Have a look at FontsInUse for some great font inspiration for your next design job. The examples are large images, complete with the names of the fonts used in the piece. There’s some really great work here, definitely worth checking out.
Category: General
Extensis offers free Type Trends Report
Extensis, makers of Suitcase Fusion and Universal Type Server, surveyed thousands of graphic designers, art directors and creative people from around the globe to learn what they think about current trends in typography. The Typographic Trends report is free to download.
Spec work: Think of the “exposure” you’ll get!
The light bulb at Microsoft finally turned on…
A little bulb hanging somewhere over a manager’s desk at Microsoft has finally shed enough light that somebody with half a brain could read the memo that Apple, and many other service companies, have understood for years.
The race to the bottom yields nothing worth having.
Users of Microsoft’s “Unlimited Storage” OneDrive service found out that they’re hosed, and going to have to find somewhere else to store their terabytes of pirated movies.
Folks, there’s just no such thing as a free lunch. There are plenty of free services out there, but even companies the size of Google kill products and services with little warning. Others may start out free, or offer something too good to be true, but come to their senses shortly after you decide it’s critical to your workflow.
If you find a service valuable, pay for it.
From the ‘no-duh’ department: Print is more valuable than digital
As a primarily print designer, the news of Temple University’s Fox School of Business study that showed that print (advertising) is more valuable than digital was music to my ears. That being said, I have to wonder why it took what I’m sure was a time-consuming and expensive study to illustrate the obvious. Here are my thoughts on their findings:
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Video: Jony Ive’s “One More Thing” about Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs’ most inspirational piece of work of his entire career
Results are in: The pen IS mightier than the keyboard
Educators are eager to know how the computers popping up in their classrooms actually affect student learning. A recent study published in Psychological Science confronts the issue head-on.
The results of the study come to no surprise to me. People who hand-write notes are more likely to process the information as it comes in (and have a much easier time recalling the information later), compared to those who basically sit there and transcribe an entire lecture or presentation on a computer.
I compare the results of this study to logo design. Even with all the modern software & hardware technology making it easier and easier to create on your digital devices, you still get better results when you sketch your logo design concepts on paper first. There’s just less distraction with the process. You don’t get hung-up on colors and precise layout when you sketch on paper, which leaves your mind to focus on the basic concept.
Yet another example I can think of is that I find that when I have a client meeting, I’m better able to understand what a client is asking for when I limit my notes to a few high-points (or not take notes at all), than when I used to basically write down every word they said. I learned over time that it’s better to HEAR what a client is saying, not LISTEN to what they’re saying. When you’re taking notes, you’re listening to what they say, but you’re not really hearing them.
The importance of branding
SmileGate: Apple’s sex & race problem
Warning: This is a snarky opinion piece. If you would rather not be offended by the fact that I’m not offended, but am offended that you are; well then, this article probably isn’t for you. And I don’t care, but just know that you’ve been warned.
Apple has a sex problem.
No, not an Ashley Madison type of sex problem. Not even a “mom found my stash of porno mags under the bed” type of problem. More of a “he-said, why didn’t she-said” type of problem. Apparently, it also has a race problem. Hell, Apple is just one giant problem… if you believe the Internet, that is.
Apple had barely completed yesterday’s “Hey Siri” event, arguably one of their largest product release events in recent history, when the Internet had one of its all-to-frequent It’s My Turn To Be Offended, Dammit! pile-ons. The sheer stupidity and linkbaitedness of the accusations made in the articles are so thick you can choke on them. And I nearly did.
The Verge posted this pathetic puddle of baboon piss about what I’ll call SmileGate. Apple invited representatives of Adobe to come on stage and demo their software’s image retouching power. And that was their big, huge, massive mistake.
Unfortunately, Adobe chose two men to bring a scantily-clad woman on stage, slap her ass and tell her what nice tits she had.
Wait. That’s not quite accurate. Maybe they just had a photo of a woman, and used the software to make her red lipstick a little bit redder, and turn up the corners of her mouth to make her appear to be slightly smiling.
The horror. I mean… can you believe the audacity of Adobe to pull this kind of disgusting behavior toward women?
And the world blames Apple.
Not to be outdone, NextWeb decided to re-puke the previously mentioned article and add more semi-digested chunks to it.
Apparently, Apple hates African Americans, Native Indians, Jews, Italians, Armenians, Hungarians, Arabs, and Polacks. And Australians. And anyone from Alaska. And they still hate women of any race, just not quite as much as they used to.
According to the potato sack who wrote that piece of drivel, Apple needs to have one member of every race on Earth speak for at least 45 seconds at every Apple event, just to show that Apple is a company by the people, for the people… or something like that. I don’t know.
I have an image in my mind of Tim Cook in a sweat-soaked blue shirt, skipping and hopping around on stage while clapping and screaming DIVERSITY. DIVERSITY. DIVERSITY. DIVERSITY. Of course, people would probably be offended by the blatant gimmick copying:
And then the entire frigging Internet pooped out Tweets and links to the same or similar articles. Because you know, nobody wants to be left out. I dunno. The race to the bottom of the ‘It’s My Turn To Be Offended’ barrel on the Internet is getting quite tired.
No matter what Apple does here, some people are going to find a way to be butt-hurt about it. If Apple had filled the entire keynote with female employees speaking about all the products, their would surely be a gaggle of loudmouths accusing Apple of conspiring to put one over on us, or ‘play to the crowd’ too much. One more African American, one more Asian, one more of any race, and the same people would probably sport their Confederate flag shirts and hold up signs that read ‘MERICA!
The world has a diversity problem, and it appears that if I wish to fit in with the hip crowd, I must blame Apple.