What I Learned Today

Girl Scout Cookie Time!

2012-01-16T18:09:00.000-06:00

Deb Satterfield's daughter is selling the cookies for her troop. Payment is due at time of delivery... which is immediate! She has them in stock. They will be at the College of Design, and I can arrange a time to meet with you.All cookies are $3.50 per box

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Barthes "Rhetoric of the Image"

2011-12-21T10:12:00.003-06:00

My last blog post mentioned Roland Barthes' 1977 article, "Rhetoric of the Image." I wanted to give you the lowdown on his main ideas that are still extremely relevant today. I would argue they are even more relevant with our digital revolution and designers creating many different types of advertising.

Barthes' argument surrounds how meaning gets into images, particularly in advertising. For his argument, he analyzes the messages that an ad may contain and looks at a specific example of a Panzani ad. Advertising images are intentional. He states that the signifieds of the message must be communicated clearly and often they are expressed emphatically. In his analysis, he separates the linguistic message into denotational and connotational and further separates it from the image altogether. Hence, he presents three messages for the analyzed ad; the linguistic message, a coded iconic message and a non-coded iconic message.

Image retrieved from http://teaching.zachwhalen.net/comics/content/panzani-ad

Barthes did a fantastic job of breaking down the Panzani ad into its separate meanings. I never thought that an image could be deconstructed into so many varied meanings and messages. The title of the article is perfectly matched to the content of the article. Rhetoric is a term that I continually struggle with to fully understand its meaning. However, the way Barthes uses it, makes the concept make sense in how advertising images are rhetoric. He has inspired me to deconstruct my own design work (particularly ads) and the work of others.

Wired Magazine's Design Boost and Graffiti Art Cover

2011-12-20T22:56:00.000-06:00

Wired Magazine has acquired a new design, replete with graffiti art by Pilgrim on the cover. The cover design to the January 2012 issue is quite a departure from the other mags on the rack. The use of negative space is quite nicely balanced to create overall unity. However, the ads inside the magazine really create an oxymoron to the #riot ideology. Between the full page ads for luxury cars, liquor, designer watches and computers, is a poignant article about social media propelling recent political riots. If I buy a bottle of The Glenlivet and a Range Rover, would I be contributing to the hashtag riots? There's several connotated meanings here between the ads. Just as my old pal Roland Barthes covered in his article "Rhetoric of the Image." What are these ads really saying?

Two Articles on Culture Jamming

2011-12-09T09:36:00.003-06:00

Image retrieved from Adbusters

Article 1

Jennifer Sandlin and Jennifer Milam, “Mixing Pop (Culture) and Politics: Cultural Resistance, Culture Jamming, and Anti-Consumption Activism as Critical Public Pedagogy”

Summary:// Sandlin and Milam analyze how and why culture jamming activists enact what they call critical public pedagogy. Although they borrow the concept of critical pedagogy from Ellsworth, they apply it specifically to culture jamming. They study two examples of jammers, Adbusters and Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, as means of resistingconsumerism. They argue that culture jamming operates as critical public pedagogy, by (1) fostering participatory, resistant cultural production; (2) engaging learners corporeally; (3) creates a (poetic) community politic; and (4) opens transitional spaces through détournement.

Image retrieved from http://www.revbilly.com/

Article 2

Morgan Andrews, “When Magic Confronts Authority: The Rise of Protest Puppetry in N. America.”

Summary:// Andrews presents his article to focus on the modern, radical “protest puppetry” that began in North America as a form of dissent to end the Vietnam war as introduced by the Bread & Puppet Theater. He explains that protest puppetry is any kind of puppet theater that makes fun of authority. He also explains what a puppetista is and a puppeteer. A puppetista is an artist-activist, while a puppeteer is not necessarily an activist; both make puppets.

Image retrieved from http://www.puppetista.org/performances.html

Image retrieved from http://www.puppetista.org/performances.html

Reflection:// The Jennifers present a good analysis of culture jamming through the work of Adbusters and Reverend Billy. I have been a long-time reader/viewer of Adbusters and appreciate its stance on subverting mainstream ads and the corporations behind them. Since much of its content is derived from its readers, often it seems obscure and sometimes I just don’t get the point of a particular piece. Other times, the copy and images are right on and I understand at least to a certain extent. The Media has portrayed the protesters as trouble-makers and not having a stated purpose. Andrews talks about the Media portrayal of the puppetistas protest of the RNC. A Fox News reporter accused those protesters of not having a clear message either.

Margaret Olin, “The Gaze” (2003)

2011-12-06T19:27:00.003-06:00

Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walker_Evans

Evans's photo of Allie Mae Burroughs, a symbol of the Great Depression

Olin presents different theories of the gaze by Mulvey, Fried, Freud, Sartre and Lacan. She discusses power in the gaze in relation to these theories, such as Freud’s castration anxiety and scopophilia. She also defines “gaze” as useful for uniting formal and social theory. As a concrete example of this definition, Olin presents us with a photograph of “Sharecropper’s Wife” by Walker Evans in which she discusses the need for someone to gaze and the possibility of someone to gaze back. This, as well as the theories she presents, has to do with the consequence of looking.

When I flipped through this article the first time, I was struck by the photograph of the woman. She looks so unhappy, hardened by years on the farm. I knew that she was a farmer of some sort, but then I looked at the title and realized that she farmed someone else’s land. She was named in relation to her husband in this title, perhaps as a statement of the under appreciation of women or more likely, just the praise of ordinary men who are not famous.

Michel Foucault, “Panopticism” (1977)

2011-12-05T09:16:00.002-06:00

Image retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon

Panopticon blueprint by Jeremy Bentham, 1791

Foucault presents a social theory surrounding Bentham’s Panopticon building with spatial unities that create an environment for those in power to see their subjects. However, their subjects cannot see those in power at any time, and do not know when they are being gazed at. The not knowing when one is being looked at would then result in the subjects self-monitoring themselves for behavioral change. Foucault’s idea of Panopticism is then an exercise of power in institutional settings.

Yikes! It is scary being watched and not knowing who is looking and when. Perhaps this was George W’s idea for the Patriot Act? It’s working George… we are a society in fear of being watched and heard and we don’t know who is doing the watching and listening. At first, I was puzzled as to why Foucault started with the plague and spent so much time on that first section. However, it was made clear when he finally got around to the Panopticon and I realized that he is very gifted in his prose.

Naomi Wolf, “The Beauty Myth” (1991)

2011-12-04T13:50:00.002-06:00

http://www.amazon.com/Beauty-Myth-Images-Against-Women/dp/0385423977

Wolf argues that the “beauty myth” uses images of female beauty as a political weapon against women’s advancement; a backlash against feminism. This myth is used to force male domination by sidetracking women into seeing themselves in competition with other women for beauty. While the first wave feminists combated domesticity, and earned rights, Wolf presents a binary system for every victory won.

Amen, sister! I have read other works by Wolf and really enjoy her writing style as well as the content. She so eloquently frames her argument in presenting the binary cause and effects of feminism. When she mentioned that the economy is supported and substantiated by women being paid less, my mouth dropped. I had never considered this angle to the inequality in pay.

Edmund Leach, “Michelangelo’s Genesis: A Structuralist Interpretation of the Central Panels of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling”

2011-12-03T17:14:00.003-06:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel_ceiling

Leach’s main hypothesis is that the Sistine Chapel ceiling paintings by Michelangelo contain references to both Old and New Testaments, depending on the order in which they are read. He looks at the panels as a whole and then analyzes them by a logical order that he presents as a structuralist interpretation. He strengthens his argument by analyzing different depictions of people as representative of one person, such as the Virgin Mary being depicted as Judith, Eve and others.

Kotex and cats

2011-12-02T19:58:00.003-06:00

I learned of this commercial from a colleague of mine. We were discussing culture jamming in my Thursday night seminar, and this came up as an example of a company that is jamming themselves in essence.

Arjun Appadurai, Theory, Culture & Society: Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy (1990)

2011-11-28T07:45:00.003-06:00

Image retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arjun_Appadurai

Appadurai proposes a framework of five dimensions of global, cultural flow that because of the complexity of current global economy that has to do with certain fundamental disjunctures between economy, culture and politics. He sets the basis for a tentative formulation about the conditions under which current global flows occur. They occur in and through the growing disjunctures between ethnoscapes. This formulation is the core of his model of global cultural flow and are comprised of five –scapes: 1) ethnoscapes; 2) mediascapes; 3) technoscapes; 4) finanscapes; 5) ideoscapes

Appadurai sure uses the word disjunctures a lot in his article. Since it means disunion and separation, it is well justified to use it as the main descriptor for his theory. His five dimensions are described in detail with the suffix of –scapes. I think this is an apt use of the suffix and really helped to put his argument into context for me. He also talks of gray routes and gray markets. I found this really interesting and in contrast to my negative view of black markets. He makes it seem a bit more acceptable in his –scapes to have these routes and markets. Perhaps he is allowing some justification or explanation of why they exist and hesitates to give them the full label of black market or black routes.

Naomi Klein, “The Triumph of Identity Marketing,” (2000)

2011-11-23T09:36:00.003-06:00

Image retrieved from http://www.naomiklein.org/

Klein argues that the seemingly radical movements that occurred on college campuses in the 1990s were only related to representation. Women, gays, and minorities all wanted to see mirror images of themselves in the Media. She states that this movement of identity politics only helped to propel marketers to seek “diversity” as their main selling tool to new niches as identity marketing. This movement of identity politics ignored issues of class as this was an economical shift, rather than a political one.

Reflection:// I love me some Naomi Klein! She is able to articulate many of the thoughts and ideas that are swimming around in my brain. Readings such as this are exactly why I enjoy graduate school so much. I was an undergrad student in the early nineties and saw first hand many of these identity politics around campus at the University of Missouri-Columbia. There were “coming out” days staged for gays to walk out of a large, purple closet right smack in the middle of campus between the library and McDonald’s. Had I been looking more critically at this form of dissent and liberation, I might have questioned the presence of the corporation on campus more. All the major credit card companies were throwing us slinkys and t-shirts to entice us to spend more. I signed up for five credit cards, got a slinky and 4 shirts to help them advertise even further to my peers and promptly maxed them all out within two years. The food corporations (McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Burger King, Pizza Hut and Chick-Fil-A) were also throwing us fast-food. My diet of cheesy sticks, breakfast croissants and fried chicken sandwiches must have done wonders for my cholesterol levels, as well as fed my brain for rigorous rounds of all-nighters. When I graduated, I was not only 30 pounds heavier than when I started college, I was deep in credit card debt ($10,000 racked up at bars, spring break trips and late night Denny’s runs) as well as $20,000 in student loans. It has taken me 15 years to rid myself of this debt. However, my undergrad loans are still not fully paid off and are deferred while I am in grad school. Ultimately, I will come out of school with even more student loan debt… but my happiness and sanity is well worth the $800 per month payments I will endure for the next 25 years.

Question://

1. Is all advertising bad? How can we be conscious of culture and values in relation to class in advertising?

Karl Marx, “The Fetishism of the Commodity and its Secret” (1867), excerpt from Capital, Vol. 1

2011-11-22T16:47:00.002-06:00

Image retrieved from http://www.amazon.com/Capital-Critique-Political-Economy-Classics/dp/0140445684/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322002263&sr=8-1

Image retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx

Marx argues that commodities are the key distinguishing feature of the capitalist economy. In a capitalist society, production has mastery over people, rather than the other way around. Economists forget the source of the value of commodities, which is human labor. They fail to see that only capitalist production treats goods in a this way and doesn’t take into account the real social relations. He also states that religion merely reflects the real world.

Marx and I have a love/hate relationship. Well, since he’s dead, it’s a very one-sided relationship at this point. However, he does communicate through his writings to me, so I will continue in this vain. I always struggle with what he is really saying. I think that it is mostly to do with the time period in which he was writing, as well as reading translated text. I think I understand his thesis, but it seems like I am reading in medias res. Perhaps it’s because this is a chapter of a larger book, as well as a larger argument. With that being said, I think I understand most of his argument. Whether I was able to provide a convincing summary remains to be seen. It’s difficult for me to look critically inside this issue having grown up surrounded by commodities. I still have a materialistic life as compared to the rest of the world that are in desolate poverty. I get pissed when my Internet goes down… I should be more pissed that I am not doing as much as I could to combat homelessness and the rising divisions of class world wide. These views, thoughts and contemplations make me feel like a stellar example of the WASP stereotype. Awesome.

Adobe Muse: Creating Content for DPS

2011-11-21T18:42:00.002-06:00

Yep, so it's official... designers do not have to code. Is this a good thing? I think that designers should know the language well enough to communicate with programmers, but I don't think that we all need to learn how to code. We all have our areas of specialization. Designers should be learning the basics of HTML5 and CSS with perhaps a dash of MySQL, JQuery, Java, PHP for good measure. However, learning the basics well enough to communicate and becoming a world-class programmer are two very different things.

Impact of Health Communication Strategies on Dietary Behaviors

2011-11-13T19:29:00.004-06:00

I am participating in ground-breaking research at Iowa State University (as part of the Design Information Research Group), to test the role of design factors on snack packages that determine children's decision-making. The study is a collaborative research effort being conducted by the Design Information Research Group (DIRG) and the Nutrition and Wellness Research Center (NWRC). The NWRC recently awarded DIRG a $5,000 grant incentive for the collaborative proposal.

“Childhood obesity is a growing problem in this country. Helping children choose a healthier snack is something that they need to learn at an early age. What they learn now about food will carry with them through adulthood,” says Debra Satterfield, Director of Graphic Design at Iowa State University. Satterfield, along with Sunghyun Kang, Associate Professor of Graphic Design at ISU, co-founded DIRG in 2003.

The team will research the verbal messages on snack food packaging in terms of typography, color, visual style and impact of brand and health messaging. Satterfield says, “There are many programs targeted to children about health and healthy eating, but there is little research about how the package design can effect a child’s choice of snack food. This research will determine what visual factors on the package will aid a child’s decision for choosing a healthy snack and hopefully instigate a system-wide change. The ultimate benefit of doing this research is giving policy makers quantitative and qualitative data to combat childhood obesity.”

This pilot project is to develop a methodology for designing packages that effectively communicate healthy snack food messages that influence the selection process for children ages 9-13.

Interaction Design :// Creating a dialogue between person, product, system, or service

2011-08-14T00:23:00.002-05:00

Originally Posted on August 12, 2011 at http://isuhciuxlab.com/UX/?page_id=68

Visualize sitting at your desk, whether at home or an external office, and count the digital artifacts laying around. I have no less than 10 at any one time on my desk, and more like 15 when I empty the pockets of my cargo pants. These artifacts, commonly referred to as devices or gadgets, are comprised of my laptop and touch devices (whose names rhyme with the word “grapple”) cell phone, monitor, printers, backup devices and the graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that each of these uses.

GUIs create an important distinction between the industrial design of the physical artifact and interaction design. Interaction design takes into consideration a designed artifact and the behavior of the person using the artifact (Fallman 2008). “Interaction design begins with the needs and desires from the people that will use a product, and depends on both subjective and qualitative values” (Moggridge 2006). Going further, design research needs to be conducted with users within their real environments to measure the entire user experience. This experience includes the social, cultural, and emotional qualities of using the artifact. While no one definition of interaction design is commonly accepted, nor one theoretical framework, “… its ultimate objective is to create new and change existing interactive systems for the better” (Fallman 2008).

Interactive systems are comprised of both the physicality of the object and its visual language spoken through the GUI. Language gives us knowledge (Winsor 2004). Winsor (2004) states, “Knowledge is not found ready-made in nature. Instead, knowledge is constructed in the interplay between nature and the symbol systems we use to structure and interpret it.” In other words, symbol systems compose language, and knowledge is created from our interpretation of language. Uniquely, visual language contains both text and images that mediate knowledge to the audience from the designer. The designer then constructs the visual language used within an interactive system, subsequently referred to as interaction design.

There is some confusion, however, as to whether GUIs are categorized as interaction design or interactive design. Jon Kolko (2011) says, “Interaction Design isn’t necessarily the creation of websites or applications. It isn’t necessarily multimedia design or graphical user interface (GUI) design, and it doesn’t even have to have a primary focus on advanced technology, although technology of some kind usually plays a significant role…Interaction Design is the creation of a dialogue between a person and a product, system, or service.”

References:
Fallman, D. (2008). “The interaction design research triangle of design practice, design studies, and design exploration.” Design Issues 24(3): 4-18.

Kolko, J. (2011). Thoughts on Interaction Design: A Collection of Reflections Written by Jon Kolko. Burlington, Morgan Kaufmann.

Moggridge, B. (2006). Designing interactions. Cambridge, MIT Press.

Winsor, D. A. (2004). Engineering Writing/Writing Engineering. Central Works in Technical Communication. J. Johnson-Eilola and S. A. Selber. New York, Oxford University Press: 341-350.

What up g?

2011-05-14T12:15:00.003-05:00

I drive by this sign for the Buffet Mongolian a few times per week on my way to campus at Iowa State University. Each time I give a little smirk and ask myself why on earth is the "g" pushed up? I don't really have a great answer to this question, other than my own assumptions. The conclusion I came to was that it comes down to ignorance of basic design principles. Non knowledge of basic design principles is acceptable if you happen to be the owner of this restaurant. Not acceptable if you are the sign company that installed this. Sign companies should know better, rather than contributing to this awful eyesore in the Ames landscape. The "g" is lowercase and has a descender. Which means that it should "descend" below the baseline. It would be a different story is this really was the restaurant's logo and they were pushing typographic boundaries by challenging the normative placement of the lowercase "g." Alas, this is not even the logo for this joint. There is a different logo on the restaurant's other sign in the parking lot that contributes to the overall visual confusion. I'll save that critique for another day.

Healthy snacks get a bad wrap

2011-05-10T12:30:00.003-05:00

I will be presenting this research performed by the Design Information Research Group (DIRG) this evening at the Origins of Obesity symposium organized by the Nutrition and Wellness Research Center in Ames, Iowa.

Here is the original press release about the research from Fall 2010:

A study titled Tailoring snack package designs to children as a health communication strategy is currently underway at Iowa State University. The study is a collaborative research effort being conducted by the Design Information Research Group (DIRG) and the Nutrition and Wellness Research Center (NWRC). The NWRC recently awarded DIRG a $5,000 grant incentive for the collaborative proposal.

There is much potential for further research into this category and room for further funding to increase the number of participants, researchers and other topics in regards to children’s snack food choices. Satterfield says the incentive grant will help them conduct a pilot study while they submit a grant proposal to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for additional funding.

The designers and researchers at DIRG are nationally and internationally recognized as experts in the field of design. In 2007, Satterfield’s team received a three-year research grant through the Bailey Research Career Development Award to collaborate with the Mayo Clinic. The study involves researching how design variables influence the decision-making process of patients using the decision aids. A paper on teaching Kansei engineering, which Satterfield presented at a 2003 design research conference in Japan, caught the attention of Frito-Lay. Interested in finding a non-engineer who could apply Kansei engineering to product design, the company asked Satterfield and her team to research user experience of Tostitos chips.

DIRG is able to provide design research, human subject testing, ethnographic research, design prototyping, and information design solutions. Their association with the College of Design and Iowa State University offers easy access to resources and expertise in a wide variety of additional fields such as education, engineering, virtual reality, computer science, business, psychology, communication, and the arts.

Monkey Pants Game :// Case for Research and Interaction Design

2011-03-30T10:20:00.005-05:00

Monkey Pants

View on YouTube

Short Introduction:

How often has a family member burst into your bedroom unannounced? This happens quite frequently and can be frustrating. Families with a child that has an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may find difficulty in communicating appropriate boundaries. We designed an educational game that will mediate social interactions between typical children and children with all levels of autism spectrum disorders from Asperger's Syndrome to Kanner's Syndrome. Our target group is between the ages of 4-5 years old, with a primary focus on boys since they are the largest group affected by ASD.

The Game:

Based on interviews with parents and observations of children with ASD in clinical situations, we took a user-centered approach. Our intent for this design solution was to focus on improving communication within families and providing a tool for siblings to connect with one another in a game-play experience that would focus on teaching a basic life skill. The ultimate objective is for the children to have fun together, and at the same time learn to ask permission, take turns, find hidden things and get dressed. It is our hope that this activity will increase social interaction between siblings and other typical family members by providing a base for children with ASD to increase independence and autonomy at home. It will also teach important life skill lessons about how to respect personal space, establish appropriate boundaries, and reinforce social conventions in the areas of asking and granting permission. Another secondary benefit is for typical peers to better understand how to communicate with a child with ASD.

The game we designed is "Monkey Pants." The game play will take place at home on an Xbox 360 Kinect. We chose the Kinect platform after visiting the Iowa State University Child Development Lab School and observing children ages 0-5 interacting with each other. During our second visit to the Lab School, we spoke with a teacher that talked about the difficulties that children have with the keyboard and mouse from their room's computer. Mainly, she said that the typical mouse used by an adult is too large for children's small hands and that she had glued a small Velcro patch onto the left mouse button. Since most kids are just learning the difference between right and left between these ages, they needed an indicator of which was the correct button to press.

The storyline for "Monkey Pants" is Flapjack the monkey needs to get dressed for school, but cannot find his clothes. He needs to go to his brother and sisters' rooms to find his clothes. But in order to do so, he must first ask permission to enter. This is accomplished by knocking on the door. For children that are non-verbal, they learn to knock and obtain permission before entering.

Since the Kinect recognizes body movements, the game is controlled by two players' body movements. One child controls Flapjack by standing up, while the other child sits down. The children take turns standing vs. sitting until all items of clothing (shoes, pants, shirt) are found from all three rooms. We included adjustable volume controls within the game that the children can control if they experience sensitivity to the music.

We used an ABA technique of mass trialing for the teaching mechanism of the game. The first item is introduced to the child in isolation until the child clearly demonstrates a knowledge of the item, the second is then introduced in a mass trial in isolation until it is mastered and then it is introduced into game play for selection against know items to increase the complexity of the game, and the final choice is then introduced and taught in isolation until it is learned and then it is put into the selection pool as a known item as well.

Instructions on game play for a parent or teacher to read to the children.

Certificate of completion

Most embarrassing typo ever

2011-03-07T12:13:00.003-06:00

When I screw up, I screw up big. This is arguably my most embarrassing typo... ever. Not only was this posted in the syllabus for a class this semester, it was distributed to all of the students. Yikes! I must apologize for this error and no ill intent was meant. All five of the TAs for this class read through this and did not catch it. I did use spellcheck, so that leaves me to wonder about InDesign's dictionary.

So, the moral of the story is to: 1) use spellcheck 2) have many others proofread 3) know that things always slip through the cracks at times 4) apologize for mistakes and hope like heck you don't get fired.

Design for Behavioral Change

2011-02-19T11:33:00.001-06:00

I'm not a big proponent of attempting to change others. We cannot change others and it is dangerous to attempt to do so. However, we can change ourselves. In so doing, we can hope to instigate change to occur in others. By first looking at ourselves is the only truly effective way to create positive change. For instance, in many therapeutic settings the focus is on ways for you to do things to empower yourself and gain emotional health. We cannot control others and should not approach design for behavioral change in this manner.

First look at the problem from the user's perspective. Then, put yourself in the user's shoes. You can't take the almighty stance and tell people what they need. I've seen some designers that have good intentions, create products based on what they think the user needs. Only to create a product that works against their target audience.

Donald Norman is annoyed by technology that gets in the way and is constantly asking questions about usability. This change that he has created for himself is instigating changes in others to look at their designs from the user's perspective.

I also believe that the most effective designers are ones that are emotionally healthy. How can we design for others if we ourselves are suffering? You certainly wouldn't want a therapist that has not gone through psychotherapy herself. The same is true for any profession. Emotional health is so important in how we interact with one another, from family and friends, to co-workers and our community at large.

Many mental health issues remain stigmatized in the US. Anxiety and depression are among the most common, yet we aren't really talking about this and how it effects our design work. We see dozens of ads on TV and the Web for medication related to these conditions, but that only fuels our "take a pill" mentality to fix everything. Things must be done in tandem. Therapy plus medication, or therapy plus a 12-step program, or just therapy by itself can do wonders. We are so reluctant to talk about anything that's wrong with our emotional health. For me, I only started to get better when I finally admitted to myself that I needed help. I went to therapy and also added medication after therapy wasn't enough on its own. I now have a good handle on my anxiety and depression, but I suffered for so many years not talking about it and not doing anything about it.

I believe that my life is a work in progress. Will I be cured? No. Can I control certain aspects of my anxiety and depression? Yes. Through therapy, medication, diet and exercise, I can reduce stress and external factors that are triggers for me.

What can you do for yourself?

Poke the Penguin!

2011-02-18T22:39:00.001-06:00

The ultimate brander: Hitler

2011-02-17T21:01:00.004-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2lfZg-apSA

Nazi. This word has infiltrated our every day vocabulary as a negative qualifier. For instance, even in the comedy show Seinfeld the soup guy is called the Soup Nazi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Soup_Nazi (notice he even has his own Wikipedia page) because he is mean and refuses to serve if you ask in a way he doesn't like. Other words such as Feminazi have emerged to refer to extreme feminists and is extremely pejorative. The symbol of the Nazis, the swastika, was initially a symbol that was a positive icon for many cultures until Hitler adopted it for his party's logo. It is now synonymous with the Nazi party. Hitler was one of the ultimate branders and was able to pick the best-of-the-best people to represent him and the party. Please don't hear me glorifying the Nazis, that is not my intent. Rather, I am making a point that marketing can, and is, used for evil and/or unethical purposes.

You must decide and choose who you do work for and realize that your design efforts can be used for good or evil. Choose wisely.

KFC at the Zoo WTF?

2011-02-07T08:54:00.000-06:00

I noticed on this map that I downloaded for a class project that KFC is located in the lower left quandrant of the Singapore Zoo. Where do they get the chickens? Wait... I don't want to know.

Every time you make a PowerPoint, Edward Tufte kills a kitten

2011-02-05T09:20:00.004-06:00

Scott McCloud, the famous comics artist, lectured at Iowa State University on Thursday, January 27. His 40 minute lecture was comprised of some 700 slides. It was one of the most captivating experiences that I have ever had. You might think that 700 slides is excessive and could become boring and repetitive. However, the way in which he presented was very engaging. His slides could not stand on their own and he could not lecture without the slides. Check out this TED talk featuring Scott McCloud and his unique presentation style.

What does this have to do with PowerPoint? Most PowerPoint lectures are jam-packed with words that the presenter merely reads. It creates a disconnect with the audience and a rather boring lecture. PowerPoint should be used sparingly and not as a substitute for an engaging presentation based on live interaction with your audience. Nix the text and use visuals that will enhance your topic.

Who is Edward Tufte?
http://www.edwardtufte.com/tufte/

Know your snow thrower

2011-02-02T14:04:00.004-06:00

Ever wondered why the technical name for a snow blower is a snow thrower? Easy. It doesn't blow anything. It just uses the momentum from the auger to throw the snow out. That's not really the issue at hand with getting to know your snow thrower, though. I am more interested in why the design of the owner's manual is so awful. It's very difficult to read. The words are tiny and congested all throughout and the diagrams are very confusing.

Also, let's talk about the icons. There are a few standard icons that make sense visually. The rabbit and turtle, stop sign, fuel, oil, but the others are really obscure.

According this this icon, you should put your put foot with your dress shoe on, in the auger and your finger gently in the chute. Oh, never mind the danger signs above.

Pimp out your Facebook with a photo collage

2011-01-27T17:06:00.005-06:00

Find me on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cyndi.wiley

Ok, so "pimped out" is probably not as professionally worded as it could be. I am, however, following the precedent set by MTV, which stands for something in pop culture. It's not meant in a pejorative sense. At least not to me.

The first example of this technique was the profile of an adventurous Frenchman by the name of Alexandre Oudin. He pioneered this collage effect with the launch of Facebook's new profile.

Here's a quick how-to on creating a collage with your Facebook profile:

You must have your profile set to the new format
Resize your photo with size 665 wide by 532 high
The left side becomes the image to load as your new Facebook profile picture with the size set at 180 pixels wide and 532 high
5 photos must be 68 high and 97 wide
Use this template file template.psd , import your image over it and, on the File menu, click Save for the web so as to save all the images already perfectly cut. (Retrieved from http://www.mysensetechnology.com/2010/12/edit-collage-with-pictures-of-new.html)
The 5 small images have to be uploaded to Facebook all together in the order, from left to right.
After having loaded a new album, you must tag them with your name, in reverse order, last to first, one at a time
Sometimes, the 5 images are off just a bit which depends on how much information you have listed in the text right above
To fix this, go into Photoshop and add on a few pixels to the top of your left hand, profile image.

There are other sources out there that will do it for you, but I expect you designers to create your own:

http://profilecollage.appspot.com/

Jing! Nice screen capture software.

2011-01-22T14:37:00.005-06:00

I found a free screen capture software with a super cool interface (a sun in the corner of your screen) and best of all, it's really simple to use. It's called Jing, located here: http://www.techsmith.com/jing/ I used this today to create a short video tutorial for my students using my screen and recording audio with my Mac's built-in mic. The tutorial was in response to an issue that came up in class with Illustrator's "HTML and images" save for Web & Devices feature. Slicing is an old-school way that us non-programming graphic designers used eons ago (which means 5 years in the Web world) to use the workflow between Illustrator or Photoshop with Dreamweaver. It was used to "slice" up large images so we could better communicate with programmers or simply create HTML using Dreamweaver.

Now, we can use Illustrator CS5 (or Photoshop CS5) to slice our designs to create tables within Dreamweaver. This is a quick way for us to use the design programs to create code for us. I know you programmers are rolling your eyes right now because Dreamweaver does things to make your life hell. I do realize this and perhaps one day we'll all be able to play in the sandbox together.

Here's the tutorial: http://screencast.com/t/iACTKvIkVb

My team's paper accepted at HCI International 2011

2010-12-11T09:21:00.004-06:00

A team-based class project at Iowa State University, under the direction of Associate Professor of Graphic Design Sunghyun Kang, has been accepted at HCI International 2011. Authors are Cyndi Wiley, Principal Investigator, Emmanuel Saka and Stefan Tauber, co-investigators. The interdisciplinary class consisted of students from graphic design, human computer interaction and family and consumer science departments.

The goal of the initial assignment was to learn how to design prototypes. The prototypes were tested/surveyed as the second project. Through the prototype design, students learned how to organize information, navigation elements, and interfaces to a real project.

The method involved three phases. The first phase was an analysis, documentation, and research about the given subject. The second phase was creating at least two prototypes based on each team's research and in-class usability testing. The final phase was documentation and a final report. In this assignment, creative solutions were emphasized to create a prototype.

The target audience was defined with one of the following subjects;
Wireless device, Computer mediated communication, Computer based kiosk, Websites, Apps etc.

Wiley's team wanted to discover the proper design strategies for an application to be developed for a wireless device (i.e. iPad) to be used in a grocery retail environment. The device will function with Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) tags placed on each product in the grocery store. The device will receive the product information and present it in a clear, concise and consistent format so older adults will be able to read all of the nutritional facts listed on a package. Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was received through Iowa State University's Office for Responsible Research.

During the second phase of this project, the following questions were answered with usability testing:

Are adults age 46 and over receptive to using the Web-based application?
Will the application prove easy to navigate?

While adults between ages 46 and 60 are not considered a part of the older adult group, they represent the last of the Baby Boomer generation (those born between 1946 and 1964) that is the largest group in the United States. Technologies designed with this group in mind are imperative as the population will reach the older adult classification.

"We created a project based on using RFID technology within the grocery retail environment. The ability to read food and product information at the grocery store in a clear, concise and consistent format, is important to sustaining independence," says Cyndi Wiley, the Principal Investigator.

Older adults with dietary restrictions, such as the need for lower sodium intake, diabetes, and/or allergies, make it imperative to be able to read all nutritional information on packaging. This includes the nutritional facts, drug facts, supplement facts, as well as the complete list of ingredients.

Wiley adds, "There is a lack of consistency in product packaging and not all information is presented in the same manner. This lack of consistency can create frustration among shoppers, in addition to the text sizes being too small for aging eyes to read, it can cause illness for someone with a dietary restriction that cannot properly read the product’s contents."

The team will present their research findings and the final prototype design at the College of Design graduate student review on Tuesday, December 14, 2010, and at HCI International July 9-14, 2011, in Orlando, Florida.

Team-based projects :// a short how-to

2010-11-30T10:46:00.004-06:00

I have heard many horror stories of working with others on a team. Mostly from fellow students. There always seems to be at least one person that doesn't pull their weight or is just plain obstinate. It's taken me many years to see some of the initial red flags when first forming teams.

This semester at ISU, I had three team-based projects. I have found the magic number to be three members per team. Any more and it gets really complicated.

One of my teams just got our research accepted at HCI International 2011. It's nice to reap the benefits of a semester-long project by presenting it at a conference, but what if it's all you can do to just finish the damn thing and move on?

You are not always able to choose who you work with on the job, but there are things that you can do to make your time less frustrating. Conflict resolution and communication are the two most important things to keep in mind, as well as your own personal character.

Mohr and Spekman have produced quantitative and qualitative data with, "Results indicate that the primary characteristics of partnership success are: partnership attributes of commitment, coordination, and trust; communication quality and participation; and the conflict resolution technique of joint problem solving. The findings offer insight into how to better manage these relationships to ensure success."

This is just a very brief overview of the basics of teamwork. There are many sources to which to refer when you are experiencing problems with your teammates. Searching Google Scholar can produce some very pointed resources.

Mohr, J. and Spekman, R. (1994), Characteristics of partnership success: Partnership attributes, communication behavior, and conflict resolution techniques. Strategic Management Journal, 15: 135–152. doi: 10.1002/smj.4250150205 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/smj.4250150205/abstract

Sharing your information with the world

2010-11-18T19:21:00.003-06:00

Ever wonder how to get one of those fancy schmancy "share" links on your site? Here's how: http://www.addthis.com/

Funky web navs

2010-11-17T20:01:00.002-06:00

These folks get props not only because they are based in Stockholm, but when you view their portfolio they have a surprise for the forward and backward navigation. Ingenious!

http://www.fellowdesigners.se/

Generating word clouds with Wordle, fun toy for designers

2010-11-11T19:49:00.002-06:00

Here is a Wordle creation of the text from this blog...

and a simple Wordle on the tags in my Delicious account.

AutoDesk software for free!!

2010-11-11T13:51:00.002-06:00

Thanks to Dillan for this tip. AutoDesk is offering free software downloads to students and faculty under a limited license.

Click here to register and download: http://usa.autodesk.com/

Here is the list of software available for a 3-year license:

Free 2011 Software Downloads

Software license terms are for 3 years.

AutoCAD®
AutoCAD® Civil 3D®
AutoCAD® Electrical
AutoCAD® Inventor® Professional Suite
Autodesk® Algor® Simulation Professional
Autodesk® Alias® Design
Autodesk® Alias® Automotive**
Autodesk® Alias® Sketch
Autodesk® Ecotect® Analysis

Autodesk® Maya®
Autodesk® Mudbox™
Autodesk® Revit® Architecture
Autodesk® Revit® MEP
Autodesk® Revit® Structure
Autodesk® Smoke®
Autodesk® Softimage®
Autodesk® 3ds Max®

Did you know you can create interactive presentations with InDesign CS5?

2010-11-10T15:17:00.002-06:00

This video is about 30 minutes in length, but is worth the time to see what you can do with InDesign CS5.

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/indesign-cs5-feature-tour/indesign-cs5-overview/

Party Pooper

2010-11-09T10:50:00.002-06:00

It seems that I'm going to be the party pooper here. I couldn't disagree more with Elizabeth Boling's statement (http://www.indiana.edu/~iirg/interview_documents/index.html) that "designer" does not mean "artist." Art is not simply about self-expression and never has been throughout history. Yes, there are some examples of artists that use art as purely a form of self-expression like Jackson Pollack. Hence, the abstract expressionist movement.

However, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Picasso, Itten, all use complicated mathematical formulas to produce their works of art. Not simply using them as self-expression, but using these works to figure out novel ways in which to come up with a meaningful composition. New ways in which to apply paint to a canvas, among other materials. Is this not problem solving?

Another example from history is the Trajan Column. It was not about self-expression, yet it is one of the earliest examples of sequential art. It's documenting the Roman view of the Dacian War.This critical piece was not about self-expression at its core, it is about information sharing. Information sharing is at the heart of working and collaborating on a team.

Taking this example into current day, the reason that there is so much bad design, in a visual sense, is because this view point continues to be spread that art is purely about self-expression.

You cannot be a successful visual designer without knowing the context for which you are designing and solving problems. The basic visual design principles include color theory, typography, composition, balance, harmony, anomaly, symmetry, asymmetry, gradation, radiation, among others.

Boling is creating an "either or" situation. Design is a "both and" discipline in that a team needs problem-solvers and artists to be successful in development of instructional design.

To sum this up, here is a quote from Paul Rand, designer of the IBM logo, ABC logo, FedEx logo and many other famous logos:

"Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated."

Aging-Related Technology Growing More Popular in Home, Community Spaces -- AARP Bulletin

2010-10-13T14:55:00.000-05:00

Purple on October 20: Spread the Word

2010-10-09T09:36:00.000-05:00

It’s been decided. On October 20th, 2010, we will wear purple in honor of the 6 gay young men who committed suicide in recent weeks/months due to homophobic abuse in their homes or at their schools. Purple represents Spirit on the LGBTQ flag and that’s exactly what we’d like all of you to have with you: spirit. Please know that times will get better and that we will meet people who love and respect us for who we are, no matter our sexuality or gender expression. Please wear purple on October 20th. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and schools.

* RIP Tyler Clementi, Seth Walsh
* Justin Aaberg, Raymond Chase

* Asher Brown and Billy Lucas.

Please invite all of your friends. It is important that all this hate be stopped.

Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Iowa State University

Ames, IA 50011

wblumen@iastate.edu

The State of Higher Education for LGBT People

2010-09-27T10:23:00.001-05:00

A Commentary by Warren J. Blumenfeld

Our study, 2010 State of Higher Education for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender People, for Campus Pride (Rankin, Weber, Blumenfeld, & Frazer) included 5,149 participants (LGBT students, faculty, staff, and administrators) representing all fifty states. We discovered that LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff remain at significantly higher risk, compared with their heterosexual and gender conforming counterparts, for harassment on our colleges and universities. Participants attending unwelcoming and “hostile” campuses reported lowered interested in remaining at their current campuses and discouraged future students from attending, and experienced lower educational outcomes, and more negative identity development issues of self esteem, and emotional, mental, and physical health.

The majority of participants discussed the overt acts, as well as the subtle microaggressions (as one participant termed, the “death by a thousand tiny cuts”) creating an uncomfortable and emotionally and physically unsafe environment.

1. Feeling of Invisibility and Isolation

Participants shared their experiences about feeling ignored or excluded. One participant stated: “I am FTM [Female to Male] I do not feel safe enough to be out as trans, so I live stealth on campus, which honestly makes me sad because it prevents me from doing as much activism as I would like to.” And for another participant: “Mine is a Catholic university. Questions of sexuality and gender identity are largely ignored – probably in the hope that they will go away. The administration works actively against GLBTQ groups and activities.

2. The “Resident Authority”

Participants felt pressure to represent all others. One respondent stated, “Often in a class if I come out, I am considered to be the 'resident authority' of queer issues, so people will actually ask me to explain things or when discussing queer issues will deliberately look at me.”

3. Concerns for Emotional Safety

Other participants underscored their experiences with psychological abuse and their fears for physical safety. For example, one student respondent noted, “Professors have pathologized my experiences as a member of the LGBT community by claiming that participating in activism within the LGBT community is indicative of mental illness.”

4. Concerns for Physical Safety

Many participants expressed the overarching theme of concern for their physical safety: “Our campus has recently been the place of multiple attacks against the GLBTA community, so my safety is a serious concern for me.” And “Among many incidences of being called derogatory names or experiencing verbal conflict, I was the victim of a hate-crime. I was called a 'tranny freak' and physically assaulted in a public space on campus. My attack was one in a series of assaults on campus and my university was less than responsive.” Another participant underscored her experiences in the residence halls, “Our floor in my dorm had 'about me' signs on everyone's door, to get to know each other. Someone wrote 'dyke' on mine.”

One student explained: “[A person] rallied students with the cry 'we can either accept homosexuals or BURN THEM AT THE STAKE! ARE YOU WITH ME?!' A large group of people were yelling and saying 'burn them!' and there I was in the midst of it all with a rainbow flag on my bag, alone and scared. Tried to get him removed from campus -- no one seemed to deem it necessary or possible.”

LGBQ faculty and staff participants shared their experiences regarding other colleagues and students. For example, one faculty participant shared, “I had students who wrote derogatory things on my evaluations and made reference to my sexual orientation. The chair pretty much ignored it.” A second faculty participant noted, “It's difficult to work with students who don't respect you because of the way you identify. They are set in their ways and say things that are inappropriate.” A staff participant explained, “My department included me as long as I never mentioned my life or my partner. As soon as I did (like everyone else), people shut down.”

Participants often claimed that, overall, their institutions are doing little or nothing to improve conditions: “Our campus is currently experiencing an anti-gay atmosphere that the institution is ignoring.”

5. Inequity in Services and Benefits

While the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution includes the provision of “equal protection of the law” to all citizens of the United States, some campuses offer no benefits and services to same-sex households. One respondent complained: “I am not kidding when I write that both administration and the 'faculty union' do not support these issues. Only last year did the 'union' attempt something, but they were shut down and gave up at once.”

In most instances, campuses will not cover specialized medical services for transgender people: “[T]ransgender health care is not included in our plan, and unmarried partners don't get free tuition while married partners do.” Others campuses, while providing equal access to some campus facilities-for example, athletic facilities and libraries-extend no additional benefits to same-sex couples and families.

For students, colleges and universities serve as their homes away from home. Faculty, staff, and administrators have chosen colleges and universities as their workplaces to practice their craft. All have a right to live, learn, and work at institutions that not only are welcoming but are also actively working to ensure their emotional and physical safety.

Our comprehensive research has conclusively exposed the inequities, and the possible best practices we propose have shown proven results. We encourage all schools to expand their efforts and to appreciatively raise the discourse in working to secure the safety and the equity for all people, including our LGBTQ students, faculty, staff, and administrators. In this way, schools may more fully reach their mandate of providing the best quality education and working environment for all members of the campus community.

For a copy of our report, 2010 State of Higher Education for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender People, please contact:http://www.campuspride.org/shop.asp

Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld, Associate Professor of Multicultural and International Curriculum Studies at Iowa State University. He is co-editor of Readings for Diversity and Social Justice and Investigating Christian Privilege and Religious Oppression in the United States.

Permission granted to forward or publish this commentary. Any editing must be cleared by the author: wblumen@iastate.edu

Dr. Warren J. Blumenfeld

Department of Curriculum and Instruction

Iowa State University

Ames, IA 50011

wblumen@iastate.edu

Email Fail

2010-09-10T17:20:00.002-05:00

I just received this bulk email from event management at ISU. It's for Ladies Expo 2010. I don't consider myself a "lady" and think that the word is rather pejorative. That's not really the worst part, though. At the end, it says to visit the "Ladies Expo 2010 website!" Yes, complete with exclamation mark, but sans the link. A tip to remember when you are sending out bulk emails is to ALWAYS include your Web site link if you really want the receiver to find your information useful. Especially if you are trying to get them to spend money as this one is.

Copy of the email I received:

"Ladies of ISU:
Mark your calendar for the Ladies Expo Tuesday, September 14 4:30pm – 7:30pm.

Welcome back to Ames! After a long summer, what better way is there to celebrate your return than with food, drinks, and shopping? Put on your favorite outfit, grab your girls, and come to Ladies Expo 2010, located in the Ballrooms of the Memorial Union.

Advance ticket sales are almost over! If you buy your ticket before Monday, September 13 at 5pm, ISU students pay only $5, and adults pay $10. The purchase of a ticket will grant you admission into the Ladies Expo, free food from 4:30-6:30pm, the opportunity to win amazing door prizes, and one complimentary drink from ISU Dining’s full bar. After 5pm, tickets can still be purchased for $15.

Come by the Memorial Union Hotel Desk, any of your local Hy-Vee Customer Service Desks, or the Ames Tribune to buy your ticket now!

Drink, dine, and win prizes, while you discover the hidden gems Ames has to offer. Decadent mini-sandwiches will be served, as well as scrumptious deserts. Don’t miss out on cookies, bars, and mini cupcakes. Hy-Vee will be providing goodie bags to each guest to fill.

For more information, including a list of our vendors, please visit us at the Ladies Expo 2010 website!

If you would be interested in showcasing your musical talents at Ladies Expo 2010, please contact Rachael Mast at rjmast@iastate.edu for more details!"

You broke the internet...

2010-09-05T06:36:00.007-05:00

Mashable.com's 35 entertaining 404 error pages.

I found these 404 error pages quite entertaining. A "404 error, file not found" is a page that appears when you are searching on a particular Web site and the server cannot find the file you requested. Click here for a more detailed definition on Wikipedia.

This brings up a creative avenue for you Web designers to continue branding your organization. The best example was the "Uh-oh, SpaghettiO's" page (image above). However, it wasn't located on the Campbell's Soup (the manufacturer of SpaghettiO's) Web site. Rather, it was located on a graphic design studio's site. Below is the image of Campbell's 404 error page... which is quite boring and does not entice me to stick around and find that file I was looking for in the first place. Designers must find ways to keep their Web visitors from leaving when they see a 404 error page. A 404 error can be a frustrating mishap for any user. This is just one proposal for keeping your users clicking around on your site. What are other ways to keep your visitor's from leaving?

The image below is my favorite of Mashable.com's 35 entertaining 404 error pages.

Drake University's new campaign is an epic FAIL

2010-09-04T12:55:00.005-05:00

Drake University's new "Drake Advantage" campaign is centered around the message of "learning and breaking the box." However, the visual message of a "D+" is far from one of excellence. It's difficult to get past the visual and to read about the campaign.

Who-TV's site says:

Leaders at the Des Moines school say regardless of how people react, they are reacting and that's what they wanted to accomplish.

The Des Moines Register reported Friday that Drake hired a Cedar Rapids-based company to help develop the new "Drake Advantage" recruitment campaign. The university recently unveiled it to prospective students through brochures and its website.

I wonder if the company that helped develop this logo did any user-testing or external analysis? Or if it is just a case of another elitist creative consultant firm attempting to garner attention? Contrary to popular belief, not all publicity is good publicity. Drake is having its reputation as a top-notch educational institution brought into question and dragged through the mud.

Imagine your high-school senior receiving a mailer about potential colleges, in which one has an obnoxiously large "D+" on the cover. Would you really want to encourage your child to attend this "D+" school? Drake has essentially come up with a half-assed campaign based solely on negative attention created by their use and promotion of an incredibly poor visual image.

I would certainly question the university's intentions and recommend the firing of the Cedar Rapids-based company that helped to develop this campaign. Companies such as not only tarnish the reputation of their clients, but also the creative industry as a whole.

There will certainly be financial repercussions suffered by Drake's poor choice. I encourage the students, faculty, alumni and the larger community to rise up and tell Drake that they have just received an F- for this campaign.

My largest book this semester :// Equivalent to a concrete block

2010-08-28T13:21:00.005-05:00

ISBN: 0805858709 / ISBN-13: 9780805858709 by Andrew Sears (Editor), Julie A Jacko (Editor)

I just bought this book on http://www.alibris.com for a nicely discounted price of $80.00, plus $3.99 for shipping. It's about $135 on Amazon.com. I'm thinking that I will mostly use this at the home office, rather than adding 23 lbs. to my backpack. This book is very good for anyone who is designing Web sites, products, applications, games etc., for (like the title) human-computer interaction.

The synopsis from http://www.alibris.com: Exploring the evolution in how people use and work with technology, the second edition of "The Human-Computer Interaction Handbook" captures the most important scientific and technical know-how in the field of HCI. It provides an updated, comprehensive overview of important research in the field, including insights directly applicable throughout the process of developing effective interactive information technologies. It features cutting-edge advances to the scientific knowledge base and visionary perspectives and developments that will fundamentally transform the way in which researchers and practitioners view the discipline.As the seminal volume of HCI research and practice, the second edition features contributions from a selection of eminent professionals in the field worldwide. It stands alone as the most essential resource available on the market. This edition of the volume thoroughly covers issues of accessibility and diversity, such as aging, literacy, hearing, vision, physical disabilities, and children. Additional topics addressed are sensor based interactions; tangible interfaces; augmented cognition; cognition under stress; ubiquitous and wearable computing; and, privacy and security. With contributions from over 130 researchers and professionals, over 5,500 references, 400 figures, and 100 tables, the book provides a wealth of data and a fresh perspective on the field. New topics and authors ensure the revision contains new information and insights, the latest in research and practice, while retaining its reputation for presenting authoritative information in an accessible manner.

Printer mishap with bleeds

2010-08-19T10:38:00.007-05:00

Cover of Fossil catalog Fall 2010

I received this catalog from Fossil in the mail the other day. As I was flipping through, I noticed the interior signature had an 1/8" of printer's color registration on the bottom. An 1/8" is significant in printing.

Interior spread of Fossil catalog Fall 2010

Closeup of Fossil catalog Fall 2010 with printer's color registration on bottom

I've seen this several times before, including some of my work that I have sent off to the printer. This comes down to quality control at the printer and happens when the pages are cut to size on the automatic cutter. Most times this seemingly tiny mishap is caught before the entire print run is miscut, but sometimes it can effect the whole job.

I always recommend that you receive several samples from the printer during different times of the run. I also recommend that you attend press checks when your job is printing, just to make sure that the ink looks correct on press. I don't like surprises after I send a job to the printer and your clients or boss won't like them either. This 1/8" registration bar could end up costing the printer the entire job, or the designer her job if she did not attend press checks.

Visual irony :// Baskin Robbins Des Moines

2010-08-13T09:30:00.005-05:00

Photo by Cyndi Wiley 8/12/10

This snapshot is of the Baskin Robbins on Hickman Road in Des Moines. Mmmmm... 31 flavors.

My work will appear in The Big Book of Packaging!

2010-08-11T19:33:00.006-05:00

A package design that I created for Nutraceutics Corp. , while working as creative director, was just chosen for publication in the upcoming book The Big Book of Packaging.

This 384 page, hardcover book will be published by HarperCollins Publishers in Spring 2011. It will be distributed in over 20 countries and features the most innovative packaging designs from around the world.

How do you manage your fonts?

2010-08-06T10:17:00.002-05:00

I have used Suitcase Fusion and also FontExplorer Pro. My personal preference is FontExplorer for its ease of fixing troublemaker fonts that can cause your programs to misbehave.

There is a new version of FontExplorer available with compatibility with Adobe CS5. You can download a demo version here:

http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19514/fontexplorer-x-pro

Adobe Illustrator CS5 :// Perspective Grid = Cool!

2010-08-05T12:58:00.003-05:00

Check out this new feature in Adobe Illustrator CS5. It will really help with 3D rendering.

http://layersmagazine.com/illustrator-cs5-perspective-tool.html

Wolf Pack shirt :// Please help score it on Threadless.com!

2010-07-16T07:44:00.001-05:00

I designed this shirt for Threadless.com and it is now up for scoring! Please click on the image above and give it a 5. Thanks!

La Roux - Bullet Proof

2010-07-03T14:53:00.000-05:00

My first music video appearance! That's how I'm paying for my tuition at ISU. What do you think of the hair?

"Congratulations, your work has been selected!"

2010-07-02T13:25:00.005-05:00

I love opening up my inbox to find a message titled "Congratulations, your work has been selected!" A logo that I designed for Lunna Investments in St. Louis will be appearing in the book Shapes and Symbols. It is the third book in the new Master Library series that will be published sometime next year by Rockport Publishers.

Last fall, one of my logos was chosen for the Animals and Mythology book two in the Master Library series.

Suppose I should buy these books now.

Naming our current design style

2010-05-21T09:13:00.001-05:00

It is difficult to name the current design period that we are in now. Typically, most periods in art and graphic design history are named after a new group or generation has begun to reject the previous style.

I would argue that since 1999, the style of post-modernism shifted. The shift occurred because of the mass availability of the personal computer. Both Apple and IBM were competing for their place in the market, producing systems that were smaller, faster and user-centered. See Ben Schneiderman's book Leonardo's Laptop. Having this shift to user-centered interfaces was the key to unlocking power to the user. Since users are now sharing power with the creator (sounds a bit theological, not unlike my own personal views of theology) they have more control over how they use the technology.

This has lead to a mixture of scholars, programmers, designers, artists, writers, business people, etc., that are sharing in creating and designing their computing environments. During the last ten years, the look and feel of user-interfaces has been increasingly more "3D." Layers, drop shadows, tabs and the "chrome" effect are being used for multiple interfaces. With Apple's introduction of the iPhone, its icons epitomize this "chrome" style.

Thus, I am going to name this period (drumroll please)... Chromation. Is is a fad? Perhaps, but aren't most style periods considered to come and go? We will only be able to accurately and aptly name this design period once a newer generation rejects it and creates their new style.

1978 - Milky The Marvelous Milking Cow and Human Computer Interaction

2010-05-20T17:44:00.001-05:00

Check out this precursor to Human Computer Interaction (HCI). This was one of my most favorite toys when I was growing up in the early 80s. As most of my family members will remember, I got Milky out to show her off at many family gatherings. What's the tie in to HCI? Well, this user-centered device interacts when you (the user) dip her head into her water trough and then pump her tail to produce the "milk." After pumping her tail, she moos and is ready to be milked. Now if I could teach her how to Twitter, even without her having opposable thumbs, that would be the next generation of Milky the Marvelous Milking Cow.

Building and maintaining collaborative environments

2010-05-14T08:50:00.004-05:00

After attending Ignite Ames last night, I am energized to continue researching content management systems. I have been using Joomla for the past two years, but am going to give Drupal a go.

What's great about content management systems? First of all, Drupal (as well as Joomla) are open-source and have a large online community of supporters. This means that you can get help 24/7 from members of the community by means of documentation and message boards. This generates a collaborative environment.

It is my dream for the design community (graphic, industrial, interior, architectural, etc.) to develop more collaboration with engineers, programmers and citizens. This is why I am so in favor of online social networks, open source content management systems and good ol' fashioned face-to-face networking.

Catch Phrase :// Sustainability "Packing with Shrooms, Not Styrofoam

2010-04-17T06:53:00.003-05:00

As a graphic designer, I am concerned with sustainability issues for the products I help to design. As a human, I am also concerned with this topic as I continue to see massive loads of waste making their way to landfills. How can we, both as humans and designers, work to better our existence on Earth?

Here is just one tiny way that can have a great, positive impact.

http://news.discovery.com/tech/packing-with-shrooms-not-styrofoam.html

Obama orders most hospitals to grant gays visitation rights

2010-04-16T12:56:00.000-05:00

Same-sex partners must get the same privileges granted heterosexual couples in hospitals that get Medicare or Medicaid funds, he says in a memo.

By Christi Parsons and Kathleen Hennessey

April 16 2010

Reporting from Washington -- President Obama late Thursday ordered most hospitals in the country to grant the same visitation rights to gay and lesbian partners that they do to married heterosexual couples.

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gay-couples-hospitals16-2010apr16,0,1699384.story

Typographic experiments from ArtGR 576

2010-04-15T18:44:00.004-05:00

The assignment:// random selection of design elements

The outcome:// unexpected design awesomeness (as one recent 7th grader commented)

Oh, and thanks to Ed for the tip on photography.

Reviewing portfolios tomorrow for AIGA Iowa

2010-04-09T12:52:00.000-05:00

Preparations for future designers should involve interaction from the local design community. I think this is a great way for students to interact with professionals and get some critical feedback on their work. I'll be reviewing portfolios and hopefully I'll be helpful to the students.

AIGA Iowa: AIGA | the professional association for design

Apple iPad and iPhone Developer Center

2010-04-04T10:14:00.000-05:00

Thinking about designing some apps for the iPad or iPhone? Check out this site for all you needed to know about screen resolution, icon sizes and human interface guidelines.

http://developer.apple.com/iphone/index.action

Excel Easter Egg - Excel 2000 Real Easter Egg?

2010-04-04T10:05:00.002-05:00

Did you know that an older version of Excel contains an Easter Egg? What is considered an Easter Egg, you ask? It's something that is hidden in a piece of art, a movie, or a software program that the creators insert as a novelty. They are supposed to be hidden, entertaining and not malicious.

Check out the Easter Egg Archive for some fun and enlightenment. Although, this is not intended as a replacement for hunting real Easter eggs in the yard. It's just an alternate version, perhaps Easter 2.0?

Excel Easter Egg - Excel 2000 Real Easter Egg?

College of Design-News Releases

2010-03-31T18:45:00.001-05:00

ISU graphic design student honored by Creative Quarterly

Cyndi Wiley, a first-year graduate student in graphic design and human computer interaction at Iowa State University, has been named a runner-up in the graphic design student category of Creative Quarterly 19. Wiley’s entry, “Poor Bessie,” will be posted in the journal’s online gallery in June.

03/31/10

Contacts:
Cyndi Wiley, Graduate Student, Graphic Design,clwiley@iastate.edu
Paula Curran, Associate Professor, Graphic Design, pjcurran@iastate.edu
Heather Sauer, Communications Specialist, College of Design, hsauer@iastate.edu

ISU graphic design student honored by Creative Quarterly

AMES, Iowa — Cyndi Wiley, a first-year graduate student in graphic design and human computer interaction at Iowa State University, has been named a runner-up in the graphic design student category of Creative Quarterly 19. Wiley’s entry, “Poor Bessie,” will be posted in the journal’s online gallery in June.

Wiley, of Des Moines, created the project in a graphic design studio class in fall 2009. The assignment was to choose a cliché and produce four different plates using typography, imagery and color to illustrate its meaning. Wiley chose “Hindsight is 20/20” and located a photo of a cow caught halfway while trying to jump over a fence.

“I really wanted to use humor in this project and steer clear of the heavy political messages,” Wiley said. “I often grow tired of being too serious in my design work, or life in general for that matter.”

Imagery used in the project was not supposed to be a literal illustration of the chosen cliché, but rather a deeper interpretation, such as visual metaphor, hyperbole, understatement, antithesis, or visual pun.

“Cyndi used an image that evokes both pity and humor,” said Paula Curran, ISU associate professor of graphic design, who taught the course. “We’re not sure whether to laugh at or commiserate with the poor animal.”

“Before applying to graduate school at Iowa State, I had lost my passion for design. Now I’m in a place where I want to have fun designing. The cliché project was one of many opportunities for me to explore and gain back my zeal,” Wiley said.

Wiley received a Bachelor of Arts in art from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has been a freelance graphic designer for 12 years and worked as a creative director for Nutraceutics in St. Louis. She is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in graphic design and a doctorate in human computer interaction at Iowa State.

The complete list of CQ19 winners and runners-up is available atwww.cqjournal.com/winners.html#runnerup.

College of Design-News Releases

Creative Quarterly 20 // Enter now!

2010-03-29T22:35:00.001-05:00

Consider entering your creative work in the upcoming issue of the Creative Quarterly (CQ) 20. The entry fee is only 10 bucks. Here's the link :: http://www.cqjournal.com/callforentries.html

Free And Editable iPhone GUI (PSD File)

2010-03-28T19:53:00.000-05:00

Free And Editable iPhone GUI (PSD File)

Where it's @ // Museum Acquires the "at" Sign

2010-03-28T10:01:00.001-05:00

When I think of the "at" sign, I consider changing my name to just @. Like Prince did with his personal logo for his name.

New Photoshop CS5

2010-03-26T09:20:00.000-05:00

This Will Blow You Away. Sneak Peek at The New Photoshop. http://tnw.to/15rCa

Inverse Kinematics :: Yeehaw!

2010-03-25T17:09:00.002-05:00

Why have I waited so long to upgrade to Flash CS4? This feature may very well get me using Flash more often for animation, especially with the added bonus of calling this tool the "bone" tool.

My design picked as runner-up in Creative Quarterly 19

2010-03-18T23:24:00.004-05:00

From What I Learned Today

My design (shown above) will be featured on the Creative Quarterly, The Journal of Art & Design Web site (www.CQjournal.com) in June as a runner-up in the graphic design category.

About the design ::

Hindsight is 20/20. Yes, indeed. I think a lot of us are familiar with
this cliché. Poor Bessie has gotten herself stuck on the fence in her
attempt to find greener grass.

I often grow tired of being too serious in my design work, or life in
general for that matter. I credit this point of view to my years in
the workforce, where a large part of the work that I created was not
very much fun or spiritually fulfilling.

Anti-Theft Lunch Bags

2010-03-10T08:48:00.003-06:00

These are wonderful! Make sure you put your name on this so the would-be thief won't go poking around in your lunch any time soon.

These are available at your friendly neighborhood Target store. The online description just makes this :

"Curses! The lunchtime looter struck again. The Antitheft Lunch Bag is a little insurance policy, as even the hungriest hippo will grimace at your moldy–looking eats. Case closed"

Need FREE stock photo images? Check out these links!

2010-03-06T17:20:00.004-06:00

Have you ever been stuck working on a project that you cannot find any good images for mock up? Check out this search engine (http://www.cyclo.ps/) that crawls through sites where you can (mostly) use images for your work. It's a nicely designed portal, complete with cute Cyclo.ps guy.

My favorite is http://stock.xchng, but be sure to check out the license requirements before you download and use. Happy hunting!

Phil Town's new book is a Euphemism for Greed

2010-03-06T09:30:00.009-06:00

Phil Town's new book Payback Time, Making Big Money is the Best Revenge is a euphemism for greed.

I was very disturbed by the verbiage used in this CNBC interview with Phil Town and Larry Kantor. Kantor says in this interview to invest away from the US, as well as in the US. This is part of what lead to our current economic recession. Offshoring labor and investments continues to degrade our economy.

Writer and thinker John Ruskin (1819-1900) offers a critique of capitalism in Unto This Last (1860) by saying,

There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings; that man is richest who, having perfected the functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal, and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others.

Ruskin goes further by saying, "luxury at present can only be enjoyed by the ignorant; the cruelest man living could not sit at his feast, unless he sat blindfold." Christine Poulson edited a book called William Morris on Art & Design and makes the connection that Ruskin and Morris could not sit blindfold at the feast.

Note that Ruskin was writing this in the latter part of the nineteenth century, so I won't begrudge him for using patriarchal language. He does bring a powerful statement to light that is still applicable 150 years later and across the ocean. William Morris reprinted many of Ruskin's works and, unlike Ruskin, was active in politics. Morris was a thinker about social and political significance of art.

Will you sit blindfold at the feast?

How am I qualified to make such a statement that Town's book is a euphemism for greed, while he is a best-selling author and I am a graduate student at Iowa State University? I'm a citizen of the United States of America and am applying my rights to free speech.

15 Awesome Google Services You Never Knew Existed

2010-03-02T18:18:00.000-06:00

Check out this article about our friend Google's services.

http://www.maclife.com/article/feature/15_great_services_you_had_no_idea_google_offered

What's hiding in the FedEx logo?

2010-02-19T11:22:00.004-06:00

I'm a designer. I'm studying graphic design. I'm researching graphic design. However, I missed one very important element to the FedEx logo. Can you spot it in the negative space between the "e" and the "x"? Yep, it's an arrow. How ingenious. The arrow matches perfectly with FedEx's core business of shipping millions of packages by its direction-pointing. It's also an incredible example of the contrast between positive and negative space, which is one of the core principles of design.

Who designed this fantastic logo? Lindon Leader of Leader Creative in 1994.

Hello Trekkies! Holodeck becomes real

2010-02-15T17:42:00.002-06:00

I love it when things from Star Trek come into being. Well, the creators of this software probably did not intend for me to refer lovingly to their emerging 3D imaging technology as a "Holodeck." Check out Micoy to see for yourself. It does fall short of a true Holodeck in terms of fully interacting with a virtual environment, but I think it might eventually get there. Could someone also put into reality, the food-appearing-out-of-nowhere-contraption?

Barking Mad :: First Things First Manifesto

2010-02-14T22:19:00.005-06:00

While reading "Design Studies, A Reader," I stumbled across an incredibly interesting bit on page 174. It was an extraction from "AIGA Journal." At first, I was barking mad that I had not yet heard about Rick Poynor's “First Things First 2000” manifesto, a revised version of the original 1964 written by Ken Garland, "a controversial document that called for designers to use their skills to improve environmental, social and cultural life rather than to sell hair gel and dog biscuits," writes Ellen & Julia Lupton in "Manifesto Mania."

I wondered why this manifesto hasn't made it beyond the inner circles of designers to those who pull the strings in the advertising, marketing and brand development arenas. Since the first manifesto was written in 1964, that's almost 50 years of an open call to designers that have not responded in mass. What's the deal? The manifesto is hiding on AIGA.org's own website. It's not the opening page, the about us or even close to being easily found. Furthermore, it seems that only designers know about AIGA and not the titans of industry for whom we often work.

Maybe it's that we are afraid to piss off the almighty advertising industry. IDK, do you?

How do you start freelancing? Where do you get clients?

2010-01-22T08:21:00.003-06:00

These are two questions that I often hear from my colleagues. Before I got started, I asked the same things. The first thing I did was to start talking to others. I was working full-time in St. Louis and the Internet was just getting into full swing. That made my research process much less complicated, but I soon got stuck.

After I had decided on a business structure (I kept it simple with staying a sole proprietor) completed the necessary forms and filings with the state of Missouri and the IRS, I didn't know what to do next. I read some books about freelance graphic design and entrepreneurship, but I still didn't know how to go about getting my first client.

Here are the steps that I took to get started with freelancing::

Put together a portfolio of my professional work, both in print and online compatible
Started a website (I now use Joomla to build sites)
Filed appropriate papers with state and federal entities (I eventually switched to an LLC and now have a business name, separate from my own name)
Produced an identity for myself (logo, business cards, etc.)
Began networking at any event to hand out business cards and talk to as many people as possible and get their business card
Picked up the phone and sent emails to make follow up contact with those I had networked with
Designed and mailed postcard advertising my graphic design services
Picked up the phone and sent emails to those I had mailed a postcard
Took in my first freelance client, the brother-in-law of someone I worked with at my day job
Started over at step 5 and repeated many, many times

Did I miss things? Sure, but I learned an immense amount by just jumping in and doing. Design is a process and it's never going to be perfect. That's just how I view life. My advice to those thinking about freelancing is in the brand-centered, life-changing words of Nike, "Just do it." You can always revise along the way.

Graphic design methodolgy

2010-01-20T11:35:00.005-06:00

Sketch 1

Sketch 2

Sketch 3

Sketch 4

Sketch 5

Sketch 6

One of my classes this semester in graduate school at Iowa State University is titled Graphic Design Methodology. The first assignment is an overlay project, similar in methods to Wolfgang Weingart.

Each student in the class wrote down a few words on a slip of paper. The words could be anything. We then drew one of the slips of paper out of a hat. I drew "early black metal," which then became my topic for this assignment.

The first step was to write down as many things that came to mind while thinking of early black metal. I wrote down things like, iron, music, camping gear and so on. My compiled list was numerous and then I chose one thing from that list on which to base my sketches for a poster. I chose coffee and the resulting sketches were a result of collecting images based on coffee and then creating transparencies from them.

Once the transparencies were created, I then came with a grid system and starting cutting out and arranging text and images. Computer use for this project is extremely limited and the images here are my first round sketches.

We will be critiquing these, making changes and adding color for the finished product.

Links for 2010-01-16 [del.icio.us]

2010-01-17T19:58:00.001-06:00

YouTube - Catch Me if You Can Opening Title Sequence
YouTube - Psychatric Answering Machine Typography Animation
FREELANCE WEBSITE DESIGN JOBS : FREELANCE WEB DESIGN JOBS for Freelance Graphic Web Designers and
Vector Stock: Royalty Free vector graphics > Vectorstock.com
Wufoo - HTML Form Builder - Free Contact Forms & Online Surveys
CHI 2010 Student Design Competition
Wrapping objects with Displacement Maps in Photoshop
All about designer Paul Rand | Logo Design Love
“Should a logo be self-explanatory? It is only by association with a product, a service, a business, or a corporation that a logo takes on any real meaning. It derives its meaning and usefulness from the quality of that which it symbolizes. If a company is second rate, the logo will eventually be perceived as second rate. It is foolhardy to believe that a logo will do its job immediately, before an audience has been properly conditioned.”
Create A Digital Pixel Effect · Adobe Photoshop Tutorials, Interviews, Inspiration, Videos, Tips, and Support Forums
Iowa State University
MICHAEL DORET: Ads, Posters, Stamps, Etc.
ClichéSite.com - The largest collection of clichés or cliches, phrases and sayings with definitions and explanations.
What I Learned Today
Phyllis J. Lepke Endowed Graduate Award
Describe content of page here.

Water?

2010-01-16T10:54:00.001-06:00

When you take a sip of water today, think of those in Haiti that do not have clean drinking water. Millions of victims of the recent earthquake are in need of the most basic supplies. I take these for granted each day. I don't have much money at the moment, since I'm in graduate school and my partner is also in an educational program, but I'm going to gather up extra clothing and give at least $10 online to the www.clintonbushhaitifund.org

Imagine if 20% of Americans could donate just $1 how much difference that would make to those in crisis in Haiti.

Here are some other online sites that are accepting donations of all kinds. Please consider giving something.

The American Red Cross - www.redcross.org
CARE - www.care.org
UNICEF - www.unicef.org

My design on Threadless! Please score it and help it get printed!

2009-12-30T16:59:00.004-06:00

Threadless Tees is a website that has built a large online community. The community votes for t-shirt submissions and the ones with the highest scores get printed. I uploaded a design titled Gentle Capital B. The design is modified from my kinetic typography video about Gentle Doctor Brown.

Please score this design on a scale of 1 to 5 by clicking the image below. Thanks!

Hindsight is 20/20 t-shirt on Threadless Tees

2009-12-29T12:53:00.003-06:00

I uploaded this design to Threadless Tees for scoring. Did you know that if your design is chosen by the voting community, you get $2,000 in cash? Plus $500 in merchandise and then $500 each time the design is reprinted. Pretty sweet deal.

Did you know your Facebook profile is now public?

2009-12-24T21:57:00.001-06:00

Regardless of whether you chose to keep your Facebook profile private when you set up your page and only viewable by friends, your profile is now available for viewing by everyone. That includes your information, photos, wall posts, everything.

You will have to go into the privacy settings to change these back to be viewable by "only friends," or however you choose from the drop down choices.

Check out this story online for further information straight from Facebook:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/dec/10/facebook-privacy

Rules for online social engagement

2009-12-23T23:07:00.002-06:00

I saw these guidelines posted by Matt Dickman, whose blog I read each day. I think they pretty much cover it so you don't post an online "oops."

Five guidelines/questions before posting:

Assume your Mom reads/sees everything that you post
Assume your boss reads/sees everything that you post
Assume your biggest client reads/sees everything that you post
Assume your biggest competitor reads/sees everything that you post
Assume your children will read/see everything that you post

Poor Bessie

2009-12-15T17:10:00.002-06:00

Hindsight is 20/20. Yes, indeed. I created this image for a project in one of my classes. The assignment was to pick a cliché and produce four different panels. The image above is from the type and image fusion panel. My first choice for a cliché was very difficult to find an appropriate image without being overtly political. I really wanted to use humor in this project and steer clear of the heavy political messages. I appreciate the other student’s work in the class. Some have created very powerful type and image relationships using topics of the day. I often grow tired of being too serious in my design work, or life in general for that matter. I credit this point of view to my years in the workforce, where a large part of the work that I created was not very much fun or spiritually fulfilling. Before applying to graduate school at Iowa State University, I had lost my passion for design.

Now I’m in a place where I want to have fun designing. Graduate school has been the perfect opportunity for me to explore and gain back my zeal. I found this project entertaining, once I found the right image of the poor, stuck cow to match my chosen cliché of “hindsight is 20/20.” This cliché is just the right testament to how I ended up where I am today.

Kellogg's Corn Flakes and female circumcision

2009-12-12T12:51:00.010-06:00

I found a story on CNN.com about the banning of female circumcision in Uganda. Here is the article. I'm pleased that this practice is finally being banned in this African country, mostly due to the international outcry of recent years.

The United States has its own history with the mutilation of female genitalia. I wrote a paper this semester about social changes caused by the Industrial Revolution and compared it to our current digital revolution. The title is, Corsets, push-up bras, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Hooters and computers. I included an exerpt below about Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg's, Plain Facts for Old and Young.

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, a social reformer during the late 19th century, took the adage of "Cleanliness is next to Godliness," to an entirely different level that was far and away from the standard at the time of the weekly Saturday night bath. His 1892 book, Plain Facts for Old and Young: Embracing the Natural History and Hygiene of Organic Life, had little separation of medicine from morality. His remedies for masturbation, which he believed was the most grievous of all sexual sin, included male circumcision without anesthesia, mutilation of female genitalia with acid and remedies to prevent erection. Kellogg used the technological advancement of the printing press, printing thousands of copies of his work, to spread his "medical advice" to the larger population. He was opportunistic and took advantage of increasing concern over the raising of children during the Industrial Revolution, due to increasing numbers of both parents working long hours in factories in urban areas, rather than on rural family farms.

J.C. Leyendecker, Teen Boy, 1916

Kellogg invented a breakfast cereal called Kellogg's Corn Flakes, along with his brother, as one element of a diet he thought would quench the sex drive. Kellogg's Corn Flakes are still on the market today. Although it was never advertised as a sex-drive decreaser, the ads before World War I all portray innocence and the happiness of family life. To promote sales of the then little-known Kellogg's Corn Flakes, a well-known illustrator of the time, J.C. Leyendecker, created an extensive series of endearing vignettes of male and female youngsters, ranging in age from Baby in Highchair to Teen Boy, 1916, enjoying a bowl of the cereal. Each model seemed bent on outdoing the others in enjoying their corn flakes. Today it is now advertised as part of a healthy breakfast with a multitude of lifestyle images and scenes.

References:

Pursell, Carroll (1995,2007). The machine in America: a social history of technology. Baltimore, Maryland. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Page 35.

Industrial Revolution. Retrieved from Wikipedia Online Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution.

Catlin, Professor G. E. G. (1929) The Rights of Woman. London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd. Page XII introduction.

Emmanuel, Lisa Orkin. Women must still keep house. Retrieved from The Washington Times Online Web site: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/18/women-still-must-keep-house/

Cott, Nancy F. (1983). Procreation or pleasure: Sexual attitudes in American History. Malabar, Fla.: Robert E. Krieger Publishing Co., Inc. Page 18.

Cornog, Martha. (1996) For sex education, see librarian. A guide to issues and resources. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press. Page21.

Apple's Magic Mouse... Do I hear sleigh bells ringing and bringing me this under my non-existent tree?

2009-12-11T16:15:00.004-06:00

Ah, Apple. You've done it again. Released something super cool and just in time for the holidays! In the spirit of Napoleon Dynamite, I say, "I want that."

http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/

Restaurant inspired cat food – Are they mad?

2009-12-09T10:04:00.000-06:00

I recently saw a commercial promoting "restaurant inspired" cat food. WTF? Neither of my cats have been to a restaurant, nor ask me to spruce up their meals. Do people really fall for this crap that your pets need to be eating what you're eating? Or that a chef needs to be called in to create gourmet food for cats? Nestle Purina® wouldn't be spending the money on advertising if it wasn't working.

BTW: This image was found on the Wal-Mart® website. I don't know about you, but Wal-Mart® does not imply fancy or elegant to me.

Here's a line from the Fancy Feast® website:

"Inspired by slow, fire-cooking traditions, Fancy Feast® Grilled entrees enliven mealtime with mouth-watering flavor."

Kudos to the copy writer for creating a new "fancy" word for oven.

This might be an attempt to curb skepticism about pet food manufacturing after the March 16, 2007 mass pet food recalls. My pets eat the Biologically Appropriate Raw Food diet, more commonly referred to as the BARF diet. I would like to see some advertising for this diet and hire a copy writer to work on the acronym. I bet if we used the same copy writer that Fancy Feast® did, they could make BARF sound yummy!

Futurism and its influence on current designers

2009-12-09T08:19:00.002-06:00

I've been greatly influenced this academic year by the Futurist movement. What is this movement, you ask? Here is a definition from The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Graphic Design and Designers.1

Futurism
Revolutionary art movement founded in 1909 by Italian writer and poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Conceived as a literary movement, it sequently embraced all the arts including painting, sculpture, music and architecture. The first Futurist Manifesto, published in the French newspaper Le Figaro on 20 February 1909, advocated an uneasy mix of Italian nationalism, militarism and the "new religion of speed," as expressed through cars and aeroplanes. Other significant Futurists included Umberto Boccini, Giacomo Balla and Gino Severini. Futurism encouraged the emergence of the typographer/poet, challenging the tradition of the printed page and the predictable sequence of typographic information. Type elements and collage were used in a dynamic manner to create picture-poems, early forerunners of concrete poetry. Futurism's influence as a force for change declined rapidly after about 1915.

Filippo Marinetti, Les mots en liberte ( The Words to freedom), 1919.

Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash.

Cyndi Wiley, Big Bang and the Creation Story(s), 2009.

This is a tactile poster that I created as a class project for my graduate studio class 570. Each student drew a quote from a hat and designed a poster based on that quote. The quote that I blindly selected was "God finds Himself by creating." I was immediately excited to challenge the preconception of God's gender in my design and used scanned pages from the Hebrew scriptures and also the Qu'ran in relation to creation stories. I also used computer syntax as a typographic statement of how God continues to create. There are seven panels within the design that pull on the idea of God creating the world in seven days and they appear in the Christian context of the cross. Female and Male are represented in chromosomal forms of XX and XY, with a blueprint grid. I decided to include my annotations from my hand-drawn sketch to the final design to add the dimension of thought process to creation.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Finally, a woman doctor gets to put on the white coat!

2009-12-08T08:23:00.000-06:00

Just saw a commercial on TV during Headline News® for a new pharmaceutical called AcipHex®. What's different about this commercial? Instead of the stereotypical white-coat clad male doctor, this time it's a woman. AND the male lead in the commercial is seeking her consult. Nice!

Not that I really like pharmaceuticals or the commercials. At least if I'm forced to watch them, it's great to see some diversity. Perhaps it's because this is related to a Japanese company.

However, I couldn't find the woman doctor on their website. Somewhat disappointing, but I guess I can't have it all.

ACIPHEX is a registered trademark of Eisai Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan. ©Eisai Inc. and Ortho-McNeil, Inc. 1998-2006.

Why are people afraid of designers?

2009-12-07T13:52:00.000-06:00

Maybe it's the way we dress, or the way most of us stock up on gadgets. I have been referred to as a "gadget girl." Mostly by my best friend, but there is some truth to it.

I have found that most ordinary business people that I network with don't really know what a creative designer does. I've stopped referring to myself as a graphic designer, by the way. There are a lot of folks out there calling themselves graphic designers and we all know that a mastery of Microsoft Word should not constitute a graphic designer.

Back to the topic.

Since most business people don't really have an understanding of the creative process and hence the value of creativity, they are afraid of us. They may tip-toe around us, not wanting to "interrupt the creative process" and snicker to their co-workers about the fruitcakes in their creative services department.

Although I do own a t-shirt that has "fruitcake" screen printed across the chest, this does not mean that I really am one. I love the creative process and I love to talk about it. Once most of these business professionals see the passion for my profession, it usually brings down the walls and the stereotypes. Opening up conversation between us. I get many remarks from my clients that I'm not at all who they pictured me to be. In fact, I've had many of them tell me that they were surprised that I would accept their feedback on a particular design or idea.

My view is that feedback is critical and there is a very fine line of how far I can go in my recommendations to a client. I don't pretend to know more about their business than they do and my clients appreciate that. They expect professionalism from me, but also enjoy the "fruitcake" designer side.

My vision for the design community

2009-12-06T15:43:00.000-06:00

I think it would be a great idea to set up a non profit design group that could provide creative services for small and minority owned businesses using grant money. I don't know a thing about grant money, but I do know a smidge about setting up a non profit organization. This endeavor will take a great amount of time, money and collaboration.

Perhaps this is my life's mission.

This idea is spurring from recent conversations that I have had with some startup companies looking to hire a professional designer. These newbies have a good appreciation for aesthetics and know the advantages of using a designer, as opposed to creating their corporate identity on their own (using Microsoft Word for heaven's sake!) The problem lies in funding their new business and incorporating enough funds to pay for professional design. Sometimes they have to pass on the design in order to buy the right equipment and hire the right people to get the company off the ground.

Good corporate identity can also help the company get off the ground, but when the funds aren't there, they just aren't there. I've worked some deals out with startups, where they pay a monthly fee and I can commence work. I've also worked out a plan where a company can pay me as they get the results they need from a marketing campaign that I have designed. That adds an extra "guarantee" to my work and builds trust between me and my client.

Things may be a bit more process oriented for the startup or established business if there was a non profit design group working from grant money.

Decorative typefaces = FAIL

2009-12-03T13:51:00.005-06:00

With the availability of digital typography, almost everyone in the US has access to the default typefaces included with Windows and with the Mac OS. What constitutes a good choice to use for your marketing materials, Web site and such? Actually, quite a lot is to be considered when searching for an appropriate typographic solution for any design project. There are six main classifications for typefaces, Old Style, Italic, Transitional, Modern, Egyptian and Sans Serif

Since there are numerous variations of typefaces, some originally designed for hand, machine or phototype composition, designers need to study form and spacing in fonts. One of the fonts that I have seen lately used for logos, signage and all sorts of printed and digital matter is called Papyrus. It comes as default with the Windows operation system. It is a poor choice to use for display type, text type or really any visual communication, as with most decorative fonts. Why?

Classic typefaces were originally designed to stand the test of time and most were meant for the printing press. There are versions of these classics that have been re-designed for our current digital age. When the masters of typography sat down to sketch and carve out a typeface, they painstakingly worked with the capline, meanline, baseline, beard line, x-height, counter and all parts of the letterform. This painstaking work goes virtually unnoticed by the human eye while reading a word or paragraph of text. Some adjustments between letterforms are done optically, rather than by a certain formula. All of this work is to create a pleasurable reading experience for the viewer, and to ensure ease of meaning in the words that are read.

Reading an entire paragraph set in Papyrus will not only slow down your reading comprehension and speed, but will most likely give you a headache after a few paragraphs. If you don't know which typeface to pick for your project, I would recommend working with a knowledgeable designer to help answer that question. Look to your local chapter of American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) for help in finding the right designer. Most members of AIGA, not all, are extremely professional and knowledgeable. It's important to meet with at least three different designers or firms before you do any hiring. Make sure it's a mutual relationship.

A good resource to learn the basics of typography is called Typographic Design: Form and Communication by Rob Carter, Ben Day and Philip Meggs. This book has helped guide me through some challenging projects, and continues to do so.

ISBN: 978-0-471-78390-9

Paperback

336 pages

November 2006

Hindsight

2009-12-02T19:24:00.004-06:00

I picked up a book at the campus library today that helped answer a long-time question of mine. The book is titled Hindsight: 30 of the world's leading designers give their personal responses to some of the most frequently asked questions about graphic design, edited by Ken Cato. A question asked by a student is, "Do you think that society generally has a good understanding of what graphic design is? How can we improve society's views on graphic design and graphic designers?"

My favorite response was from John Warwicker. He says, "Firstly, get rid of the words 'graphic design'. Be more specific: visual communication, typographic communication, typological communication…"

Massimo Vignelli says, "There is not a clear idea of what a graphic designer is. Do you wonder why? Look around. We are getting what we deserve."

There are some other answers by other well-known designers that are quite verbose, but I prefer the "just the facts, ma'am," approach of the above. Simple and to the point.

Here is the info on the book and a link to it on Amazon.

ISBN: 9789057033414
Format: Hardback (270mm x 240mm x 19mm)
Pages: 160
Publish Date: 1-Aug-1998

Female Hysteria

2009-11-29T10:24:00.003-06:00

While researching for a paper about the social changes impacted by new technology of the Industrial Revolution as compared to today's digital age, I stumbled on some incredibly interesting facts regarding taboo subjects.

"Female hysteria was a once-common medical diagnosis, made exclusively in women, which is today no longer recognized by modern medical authorities as a medical disorder. Its diagnosis and treatment was routine for many hundreds of years in Western Europe."

Kellina Wilkinson invented the electrically powered vibrator in the 1880s to treat what was then called "congestion of the genitalia" and "female hysteria.”A woman would go to see her doctor, who would use this newly invented contraption to cure the hysteria.

White Cross electric vibrator

First electric vibrator by Hamilton Beach

Ad promoting vibrators

Helvetica

2009-03-31T09:43:00.001-05:00

I finally watched the documentary movie, Helvetica. I thought it was very well done with a mix of contemporary and old-school designers and type masters. The debate about whether the font Helvetica is still a useful and viable choice for visual communications is divided right down the middle within the design community. Some love it, some hate it.

As for me, I have great respect for Helvetica and what it offered for designers in the 60s and beyond. I use Helvetica quite frequently in my work for its clean lines and straight forward look. However, as you drive down any commercial street in our country, you will notice just how many corporate logos use the font. It's certainly become very difficult to stand apart based on your logo alone, which is where many companies fall flat. This is where you must consider your branding to effectively communicate your products and services. Your brand consists of your entire corporate culture, which includes every bit of visual communication, your products or services, your employees are even a part of this mix. Think about what you are communicating and what you would like to communicate. Chances are what you would like to say is not coming across clearly to your target audience.

My Body of Work

2009-03-05T22:07:00.001-06:00

It's been almost 12 years since I graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Arts in art. I feel that I have experienced the best of both worlds in working for myself the past 18 months and my prior work experience as part of an in-house creative department. It was hard to pick what projects made it into my portfolio, but I've chosen work that I enjoyed creating and each piece has a story behind it.

A trademark no-no, from Little Trees Car Freshner

2009-02-12T12:11:00.001-06:00

Have you ever used this image in one of your marketing campaigns? A lot of companies have and continue to do so. What they don't realize is that the whole thing is a registered trademark. I came across this ad in a recent issue of Print magazine and thought it was an interesting way to remind designers of their trademark. If your design is questionable on trademark infringement, ALWAYS contact the company first and avoid cease and desist letters from an attorney. Here are some other resources to consult:

United States Patent and Trademark office
http://www.uspto.gov/

Cornell University Law School
http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/Trademark

Working with Interfaith Alliance of Iowa

2009-01-20T18:14:00.001-06:00

I am currently working with Interfaith Alliance of Iowa to help develop a new project called Faithful Voices. This will entail a web site (FaithfulVoices.org) along with printed materials and online social media tools. What is Faithful Voices? It's people of faith and goodwill creating marriage equality in Iowa. More information will come as I work with Interfaith Alliance of Iowa to develop and release them.

Along with Faithful Voices, I will be working on incorporating the new national branding (see above logo) for Interfaith Alliance and will be releasing their new website (InterfaithAllianceIowa.org).

Couple fought hatred with their faith | DesMoinesRegister.com

2009-01-20T10:30:00.001-06:00

Here is a story from the Des Moines Register about our Love Thy Neighbor shirts, designed by Cyndi Wiley and Rev. Jennifer Hall.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009901200348

Designing for the Greater Good

2009-01-15T09:43:00.001-06:00

I don't usually advertise contests, but this one struck a chord with me. Especially, since it started out by addressing me "Dear socially-conscious designer:" I'm planning on entering some pieces. What's the best part of this contest, besides being involved in designing for the greater good? It's FREE to submit if you are a creative professional. That's right, FREE, and no limit to the number of submissions you can submit. Now that is a change from the $50 + fees of others contests.

Check it out here:
http://www.designingforthegreatergood.com/submissions.html

The new MacBook Wheel

2009-01-07T09:03:00.001-06:00

"I'll buy anything shiny and made by Apple," quoted from the Onion's video report below.

Apple Introduces Revolutionary New Laptop With No Keyboard

Pepsi commercial from the UK

2009-01-05T09:21:00.001-06:00

I've always been a fan of Pepsi... this commercial just affirms my adoration of the brand.

http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2008/pepsi-max-kicks-p1.php?emf=sk