We take a short break from our continual STEP Off coverage to bring you Be Aware 13. Friday the 13th was a couple of days ago, but we think this 13 is much less scary. This also marks the six month anniversary of our Be Aware posts. This is a good opportunity to lets us know what you think of our variation on the group post.

Nate Voss: Grunt Designer

I NEED THIS POSTER IN MY OFFICE: Having recently completed my quest for a comfortable chair away from my desk as well as hanging a few pieces on the walls (CSA’s Design Camp poster from a few years back occupies the prime spot), I would like to continue pursuing greatness to surround myself with.

When I spotted the cover artwork for EA Games’ From Russia With Love title I almost wrote a story about it for the site. Or the Design Cast. I was astounded at a modern marketing machine producing such a stunning display of illustration as their main graphic element. A little research proved me wrong: they co-opted the original theater poster artwork and fit it into their packaging design.

Fine by me. But, having now been introduced to it, I have decided I need that poster in my office. So I am turning to you, the loyal and industrious readers of Be A Design Group, to help me track one down. I know 007 posters are rare and expensive, so a full-size reproduction for a lot less money would be superfine. Also any information you can provide on the highly talented illustrator who crafted this beauty would be greatly appreciated.

Daniel Schutzsmith: Design Business

OLD CLIENT, NEW TRICKS: Many design studios focus heavily on getting new clients - always pushing for the next hip company to work with. Instead of focusing on what you don’t have, concentrate your attention on what you do. Look at your current clients and identify possible projects that they may be interested in or that you feel they should undergo. You will find that those clients whom you’ve already established a repoire with will be eager to work with you again, and furthermore, they will appreciate that you have their best interest in mind.

Bennett Holzworth: Letterpress

SAVE THE PRESS: Some of you may have heard me say that I have an old letterpress in my garage. I had promised to show it on the site, but I have neglected to do so. I am sharing these photos with you for a few reasons. One reason is to just share what inspires a fellow designer. Another reason would be to encourage you to be active in pursuing other interests outside of the monitor. The third would be to let you know that it is possible to acquire something like this with minimal financial resources.

If you have any interest in letterpress and some extra space in your garage (sorry New Yorkers), then it is entirely possible that you could pick up a vintage letterpress for next to nothing. Just keep your eyes open. A family member knew that I had an interest in finding an old letterpress, so she started calling small local print shops to see if they had an old one sitting around. Within a couple calls she found that one such shop had one sitting outside their back door (rust and all). A few calls later, two borrowed fork lifts, one new ink roller, some elbow grease and I had a running letterpress in my garage. Of course you might want to start out with a little hand press to make sure that this sort of thing interests you. I now have a 12” x 18” 2000 lb Chandler & Price clamshell press, circa 1918. Click here for larger image. In this GIF I have included a before photo, a restored photo and a photo of the press in action. The print shop didn’t charge me a penny, although they did charge for the few trays of wood type they had sitting around. If I wouldn’t have saved this press, it would probably have been melted down and sent to Detroit (just a guess). I also hear that old metal type is often used to make bullets. If you can’t find a press locally, check out the presses for sale at Briar Press.

Kyle Heinemann: Not an InDesign Tip

MAKING PHOTOSHOP FASTER: In this edition of Be Aware, I would like to digress from InDesign tips to highlight some new parts of Photoshop I learned this past week. Do you ever work on large Photoshop files, or many Photoshop files at the same time, and do you have more than 1 GB of RAM installed? Try activating the Bigger Tiles plug-in. This causes Photoshop to take advantage of your RAM and redraw more quickly. If you really want to get into it, read this Adobe document on scratch disks and allocating RAM for more information.

Now, I realize all designers don’t care about the exact speed of their computer, but I’m telling you, this made a huge difference last week. Previously I had 2 GB of RAM, with no special memory settings. After I brought my total to 4 GB, and told Photoshop to use 100% (3072 MB), and enabled the Bigger Tiles plug-in, performance skyrocketed! I opened a 760 MB greyscale TIF in 1/10th the time! I then converted that file to RGB in about 1/4 the time. It wasn’t just the extra RAM that did it, it was the combination of settings. The two Adobe docs I linked to are straight-forward. If you have the RAM, I would suggest using it to the max. Feel free to post questions or comments.

Clinton Carlson: Design Quotes

“Design is most often understood by the public as an artistic practice that produces dazzling lamps, furniture, and automobiles. This is how it is generally presented by the media and the museums.11 One reason why there is not more support for social design services is the lack of research to demonstrate what a designer can contribute to human welfare.

A broad research agenda for social design must begin by addressing a number of questions. What role can a designer play in a collaborative process of social intervention? What is currently being done in this regard and what might be done? How might the public’s perception of designers be changed in order to present an image of a socially responsible designer? How can agencies that fund social welfare projects and research gain a stronger perception of design as a socially responsible activity? What kinds of products meet the needs of vulnerable populations?”

Victor Margolin and Sylvia Margolin
A “Social Model” of Design: Issues of Practice and Research
Design Issues: Volume 18, 24 Number 4 Autumn 2002

Paul Berkbigler: Design Education

As the semester starts up again for another round of collegiate graphic design study for me, I happened onto an article by Katherine McCoy from 1997 that continues to hold a lot of resonance for how we’re handling the education of the next generation of graphic designers - considering she published this first in 1997, it’s especially interesting to consider whether much has changed in terms of governmental and others’ attitude about design.

Nonetheless, here’s another look at the article if you’ve read it before, and if not, as NBC likes to say, “then it’s new to you!” - www.highgrounddesign.com/mccoy/km7.htm