OASIS Moonchild by Roberto Blake

Photo Manipulation and effects are the area of graphic design that I enjoy the most. I love taking images and bringing them together in new and interesting ways to make something wholly different. For this I wanted to creating something stunning and dramatic that had an organic feel to it. I also still wanted to use lighting effects in this image, but something more than typical streaks and swirls.

The end result was something beautiful that I feel is also unique.

Ben and I met sometime ago when he had first began to make his start as a musician, performing at local venues. We met through a mutual friend, a photographer I worked with in the past, Jon Covington. In this article I’ve posted the latest artwork I’m doing for some up and coming promotional material for Ben (posters/flyers). I will be sure to add to this as time goes on and the final material is produced. I just couldn’t wait to share some of this with you. Be sure to visit Ben’s site SBXTV.com

Yes, believe it or not you will need to be good at communicating verbally as well as visually if you hope to make it as a designer. If you’ve ever wondered how designers with less ability than you have managed to surpass you professionally, this may very well be the deciding factor. Many designers take for granted strong communication skills in writing, as well as confident and articulate public speaking skills. This means when asked to discuss their work in interviews they are hesitant or stiff, something that interviewers don’t respond well too. You have to be willing and able to discuss your work at length, while being engaging and confident.

Additionally, you will need strong written communication skills as well. You will be dealing with clients, co-workers, and collaborators mostly through email and IM, in which case your ability to make yourself clear and perfectly understood in type is essential. This includes not only using proper grammar and punctuation, but the ability to communicate “tone”, and “context” when expressing yourself. This is not something that just anyone can do. I would recommend that anyone going into Graphic or Web Design take an Expository Writing class, and 1-2 Public Speaking classes to improve their overall ability to communicate. This is something that may seem tedious, but in the long run it will give a very distinct advantage in the job market, and help you to create better resumes, and perform confidently in interviews.

@bkmacdaddy
One of my favorite people on twitter, bkmacdaddy is always provide useful tips, articles and inspiration, not only through his twitter account but through his amazing blog at bckmacdaddy.com as well.
http://twitter.com/bkmacdaddy

@JThompsondesign
A designer couldn’t ask for a better friend than Jarred Thompson. One of the creative minds behind Neuno, and also the man responsible for DesignJuices, Jarred is one of the most active people I’ve seen in the online design community.
http://twitter.com/JThompsondesign

@JoshuaFrankel
In addition to being a great guy Josh has a great eye for design and has attracted a fairly large following on twitter. His post are thoughtful and so are his responses to his followers, definitely someone you should watch.
http://twitter.com/JoshuaFrankel

Are there amazing people that you follow on Twitter? Why don’t you tell everyone about them by posting a comment?

Too often designers are other creatives jump right into the computer and fire up Photoshop or InDesign and complete forget pen, paper, and little brainstorming. Laying out your ideas on paper first will save you time because you can work out problems and ideas much more quickly and change them without a lot of effort. Not to mention that you will also have a guide or road map rather having to complete trust your memory.

If a client gives you a creative brief go over it with a fine tooth comb and make sure you didn’t miss anything. Its better to kill a small amount of time going over this document and making sure you understand exactly what the client wants, than making simple mistakes and oversights, and having to reproduce your work.

In the event that your boss or supervisor ask you why you haven’t started a project yet, just calmly let them know that you are going over the brief to make sure you didn’t miss anything. It’s entirely too easy to have gotten the wrong dimensions for a document, or misread the context of an assignment.

In the event a client hasn’t given you a brief, you should have a standard one that you use; either submit it to the client to fill out, or give them a call, ask the necessary questions and fill out the brief yourself. This may seem like adding another step and more time to your design process, but the time it will save you can’t be overlooked.

For those not in the know a Gravatar is an online avatar or profile pic that you can tie to a specific email address. For example if you were to comment on my blog, if you had a Gravatar tied to your email address, the image you chose for you Gravatar would appear next to your comment. This is common for most blogging systems online today.

Why you need a Gravatar.

If you have gotten into social media or blogging at all, you already understand the importance of maintaining and building your online identity. If you are posting and commenting on blogs all across the net, having a Gravatar is very important for you. If you use your headshot or your company logo as your Gravatar it will help you build brand recognition, it will also make your comments seem more credible as people won’t think of them as coming from some faceless or anonymous person or spam bot. Comments that have a Gravatar are also less likely to be rejected by the webmaster or admin of a blog or website.

How do you get a Gravatar?

If you go to Gravatar.com you will be able to get sign up and tie an email address to your Gravatar. If you want in this single account you can manage all of your email addresses and give each one a different Gravatar if you like. This can definitely make things a lot simpler for you since it means you will only have to login to the one account.

Tips for using your Gravatar.

• Try to remember which email address has been tied to which Gravatar.
• Remember that your Gravatar will only appear in comments if you’ve entered your email address correctly!
• If you are an individual try using a headshot of yourself as a Gravatar
• If you are a company or national brand (or represent one) use your company logo.
• Don’t change your Gravatar too often once people get used to seeing it.

There is not really a right or wrong to commenting on blogs, though there is something to be said for ettiquitte or as we are saying now, netiquitte! I personally try to avoid leaving simple generic or one line comments. I try to be polite, and I try to be specific in my commenting. This is the general rule of thumb most people try to follow.

Being Heard

One very good reason to comment is to make your position on a subject known, and have your voice heard. People who have ever commented on a political or news post, or the latest celebrity scandal, (insert Mel Gibson or Lindsey Lohan joke here) already understand this. I think we actually saw quite a bit of this throughout President Obama’s Social Media Campaign. One of the great things about blogs and Social Media is that they are not a one way conversation, you can actually get involved.

Making A Name For Yourself

Another important use of commenting on blogs is to establish creditability or an expert opinion. If you happen to be an amazing 3D Artist, by commenting on blogs based around 3D design, art and animation, you can let a community of your peers see how much knowledge you have, and even convert that audience and bring them to you, if they decide the like or value your opinions.

Its the way in which many people end up attracting a following to their own blogs, or even new followers on twitter. It also shows that you are willing to participate andengage people, which is one of the aspects of Social Media that many people overlook. Being Social! Many people just post to their blogs and post their own links on twitter. Commenting on other peoples blogs however makes you a part of an ongoing conversation, and shows that you’re not only thinking about yourself.

Engaging With Others

As I’ve said throughout this article one of the best things about Blogging and other Social Media is that it allows you to participate and communicate with others. This means that you can not only comment on blogs, but you can specifically comment on what others have said about the post, and they can engage you directly as well. This is a wonderful way to establish contacts within an online community, something you should never underestimate the value of. Having good contacts in the online community will help you build relationships for future collaborations, in addition to expanding your online audience. It also means that you will have people willing to promote you and share your views or work with others. If you don’t reach out to people, they can’t help you!

Netiquette When Commenting On Blogs

• Always try to be polite and as positive as you can, if you have to be negative give specific and constructive criticism, and don’t engage in “flaming”.
• Avoid using foul language as this will damage your reputation and creditability
• Try to avoid short one line comments like “Great post!” be specific and thoughtful.
• Unless its a link to a great resource avoid posting links in comments.
• If someone replies to your comment try to reply back in a timely manner.
• Always respect the rules of the website owner or administrator.

I’m not the only one that was impressed, Kyle’s work actually ended up being featured on Pixar’s official blog!

U.K.-based visual artist Kyle Lambert usually creates sensational artwork using professional graphics tablets. But for his latest piece, he drew the Toy Story gang in the “New Toys!” scene from Toy Story 3 using Apple’s iPad. At first glance, I almost couldn’t believe this was done by hand, never mind on a touchscreen. -From The Pixar Blog

If you haven’t seen the video for how he accomplished this you are really missing out. It’s really great to see Kyle’s process and the details of his work like this, and I’m glad he takes the time to show it to us. You can read a full account from Kyle himself about this artwork on his website.

Direct Link: http://www.kylelambert.co.uk/ipad/toystory3/video.html

Kyle Lambert Toy Story 3 iPad Painting on Youtube

There are several skills that all graphic designers should have under their belt. However some of these exist outside learning the Adobe Programs, color theory and the principles of typography. Sometimes designers and the people who work with them struggle with either technical or administrative skills. Over the next few days I will cover some of these skills and provide you with some resources to help you.

What is FTP and why we use it.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is completely irrelevant but now if anyone ask you can say you know what it means, the bottom line is that its the most common method other than email for delivering files and projects to clients, and collaborators. Now many of you will ask, why can’t I just email it? Most email applications have a file size limit of 10-20MB. Those of you who have done high resolution print work know that sometimes this is not nearly a big enough limit when it comes to layered PSD files. In other cases the client will need the files to be stored in an accessible location to be downloaded and used by many people internally.

Not knowing how to use an FTP site, and not being familiar with several different FTP programs will definitely hinder you and your clients, and its a skill that most of your employers will expect you to have. One Alternative people have been known to utilize is YouSendIt.com but even this service has its limitations and drawbacks.

Free FTP Programs (EASY)

I’ve listed below some of the free FTP programs that I’ve used on a regular basis and found the easiest to handle. Most novices can use the basic settings to get through this and just enter in a domain, username and password, more advanced users will have no trouble getting to other things they need either, like upload and download rates/limits connection timeout settings and file permissions.

For those of graphic designers who have learned there is no drawback to using Windows PCs, I suggest that you check out WinSCP, its a very easy to use freeware FTP program that will get the job done.
You can also try out Filezilla, its not terrible, but the way it handles directories can be annoying sometime, but it is fairly reliable and is available for PC, Mac OSX and Linux.
If you’re using the Firefox browser you can always utilize the nifty plug-in FireFTP. This is actually really convenient.

Also remember that if you’re designing in Adobe Dreamweaver that it has FTP as a feature of Site Management, but this is something that really applies only to web designers.

If you have anymore questions about FTP, or you know of some great easy to use FTP programs that I didn’t mention here, please feel free to drop me a comment!

The Last Airbender movie poster by BLT

The poster artwork for The Last Airbender was done by BLT, a full solution creative house out LA with a tremendous body of work in cable and movies. BLT is one of the leaders in the industry when it comes to producing work like this for a feature film. I also included the artwork for some of the international posters that many of you haven’t gotten a chance to see.

As you can see BLT produced 12 stunning movie posters for the Last Airbender. The photo-manipulation skills required to this are quite incredible. While many of us have certainly done effects like these before, I’ve rarely seen them done this precisely. Also notice that despite the variety of concepts used all the posters still manage to be fairly consistent. Even when its the same person or same team of designers taking on a project this big, that can be very difficult.

One of the things that stood out to me with this artwork as the type treatment for the title logo. I was so happy at first just to see a movie poster that wasn’t using Avante Garde, Helvetica or Compacta for a change. Those are great fonts by the way, I’m just getting tired of seeing them everywhere and wouldn’t mind some variety. I spent a week looking for whatever font was used in these posters and couldn’t get any solid leads. Even “What the Font” failed me in this. If any of you can find it, please let me know!

Review of The Last Airbender

Well let me begin by saying that I watch the TV series “Avatar the Last Airbender” all the way through and I did so again before seeing this movie, knowing I was going to be writing about it at some point. I’m not going to completely nitpick at everything they didn’t do “quite” right compared to the series, but there were something that just “bothered” me. In the movie the completely mispronounce easy names, like the main character Aang, they keep pronouncing it Ung. I mean how hard is it to sit down and watch the source material. They did this for about 3 of the main characters.

The effects in this movie were great, which was going to be the main draw for a lot of people, however these weren’t as amazing as I thought they would be and the timing of certain this was way off base, so was much of the fight choreography. Anyone who has every seen a sci-fi movie or a martial arts movie will realize this was the first time M. Night Shamylans has ever had to deal with the scale of intense fight scenes and choreography. As a result the fights seem less than what they could have been, and honestly the fight scenes in the cartoon had better fight choreography. Some people would say this is overly critical with me talking about the fight choreography and effects, and who am I to criticize a major film studio and director.

When I see the early work of Ryan Weiber, the most successful film school drop out I know about (Emmy Award Winning Special Effects Compositor at age 25), I realize that effort an innate ability can surpass experience and a ridiculous budget, so I can’t let it go when someone with major resources and training produces something less than spectacular when Ryan was doing work the quality of RVD and RVD2 on a shoe string budget.

What I will say about the Last Airbender that I appreciated was the way they utilized the narrative style of the TV series, and the fact that the mostly stuck to the cannon of the show. The battle with the Northern Water Tribe is the highlight of the whole movie. The performances of most of the actors were well done, though the script they were provided in some cases wasn’t great.

The Controversy

As some of you may have heard there was a huge controversy surrounding the choices in casting in this film, and implications of racism. The funny thing is that this really only applies to the casting of the lead roles, where as otherwise this is one of  the most diverse films produced in years, having an enormous cast of extras from a range of ethnic backgrounds. It is accepted that being the TV series is considered Anime, and given the names, traditions and clothing of the characters that they are Asian. Many people took offense to the idea that the lead roles were given to white actors, mostly unknowns over Asian actors more suited to the roles. A website was even developed as well as the spreading of the twitter trend #racebending . Donte Bosco the voice actor behind the character of Prince Zuko in the series makes his opinion known here.

Here is my opinion… simply the best actor for the role, no matter what. Nobody protested that “Nick Fury is white!” when Samuel L. Jackson took the role in Iron Man, or when Michael Clark Duncan took the role of the legendary King Pin of Crime, in Dare Devil. Granted these were established and well known actors in the role, and that supports the stance of having the right actor for the role no matter what. You always as a creative have to do what is best for the project regardless of how people are going to feel about it.

I think that is what the director and the casting crew “intended” in their decisions. I will however say I believe they dropped the ball, and I find it hard to believe given the performances that there were not better actors, Asian or otherwise to cast in the some of the roles, particularly the role of Aang.

Having seen the Karate Kid reboot this summer I could have picked half a dozen kids who I personally believe would have been better actors and more believable martial artist than the current lead. Again this is just my personal opinion. So while I believe that it was more poor decision making than a racial preference, I can also appreciate how people feel about it, and that the wounds from years of racism in the industry particularly with white actors playing ethnic roles, has not quite healed, and has upset a great number of people. As creative people sometimes we have to take a step back and approach things with more empathy. Clinging to your decisions sometimes isn’t being principled its just being stubborn in the face of a mistake.

Conclusion

Overall the Last Airbender was an enjoyable film, not as epic as the hype surrounding it, but it made want to buy the whole TV series on DVD and the art from the posters has inspired me to try and create this effects to the level that the team at BLT did, so I can honestly say I got what I wanted from the experience. You should see the movie and make your opinion about it known. If you’ve already seen it and you want to agree or disagree with me, feel free to drop me a comment or two!

Melody of SexiDesign.com

Why hello to all you sexy readers out there, my name is Melody Nieves (nee evv ess) and I’m originally from Long Island, NY. I am the flirty and eccentric author to two design and marketing sites, MelodyNieves.com–my personal blog, and SexiDesign, which covers the influence of sex in marketing and design. I consider myself an artist first and foremost, but it was when I joined a financial services company at 18 that I developed my second love for marketing.  I majored in architecture for a year in Philadelphia but moved onto opportunities with that company. From there I would experience really unpredictable and diverse experiences as a young business person.
What made you decide to be a designer and how did you get into this field?

[Forgive me for my long story LOL] Well I started learning about design back when I was 12 years old. There were early blog-like sites back then that teens designed with Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro that I had a fascination for. Since I was always into art I started to learn about web design, but lost computer access about 2 years after. It wouldn’t be until I got to college in 06 that I started messing with PS again. I’ve really just gotten back into design because of my diverse experiences from the last couple of years and decided in the past year that I would take a break and try to pursue life as a digital artist and design blogger.

Tell us about the blog “A Walk In My Shoes” and how that got started?

AWalkInMyShoes.com was the journey of my crazy business life as well as my advice with a real personal touch. Here’s how it really started: When I left college I landed an opportunity to work for a startup financial services company via a video resume I sent to its CEO. I would go on to work as a marketing trainee/coordinator/designer/everything you could possibly think of for that company. Because of my initial interest in the company’s investment products as well as my hard work, I moved on to create my own subsidiary company in partnership with my former boss. Incentivest, Inc. launched in early June 08′ when I was only 19 years old, in pursuit of “Financial Therapy.” AWIMS was originally my blog for Incentivest, in recognition of my “confessions as a young entrepreneur.” However, 6 months after it’s launch, I decided to dissolve Incentivest. I maintained AWIMS as a look into my journey, but now as a digital artist and marketing enthusiast. Most recently I’ve sold the domain for AWIMS, and transferred the site to my new domain of MelodyNieves.com.

You’ve mentioned that you are an entrepreneur, can you tell us about some the success you’ve had, and how you went about it?

I owned my first company at 18 (Incentivest, Inc.) as mentioned previously. Prior to that, my work led to little personal successes like having articles written about the company I worked for as well as my own. When I got into digital art, soon after I won a trip to the Playboy Mansion via a tshirt design contest. I also have a print & tshirt line through zazzle.com. Also, the recent sale of my AWIMS domain is by far the biggest business deal I’ve encountered so far online. But I must say that my biggest success is that I continue to learn from all the good times, battles, and mistakes I’ve made.

Tell us what’s so sexy about SexiDesign.com?

SexiDesign is so (damn) sexy because it is unlike any other design and marketing site around. Here, I have a no holds barred approach to the wide array of topics that I write about. The purpose of the site is to educate its readers on how prevalent sex is in design, and specifically which marketing techniques are utilized to learn from. The site has also become an outlet for beautiful sexy artwork and I can’t wait to really get into the discussion I have in store for it.

It’s funny, SD is actually spawn from originally wanting to write about porn site designs, but thinking how it would be so randomly racy for the AWIMS blog. =P

What would you say has been the greatest difficulty you’ve encountered as a designer?

Dealing with clients can irk me like the next designer. The lack of appreciation for a designer’s work is probably what will make me crossover more into a design blogger and less of a designer.

Can you tell us about any special skills you’ve had to develop outside of design?

Well I love to write so blogging has helped that tons. I have really strong interests in body language, NLP, and anything related. I do believe though that marketing is my calling and I find myself becoming more intuitive to campaigns each day.

What is your favorite piece of artwork that you’ve produced?

My favorite piece is Clouded Vision–the revised digital version. I originally painted it when I was 15, but when I got back into PS I fell in love with digital painting. The revised version was a personal breakthrough of finally beginning to understand all my years of training and trial and error as an artist. I think many artists overly critique their own works like myself, so it was nice to step back and actually admire my own work.

Who are some of your favorite Designers and Artist, and some of your favorite work from them?

I don’t think I have a favorite designer. However, my favorite artist is Frida Kahlo. I grew up learning about her life and artwork, and finally saw her exhibit in Philly. My favorite piece of hers is “Unos Cuantos Piquetitos” (A Few Small Nips). You might think I’m crazy when you see it (lol) but I view it as a look into her disturbed character and a reflection of the hardships she endured throughout her life. Plus she gave meaning and purpose to every component of her art, so I find that fascinating.

How do you feel about the current state of the Design Industry?

I think there is a difference between the design industry as a whole and the online design industry. The online design industry is currently unable to branch off from design unrelated to graphics design, web design, etc. Aside from the list posts many have grown to despise, there aren’t really sites out there to explore the other design industries in depth such as architecture, interior design, product design etc. Eventually those voids will be filled, but it’s a perspective that is lacking, and that’s probably do to the fact that no one can just become a freelance architect overnight via online tutorials. As a result, I think the online design industry is a little stagnant at times.

Have you been effective by the recession at all?

Absolutely. I lost my original business mostly due to my concerns with the recession. I’ve also had to downsize and really take a look into my goals for the future. It’s not so much a big deal to live without some luxuries or gadgets, I just want to make sure that I’m confident in my future decisions.

What advice would you give to designers starting out this year?

If design is what you want to do for your career, don’t start off designing. Seriously. Make an effort to develop your craft and technique first. Design is easy for people to turn to because they think it’s easy–just pick up PS and mess with it a bit. No. It would seriously help yourself, your future clients, as well as the design industry to go out and learn something about it first.

What would you say are the most important skills for a designer to have?

My biggest pet peeve is when people have a poor foundation in the principles of design. You’ll probably see me pointing it out on many tutorial sites, but I know from experience how  enlightening it is to just begin to understand and properly utilize a design principle. So it’s important to get out, off your computer, and take a class. Again, in reference to advice for designers, if it’s something you really want to do you’re going to have to invest some real time and money into understanding design.

How has twitter changed your life?

Twitter has definitely made my site(s) more accessible to different readers. It’s also given me a wonderful avenue to get great feedback from people. Sometimes I wonder if people are nervous to comment on SexiDesign, but I get awesome feedback that helps me understand my potential impact on the blog world. On a side note, I met my boyfriend through twitter as well as some new friends. So it has made even an impact on my personal life.

If you had to do something else with your life, what would it be and why?

Eventually I will be doing something different. Design and art in general will always be a part of my life, but I choose not to remain a designer for long. I grew up introverted so I always wanted a career that would force me to persevere beyond that, and being in the cut throat financial industry helped a lot.  In many ways, I feel like if I stay a designer then I will stay indoors, very introverted. So I want a career in marketing, PR, or some form of motivational speaking.

What are some of your plans for the future?

I definitely plan on embodying the lessons of SexiDesign. I know its potential and I think it’s important for fellow designers to hear a new, even sexy, perspective towards design. I’m sure I’ll own marketing related businesses in the future but as unpredictable as my life has been–I’m just taking it one day at a time. I’m 21 now, so I want to get back to living life and enjoying the little things that really matter.

I’m really excited to have come across some influential people and opportunities, so I can only say for now to follow my journey. And perhaps with my journey I can reward my readers with some guidance and understanding. Thanks bunches for the interview Roberto!