighty percent of it has nothing to do with your creative. One shouldn’t, however, shortchange the creative. This final 20 percent is crucial to conveying your message. It determines how that message is constructed and how effective it is at grabbing one’s attention. Don’t saturate, clutter, or distract the viewer in any way. Humans have the attention span of a fish, it seems. Keep their eyes on the prize.

Author: Eric Swenson

Graphic Design Show on Governor’s Island: May 26–September 3

Minneapolis continues to play the under-the-radar-but-we’re-cool-with-that design game. It might be my personal biases, but the creativity that comes out of this city is top-notch. From architecture to fashion, music, design, and modern art, I consider the innovators in Minneapolis to be the unsung leaders of the arts.

It’s no surprise, then, that the Walker Art Center—the MoMA of Minneapolis—helped organize (with the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum) “Graphic Design—Now in Production.” This exhibition, which runs from May 26 to September 3 on Governor’s Island, is a showcase of graphic design work––magazines, TV/film, typography, information design, branding––dating back to 2000.

The angle is simple: graphic design is powerful. It’s so powerful that it can change what we believe as well as prompt social change. The power to persuade using text and images has infiltrated our culture for years. The exhibit demonstrates the extent of graphic design’s reach by showing the impact and influence designers, entrepreneurs, and storytellers have had on society in recent years.

There are also a slew of controversial stories that range from typography in design (the trashing of Helvetica) to social media (dubbed a “method of surveillance and social control”). Essentially, it’s the perfect balance of cool design, social intrigue, and industry insight.

The show is free and is open on Saturdays and Sundays. Hope to see you there.

Author: Eric Swenson

“The Sales Game” – Communication Between You and Your Clients

Vanguard Direct, Utterly Orange’s parent company, if you will, continues to encourage engaging conversation among its employees while still keeping things lighthearted. At this year’s company kickoff meeting, we had the opportunity to discuss a relatively common agency/client conversation with a video that got everyone smiling—particularly those who knew the account people acting in it.

Bob O’Connell, our fearless President, generously lent us his office to ’60s-ify with hippie-style décor, complete with wildflowers and a lava lamp. Take a look at some of Vanguard’s employees taking themselves a little less seriously. And if you’re not doing it already, let’s hope you’re talking to your clients the same way Salesman #2 is soon.

I can’t tell who’s more handsome: the host or his mustache. Cast your vote now! (Kidding!)

Author: Eric Swenson

Ideas Worth Sharing – How TED Can Help You

This past Thursday I had the opportunity to attend a Direct Marketing Club of New York luncheon held at the Yale Club. It was really an honor to hear a few industry leaders discuss the knowledge and insight they have accrued over their many years.

Patrick Fultz, President and CCO of DM Creative Group, claims to read––on average––three hours of industry-related material per day. I won’t question the veracity of his statement but instead extend my kudos for finding the time. As for the rest of us, it seems nearly impossible to keep up with day-to-day work and also find time to learn about the world outside our soul-sucking pod-o’-death cubicles.

If you’re lucky enough to work in a profession you have a passion for and yet rarely have time to keep up with what that industry is doing, you really are missing out. The operational mundanity of our daily tasks takes the wind right out of our creative sails. It’s sad if you think about it.

TEDTalks hope to inspire. And while it’s hard to find the time, if you can, I recommend you check out some of these amazing presentations. These talks help remind me why I’m in marketing. But more than that, you can find awe-inspiring talks about topics you never knew existed. It’s incredibly fascinating and impossible to describe here. Instead, here are a few must-watch marketing and advertising talks that may apply to those reading this post.

Wanna understand more clearly how Apple does what it does so well? Wanna know how to make your business generate more revenue and sell better products? “The Golden Circle” by Simon Sinek helps show why most people approach business the wrong way.

“Life Lessons From an Ad Man.” Need I say more?

Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell are two of the most influential voices of our era. Pioneers and just flat-out smart dudes. Be sure to listen to everything they have to say (and read their books!).

http://www.ted.com/speakers/seth_godin.html

http://www.ted.com/speakers/malcolm_gladwell.html

Author: Eric Swenson

91st Season for the Art Directors Club Awards

On May 8, the Art Directors Club (ADC) will celebrate this year’s winners during Creative Week in New York. The ADC has already released some of the award winners’ names and campaigns. I’ve highlighted a few below.

Typically, advertising or design agencies take away the coveted gold cubes, but this year Creative Artists Agency out of Los Angeles ran away with four golds and two silvers for its “Back to the Start” campaign for Chipotle. The agency’s incredibly minimalist website prevented me from learning more about it, but I gather that it is a talent agency that also offers creative services (and connections to a heck of an animation team!):

I was so happy to see one of my favorite spots from last year be awarded three golds and one silver. “The Bear,” an ad for CANAL+ (the HBO of France, I gather), is just flat-out brilliant. Kudos to mega-giant BETC Euro RSCG for still being able to crank out good work.

On May 9, the ads will be available for viewing by the public in NYC. I hope to swing by and check some out. Hope to see you there!

Author: Eric Swenson

Photo-whoops! The Joys of Photoshop Mishaps

Being a creative is tough. Art directors and designers alike have so much to contend with: copy, logos, budget constraints, time constraints, creative director input, account management input, CLIENT input––oh, and the biggest nagger of all, the critic with the harshest and most ruthless taste: themselves.

So it’s no surprise that with all this pressure, mistakes are bound to happen. I get it, art directors––it’s a lot. I’m an account guy with a big, bleeding heart who feels your pain—well, unless you muck my ish up. That is unacceptable.

The rest of the world is going to laugh at your mistakes. I’m sorry, unfortunately that’s just the life you’ve chosen. You’re in the public eye and your mistakes get seen by millions.

And now there’s a forum to see even more. I’d like to point you to a website that is doing its best to find your final art flaws: www.psdisasters.com, a collection of Photoshop mistakes made in years past and available for years to come.

Be sure to check out the Greatest Hits section and see brilliance like this:

Adweek has even gotten in on the fun. The headline from last week’s page read: “Ad in Target Circular Either Photoshopped or Features an Alien.” Love it.

Okay, okay, so there’s plenty to laugh at. Again, I recognize that you sometimes only have 25 minutes to whip something together. That being said, I leave you with a site from people who clearly have 25 minutes to spare:

www.onetinyhand.com

If you like the images below, you’ll definitely love this site. Check it out!

Author: Eric Swenson

Transitioning from Print to Digital Publishing Design

If you are currently making a living as a print designer, I can almost guarantee that you have thought about what it would take to design for digital publishing. And by digital publishing, I mean publishing to tablets and smartphones. For many designers, this issue has caused a great deal of stress. Well, I am happy to report that Adobe is making designing for digital publishing much easier with its new release of Creative Suite 6.

Creative Suite 6 boasts a whole plethora of new features that will help designers and the like perform their daily job functions more efficiently. What makes this release better than its predecessor is how you can take a print layout in InDesign and transition it over to any tablet or smartphone––landscape or portrait! With previous versions of Adobe’s digital publishing suite, you had to design two separate files for portrait and landscape orientations. This led to a lot of duplicate work for designers and never allowed fluid translations to different devices.

Take a sneak peak at CS6 and some more interesting features!

http://www.youtube.com/user/Photoshop

Author: John Mehl

Communication Arts’ 17th Annual Interactive Annual Awards

Communication Arts’ interactive annual winners were selected in this month’s 17^th edition of the competition. This year’s panel of jurors spent 10 weeks sifting through and discerning the best 35 projects to be showcased—a job I do not envy.

The projects were divided into five categories: Advertising, Information Design, Entertainment, Self-Promotion and Experimental.

There are some really amazing projects that are worth checking out. Visit the site here for more.

A few picks:

Experimental

Per Communication Arts: “Overview: When Forever 21 claimed the iconic Virgin Record store in Times Square as its new flagship location, its goal was to stop the 500,000 daily passersby dead in their tracks. The result is a digital display that’s the center of attention on pop culture’s biggest stage. The billboard is broken into multiple LED surfaces at the heart of which is a high-definition main display that features a rotating schedule of content and models that interact over a live video feed of pedestrians. A companion Web site served as a means to connect the Forever 21 community. The online hub allowed users to see the billboard live, real-time tweets and fashion/culture tips that match the brand’s youthful, fast-moving image.”

Advertising

Per Communication Arts: “Overview: During the holiday season, consumers are jaded by the glut of shallow and meaningless marketing tactics from corporations. Starbucks stood out from the clutter with this multimedia campaign that raised awareness and donations for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS in Africa. On December 7, 2009, musicians in 156 countries sang ‘All You Need Is Love’ at exactly the same time. The performances were streamed onto screens at an event and broadcast live at StarbucksLoveProject.com and a video featuring all the performances was posted on YouTube. The entire Internet audience was encouraged to get involved in multiple visitor-participation options, each resulting in a donation from Starbucks, including participating in the worldwide sing-along and contributing to a crowdsourced tapestry of Love Drawings.”

Entertainment

Per Communication Arts: “Overview: LEGO Photo, available free at the iTunes App Store, was a component of the 2010 LEGO Cl!ck campaign and the first official iPhone application for LEGO. The app works with saved images on the iPhone and iPod touch and lets consumers immortalize their favorite images in LEGO form. Users can simply choose a photo from an existing gallery or point the camera to snap a photo then touch the screen to watch their masterpiece build. Additional screen taps show each portrait in nine different color palettes. And, celebrating the portraits is easy; users can upload them to social networking pages, e-mail or print them and tweet them using #legoclick.”

Author: Eric Swenson

Only Read This If You’re Really Creative

I’ve casually commented to close friends how the best ideas I’ve ever had have come when I’m in the bathroom. They’ve come in the form of creative solutions, conflict resolutions, or sometimes just better ways to be more efficient at a particular task. Yes, I owe a lot to my small bladder.

For years now, people have pondered over the creative geniuses of the world and asked where good ideas come from. What is it about these special people that gives them this ability? In Jonah Lehrer’s new book Imagine: How Creativity Works, as described by an article in The Economist, he argues that creativity lies in the potential nature of everyone. That, in fact, creativity is not a lofty gift held by a few. Instead, those who have a strong sense of the problem, those fully vested in the situation, will have the best possibility of finding a creative solution. (I’d argue that it also helps to spend a lot of time in the bathroom.)

Creativity comes to us in a variety of ways. The key seems to be the “freshness factor.” The freshness factor, a term I invented while clipping my fingernails, suggests that the best ideas come to us when we approach a problem from any perspective that is not current, relative, or the norm.

Lehrer supports this idea by talking about a company that is generating ideas and creating new products all the time: 3M. 3M, like Google, has a reputation for being progressive in the way it thinks about thinking. It has become the third-most innovative company in the world simply because of the emphasis it puts on employees taking time away from a problem. Those who work for 3M are often found wandering around and playing games. “This is because interrupting work with a relaxing activity lets the mind turn inward, where it can subconsciously puzzle over subtle meanings and connections,” writes The Economist reviewer. Believe it or not, our brains work quite hard when we daydream—an idea that seems counterintuitive.

CBS’s The Big Bang Theory was just pronounced the No. 1 show in syndication among viewers under 50, and because of this, TBS has become the No. 1 cable network with an average of 3 million viewers per BBT episode. The show is notorious for using real-life theoretical physics despite the average viewer understanding less than 5% of the math. In one episode, the character Sheldon is stuck on a physics problem. He decides that, rather than continue to unsuccessfully focus all his energies on the problem, he will instead do mundane activities. After a brief stint busing at The Cheesecake Factory, he discovers the answer he was looking for.

Not only do we find creativity by stepping away and redirecting our focus, but we also find it when we bring in outside minds and take risks. In marketing, it’s often the person who has no inside attachment to a project that we should rely on for that objective perspective. True, he or she may not have a sense of the client’s desires, but that outsider’s view may bring forth the unconventional idea that could lead to a better way of solving the problem.

If you work in advertising, a simple way of accomplishing this is by rotating your designers. So often we think it makes the most sense to have a designer or writer work with the same brand. Intuitively it makes sense—have the person who knows the brand the best work on the project. The reality is that people get drained. Ideas become stale. 3M requires its engineers to rotate constantly from department to department. This is also why companies who hire young, innovative thinkers tend to be ahead of the curve in terms of productivity and ideas. The naïveté of younger generations “comes with creative advantages,” Mr. Lehrer writes––experience and custom can get in the way of ideas.

You’ve probably noticed, or been a part of, large groups of friends who have a killer dynamic but often have little in common. In Imagine, Lehrer also talks about how bringing in varying perspectives, be they cultural or ethnic, can enhance an idea. It’s important, however, to recognize that group brainstorming sessions are actually a poor way of coming up with ideas. In its most effective form, brainstorming should involve separating and then coming together again to discuss ideas. The dynamic of the group will certainly play a large part when the group reforms.

I came across a great quote in my research for this post. William James wrote, “Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.” Simply put, constantly challenge yourself to approach situations without a preconceived notion of what to do next. Just because it’s been done one way for years past, doesn’t mean a better way doesn’t exist.

So. Maybe we all have the ability to come up with that one, great, big idea. Maybe creativity is nothing more than finding an answer in a way that incorporates a freshness factor. Genius, it seems, can be had by all. As for me, I’ll be puzzling my own genius in a private space; I think you know the one I mean.

Author: Eric Swenson

Competition in Design: Wise or Waste?

There are many professions that promote competition. Design, in particular, lends itself to one-upping that coworker, the competition, and sometimes the jurors of an awards competition. Unlike art, design in advertising can sometimes be measured by the return on investment. Well-designed campaigns can be judged by sales figures.

Of course, it’s not always so black and white. There are herds of beautiful designs that get produced but never make the front page. There are strong strategic ideas that work perfectly for the client but—for one reason or another—don’t effectively catch fire. Blame the medium or blame media—ideas sometimes just don’t get fertilized. Conceiving an idea, it seems, takes just the right formula.

But there’s an even bigger hurdle to hurdle. Ask designers or copywriters at any agency in the world what their best ideas were, and they’ll give you their answers. Ask them if their best ideas were ever published, and I’m certain you’ll receive a resounding “No” in response.

In our industry, the best ideas don’t always win over our audience: the client. And that’s fine. The ideas that make it to the coveted awards competitions have to be ideas that have been produced. That means that the breadth of work we see is far narrower than what’s been attempted.

So is all this competition worth it? Is it worthwhile for companies to put in the added effort, costs, and resources to submit their ideas? Is it worth the long hours, the nail biting, and the limited publicity for the results?

Absolutely.

Andrew Carnegie once said, “And while the law [of competition] may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.”

Love or loathe competition, it’s what drives us forward as artists (dare I say humanity?). Whether it’s friendly competition among colleagues or a battle against yourself, our need to move forward with bigger and better ideas is what helps us evolve—producing work that’s relevant and effective.

An informal survey of six nearby designers about competition showed a fun split between men and women. The women designers seemed to feel that collaboration is always the key to producing better work. The men felt that working in isolation and then exchanging ideas later was better. Both groups agreed that a spirited awards competition against other agencies would be a great way to unify ideas and kick some competitor ass.

What it would really do, however, is give designers more of a stake in our projects. Competition promotes creativity of the purest and highest order. It pushes our spirit further. It makes our ideas soar higher. Art is the essence of our humanity.

If that’s a little too grandiose for you, be sure to check out my last post on annual reports. I guess what I’m saying is, forget return on investment for a second and think about what we’re doing here.

What do you think? Competition in design—wise or waste?

Author: Eric Swenson

The Solar Annual Report: Innovative Design

Working in marketing has its highs and lows. For years I used to revel in the experiences I had at different agencies: Beer Fridays, jeans to work five days a week, Thirsty Thursdays, themed parties, Margarita Mondays, and so on. While we had a good time—and apparently had to de-stress ourselves often—it wasn’t always fun and games. Eventually reality arrived, crashing our party.

Which brings me to my next point: Don’t annual reports just flat-out suck? As hard as I try, I can’t seem to find one endearing thing about them. That is, until now.

German-based ad agency Serviceplan came up with an innovative way to produce a client’s annual report. Austria Solar, a company primarily focused on, you guessed it, thermal solar systems and companies, worked with Serviceplan to create an ingenious annual report that uses the sun’s energy to reveal its content.

The text is printed using special phosphorescent inks that only appear when they have direct or near-direct contact with light. It’s a clever little way to connect the big-picture idea to the physical execution. Check out this video that shows some of the work:

And who says annual reports can’t be fun?

Author: Eric Swenson

Creating a Public Persona of My Personality for Personal Branding Purposes

I started my second personal blog the other day. I won’t shamelessly promote it here, but my friends have been inundated with requests for support. I received an interesting response from my good buddy Joe. After reading a few posts he wrote to me, “Impressed how easily you put yourself out there to the masses. I find it easy to present a character for audiences, but feel less comfortable broadcasting myself. Brave.”

Although brief, I was taken aback by his commentary. Was I really wearing my heart and soul on the sleeve of this blog? Was I laying it all out there for the world to see? Surely I wouldn’t be so stupid as to be one of those people who just say whatever comes to their minds, right? You know the type. The blogger who thinks the world gives a damn about the mundanity of his or her life: “Today I bought shoes and already I have blisters. Wait, hold on a second, need some water. Okay, I’m back. Anyway.” Or someone who shares inappropriate confessions, driven by insecurities and the need for drama: “My boyfriend isn’t romantic and often looks around the room when we kiss.”

Is this who I’ve become but in a less exaggerated sort of way? The answer, I’ve come to discover, is maybe. If some of the things I write about come from a place of truth, then maybe I really am broadcasting myself to the world. The thing is, it doesn’t feel like that. For years now I’ve considered these public displays of personality to be fiction.

I’m talking about personal branding. I’m talking about the line, which has become incredibly blurred, between who we are and who we pretend or act like when we participate online, particularly in social media. When I think about the message I put out there for the world to view, I wonder if it’s really me. And again, the answer is maybe.

Personal branding is not a new topic. In fact, it’s become our way of life. Today, people can obtain or lose jobs based simply on the way they brand themselves online. What I wonder is, are we even aware we’re doing it anymore?

I’m reminded of my Facebook page from 2005 (Ah, the gloriously elitist days when you needed a .edu to get in). The page allowed you to fill in fields about your personality: favorite songs, books, movies, etc. They still exist today, but they’re certainly not as exposed and important as they were back then. I remember all the clever things I’d post: Favorite artist—post-mortem Tupac; Favorite activity—avoiding death; Interests—onesies; Favorite quote—“Sometimes I question your dedication to Sparkle Motion.”

It became a persona—a way for me to make fun while having fun. It was also the loss of my creating-a-personal-brand virginity (and just as experimental). It was me choosing to show the world, “Hey, I want you to think I’m funny!” And this has carried on for years. We all do it. Every time we post a Facebook status update or send out a tweet, we’re communicating something about ourselves. We’re making a choice, cognizant or not, about who we are or who we want people to think we are.

Larry Kimmel of the Direct Marketing Association recently said to our company, “Kids today begin branding themselves at the age of 16.” In fact, he’s right. The millennials today learn very early on how to portray themselves in social media. I think it’s going to become harder and harder for future generations to recognize the difference between this online community and the community of our neighbors.

Thanks to my pal Joe’s insightful observation, it made me realize that maybe we’ve all gotten a little too comfortable with our pen names. We ought to step back and think about the content we’re putting out there for the world to see. Whether it’s for privacy concerns or some other reason, unintended vulnerabilities could come back to hurt us. And if I get hurt, you may end up reading about it in my blog.

Author: Eric Swenson

What Would the Holidays Be Without Advertising?

Nary a day goes by when we don’t see an ad reminding us of an up-and-coming holiday. With Christmas just barely in our rearview mirror, our drugstore shopping lanes are already filled with Valentine delights. And it seems like only yesterday we were clearing off our pumpkin-littered mantles to make room for menorahs and SpongeBob nativity scenes.

Stepping outside, we see department store after department store brimming with ads promoting whatever Hallmark holiday is in season. I can’t even imagine what Macy’s must spend on its Christmas decor, the Thanksgiving Day Parade, the 4^th of July fireworks, and other holiday festivities.

On TV, our commercials play familiar jingles often remade to sync with the product—sort of like this:

The 4^th of July reminds us that we should celebrate not only our freedom from British tyranny, but also the fact that our forefathers knew how to party:

In other ads, Santa argues with Best Buy employees, converses with M&M’s, and even dresses in disguise as a car salesman.

We’ve grown so accustomed to these ads that we almost feel as though “Black Friday” and the “Summer Back-to-School Sale” are legitimate calendar holidays.

The word saturation comes to mind.

But what would we do without these ads? What would life really be like if corporations didn’t tie in their products and services with the holidays? How would we prepare? How would we know they were coming? Would the big holidays become more like Arbor Day? Would they be blips on the calendar, forgotten until the week before?

Just think of all the hype that’d be missed! If anticipation is the spice of life, holidays might just be stale bread. Croutons. That’s what I’m saying. I’m saying that if our complaints and frustrations with the seemingly endless supply of capitalistic holiday ads—indeed a complaint box of size—resulted in their absence, our holidays would be croutons.

All right, so maybe I’m not defending the vomit-inducing spots like the T-Mobile commercial above. I’d rather shoot myself in the face than hear that spot again. But it’s just so engrained in us—it’s become the “holiday spirit” we rely on every year. To imagine a life without TJ Maxx dancers, pitter-pattering through our malls and our hearts, is no life at all.

I consider myself incredibly out of touch with new products, widgets, and services. I’m as anti-consumerist/anti-commercialism-y as they come. And yet, I don’t know a world without holidays expressed in this particularly American manner. And quite frankly, I don’t want to.

One hundred days until Arbor Day. Let the countdown begin.

Author: Eric Swenson

Why Typography Matters

It’s everywhere: on buses, in subways, stores, apartments, and––more often than not––stalls at your local pub. If you’re as paranoid as I am, you’re probably thinking I’m referring to a new flu virus or an easily catchable disease. I’m happy to say, I’m speaking about typography.

Typography, in one sense or another, has existed since the dawn of writing. Even the Flintstones have their own font. But why does typography matter? Yeah, it’s everywhere. We take it for granted and hardly think of the consequences. I mean, can someone really tell the difference between Arial and Gill Sans?

In typographer Thomas Phinney’s article “How to Explain Why Typography Matters,” he describes typography’s many uses, forms, and effects—both subtle and obvious—to justify its importance.

As representatives from a creative agency, we’re often asked to justify our reasons for the use of a particular shape, color, or font. More often than not, the most compelling reason for using a particular font is the client’s brand. Numerous Utterly Orange posts have discussed the importance of branding, but it might be worth reiterating the value a font has for a brand.

If you get a chance, check out the movie Helvetica. This documentary walks you through not only the history of this seemingly universal font, but its impact on modern-day brands. Love it or hate it, Helvetica took us from the hodgepodge mash-up of fonts of the ’40s and ’50s and gave us a style that’s both legible (pragmatic) and malleable (artistic).

Fonts define a brand, and brands define a font. Typography and a brand become one and the same when we incorporate them effectively. Typography is so ingrained in us that we’d have no trouble identifying a well-known Fortune 500 company simply based on the typeface used.

With so many fonts available, it seems practically trivial to continue to develop new fonts. And yet, a sliver of an industry exists where people are coming up with better and new ways to write the words we read. Phinney’s article justifies this the same way fashion designers or furniture makers justify their work. With no shortage of clothes or furniture styles, we continue to create new fashions and new furniture. Why? Simply put, because of trends. The only consistent thing is change. Fonts evolve just as trends do.

After clients are convinced that fonts matter, they often want to take these newfound tools and exploit them. Caps, bold, and “fun” styles like Comic Sans become their paint brushes, screwdrivers, and hammers. Unfortunately, painting a picture red, using a screw that doesn’t fit, and hitting customers over the head isn’t always the best way to produce the right message.

Today, experimental studies are being done by psychologists and typographers on the effects of good typography. These studies help determine what constitutes good typography and typeface design as it relates to legibility. Some research involves hooking sensors to the orbicularis oculi (the muscle around the eye) and measuring things like squinting and frequency of blinking. These sorts of tests help us determine how effective a font may be, whether we see it or not. Forgive the pun.

Author: Eric Swenson

Benetton’s Ad Campaign Leaves Some Furious and Me Laughing

There’s nothing I more enjoy seeing than people pushing the envelope and making a fuss over things controversial to some and trivial to others.

An advertising campaign showing political and religious leaders kissing on the mouth has recently gotten the attention of many important groups. From the White House to the Vatican, many are outraged at photos of these leaders being used as advertising creative.

Benetton, an Italian clothing company, said on its website that the campaign is meant to support the Unhate Foundation, which opposes hate and is “aimed at exorcising the ‘fear of the other.’”

The ‘Unhate’ campaign strikes a chord with the public on many levels. In this way, I deem this campaign incredibly successful already (even bad press is good press, right?). A successful company decides to support an organization whose corporate objectives are to eliminate an abuse that’s incredibly popular in mainstream media today. You can’t turn on a news station or talk show without hearing about bullying.

To oppose the campaign puts you almost in a camp of hate support. To even the most liberal opposer, it suggests that, while you may be against evil in the world, the fact that you’re against a controversial ad talking about it makes your stance moot.

We have satirical political cartoons that go much further than this campaign. Moreover, some of these cartoons challenge authority, condemn inappropriate behavior, even suggest, dare I say it, hate. And yet, we Westerners get by every day without the threat of attack. We get by knowing that these pieces are meant to simply challenge us intellectually. To make us think about some—sometimes—very important issues.

There are real problems in this world. Was showing our President kissing Chinese President Hu Jintao a tasteful way of bringing them to our attention? Right now, I can’t think of a better way.

Author: Eric Swenson

Adobe Photoshop Trick of the Day: Adjusting Color Using a Mask

For most designers out there, you probably know the site Lynda.com. Well, I came across a neat little section called “Deke’s Techniques.” I haven’t gone through all of them, but I believe most are tutorials from Deke McClelland, a guy who surely knows his design tricks.

This week he discusses a stronger way to use Photoshop’s Hue/Saturation command in conjunction with a mask. Here’s an excerpt from Lynda.com:

Whether you’re aiming for realism or an exaggerated effect that grabs attention, it’s often handy to be able to change the color of one object in a photo without affecting the rest of the image. Most people will tell you to use Adobe Photoshop’s Hue/Saturation command to do this, but if the object you’re changing has hue variations—not just one flat shade of red, for example—this relative adjustment won’t work.

Instead, you need to make an absolute adjustment. And to limit the change to a single object, you also need a mask. “A mask”? you gripe. “They take forever!”

Au contraire. You simply create a new Adjustment layer, select a color range inside the image with a click and a drag, and Photoshop will auto-generate your mask. Then you choose the Hue/Saturation command and make your color adjustments.

Watch the entire video here:

Author: Eric Swenson

Welcome to My Death Space: A Site for the Non-Living

It’s the time of year when life as we know it begins to change. Our long, warm, sunny days become short, cold, and gray. Life all around us begins to shrivel up and die. I’m referring, of course, to our never-late-to-the-party season: autumn—elder brother to Father Christmas and Mother Nature’s pimp.

Fall is our reminder that the best part of the year is now over. So suck it up. Life is about to get a lot more difficult. If I were a drug user, I’d have to imagine fall to be the drug user’s final hit before rehab. Enjoy it while it lasts; you’re about to get locked up for six months with nothing but chamomile and reruns of Hawaii Five-O.

This is the time of year when many people in our society celebrate the changing of the seasons. I really don’t see what all the fuss is about. People find fall beautiful and often comment on the changing color of leaves. “Look at the beautiful leaves––they’re changing colors,” one might say. “Isn’t fall beautiful, what, with the color changing on leaves and all?” another might say.

“The leaves are dying!” I might say. When you see a majestic bird recently struck by an 18-wheeler, you don’t comment on its beauty, do you? Would you say “Look at that doe-eyed, little deer lying peacefully on the side of the road. I think it’s taking its last breaths. What a wonderful sight!”?

Sound depressing? It shouldn’t be. At this time of year I’m reminded of an Associated Press article I read that has that Halloween sort of vibe. The article encouraged those with an affinity for the morbid to check out a website called MyDeathSpace.com. At first, I was confused about what MyDeathSpace.com was. My first thought was probably similar to yours: “Here is a website for people who are frustrated with their current social environments and want an online vehicle to acknowledge their discomfort.” I mean, think about it. How many “death spaces” do we all have?

Death Space #1 – You’re waiting in line at Target as the 95-year-old woman uses a debit card for the first time in her existence. You can literally count the minutes until the cashier will inevitably take the card away from the old hag and do it herself. Yet you sit there, impatiently, waiting for the show to unfold.

Death Space #2 – I think we’ve all been here before.

 

(For more relatable situations like this, check out: www.pleaseshutup.com)

Death Space #3 – You’re waiting in line to pick up a new license. It’s not that it expired, it’s that you lost it. Well, you didn’t really lose it. You put it on the table that night when you had your friends over and everyone did that thing where you show each other what’s in your wallets. But then you get drunk and don’t want to drive, and Liz is being her typical self—crazy—and you just want to get her out of there. So you offer to drive, but then Jim—also crazy—is trying to be the responsible one but always ends up getting way too drunk to make any sense. So you just kind of look at him, as he leans, and try to remember why you’re friends. You decide to put both Jim and Liz in a taxi. The next day you find out that Jim accidentally grabbed your ID instead of his, but it doesn’t matter because he left it in the cab.

Maybe I’m alone here. And maybe I spend too much time in lines. The point is I assumed that the site discussed our personal death spaces as a way to create a sense of camaraderie. A way to say, “Hey man, I’ve been there. I think about putting my boss in a Porta-Potty and tipping it over too.” Well, I was wrong. MyDeathSpace is actually a social networking website for the recently deceased members of myspace.com. If someone dies, you submit his or her death and people can chat about the––sometimes grotesque––details. Oh, and there’s a forum section where you can complain about things like the new features of Facebook that really T you off.

What!? Are people really into this? Are we really so voyeuristic? Burning ants with a magnifying glass: okay. Discussing profiles of dead friends: not so okay! Maybe I just have no clue of what it’s like to be this creepy. I think the darkest thing I’ve ever done was get up in the middle of the night and pee without turning on the light.

I suppose we’re all entitled to our own niche likes and dislikes. You’re able to like the changing of leaf colors for example. And I’m entitled to loathe you.

In the meantime, this begs the question: Can a forum like this really be considered a social medium? Hell, these people are dead.

Happy Halloween!

Author: Eric Swenson

Communication Arts Releases Winners of Its 2011 Design Annual

Communication Arts just released the winners of its 2011 Design Annual. Over 4,000 pieces were submitted, and only 174 winners were selected. A team of five judges had the seemingly impossible task of narrowing down the finalists.

Project categories like trademarks, letterheads, posters, packaging, and annual reports were included in the competition.

With today’s economic woes, it’s becoming harder and harder for design firms to keep up with the Joneses technology-wise. It was clear that this year’s designers were able to bring back old-school techniques and produce quality work.

Take a look at the gallery to get a glimpse of some of the winners. If you want to see all the concepts, though, you’re going to have to sign up for Communication Arts’ subscription plan (lame!).

Author: Eric Swenson

Vanguard Direct’s Creative Team Weighs in on What Steve Jobs Meant to Them

Gia:
Steve Jobs understood the value and beauty of simplicity. From the way Apple products look and feel to their super-friendly usability, simplicity was the key ingredient that made Apple a success. More importantly for designers, Steve also changed the image of the computer user from a geeky to a cool dude, saving us from a lot of cruel jokes. (My only gripe is that the once-affordable Mac product is now at an outrageously unaffordable price point, pricing out working-class people like me.)

Louise:
Let’s just say the Macintosh computer changed my career, practically overnight. Suddenly, all the tasks I did manually at a drafting table were done at a desk with this odd little machine. My first Mac was a lowly Mac LC, which looked like a pizza box with a monitor on top of it. It was the first computer I ever touched, and to this day, Macintosh computers are the only computers I’ve ever used. I wouldn’t ever consider buying anything else.

Kara:
Steve Jobs had a major influence on my career. My first job was pasteup and mechanicals for a printer––hand-drawn rules, Rubylith silhouettes, typeset galleys … all that has changed due to the genius of the Apple computer. Everything I do these days is wrapped up in my iMac, iPad, and iPhone. Would love to see what he would have created, given another 20 years.

Kevin:
A visionary trendsetter who has been responsible for changing my life several times. Through his inventions, he has helped make the world a better place for all of us.

Antonio:
I have been an Apple fanboy since I was 16 years old. I have bought and used almost every product since that time. Jobs’s ideas and ability to simplify life will be greatly missed, and I hope that his legacy lives on through his company. His personality has shown through his products and has made many people feel close to him to the point that I will miss him as if we were close friends. R.I.P., Steve.

John:
From the earliest days, Apple cultivated a relationship with schools and educators. Coming from a family of teachers, I inevitably encountered Apple computers at holidays and other family get-togethers. Christmas of 1993 was the year my sister and her husband had just bought––at an excellent discount––the smokin’ hot new Macintosh Color Classic. My tiny nieces found their uncle’s computing ineptness hilarious, but I spent every available moment that Christmas playing Sierra’s King’s Quest game on big 5-inch floppies, and was hooked for life.

As a non-teacher, I couldn’t afford a Mac, so I got as close as I could with a Packard Bell 486 machine, running DOS, along with a (sort of) color monitor. Snorts of derision aside, it played games, ran a crude version of WordPerfect, and eventually I even souped it up with a $400, 20MB hard drive! That led to building/upgrading my own computers––which I do to this day––but the guiding hand of Steve Jobs was right there from the start.

Susan:
It was 1982 and our school was getting new computers––half the class was getting PCs, and the other half was getting Apple IIs. While the other side struggled to put their computers together, assembling the Apple II was as simple as taking items out of the box and plugging them together (computer, keyboard, and mouse) and just as easy to use. I was smitten with Apple.

Over the years, Apple has been my computer of choice, and with each new version, I have been amazed with the vision Steve had and have fallen in love with his design sense. With each project he worked on, his genius came out more and more––from Pixar to his latest item, the iPad, his sense of style comes across. The iPhone is my right hand: my connection to the world, my news source, and my entertainment. I hope that his vision will continue for a long time to come.

Marina:
Steve Jobs gave us products we didn’t know we wanted and made those products parts of our lives. Steve, the American hero. R.I.P.

Will (“SUPERHERO”):
What’s to say? A large part of my career has been based on this guy’s products.

Renee:
Steve Jobs changed my two-hour commute each way—from stressful to peaceful—by inventing the iPod shuffle.

Mark:
My second life as a graphic designer started the day Apple’s co-founders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, created the Apple I in Steve Jobs’s parents’ garage in 1976.

My first life consisted of rubber cement fumes, X-ACTO blades, and a T-square for mathematically copy fitting galleys upon galleys of type to be generated by outside typography companies.

Thank you, Steve, for my second life!

Author: Eric Swenson

How Well Do You Give/Cope With Design Criticism?

Critical dialogue when creating a design project is as important as the design process itself. Good design criticism concentrates on goals and outcomes. Constructive comments are meant to make the design better. Basically, when well executed, criticism could be described as an art form––one of the most beneficial elements of the process when a graphic designer is doing something creative. Criticism and critiques can easily be used in the wrong way, however, which can lead to disaster.

Some of us are shy, while others are blunt and outspoken. Criticism is often as difficult to give as it is to receive (we use the verb “criticize” mainly in a negative sense). Since criticism is unavoidable and most likely a key to client happiness, it’s best to be constructive in your criticism.

When criticizing, make sure to include a thorough evaluation and judgment. It’s not about whether you like or don’t like something. Instead, try the following:

• Before you speak, know your objective.
• Separate personal preferences from abstract analysis.
• Involve thinking through solutions.
• Try giving positive-negative-positive feedback.
• Make it a team effort.
• Always end your conversations with a positive note.

What if you find yourself on the opposite end; what’s the best way to receive criticism?

Kareen Liez on Naldzgraphics.net offers the following tips:

1. Have self-confidence.
2. Be a good listener.
3. Distinguish the type of criticism.
4. Control your anger.
5. Be humble.
6. Use your intellect.
7. Do not panic.
8. Do not take it personally.
9. Clarify the intention.
10. Remember that you still have your freedom.

To read more on how to best receive criticism, just click HERE.

How well do you give/cope with design criticism?

Author: Marina Kaljaj

Are You Creatively Prejudiced? Why We Want Creativity But Often Reject It

Would you recognize a creative idea if you saw it? How would you know it’s creative? Is it a feeling? Is it a clever idea that made you go “hmm”? Is it the recognition of something deep in your subconscious that for whatever reason strikes a chord with you now? Or are you such an expert that, based on your years of reviewing creative, you now have the ability to spot a good idea from a mile away and opine justifiably?

If you’re reading this blog, you almost certainly have some desire to understand creativity. And while many of us in the creative field would like to claim expert status, the truth is in the numbers.

People come with certain biases. Passions. Backgrounds. Likes and dislikes. And more often than not, we come with inherent tendencies that are out of our control. It’s the recognition of that, I think, that will set us free—but I’ll get to that later.

I once read an article about our inherent desire to be “a little bit racist” (Avenue Q reference––check it out). The study involved two groups of very young kids—somewhere between the ages of three and five (well before they could understand the depths of racial conflict).

The study had half the children wear red shirts and the other half in blue. The children interacted with each other seemingly without a care in the world. It was clear that reds didn’t hang with only reds and blues didn’t hang with just blues. At the end of the study, however, the children were asked a series of questions. When questions came up like, “Do you think red shirts, your team, are better than blue shirts?” kids often responded in favor of their own team.

My point is this: Things that are different are unsettling at best and flat-out terrifying at worst. We seem to crave creativity more than anything else, but creative ideas are often not accepted. Do we have the ability to appreciate a real creative idea? I’d argue not. And as I said, the proof is in the numbers. An article will be released soon in the journal Psychological Science detailing two studies that came to the following titillating conclusions:

• Creative ideas are by definition novel, and novelty can trigger feelings of uncertainty that make most people uncomfortable.

• People dismiss creative ideas in favor of ideas that are purely practical––tried and true.

• Objective evidence shoring up the validity of a creative proposal does not motivate people to accept it.

• Anti-creativity bias is so subtle that people are unaware of it, which can interfere with their ability to recognize a creative idea.

The next time a colleague, friend, or business professional approaches you with an idea he or she finds creative, before you reject it, take a second and think about if you’re rejecting it because it’s crazy or because it’s just crazy enough to be original.

Author: Eric Swenson

Best Practices in Design – Creating PDFs

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the past 10 years or so, you’ve probably read, produced, or come into contact with a PDF. The PDF, or Portable Document Format, is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 and is used for outputting documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. Each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout document, including the text, fonts, graphics, and other information needed to display it.

The PDF was originally used to send clients view-only layouts that they could review and approve before the final files were sent out to be printed. With the improvements made to the PDF format over the years, Adobe made it possible to create high-resolution, print-ready files, thus eliminating the need to package print-ready files via their native applications. Today, designers and production artists are expected to have a thorough knowledge of PDF creation.

When making a PDF, it is important to know its end use. That will determine the kind of PDF you need to produce. For example, if you were showing the client some changes made to a layout, you would send a “view-only” PDF. The view-only PDF would be low in resolution but easy to send in an email because of its small file size. Crop marks would not be necessary. If you were creating a print-ready PDF, however, you would need to ensure the PDF contained crops, bleed, and full-resolution images—in most cases, such PDFs might be too large to send over email.

For Print-Ready PDFs made from InDesign:
First, go to File > Export (Command-E). Select Adobe PDF as the format and choose the destination for the PDF and hit Save. A new dialog box will open. You can select a preset like High Quality Print (for print) or Smallest File Size (for web) as a starting point and modify the settings further if you wish. Pay special attention to the sections in the left-hand window of the options box: General, Compression, Marks and Bleed, and Output.

General – If the job is going to print in spreads, make sure this box is checked under Pages.

Compression – For high-quality color and grayscale images, Bicubic Downsampling should be set to 300dpi for images over that size and the Image Quality set to maximum. You can lower the dpi if the PDF is view-only to be sent via email.

Marks and Bleeds – If you are including crop marks, make sure the box is checked and add the bleed amount underneath.

Output – Make sure Color Conversion is set to No Color Conversion.

One trick that can be useful is to create your own custom settings. Once you have adjusted all the settings in the Export Adobe PDF dialog box, you can click Save Preset in the bottom left corner. You will give the preset a name, and once you hit OK, it will be included as an option under Adobe PDF Preset.

For Print-Ready PDFs made from Quark Xpress:
Go to File > Export > Layout as PDF (Command-Option-P). When the dialog box opens, click the Options button (or you can select a preset like Press – High Quality or Screen – Low Quality as a starting point and modify the settings further if you wish). The PDF Export Options dialog box will open with all the settings. Pay special attention to the sections in the left-hand window of the options box: Pages, Compression, Color, Marks and Bleed.

Pages – If the job is going to print in spreads, make sure this box is checked.

Compression – For color and grayscale images, Compression should be set to None and Resolution set to Keep Resolution (assuming your images are already 300dpi).

Color – If it is a four-color job, the Setup should be set to Composite CMYK. If a Pantone color is included, the Setup should be set to Composite CMYK and Spot.

Marks – If you are including crop marks, have the mode set to Centered (otherwise it can be set to Off).

Bleed – If there is bleed, have the Bleed Type set to Symmetric with the Amount as you wish.

Once again, you can create your own custom settings. Once you have adjusted all the settings in the PDF Export Options dialog box, you can go to PDF Style at the top and scroll down to New PDF Output Style. You will give the output style a name, and once you hit OK, it will included as an option under PDF Style.

Authors: Will Lovell, with assistance by Eric Swenson

Oh, Color, How I Love Hue – Color Trends and Info

In my search to find meaning in color, and more importantly, the rationale for colors presented in designs, I came across a great site that has become an invaluable resource.

Check out www.sensationalcolor.com to get an insider’s look at current trends in color and some important rationales for correct color choice. Whether it’s color for fashion, your home, or communications pieces, this site probably touches on it.

There’s discussion on theory and color in business as well. The blog portion is infrequently updated but useful when the site’s “color expert,” Kate Smith, decides to post.

If you want to know what the color orange really means or why the Blue Man Group uses blue, then this site is meant for hue!

 

Author: Eric Swenson

Reinforcing What You Already Know: Make Screen Marketing as Important as Print Collateral

Traditional print and print-centric design organizations (think magazines, newspapers, book publishers) have struggled to balance print- and screen-based consumption of their products. The variables affecting the transition from print to screen are complex from the very start. Economic, advertising-based factors significantly influence the investment that businesses put toward both print- and screen-based initiatives. In October 2010, a study published by the Rochester Institute of Technology Printing Industry Center, Print versus Screen—Presentation Medium-Dependent Picture Consumption, addressed some early findings on screen versus print consumption. The study focused on understanding how college-aged young adults consume and retain information on screen versus print and if there is a preference for either medium. The 2010 study consisted of 3 smaller experiments aimed at “identifying and understanding the differences in how information is consumed from print in paper versus computer display.”

The study contained three separate experiments:

Part I: Viewing preferences, printing behavior, and content-management habits
Part II: Identification of behavioral and cognition-based differences between print and screen consumption
Part III: Study of eye movement while viewing screen versus print content

The study used photo books of images located in Rochester, NY, and on the Rochester Institute of Technology campus that were familiar to the participants. If you extract the findings of the study and apply them to larger visual communications efforts, the following conclusions should be considered as you evaluate work effort and the priority level given to screen and print collateral:

1. The 56%/44% split of print versus screen preference indicates that design emphasis should be placed to both mediums equally.
2. More frequent eye movement (fixations) for screen viewing compared to print suggests that the traditional design rules that work for print need to be rethought for a new medium.
3. Initial studies indicate that the medium does not impact the time spent with the print or screen version, but time spent with screen media is less than print.
4. The split or fragmentation of end users’ preferences has and will continue to pose a hurdle for any visual communicator. As these young adults age, their buying power will force visual communicators to align their design priorities, but at the very least, print and screen design should be at the same level.

Applying traditional print rules to screen design and layout is a bit like taking an auto mechanic and expecting his manual dexterity to give him the talent to paint an oil masterpiece. The Adobes and Quarks (whatever may come of it in the future) of the world have an interest in creating an application that lets users create content for both mediums, but just because you can, doesn’t mean it is functional, correct, or usable.

Proceed with caution, but remember the mediums are not the same. The RIT study begins to prove that younger people have preferences that embrace both mediums.

Author: John Carew

Product Placement – Done Right and Done Wrong

Product placement. It’s here to stay. It’s surprisingly effective when done well, eye-rollingly bad when done haphazardly, and flat-out offensive when done poorly. Here is my three-tiered breakdown of current product placement styles.

Product Placement Done Well – Volkswagen

In the movie Van Wilder, the star, Ryan Reynolds, is seen wearing a VW hat backwards. It’s casual. It’s hip. And it’s placed on the coolest kid at Coolidge College. The now “Sexiest Man Alive” made Volkswagen trendier than ever. Just Google “Ryan Reynolds VW hat,” and you’ll see a whole slew of people asking where they can get their own. And it wasn’t just the hat. His campus golf cart also had the letters VW (subtle product placement) on the front of it.

Of course, you could argue that the VW in both of these instances stands for Van Wilder, but we both know we’d only be fooling ourselves.

 

 

In-Your-Face Product Placement – Pizza Hut/Subway

These days, when the producer of content is afraid that its blatant product placement will alienate its audience, the company sometimes decides to go head-on. This usually happens with disruptive and direct promotion of the product right in the middle of the show or movie. The actors break out of character or turn to face the camera directly and talk about the product. Humor seems to be the only effective way of doing this, and the response from the consumer is usually an eye roll or the thought “I guess this is what I have to deal with now.”

 

 

Product Placement Done Like #@!% – Chex Mix

I can’t tell which is more vomit-inducing: this ridiculous Chex Mix plug in “Days of Our Lives” or the pathetic attempt at acting. Either way, this, in my opinion, is the worst of all three. It tries to be sneaky but is blatantly obvious. The only question that merits asking is: Did the producers of the show suggest this or was it Chex Mix?

I really don’t care what the response is. It just plain sucks.

 

 

Author: Eric Swenson

The Man’s Man Commercial: A Rip-Off of Old Spice, Dos Equis, and More!

I oppose ranting on blogs. It’s trivial. It’s useless. Everyone does it, and no one really gives a damn what your opinion is—unless, of course, you’re someone who actually matters. I do not matter, and therefore the following blatantly disregards my previous statement. What does matter, however, is the possibility that I make a good point. And that as you carry on through whatever world you live in, you hopefully take a step back every now and again and think more critically about the ads you see. Here it goes:

BE ORIGINAL.

For heaven’s sake, if you’re an ad agency, pay attention to the ads around you. And when I say pay attention, I don’t mean pay attention enough to steal an idea and make it your own. I mean recognize a good idea, appreciate it, and then come up with something original.  A great ad:

Everyone’s well aware of the successes of the Old Spice campaign. Wieden+Kennedy continues to blow us away with great ideas. What it didn’t know, however, was that it was pushing the door wide open to what I’ll call “Man’s Man” ideas. But it wasn’t the first.

Dos Equis came out with “The Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign in 2006—four years before the Old Spice guy. This campaign has some of the best writing I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if there’s anything cleverer on TV right now.

Was the Dos Equis campaign the first to use the “Man’s Man” idea? Of course not. But I’d argue these two campaigns have led the way to a plethora of repeats. It’s true that ideas have 10- to 20-year life cycles. These two spots, however, created a voice and a tone. Being able to do a million things while still keeping his composure is what makes a man a man, it seems. These spots opened the floodgates. And now, I can’t stand to watch people recycle them over and over.

Old Spice Man’s Man Rip-Off, Exhibit A

Old Spice Man’s Man Rip-Off, Exhibit B (Can’t seem to find the original. Sorry!)

Dos Equis Man’s Man Rip-Off, Exhibit C

There are obviously so many more. And I recognize there are ads that preceded Dos Equis that are similar in nature (think Burger King’s “Scent of Seduction” ad and all the rip-offs that followed that). But do people not notice this? Have you noticed it? What’s your opinion?

I leave you with a parallel from Hollywood. If you’re going to be a screenwriter, let’s try to write a film that isn’t a complete rip-off of the story you just wrote.

The Curious Case of Forest Gump

Author: Eric Swenson

Three Fun, Nontraditional Outdoor Ads: Vote For Your Favorite!

I’m always amazed by the creativity that abounds out there. I was having an in-depth conversation with a coworker about creativity and the amazing ideas that come from so many places. We were talking about a few favorites that came to mind. Here are three really fun outdoor/non-traditional pieces that stood out. Enjoy!

Is it possible to view this ad without laughing? The questions that come to my mind are: How much was the media cost for this? How do you get a city agency to agree to this? Costs and logistics aside, the idea is genius. I just hope it doesn’t distract the drivers too much!

An oldie, but a goodie. This ad, created by Draft FCB, made a ton of headlines. Be sure to check out the video below. The Oreo, placed on an elevator, replicated the action of dunking whenever the elevator returned to the ground floor. If my knowledge of New York locations can be trusted, it looks like the inside of the Manhattan Mall near Herald Square (a terrible mall, by the way, but a really fun ad to distract consumers from the lack of useful shops).

 

 

 

 

As much as I love this ad, I wonder what the original intent was. The Economist, a newsmagazine with a soft spot for free trade, limited government, and the highly intelligent, doesn’t make it super clear with this ad. Or maybe I just don’t get it. There’s certainly a cerebral sort of nod here, but the light bulb turning on typically represents a new idea. Is it suggesting that the person walking by the billboard is getting one from reading The Economist? Is it trying to say that The Economist is born from new ideas from readers like us? Or is it simply a metaphor for a magazine that is filled with new ideas? There is some uncertainty as to why the light bulb is blinking on. Then again, maybe its intent was for a simple peon like me to get lost in the possible translations. In which case, well played, The Economist, well played.

Author: Eric Swenson

Comments on a Few Cannes Outdoor Winners

After last week’s post showing off a few personal favorites from Cannes, I decided I didn’t really do justice to the designs I threw up there. I’m fascinated with design in advertising because it adds an element of strategy to it. Whereas art is poetic and subjective, good design has purpose. If it’s really good, it resonates at a deeper level, much like art. In this way, design does more than just touch you in a certain way––it also promotes a call to action. It makes you physically do something or mentally commit to an idea. Art, I would argue, does much less of that.

Below each image, I’ve written a little something about why I chose to post that particular ad last week—why it stood out to me, and why I think it’s great. Forgive me, for you are about to read pseudo-intellectual, pulling-it-out-of-my-*** commentary.

These ads are just so clever. It’s one of those ideas where you’re just like, “Duh, why didn’t I think of that?” Which, to be fair, is how most great ideas make you feel. I only chose a select few, but there are a ton more on the Cannes website. These print ads speak directly to the digital audience, which I find interesting. It’s a play on the Amazon/Netflix/every other e-commerce site in existence—we see you liked this, so you’d probably like this. Instead of the obvious, Young & Rubicam, the agency behind this campaign, has gone for the clever. Some funny, some ingenious. My favorite is the trench coat and the stack of embroidered towels—alluding, of course, to the possibility that the user is some sort of secret agent with multiple identities. The design itself is simple, clean, and easy to follow. I love the colors and hexagonal, Venn diagram–style layout.

Certainly not from America, this ad isn’t the most eye-appealing but is absolutely eye-catching. An ad seemingly straight from PETA’s handbook is actually for a Saran Wrap–like product called M Wrap. Photoshop geeks alike would agree that this is genius. If Photoshop wasn’t involved, then muchos kudos to the stylist/prop person who was able to make these animals. I love ads without a lot of copy, and this ad works perfectly without any. Using M Wrap is like having meat so fresh it’s practically straight from the animal. This concept would be great for almost any restaurant or grocery store, but I think it works wonders for a plastic wrap. Brilliant.

How the judges decide which ads get gold medals and which ads get anything else is beyond me. Again, for those Photoshop geeks, this is just flat out ri-donk-ulous. Again, no need for copy, as this idea is strong enough for the image to hold its own. For some reason, I love the regal feel of these images, too. I don’t know why it applies, but it really works. The setting, the furniture, and even the looks on the dogs’ faces bespeak fancy-pants. And to be honest, if I wasn’t going out to buy a new bottle of Febreze, I’d be out trying to find these sick chairs.

Author: Eric Swenson

Cannes Outdoor – A Few Favorites

One of the most prestigious festivals celebrating advertising is happening now in Cannes, France. Today I’m focusing on some of my favorite outdoor campaigns. Here are my choices from the Gold, Silver, and Bronze categories. Be sure to go to http://www.canneslions.com/work/ and check out all the work yourself!

Gold:

Silver:

Bronze:

 

Author: Eric Swenson

Going Back to Basics: Typography in Design – Part II

When working in design, being mindful of type is essential to producing quality work. Today I’ll outline part two of my two-part series on common typography mistakes you should be sure to avoid.

6. Overusing Centered Text – When using centered text, it tends to be serried and jumbled in appearance. It may even be perceived as sophomoric in most cases, so I suggest saving it to flyers and the like and nothing more. And while we’re on the subject, try to limit typographical alignments. If you have blocks of copy that mix left, right and centered text, you will have a very visually confusing page.

7. Body Copy is Too Large – Normally, non-designers will immediately use a 12-point font for body copy since that is the default setting for most applications. Smaller font sizes create a more professional look. Large body copy, on the other hand, can be clunky (unless you’re designing a children’s book). It’s also important to note that viewing text on a computer monitor is much different than print. In most instances, type on a screen appear smaller and less crisp. Get into the habit of looking at preliminary printouts of your design.

8. Know Your Grid System – Understanding the grid has become one of the most important things for a designer to learn. It’s the basis for creating clarity and making your type and layouts more cohesive. Plainly speaking, the typographic grid is an invisible two-dimensional structure made up of a series of intersecting vertical and horizontal axes used to structure content. The grid serves as an armature on which a designer can organize text and images in a rational, easy to absorb manner. It upholds the four basic principles of graphic design which are Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity. Check out the site called The Grid System (http://www.thegridsystem.org), for links and resources pertaining to grid systems. Or read the seminal book on the subject, Grid systems in graphic design by Müller-Brockmann. A blog post could be written on this subject alone.

9. Double Word Space After a Period – Remember when your grade school teachers told you to add a double space after a period? Well, forget it. Double spacing derives from the Victorian and typewriter days. It’s best to stay single. Unfortunately, the people who are supplying you the text usually don’t know any better, so it’s a problem designers have to put up with. In the meantime, use the “search-and-replace” feature of your software to eliminate unwanted double spaces.

10. Watch Those Rags – When aligning type on the right or left, the uneven or the ragged side of the text block should have good rhythm and be consistent. Make adjustments for the text to read properly and become more balanced. In Quark Xpress, for example, try to keep the tracking generally between +3 and -3. Only in dire circumstances should you exceed those numbers. The strategically placed shift-return will also help, as well as reduce hyphenation. Finally, remember to look out for widows at the end of a paragraph.

 

Author: Eric Swenson; Assistance by Will Lovell

 

Going Back to Basics: Typography in Design

When working in design, being mindful of type is essential to producing quality work. Today I outline five common typography mistakes you should be sure to avoid:

1. Not Enough Leading – Leading/line-spacing can improve the overall readability of large blocks of text on a page, making it easier on readers to follow lines of text without losing their place. Too little can cause a cramped feeling. It’s important to remember that different fonts need different line-spacing. Varying heights in letterforms may demand more or less.

2. Not Enough Tracking – Tracking is applied to increase or decrease the spacing between letters. It prevents letters from running into each other or, conversely, keeps the text from being too spaced out. It’s similar to leading in that it can improve or hinder readability, flow of text, and the density/weight of a block of text.

3. Lengthy Lines of Text – Reading many long lines of type causes eye fatigue. Readers are forced to move their heads and eyes more often from one line to the next. Various sources suggest keeping lines of text under 50–60 characters, which, to me, is a bit of overkill.

4. Mixing Too Many Typefaces and Weights – Too many typefaces on one page can become distracting and disconnecting (lacking unity). Try using three or fewer fonts per project. Too many weights can cause a reader to be unclear about where important elements are on a page. This creates the possibility of the reader missing something important.

5. Lengthy Text Material: Serif or Sans Serif? – Serifs are alleged to make it easier to read lengthy material, such as books and magazines, for longer periods of time and reduce eye strain/fatigue. Also, serifs seem to sit better on the baseline. This is debatable to say the least. Sans-serif fonts, however, have become the de facto standard for body text on-screen, especially online. This is partly because interlaced displays may show twittering on the fine details of the horizontal serifs. Additionally, the low resolution of digital displays in general can make fine details like serifs disappear or appear too large.

 

Author: Eric Swenson with assistance by Will Lovell

Your Daily Dose of Inspiration – Three Design Sites That Inspire

In this post, I recommend three sites that you may not have heard of.
Good ideas + stellar execution = sites we want to reference. If you’re one of the lucky few who work in the design world, it’s imperative to keep a pulse on the creative being produced today. Check out three of my new favorites:

Fubiz – http://www.fubiz.net

Ideas Are Awesome – http://www.ideasareawesome.com

Blacklist – http://www.blacklist.tv

Author: Eric Swenson

15th Annual Webby Awards: Vote Now!

Be part of the 15th Annual Webby Awards by voting for who deserves to take home a People’s Voice Award.

The Webby People’ s Voice Awards honor the year’s best work in websites, interactive advertising, online film & video, and mobile formats. You have an opportunity to view some truly amazing art from great agencies, designers, writers, developers, and others.

Step up onto your soapbox and let the web know who rules your digital world. Voting’s open from
April 12 through April 28, 2011. So get voting now to have your say on who should win.

Kudos and good luck to all who have entered!

Author: Eric Swenson

Great Branding, Great Logos: Top 10 for This Week

As humble producers of quality design, it’s important we stay current on the great artistry that’s out there. Agencies and artists are producing high-quality work that we have nothing but love for. Take a look at a few outstanding logos that we think are really, well, bad*ss.

 

Author: Eric Swenson

Will Low Image Quality Destroy High-Quality Printing?

On February 17, Rachel Sterne, the newly appointed Chief Digital Officer for the City of New York, re-tweeted a post on the promotion of several EMS members. In her desire to share the event with her throngs of social media followers, she also re-tweeted a photo of the event on stage.

Note the image quality from the picture taker’s BlackBerry Tour. Just like most people’s smartphones, the camera was probably covered with dust, pocket lint, and grime from daily use, which resulted in the out-of-focus image shared by Sterne. Sharing the image is great, good PR and all, but it undermines the public’s expectation of high-quality images.

Photography in the early twentieth century was nothing compared to what technology and digital image sensors can do today. Early photographic lenses, camera technology, and image-capture methods could only produce soft, poorly sharpened, grainy images. Film grain does add an aesthetic quality to early images that is difficult to reproduce with digital image sensors, but there’s no contest between an old image and a professional digital photo.

Traditional photographic printing technology, using chemical or silver-based processes, was designed to create a continuous-tone image where the human eye cannot discern the grain or image pattern. Halftone printing systems were created to mimic that continuous-tone process using a series of aligned dots separated by four printed ink colors (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). Using the weakness of the human eye, the halftone system can achieve pseudo-continuous tone with a sufficiently resolved image (300 dpi) and properly executed print quality (line screen, screen angle, dot uniformity, registration). This is the high-quality printing that has existed for the last 30–40 years and was printed on modern presses using the four-color printing process (CMYK).

As the media “publish” more and more low-quality cell phone images, the expectation of quality will be diluted. High-resolution, sharp, well-composed images will become the exception, not the norm, and high-quality printing will no longer be required. The printing industry has invested huge amounts of cash over the past twenty years developing digital imaging technology––primarily ink-jet and electro-photographic technologies––that can mimic continuous tone. Sure, printers can print low-quality, pixelated images just as easily as they can high-resolution images, but as a graphic arts professional trained to identify those low-quality images, I must object.

How can we stop high-quality image annihilation?

Destroy all low-quality image sensors worldwide. Not a viable option unfortunately, but if it were, I would eliminate a few typefaces as well.

What do you think? How can we stop the slaying of high-quality images?

Author: John Carew

Think the Design of your Website isn’t important?

Gawker Media is blog network and media company run by Nick Denton out of New York. Gawker is the parent company of many successful blog producers, including Lifehacker, Gizmodo, and Kotaku.

Recently, the Gawker network issued a redesign of many of these sites. They released this video touting the features and advantages of the redesign:

Despite the claims in the video, the redesigns (thus far) have not been effective. Here is a breakdown of the users immediately following the re-launch:

It goes without saying that there was a substantial drop. Many users are skeptical about the new sites, but one thing is certain: design matters. Design, paired with usability, can dramatically affect the flow of traffic on and off a site. Content is certainly a priority, but when you have an established user base, people are only going to keep coming back if clarity and functionality are fun, friendly, and intuitive.

Author: Eric Swenson

Google Art Project – Why fly to Paris when you can visit the Louvre from home?

Jonathan Jones wrote in his article Google Art Project: Almost as good as the real thing that “The Google Art Project offers a glorious and exhilarating answer: in this century, it seems, high art will be more accessible and more beautifully available to more people than ever before.”

The Google Art Project is what I’ll call an enhanced version of the “Street-view” on Google Maps. That is, it gives the viewer a virtual tour of what a person standing on a street would see. However, instead of neighborhood blocks, the Google Art Project allows viewers to observe actual art from the inside of museums.

At first glance this seems ingenious. Users now have the ability to view some of the most beautiful art in the world all from the comforts of their computer. Selected masterpieces can be viewed as macroscopic HD reproductions.  Or, more loosely translated as really, really close up and really, really high def. So close, in fact, that you’re able to see the individual brush strokes used by the artist himself.

I recognize that not all of us have the means to travel. 95% of us will never have the opportunity to see Cezanne’s Mont Sainte-Victoire or Picasso’s Guernica. And while that’s a tragedy in itself, will seeing these paintings via Google images satisfy that desire? Even if we can see them really, really closely? Is there more to art than just seeing it on your screen or is there something to be said by viewing the art live and in person?

Author: Eric Swenson