Bufe's Blog

Back to Blogging

2011-01-30T06:20:00.002-05:00

With all the recent work, and the timing of getting back and forth to Philadelphia to work, I've neglected my blog.
Plus, with the time I spent looking for design work, I may have gotten discouraged about who would want to read what I have to say.
If you look at my previous posts, you'll see that I'm about design, whether it's for the Internet, print projects or anything in between.
So, I'm back. Please check the previous posts, and if you have suggestions or updates, let me know. I'll be updating those I think are still relevant.

3D AND IMAX? Be there.

2010-03-29T20:52:00.006-04:00

3D IMAX FILMS

Just a quick note for those who work too much, and don't have time for things like, say, FUN.

If you're a designer, visual artist of any kind, or otherwise creative, I wholeheartedly recommend the IMAX experience. I've long been a big fan of movies that take full advantage of the big screen, the surround audio, and the fact that they've got you pretty much where they want you... no phone, no doorbell, just visuals and sound.

That all started for me when I went with a bunch of friends to see a movie, thinking it was another space soap opera series like Star Wars, so we sat in the 2nd row, center.

The movie was Alien. And we were wrong.

Anyway, back to IMAX. If you don't have an IMAX theater in your 'hood, plan a road trip. Avatar in 3D on a screen that was the full height of the movie theater was the most extreme visual experience I've had. And I've had a few.

When it ended, the audience was actually applauding while they were walking towards the door, as though the actors could hear them. It was a testament to the power of the big screen, the big speakers, and the big dark room.

Just an FYI, in case you haven't been.

2010-03-29T20:40:00.004-04:00

Free Video Clips

Getting back to what blogs were originally about:

Here's a site that I found, that other designers, creatives or students might find useful

The video stock house Artbeats is doing what some of the stock photo sites are doing now, and that's offering a FREE video clip every day, for anyone who signs up for an account.

I know what you're thinking... but they haven't sent me the bundles of junk e-mails I thought I'd get for signing up. They have restrictions in their license for use, but they're common sense, like, you can't get video from them, and turn around and sell it. Or use it for the opening credits of your porn movie. Common sense, since they really still own it, and they're granting you a license to USE it. Meaning of course, that they intend on selling those rights to other people, too.

It's a good deal, it's free, it's very useful for creatives like me, who are training in video, motion graphics and all. Hopefully, it's useful for you.

Identity Design and Typography

2010-01-12T18:03:00.004-05:00

Graphic Standards, Identity and Typography

I noticed an unfortunate trend, and thought you might appreciate the note:

With the tons of cheap and/or free fonts available out there, you should know that many aren't fully "ready for prime time".

Specifically, there are many fonts that don't have a full complement of characters. Some font "designers" would have you believe that things like ampersands (&), the plus sign (+), the asterisk (*), and the number sign (#) are optional. They are not. By the way, the word "octothorpe" or "octotherp", used by programmers and engineers to describe the number sign (#), is a made up word from the 60's, which DOES NOT have universal acceptance. It was invented as part of a practical joke (link here). Stick with "number sign".

Also, stick with fully thought out fonts. It will come back and bite you, if you specify a second-rate product as part of your design client's identity.

Just a typographic FYI.

Upper and Lower Case Magazine Online

2009-12-22T22:25:00.004-05:00

Typography Nirvana

Designers, if you work with type and haven't ever read Upper and Lower Case (U&lc)online, you owe it to yourself to start.
I'm actually old enough to have read U&lc on the printed page at my first design job in Princeton.The things the guys did with type was magical.

Tips for making even type done in Microsoft Word look like you know what you're doing. Imagine that.

Plus, uses for alternate characters, ligatures (you know about ligatures, right?), proper page numbering, details, details, details. We all know that setting the proper typography is all about those details, and from the time that U&lc was an unknown piece of stylistic journalism, they've been the authority.

True, U&lc was always produced by International Typeface Corporation (ITC), one of the world's largest and most prolific type foundries. Which means they have a certain ulterior motive to making us all crazy about creating beautiful, legible and imaginative type treatments. Like selling fonts.

Go into the Archives on the right side of the page to get a wider variety of articles by a wider variety of authors, including visits with type designers and craftspeople. Most all the articles recently are from Ilene Strizver, who writes the For Your Typographic Information (fyti) entries. The archives will get you greater variety. Don't get me wrong, Ilene's typographic information is great stuff for us type geeks (Is it geeks or nerds? And who cares?).

Valuable, useful site, and information. Some good typography-related articles, too.

Photoshop CS4 and JPEG 2000

2009-10-30T19:59:00.010-04:00

Some who read my stuff may remember that I recommended AbsolutVision.com, a stock image company, as somewhere you can get free images every single day.

Well, yeah, but... I got responses asking what was up with one of the file formats they provide. That question was about the JPEG 2000 format. (hot tip for product managers: don't put a date in your product name, since it will be out of date soon...you too could be as lame as Windows98...or, JPEG2000)

Anyway, the JPEG standard, a widely used file format on the web, really does come from somewhere, that being the Joint Photographic Experts Group (www.jpeg.org). And they figured out how photographs—or other images with what us graphics-types refer to as "continuous tone" images—are translated into something you can see online.

Then came JPEG2000, designed to make slightly smaller files, with higher quality and Alpha channel capability. As I see it, a very important part of JPEG2000 is the ability to include an Alpha channel. An Alpha channel is just a place to draw a shape which gives those of us who modify photos in computer programs the ability to isolate different sections of the photo. This allows us to select, remove and re-combine images to create a family portrait from separate photographs, for example. It also allows you to put people's heads on dogs and cats (or vice versa), and any number of things you probably shouldn't do in the first place.

What good is an Alpha Channel, anyway?

The image here (image courtesy Absolute Vision) is from Photoshop. And what it shows is that this JPEG 2000 image has what normal JPEG images don't have: an Alpha Channel, which here saves a silhouette of the passport, ignoring the shadow. (the orange area indicates that the Alpha Channel is activated, and can be used as a mask to hide the rest of the picture) This gives a ton of flexibility in working with images. Why? Because working with, and modifying photographs, is about being able to accurately select and isolate an individual item or area that you want to work on, and not change anything else around it.

Can you even work with the Alpha Channels in JPEG 2000 files?

Fortunately, someone's done the research and posted much too much technical info about the JPEG 2000 file format on Wikipedia. Most important here, is further down the page, where they give a breakdown of which programs can make, read or open these files.

I'm using Photoshop CS4, the newest version, and this is what this blog is about. When you install this newest version of Photoshop, you can neither open or save JPEG 2000 files. It's necessary to add plug-ins to the program, plug-ins that were supposed to be included with your installation files in the "Goodies" folder (which on the Mac version, anyway, is on the disk marked Content. And there's plenty of good stuff on that disk, too, like more web gallery versions, software to help Photoshop work better with Bridge, and more. But not the file format plug-in that lets you read JPEG 2000 files.

So how do you read JPEG 2000 files in Photoshop CS4?

This minor "oops" didn't get completely lost on Adobe, and they've provided a download with a number of things that didn't get included in your Creative Suite installation.

In what Adobe calls Legacy Plug-ins Downloads, you can get the folder of plug-ins, including the instructions for where and how to install them, right here.

If you need these plug-ins for the PC version of Photoshop CS4, I'd wager you'll find them in a similar location on Adobe's site.

One other thing's in that group of Plug-ins that you might want

Remember the Extract filter, that let you work with silhouetting photos, from all the earlier CS versions of Photoshop? Well, ExtractPlus is also not included in the Goodies disk that came with your installation of Adobe's Creative Suite. It is, however, also included in this group of "Legacy Plug-Ins", along with the JPEG2000 read/write capability

The designer's responsiblity to a new brand or identity

2009-10-07T08:33:00.006-04:00

Normally, in an agency or corporate setting, all the legal wrangling will have been performed regarding a company or a product's name before it ever arrives at the designer's desk.

Now as a designer, you probably spend more time than anybody else in the place, looking at things like logos, web site layouts and the design of ads. So, it's responsible for you to chime in when your sales manager says, "We'll call it The King of Beers, and have a horse-drawn carriage with Clydesdales!"

Now, if you're not working in a "departmentalized, compartmentalized" design situation, you have even more responsibility to the client, so it's also reasonable for you to do a quick Internet search. Since you'll logically be looking to tie all your advertising, marketing and even social networking together under one name, it's best to make sure it's not somebody else's.

This came up because a new band asked me, last week, to design their logo. This would grow to include a CD design and web site, and they wanted to name themselves Blues Explosion. As a professional designer, here's where that "added value" thing comes in.

I remembered an old band with a similar name, so I did a search online. Sure enough Jon Spencer's Blues Explosion is still around, doing that "punk blues" thing. Just as you'd figure, their music has nothing at all to do with any musical style called Blues. But they've been out there for years and years.

So, we're looking for a new name. Better now than 2 years from now.

Bottom Line? A simple check to help your client (and friend, in this case) is both a reasonable and responsible thing for a designer to do.

The name game

If this band was just going to work locally in a county or two, they'd probably never need to care. But, today's music scene can get global in a hurry, and the last thing you want is to have to change the name of your band, your web site, your CD, and everything else before you can sell music on iTunes, CD Baby, Last.FM, Walmart, Rhapsody or anywhere else.

So, no, you probably don't have all the tools to be responsible for patent or copyright research. Leave that to the lawyers. But, be a good professional designer and make sure you're working with information that is accurate, original, and as much as possible, make sure that information (and, logically, your design) will be useful to your client far into the future. All of this is the same whether you're introducing dish detergent, inventing a new motorcycle brand or naming a Little League team.

Woody Allen said, "80% of success is just showing up." Do that for your design clients. Show up. And pay attention.

This touches, just a little, on Intellectual Property and Copyrights, something huge on the Internet, and something we'll get into next time.

Logo Design Prejudice

2009-09-16T16:23:00.008-04:00

So, I came upon another person who believes that you cannot design a logo using type alone.

It appears that there are many who believe that logo design automatically involves drawing pictures. We've all seen the globes, swirling lines, random geometric shapes, trees, sunsets, clip art pizza chefs and the like.

And to be fair, in the dozens of logos (maybe hundreds, by now) that I've designed in my career, there are no doubt some of those "shortcuts" represented. Way back in the past, I'm glad to say.

Having a limited skill set
doesn't constitute having a specialty
Anyway, for the "expert" who came to lecture the Mac Business Users Group in Philadelphia, YES YOU CAN use typography and create a memorable, professional logo that can easily becomes part of a dynamic brand. The fact that he didn't know how to work with type probably went a long way towards him developing such a limited vision.

The group of logos above, and about 25 more, have been shown to my students for years. Of course we look at the graphical designs as well, apple, exxon, texaco, citibank, every pro sports team, etc., etc.

Bottom Line?
Don't let other peoples prejudices about design....well just don't let their shortsightedness become yours.

Enough said.

(also for my students, these images are used in accordance with US law, as we're using them under the "fair use" description, for educational purposes only.)

Creative Economy Summit comes to Philadelphia

2009-09-08T01:40:00.006-04:00

Creative Summit in Philadelphia October 5-6
Everyone is invited to join the creative community from Philadelphia, and from points all around the globe, at the 2nd Creative Economy Convergence Summit, the first week of October. It will be held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Center City Philadelphia.

Not Just Artiste-type creative, either
You can expect to meet creative innovators from many different disciplines, from business, culture and art, to technology, social media and entertainment. The conference continues the thread advanced by Innovation Philadelphia (the host of the Summit), extolling the virtues of growing the creative economy through the rest of this century and beyond. Check Innovation Philadelphia's site for some real "wow"-inspiring supporting information about the incredible benefits we can all realize by growing the creative part of our economy.

With all the Summit's presenters, from gaming to business software solutions, this is an opportunity to learn what's going to happen before it does. And you can enjoy the timely benefit of learning all this, not from the talking heads on the news or questionably-qualified bloggers after the fact, but from the innovators who will be leading the charge.

Creativity, Innovation and the Global Creative Economy
With workshops and panels as diverse as "Alternative Funding for Creative Technology Businesses", "Baby Pixars: The New Model for Animation Studios" and "Diversifying the Creative Workforce", there's something for every business and creative community, large and small.

Stop by the site, check out the options (over 90 presenters, including 4 exceptional keynotes), and plan to join us in Philadelphia on October 5th and 6th.

Also of Note: DesignPhiladelphia a favorite of mine, is a week-long cultural event that includes studio tours, presentations by designers, architects, artists, and more. Over 150 events that start October 7, the next day after the Global Creative Economy Convergence Summit. I highly recommend the studio tours with designers, architects, furniture craftspeople, and more.

Design And Non-Profit Clients

2009-08-14T14:58:00.005-04:00

Hey, all, just a couple of observations about working with (and as) non-profits that some of you may encounter. I recently designed a logo, and am working on the web site of a foundation that's just started up. It can be slow.

So...if you get frustrated by delays, and "why don't they get back to me with the information I need right NOW!", do not work with a small, startup or all-volunteer non-profit organization.

You'll make yourself crazy, because you'll run into a situation where, logically, everybody involved who makes any kind of decisions already has something important to do. Like run another whole company, raise a family, or both.

The advantage of working for free
So, they might not get back to you when you want. That works to your advantage, though: all those jobs where you wished you had the design back, so you could make one more change? You'll have all that and more. Enjoy it. Look at it fresh tomorrow morning. It's a luxury, really.

Are YOU running a non-profit organization?
And you non-profit groups: with the current state of business and employment, you don't need your brother's girlfriend's little brother's "best bud" designing your web site or logo. There are real professional designers out here who know that the way to stay sharp is to stay working, whether they have a full-time job or not.

Take out an ad in Craigslist, or similar, and look for a professional designer who can come on board, even temporarily, to help you with your advertising or other design needs. And meet them, or talk to them at length, too. Everybody who owns Microsoft Office isn't automatically a graphic designer, contrary to what Microsoft tells us in the brochure. Ask to view samples, or a website-based portfolio.

Yes, it's OK to ask for samples. Non-profit doesn't mean stupid. Neither does getting free design work mean you accept whatever you're given. Be a client, exactly the same as if you were spending your hard-earned cash. Maybe give the designer a little flexibility, so they have some fun, too, but be smart. Not picky, anal or impossible, just smart. Real designers respect people who actually know what they want. Honest.

Hold out for a pro, or you'll end up needing one later, anyway. To clean up the mess.

What's your ChalkBot idea?

2009-07-09T03:29:00.009-04:00

More inspiration from Nike, Lance Armstrong and the Livestrong camp. Regardless of what you think of them personally.

This one's about cancer, naturally; it's about families, and yes, it's about technology and visual design.

Two companies, Standard Robot and Deeplocal, built a robot that would accept input from cell phone texts and write messages in chalk along the route of the Tour de France.

It's called ChalkBot, and it's all over the Internet, if you haven't seen it yet.

Small Man's Disease
And, of course, somebody had to complain that it was towed by a truck, and so it wasn't as green as it could be, and blah, blah, blah. (doing nothing and then complaining when someone else at least tries to do something is such a petty way to live your life, don't you think? small people in more ways than one, no doubt)

It's mostly all upside, really
And, the best part is it's all text. No logos (except Nike and the Livestrong Foundation, but they paid for it), no ads or marketing, just rememberance-type text messages for loved ones lost or fighting because of cancer.

For once, the spectre of billboards being interactive doesn't seem so Back to the Future or BladeRunner-y. Wouldn't you agree?

It's time to think about changing more than the bottom line with your design ideas. Same as it ever was.

Free Stock Photography, anybody?

2009-05-25T18:50:00.000-04:00

Hi, all.

I wanted to mention a couple of sites that I thought would be helpful. This is mostly for graphics types, like me, who use, want or buy stock photography. And stock vector illustrations, too.

I've been using 2 sites that regularly give me free photography (and video clips and audio). In one case, I've actually registered and bought stuff, while in the other, "not so much".

First is Absolute Vision, a firm that mostly sells great, high resolution photos. They classify them as "stock photo", "stock photo objects", "stock photo characters", and "stock vector images". And, when you register (for free, no obligation), you can download a free, pre-selected image every day.

One free image might not seem like much, but I've been registered for a couple of years, and have literally hundreds of first-quality, use-any-way-I-want, crystal-clear photographs of all kinds of stuff.

Same with iStockPhoto.com. Free membership, regular free images (weekly here, though), plus a little more. They also sell audio clips (dogs barking, train whistles, like that), and video. So they also give, to anyone with an account, sound clips and video clips, for free. Some are weekly, some are monthly, but all are free and usable any way you like. The woman's face I've shown here is almost 13x19 inches, at 300 dpi - high resolution at 60 Megabyes - suitable for almost any use. You can't re-sell the photos, but any professional should understand that.

I've used these samples when teaching illustration and design in college, for training for photo retouching and motion graphics. And, it's just a great resource to have a directory filled with sharp, clear, photos... not to mention video and sound.

If you know of similar (non-scamming) sites, please comment here, and we'll get a list going, unlike the "free photography" lists online which are usually low-rez, marginal photography that nobody would pay money for anyway. (I review comments "pre-post", so nothing will get up that I haven't seen and tried)

That's it, thanks, Tony B

What is Eye Candy, really?

2009-05-10T04:22:00.000-04:00

Recently, from our friends at groundbreaking CSS and Web Design community A List Apart, came a long-awaited (for me, at least) post about the validity of "the design in design".

The Design in Design? What?
While that's not exactly the way he put it, Stephen Anderson's greatly insightful blog input that he called "In Defense of Eye Candy" may finally wake up the programming/web design community about the real strength and purpose of visual design in online communication.

For years, since originally learning to put ideas onto the Internet (I'm still having trouble capitalizing the words Internet or Web, as I subscribe to the argument that it has become, not a proper noun, but a communications utility, like "telephone", "telegraph" or "the mail", all previously capitalized in the beginning), the idea that visual design is just "eye candy" has worried me.

Not worried like famine, war, institutional racism and sexism, or homophobia, but more like, "this is what I've done for 20 years, how can someone who only understands one specific part of it tell everyone it has no value?".

And you invented this, did you?
A recent example was on a blog from Viget Labs, who do nothing but online design and programming work (very well, I'm sure). The first sentence in one of their posts says, "Unlike print, the web is interactive; establishing a visual hierarchy through typography is essential in guiding the user to the information they are seeking online."

I'm sure Samantha Warren is very talented and knowledgeable in her position with the firm. This, though, is a misstatement. Interactivity has never been the driving force behind the "essential" nature of Visual Hierarchy. It's essential simply because it is. Graphic designers, industrial designers, fashion designers and everyone who designs anything that people see and use have been trained in the use of visual hierarchy since the beginning of pretty much...everything.

From architects, to people who design the turnstyles in the subways, or who design road signs, toys, packaging, films, and yes, to those who design the printed page, understanding visual hierarchy and the ability to influence how, not what, people see is part of how designers do what we do. And have for millenia.

Enough about visual hierarchy...
Visual design and its many elements, including visual hierarchy, are not, no matter how they're used, taught or experienced, a math problem. There isn't one answer. Or even a hundred. Why even ask? The future wasn't ever designed or built by people who thought of their world in terms of its limitations.

Visual hierarchy is about how the world is constructed. It's why poisonous frogs are bright green, why the black widow spider has an hourglass on its back, and why polar bears are white. And yes, it's why ads in magazines designed for the right-hand page are different than ones designed for the left-hand page.

Becoming the "establishment"
I'm glad Mr. Anderson, in the blog mentioned above, and others of some influence in the "web design community" are catching on to reflecting the realities of the world around them. Disliking web designs that break all the so-called rules doesn't change anything. Communicating with people is dramatically different than communicating with machines. Talking to other people who talk to machines for a living doesn't count. As in The Matrix, the web no longer belongs to the machines. That was 25 years ago.

The King of "Do as I say"
Jakob Nielson, a supposed usability expert, recently apparently also an expert on search and web design, originally railed against ever using images on the web (and then about not having different sizes of type). Then, years later, it changed to complaining about animations (nothing should ever move on the web). Next, he wrote against the Flash technology, because it "encouraged bad design". Remember "guns don't kill people, people do"? It's a tool, Jake.

And, of course, his firm's site (nielson norman group, no link) now has pages of photos, logos on every page, white type on red backgrounds, horizontal lines to define different sections or thoughts, and for some mysterious (sales? ego?) reason, a publications page where all the text was larger than the rest of the entire site, at the time of this blog post.

Oh, and the firm charges $38,000 US dollars, $73,000 with options, to review your company's web site to tell you if it needs any changes. Changes are then your problem, of course. After which they'll gladly review it again.

In conclusion, give the people what they want? Not exactly...
Last, but not least, one last quote to go along with all the "web users polled have said that they like web sites that use one font, are only black type on a white background...blah, blah, etc., etc., etc." usability studies.

Henry Ford, when striking out to build the moving conveyor-belt assembly line factory to mass produce Model T automobiles, said that his decision to go forward with the plan included ignoring any input from the consumer. Why? Because, in his words, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.” Arrogance? Maybe. Success? Which American car company, 100 years later, didn't ask for a bailout?

Do not give your clients faster horses.

Adobe Creative Suite Tutorial recommendation

2009-04-06T21:31:00.000-04:00

It's about design, dammit!
So, it's all a design blog now. Nobody wants to hear about the space shuttle, the lack of live blues in Philadelphia, how to save money buying printing, or anything else. Understood. But design software, that's where you can make real progress.

Adobe CS4
If you're into design, and are using (or thinking about using) the new Creative Suite from Adobe, you owe it to yourself to check out the video tutorials on Adobe TV . Just go to Adobe TV, and look for tutorials by software application.

This software's plenty expensive, and getting a more complete idea what it can do will only help you make a better decision. Plus, some of these "suites" of software can be pretty similar in which applications they include, so it's good to know what everything does.

Interesting and inspirational, the tutorials have all the clout of a master class in what the software can do, and what's new and cool about it. For the most part, you can skip most of the stuff from the Adobe MAX event (they're marked with the MAX logo), because as much as these computer programmers aren't designers, they're even more NOT public speakers. But there's tons of other stuff for you there.

One easy recommendation is Greg Rewis, an Adobe employee who does really useful tutorials. Great teachers are different from great technical experts. Greg appears to be both. There are some tutorials for you, for the older version of Adobe's Creative Suite, CS3, on Adobe TV, too.

Saving money on printing? Ya' think?

2009-03-10T17:21:00.000-04:00

In going through my supposed "accomplishments" for a resume, or some such thing: it's become increasingly important for all of you to save money on your purchasing in recent years, and the printed page is a good place to start.

But be sure who you do business with. And here's why:

The steps to calamity
At a construction materials company I know of, this newly-hired executive decided that his buddy in Michigan was right to send all his printing to Canada to save money. So, he decided that the job would be taken from the firm (recommended firm) that had been printing these books for years, and sent to Canada. (tick, tick, tick...)

As you might have expected, this company did such a bad job that multiple tractor trailers were all sent back to Canada. Twice. Millions and millions of pages. (boom.)

Shortcuts don't work
Why did this happen? Because there's a difference between cutting costs and cutting corners. Nobody knew this firm, the designer and the project manager had recommended another printer who they had experience with, yet the new boss ignored them all. They'd missed deadlines for proofs, didn't return calls, made every part of the job harder— and still nobody had the cojones (chutzpah, sisu, guts, nerve, stones... you get the idea) to pull the job.

This went so badly that everybody will remain anonymous. We'll just say that the company was in South Jersey, the printer was in Canada, and 750,000 100-page books are in the garbage. And the executive is now in sunny Somewhere Else, USA.

Knight, shining armor, etc, etc
Fortunately, we knew the right vendor, who shall NOT remain nameless. After the 2 attempts failed, another solution was suggested. I called George Stephenson, president of Stephenson Printing in Alexandria, Va, and told him of our problem. His firm prints the regional issue of Architectural Digest, and had done spectacular things with the ads sent to them. He drove personally from Virginia to New Jersey the next morning.

Not 1,500 miles away, not a voice on the phone, but THERE. In hours. President of the company. Exactly the kind of business owner you want to do business with.

Needless to say, Stephenson took our disks, printed the job, delivered in time for the huge trade show, and avoided missing the very beginning of the ordering season.

This could easily have cost millions in lost sales, but for George Stephenson's company.

The moral
Cut costs. Do not cut corners. And know who you're doing business with.

Dash, Hyphen, EM Dash, EN Dash, What?

2009-02-15T22:27:00.000-05:00

Greetings, all, just a quick note.

In my quest for a new staff position, I've been reading a ton of what other people are doing with their letters and résumés (yes, there are 2 acute accents in that word), and I have a little piece of advice from an old-school typesetter and new-school copy writer.

Besides the obvious spelling and grammar problems most of us ignore, one other thing will alert readers that you're not so sure of how your language works (and how to make your text look right). That one other thing would be the various types of dashes (well, hyphens, too, but they're technically not dashes).

Rather than make this long, I'll make it work in one sentence (with a link to the long, long version, in case you really need "swung dashes" in your documents on a regular basis):

The hyphen (-), the same as the minus sign on a keyboard, separates words and syllables (i.e., top-notch, mother-in-law); the en dash (–) is a little longer, and is used to indicate a range or relationship (i.e., 250–300 word essay, New York–London flight); and the longest one, the em dash (—) is used to indicate a thought inside another thought —like this one—or to show a sentence is incomplete or the speaker has run out of patience or words (i.e., "Why don't all you kids just —," the teacher said).

There are so many other fine, nitpicky details to using these pieces of punctuation that I'm not getting into here. Plus, there are—as in any other boring, complicated subject—more experts than you can shake a stick at. And like all experts, they all have different views, and they're all right.

Just take a second to punctuate your sentences so they read like conversation, with pauses, stops and time to inhale and exhale, and you'll be on your way to better writing.

Once you're more familiar with all the rules, you can start shredding them one at a time... or all at once!

Oh, and here's a link to just one of the many, many long, drawn-out explanations available on line at Wikipedia, much more than anyone needs to know about the subject. Including why one dash is called "en" and one is called "em".

I only hope these characters work in your browser, so they look the way I typed 'em.

Til next. Tony B.

Making a Name for yourself online (URL's, the business version)

2008-12-29T15:18:00.000-05:00

This is really just an update to a blog from this past summer about choosing a name for yourself on the Internet. This one's for small business people and entertainment types.

These little gems are just a couple of observations, and also a couple of things to help us all understand how the internet works. I've noticed these throughout the years, working with web sites and customers.

Don't re-invent the wheel
You've already named your company. It's called, I don't know, Universal Systems by Bob, maybe. Don't abandon your company's name by "shortening it" for the web.

A "Domain Name" is what the Internet authorities let you call your web site. So, that's what we're talking about, here.

To be clear, sometimes computer types call it a URL. Actually, a "URL", or a Uniform Resource Locator, is different, because that's when your domain name is combined with everything that comes before it (like "http://www), and after it (like ".com, or .net, or .ca"), and so...the complete URL is how computers find each other on this network that we call the Internet.

As if this wasn't confusing enough, some companies believe that they're making things easier by abbreviating their names. Or being cute or clever.

So, often times, our friend Bob, up above, will shorten their company's name in their web "domain name", to something like: www.unisysbybob.com.

Let's face it, even Bob's staff won't remember this at first! So... how can he expect that other people will remember it?

Why not use www.universalsystemsbybob.com? Yes, it's long. And, yes, it harder to type. But language experts (certainly not me) will tell you that people remember phrases more than individual words. And certainly never individual "words" that don't mean anything.

Like "unisysbybob".

So, I'm the smart one, right?
Am I telling you about this because I'm so smart, and that's because I retained my own name as my web site name? Hardly.

I mostly did that for reasons I go over in a June 2007 blog about claiming your own name, whether you even have a web site or not. (see "Is Your Name a URL?")

To paraphrase: "if you don't own your name as a "dot com" address — every time, for the rest of recorded history (let's hope that's a long time) — when someone searches your name online, someone else's web site, company, college accomplishments, or family tree will come up. Forever."

And one last thing...
To make your web site easier to remember, remember this: the computers that connect the Internet together don't see capital letters in web site "addresses". So, in the actual name, they only see lower-case (little, small, minuscule) letters.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with writing out your web site "www.SalsPizzaDeLuxe.com" in your advertising, because no matter how people type it in, as long as the letters are all there and in the right order, the Internet computers out there will find your web site.

So even if your web site visitor accidentally types in ALL CAPS, the computer they connect to online will see "www.salspizzadeluxe.com". And hey, it's a lot easier to remember a name when you spell it with capital letters on your menu, business card, advertising or delivery truck, don't you think?

Make your web site's name as simple as possible. Not to type, but to remember. Same as you did with your company name, hopefully.

Buddy, can you spare a Trillion?

2008-11-05T21:48:00.000-05:00

Hey, kids... what with everyone throwing around the T word...Trillion...as in Dollars, I thought some perspective was in order.

First, let's agree that $1,000 in the form of 50-$20 bills makes a nice neat little pile, say 3/4 of an inch high. (yeah, they can be packed tighter by a bank in a machine, but let's just say 3/4", in regular loose $20's)

Now, we know that a Trillion is 1,000 Billions, right? (700 billion, 800 billion, 900 billion, one trillion)

That means that we need 1 Billion of those little piles of $1,000 dollars to make up a Trillion dollars.

OK, here goes: so 1 Billion of something 3/4 of an inch high would be 3/4 of a Billion inches high, or 750 Million inches high. You feelin' me, yet?

Let's take that 750 Million inches (750,000,000") and divide it by 12 to find out how many feet high it is (sorry, metric kids, this is an American thing):
and, 750,000,000 inches divided by 12 is 62,500,000 feet!

Again, with the American thing, to figure out miles, we divide that 62, 500,000 feet by the number of feet in a mile (5,280).

Hence, ladies and gentlemen, our answer tells us how tall our stack of lowly $20 bills would be, if it totaled 1 Trillion dollars:

11,837.121 Miles High! (19,050 Kilometers: it's also 50 Billion $20 bills... an entire office building filled to overflowing with cash)

So... anytime anyone tells you they're going to spend a Trillion dollars (especially if it's your money), read this back to 'em.

And then say, "Nope. No you're not. Are you high?"

Graphic Design awards...

2008-10-08T04:15:00.000-04:00

Every once in a while, you do something that you think is noteworthy.

For me, that something is usually design-related, be it a logo, a magazine cover, or something else that I've been sweating over for a while.

As a member of the board of directors of the Art Directors' Club of Philadelphia, I was often tempted to enter something I'd done in our annual competition, which drew great design from the Philadelphia, Delaware and Southern New Jersey creative communities.

While working as art director for a construction materials company in South Jersey, I had a number of pieces that I wrote copy, did layout, and retouched photography for that I was sure would win an award. (I'd never tried before, so I really didn't have any idea)

But, the CFO of this unnamed company had a limited understanding of the process, and felt that entering a design in a showing would constitute my using the firm's logo without proper copyright or trademark permission, which he refused to give me.

Turns out, of course, it was the last year of our competition in Philly, so I never got to fulfill that particular fantasy. Also, needless to say, I don't work in South Jersey anymore.

More importantly, I grabbed the next chance I had, with a subsequent project, to enter something in the contest. I was ready, the logo I did was clear, clean and well designed , and I was going to give it a shot.

And, of course, this year, the Art Directors' Club decided to do away with their competition.

Long story short (I know, it's too late for short), this year I entered the American Graphic Design Awards competition, my first entry in my first competition, ever. Mind you, I got my first degree in Graphic Design in '79.

Much to my surprise, late September I got a letter, and a certificate, telling me that I was a winner in the American Graphic Design Awards, with this little logo I designed while Sr. Art Director at a direct marketing firm. (it's right up there^)

Talk about your long, strange trip.

No lame excuses accepted...

2008-06-22T11:40:00.000-04:00

So, no posts in some time, with end-of-the-year job changes, new day gig, and all. (hey, this post is about lame excuses, and all, so...)

There's an old saying — it goes like this: "If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you always got."

In trying to introduce new ideas, designs, technologies, and more important, new attitudes, what you may hear is, "No, no, that's not how we do it. We've always done it this (old-fashioned, lame, boring, unimaginative, marginally successful) way. It's always been good enough. And that's how it'll be."

Two things about the phrase "good enough". First, of course, it's a rationalization which means, "we could have worked harder, asked for new ideas from our team (that we didn't argue out of existence), or extended our artificial deadlines so that we could evaluate new approaches, but we didn't, so this is what we ended up with."

And second, any time you or anybody else says "good enough", it's not. Period.

Eliminate things like "good enough for the amount of time we had", "good enough for government work", "good enough working with this budget", and my favorite, "it's good enough, nobody will know the difference."

And see what you're left with.

This is the age of Extra Effort, and Going the Extra Mile:

Bill Gates scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT's, went to Harvard... but then dropped out and gave it all up to start Microsoft. Oh, and since 2000, has GIVEN AWAY $29 billion dollars in grants and charity.

And an adopted kid (of a Syrian mother) who we know as Steve Jobs sold his transportation (a Volkswagen bus) to help finance a company/project he started at age 21 in his parent's garage. That project, the Apple computer, made him, personally, $200 million by age 25, on the cover of Time magazine at 26, and today, worth upwards of $44 billion, still running that same company.

And yet you say you couldn't spend an extra hour or two coming up with a really well-thought-out idea to help your company survive this recession, because American Idol was on last night?

Really?

Is Your Name a URL?

2007-06-13T23:20:00.001-04:00

Just one quick piece of advice for those getting into the Internet, or more importantly, those who thing they can ignore it, and everything will be OK when they get around to it:

Be the first on your block
I'd like to suggest that you secure your name as a web address, i.e., "www.johnsmith.com. It's called a "URL" in Internet-speak, or a Uniform Resource Locator, which means that this is how computers find each other on the network that we call the Internet.

Why "own" your name? Well, simple. The Internet's not going away. In fact, it'll become more pervasive in all areas of our society in years to come. Figure that the phrase "from now on" is probably appropriate. So, if you don't secure your name, or something similar, i.e., "www.jcsmith.com, www.jsmith.com", someone else probably will. Oh, and remember that "www.hotstuffLA.com" may not be the name you want to pass along to your family. Or, it might, I don't know.

Forever is, well, forever
So, if you don't own your name as a "dot com" address, every time, for the rest of recorded history (let's hope that's a long time), when someone types your name in to search online, someone else's web site, company, high school accomplishments, or family tree will come up.

Not this year or next, but think of the possibilities that this Internet thing will last for generations, decades, centuries. And you're at the beginning of it, right now, basically. You could be securing your family's place in the primary tool of recorded history until the end of time! Or, you could blow it, save the $8.95 a year, and forever (forever), someone else's information will come up when a friend, colleague or family member* types in your name.

*To be fair, we have to include insurance salesmen, Viagra knock-off makers, and axe murderers in this list of the curious, too.

Creative Management, Great Clients and One Crazy Author

2007-06-13T02:00:00.000-04:00

As a professional Graphic Designer and Art Director, I want to pass a couple of tidbits of information/opinion on to you other experienced manager-types who work with creative staff.

Liars!
First of all, for all the people who say they have jobs they would "do for free", that's, of course, crap. They would only do these jobs for free if all of their own bills were paid for them. Which means, they would work for free... if everybody else did. If, however, they have to make a living, they won't do any more for free than the rest of us.

Sure, I'd work as an Art Director for free... as long as someone else paid my mortgage, covered my credit cards, and completely supported my techno-lust for all things Macintosh. Otherwise, of course, "Ain't happenin."

But, just like making sure that your staff is paid properly (not what they want, what they deserve), the client has a responsibility as well.

Client's Responsibility
Clients, make sure you're paying your design firm, marketing agencies and other creative vendors well for two reasons. The first is obvious, back to people not wanting to work for free (and, of course, if your payments don't cover their bills, they're working for free), and second, and much more important, you're buying talent.

Look in Monster sometime, or maybe CareerBuilder, they work with the big city newspapers. You'll see ads for web designers who will get paid $25K/yr, and you'll see other ads for web "developers" who are destined to make twice that. If you cut your budgets, and complain about your costs continually, who do you think your agency will be able to put on your job?

The way some clients try to squeeze their creative vendors, they're damn lucky the late-nite janitorial staff isn't designing their ads for them! (if, of course, it's true that they're not).

Your first-run, cream of the crop? I would never call myself that, exactly, but I've freelanced at pharmaceutical agencies early on, who billed my time at $190 an hour! If they can get a lesser, younger, cheaper staff member to do "OK" ad layout or photo retouching for you at one tenth that amount, and still bill you $100 an hour, guess which you get, because you complain about "lowering the fiscals" on your projects?

Take my money, please
I worked with a music industry client whose wife, the Accounts person, regularly sent me e-mails (or little notes) after the completion of every job with a little line that said, "Job looks great, thanks. Do we owe you any more money?" That, ladies and gents, is your basic prescription for first class customer attention. Especially since they always paid in a timely manner, and never did owe me any more money.

I'm not talking about customer service. Everybody gets great customer service from me and anyone who works for me. But Customer Attention. Where people think of you when a cost-saving edge comes to light, even if you're not working on a project. When vendors will stop by to see what's up with your staffing search, even though they can't help you. They just want you to know that they know, that having other people "in the mix" makes everybody's job a little easier.

You want to be able to call your designer 24/7? Treat them like they make you money, and make you look good to your current and prospective customers. Since they do, and all.

One last thing - a book
Both creative managers (not that you're so creative, but you manage creative staff... think "baby doctors") and clients should take a page from business speaker/wacko overbearing know-it-all loudmouth Larry Winget. In fact, take a few hundred pages from Larry, and read his latest book, It's Called Work for a Reason. It's politically incorrect, sexist and borderline racist (there's a whole lot of "them" and "us" language used... not as anti-diversity as Dale Carnegie, but close), but I believe that every person who works for someone else that pays them money ought to be forced to read it. Or held down while someone reads it to them.

For those of you who don't know Larry, or his rep in business speaking circles, the title of his first book should clue you in: Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life

Now there's a warm and fuzzy title for a self-help personal improvement book, eh? Chances are, you'll dislike this guy as much as I did when you finish the book.* But, if you don't come away with something you can use, and didn't see any of your behavior (or anyone you know) in the book, you need to read it AGAIN. 'nuff said.

*I don't really dislike this guy. I don't know him, never will. It's a book thing. I mean, I remember was plenty pissed at William Peter Blatty after I sat on my couch in Virginia Beach for a whole day and night (in 1973), reading The Exorcist cover to cover. I got up, turned on every light in the house, and cursed this guy's name for the better part of a day. I'm thinking, "What's wrong with this guy?!" It's a book thing.