UC Berkeley Design Alliance

Fresh take on Cal!

2010-11-12T11:42:00.000-08:00

In September photographer Elena Zhukova, her assistant Leon Brauer, and myself spent two days traversing the campus via golf cart in pursuit of capturing the energy, diversity, and spirit of UC Berkeley. The project was spearheaded by UCOP's creative director, Vanessa Corrêa, who is conducting similar photo shoots at each UC campus.

All photos are now available for use in campus publications and websites and can be previewed here.

Please contact Kathryn Bader, Office of Public Affairs, if you'd like a high res version of a particular photo.

UCOP is already using some of these photos, as well as photos from Santa Cruz, on the University of California website.

Visualizing Data

2010-10-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

Couple of amazing things here. I feel like he should credit his printer though.

http://jeremychristopherdesign.co.uk/

http://www.visualizingeconomics.com/2010/07/23/ftse-100/

Moment of Old Snark

2010-07-22T09:53:00.000-07:00

You may've seen this already, but I haven't. And sincere apologies for being "partisan" here... but I found this video criticism amusing and well done from a design standpoint.... If Microsoft Packaged an iPod

Redesigned Album Covers

2010-07-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

Witty minimalism.

If Zeppelin were Bauhaus

Proud parent

2010-05-03T13:31:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, last year's General Catalog was featured on the 4/27 episode of Parenthood (NBC, Tuesday's at 10 PM).

[I have to admit, it was a little like seeing my kid singing up on stage in their first holiday pageant.]

The printed page is not (quite) dead...

Can the hundred dollar bill get any uglier?

2010-04-22T08:43:00.000-07:00

redesign:related brings us the U.S. Government’s latest treatment of Benjamin Franklin’s favorite unit of currency, the one hundred dollar bill.

new 100 dollar bill redesign

Judge for yourself whether the new look is a good or a bad thing, but I've put my vote in the title of this post.

RIP... please?

2010-03-05T10:20:00.001-08:00

He's in a much better place now... wish I could say, he lived a good life.

Some remembrances:

He was my grandmother's first internet experience, if you know what I mean ;)

What a rat bastard.

And another:

One cannot say the death was quick, and without pain, but remember we shall the many times IE6 was part of our days.

And:

IE6 was known as a friend, but also as an enemy to many of us. He was a tough guy, always around, even if you didn't need him. And that is exactly how I remember him. As someone who never gave up: Deep inside he must have known a lot of browsers were better than him, but he kept on fighting against them. More and more enemies came to make his life difficult, but with the support of Microsoft he was staying in everyones life. His strong charism even made lot of webdesigners and programmers program code especially for IE6. That must have been very special to him.

Let's remember IE6 with those thoughts... Now it's time to move forward: Life goes on... even without IE6. Thanks (for dying).

To leave your remembrance, click here.

MTV logo zoomed

2010-02-11T14:29:00.000-08:00

THE OLD LOGO

I stopped watching MTV about 100 years ago, roughly 80 years before the channel completely gave up on playing music videos. It seems that the cable broadcaster has revised its logo, completely divorcing itself from the notion that MTV has or even has had anything to do with music.

Creative Review - MTV logo changes, stays same

Helveticookies

2010-01-29T09:10:00.000-08:00

Helveticookies

Because I can't resist posting any stupid Helvetica-related thing to the DA Blogspot. And I like the word.

I'll try to be more substantive next time!

300&65 Ampersands

2010-01-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

I knew there were a lot of ampersands in this world, but one for every day of the year? 300&65 Ampersands

via Daring Fireball

Nice Illustration, H.!

2009-10-06T16:19:00.001-07:00

looking for clients in your spare time?

2009-09-18T15:50:00.000-07:00

Bring them to you via Brandstack. Post your design, set a price, and lie in wait... and wait... and wait. Or maybe not. I have no idea. But it might be worth a try, considering how many organizations could use a good idea -- and designers who could use a little extra cash right about now...

How often do you get to create the business name and the logo?

How often do you try to sell something you create on a whim?

About Brandstack:

So we built Brandstack and invited designers from all over the world to sell their unused designs at a price that start-ups can afford. An entrepreneur can browse the brands on the site, choose the one that suits them, get it customized by the original designer and download the files. Itʼs quick, value for money and some of the brands even come with their own domain names for a great head start. All brands are original and removed from the site once sold.

The process is still collaborative but the entrepreneur says goodbye to the brief and in return gets a world-class brand at a rate they can afford and the designer gets paid for a brand that was previously sitting idle.

Brandstack. Everybody wins.

Really? That would be refreshing.

The Ikea Outcry: "Verdana!? For shame!"

2009-08-30T13:45:00.000-07:00

Latest Ikea Design Has Critics Fuming August 30, 2009
Ikea, the Swedish furniture chain, said Sunday it never expected such a backlash after switching typeface in its latest catalog.

What can't Google Maps do?

2009-08-25T08:59:00.000-07:00

Replace the world with your work and create a zoomable portfolio via Google Maps.

Google Maps Mania: Design Portfolios on Google Maps

It's like Wikipedia…

2009-08-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

…but for type!

Typedia: A Shared Encyclopedia of Typefaces

HTML tables + color = design

2009-08-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

via Townsend Center for the Humanities

Talk amongst yourselves...

Have you visited Type*Daily?

2009-08-17T15:43:00.000-07:00

It’s like popurls, but just for type!

Type*Daily: Typography, fonts, & lettering news aggregator

Have you ever been unable to delete a swatch in InDesign?

2009-07-31T13:23:00.000-07:00

I finally found an easy solution posted at InDesign Secrets Blog... Here it is:

Elizabeth Lass
November 28th, 2007 • 3:53 am • Link
Hi, This actually happens to me quite a bit. I found a good trick online quite a while ago, and I’d like to give them credit, but I’m afraid I can’t locate the source. But the trick goes like this:
When a spot cannot be deleted from the swatches palette, and you know for sure it’s not in use by any artwork, create a rectangle and fill it with the offending swatch. Cut the object and paste it into a new doc with no other swatches. Save it as a PDF set to “Press” or “Print” (don’t let the color be converted). Place that PDF into your original doc, then delete it. In my experience, the bad swatch will now be ‘unlocked’ and you can trash it in the palette. IMO, this is faster than saving over to INX, and shouldn’t cause any further problems. {Thanks for the awesome blog and podcast, btw!!}

--
It really works.

Coffee Cups - a set on Flickr

2009-07-29T09:53:00.000-07:00

Styrofoam coffee cups and a black Sharpie marker. Damn—these are good:

Coffee Cups - a set on Flickr

Yammer?

2009-07-16T12:46:00.000-07:00

Yammer is the "Twitter" for businesses.
I'm using it in our department to share common files... the kinds of identity images frequently used in PowerPoint presentations or Word docs.

It's already restricted to the "@berkeley.edu" community, but you can also set up a Private Group visible only to people you invite in. I don't quite remember how I got in, but try signing in here... Sign in with your berkeley email.

More About Yammer

------
When Is Social Networking Kosher In The Office?

National Public Radio – November 24, 2008

"Essentially, what it's allowed us to do is have a lot more conversations without necessarily having meetings," says David Sacks, CEO of Yammer. "And you want to reserve e-mail for communications where you really do require a response. But if you just want to have a free-form discussion, Yammer really excels in that."

Read and listen to more at National Public Radio

Design with flair — on the Web!

2009-07-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

A startup called Typekit allows freedom to design with any font you want online &mdash as long as you own the font itself. How groovy is that? Finally, we are free! No more Verdana, Arial... headaches, heartbreak.

via Slate.com

Tilt-Shift is All the Rage

2009-05-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

Get that Tilt-Shift look without the mess of lenses! AlienSkin offers a handy-dandy hack.

Wow. Typography.

2009-05-07T08:20:00.000-07:00

Type is boring, right? Okay, maybe the way I use it. On the other hand, PSDtuts+ has 53 examples of Mind-blowing Uses of Typography that will have you kowtowing and saying, “We’re not worthy. We’re not worthy.”

27 Visualizations and Infographics to Understand the Financial Crisis

2009-03-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

Will charts help take the sting out of watching our mortgages, jobs, and 401(k)s spiral down the drain? Have a gander at
27 Visualizations and Infographics to Understand the Financial Crisis and let me know.

via FlowingData

Periodic Table of Typefaces

2009-03-13T11:41:00.000-07:00

More art than science—but definitely all geek—download the JPEG Periodic_Table_of_Typefaces from Squidspot.

via Lifehacker

A photo is worth a thousand...

2009-03-02T15:42:00.000-08:00

tons of garbage.

What are we THINKING?

This amazing series is by artist Chris Jordan, of Seattle.

He calls it "Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait."

As astonishing as his statistics are, what he has done with them is even
more astonishing.

via email forwarded to me by Connie Torii; courtesy of Karl K

Pepsi Logo Response - artwork by Lawrence Yang

2009-02-20T15:18:00.000-08:00

A fun interpretation of the new Pepsi logo. Now, when I see the new Pepsi logo I can’t help but see the same thing.

Pepsi Logo Response - artwork by Lawrence Yang

Cut & Paste Digital Design Tournament

2009-02-19T13:36:00.000-08:00

via email from Roland

One of my colleagues invited me via Facebook to the Cut & Paste Digital Design Tournament

Although I've never heard of it, it looks interesting.

It is happening in San Francisco:

WHEN:
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Doors open 5:30 PM
Show starts 6:00 PM

WHERE:
The Galleria
101 Henry Adams St.
San Francisco, CA 94103

San Francisco will host competitions in 2D, 3D, and Motion Graphics for Digital Design Tournament 2009. See the Competition Formats page for the rules and details of each of these platforms. When you're ready to roll, enter the Call for Competitors here. Judges from all three design disciplines will be announced in the coming weeks. Check back soon to find out who will be hovering over our competitors' shoulders onstage.

Roland

The I Love Typography Blog

2008-12-29T19:11:00.000-08:00

While perusing WordPress implementations, I found this blog. And on this blog I found this page.

Flickr Found Type

Quite pretty and interesting. Maybe there's food for the muse here.

Obama logos ideas that weren’t chosen

2008-12-16T10:14:00.000-08:00

The title says it all. Just reposting “Obama logos ideas that weren’t chosen” from Logo Design Love.

In the end, I think they chose the right one.

via Daring Fireball

Wanna get cubed?

2008-10-28T17:00:00.001-07:00

Why didn't I think of this?

via boingboing

(UC) "OP communications consolidation moves forward"

2008-09-30T08:26:00.000-07:00

9/29/08
The Office of the President just announced a new communications department.

Housed under the External Relations division, this newly created department will bring together editorial and creative design services in print, Web and video under one organizational umbrella. This department will also be responsible for media relations, speechwriting and marketing and branding efforts, all under the leadership of Alan Hoffman, newly appointed senior vice president of External Relations.

The consolidation will bring together communications functions being performed by 34 positions spread out over the existing Strategic Communications department, Human Resources and Benefits, Student Affairs and other UCOP departments. The new communications unit will hold 27 positions, which will be filled on a competitive basis beginning with the leadership positions.

UCDA Campus Violence Poster Project

2008-08-27T12:17:00.000-07:00

The University & College Designers Association (UCDA) is running an auction of works created for their Campus Violence Poster Project. The project is a response to the shootings at Northern Illinois University, Louisiana Technical College, and Virginia Tech University.

As Michelle summarized: “some are kinda interesting, difficult subject.” You can see for yourself at UCDA’s Flickr page on the project, and you can bid on the posters via eBay.

More Olympics?

2008-08-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

Have you heard all you want to hear about the Beijing Olympics? Are you Phelpsed out? Does the thought of hearing Bob Costas’ make alliterations with Usain Bolt’s name make your head feel like it’s going to explode? Then don’t worry, this Olympic post from COLOURlovers—“Design and Branding Trends: Olympic Games”—has nothing to do with synchronized diving, beach volleyball, or two-minute, human-interest mini-dramas on athletes overcoming adversity.

via popurls

IN, OUT, UP, DOWN

2008-08-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

Okay, you just have to see this one: Axel Peemoeller - Eureka Carpark Melbourne.

via Daring Fireball

It’s not Helvetica

2008-07-31T09:58:00.000-07:00

Roland forwarded me a link to Font Conference, a video from CollegeHumor. Like most things CollegeHumor, this video is hit and miss, but you might be able to tease something out of it to enjoy.

From Roland’s email: “…some type humor, except it glorifies the wrong typeface.”

No, no! Not more posts about Helvetica!!!

2008-07-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

It's happened. The movie about the ubiquitous typeface is now approaching ubiquitousness. See the latest addition to the iTunes movie store. Since we Design Alliancers have so sadly not been able to wrangle a date for a screening, we can now huddle alone over our iPods and watch the thing. (I'd much prefer to banter about it afterwards with you all!)

But is it Garawood, or Zebramond?

2008-07-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

Not terribly hot off the presses (April), but this is a funny entry on an interesting blog I just found from a type designer/manager at Adobe... Typblography.

"Garamond and Zebrawood walk into a bar, they have a few drinks and one thing leads to another… (yes they were hanging out at the same bar, believe it or not)."

"Create from scratch, the typographic love child of:
Garamond and Zebrawood"

See what Christian Robertson and other type designers came up with, on Typophile.

Final Cut Pro Guru Plug

2008-07-14T15:44:00.000-07:00

Just want to say that I'm pleased to have noticed on the Berkeley.edu main page, a listing for a Final Cut Pro class being taught by a friend of mine. If you have a need to learn what to do with video, she's your girl. Smarter than smart, with Berkeley creds herself, and experience with non-profit orgs, she also happens to be a damn good bartender, which guarantees she'll charmingly be sure you have everything you need before class is through.

ASUC Art Studio: Introduction to Final Cut Pro with Joanna Silber, begins 7/14

***NOTE/UPDATE 16:48:00: ASUC informs me that her class was cancelled for lack of enrollment. I'll let you all know if I find out that it's on again sometime this year.

My portrait photography sucks…

2008-07-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

…by which I mean, “The portraits I shoot suck,” vs. “Portraits of me suck.” Well, the second part is up for debate.

Hot on the heels of the July 4th tips for taking better fireworks photos, here are some portrait-taking tips from digital Photography School: 10 Ways to Take Stunning Portraits.

Now, I wonder if I can use these tips to take better portraits of myself?

My fireworks photos don’t suck

2008-07-10T08:53:00.000-07:00

At least, I hope they don’t.

I used the tips from Lifehacker (see previous post) and think my fireworks shots came out pretty good. Judge for yourself: 40 July 4th, 2008 photos.

My fireworks photos suck

2008-07-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

Have you ever tried to take pictures of fireworks? I’ve been trying for years. Years! I haven’t had a successful photo yet.

Well, this Fourth of July everything’s going to change. My fireworks photos are going to be awesome! Why? Because of this fine article from Lifehacker: “Get Better Fireworks Photos This Fourth of July.”

This is going to be the best fireworks holiday ever. Ever!

via popurls

Desktop Wallpaper + Calendar = Crazy delicious!

2008-06-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

What have you got on your computer desktop? The default image that shipped with the computer? Bo-ring! Pictures of your kids at Lake Mazonga? Bo-ring! …to other people, at least. A mural of unicorns fighting the undead in a lake of fire? Bo—, wait, that actually sounds kind of neat.

In any event, while these examples may not all be that boring, how many of them are useful? Smashing Magazine has a passel of freely downloadable desktop wallpapers that are both incredibly not-boring and incredibly useful.

Okay, maybe “incredibly” is overstating it a bit, but they are cool designs/art, and they do feature monthly calendars.

Click over to Desktop Wallpaper Calendar: July 2008 to be not-bored.

via popurls

PDFs! For designers! Online!

2008-06-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

Exclamation point! Okay, maybe that’s a bit more excitement than warranted for yet another ‘list’ post. But, Positive Space Blog’s “30 Essential PDF Documents Every Designer Should Download” is actually worthy of exclamation points.

Well, maybe just one.

Anyway, the 31 (!) PDFs are divided into 5 categories: Resources; Web Development & Programming; Presenations; Freelancing & Income; and PDF Collections.

Enjoy.

via popurls

Indiana Jones for Font Fanatics

2008-06-18T09:19:00.000-07:00

I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull last week. I liked it well enough, as I've liked all the Indiana Jones movies (except maybe for the one with Kate Capshaw). But, I did have some trouble making the shift from the first three movies being set in the late ’30s to Crystal Skull being in the late ’50s. Could my inability to accept Indy fighting Cold War-era Russians instead of Pre-WWII Nazis have anything to do with… fonts?

Probably not. But, Mark Simonson’s “Indiana Jones and the Fonts on the Maps” explores where the Indiana Jones series has broken with historical accuracy of… fonts.

If anything, the article proves that I’m not nearly the font freak that I thought I was. Whew.

via Daring Fireball

Beautiful Brochures and Booklets

2008-06-16T12:49:00.000-07:00

Smashing Magazine brings us pretty pictures of brochure and booklet designs. Enjoy.

via popurls

An Ambiguous Animation Painted on Public Walls

2008-05-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

I have one word for this. Phenomenal.

What word would you use?

watch An Ambiguous Animation Painted on Public Walls

&

2008-04-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Personally, I don’t care for ampersands. Too fanciful, maybe? Regardless, Hoefler & Frere-Jones (there’s that ampersand again) have an ampersand-history-riddled post on their site, typography.com. You can read about (and see) the different typographic properties of ampersands in different fonts at “Our Middle Name.”

via Daring Fireball

GoLive has GoneDead

2008-04-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

Do you use GoLive? Probably not, but if so, then it’s time to start using something different. The demise of Adobe’s GoLive (finally) has been widely reported, but for the brief scoop read Macworld’s “Adobe discontinues GoLive.”

via various

Think you know fonts?

2008-04-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

If you think you’re up for a challenge, click over to The Rather Difficult Font Game. I thought I knew my fonts but only scored a measly 26 out of 34. I now have to return my font merit badge to the proper authorities.

via Daring Fireball

Blog recommendation: mStonerblog

2008-04-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

I recently returned from the UCDA Design Summit, which was held in Denver, CO, this year.

One of the presenters, Doug Gapinski, the design director at mStoner, spoke about "Branding and Education" ("If your institution was a person, what would the qualities and characteristics of that person be?" Hmmm...) and "User Experience Fundamentals" ("Are your audiences having intuitive and satisfying experiences when dealing with your brand?").

At the end of his presentation, he told us he would post to mStoner's blog and ask us to provide feedback on his talk there.

I just checked out their blog and believe there may be a treasure of relative musings useful for us here at Berkeley. So, check out the blog when you get a chance.

—

Oh, by the way, I went to the new wing of the Denver Art Museum (above), which was designed by Daniel Libeskind. I went on an architectural tour before wandering through the floors on my own. The building has no 90% angles; I was amazed by how they solved the problem of hanging art in such a space. Check it out if you're ever in the "mile-high city."

Really clean typography…

2008-04-02T10:16:00.000-07:00

…on a Web page.

And, it’s all in HTML and CSS.

That’s right, people. We can have elegant typography on the Web.

I have no idea what this Seed Conference is about, but just looking at their Web page gives me hope for the future of Web design.

via Daring Fireball

Vintage logos…

2008-03-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

…on Flickr!

Saved from the scrapheap of out-of-printedness, you can view this “Collection of vintage logos from a mid-’70s edition of the book World of Logotypes” entirely in your Web browser. Oh, right, here’s the link:

Vintage logos

Is there anything Flickr can’t do?

via Daring Fireball

Flickrvision

2008-03-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

via popurls

Do you use Flickr? I use it a lot when I'm pressed for time to create topic-specific graphics. Via Creative Commons license, many Flickr users grant rights to their photography for non-commercial use.

Using the search tool to find specific images is fine for work, but what about when you want to relax? With Flickr?

Flickrvision.

Just try it.

Not quite for trip-planning…

2008-03-07T11:06:00.001-08:00

…but a great map nonetheless. (Click the image for a larger view.)

via popurls

Got Photos?

2008-03-07T09:44:00.000-08:00

Though this post should probably rightfully be Kathryn's scoop, I'm gonna be first off the block.... to, um, scoop... (Mixed metaphors are my specialty.)

If you are looking for cleared UC Berkeley images for non-commercial use, check this new site. UC Berkeley Images: UC Berkeley Photos. What's interesting to me is the photographer's credits! I was surprised at how many of our fine colleagues working in other fields on campus have contributed to this nice catalog of pictures.

Very handy.

Design Police Directives

2008-02-23T17:19:00.001-08:00

This is a bit dry. But, perhaps because I work for the police department and I am the designer, and have been calling myself the Design Police... it seemed like it was my duty to post this.

The Design Police Directives

Imagine you're Art Directing a new piece and are reviewing the draft. You could use these red tags to markup the doc. Not that you would. But do you ever think that sometimes a strict voice of authority is what you need to keep your design on track?

(Clicking gets multiple downloads of a PDF version of what you see when you click through the pages. That's a bit annoying. Stay with Next and Previous. Who knows what the address form is for.)

Ever want to wear XRAY specs?

2008-02-21T17:06:00.000-08:00

What would you see if you looked at your web page? Its skeleton? In this case, its CSS backbone.

If you edit or create your own style sheet, study other style sheets, or just wish you had started knowing what that was all about already, you must check this out.

XRAY

There's info about browser compatibility, but I can tell you it's seamless on today's Safari for the Mac.

See that XRAY button in the middle of the page? Drag it into your Bookmarks Bar. Yeah. Really. Then go to a page you want to XRAY. Pick any page, it really doesn't matter. Then click on that Bookmark Bar XRAY link.

A window appears. Follow the instructions. Suddenly you're in a world where code talks to you while showing you what it does.

Click the x in the upper right hand corner of the dialog box to come back to the world of the living.

A4 papercut

2008-02-20T08:46:00.000-08:00

via popurls

It’s amazing what you can do with one sheet of A4 paper.

Scratch that. It’s amazing what Peter Callesen can do with one sheet of A4 paper.

I really can’t say anything more than, “Take a look at Peter Callesen’s A4 papercut online.”

Damn.

Tech Company Logos

2008-02-07T14:53:00.000-08:00

via popurls

Some of you may remember what the original Adobe logo looked like, but how many of us could pick Canon's circa 1934 logo out of a lineup? (Considering the company’s name was Kwanon at the time, not many, I’d wager.)

For your tech logo edification, click over to Neatorama’s The Evolution of Tech Companies’ Logos. You might be surprised at the early corporate identities of many (now-)familiar names.

Wrangle Type Design for a Style Sheet

2008-02-01T12:29:00.000-08:00

Found a handy dynamic interactive type renderer to help you see what those various standard OS typefaces are capable of if given the right leading, tracking, word space and decoration treatments.

Visit Typetester to quickly see and compare on screen.

Neat-o.

Decapitated advertising

2008-01-09T09:52:00.000-08:00

via popurls

File this one under guerilla anti-advertising.

If you’re squeamish about bloodied, headless, bus stop advertising, DO NOT CLICK THIS LINK -->> The Decapitator Flickr set.

(I clicked it—and thought it was great!)

All Signs Say Paul Rand

2008-01-09T00:18:00.000-08:00

I was poking around online for some inspiration (always a fun way to circle a task), and I was led, breadcrumb by breadcrumb, to this site about Rand that is the work of Daniel Lewandowski of Atlanta.

Here's what Lewandowski has to say about Paul-Rand.com:

"This site is meant to honor and pay utmost respect to the life and work of Mr. Rand. When I first began this project, I discovered that there were no “single-source” references to Mr. Rand or his works anywhere on the internet. Thus sparked the idea to build this tribute/archive site. I am in no way a philosopher or critic of design but have a great respect for the history of our industry and the people who have shaped it. In the course of building the site, I’ve been able to more greatly appreciate their thoughts and theories on design and develop my own opinions on the subject."

---
There's a dearth of images in the galleries as of yet, this looks like a work in progress, but I was drawn to this page of writings and video interviews that might be of general interest to us design types.

I particularly liked the interview with Steve Jobs about working with Rand for the NEXT logo (logotype?)

Learn to type and type faster

2008-01-03T09:44:00.000-08:00

via popurls

What does typing (as in using a QWERTY keyboard) have to do with design? Well, since computers are both the main design and communication tool for graphic designers today and the keyboard is one of two primary ways to control computers… uh… that’s what typing has to do with design.

Anyway, if you don’t know how to touch-type or you’d like to type faster, check out Learn How to Type Faster With These 8 Sites at mashable.com.

And, Happy New Year!

Everyone’s a typographer

2007-12-27T09:48:00.000-08:00

Or, at least everyone knows what fonts are.

Since everyone and their brother (or sister) has a computer with Microsoft Word and Print Shop Pro Publisher Deluxe, we’ve all become skilled typographers, right?

Uh, no.

In an effort to educate the general Microsoft Office-using public, The Sacramento Bee offers What’s your type? (<-- This link is to the Printer version of the article, which apparently doesn’t force you to register in order to read the entire piece. You’ll have to click [Cancel] when the print dialog box comes up though.) In any case, give the article a read and get a glimpse of how the general populace views and uses fonts.

Design, Spin, and “Greenwashing”

2007-12-26T09:07:00.000-08:00

via e-mail from Roland

Have we gone wrong, design people? The New York Times’ article, Be It Ever So Homespun, There’s Nothing Like Spin muses on the design analog of what Michael Pollan described as “supermarket pastoral”—dressing up industrially-produced certified organic foods with green meadows and happy cows so we can feel good about our food choices. And here I thought we were only supposed to use the power of design for good.

Ignore, for the moment, the debate about the benefits (or not) of Big Organic vs. the accessibility (or not) of Sustainable Agriculture. Instead, check out the There’s Nothing Like Spin article to see how design influences the hearts and minds of supermarket shoppers.

Okay, back to my Natural Cheetos.

Helvetica Soundtrack iMix

2007-12-16T10:40:00.000-08:00

For your listening pleasure.

Ugly Colleges

2007-12-13T10:41:00.000-08:00

via Daring Fireball

While there’s tons (literally) of construction going on around Cal, I think you’d be hard pressed to find someone who thinks the entire campus is ugly. Parts of campus? Definitely (Lower Sproul, anyone?). But the whole campus? No.

It seems like the writer of The 20 Ugliest Colleges in the USA seems to agree—Cal doesn’t appear on the list. The list is arbitrary, so take the selections with a grain of salt. I will, however, endorse the inclusion of selections 5 and 13. I’ve been to both campuses and would have been surprised if they hadn’t made the list.

Why read it? See it!

2007-11-29T10:37:00.000-08:00

via PopURLs

Happy post-Thanksgiving! Things have been pretty quiet around the ole blog what with the lead-up to Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving itself, and the trytophan– and shopping-induced post-Thanksgiving weariness that inevitably follows. With all this holiday lethargy around us, how can we possibly be expected to read things (like this blog) without falling asleep? I, for one, have no such expectations.

So, to ease oneself back into the fast-paced information age, today I’m recommending the Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary Online. For instance, this is how they define uses for the Internet:

Isn’t that so much better than some long-winded explanation from an IT professional?

Hmmm, they don’t seem to have blogs on their pictogram anywhere… but they do have educational institutions, so I guess we’re covered.

Of Fawnt and dafont

2007-11-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

via Daring Fireball (from a couple of weeks ago)

There was I time when I was crazy for fonts. I would collect and pore over the typeface catalogs from Adobe, Monotype, ITC, and Emigre and dream of the day when I would own every font in the world.

Nowadays, with everyone and their uncle (or aunt) creating fonts I’ve given up on my plans of world font domination. There’s also the fact that owning every commercially-available font would be prohibitively expensive and having zillions of fonts loaded on my computer would cause Adobe apps to take eight hours to open (Microsoft Word could take up to three weeks to launch).

But, for those of you still clinging to your font fetishes, here are a couple of sites to enable your addiction:

Fawnt.com

Fawnt is a font resource for designers, developers, and anyone that appreciates the web's highest quality fonts

dafont.com

Welcome. Here you can download fonts to use in your documents, create titles or logos.

I’ve perused both sites and have resisted the urge to download all the free fonts. I can just look at them and appreciate them. Yeah.

Well, maybe I’ll just try one.

One of our own

2007-10-31T16:08:00.001-07:00

DevCom's Vee Mahoney is participating in the SF Open Studios this weekend:

November 3-4, 2007
11 am - 6 pm

Her work is on display in her studio in Building 116 at the Hunters Point Shipyard.

Way to go, Vee!

40% of us feel fine. 1,217 feel weird.

2007-10-30T10:27:00.001-07:00

Pam Pfiffner at Creative Pro blogs about her design epiphany while visiting Adobe , where she gets synchronistically clued into a site called weefeelfine.org. Maybe it's the introspection of fall, but I feel compelled to look at the wriggling data points about feelings, or at least poke around to see all the ways the designer is presenting the data.

This beguiling site is “an exploration of human emotion on a global scale.” The site searches the blogosphere for instances of the words “I feel” or “I am feeling” and tracks the emotion attached to that phrase. The information is saved into a database that parses such information as location, age, and gender. Through a visual interface, site visitors can explore what people are feeling at any moment all over the world. Click on a dot representing a blog post and the “emotional” words in that blog posting appear. For example: “I feel like I don’t know how to have fun anymore.” Click those words and you’ll be taken to that person’s blog for more context.

Paul Rand said…

2007-10-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

via Daring Fireball

I’m not familiar with The One Club, but I am familiar with Paul Rand. If you’re not familiar with Paul Rand (and you should be), you can read about him at Wikipedia.

If you’d rather see and hear about Paul Rand, though, you can watch this video created for Paul Rand’s induction into The One Club Hall of Fame.

“The Leopard, she is coming…”

2007-10-22T09:42:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is my attempt at bad movie dialogue (à la The Night of the Iguana). But, hopefully you were able to read past the bad screenwriting and realize that it’s Mac OS X Leopard that is coming—on October 26th!

If you’ve already familiarized yourself with Leopard’s 300+ new features and gone through the guided tour, you can check out “Getting your Mac ready for OS X 10.5” at Macworld.com.

Actually, maybe you should make sure your Mac can handle the upgrade.

(The Scholar’s Workstation has Leopard available for pre-order. I’ve already got mine all lined up!)

Freelancin’ (mistakes)

2007-10-10T11:05:00.000-07:00

via popurls
My first steps down this whole graphic design-type road were a string of desktop publishing-type jobs supplemented by freelance work. Later, I worked as a production artist-type at Huge Financial Institution of America (a pseudonym) and freelanced. Now, I devote my work week to the UC and when I’m at home—no freelance.

Why not? 1. I don’t want to. 2. I don’t have to. 3. You can’t make me.

I was never entirely happy performing freelance work. I just didn’t have the temperament for it. My Top 5 Biggest Freelance Mistakes from freelancefolder.com pretty much sums up why 4. I suck as a freelancer.

Reminder: Helvetica this weekend at YBCA

2007-10-03T14:47:00.001-07:00

More information:
• This weekend's showings
• Helvetica web site
• Clips and trailers
• AIGA interview with director Gary Hustwit
• Previous DA post

Free MacWorld exhibit passes until October 5th

2007-10-03T10:15:00.001-07:00

Free Exhibit Hall passes to MacWorld Conference and Expo are available until this Friday (10/05). Use code 08-E-VF01.

Register today!

Wedding photos

2007-10-02T08:56:00.000-07:00

via Daring Fireball

No, not from my wedding. Or, for that matter, anyone that I know. Anyway, it’s not the wedding that’s the matter of interest, it’s the photos. Actually, it’s the camera—a barely-in-the-wild High-ISO Nikon D3.

If you want to see some unretouched snaps from the nigh-latest in pro digital camera gear, head over to “Nikon D3 Test Drive.”

*sniff* Unretouched high-ISO digital photos always make me cry.

Quiddities to appear at upcoming Drupal meeting

2007-09-25T09:34:00.000-07:00

via email from Tao Starbow, Webnet

Greetings Berkeley Druplers,

Our next meeting will be Thursday, September 27th, Noon-1:30pm at 290 HMMB, UC Berkeley (note the change of day from our usual Wednesday time slot).

This month: Developing Drupal Sites at UC Berkeley

Rob and Tracy, from Quiddities are going to talk about the sites they have developed at UCB (including the College of Arts[sic] and Science), the trials and tribulations of Drupal and the campus bureaucracy, and the CalNet authentication module they have been developing.

Also, the Bay Area Drupal Camp is coming to UC Berkeley in November. Register now.

Update: Rob & Tracy will not be talking about CalNet, but [Tao] will give a summary of the status of Rob Barreca's calnet.module (which is currently in at BigIdeas.berkeley.edu) and [] an overview of the steps needed to get a 5.x compatible release

Dr. Copperplate and Mr. Gothic

2007-09-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

via Daring Fireball

Like many of us (I hope), I look back on much of my early graphic design—or, to tell the truth, desktop publishing (gasp!)—career with varying degrees of sheepishness and downright embarrassment. My greatest regrets: bad layouts and bad typography.

I used to chalk up my clunky typography to the clunky fonts at my disposal when a Macintosh IIfx, LaserWriter II, and PageMaker 3 were the high-end tools of the DTP trade: Avant Garde, Bookman, Courier, Helvetica, New Century Schoolbook, Palatino, Symbol, Times, Zapf Dingbats and Zapf Chancery. Later, I blamed my failure with Lithos on MTV’s beating of that typeface into the ground. Then, a long stint with what is now the US’s largest commercial bank left me irrationally angry at Futura Bold.

But, after reading through Armin Vit’s “Dr. Copperplate and Mr. Gothic”—a considerate view of Copperplate (another one of my font nemeses)—I’ve had to rethink the issues I’ve had with all the fonts in the past.

Maybe I just suck at setting type.

Attractive… Charts?

2007-09-20T09:56:00.000-07:00

via Smashing Magazine via popurls

Do you use Flash? (Me: A little.) Do you design charts? (Me: Sometimes.) Do you design dynamic charts in Flash? (Me: Wow, I never thought of doing that.)

And, with my mediocre Flash skills, I would never attempt making a dynamic chart in Flash.

Enter amCharts, the work of a seemingly lone, Lithuanian Flash developer. I won’t go into the details—Smashing Magazine already did: Attractive Online Diagrams, Charts And Maps. When you’re done reading about it, you can go to amCharts and download away.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended for Apple iPhone

2007-09-17T16:16:00.002-07:00

via Daring Fireball

(It’s not Friday, but it’s never too early for something fun, right?)

I don’t have Photoshop CS3 and I don’t have an iPhone. I hope someday to have both… but together?

A year of speakers on art, technology, and culture begins tonight

2007-09-17T15:39:00.001-07:00

The first installment in this year's speaker program — "The Art, Technology, and Culture Colloquium," sponsored by UC Berkeley's Center for New Media — begins tonight.

Tonight's performance: Trevor Paglen explores state secrecy and the geography of nowhere.

7:30 – 9 p.m.
160 Kroeber Hall

For more information, see:
• Secret CIA Prisons in Your Backyard
• KQED's Spark* feature on Trevor in April 2006
• Trevor's bio

Atkinson Photographic Archive

2007-09-17T11:44:00.000-07:00

The Atkinson Photographic Archive provides access to high-res photos of campus buildings for University of California-related purposes.

Note: Photo quality varies. Please read copyright instructions before using.

Photograph © 2003 by Alan Nyiri, courtesy of the Atkinson Photographic Archive.

Free! Fonts!

2007-09-13T09:35:00.000-07:00

via Smashing Magazine via popurls

Smashing Magazine is linking to six free (!) fonts and we’re linking to Smashing Magazine. I don’t know if you’d want to change the body copy of your entire newsletter-brochure-what-have-you to any of these free (!) typefaces, but any of them would work as a display face. Remember, “If it’s free, take one. If it’s free and not so good, take two.”

Book production basics

2007-09-10T13:37:00.000-07:00

per BBW e-mail:

Bookbuilders West Presents:
Annual Crash Course in Book Production Basics 2007

Thursday, October 11th, 2007

Registration: 8:15 - 8:45 am
Presentations: 9:00 am - 4:00 pm

Grosvenor Hotel, 380 So. Airport Blvd., So. San Francisco, CA
See below for directions or phone (650) 873-3200

$75.00 Members | $65 For members with 4 or more attendees |
$95.00 Non-members

Register Now!
This course provides an introductory overview of the entire book publishing production process including editing, design, composition, art and photo preparation for 1-, 2-, and 4-color printing, binding, and paper selection. Interested in learning about new media technologies? Information about creating various media projects in conjunction with print projects will be addressed as well.

Lunch and course materials will be provided.

Registration Deadline: October 4th, 2007
(No refunds or cancellations; substitutions are welcome.)

If you have questions about registration or payment, please contact Mike Johnson by sending email to MJohnson@edwardsbrothers.com, or calling 951-587-8728.

For your weekend enjoyment...

2007-09-07T13:04:00.001-07:00

via YouTube:

Groovy, man. Gotta love those Swedes.

Ahhh, oooh... Point well taken.

2007-09-06T15:48:00.001-07:00

Oooh, ahhh... The new iPod touch

2007-09-05T12:28:00.000-07:00

Berkeley honored with art

2007-08-28T12:03:00.000-07:00

via sfgate.com

Colombian artist Fernando Botero has chosen Berkeley as permanent home to his compelling Abu Ghraib paintings. However, details of the agreement need to be worked out before it's a done deal. The Center for Latin American Studies sponsored the only American showing of Botero's images of Abu Ghraib prisoners earlier this year.

Latin America's most celebrated living artist, Botero has offered to give the university all the pictures it displayed — 25 big paintings and 22 drawings of bound, bloodied and blindfolded naked prisoners, one pawed by a ferocious dog. They're based on the photographs and stories of Iraqi prisoners tortured by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Berkeley chancellor Robert Birgeneau has tentatively agreed to accept the gift, the monetary value of which experts peg at $10 million to $15 million....

In April, the artist, who lives mostly in Paris, e-mailed Professor Harley Shaiken, director of the Center for Latin American Studies, who had organized the show, to say he'd decided to give the works to UC Berkeley. He wrote that because of the school's academic stature and "openness of spirit," he wanted the pictures to reside there permanently.

"We were stunned. It was well beyond our wildest dreams," said Shaiken, who relayed the offer to the chancellor, whom he praises for taking the risk of showing these provocative works and supporting the belief that "a university deals with ideas."

iDied

2007-08-27T21:06:00.001-07:00

via flickr

Typesetting in the 70s, Part One

2007-08-15T12:33:00.000-07:00

For those who weren't there to see it in all its glory, here's a chance to get a glimpse of what the 70s looked like, by and large, graphic-design wise. Creative Pro just posted the first of a series and I think the images and the technical background he offers about why things looked the way they did is fascinating.

Scanning Around With Gene: Part 1 of That '70s Type!

Some of you may know that I think there is a dearth of understanding amongst the younger digirati of what design really entailed before PostScript. I think I'm secretly soliciting stories from the trenches from those who know what collodion is. I didn't. At least not until a heart to heart with an elder pressman at the press check on Monday. And Scitex?

What do you guys think? When the car was invented, did we really need to teach our children about the details of horse husbandry? Or did we say, let bygones be bygones and let the knowledge fade into the ether?

Helvetica comes to you

2007-08-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

via Daring Fireball

If you haven’t seen Helvetica (the movie), the next geographically-convenient showing will be at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts from October 5–7. Design Alliance movie night, anyone? Barring that, you can get the Helvetica (the movie) DVD in your hot little hands after November 6th (Pre-order here).

I haven’t heard any firsthand reviews, but Helvetica has been getting some good press online. All I know is that the movie posters are cool.

[Insert iLife ’08 pun here]

2007-08-13T16:23:00.000-07:00

Apple’s new iMacs are all shiny aluminum and glass but I was actually more interested in the revamped iLife ’08—and, to a lesser extent, iWork ’08—application suites. If you haven’t seen Real Steve Jobs do his iLife and iWork ’08 demo yet, you can watch the whole spiel in streaming QuickTime—the iLife ’08 part starts at around 13'30".

If you’d rather read about initial impressions of the new iApps (is that what we should call them?), head over to Macworld’s first looks at Numbers, GarageBand, Keynote, iPhoto, Pages, iMovie, and iDVD.

I’ll save the iLife pun for later. Something like “iLike iLife, uLike iLife 2?”

Edit: Added iMovie and iDVD. —calixton

Singin Along Cause I'm So Design Gangsta

2007-08-08T13:21:00.000-07:00

A quick and nerdy deliverable for you courtesy of Kyle Webster and You Tube. I really can't get the tune out of my head.

youtube.com/watch?v=yJexyQT0l1c

"Press Check!" "CMYKaaaaaay!"

Apple Inc. turns its attention to… the Mac?

2007-08-07T14:51:00.000-07:00

Windows-only readers can skip this post.

For those of you wondering if Apple Inc. still makes computers, today’s special Apple Mac Event was a celebration of (almost*) all things Mac.

The first announcement was the new iMac form-factor. Thinner, sleeker, faster, shinier—the new, aluminimum-clad, 20– and 24-inch iMacs run Intel Core 2 Duo processors from 2.0 to 2.8GHz. Still no built-in Blu-ray burner, but I want one of these new iMacs almost as much as I want an iPhone. The keyboard alone is a thing of beauty.

Despite the new hardware offering, the bulk of the Mac Event time was devoted to iLife and iWork. iLife ’08 has significantly updated versions of iPhoto, iMovie, iWeb, iDVD, and GarageBand (where’s the “i”?). iWork ’08 has revised apps Keynote (presentations) and Pages (word processing), and adds a new spreadsheet application, Numbers. I’ve never been excited about presentations, word processing, or spreadsheets, but I’m beginning to feel some tingling in the extremities.

Finally, .Mac (Apple’s e-mail and online tools service) got a storage and functionality bump (to integrate with iLife ’08), and the Mac mini got a silent processor upgrade.

Now when will TSW get all this new stuff?

*No Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro, or Xserve news.

Animator vs. Animation

2007-08-06T14:46:00.000-07:00

I saw this animation over a year ago and got a kick out of it then. Many of you have probably seen it before but if you haven't, then you'll be entertained. I found it to be very clever - if you've ever worked in Flash you'll get an extra laugh. And, there is a sequel (although, I think the first one is still the best).

Animator vs. Animation

Animator vs. Animation II

"Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us"

2007-08-02T10:52:00.000-07:00

Am I the last one to see this cool video? Very interesting…

youtube.com/watch?v=NLlGopyXT_g

Cal WebFiles: who knew this existed?

2007-08-01T13:45:00.000-07:00

Say you have a client who for some [f... rustrating] reason can't access your department's FTP site (this has happened to me recently) — well, check this site out: webfiles.berkeley.edu.

Believe it or not, Cal WebFiles is hosted on campus, and is available to all students, faculty, and staff. Cal WebFiles provides web publishing, file storage, and file sharing.

To start using WebFiles, here's a quick tutorial:

(1) Create your own account.

(2) Upload a file you wish to share with your client.

Click "Upload"

Select "Number of files to upload" (at right)

Choose file(s)

Click "OK"

Note: There is no file size limit. (Well, within reason: Each user account receives 300MiB of secure online file storage space.)

(3) Send an email with link to file to your client.

Check box next to file you want to send

Click "Email Icon" in menu bar

Select "Ticket"

Click "Email"

Address email and add any additional copy

Send email to your client

See also:

WebFiles FAQs

WebFiles Tutorial

This (Flash) I Like

2007-07-30T09:23:00.000-07:00

via popurls

I'm not a big fan of Flash, especially for user-interface. But, sometimes it really, really works to get a point across. My favorite current example:

What Excessive Pay Package?