Now with more glassy buttons!

A new blog that I may actually update!

2009-04-10T15:17:00.000-07:00

A new blog? Yes! This one is going to be me designing and trying to make sucessful an adsense based site.

Week 8: Inefficiency Scales

2008-04-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

The book “Building Design Portfolios Innovative Concepts for Presenting Your Work” discusses online portfolios. It suggests that take into account what the user may be using to get to your site. Your site is flash only? Your site looks good in Firefox but in Internet Explorer it is messed up? I feel the flash problem should not be a problem, if a user wants to be able to look at sites on the internet they should be expected at this time to have flash installed. For a portfolio this is acceptable. Would you want to harvest lumber with a axe when power tools exist? Of course not. Internet Explorer is a tricky problem though, because it’s so popular. In my opinion the only way to encourage people to upgrade is to make sites they want to go to impossible to go to without an upgrade. This works for sites in which the user has enough drive to upgrade there browser. A portfolio site though is not the place, you want anyone and everyone to be able to see your work, at least as long as you’re new to the field.

In “Designing a Digital Portfolio” we learn about optimizing. Optimizing is important because it reduces business costs. A website that gets ten hits a day will not gain much from a 10 kb to 20kb reduction of images. If however that same site gets hundreds of thousands of hits, inefficient images will cost real money. Broadband allows for less compression being necessary. We designers still need to be efficient when it doesn’t cost us quality. Take a website with a gradient background, you only need a one pixel by x pixel silver (or visa versa) to get the effect you want.

Week 6: A Shadow of Itself

2008-03-25T10:32:00.000-07:00

Within “Designing a Digital Portfolio” chapter 6 there are tips on how to digitize your work. Doing this properly is important because your work can easily suffer if done incorrectly. When showing work originally done digitally it may not be the best to show it as a plain picture. I could show a business card as a flat picture, but that doesn’t really give the feeling of a business card. The flat picture of just the design would merely be a shadow of what the business card would look like in real life. If print out my design, then take a picture of it, it will look more like if I handed you a business card. Same for letterhead, or other printed materials.

In the book “Building Design Portfolios Innovative Concepts for Presenting Your Work” the author echos what I said in the previous paragraph. “There are some drawbacks, however. Book portfolios, like websites, show your work as a group of reproductions, and as such they’re a step away from the original design”. (17 Eisenman) It’s important enough to justify two paragraphs, well at least on this blog. You simply do not get the same feel as you would with showing the final product.

The idea of picking the right package for your work was brought up in “ Building Design Portfolios Innovative Concepts for Presenting Your Work”. To me this is a nuts and bolts part of the portfolio. Important details that effect the main body of your work. What you decide on depends on your preference as a designer. The idea of a three ring is nice because it’s flexible in that it can take different forms of work as well as being easy to change as your work changes.

Week 5: Technology is our friend

2008-03-20T09:24:00.000-07:00

Week: 5 Organized?
When reading “Designing a Digital Portfolio” chapter 5 I was struck with how this chapter should be read during the first year of college. You should have a copy of all your work, a backup as well. I prefer an external hard drive mainly because it’s big enough to carry my work plus whatever else I may want to store. Not only should it be on an external hard drive, flash drive, etc. it should be at least one place else. External hard drive, laptop. Paper, flash drive. With email allowing tons of storage, you could even use it (though it isn’t the best idea).

In “How to be a graphic designer without losing your soul” the author argues against a pure digital process. I disagree, you do not narrow yourself. I as a designer am thinking of designs before it even forms on paper, or on the computer. This thought is what governs the end result, to this end I feel the computer is a better to start off. Designing on computer is neater then freehand, it’s faster and small changes are easier to make. The quality suffers if you’ve not put proper thought into it, not because you can go faster. You can make twelve good logos in a lot less time then if you sketched it. I understand the value of viewing the work at angels or stepping away, but the computer does not preclude you from doing this (Well, monitors are only meant to be viewed at a given angel range.) Good process has nothing to do with technology, if you have a tendency to not follow it with a computer then do your sketches. Technology improves the efficiency of our work, but it should not necessarily effect the way we work.

Week 4: Canton CT, one man, one town, mmmmmm food

2008-02-21T08:41:00.002-08:00

Have you ever heard of betamax or how about laserdisc? Yes? Well then gold star for you! When I was reading “Designing a Digital Portfolio” it mentioned zip discs and advising against using them for a portfolio medium. Really? Using expensive fragile discs to hold important data is not advisable? I would of never guessed. I know heavy laden sarcasm may be a little much but I feel knowing a technologies advantages and disadvantages should already be ingrained. I am not going to use a hammer to saw a two by four. Nor am I going to use a mini cd in a field dominated by macs. (often having slot loading drives) The right tool for the job.

When reading “How to be a graphic designer without losing your job” it talks about methods for finding work. This ties in nicely with a web designer/s I discovered. As I’m looking at a take out menu I notice a URL, I of course decide to see what the site looks like. Turns out it looks like this. Being the curious sort I follow the link to the sites creator and finally to the client sites page. Now see Collinsville Screen Printing? Next door is Crown and Hammer restaurant (mmmm). Focus on Canton, Canton HOD, Canton , Canton, Canton! This business is obviously targeting local companies, which is a good idea. If you go up to a local business offering to make them a website, they very well may take you up on it. Simple enough? Yes it is. It’s a shame really because if the companies shopped around they would probably have gotten higher quality work.

Splendertastic!

2008-02-20T11:12:00.001-08:00

Surprisingly , Aviary Phoenix is surprising fluid for a web-based program. (well at least painting and magic wand) If anyone wants an invite post a comment.

Bah! You kids and your fancy web-based programs. Back in my day we programed using punch cards and we liked it!

2008-02-19T19:09:00.000-08:00

What if Adobe Suite was free (or at least cheaper)? Well Aviary is a collection of Air programs that could very well lower the cost of entree into the field. (Yes I'm well aware of bittorrent and piracy but let us assume that we're all upstanding citizens who would never pirate software) People who may never of tried fooling around with Photoshop do to its high cost may develop a taste for retouching, logo design etc. etc. etc. Bad, in that it's more competition. Good, in that it's more competition. Competition makes getting a job harder, and so raises the quality of work that buyers can aspect.

Personally without using the programs yet I cannot say if Photoshop has to worry. I find web-based programs generally lacking in some way that there OS optimized counterparts don't. Of course then again...

If I ever get an invite I will see if this video shows an excellent tool or merely someone skilled at using said tool.

Week 3: The Portfolio The Window to the Soul or not.

2008-02-14T09:29:00.000-08:00

As I’ve been reading the book "Designing a Digital Portfolio" I’m struck by how much work it really is. Not only do you have to have excellent work, it also should be targeted to the job your applying. Simply put, it’s a big pain. Does this piece fit with the rest? Is it not as good in some aspect but shows your ability to do another? Should you show that complex PHP site or show another well designed piece? Limited space, and a requirement to please more then one interviewer makes portfolio building very tricky.

Knowing what you want to do may also be tricky. Web design, print, advertisements, CD jackets, the list goes on and on. You may like 3d and print design, you’re going to need to make more then one portfolio if you are looking for jobs in each field. A hassle? Yes but at least you don’t need a perfect GPA. A portfolio can be changed or remade showing no traces of the poorly constructed original a GPA cannot.

In the grand scheme of things designers have an advantage over other fields when it comes to getting a job. Designers are not simply interchangeable as programmers are. You can code A., you can code it well, so can many others, so what else is there?
Personality, communication skills. Still important for almost any job but let’s not get sidetracked. My designs show a sliver of who I am, what I am. Do I choose a more conservative approach, or try something innovative? I feel a successful portfolio should reflect the personality of it’s creator.

Week 2: Free at Last ... or not

2008-02-07T08:52:00.000-08:00

Within the book “Designing a Digital Portfolio” the author discusses the importance of knowing why you are making one before you make one. While I agree this is important, it may not be necessary. In the case of a portfolio you may be limiting yourself by starting with a goal.In pursuit of this goal you may be ignoring avenues that would in the end make up a better portfolio. The truth is for most people a goal helps to focus the portfolio and thus creating a better end product.

In “How to be a graphic designer, without losing your soul” Adrian Shaughnessy talks about the pros and cons of working for a studio, and freelance. Creative control, I desire it of course, and I imagine you the reader does too. Lets assume that a happy interested worker is more productive then it’s bored unhappy counterpart In a creative field, a happy worker is one who has enough creative freedom to make a project interesting. Repetition is what makes work boring, graphic design is no different. Studios risk as they get bigger getting clients that all what similar looking sites. People, will see something they like and want it or something similar, this is no different for clients. Oh I like those glassy buttons, how about putting them on my site? So if you work for a studio you very well may be stuck using similar design elements over and over again.

Let’s look at the cover of “How to be a graphic designer, without losing your soul” . Is it good design? Yes it is indeed. The question then becomes why is this design appealing? It’s simple and efficient. Information is displayed without waste. Not only is the information that’s always on a book there, the author and title, it also has the table of contents. The authors name is noticeable but not too much due to it’s small size in comparison to the titles larger size. What I’m unsure about is the forward slashes in the title they seem unnecessary. Getting rid of the slashes would help to differentiate the title and the table of contents.

Appreciation of Perfection

2008-01-31T19:13:00.000-08:00

The colors, the simplicity, this is a thing of beauty that should be cherished by all those who've ever done 3d.

Week 1: Pertaining to Things of Importance

2008-01-31T07:58:00.000-08:00

I feel that there are two types of blogs one sees online informative blogs , personal blogs and combinations of the two. An informative blog is a blog that keeps you update on a certain subject such as Gizmodo. Personal blogs are more akin to the normal traditional journal, it’s reflections, it’s talking about ones day. This blog is going to be a mixture of the two. The question is how important is it towards getting a job? Name recognition should not be underestimated. Do you buy Sprite, or Stop and Shop brand? Even though the later may taste better (it doesn’t, there’s a reason it costs less) people tend to pick what they are familiar with. Why risk eating something awful, when McDonalds is a known quantity? Brand matters, it’s no different for the individual. It isn’t the only reason that a blog is important.

On the technological level blogs are important, they show how technology can improve and even transform simple activities.Blogs took away the personal aspects of journals, in that they are generally done strictly for the author. The difference in blogs is that you can create a community which a personal journal just cannot do.

Mind maps are our friend, at least sometimes. They allow us to organize our ideas for future reference, which of course is a good thing. On the other hand they can be bothersome to create, forcing you to spend time when you’re just itching to get going on the project. The problem is if you go full tilt ahead you risk forgetting or never thinking of paths your project could take. When making a mind map you’re forced to take the time and think about the project ahead of you. If you decide to skip this important step you risk the quality of the final product. That’s not to say that it’s impossible to make great work sans the mind map, it does protect the project from mistakes.

A post

2008-01-29T08:23:00.000-08:00

A post.