When I looked ahead to 2012, I realized what a big field graphic design is, and how wide my talents and interests spread. When asked what kind of design I do, I usually say, “Whaddya got?”
It’s time I specialized, and also parlay two of my prized skills:
• calligraphy.
• staying married for over 20 years.
In my study of calligraphy, especially during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, before movable type turned important documents into pre-printed forms with blanks, marriage contracts were quite decorative objects, as fitting for their function. The tradition held among Judaism, where it’s known as the ketubah. Except in the case of the Jews, this document is still the fulfillment of an expectation, the observation of a tradition. And so modern corners are cut: some aspects, such as the printing of the wording, are computerized. Some of the design that surrounds the wording are pre-printed (it’s harder for a couple to decide what they want than to pick which one they want).
So here’s what I arrived at: WeddedGlyphs.com. Read More
There’s a board of directors inside my head.
This isn’t about them. It is, however, about a 5am visit to the Psychotherapist I Can Afford, who also hangs a shingle in my noggin. The session, of indeterminate length (it’s free, who’s counting?), started out grim, but led to an epiphany of sorts.
But First…
Recently, Chris Brogan, an absurdly successful man who himself has either conquered or controlled depression, advises us not to use social media while depressed.
I’m too cheap to afford a career coach. And probably more in need of one than I realize.
I get the point, that a blog can tell you and potential clients/employers more about me, how I am now, what I’m thinking about, what it’s like to have me wandering your halls or doing business with you remotely. The phrase I most responded to was, “Your résumé is your epitaph.” It’s possible that people are driven away by a blog that reveals too little about me. I can read anything into silence, which is the predominant response from my work-search.
So I’ll start to blog more. I get the point. But what should I put in a blog? What do you want more of from me? I’m here to give posts that my friends know I’m capable of delivering. So let’s here what you have to say.
I’ll be listening in two ways:
- a Google+ Hangout tonight starting at 8pm, and most Wednesday nights from now on;
- the comments section of this post, which is made active and immediately updating by a service called Livefyre.
I’ll be following both throughout the evening. I’m really interested in what you have to say. You may inspire and encourage me, or berate me and tell me off, or whatever. I have nothing in exchange for you; my wife could bake cookies, but I can’t get them to you. (If you think it would be a good business decision to figure out a way of getting cookies to you, tell me that.)
See you tonight, or next Wednesday night!
The world needs less graphic design than it ever did.
It used to be a big deal that I have a computer with design software. But between your general need for a fast computer with Internet connection as a modern business, and the availability and ease of open-source and Web-based software, you do your own design now. And I don’t blame you.
There is so much pre-packaged stuff online, either for free or for pennies, that you’d be a fool not to take that, rather than anything I can custom-make you.
If you feel more ambitious, there are sites with “designers” throughout the world, who will bid for your business, driving the price down, or even present you with a final product on spec, that you can accept or reject with no compunction. I can queue up there, and compete with people with a tenth my cost-of-living, who play fast and loose with ethical standards such as plagiarism. Read More
First of all, shame on me: I didn’t see the Republican debate on Fox, but I have been keeping up with Fox’s Monday- and Tuesday-night line-up of Gordon Ramsay cooking contests, Hell’s Kitchen and MasterChef. And I’m noticing a familiar pattern with the selection of the finalists, as contestants get rejected each episode.
In each series this summer, there is a pair who can’t get along. One is the designated overinflated ego, and the other is the nemesis with the heart of gold, whom the egohead picks on. (It wouldn’t surprise me if the producers either exacerbated a natural argument or invented it out of whole cloth and assigned these personalities to the “cast members.”) In either team or individual competition, you see their bickering hurting the smooth operation of the kitchen, and you’re sure one of those two aren’t long for this world. But week after week, even as their competitors are forced to the ignominy of nominating them, the pair manage to survive. Read More
twg1942 on Flickr — Creative Commons
The call came at 2 am. I instinctively produced just enough adrenaline to handle bad news. But it was Skype spam: “NOTIFICATION – REPAIR REQUIRED.” I made a mental note to change my status in the morning, and went back to bed.
But the adrenaline wouldn’t let me sleep.
I thought of the Old Me and the New Me. This New Me — or more accurately, New Us, that my wife Denise and I have been selling to ourselves and each other, who will take over on October 1. The day we officially occupy a house like the one we’re in now, but in the town of Media, Pennsylvania, closer to Philadelphia than we could ever afford to New York City. (I’ve lived every day of my life in either Westchester or Rockland counties.) Onto this earnest little burg we’re pinning hopes of a better life, in the form of more job choices, a lower cost of living, and more connection to people in general, including a number of friends both my wife and I have each made independently.
I know what you’re thinking. What a responsibility for suburban Philly to shoulder. What high expectations we have, of the magical powers of a state not too different from our own.
Fret not, Keystoners. The transformation won’t be your doing, but ours. Read More
Dealing with typography as long as I have, I can’t help but ponder the path from smudge on a paper (or clump of same-color pixels on a screen), to brain, to mouth, to ear. Languages that are offshoots of Latin and Greek use each smudge (glyph) to symbolize a single sound, either a consonant or a vowel. This keeps the list of glyphs very short, with complexity gained by stringing the letters together in sequence. Other languages, like Japanese, have each glyph symbolize a syllable, a combination of one consonant and one vowel (a syllabary language). Now there are considerably more glyphs, but words are shorter. This is suitable to spoken Japanese, which doesn’t have more than one consonant in a row (which is why their adaptation of the English word baseball is besuboru, four syllables). Then there’s a language like Chinese, where each symbol is a word (logogram), and there are a bazillion glyphs, and no one knows completely how to write in Chinese. Read More
In the race for interactivity, the humble PDF is down, but not out. Actually, it’s not even down.
The proof is the latest release from my new client, the Texas-yet-worldwide marketing consultancy Turning Minds. Titled Embracing Twitter…So It’ll Embrace You Back, editors Ben Henick (@bhenick) and Justin McCullough (@mccJustin) curate an anthology of wisdom about business use of Twitter, from foreworder Liz Strauss (@LizStrauss), Phil Gerbyshak (@PhilGerb), Becky McCray (@BeckyMcCray) and Chris Garrett (@chrisgarrett), just to name those whom I’d heard of before helping out on this book. 
I took the task of the overall design and production, exploring non-Flash interactive capabilities of the PDF format for maximum compatibility. The PDF standard has a lot going for it, and there’s little reason why ebooks can’t pick a few entrees from this menu. I truly had fun doing it, and look forward to topping it.
The scariest challenge was the final one: how to get the size down beneath 8mb, so it could be easily attached to an email. My experiments brought it down from about 30mb to a svelte 1.9mb, with almost no loss of content. I learned tricks I’ll be able to apply in every similar job.
To see the results for yourself, and to pick the brains of these 36 experienced Twitter practitioners, download your free copy, and tell all your friends. You’d be doing everyone involved a favor — including me.
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