"Hello. I'm ..."
| 4.07.2007
In and among all the typical agency projects (ads, branding, strategy, web design) sometimes comes a cool project that is born more out of impulse, fun and pop-culture, rather than out of corporate standards, strategy or politics. I can't go too much into the details of the client or project but it was a play on the famous "Hi, I'm Mac and I'm a PC" ads. For this project, the "Mac" and "PC" was replaced with a play on client-related content. In any case, one of the key details in pulling off a cover of the Apple commercials is the music. Very simple, playful and highly recognizable. As with any good background music, it's really a placeholder to frame the voiceover dialogue which is what these commercials are all about. I searched for the famous Apple music high and low - You Tube had may amateur spoofs with no good theme music, google returned nothing. Even the studio where we were filming these couldn't find anything. You would think that if you were going to cover these commercials, good, accurate music would go a long way in helping carry your not so good video production. Check out this video cover - not bad content but the music isn't even close.
At the end of the day, I decided to crack open GarageBand and compose the song myself. After an hour, I realized that the original song was probably written in GB to begin with. There are some slight differences but it's pretty darn close. One of the key background instruments is the Marimba which you can only get by purchasing the additional Orchestra series JamPak from Apple. I thought I would post the original GB and MP3 file to make this easier for anyone in the future. Enjoy!
posted at 5:43 PM
|
2 comments
"Contact Us"
| 3.22.2007
I asked Scout if I could contribute a rant to his blog. Since we used to work together and I've done some presentations on Web 2.0, he told me to go for it.
Many corporate sites have addresses, general phone numbers, a generic ‘info’ email address and different email addresses based on what department you might want to contact – usually a very small list. Customer service or support usually has its own link on the site. If the company is public there is usually another link for investor relations. But it seems that the larger the corporation, the more difficult it is to find how to contact a company. I shouldn’t have to know a corporation’s organization structure to figure out how to contact the company.
But many of these web sites are really an internal articulation of their corporate organization structure – how they think about themselves – rather than how their users want to contact them. They either implement their ‘contact us’ pages based on how they would contact themselves or they have no idea how someone would contact them outside of their defined customer channels. The other thought is even more sinister – they don’t want you to contact them.
If you are on an ecommerce site like Amazon – or a community site like myspace or linkedin - trying to find contact information is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Or it is just not there. You can easily find how to track your order, contact customer service or sales support, or find help to use the site. If you want to contact the company, sometimes there is a separate corporate site; in other cases you can find some information in the tiny links at the way bottom of the home page. Many times it just doesn’t exist – because they don’t want you to find them! If you have millions of members like Amazon or Myspace, you probably don’t want them to find you.
Leaving out those companies that want to hide from you, why can’t the ‘contact us’ page have EVERY single way you might want to contact a company? Why send your web users on a scavenger hunt?
I like to send companies suggestions about their products or business operations. I had a recent suggestion for Dell Computer. I have ordered Dell laptops for home use over the years and it has been very easy configuring and ordering over the web. But that’s where the convenience stops. I have to sign for my delivery. I don’t want to have my computer sent to work but I’m not home during the day. UPS and FedEx are not close and aren’t open very much outside of normal business hours. I had this great idea that Dell should set up a relationship with a national chain that didn’t sell computers where you could go and pick up your delivery – (e.g. Borders, Barnes and Noble). So I went to http://www.dell.com/ and clicked on ‘contact us.’ That’s when the frustration began. 
I tried Customer Service – the page assumed I had an outstanding order issue and issue number. The Forums didn’t work for me either. So I finally went to the tiny bottom links, clicked on Dell USA and found the link for “About Dell.” I tried Customer Service – the page assumed I had an outstanding order issue and issue number. The Forums didn’t work for me either. So I finally went to the tiny bottom links, clicked on Dell USA and found the link for “About Dell.” Direct2dell takes you to another site, http://www.direct2dell.com/. Another set of blogs. 
Anyway, in Dell’s defense, I actually got an email from a real person at Dell, the Digital Media Manager of Direct2Dell who said he would pass my suggestion to some of his colleagues in consumer. Well, we’ll see.
But that’s not the point. I don’t believe it would take that much effort to add a paragraph of text with links in the original ‘contact us’ page that could explain the myriad of ways you can communicate with Dell.
****
I have a suggestion for Palm that they will never get. I want a clam-shell Treo. They have a pretty extensive ‘contact us’ site where you can pretty much find all the places you can go on their website. But I don’t think they want my product suggestion because there is no place to submit it.
posted at 9:29 AM
|
3 comments
Va..Va..VIRB!
| 3.17.2007
If you know myspace, Facebook, Flikr, blogger, del.icio.us and YouTube, than you'll instantly get VIRB - a beautifully designed social gathering destination. Far too often, social destinations think they're designers or don't put enough value on really elegant UI. Sometimes they don't have to (example: myspace.com) but it's rare to see a really clean and intuitive site that can house so much information nested in a visually emotive design. There was a quote in the news the other day (thanks JPG) that conventional newspapers are dying on the vein and magazines like Surface are the next generation "newspapers" - a beautifully laid out magazine that I was turned on to by my sister, which covers news, culture, travel, photography, music, lifestyle and art. VIRB is going to remind me a lot of that magazine once the launch some of their other features including writing, comedy, art, etc.
What I liked most about Boston-based VIRB besides a beautiful gray color palette was the 1024 dimensions, rounded corners, custom video and audio controls, typeology and use of widescreen features. If you look relatively closely, you can see some tricks they borrowed from Flickr, YouTube and others. Almost nothing is new in design..it's how you assemble…it doesn't get much better than this.
For all you designers, UIs, IAs, CDs, ACDs, ADs and AHs, you can all be inspired by looking, reading or listening to anything on this site. The type of site that everyone wishes they helped build. Great design meets great content is VIRB. Lets see what happens next.
posted at 7:16 AM
|
0 comments
3 Conferences U should attend
| 2.20.2007
In my experience, Boston doesn't always have the hip events or seminars. Those are usually reserved for NYC or SF or even Texas. I've been yearning to go to a HOW or Print conference for sometime but could never convince my employer to cough up the money. I no longer am all that interested in those types of conferences. I feel like I can get everything I need out of the monthly rags and online. There are, however, 3 great conferences that I think are well worth the money and are coming to Boston.
The first is sponsored by the popular blog site aneventapart.com. This site is the de facto destination for web standards and best practices. This will be the first one ever and has all types of rock stars including Steve Krug, Eric Meyer Jeffrey Zeldman and more. Click here for event details.
The second took place a few months back and is coming again in March. It''s called BarCamp and it's an an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. I'll definitely be at this one.
The third event is a must for me. It's the Second Annual @Issue Business & Design Conference - This is in San Fran but the reason I put it on here is that it's based in Boston (right above Health Works in Copley Square). They put out a quarterly journal highlighting beautiful case studies on how great design directly effects (in a positive way) bottom line. Check out their web site to get on the list.
Let me know if you have any great conferences that we should all know about and see you at one or more of the above.
posted at 8:57 PM
|
3 comments
Labels: diet, info graphics, nutrition, traffic light system
In the spirit of Geranimals
| 1.27.2007
So we're well into the new years and we all have resolutions for something we want to accomplish (or not) going forward. Actually, I don't believe in NYRs. You should do what you want (or need) all times of the year. However, it just so happens that I've been vetting health clubs for a while now and have settled on one. As you health freaks know, diet goes hand in hand with good exercise regiments. So I've started eating healthier - no coke, cookies, processed anything. Only high protein and good fats for my "temple." I've found myself looking at food labels for everything I'm interested in eating including an Altoid Mint (I only had one - Scout's honor). I use to make fun of people who did that and it's with great sentiment that I apologize. The problem with our food labeling system is that it's not easily scannable. Sure, you can check out calories but what about the different types of fat and proteins and vitamins. Most people are not mathematicians and have more questions after looking at a label.
I started researching other nutrition info-graphic paradigms and while nothing on the horizon in this country, the UK has a couple of models that are being hotly debated. The first is called "The Traffic Light System" which uses 3 different colors to let shoppers intuitively (and critics argue, emotively) interpret the health information for a particular product letting you know if the food has small, medium or high amounts of fats, sugars, calories, salt, saturates, etc. The system uses traffic light colors (green for low, amber for medium and red for high) to help you make your choices. The problem with this system (as the food manufacturers state it) is that people will be too quick to make their choice (probably healthier) and the system doesn't let the shopper get passed a color (probably red) in order to really make an informed choice.
The other competing model is called the GDA system. This uses labels that show percentages of sugar, salt, fat and calories in each serving. Proponents of this system say it's more informative and simpler. An example would be cheese which has a high level of saturated fat which under the GDS system (through percentages) shows that a small portion isn't unhealthy. Under the Traffic Light System, it would be colored red. Opponents of this system say that most people don't have the math or inclination to interpret percentages on a daily intake level. They say the Traffic Light System is useful and informative at a glance.
So the debate rages on. Our food labels are by far the hardest to understand which is why so many health and calorie charting sites have cropped up. I'm not usually one for compromise but a mixture of the two would be interesting. As a creative, I'd love to have a shot at designing an info graphic system - maybe one that's more to the point about the end result. Where I work, there is a person who when asked if she wanted some birthday cake, slapped the back of her ass and said "Are you kidding? This is where the cake always goes to on me." Point taken. I had the piece for her (before New years). Maybe something as simple as an icon of a rotten tooth on sweet cereals or a dead fly on fatty snacks...bon appetite.
posted at 4:43 PM
|
0 comments
Pimpin' & Primpin'
| 12.02.2006
I've been teaching web design at Boston University for a couple of years now. Every semester, based on feedback and requests, I make multiple alterations and additions (and some deletions) to the course curriculum. Most recently, I wrote a lecture on getting ready for the real world-sharing some high level thoughts and steps for students to use in getting prepared both mentally and portfolio-wise for an internship, grad school application or first job. Of course, this is just my personal opinion but still valid as I was once in their position. I've attached a PDF of the lecture here. I've also blocked out any real names or companies mentioned during the lecture.
posted at 9:26 AM
|
0 comments
Concepting & Sketching
| 9.26.2006
Between being in the "biz" for several years and teaching at Boston University, I get asked a few of the same creative questions all the time:
1. "Do I sketch concept ideas on paper first or directly into my program of choice?"
2. "How close is the final design to the original concepts?"
3. "What's my gear list?"
I sketch both in a sketch book as well as directly into a program like Illustrator or Photoshop. A lot of it depends on my geography (where I am when I get an idea) as well as how much time I've had to think it out in advance. If I'm in a meeting (where I spend loads of time) or traveling, I'll always keep my sketch book close to me as I get tons of ideas when I least expect it. Conversely, if I've had lots of time to think about a concept in advance and have worked out some of the options in my head, I'll skip the sketch book and go directly into a program, usually PhotoShop for web designs and Illustrator for logos, colors or any other ideas, both online and offline.
Typically, the more experienced a creative talent is, the more they're able to compose in their head while doing other things or multitasking. I remember when i was first starting out, I would dedicate blocks of time to think about and produce a concept or idea. I'd sit down at a desk with my sketch book and start putting down as many ideas that I could think of while going back over them as many times as it took to refine them enough for comping up on a computer. For less experienced creatives starting out, concepting directly into a computer can sometimes work against what would otherwise be a good concept. Instead of thinking about the concept in broad strokes from a strategic perspective, one may get hung up on size, effects, typefaces, color and working out other problems with the software. Alternatively, all this energy could be focused into just concentrating on sketches until you get a few polished ideas that are ready to be turned into pixels. As one gets more senior, you can actually gain some speed by concepting directly into a program however, I still find it easier to make quick changes to very complex problems by sticking to paper and pen (or any other writing instrument that does it for you).
Most of the time, my initial sketches or concepts are pretty darn close to the final chosen designs but there is always a dark horse from time to time. Once again, the more experience you have, the closer you can typically get to what the final design will be during your sketch phase. I took a trip down memory lane when I used a sketch book more often, and included 4 dichotomist examples (sketch & final design) for two identity projects, cd jacket design and an early web site comp (see below).
Finally, I own 4 macs but only two of them are my work horses. I have a PowerPc g5 Dual 1.8 GHz with 2 gigs of ram and an 80 gig HD which over the last two years, has only been restarted/turned off 6 times. It has NEVER crashed (which is unbelieivable) and I use it for everything from design to video to composing music. I have all the major apps and a few secretive cool apps that I've picked up along the way. It's one of the most flawless Macs I've ever owned...I might be selling it soon for an upgrade to the new technology. I also use a MacBook Pro. I had one of the first generation Pentium Dual processors and it was quirky as hell. I have a newer one (3rd generation) and it's like a Ferrari with a screen...Love it. It has all the same apps as my tower (even the undisclosed ones). Probably the most sophisticated and coolest thing about my setup is that every morning (1:00 AM), all my computers sync wirelessly and back up to an external hard drive. Then at 2:00 AM, that external hard drive mirrors itself with another hard drive. I could loose both computers as well as one hard drive and still be back in business in a couple of hours...this took many months to get working right.
posted at 8:08 PM
|
1 comments
|
Hoverblog Archives August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 September 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 Latest Links Myallo - Uses an “interest profile” to find the most interesting Web pages on the Internet, and can actually learn over time. Acquisition - Probably the slickest P2P file sharing application on the web. Beautiful and intuitive OSX-like interface. iPod Music Liberator-Great little shareware for copying music directly from your ipod into ITunes and your finder...No Stealing Bad Music! MusicPublisher - For those of us who are not content just sharing the songs within ITunes, this little app lets you also share any iPod you have docked to your computer as well.
Some Favorite Sites Stuff I Want Contact Hoverblog is |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
