DesignTales

Sitting at Point A. (Again.)

2010-04-17T20:07:51Z

As I sit here pondering a new direction in life that is on the horizon, I've been wondering about things to this point. I tend to think of myself as a creative person. I may not be the best at anything that I do, but I like to think I'm a bit better than average. It just makes me wonder. I've tried to do all sorts of creative things over the years. Reflecting back on each one of my endeavors, it's sad to say that almost each one has been full of Epic Fail™. I've tried lots of things over the years. I enjoy doing most of them, but it's frustrating to see all the work I put into things and nothing really coming of it. I've put so many things out into the world and it hard to see that little to no one is paying attention. I think the only thing I've ever done that people have paid any attention to was my work with Richard and Wendy Pini of Elfquest fame. And that's attention by association. Not really anything of my doing. But I look at things like @anime!, my online anime magazine. Or my photography. Or my design "business". If you look at any of those, none of them could be considered anything close to what could be called a success.

So as I sit here staring at this computer screen, I have to wonder. Is it even worth the time to do anything creative on my own anymore? I've got lots of projects that I work on that, frankly, don't ever amount to anything. I'm wondering if it's worth it to keep pouring time and effort into these things. Should I just kill them all and try to move on to something else? It's quite the quandary. And I don't really know what to do. Art. Design. Writing. Photography... it all seems so worthless if there's no one to look at it or use it. It's even harder a thing when you think about the fact that I've been doing all this stuff for more than half my life. It's really all that I know.

I've been trying to figure out how to move forward. School will be starting up again in a few weeks. I swore to myself that I wouldn't go back, but I don't think I really have much choice. I'll be going a direction that I have a feeling won't be an easy one. I'm starting into Business Management with a Marketing focus. I have to be honest, I hate the business side of business. I really prefer to do the creative stuff. But after almost 20 years in the design world, I don't think I can get anywhere in that world anymore. Being a designer just doesn't seem to cut it anymore. I don't want to go into management, but after 20 years as a designer, management is the only place for me to go now it seems. Having a job where I won't be able to design isn't what I think I'll like, but there's little else for me to do without changing fields completely and I don't want to do that either.

And then there's the bad economy.

It's quite the dilemma. And I don't know what to do.

I'm tired and just want to move on, but it seems that I can't. Somewhere, there's an answer. I just hope that I can find it.

The Reason People Hate Designers

2009-06-02T16:37:16Z

I came across an article today on Fast Company. It's about a "designer," Dustin Curtis and his reaction to the current website for American Airlines.

He gives three (exceptionally arrogant) suggestions:

1. Treat this as a serious emergency across your entire company. Your shortfalls in customer experience do not stop at the website. Your company is losing money every day because customers hate the way you treat them. And it appears that you are doing nothing to fix this.

2. Fire your entire design team, if you have one. Hire an outside design firm ... as quickly as possible. Your in-house team is obviously incapable of building a good experience. Get outside help.

3. Follow the lead of new, young, and innovative airlines like JetBlue and Virgin America. They know how to harness repeat business through excellent customer experience.

For No. 1, I think he tends to forget what industry he's complaining at. This is the airline industry. Overall, the airline industry is stuck with what they have. Costs are going up and income is going down. Arguments like "Your company is losing money every day because customers hate the way you treat them. And it appears that you are doing nothing to fix this." is a sad outlook at the way the world works. Mr. Curtis thinks that customer service is only a one way street. I'm sure consumers don't treat the airlines any better. Not that that is an excuse, but trying to make like these big companies aren't doing anything to make customer experiences better is silly at best and downright ignorant at worst. And then there's a little thing called "competition". Companies lose money everyday because there are others out there that do the same things for cheaper.

#2. Fire your entire design team and hire who? Someone like Mr. Curtis here who apparently doesn't know how the business side of the design world works? The arrogance of someone like Mr. Curtis is EXACTLY one big reason why "normal" people hate "designers". (Heck, people like Mr. Curtis make real designers hate "designers".) As a design professional, I'm appalled and disappointed at people who throw around idiotic blabber like this and then go around claiming that they're a "designer". That kind of talk is the kind of garbage that you hear from all these new, trendy "designers" that claim to have gone to "design school" and have all the answers.

And #3, well, I think we're missing how the airline industry works today. Back in the 60s, or 70s, heck, even the 80s, people were loyal to one airline. In my day, United was my airline of choice. Today? There IS no loyalty cause it's all about getting the cheapest flight available. That's why places like Orbitz, Priceline and Travelocity came into being. It's not about sticking with who you're loyal to. It's how much can I get for as little as possible. Today, we take whatever flight from whatever company is the cheapest and throw loyalty out the window. JetBlue and Virgin, while nice, aren't anything that you can compare to the BIG airlines. Once JetBlue and Virgin get to the same size as United, American and the like, their " excellent customer experience" will turn the same direction. It's just the nature of the corporate world. Hate to burst your bubble there, Mr, Curtis.

Ultimately, what poor Mr. Curtis doesn't seem to understand is that there are some lines between design and functionality. Sure, the world would be an excellent place if all design was pretty and everything everywhere looked as good as designers wanted them to. But that's not the world we live in. In the case of American Airlines, I understand where they're coming from. Having done webwork for both the "mom and pop" shop and the big, corporate giants, I know EXACTLY how AA.com came into being. In the big, corporate world, things like websites are designed by committee. You have different departments within a big company that have their piece of the website and that's all they really care about. When you take 100 of these different little pieces and have to smash them all together, that's where "pretty" design gets thrown out the window. You have to make sacrifices to please all the parts of the committee. And sacrifices rarely lead to "pretty" design, especially on the web.

The truly tragic thing here is how this was all presented. Yes, there's horrible design out there. There's plenty of it out there. I've dealt with it for almost 20 years. But there's a way to tell someone that their website sucks. Mr. Curtis' method is exactly how NOT to tell someone.

But all this is probably currently beyond his grasp. Someday, hopefully Mr. Curtis will learn all this.

Probably when someone pops his art school, trendy designer bubble and he realizes that he's in the real world, not some ideal design world that he's apparently living in right now.

EvoEntAd: Evolution of Entertainment Advertising

2009-05-11T16:49:11Z

So, for those not in the know, I've been in the middle of getting my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree finished up and I just got done with my last "real" semester. I had to do a big gallery show as my final project and the topic I used was the evolution of entertainment advertising over the last 100 years. It was a rather labor intensive project. I took my webcomic, Beyond Neverwonder, and used it as a guinea pig for the project. I analyzed the design styles of movie posters from 1912 to 2009 and then I took different time periods and did a Beyond Neverwonder movie poster using the design elements and styles of the different periods.

Well, the project is finally done and the remains can be found online. The website has it's own home at www.evoentad.com. There you can see the flash site that was part of the gallery show.

The posters can be found on my deviantArt site. Links are below.

Beyond Neverwonder 2000s Style by =tekitsune on deviant ART

Beyond Neverwonder 1980s Style by =tekitsune on deviant ART

Beyond Neverwonder 1960s Style by =tekitsune on deviant ART

Beyond Neverwonder 1940s Style by =tekitsune on deviant ART

Enjoy! :)

Happy Holidays!

2008-12-26T18:38:19Z

Direct from my sketchbook to everyone out there! :)

I've been playing with some new characters and some different drawing styles. I'm liking the look I think. Just need to play around some more. And I need to come up with a name for our girl here.

I'm a day late for Christmas, but I was enjoying being lazy yesterday, so I'm using that as my good excuse. Hope everyone out there is having a wonderful holiday season!

For the curious:
Based on a pencil sketch
Colored in Adobe Photoshop CS3
Time: ~2 hours

TotW: Astuteo

2008-12-22T16:22:56Z

I'm a bit late with this week's "Tail." I was in Las Vegas over the weekend for the Las Vegas bowl football game and didn't have Internet access until I got home late yesterday. But, better late than never, so here's this week's.

Astuteo is a nice, simple website for Matt Everson's design studio. He keeps things simple by using only one page to get all his information across. The navigation bar is unobtrusive. The use of red behind the logo provides a great contrast to the white background and the brown colors used in the navigation bar. His samples keep it nice and simple as well, giving you just enough to be interesting while not giving away everything he's trying to show.

Go check out the simplicity of the Astuteo site at http://www.astuteo.com/

Now Playing: Beyond Neverwonder

2008-12-17T20:14:40Z

The semester is finally coming to an end. Here's some of the stuff that monopolized my time. These are the three poster designs that I created for my Senior Project entitled "Now Playing: The Evolution of Entertainment Advertising." It's a look at the evolution of styles and production techniques and technology in entertainment advertising. The poster portion was to show the different styles over time. I did a 1940s style design (left), a 1960s design as my ode to Saul Bass (center), and then the more modern 1980-1990s style poster (right).

Once more semester to go and I'll finally be done. After 18 years of chasing my degree, I'm glad it's finally coming to an end.

TotW: Cirque du Soleil's KA

2008-12-15T01:44:03Z

This week's "Tail" is something unexpected. I had the fortune to spend the weekend in Las Vegas. I had a bunch of time to fill and since I don't gamble, I set myself up to see a show. And boy what a wonderful show!

KA is one of the many Cirque du Soleil shows that happen in Vegas that made it's debut in February 2005. It's a coming-of-age story following the Imperial Twins, a brother and sister, through their martial arts sparring and the adventures that happen as their family was attacked and the twins end up being separated. The twins go through everything, from surviving the attack to finding love as they go through their journey.

The KA website bills the show this way:

KA transcends place and time, with a theatrical landscape, scenic elements and costumes inspired by an array of diverse cultures.

Brought to life by 80 artists from around the world, KA is a gravity-defying production featuring a powerfully emotive soundtrack that enhances the innovative blend of acrobatic feats, Capoeira dance, puppetry, projections and martial arts.

KA is the big show at the MGM Grand. It's a fantastic spectacle of artistry and acrobatics. I have to say that the show was excellent. From an artistic standpoint, the color and design of the show was fun and great to see in motion. Yes, videos don't do the production justice. You have to see it live. The contrasts in color and neutrality work excellently with the production and makes for a great time if you happen to find yourself in Vegas.

For more about KA, see their site at http://www.ka.com/ and for more about the rest of the Cirque du Soleil shows, visit their site at http://www.cirquedusoleil..com/.

Tail of the Week: Digitalmash

2008-12-08T00:12:42Z

Greetings all. This is the first "Tail of the Week." I hope to showcase a cool design each week, be it web, print, 3D or what have you. This first go round, we have a most excellent website.

Digitalmash is the website for Australian designer Rob Morris. He's got a wonderfully designed site. It's very simplistic and clean, just simple black on a nice gray gradient. I love his use of color on the pages and the use of the BIG Helvetica. They're all great in contrast to the background of the site. No way to forget where you are on the site.

I have to be honest and say that this is probably one of the best designs for a site that I've seen a quite a while. With the insanely large amount of poor-to-bad design out there, this is a very refreshing break from the usual.

Go check out Rob's site at http://www.digitalmash.com/

To Yield or Not to Yield. That's not a question.

2008-12-05T21:46:49Z

I have several pet peeves. One of them involves a small triangular sign that appears on roadsides periodically. Some of you may have seen it.

Now, for those that don't know, that's called a Yield Sign.

According to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration's Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, a YIELD sign may be warranted:

On the approaches to a through street or highway where conditions are such that a stop is not always required.
At the second crossroad of a divided highway, where the median width at the intersection is 9 m or greater. In this case, a STOP or YIELD sign may be installed at the entrance to the first roadway of a divided highway, and a YIELD sign may be installed at the entrance to the second roadway.
On a channelized turn lane that is separated from the adjacent travel lanes by an island, even if the adjacent lanes at the intersection are controlled by a highway traffic control signal or by a STOP sign.
At an intersection where a special problem exists and where engineering judgment indicates the problem to be susceptible to correction by the use of the YIELD sign.
Facing the entering roadway for a merge-type movement if engineering judgment indicates that control is needed because acceleration geometry and/or sight distance is not adequate for merging traffic operation.

That's a a lot of technical gobbledygook, but the long and the short of a yield sign means that a vehicle driver must slow down and prepare to stop if necessary -- usually while merging into traffic on another road -- but doesn't need to stop if there is no reason to do so.

"No reason to do so" means if there are NO CARS traveling down the street you're yielding for.

I tend to find that few people actually know what a yield sign means. Let's do some math.

Yes, contrary to belief, YIELD does NOT equal MERGE. It's become a rather big annoyance this week, since I've been in at least 4 situations where stupid things could have happened because other drivers think YIELD = MERGE or they just plain ignore the fact that the Yield sign is there. Since I happen to like my car and like even more to be able to drive myself to work and school every day, silly people ignoring the real meaning of a Yield sign can lead to some bad situations.

But all that pet peeve stuff aside, this is a design and art blog. What does this have to do with design? Well, most people don't think about it, but the traffic signs that we see every day had to be designed by someone.

In the case of the Yield sign, the original concept and design was created by Capt. Clinton Riggs, a police officer in Tulsa, Oklahoma. According to the Tulsa Police Department's official blog, "The first 'yield right of way' signs were installed on a test basis in 1950 at First Street and Columbia Avenue, the most dangerous intersection in Tulsa at that time." The original design was a yellow keystone shape with black lettering (left). Over time, that evolved into triangular yellow signs that simply stated "yield" in black type to the red and white "Yield" signs that are part of the U.S. Department of Transportation's official spec books for traffic signs that we typically see in the U.S. today.

I find it interesing to see where the designs of ordinary, everyday things like this come from. We tend to take some things, like traffic signs, for granted and never think that someone had to think up the designs for these things. Just a little useless fact there to help us remember that there's design all around us. Even when we don't think it's there.

Design and Usability

2008-12-02T21:37:52Z

Design and usability is always a touchy subject when you're dealing with the Web. There are a lot of so-called "experts" out there that will tell you one thing and then another will come along and contradict it. When looking through any site dealing with design and usability, please keep in mind that 99% of the time, whatever is said amounts to the author's opinion. As with anything creative, "beauty is in the eye of the beholder." What may be look good and is very usable to you may not be for someone else. I've found the key to making sure that your site is all you hope it can be is to make sure that the site is designed so that your main audience is very comfortable using the site. If your intended audience can't use the site, then all the time and effort end up being an exercise in futility.

Do a bit of research on who your audience is. Run some tests. Find out some of the places on the web that they like to use. Then use those common themes to help guide your design. You'll thank yourself in the long run for it.

In order to help you on that road, here's a list of some links that tend to fall in that 1% range of people that actually know what they're talking about. Granted, take anything here with a grain of salt. It all comes down to personal preference with what people like.

General Reference

Web Usablity

Web Reference

Design Sites

Programs

Learn More

About.com's Web Design

"Illegal use of colors... on the offense..."

2005-02-01T20:26:25Z

Someone here at work earlier asked me about my opinions on a website design. While there wasn't anything "wrong" per se, there was plenty wrong. Confused? Good, I thought you'd be.

The page seemed fine from a design structure standpoint. There were a few designy things that I never would have touched, like icky looking tabs and the placement of some things... lines around the side navigation when it's already broken off on the page by a background color... But the information on the page looked, in a completely black and white world, functional. But that's where one side of it ends.

It's the ever popular Form vs. Function argument... However, in a world where form is usually sacrificed in the name of function, I like to point out that people can make things that fit both bills. There are plenty of examples.

iPod, Mac mini, G5 Tower, iMac... Apple is very good at getting the Form AND Function thing going. IKEA is another great example... I think it all comes down to one word.

Simple.

Simplicity, designed correctly, can overcome any potential issue in almost any arena.

The problem that the aforementioned web design has is that it's using way too many colors and not in a good combination to boot. It's got this bright blue header with way too much info, blue tabs underneath, then it has a big gray bar through the middle. In the content area we have a nasty electric green side navigation area, a white text area and then this nasty 1970s light and dark avocado thing going on... Nasty.

The biggest problem it has is that it's way cluttered... and then you toss all those colors on top and you have a horrible mess.

"A horrible mess you say? Oh, whyfore?"

Why? Now I'm going to rail on a specific color here, just, well, because I can. And if you really like this color, please, there's no real offense intended toward anyone that really, really loves this color. It's more about the horrible uses that I've encountered over the years. These are just my observations in the 15 years i've been designing things...

Green. I firmly maintain that the color green shouldn't be used for anything but grass and trees (and things that come from them). There are very few things in this world that look good in the color green. If things were really intended to be green, the Big Guy Upstairs would have made them green to begin with. I think my intense loathing of the color green came when I was working at Utah Valley State College. A year or two after I started working there, they changed the name of the school and the school's colors. In true democratic fashion, the administration said that the students would be the ones to vote on which colors the school should adopt, and when they chose this cool dark maroon and gold combination, the administration promptly announced that olive drab and bleck gold were the colors. For the design geeks here, that's Pantone 3435 and 109. Uncoated. It looks HORRIBLE on paper... especially on uncoated stock. Business cards? Hideous.

What that decision, the work I was doing in the television studio was set back a bit too. We had to update all the graphics standards I had come up with for the television courses. And they tried to force us to use the new colors. Now, I don't know who many people out there realize how horrible green looks on television. It's not a pretty color on TV at all.

I think 6 years of dealing with that craptastic PMS 3435 made me jaded... I dunno. Just my thoughts there. Take them for what they're worth. About $0.21. :P

And avocado is just wrong. In any decade.