Spidermusical. Final weekend.

Just a little shameless self-promotion here: a poster I created to promote the final weekend of Spidermusical. A second chance at awesome. Originally presented at the NYC Fringe Festival in 2011, Landless Theatre Company has premiered the show in Washington, DC and I am proud to say that I am in the ensemble of kooky characters. It’s a great show – come on down and check it out before it’s gone! Get tickets here.

Keep Old Posts Private in new Facebook Timeline

On March 30, 2012, whether you like it or not, your Facebook account is going to be switched over to the new Timeline format. If you haven’t yet converted voluntarily, you’ve hopefully at least noticed that many of your “friends” have already done so, and by this point you should recognize the new layout.

One of the nifty surprises with the newest Facebook makeover is that your privacy settings are going to be adjusted. This seems to be a common side effect of these types of updates. One specific update is troublesome: All of your pre-Timeline posts that were only viewable by “friends of friends” or “friends” will become “public.”

(Note: You can see how the public currently sees your page by finding the little gear icon drop-down menu and selecting “View as…” and presto! You can see how complete strangers view you page.)

Here’s how to keep your old posts private once you’ve switched to Timeline:

1) Log into your account and from the drop-down menu beside “Home” in the upper right, select Privacy Settings.

2) From the list on the Privacy Settings page, select Limit the Audience for Past Posts.

3) Click Limit Old Posts (see below)

4) A new window (see below) will appear with a scary message letting you know that you can’t revert this global change easily… but what is really happening is: you’re denying Facebook the right to take all of you previously private posts and make them available for the public to see. Unless you’ve had a change of heart, don’t worry that you’re maintaining the status quo you’ve already established.

5) Once you’ve confirmed, you can do another “View as…” to get a public view of your page and confirm your page is as private as you’d like.

Finally – do yourself a favor and click through your other privacy settings… just to make sure the settings are what you want!

DC Comics New Logo

 

In late January 2012, DC Comics updated its logo, another bold step in the company’s plan to rejuvenate its brand following the debut of The New 52, a relaunch of all of its comic books last fall.

 

In a breakdown of the elements in the new logo, we have:

• “D” as a peel away
• “C” being revealed behind the “D,” in a variety of treatments
• and “DC Comics” beneath

The premise behind the new logo is to parallel the concept of “secret identities,” where the “D” could be considered the mask and the “C” could be considered the character beneath. While this idea may not be completely obvious to non-comics fans, it is at the very least visually interesting. As a designer, I can’t say that the execution of the peel back is inspiring, but when juxtaposed against the treatment of the “C,” which can assume the properties or environment of the hero/comic it represents, the overall result is effective. In the image displaying various DC logos above, you can see how this can work to represent such comics as Flash, Watchmen, or Green Lantern.

Beneath the DC mark is the company name. It is in the font Gotham, the de facto font of just about everything these days (don’t get me started on the overuse of this font!). I’m not a fan of how it is stacked, leaving an awkward negative space. It would have been just as effective to keep on one line and not worry that the text is not justified to the width of the DC mark. Another take would be to eliminate “DC” in the text altogether, as it is redundant when next to the mark.

I do want to applaud the forward-thinking aspect of the logo, that it plays up to the subject matter it portrays in its adaptability, and that it works very well in a digital space. As DC Comics now offers its publications both in print and online, and we’re seeing the trend of so many publications moving to online, it is smart thinking.

The new logo was developed by the global branding firm Landor.

My first HTML email build

Don't judge! I'm a newbie.

Yes, I know the rest of the print designers in the world have probably built plenty of HTML emails in the span of their careers. However, as an extremely late-bloomer (read: Somewhat Lazy, Overwhelmed, and Full-of-Excuses) to the front end development universe, I’m not ashamed to say “Here is my masterpiece! Please revel in it’s basic-ness!”

It’s actually one of my long-time freelance clients that continues to push me along in my arrested design development, but I’m thankful. This is the first of many email designs to come, and like all other design projects that I have completed over the years, I’m anticipating looking back at this and cringing! But for now, I will smile and enjoy!

WordPress updates: Drag and Drop Media

As I was getting ready to do an new post today, I noticed that WordPress has updated a little bit of its functionality. It was a nice surprise! Specifically, it was to the Media upload option. Typically I begin my new posts by uploading the image that will support my incredibly interesting and relevant posts (LOL). When I clicked on the Media link, a drag and drop box appeared. Wonderful! It’s really not a big deal, but if it saves a few steps I’ll take it.

I investigated further and saw that we now also have flyout options on our Dashboard menu. I know that’s not really that big of a deal, either, but it’s the little things that count when making tweaks to user interface.

Rethinking Brainstorming

In the past month, I’ve been involved in at least three brainstorming sessions. I’ve never been a really big fan of this type of inspiration for creative thinking. A recent article in the Washington Post has shed some light on why brainstorming may be a self-defeating process.

“Cognitive fixation,” the concept where people become focused upon others’ ideas revealed within a group setting, in turn hindering new ideas from being explored, may be the culprit behind the ineffectiveness of brainstorming. This was the foundation of a study conducted by two Texas A&M University undergrads, who tracked the results by obtaining creative ideas from individuals versus collective groups.

The study concluded that instead of first gathering a group to produce great ideas, more diverse ideas can result from having each person begin to brainstorm individually, and then later assemble to share their thoughts.

You can read the full article here.

Courtesy of Noise to Signal © Rob Cottingham www.robcottingham.ca

iPhone 4S: Siri is Seriously Helpful/Scary

One of the trending topics regarding the recent release of the iPhone 5 – oops, I mean iPhone 4S – is the new assistant app Siri. Basically, Siri is a voice control system built into the OS. Apple has released a video demo to show how inefficient your life has been up to this point.

With Siri: You can ask the weather. You can ask about traffic. You can request to play songs from your playlists.
You can ask the meaning of life, and you’ll get a great reference answer from “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe.” (Click here to get the answer).

I’m just waiting for Siri comments such as: “I don’t think you know what you’re doing,” or “You never listen to me, you’re just like your father.” I feel like we’re on the verge of a Skylab moment from Terminator. Is anybody else a little scared?

Facebook App for iPad is finally here!

When I first got my iPad (1st generation), I was a bit surprised that there was no Facebook App for it. Instead, I downloaded an app (“Friendly” – how could you not trust a name like that?!) that somewhat borrowed the look and feel of the actual Facebook application. I realized after a few minutes that it would probably be the last time I used the app (and it was). Instead, I would just log into Facebook using the Safari App. Not nearly as easy to launch, but at least it had most of the functionality.

Today, Facebook finally has released it’s own app for iPad. I guess they figured since many people did not need to go to work today in “celebration” of Columbus Day, they could spend their down time acclimating to yet another way to put their voice, images, and what-have-you’s into the digital universe!

The iPhone version of Facebook is also being upgraded, and like the version for the iPhone, some of the games will not function on the iPad. Both apps are currently free of charge.

New Apple Campus Images Released

Maybe it’s because Apple is trying to distract us from the health of Steve Jobs, or maybe they are on high from surpassing Exxon in the stock market – it’s anybody’s guess these days – but renderings have just become available online for Apples newest endeavor: A 2.8 million square foot office, research and development building that looks like a giant flying saucer… if Apple had invented flying saucers (and who knows if they didn’t?).

According to Cupertino.org, “Apple Campus 2″ is the name of the circular main structure which has earned the nickname the “mothership.” If the development plans are approved, Apple plans to break ground on the new site by 2015. Check out the article and actual image at Cupertino.org.

All images (and parodies thereof) are courtesy of Cupertino.org and architecture firm Foster + Partners.

Costs to make a magazine iPad App

So you’re curious: “How much does it cost to make a magazine iPad App?”

I’ve been getting that question a lot lately from our clients. After some phone calls, research, and direct involvement with projects, I’m able to provide a basic list of costs. There a lot of variables to consider in this endeavor and so I’m just going to keep it as simple as possible!

You will need to consider the pre-costs of the design/conversion of the existing issues into the layouts needed for the iPad. This is a highly variable amount, and will be based on the quality of design, the number of pages, the level of rich media (links, video, etc.), among other costs. You will need to have the designer or agency generate this estimate based on your needs. Let’s just say in this case we’re looking at $6-8K.

The layout/interactive program used to make the magazine iPad App, Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DPS), incurs an annual fee of $6K for Professional Level, unless you are anticipating an excess of 500,000 downloads, in which case, there is a higher level and price point (Enterprise Level for $48K annually, for the big leaguers). Note that a design agency has the ability to purchase the DPS for themselves and use it for multiple clients. In this situation, the design agency itself absorbs the annual $6K fee, but will resell to you the per-download fees at whatever price point they determine.

The DPS annual fee includes a one-time 5000 download package that expires 1 year from purchase, and is not renewed with the annual subscription. The 5000 downloads will only apply if you are planning on having multiple issues – especially within a year timeframe – referred to as having a “library” of issues (hosted by Adobe servers) and the App acts only as “reader” that allows you access to the multiple issues. Once you approach or exceed 5000 downloads of issues pulled from the library, you will have to purchase more downloads. They start in packages of 10K at $3000.

However, if you think you may only do 1 issue a year, the issue can be self-contained within the App and the per-issue downloads do not apply, since there are not multiple issues housed in the library. You can then “update” the App or release a new App altogether and still not worry about the number of downloads from the library.

From Apple/iTunes, you would need to purchase a iOS Developers License for $99 to allow you to upload/distribute/sell Apps on iTunes. Note that it can take anywhere from 7 days to a few weeks to have an App “approved” by Apple before it is actually available on iTunes.

You can decide whether and what you want to charge for your App, or issues from your library. Apple will take a 30% cut of any sales you make. You will need to consider what people may be willing to pay, and how you will market the App to let people know it is available.

Based on all of the above, to create a single self-contained issue App using your own DPS account, you’re looking somewhere around $12K-$14K  upfront costs, with some of that cost being recouped based on whether  you charge for the App.

It’s no small potatoes, and you should definitely have a strategy for “why” you’re producing the App and a marketing plan for once you commit.