My Geek Notes

My greatest passion in the design industry is identity design. I hope someday to be able to say that I have designed a logo that reaches the echelons of a NIKE or Target. A lot of that depends on our clients, their product and or service and their commitment to the branding process and the costs associated with it. Several years ago the industry publication @Issue created a spread showing small portions of some of America’s greatest identities. I have posted a few of them to the left. How many are you able to recognize just by seeing a portion of the logo? Most people do fairly well. (I will post the answers to the Identity Quiz a little later, check back soon.) These timeless identities are a tribute to the designers who created the identities and the companies who have built the brands they represent. I have had the chance to develop a fair amount of logos and I would share my thoughts on the company’s acronym for successful identity development - S.U.S.S.A.. Our company has been developing logos for over ten years and this acronym represents the time-tested elements every successful identity should include.

S - simple.
The logos to the left epitomize this key ingredient. New tools in the industry and the ability to have easy access to full color printing processes have created a desire industry wide to push the envelope of identity design which has led to the proliferation of complex, filter enhanced, logos that rely too heavily on detail, color or complexity. A successful identity should communicate well in it’s simplest form: black and white. it should also be scalable meaning it should reproduce well at any size - big or small. I have seen far too many logos of late that could never be reproduced small, let alone screen printed or embroidered. It is the designers responsibility to have some forethought on behalf of their client and not design them into a corner. It is for that reason that we present our inital concepts to the client in black and white so they can see the logo in it’s simplest form and not cast judgement based on color or other embellishments.

U - unique.
How often have you seen a new logo or created one yourself and had someone say, ‘that looks awfully familiar’. As the industry continues to saturate, the hope of creating something completely unique continues to dwindle. with that said, we apply the principle of uniqueness in regards to the design process. A successful identity should have elements that sets it apart from anything else the target audience may have seen or experienced and create a memorable experience for the viewer. There is no greater compliment to an identity than to see complete strangers taking notice of it. The uniqueness of a logo can take many forms; The mark itself, the logotype, an element of interaction or discovery for the viewer, shock and awe or just a clever visual relationship or metaphor.

S - Stand Alone.
I am a pretty strong believer that logos were created because man was never meant to read. Pictographs were the original means of communication. Pictures can say so much more than words. Logos are the purest form of that principle in that we are striving to say the most - with the least. The most successful logos are created in a way that the mark can stand alone as a perfect tool of communication without the need for explanation or additional branding. NIKE of course is the preeminent example. The swoosh has come to represent their brand in such a way that they no longer need any explanation or company title. That is success.

S - Strong.
Strength in a logo can be interpreted in many different ways and it does not always equate back to the physical dimensions or design of the logo. Strength to me means it has the characteristics required of it to stand the test of time for any given client. In school we were taught that a successful logo is one that survives without modification for at least five years. Industry experience has taught me that most clients do not have that much patience. They will be looking for something to tweak as soon as sales begin to stagnate and often times will want to reinvent themselves way too soon. Not enough can be said about equity in an identity. Even the worst designed logo in the world has a certain amount of equity to the consumer if they have seen it consistently over time. A strong logo will stand the test of time and our ability to deliver strong and timeless solutions to our clients will insure their equity is not in jeopardy.

A - Applicable.
We used to use the A to represent ‘Available’ meaning our clients should be looking for company names that were available and also had available URLs associated with them. We are getting to the point that if you have not wrapped up the URL by now you are probably too late so I have been using the A to remind our clients that the logo should not only represent their company and be applicable to the industry. They should have an intimate connection to it. I have found this is best achieved when the client feels connected to the design process and feels that their input is being well received and implemented. When a client has a good experience in the process and is connected and engaged they are much more likely to come out of the process having had a positive experience and wanting to implement and use the identity we have guided them to choose. This only serves to strengthen everything we have mentioned above.

A friend of mine (Ikeman), mentioned to me that an artist he had read about uses Google SketchUp to layout his artwork so that his perspective is correct. I Had never really thought about using a 3D app to do quick layouts before sketching out a piece, and since perspective always gives me troubles this will be a welcomed tool.

From my first glance of the program it offers power in simplicity. Without knowing anything about 3D modeling you can come up with just about anything you can imagine (with detail being its limitations). Since I will mostly be using basic shapes to determine the angles I need for my art this will work just fine.

If you’re thinking about learning how to model in 3D, I would recommend 3d studio max, Maya, Lightwave, or even Blender. These programs offer much more powerful editing capabilities and many of them are industry standards.

I’ll post up some of the art I sketch over on “Sketch Up” when I get the chance. Take a second and download the application, give it a shot - it may just change your life. Google SketchUP Home-Page.

Yesterday in London a terrific milestone was achieved. Members of Monty Python along with over 4,000 other people formed the worlds largest Coconut Orchestra. They shattered the previous record of 1,789. Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones led the crowd in a stirring rendition of the Python classic Always Look on the Bright Side of Life. Well done lads!

While browsing through a few of my favorite blogs the other day I started to see posts about NASA’s STEREO project. It is a really cool project that NASA has been working on for a while. They set-up two satellites, one on each side of the earth, so that they could map out 3-D photos of the Sun.

As far as I’m concerned this was one of the coolest ideas that NASA has had in a long time. Finally we can see the sun in all the 3-D glory that it was meant to be in. I just wish I would have heard about it a while ago. It is definitely worth checking out when you have a minute.

Oh, and while your there… don’t forget to check out the sweet tutorial they have for making your own 3-D glasses (just in case you don’t have any lying around to look at the photos with).

So, a few days ago I was helping my in-laws tow an R.V. that my father gave to them when I ran into an old friend of mine. After a brief bit o’ chit chat, he informed me that Lord of the Rings online was in open beta and that he found the game to be quite enjoyable. After we got home I started downloading the beta and went to bed, I think I dreamt about a cup of water all night - best dream I’ve ever had.

When I woke up in the morning the download was finished and ready to install (fast forward). After installation I created a character (A Lore-Master “Man”) and began my journey in middle earth. The game mechanics are a lot like World of Warcraft, which doesn’t bother me since I love WoW. The skill system is a bit different where in you develop many of your stats and skills based on deeds and quests etc. (I am still new so I don’t know how everything works yet).

Overall I have found the game to be quite enjoyable, the graphics are well done and the game-play is very enjoyable. Check out their site and see what you think of it http://www.lotro.com/

I ran across two sites today that showed some pretty amazing toilet setups. The first one located on the top floor of the famous Peninsula Hotel on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. Rumor has it (read the text below the picture) that before they installed the black marble urinals, you used to have to pee on the wall (or window, as some have thought.) And all the time you’re looking out over the city. Wow, here is the link to that one.

The second one is a public toilet located in Basel, Switzerland made of one-way glass sitting right out in public. This one would have me curious enough to actually want to use it. Seriously, using the toilet right there in the open as everyone passes by - you can see them, but they can’t see you! Here is the link to that one. Rumor has it, there are others around the world like this one. If you know of one here in the US, let me know.

As a Linux enthusiast I spend 95% of my computer time using Linux as my desktop, but also have to spend some time on Windows for work to test things, etc - the other 5%. Zipping up my files (lots of text files) and using them between the two platforms can be a nightmare because of the way they both handle newlines. Windows seems to be OK with the way Linux does it, but not the other way around (guaranteed to break your PERL code). If you’ve ever opened a DOS text file on Linux you’ve witnessed how every line ends with ^M which makes the content almost unreadable.

The fix I’ve found is a command line tool called “fromdos”. The name says it all. It also has a sister command called “todos”. I use Slackware as my Linux distro and it came on the standard install available to any non-root user. The main reason I’m posting this little how-to is because when I first attempted to use “fromdos” it didn’t work right; just kind of hung until I canceled it. Here is how you do it - the $> signifies the prompt.

$>fromdos <dosfile.txt> unixfile.txt
or
$>todos <unixfile.txt> dosfile.txt

The most important part to remember and the part I didn’t realize is that the < and > surrounding the first file name need to be there and are part of the command. This is because “fromdos” and “todos” are meant to be used as filters so the “hanging” I experienced was them waiting for input from STDIN.

If you’re not sure what kind of file type you are dealing with (DOS or Unix) you can always run the following command:

$>file filename.txt

Which should provide one of the following two results:

For DOS:
$>filename.txt: ASCII text, with CRLF line terminators

For Unix:
$>filename.txt: ASCII text

At some point I may whip up some sort of a bash file to automate and do batch conversions. Maybe even test the file type first so to not mess with any files that don’t need to be touched. For now though, that little command should save me some time so I don’t end up troubleshooting my PERL script that all the time had the wrong newlines.

Last week I found a really cool website called www.yuxt.com that allows you to store online any Youtube videos you come across while checking out all your blogs. How many times have you been talking to someone about some video you saw where a guy is rapping about how the swap meet is like a mini mall, and then you can not remember where you saw it? Well next time you see a Youtube video that you love you can use yuxt to store the video in your personal yuxt folder. All you have to do is click the Yuxt it! bookmark in your bookmark bar when you are on page with a video you want to store, or you can type yuxt.it/ before the URL of any website and if there are any Youtube videos on the site it will automatically store them in your folder for you. I am so happy about it. I started my collection with this cool Peter Bjorn and John video. I am not sure what would happen if you typed yuxt.it/ before Youtube’s URL …

So I decided to buy an Electric Toothbrush last week. I have always wanted one and my dentist even recommended I try one but they have always seemed a bit cost prohibitive. Last week we were at Target and found a two pack of Colgate Motion battery powered toothbrushes for under $7.00, which I thought was a great price considering it comes with batteries installed. We took them home and the first time I tried it it was like nothing I have ever experienced - like someone climbed into my mouth and gave my teeth and gums a massage! I think I reached a new level of clean and actually look forward to brushing my teeth more than ever! Today I found an online article at Science Daily that suggests that electric toothbrushes may be better at fighting plaque and gum disease. Who knows if it’s true but if it gets me to brush more than that alone is a success!

On more of a design industry note - I stumbled onto the graffiti art of Banksy recently and have enjoyed learning about someone who has turned his graffiti into a highly priced commodity. His art on the side of a home in Bristol is going to auction and is set to fetch so much that the owners of the house are basically throwing the home into the deal. Another story on his website relates the story of two men who were actually arrested for vandalizing a Banksy original on the side of the local pub. Arrested for vandalizing vandalism! The men were prosecuted to the fullest extent for their behavior while Banksy continues to cash in on his cult status.

Well we had the “Family Campaign” on Saturday, and it went pretty well. D&D (and role-playing games in general) take a long time to play. If you consider taking characters from levels 1-20 to be a single game, then you have something that could last years. Which means that its important to keep “things” moving. “Things” have been going slow for the last little while, mostly because we haven’t been playing that often (the holidays slowed everything down) but I came up with a few ideas to speed things up (on top of meeting more often):

1- When the players end up in a complex situation (like choosing how best to infiltrate a castle or defend a village), rather than just saying “What do you want to do?” I will give them a set of choices (bluff the guard, climb the wall, sneak in through the sewers, or none of the above). They can always choose to do something other than one of options I’ve offered, but hopefully it will reduce the time it takes to discuss the problem.

2- Supply the monster’s Armor Class and Hit Points when they’re in combat. That way they don’t have to wait for me to tell them if they hit, or whether the monster is dead they have that information right in front of them, thus speeding up combat.

3- Don’t roll for damage any more. All weapons, and spells, etc. would just do average damage. Obviously eliminating half of the die rolls would speed things up as well.

In the end they opted to only do option 1, and only after making sure that there was a none of the above option. In essence each of the options traded some of the D&D-ness of the experience for speed of play. So for them to choose only option 1, means that they really do like the D&D-ness, enough so that even though it’s going slow they would rather continue that way then sacrifice any of the experience. To be honest I’m kind of proud of them. Plus I think I must have scared them because we really tore through things that night. I think we ended up getting in 6 combats, which I believe is a record …

Also, if anyone has any ideas on speeding things up with minimal impact on the D&D-ness of the experience let me know.

8 months down, 3 and a half years to go