Category: Design

Latest read: The Ten Faces of Innovation

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date July 12, 2007

This book by IDEO‘s found Tom Kelley is a good, interesting and fairly quick read. In his book The Ten Faces of Innovation Kelley has outlined the opportunity to identify, empower and reward the ten types of employees you may have in your company.
10 Faces of Innovation Who can make your organization think differently and succeed in today’s marketplace or school?

This is a refreshing look at the demands of today’s aggressive business climate — regardless if your in a Fortune 100 company, small non-profit or educational institution.

While some elements are a bit over-hyped (examples are IDEO’s clients — surprise!) the basic message is to look and empower new thinking.

I was surprised to learn his brother knew about .mp3s before Napster….but so did millions already on the internet finding them in newsgroups.

Tags Design, Innovation, learning, Ten Faces of Innovation, Tom Kelley, trends

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Designers: Core Animation

Lets face it: Today many graphic designers are programmers. They have been moving into the coding world for a number of years. Most cut their teeth on Web 1.0’s plain old HTML. With one foot in Flash‘s ActionScript and JavaScript were clearly the sign to jump in with both feet. This acquired knowledge and new creative energies have paid off handsomely for many designers.

CSS was the next logical choice that continues today as designers create smarter webpages and blogs with strong visual impacts. Even WordPress‘ own website correctly states: Code is Poetry. These skills have proved to be required tools for today’s successful graphic designer.

falling pins The next step may well be Apple’s Core Animation. Look closely at the new iPhone commercials – you will notice a bit of Core Animation: Google push pins drop from the sky onto a map. Good bye static pins!

This small example should really open up the interactive space for designers. Core Animation clearly shows just the tip of the graphical/animation iceberg that will become more robust moving forward.

Designers will jump on this new technology and adapt the necessary code to implement designs on phone and webpages. Apple needs to empower more than their die-hard programmers. Give designers the right tool for the job and we will see amazing interactive graphic elements on the web and our iPhones.

Tags: Core Animation, graphic design, code, iPhone, information design, trends

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Latest read: Death to PowerPoint

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date June 18, 2007

At WiscNet’s 2007 Future Technology Conference I presented an Internet2 end-of-year review as Co-Chair of their Internet2 K20 Workgroup. My presentation was modeled after Edward Tufte’s approach to PowerPoint called The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint. The New York Times calls Tufte “The Leonardo da Vinci of data” and even NASA has asked for his assistance with visual analysis of space shuttle data from both Columbia and Challenger.
His research is really amazing. While re-reading his excellent 2005 brief The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint I wanted to make sure my presentation was right on the mark and tuned for the best possible visual reception.

As we are all aware, PowerPoint emerged (okay it was bundled with Word and Excel in the Office suite back in the day) as the most used slideware program regardless of location: conference room, classroom, gallery or boardroom. We all use this tool yet many presenters do not realize how PowerPoint actually kills your messages.

Can you imagine The Gettysburg Address as a PowerPoint presentation? Click here for an example of how a powerful message gets lost in a bad slideware program. So how is PowerPoint killing your messages?

If you care how you communicate, this is simply a must read. Tufte’s lessons are so important to learn and implement. He challenges you to communicate as effectively as possible while living in a dull, boring slideware world. For the most part our messages miss the mark and our audiences are bored … could there be anything worse?

Tags information design, powerpoint, slideware, trends, Tufte, visual information, WiscNet

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The future of company logos?

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date June 12, 2007

In reading Guy Kawasaki’s blogpost By the Numbers: How I built a Web 2.0, User-Generated Content, Citizen Journalism, Long-Tail, Social Media Site for $12,107.09 I was a little surprised to see listed at #6 the method to obtain his new company logo:

$399. I paid LogoWorks $399 to design the logo. Of course, this was before HP bought the company. Not sure what it would charge now. :-)

Wake up call for graphic designers? Sure. HP is positioning LogoWorks in a WalMart model. Its all about the numbers and in the Web2.0 world it would appear LogoWorks will continue to be successful. Business2.0 magazine also listed LogoWorks as one of the hot 25 companies to follow…before the HP acquisition. And its interesting to note Business 2.0 picked YouTube as one of their hot picks just two years ago…so those companies are getting some traction.

How will graphic designers react? HP is going after the fifty trillion digital pages to be produced by 2010. Will LogoWorks create a Paul Rand? Hmmmm…probably not. However Logoworks is part of HP’s new solution for business called Print2.o and its one of many tools HP is extending to customers. Take a look at Tabblo and Snapfish as additional resources for their customers.

Quite simply I have been reading tech-oriented blogs that simply choose Logoworks. Its a no brainer…and then Guy moved onto the next business task. Today on the internet this means LogoWorks will be the choice of many companies who will forgo the opportunity to engage a graphic designer to create a unique visual identity. Time for a conversation.

Tags: Guy Kawasaki, LogoWorks, Logo, identity, brand, Business2.0, trends

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WiscNet FTC Day 1: Digital Ethnography

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date May 9, 2007
1 Comment on WiscNet FTC Day 1: Digital Ethnography

Keynote Speaker: Michael Wesch’s presentation Human Futures for Technology and Education was very well received and many were inspired by his work. New technologies have profound implications for education and force us to rethink how we teach, what we teach, and who we think we are teaching.Â (click on the play button in the movie frame)