Nov. 29 book signing at Atomic Pop

Saw this event in City Paper. It's a great excuse to visit Atomic Pop, and a chance to score an autograph from the cartoonist behind the genius comic The Perry Bible Fellowship.

Sounds to me like a win-win.

Was 'free' on my list?

So this isn't really very design-oriented, but FreeRice.com reminds me of both the favorite word show and tell and the call to action campaign.

Here's how it works: You play the FreeRice vocab game (which is pretty easy) and every time you get a correct answer FreeRice donates 10 grains of rice to help end world hunger. Obviously, they couldn't do that without some major advertising dollars, but it's actually pretty subtle.

Anyway, I thought it was fun (if not a nice distraction.)

So unnecessary

For the unnecessary process show and tell, I brought in the following description from a cheap bottle of red I picked up at Chesapeake Wine Company called Les Petits Perron:

"This wine from South Western France is supple and juicy, with blackberry, blackcurrant and slightly spicy notes. Drink over the next two years, with barbecue, poultry, Italian cuisine, cheese or simply by itself."

So once I uncork it, I have to make 750 ml of wine last two years? I have a hard enough time making it last the night. Oh, well. At least I can eat it with barbecue or enjoy it by itself.

Roto-rooting

As I created illustrations for a recent movie project, I wondered if the illustrations would be an appropriate medium to tell my story. (See an example of the illustrations here, but know the text has been given a much-needed overhaul.) Since the tale is a zombie love story, I felt the simple, humorous illustrations would be appropriate. (Let me know if anyone thinks otherwise ...)

That line of questioning reminded me of rotoscoping. Richard Linklater's films "Waking Life" and "A Scanner Darkly" rely on the specialized animation technique, and the peculiar style it imparts contributes a certain tone to each film. Both films have to do with perceptions of reality, and the blurred edges and wavering images created by rotoscopinig help the viewer question what is real and what is not real in each film.

This type of animation, however, is not always appropriate. I get angry each time Charles Schwab releases a new rotoscoped television commercial. Why, Charles Schwab? Why?

Sure, it looks cool. Maybe someone who would typically leave the room during one of your commercials will take a second look, but what does it contribute to the meaning of your commercial. Let me help you out here: Nothing. No-thing. All it says is that Schwab, like so many companies, is trying desperately to reach the coveted 18-34 year consumer group.

Well, Schwab, I'm one of them, and your commercials annoy me. (Though, I might be a bit of a geek, so I suppose I don't speak for the whole demographic.)

'What's our vector, Victor?'

A recently-forwarded e-mail offered a link to the site Vector Magic. Vector magic is an online tool that converts raster images to vector ones. Pretty flippin' sweet. And handy, too.

I haven't tried vectorizing anything yet, but I did watch the "how to" video, which makes the whole process seem pretty simple.

'zap, zowie, bam, socko, wow, oof, wham, bing'

In "Sin and Syntax", Constance Hale describes the effect and usefulness of onomatopoeia, citing Dr. Seuss as a paradigm of sound word use. She also mentions onomatopoeia's role in comics (which is where the title of this blog post is from--page 230, if you're interested).

Anyway, here's what I think of when I think of onomatopoeia:

WWRBD?

What would Ray Bradbury do?

"My characters write my stories for me. They tell me what they want, then I tell them to go get it, and I follow as they run, working at my typing as they rush to their destiny. Montag, in 'F. 451' wanted to stop burning books. Go stop it! I said. He ran to do just that. I followed, typing. Ahab, in 'Moby Dick,' wanted to chase and kill a whale. He rushed off raving off to do so. Melville followed, writing the novel with a harpoon on the flesh of the damned Whale!" (Busch, Frederick. (1999). Letters to a Fiction Writer. New York and London: W. W. Norton & Company)

Makes it sound easy, hunh?

Let's Go

For the definition show and tell, I brought in my "Let's Go" travel book. True, my 2005 edition is a bit dated, but it could still be considered a dictionary of sorts, defining various elements of travel to Spain and Portugal, including regions and cities (via text and map), cuisine, culture and more. "Let's Go" appeals to a specific audience, skewing younger since the company claims to be the leader in budget travel.

Negligence!

Oops! I know you all spent the weekend staring at my blog clicking refresh in hopes of spotting some mention of last week's show and tell. I'm very badly behaved, however, and forgot to post.

Anyway, I read a quote by Ray Bradbury from "Letters to a Fiction Writer." In that text, Bradbury advises a young writer to chase his characters wherever they want to go. The exercise provides writers a much-needed familiarity with their character, and even though most of that adventure might get cut from the story, the final product contains a greater breadth and coherence than it otherwise might have had. I'll post the actual quote soon ...

Become more color coordinated

I saw a color wheel hanging on a coworker's wall, so of course it inspired me to whine about my complete and utter lack of color theory. We talked for a minute or so before his eyes lit up with one of those eureka moments. "You know what's a good resource?" he said.

"Nope," I said.

Anyway, he sent me here: Behr Paint. The site contains an explore color link, which really is a good resource. It allows users to fine tune a color selection, and coordinate that selection with other colors. Users then identify the selected color as the main color or as an accent, and the tool returns monochromatic, complementary, warm and cool palettes.

Most of you probably realize you can use ALT+Print Screen to capture the image. (Yeah, I use a PC. So what?) Once you do that, you can open it in Photoshop and ID the colors you want. Suh-weet!

I haven't had a real opportunity to explore it yet, but I will.

If anyone else has some good color resources, I'd be very interested to see them.

Dec. 11, 2008 update: The above color wheel is Donald A. Jusko's Real Color Wheel. Apologies for not including a link the first time around!

Other people's crit

Today I got to join a monthly crit hosted by the design team of the Baltimoresun.com. Everyone brought two recent examples of their work, one they liked and one they didn't like.

Even the "lesser" works featured competent design. And they should, since, in most cases, a client paid for that design. What I found interesting, though, were the constraints under which the designers worked. Naturally, I recognized that these constraints existed, however, I'd never really acknowledged their implications.

Quick turn-around times, awkward or unnecessary text, poorly-designed client logos, shoddy client art and mandatory client art frustrated the designers, but each one found ways to integrate the necessary elements harmoniously while remaining true to their intentions. Even the designers whose work was not client-based had restrictions. Obviously, the elements they create need to match the themes throughout the site, so adding too much of a flourish here or opting to use a different type face there could prove fatal in terms of maintaining cohesion throughout the site.

For an example from the crit, check out these Ravens Football Cards. Not only did this particular designer create the image of the card, but she also laid out the text and corresponding functionality.

For me, it was nice (and, admittedly, a little bit terrifying) to have a different set of eyes on my work. Some of the comments paralleled class comments, but I appreciated seeing that professional designers work through through the same process and a lot of the same problems as me.

Isn't there someone I can pay to do that?

For my most recent W&I assignment, I'm illustrating my own characters (or at least making an attempt).

As we're all aware, there are indeed people you can pay to do that sort of thing, and poking around the interweb I found a site called HireAnIllustrator.com.

Beside being out of my price range, purchasing illustrations at this point sort of defeats the whole purpose of grad school. At least for now. What the site does provide, is a great look at monetizing your creative urges. (Sorry, I keep hearing that word at work. Monetizing.)

Anyway, there are a ton of great illustrations on the site, so check it out.

Also, I found this one today, too. Apparently, a site called FecalFace.com hosts weekly contests for its readers. Free Fridayz, it's called, and this one's a collection of user-submitted robots. Enjoy!

(Oh, and Bob, Fecal Face has a jobs database.)