davymac : pixels+print professional

I’m a huge fan of Basecamp from 37Signals, so I’m pleased to see they chose to publish the ‘welcome message’ that I enter as the first post on all my Basecamp projects.
I remember writing this and, not having too much time, just blazing through it in an effort to succinctly get across the important ‘ground rules’ for new users unfamiliar (and possibly hostile to) using Basecamp.
Thinking back on it now I was really focussed on a ‘Just the facts ma’am’ missive, even though there’s quite a bit of text to the finished piece. Thankfully most of my clients ‘get it’ fairly quickly with Basecamp, but I like to think that putting out the ‘Welcome mat’ helps.

Last night was my first night at a Belfast Open Coffee club meeting, a very interesting meet-up with some (more than expected) like-minded souls.

Good fun and, as always with those who are fired with enthusiasm for their work, some exciting projects under discussion. One such project is The Big Word Project

I chatted briefly to Lee from the project last night and so I thought I would throw my tuppence-worth in ($4 actually, luckily I have a short nickname) and buy my name:

This is a very interesting, and popular, project - already getting picked up on the web by many highly-regarded sites (such as one of my favourites: daringfireball ).

I wish them all the best with this and maybe you’d like to pay them a visit (and some dollars) and buy your own word.

I’ve long ago given up on making ‘New Year Resolutions’ but I share the optimism of Shane MacGowan’s lyrics at the start of each new year, it always feels like a special time, it always feels like a new start, full of potential. Of course when you can get into the mindset that it is possible to do better and generally improve your lot then you’re already off to a great start.

So a very happy New Year to all my blog readers, I hope you have a great 2008.

I just found this beautiful illustration of Branding on the Kolbrener blogsite.

Built by Kolbrener, a branding company

I’m pleased to report that the video project I’ve been working on recently has just been approved for release.

Our brief is to promote Northern Ireland as a leading resource in ‘best practice’ web for business, hence ‘Northern Ireland’s Digital Hub’.

But, as they say, “a picture’s worth a thousand words” - so go check out a few million word’s worth in the video.

Hmm, word’s worth - how poetic…

We’re using Brightcove to host the media file, will probably post to YouTube as well, in due course.

…Well I definitely wasn’t.

Working as a freelance creative is a demanding job, I spend a lot of time generating concepts and in the subsequent production work - in addition to the necessary admin in running the business itself. This means an unhealthy amount of time sitting in my work chair, so I thought I should do something about that nagging thought I’ve been having that my old office chair was less than ideal (it was!) and about that even more nagging back pain that had been on the increase lately.

Being in the design industry myself I’d already heard of Herman Miller, but I never got to actually sit in one of their chairs until a while ago while doing some freelance work in another design office, where they had installed the famous Aeron chairs from Herman Miller. You only need to sit in one of these chairs for a short while to understand why they are so popular, despite the high price-tag, it really is that noticeable, the chair even feels better as you get more used to it. I was convinced.

These chairs are truly excellent products and, of course, they come at a premium price, but I think they offer good value for money as they really do live up to the comfort promise and are built to last. Herman Millar chairs come with a twelve-year warranty, yes, you read that right, twelve years.

I didn’t spring for the Aeron model, I went for the Mirra instead, since almost all the chairs in their range have the same huge number of adjustment options for a really personalised fit anyway - and I like the lighter look of the Mirra.

On many a long working session I have wondered what it would cost for a really good chair, now I know… the Mirra costs around £500 here in the UK, depending where you buy it from. I bought mine here. Worth the money I say, not only do I feel comfortable and less stressed when working but the backache is noticeably reduced now and I know it’s this chair that has made the difference.

But hey, don’t just take my word for it, here’s a great review of the Mirra chair from another designer.

I really wish I’d bought this chair a long time ago, but I’m glad to have it now. If you spend a lot of time at your desk owe it to your good health to check out the chairs from Herman Miller.

Technorati Tags: equipment

I got to see Gary Hustwit’s ‘Helvetica’ movie a few weeks back at my old Art College in Belfast. I really enjoyed the movie, it was done with abundant wit and charm, but most of all I was carried along by the enthusiasm of it’s director. Gary really achieved a lot in delivering such an engaging story of what sounds like such awful dull subject matter, I don’t know what the actual running time was but the movie was well paced and the time seemed to fly in.

Gary did a little Q&A session after the movie too and I was surprised to hear that it was almost entirely self-funded - resulting in some ‘interesting’ credit card bills, as he put it. He says he’s having a ball traveling around the world promoting the movie, I don’t doubt it and it is well deserved after the two-year development of the project. Worth keeping an eye out for further work form Gary I would think.

Official site for the movie is: http://www.helveticafilm.com/

Co-incidentally I was watching the movie right at the time Apple were launching the iPhone in the States - and guess what typeface is used on the iPhone interface?

Although it seems like the Helvetica typeface has been around forever it is only today celebrating it’s 50th birthday.

It’s one of those typefaces that ignites love and hate in equal measures amongst designers, celebrated for it’s ‘clean geometry’ on the one hand and vilified on the other as a safe, boring, corporate ‘cop-out’

For me it’s neither, it’s Helvetica and it just is. I like to think I employ it on merit, if the project requires that sort of look, although I sometimes find myself reverting back to it after experimenting with some of its trendier relatives.

I expect the undimmed popularity of Helvetica for 50 years now is testimony enough to the skills of Max Miedinger, designer of the typeface.

But wait… there’s more - ‘Helvetica’, the movie is coming to a screen near you soon, courtesy of film Director Gary Hustwit…

“Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives.”

You can check out more about the film here, actually looks pretty good too.

So, Helvetica the movie star, who knew!

Well, the long wait for Adobe Creative Suite to go fully Intel is over at last - and the question on many designer’s lips is ‘it’s how much!?’ ‘was it worth the wait?’

The answer from most of the Mac creative websites is a resounding yes (it was worth it). Like many creatives there was no compelling reason for me to upgrade my hardware to the new Intel Macs when CS2 did not run natively on that platform, but now that CS3 is fully Intel it’s time to make the jump. My copy of CS3 just arrived a few days ago and although I haven’t had the opportunity to really kick the tyres on it, from what I’ve seen it does indeed feel like a significant upgrade. I’m running CS3 on a Macbook Pro and it is noticeably faster and snappier than my G4 dual Ghz PPC main workstation running CS2. Speed aside the whole interface has been redesigned on all the applications, they now have an even more consistent look and feel across the suite.

Additionally the Bridge application now sports an interface very similar to Adobe Lightroom (the pro photography application). This is a good move as Lightroom has been in beta for a year before final release and has been the subject of a huge feedback loop from pro photographers for all that time. Asset management for pro photography has a lot in common with pro graphics designers.

I’m a recent Lightroom convert too, it has improved my digital photo workflow immensely, even in the short time I have been using it.

As you can tell I am an unashamed Adobe fanboy, I live in CS every day and it has served me well. In fact it is unusual for me to have to stray outside of CS when creating any core graphics work, a testimony to how well integrated the overall suite is and to the ‘real world’ value of the purchase price. So making the Intel/CS3 jump was inevitable for me, as it is likely to be for many other designers who know the value of keeping their work environment current.

I’m excited about getting my teeth into CS3, so far, so stunning.

Definitely more posts to follow on this one.

37 Signals is a company with an impressive track record amongst the web-savvy communities. Like Apple they have a knack for making the complex appear simple and easy to use. Their particular market is in the project planning/organisational tools area - an increasingly popular subject in today’s ‘always-on’ world.

Another similarity with Apple is the cult following they inspire for their product portfolio: Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack and Writeboards - all easy to access (and pay for) web-hosted applications. This week saw the launch of their latest service: Highrise.

Highrise is described on their site as a ‘CRM-ish’ application utilising ‘just-enough’ functionality to allow you to get things done without drowning in a welter of software bloat.

I already signed up for the free trial and so far there’s a lot to like about Highrise, in particular the way the data can flow out from site activity via RSS feeds and into your workflow by way of a clever email inbox system.

I can see Highrise becoming as essential to my working day as Basecamp has already become. If you’re in the market for a fresh look at how you manage your customer relations (and even if you aren’t) its well worth taking a look.

Us creative types often take inspiration from the natural world around us, so when I heard there was to be a full eclipse of the moon last Saturday night I wanted to get a good look at the phenomenon.

I’ve seen a lunar eclipse some years ago and remembered how fascinating it was to observe, but I didn’t really have much time to study it back then, so on Saturday night I decided to do it right.

I dug out my heavy winter fleece, binoculars, SLR camera and tripod, mainly I wanted to just observe the eclipse but if there were any photographic possibilities then all the better. The shots I captured weren’t great, it would take considerable experience/equipment to take images like this, neither of which I had, but they were an interesting enough record of the event.

Checkout the little animation I made from the stills frames, unfortunately I didn’t have the endurance to stay out for the second half of the eclipse, that would have lasted until about 3am.

The whole event was definitely much more spectacular than I was anticipating. Normally moonlight is so even and intense that the surface looks like a flat disc, but as more of the moon’s surface fell into shadow the binoculars revealed the moon as a sphere, appearing in stark 3D against the backdrop of stars. Another effect is that of the moon changing colour to a deep red in the shadows, with what looked like a ‘fill-light’ on the underside of the moon, due to the light refracted through our own atmosphere.

Anyone lucky enough to be observing from out in the sticks, away from the glare of the sodium streetlights, would have seen the surrounding stars blooming much more prominently as the moon’s light was totally eclipsed.

So no silver bullets with me on this full moon, but a little silver hip flask full of single malt was a welcome companion for the period I was out watching.

The next total lunar eclipse will be on 21st February 2008 - so almost a case of same time next year then.

Keep watching the skies…

This is my first post to this blog for quite a while now.

Design work has been pretty intense since just before Christmas, which is very good news for me, but bad for the blogging.

Work is still in the ascendant, I’m happy to say, but I intend to maintain my blogging on a more regular basis now (that won’t be difficult bearing in mind my recent track record!).

So, on with the show then.

With all the expanded media opportunities available to help market your brand nowadays I thought a post about logo design iterations would be of interest.

A few years back a ‘typical’ corporate Identity core logo design used to be fairly straightforward:

1. Original logo design (mono or colour)
2. Line colour version (maybe two, or three Pantone colours)
3. Process colour version (CMYK for full-colour printing)
4. A possible reversed-out option (when required to appear out of a contrasting colour background or photo)

With the addition of PC documentation, Powerpoint and web/onscreen the iterations of logo possibilities has increased somewhat. Nowadays when I am creating a logo suite I often have to consider the following:

1. Core logo design (often mono for it’s most basic application)
2. Pantone line colour version(s)
3. CMYK colour version
4. Reverse out colour options of one (or all) of the above
5. EPS versions for professional DTP printing applications
6. Tiff version for some high-quality image print (usually client access on PC)
7. Jpeg version for general user-access on PC
8. PNG for client access on Microsoft Office applications
9. Animated GIF for some web applications
10. Master PSD for web/other developer access

And even then this would not cover certain specialised requirements, such as promotional pieces; eg. pens/pencils/report covers etc. I have also had occasion to create unique versions of a logo for a calibrated in-house printer on client premises.

Given the various combinations possible it’s not surprising that this needs explaining in detail to clients, many of whom consider that they are simply paying for a (single) logo design. I’ve had many a conversation with suppliers and clients where I have to virtually interrogate them as to the end use for the logo, before releasing the correct version to them in confidence.

As with many other aspects of our industry the designer’s responsibilities for brand guardianship continue to grow.

I saw this awesome demonstration of design sketching on Youtube.

Stick with it to see how much detail the physics model generates form these simple sketches.

I wish my sketchpad could do that.

I’ll come clean here and openly admit that I am a big fan of ‘Old-School’ style logo design. By ‘Old School’ I mean a brand logo with hard, solid geometry and well-defined areas for ink/no ink - an image capable of faithful reproduction in almost any media, with minimal adjustments to the original. Back in the day I used to say that if I can still make out the salient details of a logo after it had been faxed, then it’s a ‘good’ logo.

I suppose these days I could substitute ‘export the logo as a 50-pixel bitmap’ for the fax process (for all our younger readers).

That’s not to say, of course, that the ‘Old-School’ logo should sacrifice elegance for crudeness, quite the reverse, as the challenge is to create an elegant creative solution even if the resulting design should only appear small and in one colour.

Compare this more ‘traditional’ approach to the current wave of the ‘web 2.0′ type logos, and their like, that are prevalent today. Many of these contemporary logo styles appear to be driven by software techniques rather than sound design thinking. By way of an example: the wildfire-like spread of the ‘reflection’ technique that’s now being applied to so many contemporary web graphics.

There’s even a site that generates trendy ‘web 2.0′ style logos - although I should point out that this is intended to be a joke.

Fan that I am of the ‘Old School’ style I do realise that they may not suit all projects, but I believe them to be at least a useful benchmark. Of course I am also aware that there are some instances where a logo is intended almost solely for web/screen use and, therefore, need not adhere to any print-related reprographic issues.

As a ’straw poll’ test of the longevity of these ‘Old-School’ hard styles of logos just quickly think of a few global brands (and I mean the really big established ones), then take a look at their logos to see what I mean.

So that’s what a 160mp camera looks like!

I think they’ve rotated the photo here, the camera is on the ground and the guy is lying on his side - trying to lift it.

Click on the thumbnail for a better image of this brute (and I’m referring to the camera, of course).

You’ll probably have to upgrade your tripod, straps and kit bag for this one.

Thanks to Engadget.

I must admit that I am in awe of the Basecamp product for online collaboration, it really is an elegant web-based solution for project management. I find I am using it a lot more now that my clients and I are becoming more familiar with its benefits, which happens in a short space of time I am pleased to say.

Acquiring this trust in the Basecamp environment had me thinking about the increasing acceptance of online services, particularly those that aim to improve productivity/management. Initially I was hostile to committing much of my day-to-day organising to an online system for fear of interruption to my web access, whether due to my own equipment or a general broadband outage.

But, I’m happy to say, the instances of equipment failure have been few, and were mostly fixed by resetting the router/Mac, likewise broadband outages are more the exception than the rule nowadays. Add to that the possibility of syncronising your data with an offline copy (iCal can subscribe to a Basecamp project and mirror the entries in the iCal calendar) and most of the fears associated with relying on such an online system are considerably eased.

Some of you will also have security issues with these types of services, this is understandable, but I believe they have addressed this issue as best they can. In any case how secure do you believe plain vanilla email is, without resorting to PGP encryption or similar.

So what about your investment in your offline project management system?

Not all projects or tasks require online teamwork and sharing, when they don’t then a well-designed offline system will likely deliver all you need, but when collaboration is needed then systems such as Basecamp really shine. And, in case you haven’t noticed, many of the premier management applications are already gravitating towards shared online feature sets, but I expect the baggage they are dragging from the desktop environment will make for a more difficult journey than those companies already specialising in this field.

37Signals have also announced their intention of tackling the CRM market, their new service will be called ‘Sunrise’. I’m looking forward to it already.

‘37Signals’ have a great quote on their site:

“Projects don’t fail from a lack of charts, graphs, or reports, they fail from a lack of communication and collaboration.”

- Well said.

In case you’re wondering about the (more than usually) cryptic title for this post it’s a quote I heard in an excellent BBC documentary about the heyday of the Railway system. The quote was a telegram from a Station Master (Finnegan) who had been reprimanded for routinely sending lengthy reports by telegram, it was his newly succinct description of fixing a derailed train.

I found this very apt description on the value of experience on the 37signals website (the folks behind Basecamp)

Picasso, Paula Scher, and the lifetime behind every second - Signal vs. Noise

…The designer version of the Picasso story usually involves a designer sketching out a brilliant logo on a napkin during a lunch meeting. If you’re looking for a real-life example, that’s pretty much what happened to Paula Scher; She walked into a meeting and, a few seconds later, sketched the new logo for Citibank.

No lengthy process, just the right solution. In this Adobe video profile of Scher, she offers an explanation similar to the one in the Picasso tale:

“How can it be that you talk to someone and it’s done in a second? But it is done in a second. it’s done in a second and in 34 years, and every experience and every movie and every thing of my life that’s in my head.”

That video of Paula on the Hillman Curtis website is worth checking out too.

(I see this post is now becoming popular on some of the other blogs too)

Of course the ‘Blinding flash of Inspiration’ is not the regular MO of many a creative, I know that with most creative professionals it’s still usually a case of 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration (your mileage may vary). Mind you we all have our moments and it’s certainly a great feeling to crack a creative brief in an instance of crystal clear insight, great - but rare.

Paula’s description of how this apparent ‘inspiration’ works is right on the money for me, it’s all about the cumulative build up of experience.

In particular professional creatives actively seek out and accumulate visual references, and their success owes a lot to this habit.

John Hegarty (another creative hero of mine) referred to the creative mindset as behaving like a cultural antenna, I guess it’s just how we’re wired

So remember, if you encounter a creative bragging that genius-like inspiration strikes them regularly on a 9 to 5 basis then, like discovering that the chef is thin, run like hell.

Thanks to YouTube I just found some classic movie title animations by the legendary Saul Bass.

Go check them out, amazingly, even at these small viewing sizes, Saul’s powerful graphics are still very effective.

I saw him on a documentary once voicing his preference for illustrating on very cheap papers, instead of the high grade expensive stock that the art supply stores would foist upon us, his wanted to keep the costs down in case he made a mistake. A habit he was still maintaining despite his monumental success.

Anyone involved in the creative industries will know only too well that good Project Management is critical to success. As in many other disciplines today’s creatives must manage and be accountable for more than the central creative processes alone.

This is especially true for small businesses, ie: the majority of designers, where the creatives may also be the Account Handlers and have to wear several ‘hats’ in the course of their working day.

The good news is that the current state of software and web(2.0) infrastructure means that creatives have never had it so good when it comes to project management options - previously the almost exclusive domain of the PC platform. A relatively unsung benefit of Mac OSX is how it has attracted such rapid growth from software developers, especially in business and groupware/comms applications.

Many of the software options available are reasonably inexpensive and will offer several advantages over using ‘plain vanilla’ email as the main knowledge management toolset, there are also some more enterprise strength choices which can be tailored to your needs, although at a significant cost.

Recently I have been very impressed with a couple of applications that are very much in the ascendant in the Mac software universe.

The first is Daylite from www.marketcircle.com. This truly is an industrial-strength environment for project management and has been designed with creative workflows in mind. The learning curve for Daylite is quite steep and there is a danger of ‘analysis paralysis’ when you see how configurable this application is, but if you stick with it you’ll find little it can’t cope with. Daylite plays well on servers too and it has an excellent integration with apple’s Mail program. Daylite costs start at $189.00 per user.

On the sidebar of this blog you will notice a link to Basecamp, this is an online collaboration environment - which in itself requires a high level of trust from the user as everything is maintained online.

If you can live with the ‘everything online’ practice (and I have already overcome my resistance to this) then you will see many benefits to this solution and it is rightly lauded for its design, implementation and sheer elegance of operation. You can sign up for a trial account for free and a moderate (15 projects allowed) account is only $24.00 per month.

Of course the big downside with this is that if there is a broadband outage you are cut off from your Basecamp data, however you can syncronise it with Apple’s iCal and then have at least an offline reference as up to date as your last sync. And realistically if there is a broadband outage then almost all means of communication are out of action anyway - no email, web, chat, Skype etc. and instances of outages like this are, thankfully, decreasing.

Check out my blog links on Project Management for a whole world of bloglinks for this.

And, of course when you’re done with all this project management its back to the drawing board Wacom tablet…