Here's to a great '06 and to an even better '07. For the new years resolution, maybe some exercise and to have fun. This last year has been a year of work with a new house, but this next year will be a little calmer and more vacations (Disneyland). I hope everyone has some good resolutions that they can brake.
Happy New Year

Labels: life

This comes from a blog I read, Designers Who Blog. It is a list of blogs that don't get the attention they deserve. Plus you are suppose to add a few of your own. I haven't been through the whole list yet but there are a few I had to remove because I didn't agree with the content. I'm sure there will be more.

There are at least two that I constantly read that aren't on here;
Authentic Boredom
NorthTemple
and of course I need to add mine, 325studio

Here is the full list;
325studio
AENDirect
aialone
akira media design
Authentic Boredom
Being Peter Kim
Billions With Zero Knowledge
Beyond Madison Avenue
bizandbuzz
bizsolutionsplus
Blog Till You Drop!
Bob Sutton
brainbasedbiz
brainbasedbusiness
brandcurve
Branding & Marketing
Branding Strategy Insider
brandsizzle
Buzz Canuck
Buzzoodle
christine kane
Chuan Zhi
CKs Blog
Cobalt Paladin
Community Guy
Constant Change
Conversation Agent
Converstations
Creative Think
Critical Fluff
Daphne Loo
darrenbarefoot.com
Design Sojourn
Diva Marketing
Dmitry Linkov
Drew’s Marketing Minute
eSoup
expresswhatwasonceinexpressible
Flooring the Consumer
Frozen Puck
Funny Business
gDiapers
Get Shouty!
Golden Practices
Gratisvibes
Hee-Haw Marketing
hypocritical
Inside the Marketing Mind
instigator blog
Jeremy Latham’s Blog
John Wagner
Kinetic Ideas
Lih Shin
Linda Chua
Logic + Emotion
MapleLeaf 2.0
Mac’s Money blog
Marketing Hipster
Marketing Nirvana
marketingminute
Masey.com
metaverse
Mindblob
More than a living
moviemarketingmadness
Multi-Cult Classics
New Millenium PR
NewsPaperGrl
Nick Rice
Nofi.org
NorthTemple
Note to CMO:
On Influence & Automation
One Reader at a Time
Open The Dialogue
OTOInsights
Own Your Brand!
owrightbetweentheeyes
Pardon My French
Perspective
PigWisdom.com
Popcorn n Roses
Pow! Right Between The Eyes! Andy Nulman’s Blog About Surprise
Presentation Zen
rebang
Roger C. Parker Design to Sell Blog
russell davies
Scott Burkett’s Pothole on the Infobahn
Sek Ling
Servant of Chaos
Shimmer
Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!
Small Surfaces
SMogger Social Media Blog
Social Media on the fly
Soloride
somewhereovertherainbow
steves2cents
strategicdesignmarketing&brandingthoughts
Successful Blog
Success Creeations
Sweska
Tell Ten Friends
That’s Great Marketing!
The Branding Blog
The Copywriting Maven
the curious shopper
The Emerging Brand
The Engaging Brand
The Frager Factor
The Instigator Blog
The Marketing Minute
The New PR
The Qualitative Research Blog
The Sartorialist
think positive
thoughtsphilosophies.com
trizoko
Troy Worman’s Blog
Two Hat Marketing
U-Fong
Unconventional Thinking
UZYN.com
Viaspire
We’re not wired right
Whippleworld
Woolgathering
Word Sell
Work, in Plain English
Working at Home on the Internet
Writing, Clear and Simple
Xiao Luo
youalreadyknowthisstuff

Labels: blogs, z-lister

Studio 360 commissioned Pentagram to redesign Christmas.

Here's a few thoughts on the matter;

The purpose of Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. After hearing about the redesign of Christmas (where Christ is completely removed from it) I knew the world is officially going down hill. More than ever is Christmas about making money as shown in some of the ".mas" examples. Besides the removing of anything sacred about this seasons, the design is not all that great. This is another example of the big name design firm getting away with something that no other firm could get away with.

I know that they aren't totally serious about this whole concept but why don't we put a little more time and energy into the "true meaning" of Christmas...Christ. After all, He is what we built our nation upon from the beginning.

Read more about it on NYTimes website and at Studio 360.

Labels: christmas, design, pentagram

Labels: christmas

Does a big "design firm" name do more for a brand then a lesser known design firm? I look at the new Saks Fifth Avenue logo and brand and think, could anyone have gotten away with this, or is it because Pentagram did it? The answer is, probably not. As a designer you hear "Pentagram" and for some reason it is automatically good. I don't think this is the case on this logo. It's not that it's bad and the cut up typographical elements are intriguing, but for a brand identity that probably cost thousands - it could have been better. As I read through the the article there were a few things that stuck out to me. The first being that they took the same logo that was created in 1973, "... one stood out, the logo drawn in 1973 by Tom Carnese, adapted from a signature introduced almost twenty years before." The second is that they got a font designer to make the same thing and put it on a black background, "... We took the cursive logo, redrew it with the help of font designer Joe Finocchiaro, and placed it in a black square." Again, could any design firm have gotten away with this?

Labels: design, logos, pentagram

There seems to be a lot of talk around the web about David Allen's action management system and book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. So I started looking a little more into it and some of the ideas have some real application. The main principle behind the GTD book is based on the fact..."that a person needs to move tasks out of their mind and get them recorded somewhere. That way, the mind is freed from the job of remembering everything that needs to be done, and can concentrate fully on actually performing those tasks." Read more about it here.

Here is the process;

• Start at the top.
• Deal with one item at a time.
• Never put anything back into 'in'.
• If an item requires action: do it (if it takes less than two minutes), delegate it, or defer it.
• If not,file it for reference, throw it away, or incubate it for possible action later.

Labels: GTD, tasks

There are times as a designer that you need to be able to get inspiration from other sources. Sometimes the ideas just don't flow as fast as they need to, but when a design it copied exactly then you run into some problems. Here is a great example of someone flat out stealing a design.

Any ideas on where they got this design from? Anyone that listens to music, which is the world, would know that this is the design from Apple iTunes.
The above website is ConceptShare, which caters to the design profession. Having said that, you would think they would design something a little more original. Plus, the reflection idea is now overused and it is going they way of the drop shadow - to the grave.
Even though I think ConceptShare made a bad desicision design wise, I have tried out their service and think it is great. You have the ability to post your designs online and get feedback from other designers or allow your clients to feedback on them. I could see this being used to stop the hundreds of emails with all the revisions and changes that clients are always making.

Labels: copying, design

Here is a little enjoyment for the Christmas Holiday.

Labels: christmas

Last night I had the opportunity to go listen to Nate Morley with Deutsch Inc. He was speaking at our AIGA Salt Lake event at the Salt Lake Art Center. Nate is a Utah born and raised designer who has worked with national brands like Abercrombie & Fitch, Target, and A&FTV.
Nate was a pleasure to listen to because he wasn't a typical "big Agency" designer. He was very down to earth and presented himself in a way that gave you a thirst for design in general and not the "look at me" approach.
Here are some of the items he spoke about;
The design business has some harsh realities. Here he was speaking about some of the creative briefs that designers get. The briefs are not always the golden opportunities, but you need to do the best you can on the project you have been given.
He suggested five ways to build this momentum.
1. You need to do for the client is give them what they ask for. This will help you build momentum with them and once you build momentum you can start suggesting new ideas that you think are more creative.
2. When giving them a new creative direction, make sure it is easy for them to understand.
3. Prepare ahead of time for all their concerns about it so all they have to do is say yes.
4. Learn to pick your battles. You can't always suggest new ways of doing something or they will loose trust in you.
5. Last but not least, make sure the idea is good. Don't let personal interests get in the way of helping your client.
Some other interesting points he talked about was motivation. What is our motivation. Is it impressing our peers, winning awards, personal reasons, or is it to help the client succeed. We need to make sure our motivation is correct. We need to be passionate about our work but our responsibility lies with our clients. We need to make the look like rockstars.

Labels: AIGA, design

Just when you thought that companies didn't allow out-of-the-box ideas, you see something great like this ad campaign and your faith is restored. Well done Denver Water.
see more at Sukle.

Labels: ads, creative, design

In response to a contest on the Andy Budd website, here is my response.

Dear Santa,

It is interesting that this contest came up because I was just trying to figure out how to tell my wife that I was going to buy this book. It has been on my to-do list (rememberthemilk.com) for some time now (convincing my wife) but I really need a good book and reference for css.
I have been doing some research on the best book to get, because I can't afford all of them, and this book keeps coming up. I have been in print design for awhile and lately I have had a drive to really learn web design and css. I feel this is the best book for me to get and the free aspect makes it even better. I really hope that I get this book because then I can stop searching to make sure this is the best one. I can put it all to rest.
I recently updated my site using css and feel that I didn't do it the right way. I am currently working on some other sites and need this book to make sure all those id's and classes are in the right spot. I downloaded the sample chapters and even the sample codes to see if I could learn anything. I was able to pick up on some stuff but you bringing me the CSS Mastery book would make it a lot easier. I want to design and code my sites in a way that is pleasing to you, Santa.
I have never met you, Andy, Cameron, or Simon, but I love you all. I love to read your blogs and I think that the work that you guys do is amazing. Well, I can't find any website designs by you Santa, but the others are great.

So to summarize why I should get a free book and iPod.

1. I'm poor and don't have any money to spend on books.
2. I'm not going to be able to convince my wife.
3. I need a good reference book.
4. I put a pretty picture of the book up.

Labels: blogs, contest, css

I know there has been a lot of conversation in the web world about web 2.0 but recent conversations that I have had have make me want to bring it up again. I have read multiple blogs about this subject and have listened to many podcasts about it as well so I think I have a good understanding of it. But when I hear people trying to pretend they know and miss the mark altogether (see my last posting), it just drives me crazy.
In my effert to help people understand, I can across a blog entry from Pixel Acres that sums it up nicely. I am more of the opinion that web 2.0 is not tied to any visual style but relates more to the approach to generating and distributing content.
See also my post, What is web 2.0

Labels: web 2.0

According to a guy in my marketing department, everyone that has a web 2.0 site has a beta sign on there site. Meaning that the site is "better".
I couldn't help but laugh.

Labels: marketing, web 2.0

This has been a long time coming, but I finally have some pieces to show in my portfolio section. It will be growing and probably changing a few times but at least it is there. You can always check out my (more consistent) portfolio at coroflot.com.
As always, let me know what you think by commenting or contacting me by email.

Labels: portfolio

Here is a very creative ad campaign for Top Interior. The idea is great, the photos are great, unfortunately, the typography and placement of it isn't that great.
The ad agency is Duval Guillaume, Brussels.

Labels: ads, design

Welcome back to Utah Cameron Moll.
Not really wanting to admit that I am one of your followers, I have to say I love your work and hope that I have the opportunity of meeting you (and all the guys at NorthTemple) now that you are so close.