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.‚Äù

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.‚Äù

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,‚Äù “Polly loves cake more than she loves me‚Äù).

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,‚Äù “Place the emphatic words of a sentence at the end.‚Äù) 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.

(more…)

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 11×17, 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.