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Even in the best of circumstances, I believe that the first question any entrepreneur should ask themselves is “do I really need a partner to achieve my goals?” There are numerous arguments supporting business partnerships such as cost savings, shared risk, expanded client list, and enhanced services and management skills. But it all comes at the cost of giving up ownership of the company you worked so hard to build, so be very careful, do your homework and protect yourself. My business partner and I have enjoyed 12 years of business success and our partnership has flourished because we are very different people. There exists minimal overlap between us although we share similar backgrounds, educations, and skills. This is in stark contrast to what we have witnessed over the years as friends have partnered with like-minded or similarly skilled friends, enjoying shared perspectives and core competencies, but ultimately ending in failure. The deep respect and trust that has developed between my partner and I has allowed us to delegate key decisions and tasks to each other. Our open communication allows us to speak freely, even arguing over important issues when necessary. But by challenging and complementing each other, we bring out the best in one other and in our team. There are numerous steps that any reasonable entrepreneur should take before committing to anything as serious as a partnership. Be assertive when questioning former clients, employers, employees about the candidate’s claims, background, reputation and abilities to make very sure you found exactly the right person is critical. Hire a good accountant experienced with valuations and complex ownership scenarios. Use a lawyer experienced in mergers and acquisitions to create a legal agreement which outlines the arrangement including a trial period and mechanism for if/when one partner leaves—whether you eventually part on good terms or bad, it’s best to enter a partnership knowing how you can get out. If you do your homework up front, you’ll save yourself a huge headache later. But before you start to look for a partner, or talk to a corporate lawyer, SWOT yourself. A SWOT analysis is common first step in developing a business strategy, so why not do one on yourself?  If you are honest with yourself, you’ll likely paint a picture of what’s missing in your business and of the type of person you require for a business partner. And make sure you SWOT your potential partner too before committing. And even if you think you have found the perfect partner, be ready for things to change. The hard truth is that people change. You may change. What happens in a year or two if your new partner decides they want to do something different and want out? Or maybe you do? Understanding this and being okay with it is a key to business survival and a strong reason to prepare a Share Holders Agreement that protects all parties involved. We’ve all heard the comparison between business partnerships and marriages. Indeed, like a marriage, a partnership is easy to rush into, but painful and difficult to get out of. Just as a shotgun marriage will likely result in misery down the road, rushing into a partnership can be a costly mistake, ultimately sinking your business instead of saving it. Make sure you’re comfortable with each other before moving in together. Another hard truth is that partnerships often fail. Things can go sour quickly—regardless of whose fault. An ill-conceived or poorly planned partnership that fails will reflect negatively on all parties involved and possibly lead to business failure. In the lead up to the split, the tension will grow like cancer in the culture of your team and staff may quit to save themselves the anxiety. Clients may lose confidence, and unlike children during a divorce, want nothing to do with either partner and just walk away. The good news is that the economy will ultimately improve and good times are ahead for those who plan smartly. Ask yourself if your potential new partner, their reputation, their clients, and their working style will still look good once the market recovers. Don’t just opt to partner because you are shoring up for a short- to mid-term storm. Do it because it makes ultimate sense and because your business is more likely to survive to see the good times. [post_title] => Partner for good times and bad [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => partner-for-good-times-and-bad [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2009-02-12 12:53:27 [post_modified_gmt] => 2009-02-12 19:53:27 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/?p=1991 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 3 [filter] => raw ) -->

Partner for good times and bad

I was recently asked to submit an article about partnerships for the Small Business section of Business in Vancouver (BIV) magazine. The article, called Is a partnership the right choice for your business to weather these stormy times?, fou [...]

Posted by: Mark Busse on Monday, January 12th, 2009

Categories: Articles | 3 Comments »

In an economic downturn, your business may seek ways to costs while maintaining its competitive edge. By slashing your budget for marketing and communications, however, you may do more harm than good. Instead, consider working with your communication designer to apply strategic, creative thinking to keep your brand message focused on your audience in ways that will not only help you survive the recession but also contribute to your long-term growth. In fact, many great brands were created during economic turmoil by companies that recognized their customers’ changing needs, seized the moment and innovated, communicating their ways through difficult waters. Here are some approaches that can help. Focus on your brand Brand equity is a valuable asset, especially during a slow-down. Critical aspects of brand-building in hard times are differentiation and relevance. Experienced designers put their own assumptions, biases and aesthetic preferences aside in order to identify your unique selling proposition (USP) — what makes you different — and tailor your message to a specific audience in a consistent manner. Identifying your USP helps you use the economic climate to pierce the clutter and seize the attention of potential customers. Leaving a gap in your brand presence lets savvy competitors step in and capitalize as markets improve. Downturns create a buyer’s market As your competitors slash their marketing and communications budgets, reallocate your own spending strategically. Media is on sale! While others pull back and disappear from the minds of consumers, you can expand your own exposure without increasing your budget, ultimately grabbing additional market share. That will mean growth, profit and a stronger brand presence once the economy begins to rebound. Include design early Creative thinking should be a part of strategic business planning, not tacked on at the end just for aesthetics. Invite your communication designer to the boardroom table. Recognizing that communication design is far more than window dressing allows you to use it to your competitive advantage. Know yourself Be really honest with yourself about what your organization is, where you want to go and how you can get there. Experienced communication designers are skilled at helping groups research, identify and analyze their needs in relation to audiences and competitors. They can help you clarify business strengths, weaknesses and opportunities and the impediments you face in meeting your objectives. You get what you pay for Be smart in how you conserve and consolidate expenses. As companies downsize, many may let their large agency partners go in favour of smaller, less expensive teams. Make sure any “replacement” team consists of experienced design professionals, not desktop publishers or ill-equipped freelancers who may seem like good deals. Even if you already have a well-defined brand identity, a terrific logo, a graphic standards guide (style guide), and templates or previous samples for reference, make sure you get the most qualified help. Create comprehensive and fair requests for proposals (RFPs) that will identify your best-suited candidate, not the cheapest bidder. Don’t skip steps Times like these call for vision and leadership, not shortcuts. Now more than ever, focus on working closely with well-trained experts. Craft clear and comprehensive creative briefs that outline project parameters, goals, timelines and budgets. Ask for help Don’t panic or act rashly. It’s tempting to cut back on expenses, but skimping on your strategy, graphic design or production may damage your brand in the long run. The Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC) can help. With its directory of designers across Canada, its effective job board and its numerous resources including a handy RFP tool, the GDC is the smart place to start your search. Everyone suffers during a recession, but if you understand that good design is good for business, you can save your organization by developing solid relationships with skilled design professionals and actually help strengthen the company’s brand and market position.

If you're wondering how to use brand and communication design to help your business survive the sagging economy, please contact Industrial Brand soon. [post_title] => How Design Can Help You Survive a Recession [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => design-can-help-you-survive-recession [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2008-12-23 16:58:58 [post_modified_gmt] => 2008-12-23 23:58:58 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/?p=2942 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 2 [filter] => raw ) -->

How Design Can Help You Survive a Recession

As President of the BC chapter of the Society of Graphic Designers of Canada (GDC), I recently wrote an article on behalf of GDC called How to Use Communication Design to Weather a Recession for Business in Vancouver (BIV) Magazine. The art [...]

Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, December 20th, 2008

Categories: Articles | 2 Comments »

There have been challenges–some which we could have predicted and others that came as a surprise. There were also insights into the world of our clients. Still, we needed to service our clients and run the business and we knew that our re-branding would from time to time be pushed down the priority list. Two years later, it had come to the point where it could not wait any longer. We were still getting great feedback about our website and other promotional materials, but for ourselves the identity we created in 1997 no longer reflected our capabilities and the calibre of work we provide to our clients. It was time to re-brand. A major advantage was that we knew what we were doing–it’s what we do for our clients with very successful results. We knew all we had to do was to put ourselves through the same branding and design process and we would arrive at the outcome we were looking for. The first stage was one of Discovery, Analysis, Research, Collaboration and Strategy. This involved the business owners asking questions that included: Why change? What are we hoping to achieve? How will we know the branding process has been a success? We interviewed clients, staff, vendors and others to discover if what we think about ourselves is the same as what others think of us. Thankfully the results confirmed we were heading in the right direction. Your brand is aspirational and goal-driven, but as a company you have to bridge the gap between where you are today and your aspirations. Your company has to walk the talk today and everyday. It must look and behave like the kind of company a high calibre client would hire. The Brand Discovery Session was essential in creating our re-branding process. We dug into every aspect of the company, often facing difficult questions - some which took several months to resolve. We questioned the name of the company, who our target audiences are today and will be in the future, how we will reach them, what our message is and how will it resonate with them. We also looked at how we differentiate ourselves from other design companies and what our core service offering is. The next phase involved consolidating the knowledge that we’d gleaned from the research and applying it. It involved brainstorming ideas, conceptualizing initial logo concepts, being strategic and making sure everything we did was relevant and aligned with our discoveries during the first phase. It was also during this phase we explored a new tag line. Parting from the old, ‘we’re not wired right’ we wanted something that was honest, concise and gave a better sense of what we are all about. WHERE IDEAS WORK is a statement of not only what goes on within the studio and the people that compose it, but it also says something about the outcomes we deliver. Business owners can often be too attached to their company to be objective and decisive. The third and final phase saw us starting to whittle down iterations and make final decisions based on the research and strategy from the earlier phases. This foundation made it easier for making clear final decisions. With the new identity and tagline complete, the next step was to produce all the marketing materials, website and internal documents. At the end of August we rearranged our production schedule for two weeks so the entire Industrial Brand team could focus on doing just this. We knew from the outset that two weeks was a somewhat optimistic timeframe to complete the myriad of tasks at hand, and in the end it was. But without dedicating that time to the development of our own brand it would probably have continued to get pushed to the bottom of the priority list (below servicing clients). Now we had the momentum we needed to make the final push to completion. Branding is all-encompassing and there’s a clear distinction between the creation of a new logo versus the formation or re-formation of a brand. Even though we’ve been re-branding for our clients for many years, undertaking our own project has provided us with further insight into client concerns about the process, and the confidence, financial commitment, trust and hard work that is required to create and implement a new brand. That being said, branding or re-branding is worth it if done well and assuming there’s a sound rationale for it. It will reinvigorate and energize the company, its clients, prospects, staff, vendors and all others associated with it. It’s important to remember that a brand is organic, and grows and changes over time so must be managed. With the successful re-launch of Industrial Brand, we’re excited to watch as people take new notice of our new look and the platform from which we continue to build and grow our business. [post_title] => Branding a branding company [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => branding-a-branding-company [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2008-12-08 13:25:00 [post_modified_gmt] => 2008-12-08 20:25:00 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/?p=2009 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 1 [filter] => raw ) -->

Branding a branding company

If you are a business owner working on the development and growth of your own company it can be a challenge no matter what industry you are in. This can range from generating more sales, creating or finessing your marketing plan, sourcing m [...]

Posted by: Matt SamyciaWood on Friday, November 14th, 2008

Categories: Articles | 1 Comment »

1) Would you prefer to see a portfolio online or in a book? Online only if it's done well. Seeing a photographer's book in person still has merit once the relationship has been initiated, but in person presentations are unrealistic these days. Web is really best to vet candidates once we're aware of a photographer as we don't hunt for them online often. 2) Are there certain formats that you would like to see from portfolios? Any portfolio should be easy to use. Large photos so we can see details (especially ads or if special effects or retouching). While not always appreciated in advertising circles, we're a big fan of seeing an image in context and the process behind it, so a couple carefully selected case studies that demonstrate the challenge, approach, process and results as well as the role played by the photographer or illustrator can be very useful. Describe how you overcame hurdles or accomplished shots for clients, otherwise they're just pretty pictures and we're not sure if you just pulled the trigger or added real value beyond that of technician. 3) What can image makers do with their books to help your decision process of selecting new talent? This seems a little redundant and obvious after the last question, so I'll refer back to my answer above. The bottom line really is that an image maker has to impress the heck out of us and that often happens OUTSIDE of their books. We hire people we like, get along with, know how we work and our clients, laugh at our jokes, are flexible and nail it every time. We don't care how amazing a book is if any of these don't work, we won't hire them. Period. 4) How do you prefer to receive portfolios from local talent? Again, this is a redundant and already answered above: Online first, then in in person. Bear in mind that word of mouth referrals trump portfolios every time. 5) What is your preferred follow up on a portfolio; e-mail, post or a telephone call? We prefer email, though a really well-written letter via post can be very memorable and effective. Consider the teasing before meeting or reviewing an book. Example: Todd Blevins at Trigger in Calgary told me a story about receiving a blank manila envelope with no return address containing an 8"x10" art print of a gorgeous shot of a n astronaut without any marketing message, website or logo. Just signed "Hi Todd. Thought of you when I shot this. Enjoy." This was followed by another a few weeks later—again in a blank envelope. After showing the prints to all the other Art Directors at Trigger, he finally figured out whot eh shooter was and both are framed on his wall. Guess who he's planning on calling in for his next shoot? 6) How many images do you prefer a book to have? Like any portfolio really, we think a book should contain 10-20 of their best and most relevant work. An image maker should have dozens or even hundreds of quality examples of their work at the ready, but the ability to customize their book for us depending on what we've told them we need or their research on what kind of work we do. Don't supply too many similar images that may suggest you have only one style. 7) What makes a book stand out for you? A book that says something about you as a person, your vision and your process—beyond merely the technical proficiency of your work—always gets my attention. When those books also combine an elegant, clean aesthetic, professional tone and ease of use, you have a winner. Obviously eye-catching images get our attention, so feel free to include some shock value (i.e. nudity, destruction or impossibility) to leave us wet, panting and wanting more.  But if anything is sloppy—i.e. crooked, poorly printed, typos, glue showing, etc—then we'll assume your work for us will be of the same standard and the relationship will be over before it began. Remember that many Art Directors are attention deficit and obviously LIKE ART, but avoid highly conceptual "artsy" photos that make you look like a cheeseball stuck in art school—the world really doesn't need any more photos of cracks in walls, burned out light fixtures or elevator buttons. 8) Do you prefer to see tear sheets or a client list or do you like the work to stand on its own? Again a little redundant, so I refer to my answer on question two above. As said previously, context is huge, so we like to see the work in situ, so if tear sheets are available, that can be effective. We're not huge on seeing a photographer or illustrator's work done specifically for an ad without the rest of the ad. 9) What expectations do you have from local talent in regards to their books? Why would I want local talent to have any different books than others? A book should show thought, care, professionalism, a strategic use of graphic design, an understanding of the kind of work out there and a clear vision of the kind of work they want to pursue. Show us why we should hire you instead of the next guy, or—god forbid—buy stock photography? Like any industry, the key is to demonstrate a differential and advantage to choosing you—but as mentioned, that is often not able to be communicated via your book. There is no secret here: hard work, persistence and professionalism pays off in the end. 10) Do innovative or non-standard portfolios catch your eye or do they waste your time? This can go both ways. We've seen a clever approach captivate as easily as annoy a busy talent buyer. We've seen some old pros go to great lengths and expense to create very fancy, expensive portfolios which completely detract from the work within. A key is to do your homework and determine ahead of time what kind of approach will work for the person you are selling to and be flexible enough to work within their preferences. Try to balance uniqueness against practicality so the book doesn't come off gimmicky. Suggestion: find an elegant vessel to display your work in. Check out Shrapnel Design's portfolios made right here in Vancouver. 11) What kind of leave behinds do you like? Something simple, easy to use that shows something beyond what you just showed us. And instead of bringing it with you, send a follow-up with a *well-written* thank you letter. Perhaps offer to take that first job for cheap or free if that's what it takes to earn their trust. But create something with perceived value, like a frame-ready print, as a way to stay top of mind. Remember that 95% of all leave behinds are destined for the G file. 12) What are some of the things you'd like to see Vancouver image makers doing with their portfolios that makes it more pleasant for you to view? In this market, being a generalist is useful, but find your passion and shoot the shit out of it until you're able to position yourself as a specialist in that area. If you love cars, then shoot cars—lots of them. But be warned—you may need to shoot other stuff and have a separate portfolio to pay the bills. Do your homework first and customize your approach—a generic shotgun blast is a waste of time. Instead of buying a web template (i.e. Livebooks.com) with limited effectiveness, invest in a professional web designer and put them online in a manner that is fast, easy to sort, navigate, zoom in, etc. Can't afford one? Swap services with a designer! Avoid using Flash just because everyone else does (i.e. www.greggerla.com) unless you hire a pro to develop something outstanding (i.e. www.albertwatson.net)—it's hurting your web presence and search ranking (SEO). We created a very simple Flash website solution for local photographer Sven Boecker that seems to work well for him and is easily updatable. Remember, more so than the average consumer—inundated daily with a myriad of media, image and talent—buyers are time-strapped, attention-deficit, lovers of art. Appeal to that however you can. Extra) What did you forget to ask me? – Answer this question: why choose you? What makes you different? Why do you matter to ME? It's usually a human choice, not technical or rational. – Confidence without being an arrogant jerk is attractive. Clients want to feel in good hands. – Synergy and compatibility often trumps a portfolio, but only for those known to be proficient shooters. – Being involved in your professional association has numerous obvious advantages, but you won't find work here—certainly not the work you're looking for long term. Join the associations of related industries like advertising, marketing, design, etc and attend their events—but DO NOT bring your book and start schmoozing like a cheeseball amateur. Be confident and foster real relationships—earn their trust. – Find a mentor: a busy photographer who learns to trust you and recommends you when they are forced to turn down work – Ask for critiques from potential clients or photographers you respect and be willing to receive negative feedback and guidance from those more experienced than you. - Flickr, Behance, deviantART, Computerlove, etc. are great online sites to post work, but keep professional work separate. At least keep the low res work hard to acquire without coming to you formally. - Be a polite stalker and use a personal touch via telephone, in person, hand-written notes. - Be passionate and shoot endlessly. This works for the self-taught, just check out Vancouver's Kris Krüg—he's self taught and in high demand because iof his passion and tenacity. - Word of mouth is far more powerful than web, email and DM. - Don't be afraid to name drop. It works. Who else have you shot for? - Old paradigm: "Cost. Quality. Timing. Pick two." new paradigm: "Cost. Quality. Timing. I want all three." Be all three. Good luck! [post_title] => CAPIC: How to sell your work as a Photographer [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => capic-how-to-sell-your-work-as-a-photographer [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2008-12-30 16:38:50 [post_modified_gmt] => 2008-12-30 23:38:50 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/?p=1996 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 3 [filter] => raw ) -->

CAPIC: How to sell your work as a Photographer

I was recently honoured to be invited to sit on an expert panel at a CAPIC event for their Portfolio Series called Your Body of Work: Launching a Creative Vision for your Photography. The event was about how image makers such as photographe [...]

Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, November 7th, 2008

Categories: Articles | 3 Comments »

I love how Method products push boundaries with provocative designs. Their containers always seemed more like sex toys than consumer goods to me. No other consumer product in recent memory became a common topic of conversations around water coolers and in the kitchen at parties when they first arrived on the scene a number of years ago. Far more than just lollipop plastic soap dispensers, the whole Method line of products excites me. Their philosophy of creating products and packaging that don't harm the environment make them all the more appealing to me. And their use of mild, natural scents that don't make you gag is another example of the thought and care put into the design of their products. Their approach to balancing form and function set them apart—almost like objects d'art with their carefully chosen colors, sexy shapes and smart, recyclable materials. Even the minimal use of copy contributes to the simplicity inherent in each of their designs. Like beautiful glass bottles that I can't bring to myself to throw away and end up in my kitchen, I find myself refilling my Method dispensers with various candy-colored liquid soap. Why recycle bottles when you never throw them out? Brilliant. Method’s industrial design team, led by Creative Director Josh Handy, has repeatedly incorporated creative thinking into their product designs and each iteration or extension seems as innovative and intelligent as the last. Method is one of those companies that is making design important again—without making it intrusive or pretentious. By employing good design and focussing on products that not only work, but stand out from the crowd, they've managed to infiltrate millions of homes—all without the aid of major advertising campaigns mind you. Why should they bother really? When you're standing in the soap aisle at the market, their beautifully designed products stand out in sharp contrast to their numerous competitors. They've managed to make products that make their own demand and deserve the dominant position they've earned in the consumer home goods market. Method Home's products won't cure me of my germaphobia, but in my home, the roles of form and function meld together in seamless beauty as I gleefully squirt the next palm-full of foamy soap and wash those evil germs and bacteria away. Ew. [post_title] => Method Home: Design for Germaphobes [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => method_home_design_for_germaphobes [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2008-08-29 10:48:30 [post_modified_gmt] => 2008-08-29 18:48:30 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/?p=1900 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 4 [filter] => raw ) -->

Method Home: Design for Germaphobes

When you know the germs are out to get you, inspired product and packaging design can make feverish hand-washing a joy. I’ll admit it: I’m a germaphobe. I squirm when in the presence of germs and even talking about bacteria can [...]

Posted by: Mark Busse on Friday, August 29th, 2008

Categories: Articles | 4 Comments »

Start with a brief. If your client can’t compose a simple expression of their goals, objectives, audience, their needs, etc, then how are you going to judge success? Don’t take their word for it. Clients should be respected and likely know a lot about their products, category and probably even their audience, but they don’t have all the answers. Challenge the paradigm, dig into the problem, do a needs analysis—this is called the discovery process: a critical step in design. A good coder is always be ready to be hit by a bus. Research, plan, scope, stick to it. Get organized. Consider your naming nomenclature. Make back ups.  [Suggestion: use an online backup system so it’s off site] Be the audience. If you can’t honestly say you have clarity about who the user base will be, don’t assume. Find out. Go talk to them. Work with your client to develop a persona for the audience and role play user stories. And beyond things like their attitudes and preferences, try to accurate predict their browsing environment and develop with that in mind For example, if standard screen resolution such as 800 x 600 is now down somewhere between 3–6% while 1024 x 768 is about 44%% and 1280 x 1024 is about 33%—why do people still insist on developing for 800 x 600? [stats from w3schools.com] 1024 isn’t 1024 anyway. So you’ve established that the majority of your audience is most likely on a display set to 1280x1024, but bear in mind that not only aren’t all those pixels available to you after you account for all the browser chrome, but who said you have to fill the entire space? How often are you on the web with your browser set to full screen? Consider a standard width of 980 or even as narrow as 960 in case your users have multiple apps open simultaneously. Of course this can also be affected by the grid layout you’ve created for the site—you are using grids, right? You’re not the audience. Shut up. This isn’t about you. Save that for your own website—although even THAT isn’t about you either. Keep your mouth shut and look for solutions to the client’s and audience’s problems. If it isn’t clear, ask more questions. Agile development is awesome. The “agile” approach of skipping all the charts, schematics, wireframes, etc and focusing on being flexible, fast and loose and learning constantly as you go can be a terrific approach once you’re an expert. [Recommended reading: 37signals’ book Getting Real] Agile development is a lie. Well, OK. Not a lie, but be cautious of those who just wing it in favour of careful planning, clear communications and methodologies. Just diving in, launching early, tweaking as you go and flying by the seat of your pants WILL eventually fail you—and may be very costly. And having a well defined process will save you. Example: Nokia mobile advertising.You still need to determine user needs, develop grids and wireframes to produce effective interaction design. Don’t “wing it” or your projects will ultimately fail. [I know, I know, real agile development isn't "winging it", but you get my point here] Flash rocks. Want animation and an platform-independent and easy-to-code environment for a website? Flash baby! Flash sucks. Want to make downloads slower, require plugin compatibility, make a site virtually invisible to search engines, render text & windows not resizable, make subpages and permalinks awkward and make the site difficult for the client to maintain or update? Flash baby! NOTE: flash can be very powerful as a component of a site and with dynamic content is improving, just go easy and make sure you chose Flash for a reason, not just because you can. (example: we designed and produced this award-winning website, but  frankly the site is clunky, slow, hard to use and update, doesn't load half the time and is far too reliant on hacks and feeds) Avoid intros. If you MUST have an intro, then it should be to say something about the brand message or tell a story. If there is a "skip intro" button, such as on this example, something is almost certainly wrong—although there are exceptions to the rule where an intro can say something about the personality behind a brand or help clarify the services or products offered. Reduce, reduce, reduce. Please don’t make me say “Less is more.” Oh shit. There, I said it. But remember, as great as simplicity is, sometimes less is too little. Don’t fight for minimalism and start quoting Bauhaus crap if there isn’t a real need for it driven by the audience and brand message. Some sites can be super cluttered and overly complicated, while others can almost seem broken they are so minimalist, while you can achieve ultra simple in a smart way. Whose server is this, anyway? Get early access to the actual host server and work from there as soon as possible. Don’t get it all dialed in, only to discover the version of PHP or MySQL on their box is different and difficult to change. Confirm the Apache install, how to set up DBs, permissions, where files go, etc. You will break it. Iterate with a backup plan. Use a development environment, staging environment and live environment. Be ready to fall back if bug fixes cause more bugs. [Suggestion: Use a project management system like REDMINE or TRAC tied to a version control system like SUBVERSION or tracking tasks, bugs and versions. Resist feature creep. But know it will happen. It’s inevitable. One “simple” change may have a cascade effect. Never assume it’ll be a no brainer and allow adequate time. Good web takes time. I don’t care if you coded your mom’s blog in four hours or did a whole website in a weekend. They both suck and the kind of web you WANT to be working on takes time. Fight for it and convince your clients to give you time to percolate as well as time to research, plan, organize, document, write good code and TEST. Test, test, test. For god’s sake, check it on various platforms and browsers. Use your friends as guinea pigs and watch them interact with the site! If you can't test on new and old platforms and various browsers, then at least utilise sites like www.browsercam.com or www.browsershots.com. Where am I? I wanna go home. Facilitate clear indications of where a user is on a site by adding “breadcrumb trail” navigation or changing the state of nav used to reinforce the button or section selected by the user—you’d be surprised how often this is ignored or unclear. And not everyone knows a logo is the home link! Provide a global home link as a button if possible—at least in the footer as a secondary option for those who don’t figure it out. And avoid “mystery meat” navigation, regardless of how innovative or creative it seems. (example: Duff may be the Ace of Cakes, but his website navigation is baffling) Dress to the left. Stats show that the majority of web users read top down, left to right—so for god’s sake, don’t hide your logo or vital navigation elements bottom right where it may be cut off or hidden with a smaller browser window. Boing! Pop! Huh? If pop ups, new windows on click or browser resizes are so great, why do all the latest browsers block them? No pop ups! And I’ll open a link in a new page or make the browser fullscreen if I want, thank you. And please don't hijack my browser. [example: here's a very slick look design studio's website that resizes to fullscreen, completely hijacks the browser and navigation toobar and doesn't dynamically resize if you change the browser window. This is just plain rude.] Study usability and user experience. Have you read Bill Moggridge’s Designing Interactions yet? Do it today. Drop the drop downs. If you’ve read Moggridge, you would use JavaScript drop down menus with caution. They can difficult to code, awkward to use and inconsistent across platforms and browsers. Not to mention they jump open and closed, often blocking content beneath them, require tweening to keep from feeling clunky and harsh and when cascading, get impossibly finicky. This article called Sons of Suckerfish has some great guidance how to best create effects like drop downs (among others) in a reliable fashion. [example: the new www.gdc.net is a beautiful website to look at, but the long drop down menus crowded together make the navigation cumbersome and awkward to use] Extensions make the permalink Ya ya, most servers these days can parse .htm, .html and php correctly, but .htm is “cruft” and makes you look like you’re coding for DOS with its antiquated three character maximum naming convention. Human don't read code. Not well anyway. And human-readable URLs (permalinks) are just so much more friendly and easy to reference. [example: a URL like http://www.mydomain.com/option,com_mtree/task,listcats/cat_id,1778/Itemid,35/ would be so much better as http://www.mydomain.com/component/download] How do I scroll? Scroll bars should look like scroll bars, not fancy new arrows you created or that funky Flash component you dropped in. And internal scroll bars basically suck anyway (sorry Flash lovers). Sometimes a site requires a smart approach to scroll bars, so be smart about it—don’t try to be innovative or take short cuts. It’s just plain annoying and hinders usability. Footers, like feet, keep things from falling over. Take a queue from our friends at Apple who always design three ways to do anything, and make footers part of your design up front, don’t just tack them on as an after-thought. Simple, unobtrusive footers can be an excellent way to improve navigation in a content-heavy site. I suggest that if you need to include a sitemap (which can be very useful) then your navigation may need to be re-thought. Colour doesn’t really matter, does it? Yes, it does. Big time. And is one of the most powerful web design tools available—and often screwed up. I won’t bore you with a long rant about colour spaces and the difficulties of predicting accurate colour display online, but I will say this: people perceive colour as vital part of any designed product. The Institute for Color Research reports that "all human beings make a subconscious judgment about an item within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone." Heck, recent surveys show that 40% of Amercian car buyers stated they’d change brands if they couldn’t get the colour of their choice. Make sure you understand the emotive power of colour and chose combinations of colours that work [Tip: if using a colour wheel is foreign to you, check out Adobe's Kuler application for a good online tool for picking colour palettes that work] Show them. Don’t assume clients—or even designers or art directors—will be able to envision what you are talking about: show them. Send proofs in situ so they see it live, online in a browser. [example: www.industrialbrand.com/CLIENTS/yaaway] Build around real content. Though not always possible, try to avoid using Lorem Ipsum as placeholder text in favour of designing around real content. Using Lorem Ipsum isn’t creating a *real* user experience and may be forgotten, running the risk of launching a website filled with gibberish. Don't believe me? Here's a friend's website that has been live for years with Lorem Ipsum as his bio copy. How hard is it to produce a couple paragraphs of bio copy? What does that say? Bad font choices, small type or low contrast are common boo boos. Don’t make this mistake—make your text easy to read. If it doesn’t survive the squint test, fix it. And learn the basics of typesetting—they are just as relevant here as they are in print. For example, long line lengths cause eye strain and decrease readability. [example: www.gameaquarium.com - what IS Game Aquarium anyway?] Web fonts doesn’t mean bad typography. This is probably one of the most common pet peeves among traditionally trained graphic designers who take pride in choosing just the right typeface and using it intelligently to aid the overall message behind a page. Web is not print, but a similarly calculated approach to type, its size, colour, placement, etc., helps establish a hierarchy and order of things—remember that. If you've ever read Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style (and you really should), then check out  www.webtypography.net which translates the basic rules of type usage to the web. [example: www.coudal.com uses straight up web safe fonts and clean CSS styling] I wish I could zoom in. If your site design doesn’t afford room for large images, but products or photos are key communicators, then build in the functionality to enlarge the images so the viewer can take a closer look. And don’t assume the user will know to click—add text like “click to view image”. We often use Lightbox JS, which is a simple, unobtrusive script used to overlay images on the current page. Alternatively, link thumbnail images to larger images, such as we did here on www.davedelibato.com. [example: www.meja.ca required larger images of their projects, so we used Lightbox] I already have iTunes and YouTube, thanks. I don’t need a website that plays music, thanks. And if you MUST have a video auto-play on the site, set it up to do it on first visit and not repeat visits via cookies. If the site has a mute button or “skip” button, something is likely wrong. [example: www.vfs.com is a media school and the marketing video on the home page auto plays only on the first visit] Nothing new here. Don’t create sites with a “News” sections if it’s not really needed, your client isn’t committed to keeping it fresh or they aren’t able to update the page. There’s a new thing called CMS, learn how to use one. Make it work. Old school works. Don’t follow what everyone else is doing and avoid trying to fix what ain’t broke. And don’t try to be an innovator (yet anyway). There are so many variables and technical limitations—be flexible and work within the basics. If you want people to know it’s a link, then use hinted text and make it obvious it’s clickable (i.e coloured & underlined). Y’all got a big pipe. If you assume everyone has a web connection as fast as yours, you’re a fool. The majority of the world is still on slow connections like dial up. So strive to create tiny website to reduce load time. And use intelligent techniques such as dynamically loading menu/nav items using PHP so you have only one file to update. Look at sites that suck. Browsing all the wonderful “best of” lists and award-winners is great, but consider looking at BAD websites and learn from them. Web Pages That Suck is a good resource. Step away from the screen. Get off your computer and consider the problem as a spatial one. Remember your sketch pad? Go get it and draw! Plan on paper. Consider the content and space with client objectives and audience needs in mind. Wireframes are your friend. All the previous stuff should be obvious to many. If not, you have some work ahead of you. If I had my way I’d make new web design students spend a whole term drawing grids and wireframes for an entire term before letting produce their first line of code. It’s all about usability folks. Web is not just pretty graphics or cool tricks. Your final templates should be pixel-for-pixel swaps for your carefully planned wireframes. Are you doing an illustration? Then why are you laying out web pages in Adobe Illustrator? We’re striving for precise pixels here folks—use Photoshop or Fireworks. This is so common and always introduces problems. Web is not print. So don't create images in CMYK or PMS. Create your Photoshop images in RGB, but be aware that the majority of the web is actually sRGB (only Safari really fully supports RGB), so make sure to switch your Adobe Color Settings to North American Web/Internet and Save for Web & Devices which will ensure that it is in the sRGB colour space. Backgrounds can be lovely. I disagree that those who claim backgrounds should be unnoticeable. While primarily a framing element behind text and images, I think backgrounds are a powerful way to add tone, emotion and style to a website when used with care and with reserve. Add to that some consistent graphics element from page to page and you can create a “sense of place”. But for god sack, avoid using honkin' big image backgrounds. [example: Dave Shea, author of CSS Zen Garden, uses subtle background on his website as does Psyop on their site] Write beautiful code. Lovely code can be a gorgeous thing indeed. And well commented and organized code is much easier to understand and update when you (or someone else) needs to make changes six months later. Here's a decent overview of What Beautiful HTML Code Looks Like. [example: a local developer partner of ours, Ryan Ilg, is passionate about clean code and it shows in the source code behind his personal website] Meta my ass. Please remember to add meta tags, description, keywords, page titles, etc and register your sites with search engines. And consider including descriptive page titles. It may not be full-on SEO, but it’s the right thing to do. Get fast. Learn shortcuts. Find resources and tools. Create a methodology that allows you to differentiate yourself as a fast, accurate and dependable developer. And start collecting code, images, objects, etc so you can quickly solve repeat challenges in future. Start using tools such as the Coda, Firefox's Web Developer toolbar, Firebug, Color Picker and XScope. Be compliant. Validate that beautiful code you developed so quickly! W3C's Markup Validation Service is a fast way to make sure your code will work as expected. Write goodly. Use simple language and spell check you scallywags! There’s nothing worse—from as branding perspective—than typos and bad grammar. Most good code editors, such as TextMate for example, have built in spell checking. Are you a web designer or hosting company? Don’t try to do everything—regardless of how tempting it is to get monthly fees for hosting a site. The responsibility will yours to keep the server up and site online, so leave this to the experts. Respect your employers. Especially if you’re providing coding for a design firm. How do they work? Do they need working files? Are there confidentiality issues? Are you even allowed to take credit for the work you did? Are you allowed to put a credit link on the site or in the source code? Make sure you ask if it isn't clear in your contract. The computer screen is already obsolete. Yup. It’s true. And for all you iPhone fanatics it should be obvious to you by now. If you’d like to have a career in the interactive media arts, you have to think mobile and design and develop for "the fourth screen". Good web design is simply good design. Bad design is still bad, regardless how sweet the back end is. Remember the “form follows function” lesson? I think the most important point I can offer in conclusion is that the web today needs good designers more than it does coders. The debate whether classically trained print designers are capable of create good websites seems silly to me, but I think it's time skilled print designers step up, retool and apply their training to this important medium and help raise the bar. I'm really tired of seeing websites with great functionality and technology behind them, but a clear lack of graphic design or usability thought applied to the interface design. Just like in print design, it behooves us to apply the same careful use of composition, layout, grids, colour, typography, hierarchy, simplicity, etc. to design GOOD websites. So here's the challenge: compose your next web project around real content using a carefully structured grid layout, scalable, centred orientation and based on an appropriate screen resolution. Choose web safe colours and type faces that not only aid readability, but work together to express the feeling and tone behind the site, its message and goals as defined by your client brief and research into the problem, industry, competition and audience. Resist using flashy technology in favour of a suitable technology that will actually work toward achieving your clients web needs. Simplify your layout, allow for plenty of whitespace and respect established conventions, presenting a visual hierarchy and navigation system that makes it clear to the user how to interact with the site's content. And be smart about your production methods and always be ready to be hit by a bus. [post_title] => Web Tips: Be Ready To Be Hit By A Bus [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => web_tips_be_ready_to_be_hit_by_a_bus [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2009-05-05 13:17:56 [post_modified_gmt] => 2009-05-05 20:17:56 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/?p=1864 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 2 [filter] => raw ) -->

Web Tips: Be Ready To Be Hit By A Bus

An unstructured list of experiences, pet peeves, and advice surrounding interactive design and development. Let’s make something clear right now: I’m not a trained web developer. Nor am I any sort of interactive expert in my opi [...]

Posted by: Mark Busse on Thursday, July 24th, 2008

Categories: Articles, Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Then there are shows we've never heard of, or with questionable materials (I mean, if you can't design a decent CFE, how are you going to judge our work and by what standards? Then there's the consideration of fit. Do I really want to enter a project done for a university into a consumer category? Or, if the show has so many categories that I can find one that's an exact match for almost any work in any industry, what are they trying to accomplish and how competitive is the show? Are they awarding one winner in each category or the top percentage of entries? Do they charge you more for a recognition certificate or statue? Who are the judges? What sort of work has won in the past? You get my point. I suppose there are some firms that set aside a decent budget to enter awards as a form of marketing strategy. There are certainly no shortage of clients looking to work for award winning agencies, but that's not guarantee they are going to get award winning work. Then again, what else can we do with our often limited resources than hand it over to award shows that seem to exist merely as a business to make their producers money? I suggest there are quite a few things we can think of. As long as we can keep a steady roster of clients interested in good, solid, effective and business-objective-oriented work and not simply chase awards at all costs. We love it when these things can coexist of course. We'll always enter our best work into the best shows (not throw everything at every show in every category), but personally, we'd rather pay our staff more money, take them out more often or treat our great clients to a nice meal than toss a wad of cash at award shows that exist soley to make money. What's your experience, and what shows do you regard as the best? Be great to have a decent list and list some of your experiences here. [post_title] => Sorting Award Shows [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => sorting_award_shows [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2008-07-18 13:50:24 [post_modified_gmt] => 2008-07-18 21:50:24 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/?p=1855 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 1 [filter] => raw ) -->

Sorting Award Shows

Just today I was trying to decide whether to bother entering a few of our recent web projects into the W3 Awards and was in a bit of a fence-sitting position about it. Over the course of a year we are becoming bombarded by more and more awa [...]

Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, July 18th, 2008

Categories: Articles | 1 Comment »

The choice of presentation topics at major conferences has always interested me. There were just under 4000 people at the 2008 HOW Design Conference representing an extremely diverse level of skills and interests. As is the case with any conference, I found some presentations that captivated me, and others I walked out of after three minutes. Three sessions stuck out for me and I am looking forward to seeing their influence start to appear in my personal and professional life. Sunday began with Ilise and Peleg from Marketing Mentor's workshop on marketing and pricing for designers with some great advice and strategies applicable for both newbies and the most seasoned professional. Lunch was a dynamic and engaging networking lunch with Speed Dating-style time limits on how long everyone could spend speaking with a particular person or group. This truly was the ice-breaker and got the social flow started for us. Sunday afternoon Mark and I both took part in a session run by Kathy Burton called Can't We All Just Get Along centered around the DiSC personality assessment. The concept seemed simple, you take a personality test, you get your results back and then you learn how these results tell you more about yourself. Except we talked about the results in a pretty unexpected way. The DiSC profile sets out four character traits, and provides a breakdown of which traits are dominant. The results are designed to give us the tools to better communicate with, manage and interact with people in our lives. Not exactly the stuff blisteringly hot blog posts are made of, but it gave me some tools that I will use on a regular basis from here on out. Sustainability is an increasingly frequent buzz word and designers, at least Canadian designers, seem to be increasingly interested in it. Eric Karjaluoto has been a leading advocate for sustainability within the Vancouver design community. Tired of having sustainability be an afterthought in the design process, Eric and his firm, smashLAB, developed DesignCanChange.org which is an educational site on sustainability aimed at designers. I have found that the audience for sustainability talks are often made up of the converted and I can include myself in this category. After all, I was the converted right? Recycle, don't load up on paper samples, I'm doing my part. Right? Except this presentation shifted my thinking in only an hour. The majority of us have gotten from point A to point B in the sense that most offices have recycling bins and we all use FSC paper. The fact is that getting from point A to point B isn't good enough and we need to get to point C, or D, or Z. Greenwashing, is fairly rampant in all industries (and political elections of all sorts) and complacency seems to be setting in over the continued pursuit of sustainability. Eric outlined the example of "upselling" a client from 3000 to 5000 direct mail piece because the cost per unit would go down saving the client money in the long run regardless of whether the additional units would be used. Simply recycling is not enough anymore, we need to start to looking for our ways in our industry to reduce the need for recycling. The lasting impact of this presentation was a call to action for all designers to visit DesignCanChange.org and take the pledge about how to to increase sustainability in our practices. One of the most impactful points that Eric made was that in a society where sustainability is a (seemingly) huge concern and certainly all designers should be aware of it, if not actively practicing it, it wasn't practiced at this conference. There were no recycling bins anywhere in the conference center. Cans and bottles went in the garbage. On top of that, everywhere you looked paper handouts were being distributed. Now, sure these were printed on FSC Certified paper, and can be recycled when we don't need them anymore, but that should be considered an antiquated view of what sustainability is. We got a HUGE binder in the registration package and we literally saw people walking out of trade booth exhibits looking like Himalayan Sherpas carrying all their free schwag home—ultimately to throw nearly all of it away. Not only that but people got so much, the FedEx booth was backed up the last day while everyone shipped their stuff home. Is this the best way? Is this sustainable? While I commend HOW for putting on a great conference, this needs to be addressed in upcoming conferences. Some highlight's on Monday included Joe Duffy's "A Designed Life", an informative presentation on design research by EnSpace's Jenn and Ken Visocky O'Grady and Andy Epstein's perspectives and suggestions on how to survive as a designer in a world of words. There were also a number of practical informative sessions for the more inexperienced young designer on planning, communication, management and prepress techniques. The day ended with a "happy hour" which was more like 4000 people standing in line for a free drink, so we bailed and went to an Irish pub across the street (we were in Boston after all). Tuesday began with an enthused crowd hanging on Charles S. Anderson's every word in one room, while a more subdued group sat back and enjoyed Debbie Millman coo and coddle Pentagram's Michael Bierut in the next room. The morning also saw David C. Baker rip through another round of his classically rational ("why didn't I think of that?") advice, this time on being a first time manager in a design studio environment. Rob Wallace from Wallace Church presented his thoughts on how designers can quantify design value to business clients, reinforcing the idea that design itself is finally being recognized as a core competency and that good design truly is good business and ultimately drives profit. A particularly popular presentation was given by Wayne Geyer of GeyerCom called "Write More Good: Copywriting for Visual Thinkers" which dove into some simple and easily applicable writing strategies that any designer can apply in his or her own practice. To end the day Mark and I wanted to check out a presentation on Church Marketing due entirely to a project that we've been working on recently but after five minutes it was clear that it wasn't for us and faced with an early trip to the bar, or check out the session next door, we wandered next door into a presentation that had been getting some good hype all day. Now granted this presentation didn't have that much to do with design, but it was hands down the most entertaining one that I saw all week long. The presenter was Chad Pregracke speaking about his crusade to clean up rivers that started with the Mississippi 11 years ago and continues to expand to this day. The amazing part was the energy that Chad brought to the stage. The energy and passion was unreal but his sense of humour was off the wall and he talked a mile a minute. His story has been an unparalleled success story so far and I expected the presentation to end with a call to action about how we can get involved with his organization, donate money or spread the word. Quite the opposite; he ended with request to all of us to engage with something that we were passionate about, regardless of what it is. (to see what you missed check out a clip of Chad Pregracke on YouTube from a previous talk). There were also studio tours, portfolio reviews, breakout sessions, book signings (for the design star f*ckers) networking lunches, happy hour receptions, parties and more. There was also the obligatory giant trade show area filled with booths from the numerous sponsors and the book store where you could easily spend the price of the conference on pretty design books to lug back home. We passed on lugging books around in favour of dinner and drinks with friends and explored Boston's pubs and live music scene—oh yeah, and drank Bruce Willis' vodka in his hotel room. (no Bruce wasn't there!) A longstanding tradition at design conferences are presenters merely showing pretty slides of their portfolio and telling anecdotes about their career or studio history. Even when organizers ask speakers to avoid this, it tends to frequently happen—as it did at HOW. I recognize it must be terribly difficult to balance speaker topic load and appeal for every attendee, and I heard positive feedback from these portfolio heavy presentations, but it really does seem wasteful and self-congratulatory when a successful designer stands on stage and regales the young and easily influenced with their sexy solutions with little or no explanation of context, rational, explanation of process, or information about the creative brief itself. Many people, like us, traveled great distances to attend HOW, hoping to learn new things and take some lessons back to their own studio practice. If we really wanted to see all the posters designed by a studio over the last 20 years, couldn't we have viewed them on their website? Now if these lovely images were used as poignant examples of design methodologies or solutions to articulated business problems, then bring it on. As is often the case when Mark and I travel together, he dragged me out to experience all the nightlife that Boston has to offer and on the last night of the conference, we ended our night with a 7AM breakfast, only to take a quick power-nap and head off to the closing keynote given by Bill Strickland described in the program as a story that will "inspire you as he explains the impact of art on his life and his desire to share with others what art has done for him. He’ll provide tips and strategies for inspiring others—and yourself—to excellence, and offer personal insight into overcoming obstacles and creating your own success." Now one can't dispute that Bill's story is a fantastic one that is inspirational, but there were no tips of strategies given for myself or others. Inspirational? Sure. Relevant? Not a chance. As described in the catalogue with lessons on design leadership we could all take home to apply in our own careers? Nope. Worth the extra effort to attend after an all-nighter with friends? Not a chance. I've returned from events such as these many times and every time I return spent (emotionally, physically and financially!) it's tiring to absorb as many presentations as we did and it's draining to meet and get the opportunity to engage and learn from so many inspirational people that I did but it is oh-so unbelievably worth it. There are many five minute conversations that I had and witnessed that had as much influence on me as some of the presentations and that's the reason why I keep going back. But being inspired by four days away in a foreign city is easy when compared to continuing that inspiration and drive back into your regular life. Four days back into my "regular" life I find myself being snapped back to the norm and need to capture the heightened sense of creativity, drive and inspiration. HOW was just the latest stimulant for me to learn about myself, my profession and my craft; I can't wait for the next. Pictures of our time can be viewed online in this group call HOW Design Conference on Flickr. [post_title] => HOW to survive Boston [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => how_to_survive_boston [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2008-05-25 22:35:37 [post_modified_gmt] => 2008-05-26 06:35:37 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/how_to_survive_boston-2 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) -->

HOW to survive Boston

After leaving my house in Vancouver at 5AM, flying all day to finally check into our hotel in Boston at 6PM, Mark and I were exhausted. Time to check in, take a nap and then find a good meal. Not only did we arrive at a super swank boutique [...]

Posted by: Steve Mynett on Sunday, May 25th, 2008

Categories: Articles | No Comments »

While the GDC members and the guest of honor were out for dinner, I had been eagerly anticipating the presentation, thanks to our brief encounter. The venue was filled with energy upon arrival. Those lucky enough to get tickets enjoyed drinks and food, while others stood in line hoping to get tickets and stand at the back. Amid all of this, the man everyone is waiting to see slips out, for a smoke, and invited me along. Saying, "I'll smoke, you don't have to." Our conversations flowed from race, to photography, to children, and to culture. In that brief moment I caught his thoughts on independence, his journeys around the world, and questioning why the Chinese are growing in power. It made it easier to confirm his stance on the design industry in New York, "If you are a designer with a really well-done portfolio, New York is the place to be." Two cigarettes and a carrot stick later, the show must begin. After an intro story about sea elephants and blowjobs, Sagmeister captures everyones attention by yelling "Shut the fuck up!" into the mic. He dove into a studio profile: music business design (a music building 'Casa de Musica' logo approach), socially responsible design (Pentagon squandering with creative approaches, the pig car train and topsy-turvy bus), and corporate design (a lighting company corporate report using same embossed relief of a flower under many lighting conditions). At this point I'm building a large interest on seeing these pieces in real life, not on the screen or magazines. If only a Canadian organization can commission a project, I won't need to fly to Lisbon or New York. The pace was steady, the audience was enchanted. His energy heightened as the second half approached, Sagmeister switched to his series, "Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far." To document Sagmeister's inspirational qualities is a bit of a chore, he truly is someone you have to meet to understand. One of the messages he did refresh for me, was the importance of representing internal reflection in creative ways. It doesn’t take much, just a little time and “schwoopdeeboop,” you might end up with something great. Before the presentation was over, his books were all sold, and the line up for autographs had begun. There is mystery and hype surrounding Sagmeister, but there are no smoke and mirrors involved in his work. What he does and how he does it has a certain flavour, but when it comes down to it he isn't a celebrity designer with an attitude, in person, he's just like anyone else. An equal amount of people support and oppose his work; there are other designers that are provocative and inspiring. Although design used to equal fart, the truth of the matter is that Sagmeister dances on the tightrope between art and design. [post_title] => Sagmeister: Design, Inspiration and Sea Elephant Blowjob [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => sagmeister_design_inspiration_and_sea_elephant_blowjob [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2008-05-14 12:49:44 [post_modified_gmt] => 2008-05-14 20:49:44 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/sagmeister_design_inspiration_and_sea_elephant_blowjob [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) -->

Sagmeister: Design, Inspiration and Sea Elephant Blowjob

If I was asked who Stefan Sagmeister was a week ago, I could’ve given a handful of knee-jerk descriptions; he’s a designer, he’s provocative, he’s influential. I could’ve said many things to describe the icon h [...]

Posted by: Steph Co on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Categories: Art, Articles, Events, Guest, Inspiration, Learning, We love | No Comments »

With this in mind, I've been enjoying events put on my ACM Siggraph Vancouver recently. Siggraph Vancouver is the local chapter of the Special Interest Group of Computer Graphics of the Association of Computer Graphics. My first experience with them was a lecture on the development of Turok, developed by Vancouver-based Propaganda Games. The presentation featured 7 of the department leads from Propaganda talking about their experiences, processes and challenges in the different stages of game production. Hearing the talks on developing the game play for the different levels, I was surprised as to the depth of similarities between developing a brand for a client and branding a foreign alien planet. The systems are very similar but the implementations and executions are obviously rather different. The next event featured Michael Rubin and Dr. Alvy Smith to talk to a sold out theater at the Vancity Theatre on April 16th. Ruben was on a book tour promoting his new book, Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution and Siggraph had brought Dr. Alvy Smith (formally of Pixar, Lucasfilm and others) to round out the presentation. Like virtually every other kid growing up in the 70's and 80's, I've been a huge fan of Star Wars but have never been aware of any of the stories behind the film. Rubin opened up the evening with a one hour presentation about the history and importance of Lucasfilm. What overwhelmed me was the amount of information in his talk. Each small topic could have been an entire presentation. He'd throw out stories that ended with "...and what's how we invented digital audio. So after that we had to...." and you'd be left with a spinning head trying to comprehend how this ranch in the middle of the California dessert was responsible for reshaping many of the film techniques that had previously been accepted as standard. Rubin finely balanced the fine line of giving a compelling lecture that engages the audience, but still left everyone wanting to buy his book. At the break Rubin was inundated with requests for book signings consequently the break lasted a bit too long. Near the end of the break the buzz was forming for Dr. Alvy Smith to speak. Smith's presentation seemed to engage the majority of the audience, presumably those already familiar with the Lucasfilm story and it's major players, but for someone who wasn't as familiar with the story, the presentation was simply recounting stories from the good ol' days. Names like Ross Perot and Steve Jobs were interweaved with the history of Lucasfilm, Pixar and much of the cinematographic digital revolution that started in the early 80's. Ultimately, after 90 minutes, I had to leave early to wander into Yaletown for some late night eats. The little boy in me has to say that hearing first hand stories from Star Wars and Star Trek was freakkin cool! Beyond the boyish appeal these stories had, I was left with a few lasting impression. Lucasfilm was born in opposition to the old boys club in Hollywood in the 70's. The studio environment of the previous 50 years had created a tight group of studio executives that we not willing to give young filmmakers (Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola as outlined in Droidmaker) a chance to make movies. Yet as the history post-Lucasfilm was told, it appeared as if there was a new old boys club. All the spinoffs from Lucasfilm and it's devisions lead to Pixar (which had heavy involvement from Steve Jobs). In a post-Star Wars Hollywood environment, the same names kept on coming up again and again linked with many studios and important films. It's not necessarily the bad thing that it was in the early 70's as the proliferation of technology has opened up the independent film genera, but it's still a few controlling a lot. Much of legacy of George Lucas has been in the technological advancements that he made. Not being a cinophile, nor having taken any notes, I can't remember any of the countless examples told by Rubin with enough detail to recount now, but these advancements were born out of necessity and ingenuity. Lucas wanted digital audio, but it didn't exist, so they made it. The story tells so simply but countless man hours and frustration were sunk into these projects but also that necessity fueled invention. Siggraph continues to bring in a solid list of events and coming up to celebrate their 5 year anniversary is Visual Futurist: The Art & Life of Syd Mead on May 14th. The presentation will feature a talk by Mead and then a screening of the uncut version of Blade-runner. Our friends over at Siggraph have had tickets on sale for a while and they should be sold out soon! [post_title] => Droidmaker [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => droidmaker [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2008-05-02 07:57:54 [post_modified_gmt] => 2008-05-02 15:57:54 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/droidmaker [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 2 [filter] => raw ) -->

Droidmaker

The drive to improve and succeed has increasingly lead to professionals in all trades to specify down to minute processes in projects. A photoshop artist will focus entirely on fashion retouching, or an interactive designer will draw boxes [...]

Posted by: Steve Mynett on Friday, May 2nd, 2008

Categories: Articles | 2 Comments »

DIY? The conference actually started for me on Sunday, September 23rd, having missed the opening gala and PopVox Awards ceremony on Saturday night, though I heard it was well attended and a good party by all accounts. Sunday began with the Canadian premiere of Infest Wisely, by writer Jim Munroe. Hailed as "DIY triumph", this "lo-fi, sci-fi movie in seven episodes"—each directed by a different director—was more like "DIY drivel". Blurry, poorly lit and lacking any continuity or compelling story, it was no surprise to learn that it had only cost Munroe $750 to produce the film. Perhaps it was a good thing there were no more than 15 people in attendance. It stood out in stark contrast to the highly polished sci-fi series Sanctuary, screened as a complete two hour series for the first time. Produced in Vancouver by Stage 3 Media, Sanctuary is delivered as webisodes via the Internet. While not the first time a series has been created for the Web, it is apparently the only high quality HD production of this calibre. Conquer The Spiders I’m all for an intensive, more intimate conference though I’m not convinced that was the intention of the event organizers. Where were the heavy hitters this year? While certainly interesting, Ori Brafman’s opening keynote did not have the same impact as Nolan’s and he’d recently been to Vancouver earlier in the year for the Northern Voice blogging conference. Perhaps this is an unfair criticism, since Brafman’s talk did give pause for thought to those who missed him in February on how businesses can organize to avoid the same pitfalls that befell the Aztecs at the hands of the Spanish. Using historical precedent starting with asking why such a highly developed civilization fell so quickly to such a small invading force, Brafman’s book, The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations, provides insight into how the typical hierarchical structure of yesterday’s corporations makes them similarly vulnerable. In fact, until the Spanish encountered the Apaches in the 1680s, their techniques were very effective. What was different was that the Apaches had no formal, only symbolic, leadership and thus managed to deflect defeat in much the same way a starfish has regenerative power should a limb be amputated. According to Branfman, don’t ask "who’s in charge?", instead ask, "where’s the power?" What he found was a long list of David vs. Goliath like takeovers of what one would have previously thought of as unstoppably dominant players in a variety of industries. Some examples include: Wikipedia vs. Encyclopedia Britannica; Craigslist vs. The LA Times (and basically any classifieds section of any paper); Skype vs. AT&T and even Osama bin Laden vs. USA. "Shadow networks" he calls them. The success and spread of Alcoholics Anonymous isn’t in its founder, but that anyone, anywhere can start their own group. And therein lies the power – if one should die, another is there to carry on in its place. In an interesting aside, Branfman mentions that he noticed that Wikipedia was short an entry on The Ropers, a late 1970s sitcom spinoff to Three’s Company and so took it upon himself to add one. He didn’t elaborate on what circumstances led him to do this, yet in the moment of revealing perhaps a little too much personal information, illustrated the reason why decentralization is so critical to the strength of these new "starfish" organizations. Mob Mentality Ever wonder what would happen to professional sports if there were no referees? A good example is a panel discussion with an unprepared moderator. While undoubtedly a successful businesswoman, Jennifer Ouano wasn’t able to guide the debate through a thoughtfully progressive and linear stream directly related to the main topic: The Wisdom of Crowds: Web 2.0 Democracy or Mob Mentality. Thankfully, a few of the speakers kept things lively . In fact, Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amatuer: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture, lived up to the promise of his last name with sharp, intelligent observations and an almost delightfully aggressive stance that kept the other panelists on their toes. I’d have preferred to see him as moderator of this or any panel. Searing Flesh. Baby, You’ve Been Branded The previous session only made the well organized moderators—who clearly knew and understood their material at this session—appear even more together as they kept things interesting and on topic. However, one of the downsides of short presentations is that it’s difficult to get into the kind of detail people really want to know about. Such was the case with Baby, You’ve Been Branded. Rather than learn all that much about how marketers can soft-sell their brands to today’s online youth, I found Dave Sylvestre’s show-and-tell of MixSherpa.com rather inspiring. MixSherpa is the kind of creative, take-it-to-the-next-level, I-can’t-believe-the-client-let-you-do-that work that we all aspire to be able to create. In fact, later in the day at one of the many social functions, I had occasion to talk to Dave. Remember those commercials for American Express with Jerry Seinfeld and the animated Superman? That was Dave’s old firm that did those. Turns out he left his own company to work at Organic.com (a large, international interactive agency) precisely so he could gain access to more high-level clients with budgets to let him do big things. A calculated move for sure, but also an interesting insight that could easily have spawned a session of its own. Karim Cage Match The Opus Hotel was a smashing venue to hold post-day "Happy Hours" with free drinks courtesy of the event sponsors. It was there I remembered that often the true value of a conference is more often the energy and interactions we have outside of the organized sessions. Business deals initiated, friendships and alliances made, conversation and intellectual exchange deepened. Ran into Joshua Davis not doing a great job of being modest, but then why the hell should he? He’s immensely successful, an entertaining presenter and according to him, doesn’t have to do all that much to keep the work and cash flowing in. In what was clearly a stroke of brilliance by event organizers, they brought Joshua back again this year not to speak for one hour, but to lead a group of 30 people through a half-day workshop. It was apparently very well received by those who attended. Joshua was clearly as stoked about the course as we were about his new iPhone (still impressive for us Canadians who have as yet been unable to officially acquire these from our local mobile service providers). Got a good scoop from Joshua too. For those of you into interior design, pretty soon you’ll be able to toss your design iteration trash into a Joshua Davis-designed garbage pail courtesy of Umbra. Umbra, famous for having pink-suited, plastic-obsessed Karim Rashid designing many of their products, has recently signed Joshua on to design an entire line for 2008. I can’t think of more polar opposites in terms of personal styles. I suggested to Davis that I’d love to see Umbra shoot a commercial with him dressed in a pink suit duking it out with Karim in an Ultimate Fighting Match. Pink vs. Tattoo I’d call it. Davis laughed, but I could tell he’d never be caught dead in pink. Grab Your Partner Tuesday morning began with the final keynote of the conference. John Walker from Pixar films inspired the attendees with a look back at Pixar Productions animated films and discussed some of his experiences and recommendations surrounding partnering with studios on large projects. It was refreshing and insightful—the kind of presentation I had longed for more of the previous day. After a couple days of presentations and social mixers, fatigue was setting in and my mind began to drift back to the office and what I was missing. The planned meetings with various potential clients, vendors and partners billed as the International Partnering Forum were causing me some stress. Thankfully, my fears were misplaced as the day turned out to be a terrific experience and proved to me again how valuable and worthwhile a conference can actually be. Throughout the remainder of the day I met with various company representatives in a sort of ‘speed dating’ style of quick 30-minute conferences at tables dispersed throughout the conference venue. Perhaps because I went into the day with fairly low expectations, I found myself pleasantly surprised by how interesting all these creative professionals were. I really enjoyed hearing about design, production and media companies and their plans for growth and expansion. The industry lunch, hosted by PricewaterhouseCoopers at the Opus Hotel, was rather delicious, a welcome break and good chance to continue conversations with old industry friends and new contacts from the forum. The day ended on a high note back at the Opus for another “Happy Hour”. Over drinks, a friend reminded me that you always get more out of an event when you aren’t driven by a purely self-serving ‘what can you do for me’ attitude. So true. Next Year The conference didn’t wow me this year, with more misses than hits from the organized part of the program. With the recent news that long-time president of New Media BC and the Executive Producer of VIDFEST, Lynda Brown, is leaving it should be interesting to see not only where New Media BC goes, but what will happen to VIDFEST for 2008. One can only hope that Lynda’s replacement will bring new energy and excitement to the event, and take it from "micro" back to "macro". More photos of Vidfest available here. [post_title] => Vidfest 2007 Coverage [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => vidfest-2007-coverage [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2007-11-02 15:59:33 [post_modified_gmt] => 2007-11-02 23:59:33 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/vidfest-2007-coverage [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) -->

Vidfest 2007 Coverage

As featured on Design Taxi Macro or Micro? The new Vancouver International Film Centre seems like the perfect venue for something called VIDFEST, a five day “festival” put on by New Media BC and meant to connect and promote the [...]

Posted by: Ben Garfinkel on Friday, November 2nd, 2007

Categories: Articles | No Comments »

I chose to dedicate one full day to attend a conference on interactive design called iDesign . The schedule was well arranged with all talks in the 15-25 minute range. The lectures were grouped in three or four with a Q&A after which was sometimes the most interesting part. I found the day's events to be well organized and informative. Generally conferences tend to cater to either the technical aspects of Interactive Design or the minutia of photoshop techniques but iDesign concentrated on high level subjects with interesting conversations about the illusive and often hyped buzzword, Convergence. By no doubt the most common subject throughout the day was User Generated Content (UGC), the web 2.0's silver bullet and I'll comment more on this later. The day was chaired by Simon Waterfall the president of D&AD and creative distractor of Poke is a cocky Jude-Law-lookalike who, apart from a few condescending remarks about how expensive he is, had some funny moments and generally ran the show well. Simon Waterfall | Gerry Griffin | Design Panel The Morning Lectures First up was Tom Campbell of Creative Industries, a department of the London Development Agency- a governing-body for the industry and one of the people behind OwnIt. Mr. Campbell explained why the digital design industry is so important. The creative industries (as it is called in the UK) have now become the second largest sector of London, earning 21 billion pounds per year. Eight percent of this country’s business revenues can be directly linked to the creative industries. Basically, the digital design industry has doubled in London over a year. Interestingly Campbell brought up that there are 30,000 designers in London and two thirds of the world's design firms have their headquarters there. The next speaker was David Kester the chief executive of the Design Council who's dry yet positive talk confirmed any notions about whether the digital design is booming in London. While the creative industries are burgeoning, it’s interactive that leads the pack when it comes to solid financial growth and the London design scene, in particular, is humming. Interestingly, Kester mentioned that digital design studios in London seem to be renaming and rebranding themselves every 3 years or so. Which seems surprisingly frequent? Kester also suggested collaboration and creating strategic partners in the industry and recommended considering an Italian saying that says "A friend helps you move your house but a good friend helps you move a dead body". Some proverbs are not lost in translation. Next up was Psychologist Dr. Nick Baylis from Cambridge, who isn't exactly computer-savy judging from his impromptu performance, lack of slides and poor website, proceeded to tell this very accomplished audience that computers are bad for you. He said that our working with computers is directly responsible for our depressions, our headaches, our poor shallow "Facebook" relationships and even our bad posture. It's hard to believe really. But what was harder to believe was that he left us without any constructive suggestions to fixing these problems apart from more physical touching. Yes, he said we need to touch each-other more. unbelievable! Fortunately he was paired with Bill Thompson, another Cambridge guy was seemingly-well-known journalist, who provided the right amount of bravado and intelligence to completely contradict and discredit Dr. Nick's doom and gloom. He spoke about how technology wants to fundamentally enhance life and was quite critical about the current trends of the industry. Saying "Web 2.0 marks the dictatorship of the presentation layer, a triumph of appearance over architecture that any good computer scientist will instantly recognize and dismiss. Today in Web 2.0 has any long-term applicability to solving the problems of turning the network from a series of tubes connecting processors into a distributed computing environment. Sun Microsystems may have trademarked ‘the network is the computer’ twenty years ago, but we’re still a decade off delivering." Check out his talk on youTube but the sound is recorded really poorly from the back of the auditorium. The next round of speakers gave us the lay of the land for the web, gaming and mobile sectors. Benn Archilleas of Neo spoke about social networking sites and mashups. Archilleas sited RunLondon as a clever google maps mashup and Caroloke as a good user-generated content. Then Toby Barnes of Pixel-Lab spoke about the blurring (or converging) of gaming with the web and education. Gerry Griffin of Skill-Pill Mobile Learning spoke about developing content for mobile phones and the challenge of education in the current climate, where people are moving from being 'considered' users to 'impulse' users. He also mentioned something interested about how the iPhone's management system disables users more than it enables them. The comment inspired me to do some research on the subject. See this article about Apple and the iPhone. Lunchtime isn't just for food During lunch a presentation from former pop idol (Human League), collaborator with Vince Clarke of Depeche Mode and Yazoo (known as Yaz in North America) and now major music theorist Martyn Ware with contributions from Ross Phillips of SHowstudio, Jason Bruges , Newangle and Fabrica had some unique interactive architectural projects. All of the speakers spoke about interesting projects in responsive environments. Very inspiring. Martyn Ware | Bill Thompson | Ross Phillips Talks on Convergence Helen Keegan of Beep Marketing gave a good overview of the mobile scene as it stands, with a keen insight that while location-based services appear to be the flavour of the month, context-based services offer considerably more promise. This had a major resonance with me as we've been working very hard on a Nokia project over the past year and they have started their climb for mobile content. Read "Nokia takes a Big Step into Mobile Content" if you want to know more. Steve Flaherty gave a bit of an infommercial on his company, Starsight. Starsight is solar-powered streetlighting that contains an integrated wi-fi hub that is powered by the same battery. Aimed at the developing world, the design considerations included the ability to make the streetlights from local materials in any part of the world, and the ways in which they could be made secure - in places where any metal has significant worth - by feeding into the community through their educational contribution (internet access, light for tradespeople working at night) and thus becoming protected by the communities it is placed into. Prototypes are being developed in Istanbul (hardly third world!) and Gabon. The next set of talks were about user-centred design and usability. First Clive Grinyer, the Director of Product Design at Orange France Telecom spoke of the debt of responsibility designers carry: while he’s an advocate of knowing the audience in order to inform a design, handing responsibility over to that audience in the form of voting or user-created donations seemed to him an abrogation of that duty. He sited the product design of a ghetto-blaster that was designed by user-polling which ended up selling much less than the previous model. This reminded me of the episode of the Simpsons when Homer tried to design that nasty car. Elliot Jay Stocks approached accessibility from a very practical standpoint. His main thrust was to dispel any misconceptions about accessibility and Search Engine Optimization limiting the layout or beauty of a website. He explained the power of proper CSS implementation and strict web standards. He didn't really mention how to get around Microsoft's stubborn resistance to the existing web standards and how we can avoid doubling development times just to be compliant with Internet Explorer. A good talk regardless. Next up was Channel 4 commissioner Adam Gee presented the bigartproject. A site that allows it's users to upload and comment on pictures of public art using their mobile phones. The project will eventually become a short television series next year. There didn't seem to be any plan as to how the content on the site would be used for the tv show apart from the most commented public art pieces might be showcased. It was sites like this that really made me reconsider the idea of user-generated content. It just seems like a cheap ploy to get content and the imagery is poor and the comments are generally not worth reading. Last Session The final session had four leading interactive designers present the work of another designer who had inspired them. Nat Hunter presented the work of Yugo Nakamura, one of my personal favourites for years. Tom Roope discussed the work of Hans Bernhard, a digital design interventionist whose work subverts any notions of design being about aesthetics and asks us to think. His work was very intriguing and begs further investigation. Eva Rucki from Troika talked about the importance of intimacy with interfaces and working to make technology less impersonal to engage people. Finally, Malcolm Garrett showed us the interface designed by Cogapp for the MoMA gallery. USER GENERATED CONTENT Over and over again the topic of user-generated content (UGC) kept coming up. There was a lot of talk about whether this is the definition of Web 2.0 or not, but honestly I'm not down with the Web 2.0 label and its hype. After designing & producing a fair number of websites (ChiefsAndChampions, BangON and UBC's School of Architecture) with user-generated content at their core, I've come to realize that getting users to contribute good content to a site is difficult and just building a framework to hold content and hoping for a community to build by itself is a lot to ask. Taken to its logical extension the idea of user-generated content and citizen media has many problems that can not be overlooked. Generally speaking the so-called democratization of the web threatens objective information and devalues the expert in the field. Fortunately, the gatekeepers of mainstream media are being replaced. But unfortunately they are being replaced by the chaos of anonymous internet charlatans with their own political and economic agendas. I'd like to challenge the ideal of Web 2.0 social networking and reveal that behind the radical "power to the people" rhetoric are the lies of a new generation of media opportunists. There is no evidence that the power is in the hands of the people. The 'People' are asked to give away their contents and the only 'people' benefitting from UGC are the millionaires at eBay, YouTube, MySpace and PhotoBucket. UGC is a scam for the most part. It's a way for the owners of Web 2.0 sites to get content for free, drive massive audiences and then sell advertising around it. With the exception of sites like Flickr which actually offer an excellent platform for sharing photography most Web 2.0 sites have little to offer the world with their lowest common denominator content, shiny buttons and overused floor reflections. If the content has any value its creators would have sold it. Anyone who gives away their content for free is either talentless or naive. Will the Web 2.0 hype end? The hype 2.0 may end but it will likely only give way to web 3.0 bullshit. But if you're anything like me, you believe that the web can still be saved and we can take responsibility for the consequences of the digital age. After all, the internet is just a mirror. When we look into it, we see ourselves staring back. If we want to save it we need to be self-critical and honest about what we're doing online. That means stop posting anonymously. It means challenging our narcissistic impulses to turn the web into a fragmented sea of useless self-publishing morons. It means opposing lowest common denominator content like gambling, porn and cowardly flame wars. Looking to the Future What will it be? we have a choice, the future can be a lot like YouTube - one long commercial with breaks of supposedly independent content like lonelyGirl15 or the next clever marketing ploy that is masked as user-generated content. Or we can look like it little like Guardian.co.uk - healthy mix of high-quality independent content and a vibrant community generating intelligent focussed comments successfully supported by a viable business model. Let's think before we build websites. More on IDesign

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[post_title] => A Day at the London Design Festival [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => a-day-at-the-london-design-festival [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2007-10-15 08:11:17 [post_modified_gmt] => 2007-10-15 16:11:17 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/a-day-at-the-london-design-festival [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) -->

A Day at the London Design Festival

London was buzzing for the last two weeks of September. Everywhere you looked, on every street corner there seemed to be something about design. The city was filled with museum exhibits, public art and storefronts with interactive installat [...]

Posted by: Haig Armen on Monday, October 15th, 2007

Categories: Articles, Design, Interactive | No Comments »

Three Strikes, You're out: One: If you had gone to the trouble of making your own ringtones for your iPhone using clips of songs from your library then you will find they are all gone the next time you sync with the latest iTunes. Apple now sells ringtones to its US customers for $0.99 and it would rather you paid up than made them yourself. Two: It seems that the new generation of iPods will not output video through cables or docks that aren't Apple authorised and have a specific "authentication" chip. Apple charges a hefty cut for joining its approved suppliers programme, and this is a way to ensure that vendors sign up. Three: iTunes keeps your songs organised using a database, and over the years a number of free and open source music players have been developed that can read and write this database format. Any Linux user who wants to use an iPod needs a non-Apple library manager. Programmes like gtkpod, Rhythmbox and Banshee are easy to use and don't try to sell you songs all the time, but now Apple has added a new feature to the iTunes database, a special number which is calculated from your list of files using a process only Apple knows. If the number is wrong, your library looks empty. And because the free players don't know the algorithm used, they can no longer be used with iTunes/iPod. These three examples point to a larger strategy that Apple has adopted. It may be a strategy that Apple has had for a while as the iPod was never really that open a device. But now it's getting to the point where users will really start to feel the squeeze. This got me thinking about the iPhone. I have to admit it, Apple has done a great job of making the iPhone one alluring gadget, here at our own studio most of us are lusting over the iPhone even if it's unusable as a phone in Canada. It's touch-screen interface is a pleasure to use and so intuitive. I am an early adopter, the iPhone is made for people like me. Back in 2000 when Apple first launched its iPod, I was right there, then it was miles ahead of the pack. Apple has been extremely slow to improve upon that first generation iPod. With nothing more than cosmetic changes to the original apart from the fundamental video capability. The iPhone has been a long time coming and it's a bit of a closed box when you look at it closely. With a price tag of $640 you'd expect it to have at least the same amount of features as some other smart phones. Here are some of its deficits: 1. Can’t exchange contact information via bluetooth with other PDAs, 2. Can’t listen to music with bluetooth headphones, 3. Bluetooth can only be used to answer phonecalls (limited) 4. Web browser is not flash compatible 5. No zooming for the camera 6. No flash for the camera 7. No video camera 8. NOT compatible internationally like most other smart phones Sure, there are hacks, Hacktheiphone.com is full of tutorials and software but that's besides the point. It's clear that the iPhone is a first generation product. It didn't really dissuade me back in 2000 when I bought the iPod but I'm going to wait and see what direction Apple will take it. [post_title] => Apple Locks Down [post_category] => 0 [post_excerpt] => [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => open [ping_status] => open [post_password] => [post_name] => apple-locks-its-music-down [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2007-10-10 11:23:38 [post_modified_gmt] => 2007-10-10 19:23:38 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => http://industrialbrand.com/blog/apple-locks-its-music-down [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 2 [filter] => raw ) -->

Apple Locks Down

During the iDesign conference in London I heard Bill Thompson talk about design’s role in the world of technology and he mentioned the locking down of Apple’s newest portable products. I did some reading and found quite a lot un [...]

Posted by: Haig Armen on Wednesday, October 10th, 2007

Categories: Articles, Music, Technology | 2 Comments »

Is it time to go Freelance?

In the UK, where I’ve been for the past couple of weeks, pay rates for design freelancers are up in many cases, particularly when it comes to digital disciplines, according to DesignWeek’s second annual survey. Overall, pay incr [...]

Posted by: Haig Armen on Saturday, October 6th, 2007

Categories: Articles, Design | 3 Comments »

Much like Vegas, I found myself wandering through the endless air-conditioned hallways, cavernous rooms and loud exhibition halls with wide-eyed astonishment. The huge event was an exercise in over-stimulation, complete with a dizzying array of colourful, exciting, loud events and parties. Everywhere I turned, I met dreamers who, like children, love nothing more than creating and engaging in fantasies—be they games, films, art or other artificial realities. The whole experience seemed a bit surreal, like a carnival or a circus. The SIGGRAPH exhibition floor itself was a myriad of glossy displays, interactive demos and live performances. The enormous space was filled with frantic young people with a desperate look in their eyes—needing their next fix and willing to line up for an hour just to receive a free poster, t-shirt, or mug. The resemblance to tourists lining up for free seafood cocktails at a buffet was striking. As for the dazzling lights and sounds from the various presentations, they were captivating at first, though in time the noise and visual stimuli became overwhelming and mildly irritating. “Step Right Up Folks!” shouted the man in the top hat and tails, “and experience Guerilla Studios”. This computer graphics playground was as close to a circus as anywhere at SIGGRAPH, complete with circus posters designed and produced on site by Adobe Achievement Award winners and finalists such as Vancouver Film School's own Marcos Ceravolo. Once inside the cavernous space, visitors had free access to a seemingly endless variety of innovative hardware and software, including rare input and output devices such as hand-held 3D scanners, 3D printers, and even lenticular imaging printers. Here, throngs of talented attendees focused more on creativity than technology, as they experimented, collaborated and created together amidst the chaotic environment. It was exhilarating and inspirational. Some may not appreciate SIGGRAPH as much as others. Though there was nearly something for everybody across the various computer graphics fields, it became obvious that the conference was primarily geared toward those seriously involved in gaming, 3D animation and visual effects, leaving little for traditional graphic, web or motion designers. I was told there had been an entire day dedicated to interactive and online technologies at previous conferences, though I saw no sign of this at SIGGRAPH 2007. Don't get me wrong, the popular Art Gallery Exhibit housed a number of attempts at creatively merging art with technology, and the Emerging Technology Exhibit was filled with unexpected uses of input, display and interaction technologies. But I can't say I was very impressed for long. Unfortunately, much of the Art Gallery was filled with feeble art and gimmickry with no real substance. And the Emerging Technologies area was rife with irrelevant, broken or malfunctioning hardware. There were, of course, a few amazing exceptions. I just wished there were more. “What happens at SIGGRAPH, stays at SIGGRAPH,” said Steve from Colorado, referring to his plans to blow off some steam and party hard during the conference. And Steve was certainly not alone. It seemed even the conference organizers and presenters helped ensure there were plenty of opportunities to have fun and get into trouble. There were private press release parties, a sake opening ceremony, French wine tastings, DJs and dancing on the infamous battleship USS Midway, a digital fashion show and the oversold party at House of Blues that had attendees lining up around the block for hours. Of course there were the opening and closing receptions as well, but these were conservative affairs compared to the other events, most of which featured live music, DJs and visuals. A common theme seemed to be the scantily clad go-go dancers. The long days at SIGGRAPH ended with wisdom during the packed keynote speaker presentations, two of which caught my attention and imagination. Graphic novelist and author Scott McCloud presented an inspirational talk about emerging technologies and their effect on traditional arts such as comics. He had the packed room laughing and engaged. He told the story of how he had previously tried to create a “durable mutation of comics” by embracing digital media. His early attempts at creating online comics failed, but he hasn't given up yet. In the end, McCloud emphasized the importance of art and craft, reminding the audience that no matter how technologies may change, they ultimately stay the same. Glen Entis, Electronic Arts' Chief Visual Officer, gave a terrific talk called “Thrill Seeking in Interactive Real-time Graphics.” In it, he examined the very real possibility that the technologies and processor power now becoming available will radically change the future of rendered realities. With obvious impact on game and film design, Entis explored the “zombie factor” or “uncanny valley” that has cursed these industries where the pursuit of hyper-reality in real-time rendering falls short by failing to engage the viewer emotionally. He also discussed the notion of “Tool as Content” as a new aspect to game design: real-time rendering allowing users to create and customize content, be they avatars, creatures, vehicles or environments (i.e. Sims). Though much of the conference may not have been geared directly to attendees like me, I still came away with some memorable highlights. For instance, some of the "Papers" were fascinating. I especially enjoyed the demonstrations of cutting edge technologies such as Berkeley's Maneesh Agrawala’s live demo of "soft scissors", an intelligent interactive cropping tool capable of extracting alpha mattes of foreground objects in real-time. It was like watching magic on screen. Likewise, Ariel Shamir's presentation and live demo of his intelligent, content-aware "seam carving" and resizing tool, iSeam, left the audience stunned. And the demonstration of the latest image vectorization software using optimized gradient mesh technology, enabling users to create hyper-reality vector images, was astounding. These three applications alone would significantly change how we work with images in my graphic design studio. So many interesting papers, all amazing stuff. I never did adequately answer my question about what motivates people to attend a SIGGRAPH conference. Perhaps there is no easy answer. People attend for various reasons. Some go to experience and discover new things, and expand their horizons. Others are there to meet people. And many seem to return year-after-year to party with industry friends. One day I met a senior engineer from the Google Earth team, on another I chatted with a scientist from Microsoft's R&D team. Famous concept artists and visual effect wizards wandered the SIGGRAPH halls alongside throngs of unsuspecting young computer graphics. As the days passed, one thing became very clear to me: with nearly 25,000 attendees at this year’s event alone, I belong to a very large club indeed. Though the majority of people I got to know were animators or visual effects artists, I met a surprising variety of computer graphics users. The GUI designer from Korea was there to be inspired and see the next generation technologies. The entrepreneur and inventor from Seattle, was at SIGGRAPH to meet potential partners and shop his ideas. And the 20-year veteran and computer graphics educator from New Jersey was attending in order to keep up with technology and trends. And of course, there were the many young students from around the world, eager to show off their portfolios in the hopes of landing a job. There were even people from disciplines outside of computer graphics in attendance. For example, the Cognitive Science student from Virginia State wasn’t even a computer graphics user, but was attending in order to observe this group and do field research for her studies. Similarly, the science crowd was on hand, presenting papers and exploring how humans and culture are affected by hyper-realistic artificial realities and simulated humans (i.e. robots). The clear advantage of attending SIGGRAPH is to be surrounded by so many like-minded people in similar industries with similar passions. Overhearing old friends reuniting and catching up since they last saw each other was as common as new friendships blossoming amongst the geek talk and various receptions. And then of course, there were those hell bent on using the conference as a chance to blow off steam and live on the edge for a few days. Sound familiar? It would if you've ever been to Las Vegas. San Diego is a terrific city for a conference. I had been looking forward to enjoying some Southern California sun, authentic Mexican food and fresh seafood. I was not disappointed. If this was an article for my food blog, I'd tell you all about Old Town Mexican Café, The Fish Market, or Indigo in Little Italy, but that's a different article. However, befitting mention, and most impressing me, was the kind hospitality shown to us by the city of San Diego. Everywhere we wandered, there were signs welcoming SIGGRAPH attendees in, and the locals were incredibly polite and accommodating. Thank you San Diego, you hold a good conference! I felt more than a little hung-over on the flight home. Looking around the small commuter plane (an adventure in itself) it was apparent that the majority of the passengers were SIGGRAPH attendees. I recognized a couple of the exhausted conference goers from the dance floor at the Softimage party the previous night, empathizing with their fatigue and blood-shot eyes. If anyone has been on an outbound flight from Vegas, you know the look I'm describing. So if you're planning on attending SIGGRAPH 2008 in Los Angeles, just remember that like Vegas, you need to pace yourself. Don't try to see or do it all on the first day. Immerse yourself in the time warp and enjoy the smorgasbord of dazzling sights. And be sure to take a few opportunities to misbehave and meet some like-minded computer users. But above all, be sure to bring a good pair of walking shoes—trust me you're going to need them. 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SIGGRAPH 2007: Fear and Loafers in San Diego

I was somewhere over Northern California headed south when the fear started to take hold. I remember wondering about what lay ahead thinking something to the effect of ‘what am I doing here?’ As a graphic designer only periphera [...]

Posted by: Mark Busse on Saturday, September 8th, 2007

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