Number 24 marks the one year anniversary of our Be Aware posts. It also marks the final time we will be using this “group” format. Before we get back to strictly individual posts, we leave you with this abbreviated group entry:

Donovan Beery: Web Tips

Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you get lost. We can’t be experts in everything. With that being said, I’m going to start taking my own advise on this starting with the next paragraph.

A friend of mine asked if I knew of any free bulletin board/forum websites he could link to from his personal website (he prefers this over the ‘comments’ feature used on blogs such as this one). Ideally it would be one that he could customize with his look and feel as much as possible. This isn’t really a specialty of mine, but based on probability, I assume it to be a specialty of someone reading this post. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Adrian Hanft - Alternative Photography

Expensive and flawless cameras can have a tendency to paralyze a photographer. The marketing of these cameras seduce us with their technical perfection and versatile capabilities. The result is that by the time we actually use this equipment, we have been set up to rely on the camera to make the photo. While the machines are amazing, they can’t guarantee that you will take better pictures. The art of an image doesn’t come from the machine; it comes from the skill of the artist. For my last alternative photography post let me leave you with this piece of advice: Find a camera you can grow into, then master it. Force yourself to experiment with it. Push yourself to use it in different ways. Use it to look at the world differently and avoid falling into photographic routines. Most of all, let your photography energize your graphic design. I hope you have enjoyed my alternative photography section. If you want to continue to follow my thoughts about photography, I encourage you to visit my photography blog, www.foundphotography.com.

Feeding Desire, Boneville, the phantom print museum, calculating in InDesign and the only cardinal design sin. While I cannot find a common thread amongst all of these topics, they seem to get along just fine in Be Aware 23.

Paul Berkbigler: Design Education

As the educational community continues to take a collective deep breath and recuperate from the end of the semester while beginning to gear up for the Fall semester, it’s nice to look forward to some research excursions to buttress the reading, writing, and design practice that will help shape things still to come.

I wanted to share an exhibition that I’m pretty excited to see within the coming weeks:

Feeding Desire is open now at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in NYC and will remain open through October of this coming Fall. It’s an intriguing chance to see design utilized both in its most utilitarian manner as well as in its more decorative manners as applied to the tools that helped generate table manners to begin with: tableware.

I’ve seen a few smaller / more isolated shows of contemporary tableware design (generally about 1920 - present day), but am very intrigued to see the transition from the 1500’s through present designs. It’s a rare chance to watch design’s presence in something so familiar and intimate and to scout out the echoes of larger design movements throughout history as played out at the dinner table.

If you can’t make it in person, the site gives a very nice “taste” of what’s on display currently and the history surrounding it.

Nate Voss: Fun With Design

Get on Over to Boneville! I have been trying since forever to find a way to work my love of Jeff Smith’s BONE into this site. A newly redesigned website will have to suffice as reason enough. If you’re not familiar with BONE its a series of award-winning graphic novels about three cousins who are run out of their hometown and find their way into a mysterious valley, filled with mysterious creatures and mysterious goings-on. It blends actual humor (you will laugh out loud) with thrilling drama without skipping a beat, often switching between the two from panel to panel.

The story, originally published as a monthly comic book, was then reprinted in graphic novel form (including a bible-sized, 1,300-page edition), and is now being published for the first time ever in full color by Scholastic. For purists and adults I highly recommend the original black and white versions to really showcase what Smith’s breathtaking illustrations can achieve with only black line and white paper.

From TIME: “Bone by Jeff Smith (Cartoon Books; 2004) A series of black-and-white comics about three odd-looking creatures lost in a valley of dragons, talking bugs and rat creatures published over twelve years are collected here as a 1,300-page soft cover. Bone combines the humor and look of early Disney movies with the scope of the Lord of the Rings cycle. Smith draws characters that are both cute and scary, infusing every panel with dynamic energy. The best all-ages novel yet published in this medium, while children will read Bone for its breathless adventure and sight gags, older kids and adults will appreciate the themes of blind fanaticism and corrupting power.”

Bennett Holzworth: Letterpress

While visiting my brother who is living in Mexico City, my wife and I wanted to do something aside from the normal touristy stuff. After a quick google search (here and here), I apparently found Mexico’s National Printing Museum. I figured the largest city in the world would have an amazing collection of letterpress equipment. At least that was the thought.

One day I convinced my wife and brother to let me visit this National Printing Museum. We called up my brother’s new trusted taxi driver and we were on our way. Our experienced cab driver of over twenty years had never had a request for this museum and had never even heard of the street. After driving a good amount of time and stopping several times to ask for directions, it appeared that we wouldn’t find the museum. With the help of a few more locals, we found our street, Ararufa, and pulled up to #8. We approached the gate and there was no printing museum to be found. After buzzing a resident down, she confirmed that there was indeed no Printing Museum in this specific building, just an empty warehouse. With a few more questions we surmised that there had been a print museum in this location … TWENTY YEARS AGO!

Just to clarify. There is no National Printing Museum at No. 8 Mar Ararufa St., Tacuba area in Mexico City.

So if you happen to be in Mexico City … just take the Turibus and enjoy the ride.

Kyle Heinemann: InDesign Tip

Put away your calculator InDesign can crunch the numbers for you! You can use practically any measurement box (like Transform palette or Document Setup window) as an in-line calculator. For example, enter “8.5*3” to get 25.5. Or enter “11/4” to get 2.75. Have you ever needed to nudge everything an exact 1/8th inch? Just select all the items, and type “+.125” in the “X:” box in the Transform palette. This works great for adjusting a book cover layout to accommodate a change in spine size. If you’re working in picas, but still want to use an 1/8th inch, just type “+.125 in. Using this feature will increase accuracy and save you time.

Clinton Carlson: Design Quotes

Once again I’d like to share a quote that is part of a theme that tends to run through these and some of my other posts: human/user-centered design. It comes from industrial designer Dieter Rams by way of a presentation of Robert Peters, past President of ICOGRADA.

“Indifference toward people and the reality in which they live is the one and only cardinal sin in design.”

Donovan Beery: Web Tips

When you get one of those projects you always complain about – the one that you have ‘no creative say’ in, and it’s just ‘production’ work, try something new. I’m not talking about radical changes – simply take the time to hone your craft by focusing on the details you’ve been meaning to work on. I find these are the best times to work on cascading style sheet tags you haven’t played with yet, new javascript tricks, or any typography details that you just haven’t gotten around to perfecting yet. The idea isn’t always to wow the client with these details, but using them as a learning tool for yourself can make the mundane projects more fun, and sometimes even make you look forward to them.

Drew Davies: Seen and Noted in the Design World

Very cool news recently in the blurring of lines between pop culture, music, and the various disciplines of design. The Design Museum [London, England] has awarded its Designer of the Year award to Jamie Hewlett, self-titled Creative Director of the band Gorillaz. The UK’s most prestigious design prize, Designer of the Year is awarded annually to the UK designer or design team who made the biggest contribution to design in the preceding year. (It also comes with a £25,000 [approx. US$40K] prize.)

I love this choice because of its “crossover” nature, which I think shows an understanding by the Design Museum that design doesn’t need to fit into a pre-designated category to be very, very effective. Congratulations to Jamie on a well-deserved award. Now can you come over to the States and help us do a little more publicly to recognize good design on this side of the pond?

Adrian Hanft - Alternative Photography

One of the coolest features of Flickr is that it gives you the ability to easily keep up with your groups and friends via RSS feeds. Look for the little orange RSS icon on the Flickr pages and use the link to subscribe to that page’s feed in your RSS program of choice. It is an easy way to follow an interesting conversation, keep track of new photos by your contacts and to be aware of what is going on in your favorite group photo pool.

Stephanie Murg - Read This

Here, take this globe. Now point to the world’s hottest art capital. Did you point to Berlin? Good for you. Berlin’s art scene is booming. Chalk it up to that always potent interplay of affordable rents, an unpredictable economy, ample free time, and abundant space. In the past decade, nearly 30 new or renovated art museums have opened in the city, which is awash in galleries and artists, both homegrown and imported. But you don’t need to stop at the Hamburger Bahnhof to take in the Berlin art scene, just read the writing on the walls. Literally. Christoph Mangler saves you the Lufthansa roundtrip with City Language Berlin, released on Tuesday by Prestel Publishing.

Mangler spent almost three years assembling the book’s over 250 street images—from messages scrawled on walls to curiously universal icons meticulously etched on every possible surface—that reveal the creativity (sometimes odd, sometimes ugly, sometimes jaw-droppingly beautiful) that is constantly reconfiguring Berlin. In the words of Klaus Biesenbach, founder of Berlin’s Kunst-Werke Institute for Contemporary Art and chief curator at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, “Berlin is always in a constant state of beginning and reinvention.”

Tom Nemitz - Awesomely Bad Websites

EugeneMirman.com

There is sound with this one, so watch out. And watch your ears…because while the site design is actually pretty good, this proves there’s more than one way to be Awesomely Bad. Its a crooning sepia-tone child, for biscuits sake!

And the best part, well, there really is no best part, but the most interesting part is that he’s not some dubious ruffian without the chops…just watch him sink his teeth into a ditty from Twisted Sister! Watch him get acidic with Iron Butterfly! Hear and believe as he croons through a majestic Jethro Tull Medley! See him one-up himself with a Who Medley! Roil in horror as he first butchers Cyndi Lauper, then Madonna, and single-handedly kill the 80s in the process! You bet!

Just in case you wanted to know the top five results for 21 on Google … I will share. Century 21, forever21, 21 Grams, United Nations: Agenda 21 and Circular No. A-21. How is that for random? Now we will move on to some actual content for our twenty-first Be Aware.

Clinton Carlson: Design Quotes

At the risk of triggering a few more heated discussions about the nature of design, I’ve selected a quote from a recent article from Gui Bonsiepe, an information designer and design educator hailing from Brazil and Argentina. The article, Design and Democracy, can be found in the Spring 2006 issue of Design Issues.

“More and more, design has moved away from the idea of ‘intelligent problem solving’ (James Dyson) and drawn nearer to the ephemeral, fashionable and quickly obsolete, to formal aesthetic play, to the ‘boutiquization’ of the unviverse of products for everyday life. For this reason, design today often is identified with expensive, exquisite, not particularly practical, funny and formally pushed, colorful objects. The hypertrophy of fashion asepects is accompanied and increased by the media with their voracious appetite for novelties. Design thus has become a media event…”

The article is worth a read and can be downloaded at www.mitpressjournals.org/toc/desi/22/2

Paul Berkbigler: Design Education

As the weeks begin to assume the somewhat more relaxed pace of the summer months, and an educator’s thoughts start to turn towards curricular revisions and additions, it’s nice to have resources on hand to browse for topics and possible lesson plans.

Having just spent a bit more time exploring Linotype’s site, I was very impressed with the amount of consolidated typographic history and information that they provide in addition to their type library. They’ve set up the Font Lounge with several features and topics related to all things typographic. Just something to thumb through as you look towards summer courses or those coming up again in the fall months.

Nate Voss: Fun With Design

Why Isn’t Graphic Design More Fun?

Seriously. Everything in design today is taken very seriously. Design is a legitimate business, you know, and we must have people take us seriously as a whole. We have serious discussions about serious issues facing designers and the serious public, ranging from sustainabilty to spec work to the broader communications goals of the global economy. Boooooooooooooring! We need to lighten up. I’m changing my tune on Be Aware to chronicle the fun things still happening in the world of design. I’ll find what I can, but feel free to send me examples at podcast@beadesigngroup.com (links only, please!). For starters, here’s two of my favorite places to go every day:

The House Blog
Drawn!

Daniel Schutzsmith: Design Business

CREATIVE BUSINESS CONSULTANTS
Lately I have been noticing that many studio owners are turning to a consultant to help them tackle their business needs and formulate efficient processes they can follow for the long haul. If you are having trouble along the way yourself, then these fine folks below would be more than willing to help you get on the right track.

Emily Ruth Cohen
Business consulting, writing and staff management strategies for small to mid-size graphic design and communications companies.

ReCourses
A management consulting firm that works exclusively with small service providers in the communications industry, including: Public Relations Firms, Advertising Agencies, Interactive Companies, and Design Studios.

Design Management Resources, Inc.
A public relations and marketing services firm that will DO those marketing projects that so many principals don’t get around to.

Robb High Associates
Specializing in helping agencies set-up a business development process that works for them, according to their own needs and preferences.

Shel Perkins & Associates
Shel Perkins & Associates, helmed by author Shel Perkins, works with design firms and agencies in both traditional and new media to improve performance and successfully navigate change.

Bennett Holzworth: Letterpress

I thought about sharing a portion of my week at Hatch Show Print for my part of this Be Aware, but I will save that for a full fledged post (I’m still trying to figure out how to distill it into one post). However, on the trip down to Nashville, we stopped at a place that is almost as fascinating as Hatch … Hammerpress in Kansas City. Their posters are a completely different take on the letterpress poster. The intricate detail and ornamentation on the posters at first, made me think they were printed with plates from digital files… but apparently they are all meticulously hand set. Check out the site.

One other bit of letterpress news I picked up while at Hammerpress, was that Ready Made did an article featuring two letterpress and two silkscreen shops. Hammepress and Yee-Haw were representing letterpress. It was the April/May issue (the new issue is already out), but you might still be able to find one on newsstands.

Kyle Heinemann: InDesign Tip

Rotate Content—My latest gem discovered at lynda.com training. Just when I thought I had the Rotate and Scale tools figured out, I realized I had missed something! InDesign CS2 gives you the option to rotate or scale any frame/container without rotating/scaling what’s inside. Try it out by double-clicking the Rotate tool or the Scale tool in the Tools palette. Then un-check the box next to Rotate Content (or Scale Content). That’s it. I went back to InDesign CS, and wasn’t able to double click the tool for any options, so this must have been added in CS2.

Group A proudly serves up the twentieth installment of Be Aware. If you are new to the Be Aware posts, you we have them all archived for your convenience.

Drew Davies: Seen and Noted in the Design World

While this topic is more about the tools we use as designers than the mental process, I feel compelled to share a recent find with all of you. For those of you who are sick and tired of your font management software being more of a hindrance than a help, salvation may be near. Font foundry LinoType recently released a piece of software called FontExplorer X, and while it’s new, the rave reviews are already piling in. The interface is not unlike iTunes, including built-in tools to help you buy fonts you don’t have directly from LinoType (in a non-obtrusive interface no more pushy than the iTunes Music Store.) It’s the swiftest, easiest and most stable font management software I’ve ever used. And the best part? It’s FREE. Goodbye, suitcase.

Travis Gray: TypeWatch

The word “free” usually makes me think of cheap goods with company logos printed on them, but back in October Vitaly Friedman rounded up the best 25 free quality fonts available (down to about 21 or so since the time of its first writing). Unlike most of the other free fonts out there, the fonts on the list are surprisingly well designed. And if you’re a Flash designer - or like using small fonts in your Web designs - be sure to check out his post on the 15 best license-free pixel fonts. (If you have any other free fonts that you personally like, feel free to share them in the comments.)

Adrian Hanft: Alternative Photography

Yesterday (April 30) was Worldwid Pinhole Photography Day. The official pinhole website (www.pinhole.org has a gallery featuring a collection of pinhole photos taken during the holiday.

Stephanie Murg: Read This

Here’s an enjoyable and potentially educational exercise. First, procure a copy of Strunk and White (a.k.a. The Elements of Style) and a couple of hours. Read through the 105 pages of terse yet useful writing pointers codified by William Strunk, Jr. and subsequently revised by E.B. White. You’ll soon notice how the authors, in demonstrating eminently useful writing lessons, make use of a wealth of quirky, vivid examples that sound crafted by a smart person who has been up all night (e.g., “It was a unique eggbeater,” “Polly loves cake more than she loves me”).

As you read, ponder how you might approach a redesign of this trusty manual. Then check out how Maira Kalman (wife of Tibor) answered this question with her The Elements of Style Illustrated. While you’re at it, consider how some of Strunk and White’s advice directed to writers (e.g., “Be obscure clearly,” “Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.”) might be translated to designers, who also need to learn the rules before they can understand how best to break them.

Tom Nemitz: Awesomely Bad Website

www.realultimatepower.net

Hi, this site is all about ninjas, REAL NINJAS. This site is awesomely bad. My name is Tom and I can’t stop thinking about how bad this site is. This site is cool; and by cool, I mean totally weak.

Celebrate with us as Be Aware will make its last post as a teenager. And what do teenagers like to do … give advice, rebel, know what is happening and rant. All of which are in this Be Aware. Enjoy!

Kyle Heinemann: InDesign Tip

Object Styles is one of the new features in InDesign CS2 that excited me the most. You can get to them by going to Window > Object Styles. If you work on anything template-based, and haven’t updated your templates to use them yet, I would urge you to try applying them. In my line of work, I’ve found two main uses for Object Styles: drop shadows, and caption spacing. Kinda boring, but practical in that it saves you time.

1) DROP SHADOWS: Like it or not, I have to follow corporate standards and use a drop shadow on just about any image and screenshot, including a .25 pt black stroke. I have one Object Style I use for shadows over colored backgrounds, and one for white backgrounds.

2) CAPTIONS: You can set your caption text frames to all have the same inset spacing on the top (and left and right, depending on where you place your text frame). Then all you have to do is have the text frame touch the bottom of your image—assuming it has a bottom edge, and you’re all lined up! I also turn on the style options for Optical Margin Alignment, and choose a Paragraph Style. Mapping it to a Paragraph Style is a real time-saver when you realize all your captions are suddenly too big after you just squeezed in a bunch of new text.

If you haven’t had the time to explore Object Styles yourself, start experimenting with these default object styles I use.

How do you use Object Styles?

Clinton Carlson: Design Quotes

I’ve been reading the book Nation of Rebels : Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture, by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter. It is a very interesting read… I think especially for designers and artists. If you get the chance, pick it up and at least read the introduction. The authors investigate the countercultural tone that I’ve often found in designers, artists, art/design schools, design annuals, and myself. They initially illustrate their observations through two cases (1) the success/conflict of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana and (2) Adbusters “black spot shoes” which were designed to “uncool Nike”. Here’s one of their thoughts from the introduction:

“Adbusters never had a revolutionary doctrine. What they had was simply a warmed-over version of the countercultural thinking that has dominated leftist politics since the ’60s. And this type of countercultural politics, far from being a revolutionary doctrine, has been one of the primary forces driving consumer capitalism for the past forty years.”
“In other words, what we see on display in Adbusters magazine is, and always has been, the true spirit of capitalism.”

Paul Berkbigler: Design Education

For any BA readers that might find themselves in Rhode Island or in close proximity to it in the coming weeks, here’s a design education event that might pique your interest:

Graphic Design Debate, Rhode Island School of Design, Thursday, April 27th at 6:30PM

See Team Douglass Scott vs. Team Fish Bohn in the first RISD Graphic Design Debate! The main event: Doug Scott contends that the computer has created a miasma of mediocrity in design. Fish Bohn responds with the notion that the newly leveled playing field has given rise to a new era of creativity and possibility. What do you think? … A winner will be chosen.”

Scott & Bohn are raising the question that’s certainly been in my mind as I’ve considered my teaching this past year: how do we train designers vs. computer technicians, and yet how do we ensure that students are versatile and facile with a wide range of tools to help them realize their ideas?

We’d love to hear back from those who are able to attend this (or even Doug Scott / Fish Bohn for that matter) to find out the verdict.

Thanks to Mitch Goldstein for passing this on to us in the first place.

Daniel Schutzsmith: Design Business

PROJECT MANAGEMENT 101 : SCHEDULING
At the beginning of any project, outline a proper milestone schedule that documents the presentation and delivery dates. To make it easier for you and your client to stick to these dates, implement a project management system that allows both parties to see the progress on the project.

There are numerous project management systems available, from paper and folder solutions to web enhanced time tracking applications, so find the one that fits you and your staff best. Here is a sampling of some of the best that I have fiddled with:
Basecamp - online project collaboration tool for use by multiple groups and users.
Side Job Track - track and manage project-related information for small, single person jobs online.
Studiometry - complete solution for companies to organize, plan, invoice, track and create with Client and Project data. Runs on Windows and Mac.
Kiwi Manager - an online suite of online applications designed specifically for creative professionals.

Bennett Holzworth: Letterpress

Consider this a late night rant, from a tired designer.

Why do I print letterpress? Is it to learn more typography? To get my hands dirty when I spend all day on a computer? Is it just the hip thing to do? Do I think I am going to win awards just because it has a slight deboss or that it is printed from damaged wood type? Maybe I just have a need to do something different? Is it worth collecting trays of type and thousand pound presses to be able to print a cool poster or business card here and there? It must be, because now I am on the hunt for the ever elusive Vandercook proofing press. Someone feed my addiction.

For the 18th installment of our Be Aware series we are proud to introduce a new Be A Design Group author. A very warm welcome to Stephanie Murg. We could tell you all about the fact that Stephanie writes for ARTnews and that she went to Harvard, but we will just let you read her bio for yourself.

Donovan Beery: Happy 30th

With Apple Computer turning 30 today, take a moment to celebrate by kicking a PC, cranking up your iPod, and looking at some of Apple’s old ads courtesy of wired.com.

Drew Davies: Seen and Noted in the Design World

As most of you know, I have been an outspoken advocate of educating both creators and purchasers of design on the damaging and insidious nature of spec work. I am happy to announce that a wide range of colleagues and associates have banded together to create No!Spec — a repository of great resources and dialogue about spec work. To quote the eloquent ICOGRADA: “the mission of the blog is to educate both clients and visual communication designers…about the nature of speculative, or “spec” work. It also serves as a vehicle to unite designers who support the notion that spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client.” I’d encourage you all to visit the site early and often.

Travis Gray: TypeWatch - Type as Art

More and more often, it seems like I browse across one clever art installation or another. Usually I look at them once and then move on. But when I unearth gems like Belgian artist Fred Eerdekens’ amazing “semantic landscapes*” I feel compelled to share them with others.

Most of Eerdekens’ installations use light and shadow, strategically placed elements, and specific frames of reference to create playful word forms and phrases. As a designer I appreciate the ingenuity and creativity that goes into each of his pieces, many of which seem somewhat simple at first glance. Click here to view Fred Eerdekens’ site.

Adrian Hanft: Alternative Photography

Retouching photographs is skill that doesn’t always get the respect it deserves. The phrase “Photoshop it” is thrown around by people who have little to no understanding of the difficulty involved in even the simplest retouching. For some great examples of photo retouching, visit Taylor Jame’s site. Make sure to visit the case studies where you can view several examples of Photoshop mastery layer by layer.

Tom Nemitz: Awesomely Bad Website

Brother, I’m going to smack you over the head with this ladder…in the name of the Lord! Later, I will break a table in half with your torso! And then piledrive you into the mat! All in a church gymnasium in front of an audience of church-goers!

Not to be confused with the slightly more popular UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) its UCW (Ultimate Christian Wrestling). What is it with pro wrestling and acronyms, incidentally? WWF, WWE, WCW, UFC, and now UCW? Check out the photos page here, its worth the trip. You bet.

www.ultimatechristianwrestling.com

Stephanie Murg: Read This

Hi BADG readers. As you might have inferred from its title, my Be Aware post will focus on recently published books of interest to designers. Many of these books will be about (you guessed it) design, but I also hope to introduce you to some titles that you might have otherwise have walked right by at your local Barnes & Noble (or local independent bookseller, as the case may be). This month, two fresh titles from the international art publisher Steidl: V-Best: Five Years of V Magazine and Fields, a book of recent works by artist Michael Rovner that read like biologically-infused design elements.

With Be A Design Group reaching its second birthday yesterday, you can almost see the maturity level (or is it just length?) that these Be Aware posts are reaching. Thank you all … our authors, readers and commenters. We appreciate your support and participation.

Stay tuned for exciting new things from BADG, including a new author.

Bennett Holzworth: Letterpress

Cylinder vs. Clamshell: If you are thinking about getting into letterpress or you just want to get something printed you should know the difference between these two presses. I am making some generalization in the descriptions below, but hopefully it will help you out a little bit.

Cylinder Press: Most of the Cylinder presses that you find today were made for proofing purposes. These proofing presses, like the Vandercook shown above (left) are extremely accurate and very popular with printmakers. If you want deep impression printing you will probably want to print with a cylinder press. Since these presses are so accurate and adjustable you can also print perfectly on the surface of the paper. The cylinder proofing press is perfect for short runs with tight registration. Here is a animated gif of me (with the help of my mother-in-law) printing the HOW/BADG bookmarks on a Vandercook SP15. (480 KB)

Clamshell Press/Platen Jobber: My own Chandler & Price and my little Kelsey are both considered platen presses. The desired effect with a clamshell is to have all of the type and image “kiss” the paper at the same point. Many of the old small town newspapers around the county were printed with a “platen jobber” press. Unless you have a very large clamshell press, it is much harder to get the deep impression you can get with a cylinder press. With a motor attached or even with a treadle you can get a much larger quantity printed than you can with a hand operated cylinder press. Here is an animated gif of Nate Voss and I printing the AIGA 365 Posters on my Chandler & Price 12” x 18” circa 1918. (320 KB)

Kyle Heinemann: InDesign Tip

Have you ever needed to print small versions of a lot of photos or PDFs, and wanted to include the filename? Or needed to print tradeshow graphic comps scaled down to 11x17, yet include the filename at a size you could read? Now, with InDesign CS2 and Adobe Bridge, this is possible. In Bridge (in your default Applications/Programs folder) go to Tools > InDesign > Create InDesign Contact Sheet. You cannot access this from InDesign. Bridge will create a new InDesign for you, with as many pages as you need.

I know … you ask, why not use Photoshop’s Contact Sheet II? InDesign’s Contact Sheet is better because it has: 1) more options—such as margins, templates, paragraph, and object styles, 2) can include metadata such as filename, date, and file size, and 3) can automatically save as PDF, or leave new layout open for further editing. If you will be sharing the PDF, your recipients will be able to copy/paste the text (so they can email you back which ones they want) and even zoom in on the photos if you choose to export a hi-res PDF.

Clinton Carlson: Design Quotes

So Nate’s typographic “reeducation” has inspired me… no not to start tracing fonts, but to share this humorous quote from Paul Renner .

Just as now and again one likes to forget the unpleasantness of time’s arrow and to revive youthful memories with a good drop of wine… so, after some years, one will also occasionally like to read a book set in fraktur.

On a side note. I came across Renner’s Steille Futura font a while back and was mesmerized, particularly by the italic version. And I’m certainly not the only one to have fallen for the last font designed by Renner (make sure you scroll down to see the beautiful specimen book).

Paul Berkbigler: Design Education

“Design Education & Design History: Two Sides of the Same Coin” My wife and I took a trip to Kansas City over the past weekend and happened to stumble onto a really terrific design “find” - KCAI and the K.C. AIGA had partnered to host an exhibition of work by some extremely notable former design faculty members.

BE A Readers will already have missed the actual speaking / workshop event connected with this exhibition, but you can read all about “Another 60s Revolution: The Rob Roy Kelly years at Kansas City Art Institute and their impact on American graphic design” on-line plus see several of the pieces from the show.

In entirely too-brief synopsis: The exhibition chronicles the impact of several major players connected with Swiss / Basel / Post-Bauhaus design (Gordon Salchow, Inge Druckery and Hans Alleman) coming together under the direction of Rob Roy Kelly within the KCAI design department and bringing the major influence of that school of thought to bear on their work with students.

The show of their work within the H.R. Block exhibition space is a testament to two things: the movement of eloquent and rich Swiss-influenced design metamorphosizing into the early roots of Postmodern design and the work of seven faculty members who managed to operate a thriving design studio together while also teaching alongside one another (no small triumph in itself).

From the design education standpoint, the true goldmine is experiencing all of the documentation and writing that Kelly also has done about structuring design education itself - read more about him and read several of his writings here. And if you find yourself in K.C. anytime before March 18 (a quick turnaround, I realize) definitely take the time to visit the gallery and see the work.

Thanks greatly to Katherine McCoy for organizing the exhibition and event.

Nate Voss: Grunt Designer

According to Adrian Shaughnessy the battle is won:

“We’ve reached a point, in the homogenized West, where good graphic design is everywhere. The battle has been won: every business knows it needs good design —you don’t have to tell them anymore. It’s enshrined in the business schools, established in the corporate HQs. Even small businesses understand that good design is good for business.”

Really? (Kick back and relax then, I guess.) Does anyone outside of London or New York agree?

Daniel Schutzsmith: Design Business

INGREDIENTS FOR A GOOD PROPOSAL
Process Overview - Define the process you will follow for this project (revision process, planning process, feedback process).
Project Overview - Define the project objectives and goals to show the client that you understand their needs for the project.
Proposed Solution - Provide a brief overview of the concept for your solution. Don’t worry about showing actual design comps, but instead concentrate on writing a very clear description of what you think the solution should be and how it will look.
Schedule - You do not have to provide a comprehensive schedule for each task but it is usually benificial to provide a brief milestone schedule that shows how long you think the project will take to be completed.
Cost Estimate - Show what each deliverable will cost and the tasks that are associated with it. It is also sometimes nice to provide optional additional deliverables for the client as well. Don’t be afraid to upsell.
References - Even if the client hasn’t requested it, providing references for them to contact is always a good thing. It can allow them to talk with some of your previous clients and hear, from their mouths, how well you performed and what obstacles you overcomed in their project. Be sure to only list references that you are on good terms with!
Case Studies - A solid case study can demonstrate your expertise and provide the client with the exact support they need to award you the job. Highlight a couple (2 or 3) projects that were similar in scope to the client’s and identify what the problem was, the solution you provided, and how that solution has helped the client.

Be Aware celebrates sweet 16.

Donovan Beery: Web Tips

Print designers who venture into the web always comment on the lack of type options you get online. As body copy needs to be in a font that the viewer has on their computer (and that means one that a majority of people have) we are limited to a very few – or more specifically, we are limited to those that come standard with Microsoft Windows. Microsoft has six new fonts shipping later this year, so add these to the list to use online. A human factors expert I’ve had the opportunity to work with sent me a link that also shows they appear to test well in legibility. Every now and then, even Microsoft can surprise you.

Drew Davies: Logo Trends Gone Wrong

There’s a continuing discussion about they very idea of finding “trends” in logos, and the determination of whether we’re looking at collections of appropriate logos that happen to use similar elements, or people aping a style they see in other “cool” logos for no discernable reason. I’m not sure which category these fit into, but I know it’s time to call for an end to it. I know we all fully understand that, appropriate for the situation or not, using a Millennium swoosh is simply no longer kosher. Recently, I encountered the mutated offspring of the swoosh, in a form I like to call “swooshman”. These playful figures combine variants on the Millennium swoosh to create humanoid figures. Only problem is, they’re so commonplace anymore that they’re useless for distinguishing an organization (especially if you provide occupational therapy or chiropractic care). Long story short, this is a trend I’d like to encourage us all to avoid. (And yes, even Coke has fallen into the trap. That bottom left logo is for their “Beverage Institute for Health & Wellness.)

Travis Gray: TypeWatch

At first I was going to post the fonts that the top 10 consumer websites in the 2006 How International Design Annual used but then I came across the KitchenAid site. Ironically the page pictured, and also the first page I was greeted with, featured their flagship mixer with the headline “Savor Every Detail.” But unfortunately the kerning on the headline was itself unsavory … sending a mixed message to anybody who notices these types of “details.” Below is the before and after of a quick kerning fix in Photoshop. Seems to me the HOW judges should have paid more attention to details like this as well, especially since it’s such a major feature on the homepage.

Adrian Hanft: Alternative Photography

Do you ever just want to take your camera apart and force it to do what you want? Me too. Unfortunately modern cameras aren’t very friendly to wannabe hackers like you and me. Luckily there is CameraHacker.com. The site is packed with useful hacks and mods that will surely satisfy your your inner MacGyver. So go ahead, void that warranty and start taking your cameras apart!

Tom Nemitz: Awesomely Bad Website

http://mchammer.blogspot.com/ (WARNING: Sound)

When I was preparing to post something on my own blog this week, something caught my eye on the Blogger Dashboard screen, specifically, the box that features “Blogs We’ve Noticed Lately”. It was called subtly enough “MC Hammer Blog”. I figured it was some hack who created a blog about MC Hammer. I figured wrong.

Its an actual blog written by the actual MC Hammer. And one of my rules in life is anytime the guy who popularized wind pants and the phrase “Hammertime” starts a blog, I have to link to it.

And honestly, anytime a blogger can sign a post “—Hammertime From My Sidekick”, and OWN IT, well that’s awesomely bad, isn’t it?

A once in a lifetime experience here. Be Aware 15 falls upon the 15th day of the month. The designs are all in alignment and hopefully your type is as well.

Daniel Schutzsmith: Design Business

SCOPING A NEW PROJECT: Who says you have to take every project that is offered to you?! Before taking on any new project there are some key questions that you should ask yourself to determine whether this project is right for you.

What is the objective?
Who is the target audience?
What is the timeline?
What is the budget?
Where does the project fall on the Design Triangle (Good, Fast, or Cheap)?
What will I gain from taking this project on?
How much time will it realistically occupy?
Does the client have a history of being difficult?

If you answer “no” or “I don’t know” to any of these, then you may want to find out more about the project or think about passing on it entirely.

Bennett Holzworth: Letterpress

I thought it would be nice to share a little bit of my letterpress collection with all of the readers of Be A Design Group. While a single “sort” of my limited collection of wood type wouldn’t do you much good, I thought a scan of a letterpress alphabet (800 KB) might be useful. Feel free to use this as a you would a royalty free image. One catch. If you end up using it in a piece of design, send me a jpeg or post a link to it on this very post (email to: bennett at beadesigngroup dot com). As with most royalty free images, please don’t use this on, or as products you are going to sell.

Kyle Heinemann: InDesign Tip

When software is improved, things are changed. I’m assuming these “improvements” are why last week’s magazine reprint did not go as planned.

I opened my InDesign 2 file from 2001 to simply lighten a few background color tints, and then burn to DVD. This was a reprint to simply increase inventory. Then I realized this was not going to be an exact reprint because text was re-wrapping around photos, and text was moving between pages—oh my! After studying and changing about a third of all the pages, I surmised a) text wrap offsets must have changed a tiny bit, just enough to make changes in line breaks; and b) the Paragraph Composer must have changed as well, because pages without text wrap were also different.

Be aware, in case you need to update some old InDesign files. Maybe it was the way I made my document back in 2001. After all I did a lot of weird things back then, like naming files with slashes, asterisks, and percent signs, but maybe it was an improvement to InDesign I have experienced first-hand.

Clinton Carlson: Design Quotes

What’s more important? How we go about producing our designs? What the designs look like? Or how and where our designs interact with various viewers? In, Visual Methodologies, author Gillian Rose (2001) suggests that these are the three stages at which visual images are interpreted.

“Interpretations of visual images broadly concur that there are three sites at which the meanings of an image are made: the site(s) of the production of an image, the site of the image itself, and the site(s) where it is seen by various audiences.”

As a designer, I am tempted to cut corners at each of these three junctions with my design. I might, as Donovan suggested a few weeks ago, cut corners in creating an image by using technology rather than more human methods. Or maybe, I am tempted to compromise a concept slightly to make way for the $99 stock image. Or maybe, I protect a concept from real audience evaluation by smoke and mirrors. Presenting myself as a rainmaker to swooning clients who marvel at my “magic” with little regard for how the design will be interpreted within culture.

Paul Berkbigler: Design Education

I’m going to cross paths with Bennett’s area of focus this week, but wanted to share a resource that I just used in a History of Graphic Design course that I’m leading this semester. It’s always a challenge to visualize what historical printing processes actually look like when you’re trying to introduce students to their heritage - woodcuts and etchings only give you so much of the sense of the look and feel of the pages coming off of the press.

While the image illustrating this post is a little misleading (no presses of this vintage are actually shown in the film), this is a beautifully produced segment detailing multiple bits of letterpress equipment in use at Firefly Press in Massachusetts - it’s lovely to see the C&P, Vandercook, Linotype machine, and monocaster in action. It’s better still to be able to “grab this on the go” when you want a “living” example to show in your class sessions.

Major thanks to John Kristensen (printer / proprietor) and Chuck Kraemer (filmmaker / producer) for sharing this with us all.

Enjoy the short film.

Nate Voss: Grunt Designer

This car had Minnesota plates, but it was stopped at coffee bar near my brother’s house. A bright yellow Chevy Cavalier, of indeterminate age, with nothing special about it unless you look at the trunk.

Like the Doritos packaging, I was stopped in my tracks. But this time it was in a good way. Most car art is big, obtrusive, and features Toupac in some way. This was small, unobtrusive, and used the car’s existing paint job to its advantage. I was blown away. So hats off to you, Person From Minnesota Who Appreciates Design (or art, or advertising, or WWII-era propaganda). You have made the best car art of all time. I just wonder how you even arrive at this idea. You know, my car’s yellow, just like the background of that WWII poster. I should paint the WWII poster on the trunk of it! Probably something like that.

In case you live in a cave, it was based off this 1943 poster by J. Howard Miller.

Donovan Beery: Web Tips

Why do I keep forgetting that I have a digital camera and a scanner? After finding another tutorial last week on how to emulate something in Photoshop, I asked myself, wouldn’t it be more effective to just scan that in? I’ve been as guilty as the next person at it, but it’s never a bad idea to add some life and energy to your projects by adding in those hand drawn elements (even on a website). Why try to make a page tear or polaroid photo border on your computer when it’s more authentic to just scan one in and use it? I tell myself that next time I will try to listen to my own advice on this one.

Drew Davies: Adobe Space Monkey

I know it’s a little off-topic, but this month I made a find that certainly relates to most of us as designers. After doing some housekeeping on a secondary machine, I needed to do some photo retouching, and launched what I thought was Photoshop. Turns out, something I’d deleted related to Photoshop, and sent it into lockout mode. However, turning what should have been a frustrating experience into a true find was the splash screen for what launched in Photoshop’s place: Adobe Space Monkey. The team at Adobe is known for hiding Easter eggs in their software, but this one was so odd and unexpected that I had to grab a screen capture to share with everyone. Sure, others have found this egg before, but I thought as designers, we’d all appreciate it a little more than the average user. Click here to see the full splash screen in all its glory.

Travis Gray: TypeWatch

Adrian Hanft: Alternative Photography

I was blown away this week when I learned about Mike Golembewski who is building cameras out of flatbed scanners. Since the scanner camera records the image as it moves across the bed, things that are moving in the pictures appear warped and blurred in the photos. In another stroke of genius, mike used the scanner camera as a timelapse camera. Check out the resulting movies that are beautiful, surreal, and haunting. Am I going to build one? Let me just say, I have already destroyed one scanner, and I am not discouraged…

David Kadavy: Design and Technology

Derek Powazek has posted some short and sweet guidelines for designing a successful home page.

1. Answer the question, “What is this place?”
2. Don’t get in the repeat visitor’s way
3. Show what’s new
4. Provide consistent, reliable global navigation

Numbers 1 and 4 we have heard over and over again, but 2 and 3 are relatively new, yet internet users have come to expect these things from the websites they visit.

Tom Nemitz: Awesomely Bad Website

http://www.malia.co.uk/wildrose/index1.asp

This website is so hard to read, I won’t even try. But you totally should, because cyan text on flower-print wallpaper is a great way to say “Good Morning!” to yourself. Or “Good Afternoon!”, or even “Good Evening!”, just depends on when you read this and subsequently go visit this site. One thing is for sure, you’ll have a headache. So on second thought, maybe don’t visit this site. Or do. Your call. Just don’t blame me when your head hurts later.

You bet.

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

Enjoy the first Be Aware of the year, #12.

Donovan Beery: Web Tips

When designing for the screen, always keep in mind the typical screen resolutions used by your viewers, and the amount of area taken by a browser’s attributes such as its scrollbar. Currently, the typical size to design for most audiences is an 800x600 pixel screen, as the old 640x480 monitors have sadly/wonderfully (your choice) been disappearing. According to The Web Site Style Guide, an 800x600 pixel monitor has a ‘safe area’ of 760x410 pixels. When designing a site that photographers are the main audience of, and considering every photographer I’ve met has a monitor the size of my living room, it’s probably safe to bump it up a notch.

Travis Gray: TypeWatch

Some interesting type related links for everyone to enjoy at the beginning of the new year:

Typographica’s Favorite Fonts of 2005 - Yes, I decided to hop on the bandwagon and link to this like everybody else.
Veer’s Top Typefaces of 2005 - What the heck is up with the script fonts?
DAIRY - A sweet time-lapse font experiment done in Flash.
TypeBase - A bucketload of typographic website links.
Movie Titles Designed by Saul Bass - A must for the motion typographer.
Alvin Lustig Typographic Gallery - The rest of the site frickin’ rocks as well.
Bembo’s Zoo - A typographic picture book for children.
Slanted and TypeMuseum - And a couple of German type/design websites thrown in for good measure.

Adrian Hanft: Alternative Photography

Leaves are sensitive to light, and it isn’t a coincidence that they call it PHOTOsynthesis. Here is a link to a tutorial that explains how you can use the light sensitive properties of leaves to make a photographic print on a geranium leaf.

David Kadavy: Design and Technology

The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web relates principles of Bringhurst’s book to the web medium. So far (it is being updated periodically) I think it has done a good job, but some of the details would be nightmarishly tedious to implement on a large-scale dynamic site.

Tom Nemitz: Awesomely Bad Website

www.superbad.com

I’m going to tell you a story now, maybe its true and maybe its not, maybe its funny and maybe its not, but maybe its true…Some time ago, I was in the mountains with a goat, two chickens and a backpack of hay. I chanced to bump into a wise man riding a hornless unicorn and brandishing an invisible cane made of good strong hickory, who told me “Chuck Norris can touch MC Hammer.” He also told me to go to superbad.com — leaving me to ponder whether I had just encountered a most bizarre form of viral marketing, a deranged Chuck Norris fan or just a guy upset that he only got 2 bucks for “Please Hammer Don’t Hurt Em” at the used CD store a scant 10 minutes prior.

I learned that day that there is really nothing so fierce as a wise man scorned. So because I live in fear of the fierceness of invisible hickory sticks weaponized by old wise men, I spread the Awesomely Bad message of Superbad to you. Listen to me: Click everywhere, anywhere, all of the time, and the only guarantee I can make — as I’ve journeyed to Superbadia many times myself — is that every journey to Superbadia will be different than the last.

You bet.

Everyone Loves Engaging Visually Enticing News

Paul Berkbigler: Design Education

This will quickly betray exactly where my thoughts are turning as I slog through grading the mountain of final projects from my beginning and advanced layout and design courses, but here are a pair of books that anyone teaching these courses should have close at hand (and likely at least use as recommended reading for students if not as the course texts) to help combat the student tendency of throwing type wherever the please on the page:

• Grid Systems by Kimberly Elam - Definitely the precisionist / Swiss-influenced approach to utilizing grids within layout and design, but it certainly never hurts to at least build a foundation in using geometry wisely to establish underlying order and symmetry to the page. I get a little wary when this approach becomes uber-religious, but it’s a fantastic foundation for a student to vary and experiment on top of.

• Making and Breaking the Grid: A Graphic Design Layout Workshop by Timothy Samara – A nice counterpoint to Elam’s much more classicist and formalist base, Samara takes the grid as a starting point and then elaborates nicely and widely upon its many uses and creative misuses.

Both would make lovely bookends on your design resource bookshelf - maybe a little design elf will drop these off at your house this Christmas! For the sake of my students I’m hoping Santa shows up with some magic layout symmetry dust sometime in the next few hours, but I suspect I”m not going to hear the tinkling of that particular set of bells.

Clinton Carlson: Design Quotes

DEATH OF THE DESIGNER: I came across a reference to Roland Barthes’ 1977 essay “The Death of the Author” in the book “Visual Research” by Ian Noble and Russell Bestley. Barthes short essay is focused on writing, but I think his thoughts are equally thought provoking for designers:

…a text is made of multiple writings, drawn from many cultures and entering into mutual relations of dialogue, parody, contestation, but there is one place where this multiplicity is focused and that place is the reader, not, as was hitherto said, the author. The reader is the space on which all the quotations that make up a writing are inscribed without any of them being lost; a text’s unity lies not in its origin but in its destination…. it is necessary to overthrow the myth: the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.

Similar to Donovan’s Award show manifesto, I think Barthes’ desire is to shift focus to the place were design interacts with real people. Maybe its not about the death of the designers as much as it is about giving more power to the viewer, and the contexts that give designed artifacts their sense of pleasure. This is the space where our work is experienced a thousand times, by a thousand people… all different.

Kyle Heinemann: InDesign Tip

For the InDesign novice: text wrap can do more than basic rectangles. The option highlighted, “Wrap Around Object Shape,” allows you to base your text wrap on the transparency already included in a Photoshop or TIF. To use this, all you need is a layer in Photoshop with a clear/transparent background surrounding whatever you’ve cut out. Then save as a .psd or .tif file with layers and place into InDesign. In the InDesign text wrap palette, choose the “Alpha Channel” option. You may need to choose “Show Options” in the palette’s pop-up menu. Now your text should wrap around the edges of your specific image.

A similar option, “Detect Edges,” wraps to the light edges of your layer (whereas Alpha Channels wraps to a mid-value range) and even wraps to the irregular edges of a Freehand or Illustrator diagram. In either case, once you’ve selected a method, you can take the direct selection tool/white arrow, and customize the text wrap path as needed. All this is possible while maintaining 256 levels of transparency in your image.

Bennett Holzworth: Letterpress

If you have a pica of interest in letterpress you have probably visited Briar Press. If you want to know how to get started in letterpress or would like some answers about any letterpress question, jump into the forum over at Briar Press. Read past topics, create you own or throw your own expertise into the mix. If you fear that you won’t recognize any names in that forum, never fear, regular design blog commenter JonSel, is also a part of the discussion.

P.S. Check out the brand new article on Hatch Show Print in the February issue of HOW (The Typography Issue). I can never read or hear too much on Jim and the gang at Hatch.

Daniel Schutzsmith: Design Business

CLOSING THE DEAL: When trying to close a new project you may feel the temptation to lower your price to ease the tension of negotiations. Instead of lowering the value of your work, promote your studio’s dedication to quality. Insist that if the client wants to have a successful project that is of high quality, then they will need to go with your original price. If the client doesn’t want to pay for quality, then you do not want them as a client. NOTE: Obviously non-profit and charitable projects are completely excluded from this statement!

Nate Voss: Grunt Designer

STOCK PHOTOGRAPHY IS RUINING THE WORLD, reason #12

Call service centers have become the phone-sex lines of the non-“adult” business world. How do I know this? Because stock photography is ruining the world, that’s why. Take this woman, for instance:

Young, smart, attractive, nay! Beautiful. And obviously very eager to attend to all of your customer service phone call needs. There are thousands of photos just like this one. Attractive, friendly people ready to put their jobs on the line to make you happy. Now compare that to photos from say, an adult 900 number. No, I’m not going to post a photo for that. Those ads show incredibly attractive people, too, all of whom are ready to focus their complete attention on you.

In reality? Both are staffed by a bunch of ugly jerks who couldn’t care less about you or your customer service phone call needs. And they are most likely based out of India. But you go to Getty, you type in “woman” and “phone” as your search terms, and you get this on every service center brochure or ad in America. Is this real? No!

Stock photography lies to you. Don’t use it. (And don’t worry about all those photographers who make money through stock. If you stop buying stock images, they’ll book more photoshoots anyway.)

*Photo Stolen from Getty, obviously

A perfect score. Be Aware ten has arrived…

Donovan Beery: A Bit Off-Topic This Time

While growing up, I found that Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, in particular, had unique shaped buildings, making them easy to spot. The building’s shape seemed to be an extension of their identity, making it more effective than a sign alone could do. The shape of the windows alone gave it away. Years later, I see the downside of having an identity that is so consistent. When you eventually sell the building, and it becomes a different restaurant like the one I ate in this weekend, or even worse - a tobacco shop or quick loan center. Every time people drive by these places, how can they not think of the original company that made the shape of the building so unique?

Drew Davies: Seen and Noted in the Design World

As the President of AIGA Nebraska, I think it’s prudent that I use my time to highlight a piece of design that’s particularly good because of its content. Last month, AIGA Nebraska published a handy brochure called the Business Resource Guide. As its cover states, it is, simply put, a guide to why “good design is good business.” It’s a guide meant to explain the value of design, which was developed for the business community at large. The piece covers topics from why design makes good business sense to the ethics of design, and includes a comprehensive “Client’s Guide to Design.” It explains to the business community that design is an invaluable tool which will help them achieve their goals.

AIGA Nebraska has a large quantity of the Guides available for free distribution. I’d like to encourage all of you to request as many copies of the Business Resource Guide as you can use, and distribute them to colleagues, clients, potential clients, and the general business community. Simply send a request to president@nebraska.aiga.org with your mailing address, and the number of copies you would like. Boxes of 40, or smaller quantities, are available.

Travis Gray: TypeWatch

Adrian Hanft: Alternative Photography

Jurgen Kreckel is the man to talk to if you are in the market for a medium format folding camera. His site, certo6.com is a gold mine of information about these beautiful old cameras. For my birthday I got an Iskra that was refurbished by Jurgen, and it is truely a beautiful machine. It has a coupled rangefinder, a film counter, an outstanding lens, and it folds down to a size that almost fits in my pocket. It is amazing what an old folder can do all without any batteries.

David Kadavy: Design and Technology

Google recently launched Google Analytics, which is extremely sophisticated, and free, web analytics software. One of Analytics features is the ability to track the value of a site visitor based upon monetary values given to certain site goals. Now it will be relatively easy to estimate the ROI of a site redesign, or even a layout change on a page in the site that is critical in generating revenue.

I’m sure David Carson rotated a “9” 180 degrees at some point so it looked like it was a “b”. So it is very appropriate that Group B brings you Be Aware number 9. Just go with it. I challenge Group A to create a post this divine. Student logo competitions, designing trains, rowdy revisions, letterpress word scramble …

Paul Berkbigler: Design Education

We’ve mentioned it before on the site, but an e-mail I received just this morning reminded me again of why it’s especially important as a design educator to discuss the merits and detriments of various design contests and “create a design” competitions.

I found a request in my Inbox this morning from a company inviting students to “Submit your best logo designs for our new business! One winner will be picked and three runners up can list this experience on their resume!” - It’s always so nice to find such stellar business ethics on display in my e-mail right away in the morning!

We have to work as a community to educate companies, practitioners, and students alike in why this practice directly devalues the work we all do - a colleague of mine used the example of a business inviting artists to bring their work to decorate a new building so that they’ll gain “exposure” for their creations. Nothing like saving the company the legitimate cost of purchasing any artwork they would choose to display by offering such great “exposure”, eh?

Delete these requests, but also take the time to write back to them and let companies know that this won’t be tolerated, especially when students are involved.

Kyle Heinemann: InDesign Tip

InDesign’s Book feature has rescued me from hours of boring, repetitious tasks in the last year. Nestled under the File menu at File > New > Book, it’s real power shines when you export a PDF or print 50 documents at the same time. A book is simply a collection of InDesign documents. They could be chapters of a book, sections of a magazine/catalog, or 50 different 1-page documents. I’ve even had success at sorting multiple multi-page documents of 3.5 x 7ft. tradeshow signs into sections through the use of books. Once added to a book, documents may reordered so the pages are continuous. All sorts of styles and colors can be synchronized/updated at any time. To export or print, go to the palette options pop-up menu for that book (upper right corner). Will this help you save time? Perhaps—try it out for yourself, or post a question.

Bennett Holzworth: Letterpress

Letterpress Word Scramble: When an acquaintance gave me his small collection of letterpress equipment he immediately became a good friend and also started my very “weighty” addiction. Amongst the varied type cases and press pieces was some orphaned metal type (aka pied type). I was of course drawn to the larger sizes and started sorting. There was not near enough to create an entire font, but I automatically tried to figure out what this 48 pt. and 60 pt. type once spelled out (if anything). A couple months later I tried again, and this time I figured it out! It had some small historical significance as well. I was even able to track down a piece that was printed from this type.

If you like … try to figure it out for yourself. Anyone living within 50 miles of Grand Island, Nebraska has a distinct advantage, if that gives you any clue. I will post the answer in a few days. And yes, the two different typefaces spell the same thing.

Daniel Schutzsmith: Design Business

ROWDY REVISIONS: When you find yourself getting deep in the muddy waters of the revision swamp take some of these possible escape routes into consideration for the future:

· Explain that further rounds of revisions will take more man-hours and must be billed as such. Be up front about any overages that might occur as a result of extra revisions.

· Don’t be afraid to sell your design to the client. Chances are, the client may want more revisions because they just don’t understand the solution you’ve provide to them. Show them why it works and how it will help them.

· Remember to always firmly outline the number of rounds of revisions in a contract at the beginning of the project. I’ve found the standard to be 2 or 3 rounds.

Nate Voss: Grunt Designer

Here’s to the variety.

Yesterday I was concepting a brand-refresh for a new client. The day before that I was designing a train. Today I am tracing Helvetica Condensed Medium from a printed InDesign page—that I laid out—into a marker comp. Why? Because it gives it the quality of an unfinished thought. It makes it more alive to the client. Those are things that I’m being told as I’m using a worn Sharpie marker to trace the curve of the lowercase Helvetica “a” and the near-serif finish at the bottom of the stem of a “t.” It makes me think of my shiny new copy of Elements of Typographic Style, currently occupying the passenger seat of my car. I never read it in college, and I’m planning a full-on, wide-eyed, adoration-free book review for the Design Cast as soon as I finish it. I purchased the 2005 printing of it in hardcover, and a part of me hopes there is a section at the end about how to do everything I’ve just learned in InDesign quickly. Tonight I’m grading projects for my class. After that I’m planning an AIGA event. Tomorrow I’m figuring out how to make a capabilities brochure with a cover made out of cement.

So, if nothing else, I’ve got the variety.

Eight is definitely not enough …

Donovan Beery: Web Tips

Redirecting Pages

Sometimes you want a short URL to send people, need to create a promotional URL for tracking, or just want to move some files and don’t want the links to those pages to come up as the dreaded ‘page not found’ warning. As sometimes there isn’t a programmer available to write the code for you, or one to make the changes on the server itself, here is some code I’ve found very easy to use. All of these do the same thing, which is sending the viewer from the page the code is in, to a different page.

On a server with ColdFusion support, simply create a blank page with nothing but the following code below the <BODY> tag (file must have a .cfm extension):

If any programmers out there have better options for server languages not listed, please chime in.

Drew Davies: Seen and Noted in the Design World

The World’s Most Awesome Millennium Logo

For those young designers out there still pursuing the height of perfection when it comes to logos capturing that “Turn of the [21st] Century” feel, it’s time to hang up your mouses. I have found the very logo we’ve all been chasing. This logo caught my eye the very first second I saw it, and I’ve been unable to shake it since. Who’d have thought that anyone would ever actually be daring enough to include the three most trite, overused visual elements of the last 10 years of logo design — the ubiquitous globe, the “digital” pixels, and yes, the Millennium Swoosh — into the same logo? I found this beauty on a large sign just off West Bay Road north of Georgetown in Grand Cayman. (That’s right, no US designer would have the cojones to try such a daring gambit.)

What’s it for you ask? Well, the company name won’t shed any light on the matter: Precision Industries, Ltd. Turns out the organization behind this logo is not global, nor digital, nor “Millenniumy”. They’re a local roofing company. Genius or insanity? I’ll let you make your own decision on that one. All I know is that my search is finally over.

Travis Gray: TypeWatch

Adrian Hanft: Alternative Photography

I thought I would share part of an email I received this week. Arul tells me that “There’s an ancient ruined city in South India called Hampi, the remains of the capital of a vast empire. Among the ruins is a magnificent rock cut temple. Within the temple’s many rooms, all carved entirely out of stone, there is one room which is in complete darkness, except for a tiny hole in one wall that looks out on the courtyard. As you would imagine, the result is a camera obscura, which the architect of the temple apparently included just for the wonder of it all. A pinhole camera, made out of stone! The camera projects an image of the main temple tower, which stands across the courtyard form it. The really interesting thing is the date when the temple was built - around 1450 AD! Maybe around the same time that da Vinci was writing about the concept”. Thanks, Arul for sharing that with our group.

David Kadavy: Design and Technology

Throw away your Flash books, because AJAX is poised to become the vehicle of choice for internet applications. Ever since gaining attention as the mechanism that makes the amazing Google maps possible, the buzz around AJAX has been enormous. AJAX primarily uses XMLHttpRequest and Javascript to create interfaces that have the standardization / accessibility / search engine friendliness / semantic organization that makes HTML appealing along with the ability to update information on a page without a refresh that makes many people prefer Flash for internet applications. Here are some examples of AJAX at work.

Tom Nemitz: Awesomely Bad Website

www.beercats.com

You know what, folks? I’m gonna let you pick your favorite part to enjoy here. Mine is the ginormous menu that takes three scrolls to completely see. But maybe yours is the welcome sounds that change each time you visit (“Hello. Hola. And Bonjour”; “Are you ready to rock”). Or maybe its the several java applets that don’t seem to load. Or maybe its the ten thousand graphical links/phrases/animated GIFs at the bottom. So much good stuff, how can one pick one’s favorite? Actually, I see they won the “EarthLink Monthly Homepage Contest Beginner Runner-Up” award, so perhaps I shouldn’t…ah, of course I should! As should you. Enjoy. You bet.

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.

Be Aware 6 has arrived. They don’t call us Group A for nothing….

Donovan Beery - Web Tips

JPEG vs. GIF or Why I stopped worrying and send people their logo in a GIF format even when they request a JPEG

The general rule of thumb is that line art, text and solid shapes work better as GIF files, and photographs work better as JPG files. GIF files also hold the advantage of allowing transparency and animation (well, sometimes that’s an advantage). For those who never trust a good rule of thumb, learning how the two image compression methods work will explain it better.

Travis Gray: TypeWatch

Adrian Hanft: Alternative Photography

This week I finished building my newest camera: a medium format pinhole lego camera. What should I call it? LegHole? Pinholego? Pinhole Lego? Anyway, this camera even has something that my Holga doesn’t - a film counter! You gotta love legos. I will tease you with a picture of it for now, and check out FoundPhotography.com later this week for a tutorial and some of the pictures I took with it…

David Kadavy: Design and Technology

I recently attended a “Mobile Web and Wireless” presentation put on by the Silicon Valley Web Guild, and it seems that the mobile web is growing at an alarming rate. Unfortunately, the rise of mobile web is bringing with it a vast array of operating systems, browser types, and screen sizes to develop and design for. Those of you who have been breathing a sigh of relief over the success of the web standards movement, take a breath because web development won’t be getting any easier, and how hard is it going to be to purchase one of each of these mobile devices to develop for?

Be Aware number five is alive.

Paul Berkbigler: Design Education

On education this time around, I'd just like to highlight two somewhat sobering concerns that have presented themselves in the recent weeks:

1. I know that in addition to the millions of people displaced by and disrupted by the events of Katrina, there are a healthy number of students who have found their academic plans drasticly altered for this year. I heard from a colleague about LSU sending out a request for art supplies for the many additional students who are now part of their population - check out their site for contact info: Read more at: www.lsu.edu/

They have graphic design studies listed within their offerings so I'm certain students would welcome more design-specific supplies as well.

2. The AIGA has been looking for requests / replies related to design relief for Katrina on their site, but also recently posted an article by Steven Heller analyzing the imbalances between the amount of design students enrolled in / graduating from GD programs and the amount of design jobs in the market. Heller calls for design educators everywhere to examine their respective programs and see whether we're acknowledging this imbalance or not...

Read more at: designforum.aiga.org

Clinton Carlson: Design Quotes

"The process of ordering, disordering, and reordering design is revolutionary, and I believe we are now in the midst of such a revolution. Instead of focusing on symbols and things, designers have turned to quite different places to create new products and to reflect on the value of design in our lives. They have turned to action and environment.... It is certainly important that designers know how to create visual symbols for communication and how to construct physical artifacts, but unless these become part of the living experience of human beings, sustaining them in the performance of their own actions and experiences, visual symbols and things have no value or significant meaning."

Richard Buchanan in Design Issues: Vol. 17, No. 4 Autumn 2001

Kyle Heinemann: InDesign Tip

Find /Change, under the edit menu, is another way to increase your productivity, especially on long documents. I use it to change double spaces to single; double paragraph returns (^p^p) to single(^p); double tabs(^t^t) to single(^t). Those are easy. Here's one example that continually amazes people. Say I have bulleted/indented lists and I want the bullet to be the "4" character in Webdings, but 1.5 pt smaller, baseline shifted .5pt, and blue. I already have my paragraph style setup with a nested character style to format the bullet character, but not the rest of the line. Now all I need to do is search for spc spc tab • spc spc spc (that's how the author typed it) and replace with "4^t", choosing my paragraph style under Change Format Settings. That's it. If you don't want to type out "^t" for tab, just click to the right of the "Find what" or "Change to" fields on the little pop-up menu for a whole list of choices. The possibilities are endless. Try Find/Change to make all time formatting consistent.

Bennett Holzworth: Letterpress

On a recent trip to Portland, Oregon I had the opportunity to stop by and visit Oblation Papers & Press. They are a letterpress printer/paper maker/boutique shop. While they specialize in designing and printing letterpress wedding invitations, their retail store is enough to entertain for hours on end. You can take a look at the century old presses in action, feel the grain of their handmade papers or look through some of the fascinating letterpress work from other artisans from around the country. If you happen to be in this neck of the woods, head on down to the Pearl District and do your best to restrain yourself from buying too many letterpressed greeting cards.

Oblation had a good number of companies represented in the varied greeting cards that they sold. I purchased beautifully crafted cards from each of these companies: Egg Press, Manifesto Letterpress, Old School Stationers, Pancake & Franks, Saturn Press and Two Piglets

Welcome to the fourth installment of our Be Aware group posts.

Donovan Beery - Web Tips

If nobody sees it, does your cover page exist?

This is the one thing that you always need to keep in mind when designing for the web. As a large amount of viewers get to your site through search engines, links from other sites, and links sent to them via email, they may never see your homepage. Always be sure that any one page of your site will make sense by itself. It’s no fun making sure links back to your homepage, and site identifiers are on every page, but it is a necessity. Links labeled “back” make no sense to viewers who don’t even know where they were suppose to have come from.

Drew Davies: Seen and Noted in the Design World

Design for the Movies

I’d always wondered about something, and recently had a lot of my questions answered by a clip that Joe from my office forwarded to me. Turns out, by all outward appearances, being a designer on the crew of a major motion picture may be one of the most awesome jobs ever. For those needing any convincing, just check out this mini-documentary on the design team for the new Superman film.

Sure, there’s no actual strategy involved, no deep concepts, no measurable results. But look at all of that awesome stuff they get to design from scratch: identities for dozens of companies, complete city maps, a city-wide signage system…every last artifact of design you see in the movie. Maybe it’d get old after a while, but I’d sure trade jobs with any of them for a year.

Travis Gray: TypeWatch

Adrian Hanft - Alternative Photography

Does size matter? Here are some links to a few unusual sizes of cameras:

Bite size - Justin Quinnell builds pinhole cameras and takes pictures looking out his mouth.

Oversize - Justin also makes large pinhole cameras out of trash cans.

World’s largest camera - The Mammoth camera was built in 1900. It weighed 900lbs and made an 8 x 4.5 foot negative.

David Kadavy: Design and Technology

With the merger of Adobe and Macromedia, there has been a great deal of talk about a possible integration of PDF and Flash. That sounds good to me, but I want to see an integration of Flash, and a page-layout program such as InDesign.

Sure, someone can learn to automate tasks in InDesign through scripting, but with the increasing need for designers with web and print skills, why not harness a great language these people already know - ActionScript - to make automation even easier?

Imagine, for example, that you have a series of business cards to create. You could try automating it with scripting or even Illustrator Data Sets, but why learn yet another language, or use a very limited method of automation? Your master pages could hold arrays of the various people’s names and other information, as well as functions that dictate placement of various elements on the business card based upon the characteristics of that information. For example, you may want to place a graphic element based upon the length of someone’s name. All of the elements on the page could be “Movie Clips” so it would be easy to call them with scripts and dictate their placement. The individual pages could be “frames” that could hold still more variables and functions.

This would of course take some adaptation, but it would give a familiar language and conceptual model a new and powerful use.

Tom Nemitz: Awesomely Bad Website

There’s been an awful lot of spoof/parody websites lately purporting to be promotional material for a celebrity running for President in 2008, some better than others. The Christopher Walken site is an example of a spoof done well, as it was just good enough to put some doubt in your mind as to whether it was actually real. Some just are done so poorly, they never fool you for even a moment. In that vein, I present to you MacGyver For President: 2008. (Suspend your disbelief for a moment that the entire site is an offshoot of a blog and doesn’t have a distinct URL, and humor me.) This site has it all: wretchedly pixellated photos, hideous kerning, murderous widows, canyon-esque leading, sloppily inexcusably bad grammar spelling and punctuation. That makes it bad. But, a staple of political sites is quotes from the candidate, and its here where this site goes from “bad” to “awesomely bad”. These gems that randomly appear on different pages don’t disappoint: “A paperclip can be a wondrous thing. More times than I can remember one of these has gotten me out of a tight spot”; “Human nature. I do something nice for you, you do something nice for me, like not kill me. Next thing you know, we’re friends.” I’m speechless.

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. There are some great examples of work and an overview of where letterpress has come from and where it is today. To someone just mildly interested in letterpress, it might be a little dry. However, this is also not an instruction manual of how to do letterpress. It does come off as a bit snobish in some parts as well. The complete exclusion of Hatch Show Print is one thing that confused me. Mr. Jury also doesn’t appreciate the deliberate use of inconsistent printing or printing that shows up on the back of the paper (both of which I am gladly guilty of). Most of the examples shown are helpful and beautiful, but some of the photography is lacking. Overall this book is a great resource despite a few flaws.

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.

Welcome to the second installment of our Be Aware group posts.

Donovan Beery ��� Web Tips

website _ file _ naming _ for _ search _ engines.html
When creating your website files, take the extra few seconds to name files properly. Rather than naming something “image.gif,” changing the name to. For example, “graphic _ design.gif” will help search engine rankings for “graphic design.” But remember, spaces and special characters like “&” can cause problems with old browsers, so leave these out of your file names. A simple underscore (_) will be read as a space by search engines, so use them instead.

Drew Davies: Seen and Noted in the Design World

Let’s face it. As designers, we hate being called “graphic artists” or worse yet, “commercial artists.” Rest assured that’s still true for me, but recently I’ve been taking note of the work of the people who still wear those badges proudly. These days they’re calling it “window splash,” but we know it as custom, hand-painted type and images. You’ll find it on big signs, sides of vehicles and vast windowscapes, and often associated with pawn shops and quick check cashers. It’s the epitome of “commercial art,” and some of it is downright gorgeous.

If you haven’t recently, stop by one of these places sometime soon and take in some of this art. No, it doesn’t involve heady concepting, deep strategy, or any “brandscaping.” (Bless his heart, my grandfather did huge, custom-lettered banners for local grocery stores for years, and still never quite understood what I do for a career.) But if you find the right piece, you’ll see that it’s crafted with a honed skill that is almost extinct in our digitally-evolving world. Only a few people are left who really do this well, and their work should be celebrated.

Travis Gray: Flash Animation

With the advent of Flash it has become very easy for anyone to produce their own animated cartoons and shorts. And since I wanted to be an animator before I wanted to be a designer, I still occasionally get the urge to animate a few characters every once in a while. So here are a few references and resources that you might find helpful if you also animate for a hobby.

Books:
Hollywood 2D Digital Animation by Sandro Corsaro & Clifford J. Parrott
The Animator’s Survival Kit by Richard Williams
Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right by Jason Osipa
Timing for Animation by Harold Whitaker and John Halas

Websites:
Macromedia Flash Animation Examples
Flash Filmaker
Cold Hard Flash
Sound Dogs

Adrian Hanft - Alternative Photography

An easy way to create a unique photo is to use different lenses. Here are a few very unique (and relatively cheap) cameras that use non-traditional lenses.

The Horizon 202: A swing-lens panoramic camera that captures 120 degrees
(buy here, gallery here )

Fisheye Camera: The only camera with a built-in fisheye lens.
(buy here, gallery here )

Oktomat: A camera with 8 lenses
(buy here, gallery here )

Holga 120s: Don’t forget the classic Holga with its plastic lens.
(buy here, gallery here )

David Kadavy - Design and Technology

A post and conversation at The Long Tail examines blog design in the age of RSS, and hints that with RSS, maybe the graphics aren’t as important anymore. If so, this would make clear typography increasingly more crucial. Personally, I stopped using an aggregator because it gave me RSS-induced ADD, but I’m sure Aldus is jumping for joy in his grave over the accelerating rate of information transfer.

Tom Nemitz - Awesomely Bad Website

Billy Zabka. You know him as Johnny Lawrence of the Cobra Kai dojo, and the guy who loses to Daniel-san at the end of Karate Kid. Prepare to know him as the subject of a bizarre club — The Fraternal Order of Zabka (FOZ).

From a design standpoint, you’ve got to, um, love the sloppy site navigation and the unnecessary frame-action which forces you to scroll about twice as much as you’d really need to. And the quote from Billy’s dad, “Good job with the website!”, is classic. But what seals the deal on this being an awesomely bad website is the photo of The Godfathers of the FOZ.

Sweep the leg, indeed.

In an effort for our site to be even more “group” oriented we are going to have a group post called “Be Aware” twice a month. This is the first of many to come. Half of our authors will be in the post at the first of the month and the other half in the middle. Each author on our site will consistently write about a chosen subject that they are passionate about. It is amazing what you can observe if you are aware of your surroundings. Enjoy!

Paul Berkbigler: Design Education

It’s still early in my practice as a teacher, so my fervor for the subject of typography and drive to nearly hammer it into the brains of any student I come into contact with may still mellow as my career continues. All that aside, though, if you have a need to brush up on typography basics or find yourself faced with a classroom of folks looking to know more about it, Ellen Lupton has again been prolific and generous enough to compile an excellent type primer and a great website companion to it - take a look at a copy of Thinking With Type the next time you’re in a bookstore, or browse the fairly extensive content that she’s also offering on thinkingwithtype.com.

Among my personal favorites that she’s included are the “Crimes against Typography” section and her “Tools for Teachers” section - simply terrific little supplies to dole out in the classroom.

Clinton Carlson: Design Quotes

“Designers can no longer only be concerned about the interaction of word and image; they also must be concerned about the interaction between the audience, the content of the communication and the outcome of the design. In order to create dialogues that effectively persuade the viewer to adopt a new belief or change behavior, the communication designer can no longer rely solely on intuition.

Designers have to devise methods for creating empathy with the viewer who will play a part in constructing meaning from the message.”

Jodi Forlizzi and Cherie Lebbon. “From Formalism to Social Significance in Communication Design” in Design Issues. Autumn 2002.

Kyle Heinemann: InDesign Tip

InDesign Guides

Do you know how much InDesign guides can do for you? You’ve probably already realized you can select one, and enter an exact (x,y) value in the Transform window. You can also select multiple guides of the same orientation and align/distribute. Or, just move a bunch of them at the same time by selecting only guides (although once you select an object, your guide selection will be lost) and either drag or type a new value. This is particularly helpful for adjusting book layouts to new spine sizes.

Bennett Holzworth: Letterpress

If you happen to be in north central Kanas anytime soon I would recommend visiting what I would like to call the “ghost” letterpress shop. Jewel Kansas has a little history museum with an old practically untouched letterpress printshop in the back. It is sad to see the rollers melted on the ink plates, but it is fascinating to look at the tympan paper and still be able to see what the last job printed was. Just be sure to call and make an appointment before you go, because that is the only way to get in.

Nate Voss: Grunt Designer

Stock Photography is saturating the world with tameness. A quick search of stock-site Photos.com for “Anger” gives you near-emotionless, unevocative, frowning portraits. The problem? In order to sell photos, the shots need to fit as many applications as possible. My “Anger” photo could fit the square-hole for “Need a New Printer?” just as easily as it could fit “So You’ve Committed Murder?”

There’s such a glut of non-specific imagery in the world right now that it may-well become this decade’s design trend.