If you’re in San Francisco, you may have noticed more nerds than usual wandering around. This is due to the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), where hardware and software developers go every year to learn from the folks at Apple through a series of sessions and tech labs. Usually, Apple makes a product announcement to kick off the WWDC.

Yesterday, Apple showed off lots of snazzy features of its upcoming version of OS X (labeled ‘Leopard’) showing up in October. But they also brought out something you can use right now: a public beta of Safari 3.0. Read the rest of this entry »

View the full-sized version and click the links to watch some fun ads.

History tells us that advertising originated in a pre-competitive state, seeking simply to inform about a product: what it is, what it does, what it costs, where you get it. That was a long, long time ago. Ever since supply has exceeded demand, products have been using branding and advertising to create desire and set themselves apart from the pack. I came of age in the days of cheeky chefs replacing customers’ ordinary coffee with Folger’s Crystals, and big-haired models purring “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.” Advertising was about practical jokes and the promise of attaining transformation via a product.

These days, advertising bears little relationship to product information, and sometimes nearly eschews branding altogether in favor of pure entertainment. When I want to get information about a product that feels complete, reliable, intuitively ordered and clear, I go to Wikipedia. When I want to get subjected to a bunch of marketing blather within a tightly commercially-contrived order I go to the product’s corporate Web site. And increasingly, when I want to be entertained, I watch commercials.

Funny to describe watching commercials as a voluntary pastime, but the only commercials people ever sit through nowadays are the ones we watch by choice. It’s knocking the costly 30-second TV spot model on its ear, and making way for some inventive ways to engage with viewers through alternative media and a focus on entertainment. A surprising player in this movement is… Read the rest of this entry »

Scott Kelby is one of the top names in Photoshop, educating millions of users about everyone’s favorite digital imaging app. He’s the president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), editor-in-chief of Layers magazine, author of dozens of books about Photoshop, and a nominee for the 2007 Photoshop Hall of Fame. We’re getting his take on the latest version of Photoshop, the Photoshop phenomenon, and more…

Q: I think many of us follow this timeline when we upgrade to the latest version of Photoshop: Get psyched for the new features, order the program the second it’s available, install it the second it arrives, and instantly fall back into the same old tools and workflow we’ve used for years. What’s a new feature of Photoshop CS3 that everyone should try right now and make part of their daily toolset?

Scott: If you’re a photographer, without a doubt it would be the new Camera Raw 4.1 in Photoshop CS3. It adds new features and tools that take raw editing to a whole new level, and honestly, it’s worth the entire upgrade price all by itself. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you a freelancer who ships boxes of printed collateral to clients? An indie e-commerce site owner? A designer or printer sending overnight proofs? If so, the latest US Postal Service pricing changes may have thrown you for a loop. Not only are prices higher for many services, but new size regulations are also in effect.

Many business owners use stamps.com to process and print postage, or services available on the usps.com website. The drawback is that these services are wholly or partially unavailable to Mac users. Why should Windows users get all the convenience of printing their own postage and having their packages picked up at their doors? Mac users, head straight to Endicia for Mac. Read the rest of this entry »

Last weekend at the Orange County Museum of Art, a friendly and well-meaning volunteer docent inquired whether I was writing a school report, and proceeded to introduce some of the pieces on display in the current ‘Imaging + Imagining California’ exhibit. Alighting on a piece by John McCracken called Dream (Chartreuse Green), 1988-92—a leaning, gleaming, fiberglass plank—she gamely explained that even though it might not look like it, it was, in fact, art.

What struck me about the exchange, other than the delightful thought that I might look like an undergrad, was her perceived necessity to prove the importance of a Minimalist art object to someone she thought was a student of art. She wasn’t far off base: her concern echoed the theme of many discussions I had with my Illustration students in the Media, Art and Design program at the University of Westminster in London. Even after nearly half a century’s worth of art movements and theory that have proven the staying power of conceptual work, these budding designers were skeptical about the value of work that needed to be seen in the context of history to be fully understood. This skepticism was part of an overall reluctance (only at first, of course; they were smart kids) to see history and theory as an important component of their work as designers.

But what’s the possibility of producing meaningful design work without understanding art and design history? Pretty much none. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re new to Web design, or a veteran who grew up on font tags and tables, you may need some practice with your cascading style sheets (CSS) skills. CSS has long been known to give Web designers more creativity and flexibility over their pages, allowing for precision typography and layout. But it can admittedly be hard to open your mind to all of the possibilities.

CSS Zen Garden is a site that aims to inspire designers to take their CSS skills higher, and is a fantastic educational tool.

The CSS Zen Garden home page

Start out by clicking on the design titles in the right side of the CSS Zen Garden home page (Icicle Outback by Timo Virtanen and Elegance in Simplicity by Mani Sherlar are a couple of my favorites). Notice that each design is a completely different look… but the HTML code and written content is not. Various designers create their own external CSS files that completely alter the appearance of the CSS Zen Garden home page. Read the rest of this entry »

Image courtesy of Basecamp’s video tour

Do you find yourself keeping track of your projects using a mishmash of endless email threads, saved IM conversations, phonecalls, meetings, sticky notes, post-its, and scribblings on napkins and used envelopes? Struggling to recall time spent on a project after it’s done? Experiencing miscommunication with a client based on clashing expectations or surprises as to what work the client’s request actually entailed? These are just some of the obstacles that come up in the pursuit of an organized and smooth freelance ride.

Enter Basecamp, a web-based project-management application built by web design firm 37signals in response to the frustration of trying to keep everyone in the loop when working collaboratively. Read the rest of this entry »

Happy Easter! (Yes, I know it’s June.)

Did you know that many of your favorite programs contain “Easter eggs”? Easter eggs are secret images, messages, or other cool features that you can find, usually with a simple key command. In addition to computer applications, many video games, DVDs, and other media have Easter eggs that their authors included for fun.

Adobe programs sport some great Easter eggs: Read the rest of this entry »

Be sure and swing by Graphic Define Online Magazine! (Issue #2 was just released from our friend Dan Schutzsmith). Of special note, the featured article for Issue 2, On Staying Creative by D. Keith Robinson.
Also on deck, some familiar faces, including Emily Cohen, Eric Karjaluoto and Ilise Benun.

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From the NoD Sponsor:

Sessions Online Schools of Art and Design is an accredited online graphic and web design school offering design career preparation including Web Design Certificates, Graphic Design Certificates, Multimedia Arts Certificates.

A few years back at a networking event, I wore a “Hello, My Name Is…” sticker with my online shop’s name on it. A man came up to me, poked his finger on the name tag, and said, “That’s a great name. I’ll never forget it.” Aside from being jabbed in the shoulder, I was really happy about this: I had chosen a business name that was memorable.

A memorable business name gets you a lot more than compliments from strangers. It can actually boost your sales significantly. If it’s easily recognizable and sets you apart from the enormous playing field, more business will come your way. And I’m not just talking e-commerce businesses, but freelance, one-person design firms. The drawback to a lot of memorable names is that they have a confusion factor to them which can undermine their effectiveness.

So how do you come up with a stand-out name that brings in the business? Here are my top tips:… Read the rest of this entry »