All posts tagged graphic design

Adobe Creative Suite 4 – Mac will Have to Wait!

By On September 26, 2008 In Print Graphic Design, Website Design With No Comments Permanent Link to Adobe Creative Suite 4 – Mac will Have to Wait!Permalink

Adobe will introduce a 64-bit enabled version of Creative Suite 4, but initially only Windows Vista users will get 64-bit versions across the board. Mac users have to wait for 64-bit versions of some aps, including Photoshop, and Carbon is the culprit, the company explains.

This is because many of the applications which make up CS4 (including Photoshop) are written in the Carbon development language rather than Cocoa. When at WWDC 2007 Apple revealed that it would not support 64-bit in Carbon, Adobe realized it would need to rewrite some of its applications in Cocoa, Apple’s collection of frameworks, APIs, and accompanying runtimes that make up the development layer of Mac OS X, before the applications would be able to take advantage of 64-bit computing power.

“We have to rewrite from scratch,” said Adobe Photoshop product manager John Nack. “This makes the cost of the move considerably greater than for Windows. So we will ship 64-bit Windows version first,” he added.

When Carbon-64 was cancelled Adobe “took resources from the CS4 effort” to focus on the switch to Cocoa. “But we didn’t think we should sacrifice the whole CS4 feature set for 64-bit on the Mac,” revealed Nack.

Luckily the company wrote its relatively new Lightroom application in Cocoa so the transition to 64-bit can be immediate in that case, which is why the company introduced a 64-bit beta version of Lightroom to Mac users this morning.

When asked whether Adobe should have recognized the transition to Cocoa from Carbon sooner, Nack explained that while some might think that if software wants to be taken seriously as a Mac application it should be written in Cocoa, but “Apple’s Finder is written in Carbon.”

Nack would reveal no details of a shipping date for the new version of Creative Suite, saying that: “There is no time scale for CS4,” and that it is: “Too early to say when we can deliver 64-bit for Mac.”

He added that the next version of Photoshop will ship in 32- and 64-bit versions for Windows, with a simultaneous release of the software for the Mac, though the 64-bit version for Mac will be a subsequent release.

64-bit hype?

The delay may not matter too much. Nack doesn’t appear convinced that being able to exploit 64-bit computing immediately would be a great benefit to all Photoshop users.

“The real strength of 64-bit’s is letting you address a large amount of memory. You’ll see the biggest difference when working with large images or moving around a lot of data,” he explained. To take advantage of 64-bit you need “more than 4GB Ram allocated to Photoshop,” he added.

“If you are a web user moving files around then you won’t see much difference. Where you will see a substantial performance increase is with large files — for example it could cut the time it takes to open a large image from 200 to 70 seconds.

“For pros it matters, for normal people it is more of a marginal performance difference.

“We don’t want to overhype 64-bit with expectations that aren’t going to be matched,” he added.

But regardless of the status of 64-bit right now, Nack believes that getting set-up with 64-bit now is good because it will future-proof the Creative Suite applications for a time when all PCs and Macs support 64-bit and feature adequate RAM as standard.

PC World

A Client’s Guide to Design: PT5 Business expectations for a professional designer

By On September 8, 2008 In Internet Marketing, Print Graphic Design, Website Design With No Comments Permanent Link to A Client’s Guide to Design: PT5 Business expectations for a professional designerPermalink

In today’s information-saturated world, where an organization’s success is determined by the power of its brand, professional designers become even more important in ensuring that companies communicate effectively—an imperative with bottom-line impact. Furthermore, a professional designer’s ability to execute communications projects efficiently and economically is more critical than ever.

When a client invests in the services of a professional designer, he or she hires an individual who aspires to the highest level of strategic design, ensuring a higher return on investment. If a designer meets the following criteria, he or she will demonstrate the integrity and honor of the professional designer.

Experience and knowledge
A professional designer is qualified by education, experience and practice to assist organizations with strategic communication design. A professional designer has mastered a broad range of conceptual, formal and technological skills.
A professional designer applies his or her knowledge about physical, cognitive, social and cultural human factors to communication planning and the creation of an appropriate form that interprets, informs, instructs or persuades.
Strategic process
A professional designer combines creative criteria with sound problem-solving strategy to create and implement effective communication design. A professional designer solves communication problems with effective and impactful information architecture.
A professional designer becomes acquainted with the necessary elements of a client’s business and design standards. A professional designer conducts the necessary research and analysis to create sound communication design with clearly stated goals and objectives.
A professional designer will submit an initial communication strategy to an organization’s management for approval and meet with a client as often as necessary to define ongoing processes and strategy.
Compensation and
financial practices
A professional designer provides the client with a working agreement or estimate for all projects. A professional designer will not incur any expenses in excess of the budget without the client’s advance approval.
A professional designer may apply reasonable handling and administrative charges to reimbursable items that pass through the designer’s account with the knowledge and understanding of the client.
A professional designer does not undertake speculative work or proposals (spec work) in which a
client requests work without providing compensation and without developing a professional relationship that permits the designer sufficient access to the client to provide a responsible recommendation.

Copyright: © AIGA 2007

A Client’s Guide to Design: PT2 Finding the right designer

By On August 29, 2008 In Internet Marketing, Print Graphic Design, Website Design With No Comments Permanent Link to A Client’s Guide to Design: PT2 Finding the right designerPermalink

People with a great deal of experience—both as
designers and as clients—will tell you that if you really
do your homework in the selection process, the
chances are excellent that what follows will bring
about the hoped–for results

Where to look
There are more than 19,000 members of AIGA, and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of other businesses providing graphic design that aren’t members. There are also other graphic design associations with their own memberships. And this is just the United States It’s a big community and, as with all businesses, design is increasingly global.
Where do you start?
The membership lists of AIGA and other design organizations are available to the public. They are a good place to begin, especially if you’re starting from ground zero. You will find the lists arranged by city and state, so that if location is an issue for you, you can define your search geographically. Start with AIGA’s online membership directory at www.aiga.org/membership. Design industry publications are another source. They are both numerous and accessible. Not only do they publish the work of designers on a regular basis, many also publish design annuals that display what the publications judge to be the best design in a variety of categories. These publications will not only show you what designers are capable of producing, but also how companies of all sizes and from every sector of industry are using design to communicate effectively. Reviewing them is a fairly easy way to see a lot of work quickly. Doing so may also tell you something about where your own design comfort zone lies. And while your personal comfort zone isn’t necessarily the right yardstick for making a selection, knowing it will help you in the “briefing” process (more on this shortly). Still another way to find designers is to look around at what other companies are doing; call the companies whose efforts you admire and ask for their recommendations.
Companies that are doing a good job of communicating are companies who care about it, and they’re typically willing to discuss the subject. Furthermore, if they’re doing good work, it usually means they are good clients. Find out from them what makes a design client a good client. Designers themselves are also good sources. Ask them whom they respect within their field. There’s nothing wrong with getting them to name their competition. While it might make choosing tougher, when you make the final selection from among designers who are peers, you usually come out better than when you don’t. (And if the relationship doesn’t work, well, you have some future contenders you already know something about.)

Copyright: © AIGA 2007

What is more important to you?

By On August 29, 2008 In Print Graphic Design, Website Design With No Comments Permanent Link to What is more important to you?Permalink

When looking at your design needs, what are the two most important factors to you?

Quality & Speed
You need a high-quality design, yesterday.
The price is likely to be more expensive.

Price & Quality
You need a high-quality design and you are on a tight or fixed budget.
Give us the time and we can find a way get it done.

Speed & Price
You are on a tight budget and you need the design yesterday.
Expect your project to look rushed and unpolished, however at a later date we can polish the design to your future needs.

Ultimately, you get what you pay for. Your design represents your company to the public, and when hiring a designer, you pay for more than just the appearance of things. You pay the designer for the creativity to take your designs to a higher level than your competitors. Let our design team analyze your needs and create a design catered to you business.

A Client’s Guide to Design: PT1

By On August 27, 2008 In Internet Marketing, Print Graphic Design, Website Design With No Comments Permanent Link to A Client’s Guide to Design: PT1Permalink

If you represent a corporation, institution,

advertising agency, investor or public

relations firm, or are an individual in need

of graphic design, you’ve landed exactly

where you need to be. Welcome.

 

Welcome.How to Get the Most Out of the Process: Unlike so much in today’s business world, graphic design is not a commodity. It is the highly individualized result of people coming together to do something they couldn’t do alone. When the collaboration is creative, the results usually are too. This brochure is about how to get creative results. Developed by AIGA, the discussion that follows will give you realistic, useful information about the design process–from selecting a design firm to providing a clear understanding of objectives, evaluating cost and guiding a project to a desired end. It is a kind of “best practices” guide based upon the best thinking of many different designers with very different specializations and points of view, as well as clients of design who have a long history of using it successfully for their companies. The fundamental premise here is that anything worth doing is worth doing well, but if it’s to be done well, it must first be valued.

The value position: Design—good design—is not cheap. You would be better served to spend your money on something else if you don’t place a high value on what it can achieve. There’s a view in Buddhism that there’s no “good” karma and no“bad” karma, there’s just karma. The same can’t be said for design. Karma is a universal condition. Design is a human act (which often affects conditions) and, therefore, subject to many variables. When the word design is used here, it is always in the context of good design.

A lot of famous people have written many famous books on the importance of design and creativity. The subject matter ranges from using design and creativity to gain a strategic advantage or make the world a more livable place—and more. Much more. The focus here is on how to make the process of design work in the business environment so that the end product lives up to its potential.

What design is and isn’t: Design often has the properties of good looks, which perhaps is why it’s often confused with style. But design is about the underlying structure of communicating— the idea, not merely the surface qualities. The late, great designer Saul Bass called this “idea nudity”— messages that stand on their unadorned own. Certainly, it’s possible for a good idea to be poorly executed. But bad ideas can’t be rescued. When, for example, a global fashion house put verses from the Koran on the back pockets of its designer jeans for all the world to sit on, that was a bad idea before it was ever designed and produced. And the outcry of indignant Muslims worldwide loudly attested to this. Using a different color or type style wouldn’t have changed the outcome. Ideas give design its weight, its ability to influence audiences positively, negatively or not at all. The objects of design Design is about the whole, not the parts. If you wear your $2,500 Armani suit with the wrong pair of shoes, you are apt to be remembered for the shoes and not the suit. Inconsistency raises doubt and doubt makes people wary. This might not matter much if customers didn’t have alternatives, but customers do. And they know it.

So?

So, it isn’t enough for a company to have a great logo if the communications effort isn’t carried out across the full spectrum of the company’s interaction with its marketplaces— from how the telephone is answered to corporate identity; branding; packaging; print materials; advertising; Internet, intranet, interactive multimedia and web-related communications; and environmental graphics. The “swoosh” didn’t make Nike a successful company. Nike made the“swoosh” an iconic reflection of a carefully orchestrated approach to the marketplace. (For better or worse, the marketplace is now deluged with “swoosh”-like shapes, identifying companies ranging from sportswear to software. It’s the frame of reference for what many think of when visualizing the word “mark.”) It’s unlikely the “swoosh” would be so memorable had it stayed confined to, say, hangtags on shoes.

Copyright: © AIGA 2007