short and spazzy

I like to break things so I can fix them. twitter. flickr. linkedin.

Posts tagged design

Sep 9
“Publisher of small newspaper to sales client: “I think our designer can fix the ad, but I’m not sure she’s ever received an ad in PowerPoint.””

Overheard in the Newsroom

I have! Powerpoint, bitmaps embedded directly into the email, Word documents… 


Aug 30
Littlefly » Necklaces & Pendants
Jewelery made from books. via Katie Walton.

Littlefly » Necklaces & Pendants

Jewelery made from books. via Katie Walton.


Aug 25
“If you can’t draw as well as someone, or use the software as well, or if you do not have as much money to buy supplies, or if you do not have access to the tools they have, beat them by being more thoughtful. Thoughtfulness is free and burns on time and empathy.” Frank Chimero via 37signals

Aug 24
“Consumers are calling brands’ bluff these days. No longer can there be a solely transactional relationship between brand and consumer, but a relationship built on true cultural exchange. Many companies are beginning to acknowledge the shift from just making good products to providing meaningful experiences. Of course, an important component in creating social change, is working with the communities you aim to serve in order to embolden the growing cultural fabric and not dictate it. This requires brands to experiment and offer their resources in ways they haven’t done before.” Nothing Is What It Seems | Blog | design mind

Aug 8
austinkleon:
“ Teal and Orange - Hollywood, Please Stop the Madness
“ …the insidious practice of color-grading every movie with a simplified, distilled palette of teal and orange…
The Cohen brothers ushered in the new era of digital color grading...

austinkleon:

Teal and Orange - Hollywood, Please Stop the Madness

…the insidious practice of color-grading every movie with a simplified, distilled palette of teal and orange…

The Cohen brothers ushered in the new era of digital color grading with their excellent 2000 film, “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou.” This was the first feature film to be entirely scanned into a computer, a process known as “Digital Intermediary”, or DI. Once inside the computer, the colorist now had unheard of control over every element of the image. Imagine tweaking an entire movie with the tools and precision that one has with their still images using Photoshop, and you get some idea of what power was unleashed.

This screenshot from the excellent color theory and exploration site, kuler, shows what happens when you apply complementary color theory to flesh tones. You see, flesh tones exist mostly in the orange range and when you look to the opposite end of the color wheel from that, where does one land? Why looky here, we have our old friend Mr. Teal. And anyone who has ever taken color theory 101 knows that if you take two complementary colors and put them next to each other, they will “pop”, and sometimes even vibrate. So, since people (flesh-tones) exist in almost every frame of every movie ever made, what could be better than applying complementary color theory to make people seem to “pop” from the background. I mean, people are really important, aren’t they?

Same goes for movie posters, too.

Via my friend, @jamesfflynn


Aug 5

Mar 15