A Simpler Page: designing for tablets.

Create your own generative art with Silk.

Twitter’s response to WikiLeaks subpoena should be the industry standard.

Social networks create their own regional dialects.

The mysteries of kisses.

Musical chills related to brain dopamine release.

How to pick the perfect brand name.

FujiFilm FinePix X100 looks very future-retro

Home-Schooling for the Techno-Literate by Kevin Kelly

Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood on the Changing Digital Landscape.

Spanish Designer Demonstrates Spray-On Clothing (video)

Everything is a Remix, Part 1 (video)

Metropolis restored and reconstructed (video)

The Big Bang Was an Explosion OF Space, Not IN Space.

New Reverse Vending Machine Pays You to Recycle,

Interview with David Toop, one of our favorite music writers.

The iPad, the Kindle, and the future of books.

Why Funnel Marketing Doesn’t Work.

Uncommon Act of Design: The Secret of Getting Kids to Eat Veggies? Move the Salad Bar.

Guerrilla gardeners use candy machines to sell seed bombs.

The Progress of the Platform.

Flaunt: Designing effective, compelling and memorable portfolios of creative work. Buy the book or PDF.

The doormat, the jerk and the lizard brain.

Livid Instruments’ new Builder is a line of DIY parts that make it easy for users to design their own USB MIDI control surfaces and devices using buttons, knobs, faders, and talkback LEDs.

Shifting Identities: From Consumer to Networked Creator.

NOBY NOBY BOY for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, from the creator of Katamari Damacy.

The Vitesse D7HG is for those who are looking for a great bike for urban commuting at a good value.

Research says users will pay for content online, with a few catches.

Nanoloop For The iPhone.

A new year brings a bounty of hope—for new attitudes, new projects, new directions. In the past year, my intentions were to play more live shows and focus on finishing select tracks to my satisfaction. Mission accomplished.

Rather than make predictions or resolutions, here are some of the things on my plate and/or on the horizon for the year ahead (not all related to this site, FWIW): taking delivery of a blinky, new monome grayscale 64; composing generative pieces using Nodal, Ableton Suite 8 and Max for Live; finishing up a new EP for commercial release; posting more free podcast mixes; turning my generative sketches into fully interactive works; selling original prints and artwork; reading J.G. Ballard‘s complete works and making a dent in my reading list; devoting more time to my Geometry Studio, Sympathy for the Robots and The Silent Stars projects; developing some ideas into a viable, sustainable business; brewing some homemade beer; eating fresh, local cuisine; staying more plugged in and chilled out. Opa!

Hiroshima: The Lost Photographs

A short manifesto on the future of attention.

The mystery of Times New Roma.

Finalists for the 2009 James Dyson Award.

Lessons from slime mold: how to survive and thrive in ever-changing organizational environments.

Top twenty finalists of ReBurbia, a suburban design competition.

Growing ideas in the garden of innovation.

Photos of the last suppers of inmates on death row in the USA.

The Font-as-Service.

Bruce Handy on Mad Men.

Archaeologists are slowly unearthing the ghastly secrets of Cahokia, an ancient city under the American heartland.

5 Reasons your marketing plan will fail.

New editions of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series let you create your own cover art.

An investigation by The Smoking Gun unmasks the leader of Pranknet and the miscreants behind a year-long wave of phone call criminality.

Nathan Shredoff has released a series of free syllabi and teaching materials to help instructors teach students key topics for the future.

Learn logo design from top brands.

Taking Steps toward zero waste.

Olympus announces LS-11, a compact digital audio recorder.

Peruse pics from the First 100 Days in the Official White House Flickr Photostream.

25 years of logos from Duffy & Partners, one of our favorite agencies.

Rickshaw Bagworks’ Large Zero Messenger is cut and sewn from only four rectangles of fabric for zero manufacturing material waste.

Song of the Vine, an illustrated history of wine.

Skip Hulu Commercials with this nifty Greasemonkey script.

Five Ways To Market Yourself During A Recession.

jQuery Style is a resource for all things jQuery.

The history and cover art of science fiction published by Penguin Books from 1935 to 1977.

Field is an open source framework that combines code and visual views for creating dynamic media arts.

NYT food writer Mark Bitman maintains a vegan diet during the day, but says anything goes after 6 p.m.

One of our favorite sketch comedy shows, The State, is finally coming to DVD.

This Belkin surge protector is a great idea for turning off your electronics when they’re inactive.

Check out this Flickr set of vintage beer cans.

Amazing concept artwork from Andree Wallin (despite the huge, annoying site header).

The Teenage Engineering OP-1 is so cool we want one even though we don’t know what it does.

Ari Versluis and Ellie Uyttenbroek have spent the last 15 years studying the dress codes of social groups and published a book and website featuring their photographs and findings, called Exactitudes.

’241543903′ is the tag for photos of people putting their head in a freezer.

MTV Cherry Girl is an impulsive character, who finds that her actions, which are seemingly self-indulgent, can have a positive effect on the people and environment around her.

Broadcast at Pratt Manhattan Gallery presents a selection of works, dating from the 1960s to the present, that interrupt broadcasting systems in order to examine or challenge the structure, influence, and power of mainstream television and radio.

Cut-up and pasted-together photos of locations in New York depict unseen herds.

J.G. Ballard proves you should live a bit before writing.

Dork Yearbook features pictures from yesteryear of geeks and the computers they love.

The Society for Environmental Graphic Design (SEGD) is a global community of people working at the intersection of communication design and the built environment.

Frog Design envisions a smart, multi-function ID card.

We know more about outer space than the planet beneath our feet, but an ambitious plan to scan deep beneath the US will change all that.

Communicate the benefit of the benefit, ie. the emotional well-being the product or service provides.

Be a Music Geek Ninja with Electronic Music Programming in Pd. We heart Pd, because it’s open source—though perpetually on our To Learn list.

Wacom Intros New DJ Touch-Sensitive Nextbeat Consoles: looks sweet.

Tea Cup Stool: want.

Computer security expert Bruce Schneier gives his vision of the challenges facing society because of technology.

Old Growth Media And The Future Of News, by Steven Johnson, author of The Invention of Air and Everything Bad is Good for You.

How to Switch from Personal to Business Branding, because you know, you might want to take a day off or sell your company and retire some day.

As Marketing Specialist, I am responsible for promoting Indiana Tech to current and future students, alumni and the general public through various media channels, including advertising, printed marketing materials, direct mail and online content. This includes managing the overall ‘brand identity’ of Indiana Tech through art and photo direction, copywriting, the use of layout, color palette, typography and other elements of visual communication.

I work with the Director of Marketing, another designer and the webmaster, as well as directly with various VPs, department heads and staff. My main focus is on designing materials for the College of Professional studies (CPS), our accelerated program for non-traditional students, as well as the Offices of Institutional Advancement (IA) & Alumni Relations.

For CPS, I develop and produce materials for the communications plan to target future students; the annual course catalog and bi-annual schedule books; brochures and info sheets for the various degree programs and special events; displays, promotional items and so on.

For IA, I have designed the annual President’s report; numerous invitations, posters and postcards for regular alumni events such as the wine and beer tastings. I also contribute articles and layouts for our quarterly Trends magazine, take photographs of campus activities and special events, and so on.

For the university website, I am currently focused on redesigning the site structure, information architecture and navigation design.

2. What problems do you as an Individual face with your job?

I strive for strategic design, which is driven by business objectives and metrics for success (whenever possible). Sometimes, the strategy for a project isn’t clear—or at least communicated—so it can take a bit of digging to determine what the outcomes and best deliverable needs to be. Other times, I’m not included in the initial discussion but called-in afterwards to produce something, when my being engaged earlier might lead to a different or better solution. Other projects come up with short notice, requiring a quick turnaround without the necessary planning and discussion.

A bigger challenge for most contemporary designers is that while more people have access to digital tools to do their own desktop publishing, they often don’t understand the complexities of visual communication, advertising and marketing strategy, professional printing and web design. They often think just in terms of what they themselves can do—with Word or PowerPoint and their laser printer, for example—rather than with the proper design software and the capabilities of a commercial printer. This requires being a ‘brand steward’ and sometimes having to manage projects created by others that might not be of the same quality as other university materials or mesh visually or conceptually with the ‘bigger picture’.

3. Why did you choose this field and would you choose it again?

In college, I attended art school and earned a BFA with a double major in painting and computer graphics. I sought work as a graphic designer, because I have always had a strong interest in the various elements of communication, both in print and on the screen. I worked for 4.5 years in advertising at a newspaper and 6.5 at a design and marketing agency before joining Indiana Tech, now for 1.5 years. Along the way, I have picked up knowledge, skills and experience in marketing campaigns, print and web production and public relations.

For me, design and marketing is about communication; connecting an organization with its audience and aiding in the exchange of information and services. Put simply, I help people find their voice and tell their stories using the best tools. Given these things, I would choose it again.

4. In what ways do you market our University?

The overall brand identity for CPS is meant to be clean, contemporary, focused and relevant. Photos show adult students in classroom and work environments, either actively working or facing the camera to show professionalism, confidence and optimism. The use of space, color palette, typography, ink and paper and other elements are all meant to convey simplicity and openness. The intention is to differentiate Indiana Tech from other universities and position CPS as practical, accessible and innovative.

• We have a communications plan ‘funnel’ for future students that includes weekly emails, phone calls and printed brochures which feature our academic choices, the convenience and flexibility of our program and address overcoming the challenges of earning a degree (cost, age, scheduling).
• For corporate contacts, we produce a brochure, posters with tear-off BRM cards and short-run fliers and postcards to promote info sessions and ‘lunch-and-learn’ meetings.
• For events such as education fairs, we have prominent standup floor displays and table runners.
• For current students, we produce degree-specific info sheets and brochures, annual course catalogs and bi-annual schedule books.
• For new degree programs, we produce an info sheet and brochure, posters, newspaper ads and inserts, magazine and web ads.
• For new locations, we produce info fliers, newspaper ads and inserts, magazine and web ads.
• For online advertising, we run banner ads on local websites and Google AdWords for key search phrases.
• For lead generation, we have an agency which collects and tracks online leads and custom phone numbers.
• For electronic media, we have an agency that handles creative production and media buying for TV and radio and some newspaper and magazine ads.

5. What means of marketing do you prefer? What works?

I prefer cross media campaigns, which combine multiple channels with a coordinated message, e.g. direct mail, newspaper inserts and online ads, all with a consistent look and shared message. Print has a large capacity to convey info, but competing for a person’s attention can be difficult. Differentiation is key to standing out; in their pile of mail or weekly newspaper inserts, on TV or the radio, signs on the road or bulletin board at work. Ads in newspapers, magazines and online are easy to ignore unless they’re placed where people are actively looking for such info already. Ultimately people have to be receptive to attending college and earning their degree, so part of the task is to provide the key info they’re looking for and overcome the reasons for not taking the next step. Everything I produce contains that action prompt to take the next step.

Find your passion

• people work with you because of you
• passion is magnetic
• make sure your passion is transparent

Create buzz

• develop a position (differentiated)
• have the confidence to promote and market yourself
• people like parties

Plant Seeds

• nobody throws out books
• red envelopes: 10″x13″, stand out in the mail
• promotion is a great way to plant seeds
• be clever in how you promote: make a deficit a positive
• leverage projects and people to reach the next level

Making connections

• strategic partnerships with someone who knows how to do it; can open doors
• overflow from other firms with projects that aren’t big enough for them or they’re too busy for
• co-promotion opportunities to pay for it, e.g. the PUNC’T poster project: raised money, everyone benefited
• do web audits as a ‘value add’ when meeting with a prospective client

Client focus

• speak their language
• listen
• work harder to earn their business

Learn from your mistakes

• debrief after each success and failure
• know your audience
• say ‘no’ to projects that aren’t a good fit

Never be complacent

• know what others are doing
• market when times are good and bad (constantly build your pipeline)
• be selective of the work you take on
• be willing to embrace change

1. If I wanted to give away my email and personal info in exchange for a discount, I’d order from Amazon.com, where the discounts are often better, the selection is far greater and I get something in exchange for the diminished privacy (e.g. reviews and recommendations). Plus, my order can be delivered wherever I want it to go.
2. I’m in their store because I want the experience of browsing, discovering and perhaps even reading excerpts of actual books. Or, I’m looking for a gift I need right at that moment. And, I’m willing to pay a bit more for not being hassled while I take my time or when I’m ready to leave.
3. I don’t want anything else crammed in my wallet, thank you.

These big boxes shouldn’t be trying to compete with Amazon on price or selection but rather on delivering excellent customer service and an enjoyable retail experience—both of which they’re failing at because they’re hawking their member discount card when I just want to pay and leave. The last time I was at  Borders, the cashier actually said “Gheez, people suck. No one wants to sign up for these today.” I replied, “No, we don’t ‘suck.’ We just don’t want the effing card.”

• Thinking with Type: A Critical Guide for Designers, Writers, Editors, & Students by Ellen Lupton
• 20Th-Century Type Remix by Lewis Blackwell
• Typology: Type Design from the Victorian Era to the Digital Age by Steven Heller, Louise Fili
• Type: The Secret History of Letters by Simon Loxley
• A Tally of Types by Stanley Morison, Brooke Crutchley
• Typographic Design: Form and Communication by Rob Carter, Ben Day, Philip B. Meggs
• Digital Type Design Guide: The Page Designer’s Guide to Working With Type by Sean Cavanaugh, Ken Oyer
• FontBook: Digital Typeface Compendium by FontShop