Category: design

Categories
advice design setup and organization

Vectors, rasters, and files– oh my!

If you’re providing die lines to a customer (or another designer), please observe the following. The person receiving the file will definitely appreciate it.

  • Create your die line or art at 100% whenever possible. If it’s a vector file there’s really no reason NOT to (someone once used the phrase “vectors are free” when talking about the file space they take up). It’s not like the file will be enormous.
  • If, for some reason, you can’t create it at 100%, create it scaled down (for example, 25%, 50%).
  • ESPECIALLY if it’s scaled, make sure you indicate the scale either in the file itself, or the file name. Better yet, do it on both.


Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Categories
design opinion randomness

Do androids dream of obsolete men? | Random Thought for January 9, 2018

The title, for those unfamiliar, is a combination of the title for the novel “Do Andoids Dream of Electric Sheep” and the Twilight Zone episode “The Obsolete Man”.

I was listening to a piece on NPR about the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) out in Las Vegas. The conversation revolved a lot around automation. And it got me thinking…

We can automate a lot of things– manufacturing processes, data analysis, transportation (well, we’re collectively working on that). So what else is there? Can design be automated? As a community of designers, we argue often that design is ultimately about problem-solving and communicating. So, if we’re talking about finding the best solution, then conceivably you can establish a set of rules and parameters to reach the best possible solution.

And if we continue distilling the argument, we could reach the conclusion that design, being about solving problems, can be broken down into a set of algorithms and rules. And if we’re able to do that, what does that do to– and for– designers? Do we then become utterly obsolete? What does that do to design itself? What does an automated design look like?

And if we’re able to do that– what’s next?

I don’t pretend to have the answers to any of this. But listening to the conversation on the radio gave me pause and made me think about what, professionally, things might look like 5, 10, 20 years down the road.

Something to think about.

Categories
life opinion randomness software

Random Thought for 11/4/15– this post is “high priority”

We live in a world where, today, you can reach someone faster than you might even think (literally!). There are tweets, DMs, IMs, and all sort of social media messaging. There are even more “old school” means of communication– like the phone. And email.

Speaking of email– why is is that people still use “High Priority” when sending email (I know of one person that sends all emails as high priority. We’ll get to that in a moment). If something is of such importance, maybe following up with a call (or preceding the email with a call) might not be a bad idea. It might even give the recipient some context as to why it’s important to the sender.

Of course, there’s also the question of why it’s still put in the email software code. If we’ve “outgrown” the need for labeling things as “high priority” when there are more efficient ways to relay info in really short time windows, then why is this feature still put in, like some vestigial do0dad?

Just a thought.

And while I’m thinking, let’s go back to “all high priority, all the time”. If everything is that important, then everything becomes unimportant, so when there is something that is that important, it’s ignored as just another email. It’s sort of like the story of Peter and the Wolf.

So, as long as software manufacturers feel that this is some useful feature, we’ll be stuck with it. Let’s use it judiciously in the meantime.

Categories
design life opinion randomness

Friday Facepalm– Feb 21, 2014

You know, I kinda like that title. I might have to make it a thing. Lord knows there’s enough material out there for that.

So, at work, someone ordered pizza and, after placing the order, had a question on whether they charged for delivery. Their menu was unclear, so we went to their website. Here’s what I found:

  1. It was built entirely in Flash (last “copyright date” is 2008).
  2. With an animated intro.
  3. And music that plays automatically.
  4. It also had a menu in the shape of a pizza, using a picture of a pie, complete with hovers and rollovers.
  5. But there was no search function.
  6. It did have an “order online” option, but that redirected us to a separate site that looked like one of those “thisdomain.com is available” pages, and that had a list of sub-menus with no way to do an intelligent search.

*Facepalm*

It was at this point I gave up, and we called the place. They have a $2 delivery charge.

Categories
advice software tips & tricks

Design tip for Tuesday, February 18, 2014

If you work in the most current version if your software of choice…
When creating files that you know will be handled by others outside your organization, presume that they will not have the latest version, and “downsave” the file (It also helps to outline fonts, but that’s a discussion for another time). This should help prevent conversion issues like unnecessary clipping paths, and type-filled text boxes breaking up in odd places.

Categories
branding design randomness

Short roundup of packaging that’s caught my eye

Note: I’m using the mobile app for the first time so my apologies if anything looks wonky…

A few wine labels that caught my eye recently…

image

image

image

This olive oil bottle is a nice change of pace from the traditional earth tones typically found on olive oil labels and bottles.

image

I noticed the other day that Ginseng Up had redesigned their labels. I remember buying Ginseng Up a lot in high school
image

Categories
setup and organization

Boiling things down

I know this is awfully simplistic, but, having been immersed in Photoshop most of the day for the last few days, making digital renders and retouches, the following occurred to me:

If I had to boil down Photoshop to 3 things, it would be:

  • Layers
  • Masks
  • Blending modes

Everything else (and that’s a lot of everything else) builds on, is an offshoot, or refines these elements.

What do you think? Would you dissect it differently?

Categories
life randomness software

Adobe apps– which one’s your fave?

I’ve been seeing on-and-off for a few days now various blog posts and tweets asking and discussing if such-and-such app is better/more useful than this other one. And, because the last couple of days I’ve spent a fair amount working in InDesign (probably the Adobe print app that, over the last few months I’ve spent the least amount of time in doing work), I figured I’d ask out loud:

Which of the Adobe Creative Suite apps  is your favorite?

It could be it’s the one you spend the most time in, or it could be the one you know the best, but don’t really spend that much time in anymore. Or, it just happens to be the one that crashes the least. Whatever.

My short answer is Illustrator. I started out as a Photoshop phreak, but once work-related circumstances pushed me into the deep end of the Illustrator pool, I found that it wasn’t the big scary, foreign-looking interface and app I had made it out in my head to be. In fact, I found I liked it and, to stretch the metaphor out, the water was fine.

I still use Photoshop (and InDesign, Dreamweaver, et al) whenever appropriate, but if I just want to noodle around with ideas and concepts, Illustrator’s where I go. A digital moleskine of sorts.

So, which one’s your favorite?

Categories
daily365 layout

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– Feb 05

The best laid plans…

So, I had everything done and ready. Figured I could afford myself plunking down to watch the Smallville “JSA” 2-parter (I’m not a Smallville fan, but I’ve been a comics fan for a while and wanted to see how they would handle some of these Golden Age characters). The episode was really good, by the way. So good I may actually start watching the show.

But I digress.

After it was over, I switched over to Spike to watch some Pride mma fights. Next thing I know it’s after midnight and Tonight Show is on. So much for my plan.

So, this morning, after taking a survey of the snow that never was (what a gyp! The folks that cleaned out the local supermarkets last night must be regretting their decisions right about now), I’m taking a moment to upload yesterday’s concept. It’s a shot of the wireframing I’m working on as part of the visual realignment of my site.

©2010 rafael armstrong

As with all CSED projects, because of the self-imposed time limit of around 30 minutes, it’s far from a final draft (in some instances, it’s been barely a first draft). Your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

Categories
art daily365 design life randomness

Create Something Every Day (#daily365)– for Feb 03

I had originally thought of doing both a month’s-end roundup, and a new piece for Feb 02’s #daily365. However, I felt that prepping for a job interview the following day had to take priority over that, so I decided to (at least for January) to let the roundup be the Feb 02 piece. That meant that I had an idea for Feb 03. Except I had my interview, and by the time everything else for the day was done, I was completely gassed and ended up falling asleep on the sofa watching the live “Man vs. Food” on the Travel Channel. So that meant I had to “postpone” putting it together– which means that I’ve got my work cut out for me today.

Feb 03’s CSED

The idea for this was pretty straightforward. With all the brouhaha over Groundhog Day and– at least in the New York area– the differing opinions between Punxutawney Phil and Staten Island Chuck, the idea for an old-style boxing poster was a no-brainer to me.

Enjoy.

Rocky v. Apollo got nothin' on Phil v. Chuck ©2010 rafael armstrong