It seems that our President, the leader of the free world, gets the importance of graphic design in building a brand and getting people’s attention. This was evident during the 2008 campaign and has continued throughout his presidency in various forms. Well, this understanding is back again with his bid for reelection this fall. I came across a good example the other day via my friendship with Barack on Facebook. (Yes, we are on a first name basis since we’re friends.) It is an interactive infographic of how President Obama’s policies help women of all ages and what a Mitt Romney presidency would mean for women’s health and economic security. Not only is the information presented in concise, understandable language, the illustrations are appropriately colorful and well executed, and the animation is just enough to keep me engaged and clicking, but not distracting from the information. To top it all off, the woman used as the example is a web designer!

So, kudos to you Mr. President (and your marketing/design/image strategists) for your continued appreciation of design. Keep up the good work.

I came across this video while catching up on my Vimeo feed. It features a peek into the home of renowned architect Michael Graves. He shares thoughts on his career and universal design. Beautifully shot and edited by Gary Nadeau for Dwell Magazine.

When Mom is not available to tell you to sit up straight and to stop slouching, you can rely on Lumo to keep you straight. It is a simple, easy to wear monitor that reminds you when your posture is less than perfect. According to the Journal of American Medical Association, next to headache pain, back pain is the second most common reason for lost productive time. We should all listen to our mothers and sit up straight or checkout
Lumo at http://www.lumoback.com/. Continue reading “Mom is Right, Don’t Slouch”

Just recently, StatCounter.com released an “Alert for Web Developers” that said the average screen resolution was, for the first time, 1366×768. This is 342 whole pixels wider than it used to be at 1024×768.

How does this affect anyone? Well, for the average internet user, they may notice wider websites with more content and cool features right up front since there is now more website real-estate to view it on. For a web designer and developer, it means they now have more space to lay out cool content and features for all internet users.

So this is a great thing, right? Well, not as great as you might think. I believe that this new average computer resolution means very little in reality. If you read this article, you are assuming that all websites should be built with a fixed width in mind. Until recently, that was probably a safe bet, but today, we have responsive design, which, in my opinion, makes the standard width nearly irrelevant. Continue reading “Average Computer Display Resolution Increases for the First Time in Years…What Does It Mean?”

A colorful outdoor display captured the attention of visitors to the University of Vermont last week. In a brilliant example of large scale information graphics, small flags were arranged in evenly-spaced arcs on the main lawn. The plywood key revealed that each flag represented 5,000 people who died in the Holocaust, including 6,000,000 Jews, 3,300,000 Soviets, 2,000,000 Poles, 400,000 Gypsies, 250,000 people with disabilities, 20,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses, and 15,000 Gays and Lesbians. It’s hard to fathom those numbers, but the sea of yellows, reds, blues, and greens dramatically illustrates the scale of devastation.

Yesterday I attended my favorite type of meeting. Yes, believe it or not, there is actually a meeting I look forward to. A rarity, for sure, no matter what form of work you do or what industry you work in. And this type of meeting, unfortunately, doesn’t happen as often as it should. It should happen every time you start a new project. Continue reading “The Best Kind of Meeting”

Hillman Curtis wrote the book on Flash web design, designed some of the earliest animated websites, and then left the technnology completely to focus on much larger corporate websites. For those of us who always feel one or two steps behind the ever-evolving web, Hillman managed to stay one or two steps ahead. When he felt satisfied with his contribution to web design, Hillman then moved on to making short films, specifically for the web. He interviewed some of design’s most important contemporaries, including David Carson, Paula Scher, and Stefan Sagmeister. He made commercials for IBM and SVA. He made a feature film and was working on another. And I watched every one of them, just as I have followed his entire career, wondering how one person can constantly redefine his own work and redirect his own life’s path. Did I mention that, before all this, he was in a rock band for 10 years? That sense of autonomy is what makes people like me envious of people like Hillman. Hillman lost his battle with cancer last Wednesday, April 18, 2012. He is still my hero, and I know he will be missed by many.

During a tour of the University of Rhode Island last week, I couldn’t help but notice the cornerstone of the Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences building. The number eight from the 2008, the year of the building’s completion, frees itself from the granite and floats into space. It’s a refreshing change of pace for a typically formal piece of signage. The architect for the Center was Payette Associates of Boston.

Being a confirmed type-junky, I thought this typographical twist on modular bookcases was just plain cool—so I had to share. Designed by Eva Alessandrini and Roberto Saporiti, the bookcases are a fun and functional series of modular storage cubes shaped as letters and numbers for the Italian furniture design firm Saporiti. Now what would you spell? TV?

Last Wednesday we opened up our studio to the members of the Connecticut Art Directors Club. With our studio’s twenty year anniversary as the backdrop, I shared the stories behind our work and added a few pearls of wisdom on adapting to change, work/life balance, hiring good people, creating a solid work culture, and finding new clients. It was a wonderful evening filled with good friends, clients, and partners. John Rudolph served as the roving photographer and a few of his photos are below. Hard to believe it has been two decades—seems like only yesterday that I decided to strike out on my own. Continue reading “Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes: CADC Presentation”