Athyrius (bio)

Human beings are saturated with visual sensory input. This kind of competition makes it very tough to be a designer of the new, cool and memorable. Many designers of commercial advertising have turned to the old schema that 'sex sells'. Well the information I'm handing you today is going to make it even tougher for many advertising and commercial designers who may still be relying on these old stereotypes.

Mojo - with Vibe

I can’t define it any better than that. The ability to get into peoples heads and then generate the energy they key into.

Vibe is knowing what turns people on- and what turns them off.
Mojo is the energy that’s generated.
Edge is breaking old, stale molds to create something new.

Mix that magic with a solid knowledge of demographics, numbers, sales trends, who’s buying what and why, and you have the recipe for a Win.

Ignore or go against any element of the above and you have the recipe for Disaster.

ARRGH!

That's about the extent of the reaction of web developers and designers to Microsoft's stubborn refusal to develop a browser that works with the world-wide standards of web development code. The manner in which Microsoft Explorer handles basic web code: CSS, DHTML, HTML, XML, PHP, and image transparencies is akin to a baboons handling of a Porsche 980...in the winter... in a snowstorm.

A present futurist article
Augmented Reality is the science of conjoining of reality – hard solids that exist in space – with computer generated data that presents itself as a visual, interactive artifact in a real world space.

Basically it means that we will be adding to, building and defining our real living spaces with the additions of virtual, visible data generated by you or another. This visible data will be interactive in nature. As a Designer you will be creating your own environment and the environments of others.

One good example of AR is the Long Tail interview of Chris Anderson’s avatar, virtually conducted within the Second Life gaming environment, with Chris’s Avatar and the interviewer avatar on stage, and witnessed by an audience of avatars all connected to their human counterpart via home computers.

Were you online in 1997-1998? Think back to the websites that were popular then... if you dare.
Remember flashing, 24 point text; screaming red on lime green bars on black backgrounds? A hundred pixelated, animated gifs covering every other site page? Half of the net looked like a cheesy sci-fi thriller/horror movie- the other half looked like a paper out of MIT. Design-wise, the Net was a schizophrenic amalgam of serious scientific papers dovetailing sites that exclaimed "UFO's ATTACK L.A.!!!"

Writing the first Adobe Illustrator Blues blog post reminded me of the encounter my husband/partner and I had with Adobe at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Ready to hit the Halls

This is the largest Electronics Show on Earth. As we were attending as Press we were there every day, and as usual it was a wonderful experience. No one gets better free perks or food at Vegas Conferences than the press. Unless of course you are the head of Sony or Yahoo- then that is a whole other story.

I just interrupted a design I have been working on for a T-Shirt line that is going to be in international magazines and international stores. I interrupted my work for one reason. Complete frustration with Adobe Illustrator. I have been working with Adobe products for over 10 years now, and I would have to say that Illustrator is the most non-intuitive working tool that we have at our disposal.

I have been living in Web 2.0 now for some time and I have to admit I am hooked. From YouTube to Digg to Delicious. This is what we have been seeing as the future for some time: A virtual world that is completely existant and dependant upon individual human interaction - using every form of multimedia now technologically feasible.

I have written this article as a preventative measure for all newly launched graphic freelancers out there who are not looking forward to a diet of Ramen Noodles and generic soda. As creative as we are with our art, would-be contractors can be just as creative in coming up with ways not to pay us. Below is a list of these methods (CoughScamCough) that I have experienced or witnessed first hand.

Over the past 2 months I have been to 3 major conventions and noted something rather strange that connected all three. The first show was the CES; the Consumer Electronics Show. We went in as members of the press with all of the lovely perks included. So the press room was the first place we hit. (Thank you Verizon for the 5 Star breakfasts, and lunches - nothing like a free meal to encourage good feelings and good press). When we entered the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall, second floor and stood on the landing looking across the vast expanse I immediately noted one thing: masses of the color Orange.