The ability of animated graphics to communicate is powerful. This one shows the evolution of US Death Rates during the evolution of the Covid-19 pandemic, a sobering topic. In just a few moments, it demonstrates the point deeper and richer than a 10 minute PowerPoint could.
Category: Design Work
Fun With Photoshop: Safeway & Albertsons
Several years ago now, grocery chain Albertson’s acquired one of their rivals, Safeway. (If you didn’t know this, here’s an article to bring you up to speed)
Reminiscing about that I had the idea to combine the two logos. Not very timely, but seemed kinda fun. Anyway, one of my goals is to do something with Adobe every day. So here’s today’s goofing around.
Some image art I whipped up
Last night I was experimenting with Canva (full disclosure: referral link) and whipped up the image below (shared on my Instagram page). I’ve heard this line a bunch over the past “little bit” (in other words, I have no idea exactly how long I’ve been hearing people say this), and really love the line. Not the most elegant design, but I found it fun. There’s a lot I like about Canva, but I’m not getting rid of Adobe anytime soon.
Branding Video Worth Watching
Debbie Millman looks at the evolution of imagery, culture, and brands while exploring how that shapes humanity. I highly regard Ms. Millman as a designer and a thought leader. This video is well worth your time.
Great Design Example: Exquisite Poster
I’ve long admired Debbie Millman’s design chops. It was really awesome to see this poster she created for Print Magazine. Its elegance resides in simplicity and clarity. As a fan of Swiss Style as well as the Japanese minimalist ascetic, this really speaks to me.
What do you think?
We were beyond thrilled to partner with the amazing @debbiemillman for our PSA campaign with @printmag. Her design is the perfect balance of simple sans-serif type and direct language that creates an impactful poster greater than the sum of its parts. pic.twitter.com/iOOR9MchIo
— Poster House (@PosterHouseNYC) April 28, 2020
Exploring Canva Premium
I’ve fiddled with Canva for the past few months, mostly for editing images on my Samsung S9, but have mostly been an adherent to Photoshop for anything serious. I have some free time (good ol’ Covid19), so decided to experiment with the premium version. I have a 30 day free trial, and it looks easy enough to cancel it if I don’t want to keep it.
I like it a lot for mobile editing. I think it creates fine images, especially for posting to Instagram or Facebook. Most of what I’ve done is put some of my haiku on some photos I’ve taken. I also have created some images for a real estate agent friend’s Instagram and Facebook pages. I’ll see what I like and don’t, then go from there. Right now, I do like the tool, the way the UX works, and the final products. But we’ll see as I try to be more deliberate with it and, perhaps, have a production sort of mindset.
If you’re interested in trying Canva out yourself, check it out here. Full disclosure: this is a rewards link. It gives me some Canva credits if you download and use the app. This page explains it more.
Need To Reduce A Video’s Size? VLC’s Got You!
I’ve used VLCfor years, since it’s a powerful video player (has most every codec out there…can play pretty much anything), but wasn’t aware I could use it to change formats or compress files. As I had some huge videos to upload to a WordPress site (which limits me to 500 MB…even after editing the php.ini file), I explored ways to shrink the files. Of course, I came up with a bunch of pay options. But, buried below the fold (fortunately on page 1 of SERP) was this video. And, boom, problem solved! I loved VLC before, and an am even bigger fan now.
Tech Research Pet Peeve
Currently, I’m looking at an online service for the Snohomish County Youth Chorus (my son sings with them, and I’m on the board). One of the first things I always want to do is look at pricing. I want to avoid spending hours of time researching features and whatnot, when the product doesn’t fit into the org’s budget.
When it’s not available, or not easily findable, I get annoyed. I don’t want to sign up for a “free trial” to answer the most basic of questions. A couple of thoughts with this:
- If you won’t tell me the costs plainly, I expect that I will need to worry about being “sold” to all the time. Sure, it might make it easier for you to sell to me, but it both annoys me and erodes my trust.
- If you won’t tell me upfront so that you can apply high pressure sales, what other things will I need to endure to get basic service.
Anyway, if you craft content for a business, these are a few things to keep in mind.
“The hilarious art of book design | Chip Kidd’s TED Talk” on YouTube
Though I’ve seem this before, I wanted to share this Chip Kidd TED talk again. Mr. Kidd is brilliant, hysterical, and wise. I love the way he thinks, inspiring me, challenging me, making me consider new ways to understand the world. Very worthwhile things.
A little fun with Photoshop
Whipped this up for my Pastor’s last Sunday (this coming Sunday).
