Category: Uncategorized
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Media Generations
When I decided to get my bachelors in Radio-Television-Film, professors were speculating about the mind-boggling array of new channels and the concept of “narrow-casting” with cable TV in contrast to traditional broadcasting. Viewing tastes were starting to become more divided for specialized marketing to niche demographics. Internet was still to come. Even email stayed in…
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Artists, Love Your Left Brain
I believe we all have whole brains. As far as some of us being too logical to be creative or too artsy to manage anything, well, I’m just not buying it. Maybe when you were a kid, you were told you were artistic. Or not, because your sister was or your dad was. You were…
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Rendering Joy
Working as a graphic designer in-house was an interesting change for me after freelancing on a magazine for ten years. I loved being the art department go-to, make-it-happen pioneer when a new product gets the green light for marketing, and it’s time to enthusiastically display it to the world! When the glass manufacturer I worked…
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Politics of Creativity
What is the purpose of art? What does it mean to be creative? I keep dancing around this topic and this week, when divides are deeper that I can remember, I realized something. There are two broad ways for artists to approach our work: With the desire to make something both meaningful and pleasing, that has…
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Why I Love Specs
A new class of visual creator arose alongside user-friendly desktop publishing for consumers. Apps now let you make your own nice layout without a thought to even basic concerns like margin width or type size. Great for writing the letters we used to type on a typewriter, with the ability to add things like color,…
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Meaning of Style
I was confronted with style trouble in high school on the day my punk friends discovered my record collection. Why I had punk friends, I’m not sure. I guess I made one and eventually hung out with his friends too. He had a band (The Suburban Punks – no genre confusion) and I prepped to hear them…
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Meaning of Style 2: Be Practical
This started out as a simple blog about style choices – how we (consciously or not) determine our modes of expression in dress, décor and for me, print design. It has become far more philosophical. Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien. I’m seeing how choosing style relates to my essential mantra from trade school, “Done…
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Finesse on a Budget
Small businesses can’t get away with not looking slick anymore. As Swann shared in ForbesAdVoice, maybe we have Apple and Ikea to thank. All customers now expect good design. But who can spend what design firms command for a great, fresh marketing approach and consistent brand? You can try getting by in the hope that…