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.