Be Aware 3
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The group post that needs no introduction … Be Aware number 3.
Paul Berkbigler: Design Education
Continuing on last month’s theme of typography tools to add to your classroom repertoire, I’ll borrow a link from Veer’s blog and mention a fun little Flash instructional piece that the University of Delaware’s Visual Communications department put together - it’s an extremely nice “illustration” of the rigors of letterspacing. This buttresses Ellen Lupton’s “Type Crimes” illustrations nicely and really works with the ability of interactive media as well.
Check it out at: http://typography.art.udel.edu/
Clinton Carlson: Design Quotes
“Designers should understand that the forces shaping dominant design norms run deep. The governing mentalities that shape what is “good,” “right,” and “true” are the most difficult to identify and the most important to challenge. While governing mentalities cannot be rejected outright, they can and should be continuously challenged in design practice.”
Dean Nieusma. “Alternative Design Scholarship: Working Toward Appropriate Design” In Design Issues: Volume 20, Number 3 Summer 2004.
Kyle Heinemann: InDesign Tip
Productivity is something I value a lot in my work. I quickly switch tools by pressing letters on the keyboard, and quickly choose menu commands by using combinations of Command/Control and other keys. Especially helpful are keystrokes for those character styles and paragraph styles you choose every other second. It sounds like a no-brainer that keyboard shortcuts save you time, but you should really try it—especially if you have multiple large monitors.
You can learn which key is assigned to each tool by mousing over the tool for a few seconds. For example, the selection arrow is v. The direct selection arrow is a. The text tool is t. My favorite: press w to toggle to preview, bleed, or slug mode. In normal mode, you can see all your guides and baseline grids, paragraph markings, whatever. But when you switch to preview (by pressing w), all those go away…all you see is your art with a nice grey field outside the document edge (or outside the bleed edge if you choose bleed mode.)
Bennett Holzworth: Letterpress
If you would like to read an overview of the history and current state of letterpress, check out David Jury’s book, Letterpress: The Allure of the Handmade
Nate Voss: Grunt Designer
Your Spam Will Not Get You Hired
As I grow in the world of the designer, and become a little more recognized in my own community (these are baby steps, people), I find myself working at a well-known and respectable ad agency. My photo, if not my work, was just featured in Graphis (that’s me, waaaay in the back), and we were listed as one of the Top 20 agencies in the country. I wonder if my company’s newfound standing is why my email is now flooded with photographer’s junk mail? I sure didn’t get them before.
“Capture the Moment. Capture the Emotion,” was the last one I received from Some Guy (my emotion for him to capture was ANGER mixed with ANNOYANCE). “New photos, please visit www.com!” I receive, on average, 10 to 15 well-designed spams a week now, all from photographers or photography agents whom I will now never hire, request a quote from, or speak to if I were to meet them on the street. The sad part is that this is not your typical spam. Like I said, much of it is beautifully designed, with moderate to decent photography samples. And no tricks to bypass spam-filters. That leads me to believe this is legitimate, and that these photographers, who I’m sure need the business, are tossing away their hard-earned dollars on spams that are actually hurting their chances of getting a gig by annoying their prospects to death.
I’ve freelanced. I know how tough, and how scary, it is when you feel like you don’t have any roads to new clients. In desperate times, spamming people with tastefully-done emails of your work through a “high-volume-emailer” might sounds like its worth a shot. But I’m asking all photographers and agents to stop this abhorrent, annoying, practice and go back to mailing me pretty things I can stick on my wall. If I look at it long enough, I might just be able find a project for you.
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