http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/notes en dave@deliciouslycreative.com Copyright 2008 2008-06-22T12:29:00+00:00 http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/rss_feed?FB_go=1&FB_url=http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/mad_men/ http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/mad_men/#When:13:09:00Z In a past life, I worked as an advertising copywriter. I wrote the usual marketing copy and occasionally got the odd zinger displayed on the High Street and jingle on the radio. We didn't drink or smoke in the office, and Mad Men bears absolutely no resemblance to my past career, if you discount getting free tickets or a few free drinks. This new offering is from AMC and writer of The Sopranos, Matthew Weiner. Set in the 1960's, it concerns Sterling Cooper, a fictional advertising agency on Madison Avenue and depicts the changing face of America at the turn of the 60's. And it's very good. Being from 'Sopranos' stock it should be. The opening title owes everything to Saul Bass and his opening sequence for North by Northwest. Even the promo material is soaked in Bass and updated with a contemporary vector style. Although I haven't seen the last few episodes, I have yet to see what the 'average' designer looks like, but the impression you get is that they inhabit the not too glamourous basement. Thank god things have changed... Advertising, Reviews, Television 2007-12-17T13:09:00+00:00 http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/rss_feed?FB_go=1&FB_url=http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/design_intelligence_made_visible/ http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/design_intelligence_made_visible/#When:09:18:00Z Written by Stephen Bayley and Terence Conran, Design: Intelligence Made Visible is a encyclopedic evaluation of product and graphic design. With over 300 pages, the book is introduced with eight essays overviewing design history through the ages and then an A-Z section, which concentrates on modern design and its icons. This is one hefty labour of love! The design of the book is well thought out as we would expect, with a lot of breathing room for large images and clean text columns. It's snappily written, lively and doesn't get bogged down with oblique references. They have managed to pull in a spectacular range of images; the roof of Mattè-Trucco's Fiat Works and the Douglas DC-4 crossing Lower Manhattan are two beautiful examples. What I find most interesting is both Bayley's and Conran's opinions on their subjects. This isn't some dry exercise in illustrating history. There are amusing anecdotes and at times some strange comments which seem throw away and catty, which just adds to the pleasure. It has been my favourite book to dip into since I bought it last year. All in all it is a wonderful reference (if very opinionated) and dare I say, it'll look nice beside your IKEA catalogues on the coffee table. Books, Reviews 2008-01-10T09:18:00+00:00 http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/rss_feed?FB_go=1&FB_url=http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/warped_car_ad_for_a_design_classic/ http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/warped_car_ad_for_a_design_classic/#When:08:53:00Z This is a truly unique car ad for the Citroën DS; spooky, atmospheric and a little bit bonkers. I'd love to know what the creative was taking when he came up with this concept? The DS produced between 1955 and 1975 was a purely futuristic design by the great Flaminio Bertoni. They really don't make ads and indeed cars like this anymore. It's a pity because it certainly holds your attention. Advertising 2008-02-17T08:53:00+00:00 http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/rss_feed?FB_go=1&FB_url=http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/a_typeface_for_all_seasons/ http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/a_typeface_for_all_seasons/#When:10:50:00Z After getting a little tired of relying on Foundry Form Sans for everyday use, I decided to invest in another workhorse typeface. Foundry Form Sans is an amazing family but my needs were expanding. After searching through multiple sites and on the Typophile Forums, I was directed to the Joshua Darden creation Freight from Garage Fonts. It comes in a comprehensive range of weights and styles. The Serif and Sans have a warmth and character that make it stand out and is also highly readable. It isn't cheap though and for those on a tight budget, purchasing the Serif first may be a good option if you need something that will work across many projects. Reviews, Typography 2008-02-24T10:50:00+00:00 http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/rss_feed?FB_go=1&FB_url=http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/its_sign/ http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/its_sign/#When:06:58:00Z I went on a trip to Solden, Austria last week and spotted this schizophrenic sign. Everyday I had to pass under it and kept being drawn to its eccentric use of fonts and strange layout. I haven't a clue what it all means but it got me thinking about signage at home here in Ireland. You simply do not see the same level of mad creativity, except maybe for Mr O'Brien's scrawled sign at the local butchers. Being on the German border, Austria has had its own fair share of design history. Maybe the mind behind this was influenced by the extreme design of Stefan Sagmeister. I would love to know who came up with this and congratulate him/her for giving me something to think about. Typography 2008-03-14T06:58:00+00:00 http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/rss_feed?FB_go=1&FB_url=http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/a_photographers_must_adobe_lightroom/ http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/a_photographers_must_adobe_lightroom/#When:16:55:00Z I take a lot of photos, and I do mean a lot of photos. Photos of trees, boxes on the ground, anything that I think might make a decent image. But with this obsessional snapping comes a problem. How do you view them all with out losing your mind? That's what I wondered for a few years. I have used many pieces of software in the past, default camera manufacturer software, free photo viewers, and Apple Aperture (very disappointing). Yet none of them really came up with the goods. I could see all my photos laid out before me but could do nothing with them. I couldn't even rename them properly. Then I came across Adobe Lightroom. I have been using it now for a few months and it has saved my snap happy life and my precious mind. I can import photos, tag them, rename them all in the matter of seconds. Making corrections to them is also very easy. The interface is fairly simple and the develop tools are perfect for what I need. It is much easier then say bringing them all into Photoshop, which is as clunky as you can get. Using RAW settings on the camera makes things even better. The RAW image format is so much more useful than JPEG, which is always on by default. It really makes importing your images more efficient and less of headache when you have taken hundreds of photos on holiday and neglected to delete as you went along. It is also very fast compared to other products out there and that's a huge point for me. You can change exposure and white balance settings easily, but I still always import the selected photos into Photoshop for the final edit, such as cropping, sharpening and general messing around. One thing though – Lightroom isn't cheap, and as usual with Adobe, prices in Europe are far higher then the US, which is ridiculous and a real kick in the face. This is a pity for a company who creates excellent software, but as we all know, domination brings on all the cracks. Something has to be done about this pricing difference or they will run into serious competition down the road. This rant is over... So what do you do? If you want software that simply works and you are an avid amateur or professional photographer, buy it or even download the trial version to see what I mean. If you want something with less bells, whistles and a mediocre experience, download something free. Photography, Reviews, Software 2008-03-20T16:55:00+00:00 http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/rss_feed?FB_go=1&FB_url=http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/stars_of_typography/ http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/stars_of_typography/#When:22:06:00Z In a world that can be seen as cold and rarefied, Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones and their foundry, Hoefler & Frere-Jones, are a real breath of fresh air in type design. They are young, enthusiastic and entertaining. Dare say, they could be becoming household names alongside Frederic Goudy in the public’s consciousness. Hoefler & Frere-Jones have been designing some of the most celebrated typefaces for the last decade. Their type is everywhere but it's not ubiquitous; they are not installed on every PC, but are being used in high profile publications and public buildings. Gotham was chosen as the type for the cornerstone of the proposed Freedom Towers in New York, which is a fine achievement. In a talk they gave last October at the AIGA Next Conference, they came across like the Coen Brothers' more talkative cousins. Alright, they are not brothers but go with me on this one. They are wonderfully rye, dry and possess just a little dash of irony. It was interesting and candid account of how they approached designing some of their more recent faces – Archer for Martha Stewart's Living magazine and Exchange for The Wall Street Journal. What came across was the amount of hard work that was involved in designing these two very differing typefaces, both needing to work in very hostile environments. Years of development and re evaluation seems to be part of the type designers lot. Their approach to design is an interesting one. It is archaeological in a sense that they imagine the motivation behind older typeface designs. Instead of taking a typeface from the past and reworking it, they go after the original type designers ideas instead. No longer are they simply copying and transforming design details, they are taking more of the essence of an established design and making something even more original. Even if you have a passing interest in the world of type, their Typography: What's Next? podcast will make you think differently about what you read and how you read it. Typography 2008-04-07T22:06:00+00:00 http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/rss_feed?FB_go=1&FB_url=http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/it_was_a_bit_too_early_for_this/ http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/it_was_a_bit_too_early_for_this/#When:08:56:01Z Early this morning I awoke bleary eyed to the sight of the usual pile of mail at the front door. The usual stuff – bills, badly laid out flyers (that really is a depressing sight) and one letter from the States. I eagerly ripped open the envelope, and the first line that caught my attention was, 'Domain Name Expiration Notice'. In my morning confusion – and this was before my coffee – I got a bit of a fright. It was sent from the Domain Registry of America, a very authoritative title indeed and it requested a reply within a month. In my heightened state of panic, and the awful prospect that my website would disappear forever and my name given to the lowest bidder, I started to reach for my credit card when... I woke up. Then I noticed some sales spiel like, 'when you switch today to the Domain Registry of America'. I have to hand it to them, they have the layout of this letter down, except maybe the line lengths are a bit too long. I did laugh, as I foggily remembered that all my domain names are safe and sound. For a split second I was almost thinking of giving money over to a company I never heard of. I looked them up and they seem to be a hosting/domain company and as it turns out, many people have had the same experience. So I will be sending them an angry reply, as one thing I really do hate is being given a fright so early in the morning. Random Thoughts 2008-04-23T08:56:01+00:00 http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/rss_feed?FB_go=1&FB_url=http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/colour_picking_made_very_easy/ http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/colour_picking_made_very_easy/#When:21:20:00Z When starting a project, colour is usually forefront in my mind when it comes to design. I find colour can influence the choice of type and imagery I use, so I like to get this down quickly. Obviously if the project has a colour scheme in place, I still need to find complimentary colours to fall back on. On starting many web projects, I have found myself dipping into online colour sites like Adobe Kuler for getting colour inspiration. While good and useful, I was finding these sites slow and just a bit random. I decided a small desktop app would be better and hopefully would make my life easier. What I needed was: 1. A colour picker 2. Colour suggestions feature 3. Swatch colour group builder 4. Export option for Photoshop and Illustrator So I looked at the many apps out there and downloaded the demos. Many of them were lacking features I needed and the few advanced ones had terrible interfaces. Then I came across ColorSchemer's nice website. I downloaded the demo of ColorSchemer Studio OSX and it immediately ticked all the boxes. Lightweight, with an attractive interface, I find it easy and efficient to use. I have it open at login and have it to hand all day. Another nice little feature, is the ability to drag in a photo and generate a colour palette based on it. Now I know that small little apps do not change life drastically like, making you a design superstar over night, yet this really has made my rise less frustrating. It is available in MAC and PC flavours and I really recommend it. I have heard that there are plans for a CMYK feature in the future, so this will make it an even more essential small app. Colour, Reviews, Software 2008-04-29T21:20:00+00:00 http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/rss_feed?FB_go=1&FB_url=http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/remake_remodel/ http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/remake_remodel/#When:18:10:00Z I just couldn't help myself. I have redesigned Delicious yet again and have lost count on how many times I've done this over the past few years. It made me acutely aware of my obsessive urges to rearrange Delicious every season. It really is just as simple as getting bored with the look and feel. I know the current wisdom is to redesign less, so I kept much of what was there - colours and basic layout. I tend to keep everything simple when it comes to personal websites, so there is less to go wrong. I feel the more you complicate the process, the more temptation there is to keep refining it until, it's whittled away to nothing. I also wanted to use sIFR 3 again after being a little unsure about how usable it was. They have taken some of the kinks out and now it seems to be working across all browsers, even Opera. Yet as soon as I had put it live, I had that 'post purchase dissonance' feeling. You know the one where you buy something expensive and suddenly feel unsatisfied. As I write this, I feel the urge again. The site looks like a slightly wrinkled bed now. I will go for a walk, get some air and try to live with the imperfections a little longer. Design 2008-05-25T18:10:00+00:00 http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/rss_feed?FB_go=1&FB_url=http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/looking_for_that_ideal_code_editor_might_coda_be_it/ http://www.deliciouslycreative.com/index.php/main/notes/looking_for_that_ideal_code_editor_might_coda_be_it/#When:12:29:00Z No matter how many apps I try, there is always something missing. You wait around for ages to see a much needed feature built in, yet nothing. This is the case with Textmate, which I have been using for a few years after having a shaky relationship with Adobe Dreamweaver. At first Textmate was a revelation but the ability to transfer updated files to the server was lacking. This has bugged me no end. I know there are some ways around this – using Interarchy FTP seems to make the job easier but it is still a kludge (love this word) too far. My usual set up is to edit in Textmate, then switch to Transmit and upload the file, then refresh the browser. But if I am doing a lot of changes a minute, this can become tiresome. My thumb is now feeling the pain of constantly switching back and forth between applications. So I downloaded Dreamweaver CS4 Beta to see if maybe I was missing something. On using it for two weeks I found that the reason I had changed to Textmate in the first place was its simplicity. Dreamweaver is a bloated monster, which does have some amazing features; yet icons were too small, bugs abounded (yes I know it's a beta) and the UI is crowded to the point of having to squint and hover over buttons to find out where you are. So along comes Coda from Panic, the maker of the beautiful Transmit. First off, the syncing between Transmit and Coda was wonderful. Suddenly on opening Coda all my Transmit favourites transferred into Coda library. This is a huge time saver. I have started using it on new projects to get a feel for it. Everything works on the same level as Textmate, code hinting is perfectly implemented, it understands different syntax set ups well, and the server syncing is great. I can even have a black coding background, which is my preferred look. The UI is uncluttered, and everything is much clearer than in Textmate or indeed many of the editors I have tried, and this is a good when all you want to focus on is the code. Clips is a nice feature. A floating pane can sit along side your code, from which you can add frequently used code snippets. There is a reference section which is fairly useful although I am not sure how much I would use it. As I wrote at the beginning, there is always something missing from an app, but for now, I cannot find anything wrong except for a strange lack of shortcut references. It is only available in OSX flavour and costs more than Textmate, but the cost is definitely worth it in my opinion. I feel more efficient now and my poor little thumb is also getting a much needed rest. Reviews 2008-06-22T12:29:00+00:00