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 Thursday, July 03, 2008
Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs
Think today's cereal aisle is stocked with bad-for-you kiddie products? Bah. These days, even Corn Pops (formerly known as Sugar Corn Pops) are labeled "whole grain." Hop into the wayback machine and fill your bowl with the likes of these:  Buzzing yet? Check out this gallery of retro kids cereal packaging. Whoever at Kellogg's came up with a cereal called Crunchy Loggs? via neatoramaPosted by Bryn
Just for Fun
7/3/2008 10:34:56 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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Illustrated Subway
Illustration
7/3/2008 9:23:20 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Job Of The Day
Broadcast Designer
Current
Join the team at Current! Launched August 1, 2005, Current is the first
global television network created by, for and with an 18-34 year-old
audience. The network shows young adults what’s going on in their
world, in their voice. Current is also the first TV network in history
whose programming is supplied and influenced by the very audience who
watches it. Posted by Megan
Industry News
7/3/2008 8:55:10 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Mid-Week Industry News
We've been collecting news items for the past week to share with you here. Without further ado ... • Legion Paper is offering free shipping on sample orders of $30 or more; get your swatches of various fine-art papers including some lovely Japanese products. • Somehow we missed that Creative Manager Pro rebranded last month to Workamajig; nonetheless, the company announced a forthcoming upgrade of its project-management software with new drag-and-drop capabilities and project-management charts (also included are updates for Apple's Leopard OS.) • Parsons is exhibiting winners from I.D. Magazine's Annual Design Review; the show opens July 10 and runs through September 28. At the school's Sheila Johnson Design Center in NYC. • If you haven't seen them, the U.S. Postal Service released its Eames commemorative stamps recently. Which you can use on Eames paper.  • CTI Paper released a new swatchbook for its Glama Natural line of FSC-certified translucent papers. • SMART Papers has added to its flagship brand with Kromekote Recycled, an FSC-certified, 30% postconsumer waste, cast-coated paper in two weights and four sizes. • Adobe announced last week an updated version 3.3 of its Creative Suite collections; most notably, the company is now bundling Fireworks CS3 with its Design Premium edition, in a response to customer demand. Adobe also issued Acrobat 9 Pro. • FontShop added to its library of fonts from Adobe and Linotype in June, with such lovelies as Robert Slimbach's Garamond Premier Pro and the script face Brioso from Adobe (below), and Akira Kobayashi's Cosmiqua and the TDC Award-winning Palatino Sans (bottom) from Linotype. Lots of other great new faces at FontShop. Brioso  Palatino 
Industry News
7/2/2008 11:36:06 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Zombie Haiku
The brand new HOW book Zombie Haiku just got a great review on Ain't It Cool News. Zombie this, zombie that. Everything and anything has had a zombie
version of it as of late. But none fit together better than zombies and
poetry. Haiku poetry that is. Known as a meditative form of linking
words to find meaning and peace in a 5-7-5 word per line structure, the
art of Haiku has been cannibalized by Ryan Mecum in his original
graphic novel ZOMBIE HAIKU and the result is simply one of the best
zombie reads of the year.
Why did HOW publish a book of Zombie haiku, you might be asking yourself? Because the book is visually stunning and mind-blowingly creative. 
Posted by Megan
HOW Books
7/2/2008 11:27:50 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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New Walmart Logo = Meh
No one on the HOW Forum seems to the like the new Walmart logo. Neither does anyone at Speak Up's Brand New blog. "How boring. Can something be so bland and so nauseating at the same
time? It's exactly the type of generic mark I'd expect a giant, morally
challenged mega-company to use to try to soften their image."
Posted by Megan
Industry News
7/2/2008 9:25:16 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Job Of The Day
Senior Designer
Benefit CosmeticsBenefit Cosmetics, the fastest growing luxury cosmetic brand in the
U.S., is looking for a fabulous designer to become part of our design
team. We're searching for someone with a killer portfolio and passion
for beauty. Hand-drawn typography and illustration skills are a plus.
Fresh ideas, refined typographic skills, attention to detail, excellent
organization, and a positive, flexible attitude are musts. Posted by Megan
Industry News
7/2/2008 8:59:34 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Sketchbook From Hell
Yes, I'm a geek and I can't wait to see Hellboy II, but I was even more excited that the movie site offers a sneak peek inside director Guillermo del Toro's sketchbook. You can see the genesis of several characters and locations.   Posted by Megan
Creativity
7/1/2008 1:33:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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A Familiar Package Redesigned
Interesting story on NYTimes.com this morning about a redesign for the familiar plastic milk jug. The new package, which is rectangular, with a handle and a not-quite spout, apparently takes some getting used to (customers say it doesn't pour well). But the benefits are impressive: The dairy that developed the package says it has cut labor by half; and the bottle is more efficient for shipping (jugs can be stacked on top of one another, instead of shipped in those ubiquitous plastic milk crates). Sam's Club, which is selling the newly packaged milk, can store 224 gallons in its coolers, instead of 80. That efficiency means that milk is 10 to 20 cents per gallon cheaper to consumers. Now, if Horizon Organic would start using the new jugs, we at HOW would be happy.  Posted by Bryn
Thought Provoking
7/1/2008 8:41:03 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, June 30, 2008
MYOB Love
Choosing my favorite among HOW's four design conference is sort of like choosing a favorite among your four children: I love them all in different ways. But if I had HAD to pick a very favorite, I'd pick our Mind Your Own Business Conference, the business event just for design-firm principals. Why? Partly because it's intimate and less overwhelming than the big HOW Conference. But mostly because IT WORKS. It makes a difference. Like for the firm we profiled in the magazine that saw a huge growth in profitability and a huge decline in the number of hours the principals worked—specifically after they implemented what they'd learned at MYOB. We've just launched the site for this year's MYOB Conference, September 27-29 in one of my favorite cities: Austin. ( Seriously, check out this sweet resort.) This year's program includes a bunch of new stuff, like sessions targeted for large or small firms, peer-to-peer learning sessions and an optional working day on Sunday where principals can work on their own, team up with a speaker or get hands-on training on time-management and billing tools. Learn about what's new, and sign up early to score a discount. Posted by Bryn
Events | HOW Magazine
6/30/2008 3:31:44 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Frenemies At Work
Some people are so competitive on the job that they’ll do just about
anything to get ahead. And few things can wreak havoc at work like a
colleague who seems friendly but secretly tries to make you look bad.
What do you do when you find you have a frenemy at the gate? Following
are some tips:
Call their bluff. A frenemy’s behavior can often catch
you off guard. For example, say you find out a new designer you’ve
trained and taken out to lunch took full credit for a project in which
you did half the work. Your best course of action in such a
circumstance is to have a private, straightforward conversation with
him or her. Tell the person exactly how you feel and listen to the
response. Is the designer genuinely apologetic or defensive? Even
though confronting the coworker may not change his or her way of
operating, it will let your frenemy know you’re not an easy target.
Remain professional. If you’ve been burned by
someone, it may be tempting to give the person a taste of his or her
own medicine. But try to behave in a professional, tactful manner while
also keeping your guard up. As with gossip or office politics, it’s
better to remain above the fray as much as possible. If you get
involved in a tit-for-tat game, you can damage your credibility. Read more. Posted by Megan
HOW Magazine
6/30/2008 9:08:30 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, June 27, 2008
Sweet Pics
Dang! I knew you could print short messages and even logos on M&Ms but now you can print photos. O rly?! Ya rly!  via PhotojojoPosted by Megan
Just for Fun
6/27/2008 8:53:28 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Type In The NYT
The New York Times recently published a story in its technology section about designing your own fonts. It offers a couple of resources that could be helpful to both professionals and amateurs. What's interesting is that it's ranked the number 1 story in the technology section this morning. Before the personal computer, most people were oblivious to fonts. Some may have recognized Courier and Elite on the I.B.M.
Selectric typewriter ball. Then word processing programs offered a
hundred or more fonts, from Arial to Wingdings. More were offered in
software packages and on the Internet. Now, many people can recognize
fonts by name. Indeed, a documentary about typography and one of the
most familiar typefaces, “Helvetica,” played to sellout crowds at film
festivals.
Posted by Megan
Typography
6/27/2008 8:28:46 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, June 26, 2008
Local Love
After the city guide on HOW's hometown went up on design*sponge this week, another d*s reader named Drew had posted his own on his designcincinnati blog. Following a rabbit trail of links from Drew's blog, I found Handmade in Ohio, which then led me to Wire & Twine. I really dig the low-tech look of the site's navigation (and also their cool T-shirt designs):  Not that I spend all my time chasing web links, mind you. No, not at all. Posted by Bryn
Gifts and Goodies
6/26/2008 3:48:52 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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2008 In-HOWse Designer Conference
The website for the 3rd annual In-HOWse Designer Conference just went live. I have to admit that it made my heart skip a beat because I'll be co-hosting the event with HOW's art director Bridgid McCarren. I guess I shouldn't worry too much because the last two years have been awesome. This year's speakers include Moira Cullen, design director for Coca-Cola and management guru Peter Philips. Check out the whole line-up here.  Posted by Megan
Events
6/26/2008 9:25:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, June 25, 2008
48 Hour Film Project
My husband Ben, who is a designer, recently participated in The 48 Hour Film Project, where local creatives challenge themselves to make a short film in only 48 hours. The rules include drawing a random genre for the film and incorporating required elements like a specific character, prop and/or
line of dialogue. The team Ben was on made a movie called OMG Force about millennial detectives that give their boss a headache with all their texting and web surfing. He just emailed me that the movie won a people's choice award at its recent screening and is moving on to the city-wide finals. The winner of each city final will then go on to the international finals.  Posted by Megan
Creativity | Just for Fun
6/25/2008 12:54:42 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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The Nati Rules
Design*Sponge just posted a wonderful City Guide for Cincinnati, HOW's hometown. I'm super impressed because there are even a few places on it that I hadn't heard of. The only thing I would add is the secret used book store in Clifton. I don't know the address, but I always manage to find it.  Union Terminal is one of my fave buildings in the city. It used to be a train station but now houses Cincinnati's Museum Center. Posted by Megan
Design Resources | Just for Fun
6/25/2008 12:34:22 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
101 Photoshop Tips In 5 Mintues
To announce his new video blog, dekePod, Photoshop expert Deke McClelland created a hilarious, yet useful, video that includes 101 Photoshop tips set to music.   Posted by Megan
Design Resources | Just for Fun
6/24/2008 10:36:18 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Stand Out Cards
Coroflot just posted an article about how to make your business card stand out by Carl Alviani. Business cards are a sort of great equalizer in the professional world.
Everyone has them, everyone exchanges them, and generally speaking, the
less important you are, the more say you have in how yours looks. For
creative professionals, especially the legions of us who work for
ourselves or in a tiny little studio or consultancy, this makes them
exciting -- what our personal or small-business brand lacks in name
recognition can be made up in creative expression, at least that's the
theory.
 If you want more business card inspiration, check out the card roundup from HOW's last business annual. Posted by Megan
Design Resources
6/24/2008 8:51:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Special Effect
FOH Sam Harrison shared a link to this website, which promotes an organization called The Girl Effect. The site's graphics are as breathtakingly simple and effective as the organization's mission, which is to change the world, one girl at a time. The Nike Foundation is one of the organizations behind the effort; we'd love to know who the creative team is behind the website (perhaps Nike in-house or agency folks?).
Thought Provoking
6/24/2008 8:44:48 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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