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 Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Web Winners
Industry News
5/6/2008 4:18:34 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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So Do I
This inspiring typographic drawing was created by 22-year-old design student Will Bryant.  via BySoAndSoPosted by Megan
Illustration | Typography
5/6/2008 1:24:16 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, May 05, 2008
Stunning Images
The photographer Walter Schels and the journalist Beate Lakotta
spent over a year making portraits of 26 people who were very close to
death and again just after death. The exhibition articulates the experiences, hopes and fears of
the dying, and gives them one more opportunity to be heard.
 via SwissmissPosted by Megan
Thought Provoking
5/5/2008 11:22:04 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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It's Back: HOW Salary Survey
We're all paying more at the pump and at the grocery checkout these days, so our paychecks are stretched thin. If you're wondering how your income stacks up against others in the design field, then you'll be interested in HOW's 2008 Design Salary Survey, which we're conducting now through July 18. And we need your help! Graphic designers, please take HOW's Salary Survey so we can compile the broadest and most accurate report possible on salaries, bonuses and benefits in the industry. It'll take just a few minutes of your time, and it'll help us create a regional snapshot of what designers in your area are bringing home. Plus, by participating you'll be eligible for a drawing to win a free one-year subscription to HOW magazine!
Take the HOW Salary Survey now!
Design Resources | HOW Magazine
5/5/2008 11:02:46 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Congrats!
HOW's sister magazine, PRINT, celebrates its fourth win in the General Excellence category of the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME) Ellie Awards, the magazine industry’s highest honor. This represents PRINT's 10th nomination for General Excellence, and its fourth win. Way to go!  Posted by Megan
Industry News
5/5/2008 10:33:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, May 02, 2008
Design Humor
I'm pretty sure this makes me a big nerd, but I adore this Charles and Ray Eames Powers of 10 joke.  (Thanks HOW Books editor Amy Schell for forwarding this site to me.) Posted by Megan
Just for Fun
5/2/2008 2:41:18 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Web 2.0 Explained
Vancouver-based design firm smashLAB just posted a great white paper explaining the importance of social media. Print this out and send it to clients who are having trouble getting it.
Traditional marketers are accustomed to carefully honing messages. This
allows for control, but the results are difficult and costly to
measure. Social media turns this whole scenario around. With it,
control is shared with the crowd, and real feedback becomes immediate.Organizations now have the opportunity to collect detailed information
on users and their habits, elicit real feedback and suggestions, and
refine their offering and messaging to better suit user demands.
Although there are trade-offs with this new way of communicating, the
opportunities for companies to understand and work with their customers
have never been as great.
Posted by Megan
Design Resources
5/2/2008 2:07:04 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, May 01, 2008
Marketing and Pricing
Over at the MarketingMixBlog, pricing is always a hot topic. Last week, there was a heated discussion about whether designers should charge credit card fees back to clients when they pay with a credit card. Some say it's a cost of doing business; others don't think they should have to cover that expense. What do you think? This is just one tiny tidbit from a treasure trove of business information in the new book by Ilise Benun and Peleg Top, co-founders of Marketing-Mentor.com, The Designer's Guide to Marketing and Pricing: How to Win Clients and What to Charge Them. They're also giving a pre-conference workshop based on the book at the HOW Conference on Sunday, May 18, bright and early at 8 AM. That's not all! Ilise and Peleg have also recorded a series of 12 podcasts, one for each chapter, to go along with the book. Listen to Chapter 1: Who Is My Market? here and find lots more information on the new website for the book.  Posted by Megan
HOW Books
5/1/2008 2:53:27 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Never Been
I can't stop looking at this panoramic illustration by Stuart Kolakovic. It started as a 9 meter long installation at a gallery and then his brother helped him turn it into an interactive web page. The meandering image tells the story of a small Eastern European village over the course of one year.   via DrawnPosted by Megan
Illustration
5/1/2008 9:11:08 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Commands
Gifts and Goodies
4/30/2008 11:50:09 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, April 29, 2008
News, etc.
As per usual, the paper companies are dominating the news this week with a flurry of releases, including: • Wausau Paper launched Digital Space, a website geared toward helping designers with the technical and production aspects of papers for digital print jobs. • Distributor Legion Paper now carries the U.K. brand Mirricard, a highly reflective paper in nine colors, with a super-smooth finish that, remarkably, is printable. • Sappi announced the Silver and Bronze winners in its North American Printer of the Year competition. Among the whole slew of recipients in various categores are several names we recognize from HOW's own design competitions, including The Hennegan Co., Williamson Printing, The Fox Co. Lithographers, Anderson Litho, Blanchette Press, Sandy Alexander and Continental Colorcraft. • Domtar's got a new swatchbook for its "workhorse" offset sheet, Husky. Domtar's Lynx brand is now FSC certified.
 In some non-paper news: • Auto FX Software released a limited-time bundle of products (available through August 31) that includes Corel Painter X, Auto FX Mystical Tint Tone and Color, Mystical Lighting and several training videos. The package retails for $349, a savings of more than $550. • FunctionFox has released TimeFox Premier, which includes significant upgrades to task assignment, scheduling and calendar functions vs. the standard TimeFox edition. Learn more about this web-based product and compare the standard and premier versions. • YouSendIt, which enables users to send huge files over the web without using FTP sites or crashing their e-mail system, launched a "virtual mailbox" that firms can post on their websites, allowing partners or customers to drag and drop files delivery.
Industry News
4/29/2008 4:29:54 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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What When Where And Y
I hope I'm not late to the game, but I just noticed this cool nutrition drink for kids called Y Water. The bottle was designed by Yves Behar and they're not only recyclable, they're reusable. The bottles link together with biodegradable rubber connectors to form a building toy.   Posted by Megan
Designers
4/29/2008 12:53:04 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Your First Job
Carmen Pease, who writes HOW's email newsletter, is starting a new feature called "Design Question of the Week." Here's the first question: "What was the best and/or worst part of your first design job? What made it memorable?" You can share your answer and see what other designers had to say in the Forum.
Best part:
Design was a new department with
the company, so we got to really make it our own and stretch our design
legs while we figured out what the heck we were going to do with it.
Worst part:
Design was a new department with the company, so they had no clue what
to pay us and thus decided the answer was "not very much".
Memorable:
When we came up with our "no altering photos of anyone with Photoshop
installed on their computer" pact - turnabout is fair play after all.
Posted by Megan
HOW Magazine
4/29/2008 8:50:28 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, April 28, 2008
Save the Dates!
OK, so you know about the big HOW Design Conference, which is coming up in less than 3 weeks (gulp!) in Boston. As if that weren't enough, here are some other design events coming up that you should have on your calendar. Registration for all three events will open in May and June; visit the websites to get more info and to sign up for the free email newsletter so you'll be among the first to know when registration opens. • Mind Your Own Business Conference, September 25–28, Hyatt Lost Pines Resort, Austin, TX. Principals of design firms, small ad agencies, marcomm firms and PR shops are invited to join our top-notch group of business consultants for a retreat that will bolster your marketing and management skills and rejuvenate your business. This year's MYOB features a return engagement by popular speaker Blair Enns. Plus, you can plan to stay over Sunday (the conference ends Saturday night) for bonus sessions, software demos and a working day. • Back by popular demand, the In-HOWse Designer Conference lands this year in San Francisco, October 3–5. In two years, the event has seen explosive growth and is now the business and management conference for in-house design managers. Sign up early; the past two events have sold out quickly. and ... <drumroll please> • HOW is proud to announce a brand-new event: The Creative Freelancer Conference, August 27–29 in Chicago. Co-sponsored by Marketing Mentor, this event is specifically geared toward designers, illustrators, writers, photographers and other creative solopreneurs. 
Events
4/28/2008 3:56:33 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Smoking Type
For a treasure trove of early 19th-century typographic inspiration, check out Rolling Paper Graphics from Gingko Press. This unique collection presents 540 different kinds of rolling paper plus seventy posters.  via FlyPosted by Megan
Typography
4/28/2008 12:50:09 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Everything's Coming Up ... Radishes
If you're a HOW subscriber (or if you've ventured into a bookstore in the past several days), you may have seen the latest issue, with the HOW logo made out of bright green seedlings. Given both the season and the content (the issue's all about nurturing and harvesting your creative energies), the garden theme seemed ever so appropriate. During our cover brainstorm session, we talked about actually growing the logo. Seeing as how I fancy myself quite the green thumb, I offered to give it a shot. Art director Bridgid McCarren and I discussed what kind of seeds might make pretty little sproutlings, and we settled on trying two kinds: grass and radishes. Me, I love the little heart-shaped radish seedlings. We purchased soil, seeds and planting trays, cut templates of the logo that we carefully filled with seeds and set the whole works up in the sunny window in my cube. Then we waited. Turns out, when radishes sprout, they really take off! By the time of the photo shoot, they were way too tall and leggy to "read" as the logo. They'd grown perhaps a bit too well. (The grass seed? A total dud.) So Bridgid, bless her soul, took tiny scissors and tweezers and "planted" just the tops of the baby radishes to form the logo that you see on the cover. It wasn't a Photoshop job, but it did take a bit of creative engineering to pull off. Click on the cover below to see the lineup of creative goodness in the issue. 
HOW Magazine
4/28/2008 11:24:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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The 27th Letter
Launched by the Art Directors Club and Moleskine, The Undiscovered Letter was a creative competition developed to raise awareness about lettera27, a nonprofit literacy organization. The challenge was to create a 27th letter for the alphabet. My favorite entry was submitted by Rei Inamoto, global creative director for AKQA. The letter “space” isn’t really a letter because there is nothing
there. But without it, ourlanguagewouldnotfunctionanditquicklybecomesunintelligiblewhenalltheletters arestrungtogetherlikethis.
It’s a letter that’s not a letter. You can’t see it but when it’s not there, you definitely notice the lack of it.
You can see Rei's concept fully explained here.  Posted by Megan
Typography
4/28/2008 11:05:17 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, April 25, 2008
They (don't really) Suck at Photoshop
Awhile back, we jumped on the bandwagon and posted about You Suck at Photoshop, the videonline phenom that seems to have reached beyond its core designer-geek audience to go mainstream. (At least, we think we posted about it ... we can't find the post, thanks to the not-so-great search function on this blog). Anyhoo, Time yesterday revealed the IDs of the two guys behind YSAP. Turns out, they're Matt Bledsoe and Troy Hitch, two ad guys in Covington, KY, which, so you know, is just across the river from us here at HOW HQ. Who knew?
Designers
4/25/2008 1:06:20 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, April 24, 2008
Sweet Lettering
I was following links today, looking for some inspiration, when I stumbled on designer/typographer Marian Bantjes website. Clicking around her portfolio, I found an amazing project where she created the letters from sugar. It turns out it was an assignment for Stefan Sagmeister's book " Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far," which has been sitting on my shelf waiting for me to take the time to really look through it. So I let myself spend some time with a few of the chapters, which are bound seperately. Whatever you might think of Stefan and his design star status, the book is inspiring and fun to look at. It's clear that Mr. Sagmeister is very much in touch with an impish, child-like impulse to create something out of nothing.  Posted by Megan
Typography
4/24/2008 2:34:46 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Uh So
I'm drawn to this set of ambivalent coasters by Canadian illustrator Ray Fenwick.  Posted by Megan
Gifts and Goodies | Illustration
4/24/2008 11:21:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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