Word it, Speak Up

For our next project we are going to go back to the beginning when you were all encouraged to participate in the "Speak Up" sites Word it projects. So your project is to do the October Word it. I think the word is READY. Again, you don't have to submit it to Speak Up but you can. But make sure you follow their rules and give me a hard copy before next Wednesday.
Be Creative.

Ideas for painting the walls

I've been thinking about a creative way to paint our walls for some time now but I don't want anything that's too distracting. Something similar to these samples from an art gallery is kind of what I've been thinking about. I also like walls that are painted to look like Japanese screens with shadows on the other side showing through...

John Stossel and a 20/20 report on Graphic Design

A great report on Graphic Design by John Stossel pointing out some of the major mistakes you see today in graphic design.

Great Blog from Roger Black

I stumbled across this blog over the weekend by Roger Black. It focuses on design and newspapers mostly. I really like the look of the blog which reads similar to a magazine and if you can't stand the reversed type on the red background he even supplies a "simplify" but that changes the page to something a bit more readable.

Irregular ad sizes

Here is an post on NewsDesigner.com about "L" shaped ads turning upside down and breaking the traditional rule of having advertising above news content.

Newspaper Websites

Brad Robertson links to two great post on how the New York Times is making great strides in the web development and a list of 9 ways to improve your newspapers website.

I sure would love to see the Des Moines Register make some of these changes soon.

Chairs

chairs
Originally uploaded by waxpixel proprietor.

I was struck by the colors of these chairs stacked in the break room. So I grabbed the camera and snapped this pic.

Whiteboard Doodle

whiteboard
Originally uploaded by waxpixel proprietor.

On Katie's last day with us she suggested the I take a photo of our whiteboard to post on our Blog. So here it is. If you stare at it too long you will start to question the sobriety of the person/persons who drew it. The board is erased at the beginning of each month giving a place for people to doodle. This helps keep them from writting on the walls with crayons.

Website Spotlight.

Thanks to Cari for pointing out this nice little flash site from catalyst studios in Minneapolis.
And speaking of flash sites. Check out this fantastic site for BeBop clothing. That had to take some time.

Job Interviews

Our last project didn't get posted because it dealt with reviewing resumes. Mainly resumes that were so bad they could not possibly get an interview anywhere because of them. The highest number of mistakes, poor choices, bad design, etc. totaled over 30.
The biggest question is why do so many Graphic Design candidates create their resume in Microsoft Word with Times New Roman. If you cannot design and brand for yourself for something as important as getting a job, how can you design effectively for someone else?
Two recent posts by Seth Godin talk about interviews "the end of interviews" and "the juggler". With two open positions I have been conducting many lately interviews lately and I found these posts very enlightening.

Newspaper need to think small.

Small Should Be 'The New Big' for Newspapers and the Web
Newspapers should think small because of the nature of the Internet, and because the Internet is critical to the future of newspapers. They still need to better adapt to doing business in an environment where the next generation of readers/customers chooses to interact with them in the online medium.

By Steve Outing