Number seven is a good number, and a great opportunity to introduce the newest member of our Be Aware cast. Daniel Schutzsmith from Graphic Define will be writing about design business for Group B. Welcome aboard Daniel.

Paul Berkbigler: Design Education

In a classic “it-was-never-this-way-when-I-was-growing-up” moment, I was amazed this evening as I started to research some possible items to mention in the design / education realm. Although I’ve talked with some good friends who teach high school about the “design education” that’s started to move into their art programs, it looks like it may be making a swifter trip than you might expect.

designeducation.org

While the site itself is a little unsightly, the fact that the NEA is willing to offer funds to K-12 programs exploring design education speaks to a serious sea change occuring. As of the moment, it seems that most K-12 design education might fall primarily into a “Learn the Adobe Applications” model, but this funding and the design focuses that come attached to it signal a serious devotion to really teaching design THINKING as much as design practice.

I sincerely look forward to meeting any of the college freshmen who have come out of a design foundation study like this — it might make for some seriously intense and exciting programmatic futures…

Clinton Carlson: Design Quotes

“Our society may have its superstitions — there is always the crank fringe of astrologers, foot reflexologists, and so on — but when it comes to the media, particularly among executives and academics, many expect a rational discourse to prevail. But it doesn’t. People hold beliefs about the media for which there is no evidence, and when they are asked to explain their beliefs they offer arguments which are identical in form to the arguments offered in other societies to justify magical practices.”

David Sless in Media Information Australia in 1988 No 48, 22–24 (Now Media International Australia)

Kyle Heinemann: InDesign Tip

SmartTransform, a Mac OS X plug-in for InDesign CS, is a helpful plug-in I’ve used for over a year. Let’s say you have 20 little boxes on a page that are approximately the same size, and you need them to be exactly the same width so they’ll line up in a column/grid. Simply size the first one, then add the other 19 to the selection, and click the button in the palette. SmartTransform will scale them all proportionately. That’s it — it’s quick and easy!

I am in the process of upgrading to/learning InDesign CS2. As you may already know, Adobe included 4 different “Transform Again” functions in this version. Even though SmartTransform does not work with CS2 (why would it need to?), Mac users who aren’t upgrading anytime soon could still benefit from this InDesign CS plugin.

Bennett Holzworth: Letterpress

When you live in a small town, you have to seek out things that would interest a designer. I was pleased to find out that our local history museum owns one of the original Chandler & Price presses that Edwin Perkins used to print materials for Kool-Aid. In the late 1920s, Mr. Perkins invented Kool-Aid in the small town of Hastings, Nebraska. There is an entire section of the museum dedicated to Kool-Aid. Side Note: Before he became an inventor and successful business man, Edwin Perkins was a printer.

I am looking for a little advice from the more experienced letterpress printers out there. Here is a photo I took of an enlargement of the original “Kool-Ade” packaging. I assumed that Mr. Perkins used letterpress to print these packages, but something tells me this isn’t letterpress. Does this look more like lithography than letterpress to anyone else? Please advise.

Daniel Schutzsmith: Design Business

CLIENT WISH LIST: Don’t sit around waiting for clients to come to you, instead take action by creating a list of your dream clients.

On a sheet of paper write out a list of the companies and industries you’d like to work with. Next, take a packet of index cards and write each company on a seperate card. Lastly, go through each card and write at least one way you can get closer to working with this client. You could write down the contact info for a friend who once worked for the client, or a specific conference coming up that the client will be at, or maybe the name of a charity they sponsor.

Once you are finished you’ll have a substantial list of clients you’d like to pursue and an idea of the resources available to you to make that connection.

Nate Voss: Grunt Designer

Working late? Is your 14th consecutive listening to Iron and Wine putting your sharp young designer mind to sleep? Check out Design Matters with Debbie Millman, now available in Podcast form through iTunes, for hour-long interviews with such prolific design visionaries as Michael Bierut, Stefan Sagmeister, Paula Scher, Adams Morioka, and Milton Glaser (my personal favorite). If you can put up with the occasional commercial break and “conference-call” sound quality, you’re in for a real treat as Millman, prolific in her own right, delves into the creative minds of these great designers.