One of our great partners, Urban Accents, is featured in the excellent Chicago web magazine Gapers Block. Check our the packaging work we’ve done with Urban Accents, especially the fantastic Dryglaze line of products.
iStock offers logos and the design world doesn’t implode?
It’s been circling through the design community online—iStockphoto will soon be offering “stock logos” for sale on their site. Much digital ink has been spilled in outrage, disgust, indifference and excitement. But what does this really mean for the design industry and the creative marketplace of the future?
Why this will be bad for iStockphoto
The move hurts their brand. iStockphoto has been good at what it does—providing inexpensive stock photography for designers and marketers with small budgets. Its high-quality photos and vector illustrations are miles beyond its competition. But much like BMW’s entry into the SUV market, iStock is venturing into untested waters where maintaining the same quality level will be much more difficult (and expensive).
Is iStock biting the hand that feeds it? Their primary buyers are graphic designers, art directors and marketing people looking for affordable photos and illustrations. Up to this point, these creative types saw themselves as customers and partners with iStock, and their offerings were a useful creative resource. But that strategic friendship will probably be strained as the company seems to be competing with its customers. I can foresee many designers boycotting iStock in an effort to fight the perception that the company wants to take away their business.
Miles of piles in your workspace?
In her blog post on Fast Company, Ellen Lupton (author of Thinking With Type) talks about the curious habit of piling up papers. This particular quote gave me a bit of hope, as it exactly describes my working style:
She describes her work style as “managing through piles.” MacLear assigns each project its own stack of papers. “If I don’t see them (they are in a cabinet) then the project might as well be in cold storage,” she says. Many productivity experts agree that documents should stay more or less visible until you are finished using them. At that point, most papers can either be recycled or banished to closed filing cabinets.
How does everyone else arrange their workspace?
Tips for printing on colored paper stock
Your printing budgets might still be shrinking in these uncertain economic times, so the answer for the enterprising designer is to do more with less. Use that production knowledge to give your piece the impact it needs while working within the monetary constraints. Can’t spring for a 4-color run or extra spot colors on this job? Here are some good thoughts in how to utilize colored paper stocks for good effect.
What if the Hate Van visits your brand?
Way back before we started Hexanine, I commuted out of the city to a design firm in the Chicago burbs. My drive averaged 70 minutes each way, and gave me plenty of time for brainstorming and podcasts. But while motoring to the Kennedy Expressway, I saw things I might have missed if it weren’t for the gridlock. One of them was this van: (Photo taken with my old cellphone.)
In the 2+ years I made that drive, this homemade billboard of a van was parked on the same 3-block stretch (moving occasionally) right near the highway. That was almost 5 years ago. And guess what? It’s still there. That old van even has a spot on Google Maps street view. For those of you who don’t get the funny syntax English, the author of this vinyl lettered rage (applied to all sides of the vehicle!) doesn’t like American Family Insurance. It’s obvious to anyone who drives or walks past this Hate Van that for whatever reason (“Didn’t fix this Car!”) American Family did something to absolutely piss off the owner.
Join The Party With EPIC
This Thursday night we’ll be hanging with some of the best and brightest design and marketing minds in Chicago, to celebrate the work created by the latest EPIC team. EPIC is an organization founded by Erin Huizenga (a good friend and talented designer), to pair select teams of creative folks from the advertising and design industries with nonprofit clients dedicated to education, children and families. The work that has come out of previous 8-week “creative rallies” has enormously helped a wide swath of nonprofits to continue their great missions with professional-level brand materials.
Thursday’s celebration of work for 2 BigHearts Foundation, CASA of Cook County, and Project Kindle will be at Sean Williams Photography Studio from 6-9pm. More details at EPIC’s site.
Park Church Logo Featured In LogoLounge5
We just wanted to mention that our work for Park Community Church has been included in Rockport’s book LogoLounge5. Out of 33,000 submitted logos, ours for Park was chosen for publication. Even after five volumes, this series of books continues to be an excellent resource and inspiration for identity designers everywhere–we’ve been buying these books for years. Along with the book series, LogoLounge offers an annual membership that allows members access to all submitted logos, not just those chosen for the books. It’s absolutely worth the price, for inspiration and research purposes.
We Are Live.
Welcome to the official launch of the Hexanine website, as well as this blog, Zeroside.
After many late nights, sweat and tears, we’re live and worldwide, comin’ at you.
In the coming weeks and months we’ll be posting a variety of bits–insight and inspiration in the form of articles, case studies, relevant links & more. We look forward to beginning the conversation with you. More very soon.
Excelsior!