Logo Design Workbook, A Hands-On Guide To Creating Logos
Sean Adams and Noreen Morioka with Terry Stone
Published by Rockport Publishing (www.rockpub.com)
ISBN: 1-59253-131-8
- 240 pages
- soft cover
- color
Monitors, or what I don't know.
In a recent discussion on graphics.com William McBee (Gerbick) brought up a couple of points regarding monitors that got me wondering about a recent monitor purchase I had made. It would seem I was suffering from post-purchase indecision and left me seeking validation as a consumer. Will also pointed out, obliquely, that there was some things I just didn't know, or had forgotten, when I initially made my buying decision. So I set off to, as one my teachers in art school would state, "figure out what you don't know and go learn it."
May 14, 2006, 10:52 PMWhat can go wrong, well, will.
Perhaps it's a bit pessimistic but adopting an attitude that invariably something will go wrong during the course of a project will give you the added edge to ensure your sanity and that the job will be delivered on time. Over the years I've learned to pinpoint a number of different things that can negatively impact a project and taking the time to account for these potential roadblocks can save a lot of headaches.
May 7, 2006, 9:44 PMMass Marketing Madness
A recent event has caused me to reflect about the approaches used by some mass marketers. The other day my inbox was inundated with a number of comments posted to my blog here. The system dutifully informed me of close to one hundred and fifty comments posted in response to some of the musings I've written here. My initial response was sheer joy, thinking that I'd finally written something that had provoked some kind of mass response, until my innate skepticism started to kick in momentarily afterwards.
April 23, 2006, 8:36 PMA question of taste.
Recently the question of a designer doing a piece of work that tested the limits of what was tasteful was posed on graphics.com, sadly it never progressed much past its current state, but for myself it posed the question of what exactly is considered to be good or bad taste.
In an effort to define what taste was I looked at a variety of articles and definitions through my library and of course the internet. Not surprisingly, like most philosophical arguments, it's a circuitous and convoluted path, weaving back and forth, one definition relying on another in order to validate its position. Wikipedia.org offers two possible definitions, the first relating to aesthetics and the other to sociology. The commonality between them however, and other references, is that the matter of taste is a matter of culture. Where culture is constructed geographically, socially, institutionally and chronologically.
January 5, 2006, 3:03 AMBad design or Freudian slip?
It's not too often that you run across something that could prove to be memorable to the general public or less often that you get to comment about it. Sadly I can't take credit for the find but can for the commentary.
December 13, 2005, 5:07 AMDigital Painting (d'artiste Series)
Linda Bergkvist, Philip Straub, John Wallin, and Robert Chang
Published by Ballistic Publishing (www.ballisticpublishing.com)
ISBN: 0-9750965-5-9
- 192 pages
- soft cover
- color
Visual Research, An Introduction To Research Methodologies In Graphic Design
Ian Noble and Russell Bestley
Published by Ava Publishing sa (www.avabooks.ch)
ISBN: 2-88479-049-7
- 192 pages
- soft cover
- color
The book consists of six chapters that provide an introduction to the terminology and research methods employed in graphic design. Each chapter provides an introduction to the concepts presented and follows with one or two short case studies.
November 11, 2005, 11:06 PMThe Fortunate Few
A recent conversation and my own circumstances have caused me to do a little reflection as of late. The conversation revolved around this person's current studies in design and the frustrations imposed upon them by the teacher pushing them to their limits.
October 26, 2005, 5:38 PMWhat's wrong with a little honesty?
I participate in a couple of forums here and there related to graphic and web design and every once in a while I encounter a posting that just happens to fire up my amygdala and even more about the amygdala here. You know the ones, they all come off sounding like a snake oil salesman from the old west that promise that if you use a product that they too use you'll be bigger, better, harder and faster than you've ever imagined you could be. My gripe isn't so much with the fact that these individuals are hyping their product but more in their approach.
October 15, 2005, 7:53 PMDesigning Visual Language
Designing Visual Language. Strategies for Professional Communicators.
Charles Rostelnick & David D. Roberts
Published by Allyn & Bacon (www.ablongman.com)
ISBN:
0-205-20022-2
-453 pages
-soft cover
-black and white
Examining the mythology
There's been an awful lot of debate over the last few weeks over the offerings of a "low-balling" logo company &mdash the company in question being Logoworks. The debate centers around the ethical and legal practices of some of their artists and the allegations that some of their materials for their clients have been plagiarized from other companies and designers.
September 14, 2005, 4:47 AMThe Graphic Designer’s Guide to Effective Visual Communication...
The Graphic Designer’s Guide to Effective Visual Communication creating hierarchies with type, image, and color.
Carolyn Knight & Jessica Glaser
Published by Rotovision (www.rotovision.com)
ISBN: 2-88046-810-8
A Tale of Two Tires
Over the last two days I've been trying to track down a tire for my recumbent bicycle. Those of you that know me know that during the summer months in Calgary that my Vision R44 is pretty much my sole means of transportation. Part of this sad little saga is that Vision Recumbents is no more, they shut down their manufacturing in the latter part of 2003, also the shop where I'd purchased my bent and relied on for parts and accessories followed suit within a few months of that. Fortunately most of the parts are standard bicycle equipment other than a couple of odd components, one of which is the front tire.
August 21, 2005, 5:55 PMOkay — oh doh, or stories from the front.
Occasionally we all have those moments when we find ourselves staring at our clients or co-workers in utter disbelief at what has just happened. Someone wondering why they can't get an eleven by seventeen inch print out from an eight and a half by eleven inch printer. My personal favorites being; someone kicking the hell out of the fuser assembler in an effort to get it to stop jamming on a large scale high speed copier/digital black and white output device to a conversation with a "veteran" designer who wanted to know the difference between RGB and CMYK color.
