Schedule willing, be sure to check back Wednesday and Friday (or next week, it being the holidays and all) for the next two comics that follow this one. We cover this topic somewhat on the next episode of The Reflex Blue Show, but I felt it warranted a little further storytelling.

Back for the first time in two weeks and …what? I drop the worst Panel One layout of all time? I apologize. I really don’t know what I was thinking. Marie has a head the size of a watermelon and it just doesn’t fit there.

I’ve been managing my Twitter space lately, relegating some friends to a more personal experience on Facebook, because let’s be honest: I don’t care where you are or what you are the mayor of, or what you think of what almost any celebrity or random twitter whore social media expert says. It’s been cathartic. I think of this process as cleaning up a messy desk that you just let get out of control. At one time you were sure you had a use for all of this crap on your desk, but now it has just become an unmanageable mess that saps the energy from you instead of delivering it to you. My newer, leaner Twitter follows make my life easier to live. If I don’t catch you there, though, there’s always Facebook, where I promise I’m totally not hiding your updates.

Now, if I may be done pissing into the wind, you may follow Conrad’s words of wisdom here.

Force Justify 2 is one of those things I am going to come back to and flesh out when and if 1PT.Rule ever gets a printed volume. I think I owe it to the people who would buy that fictional tome. Regardless of skipping a week and jumping way ahead like this, I promise you — nay, state as fact — that it was always going to end like this.

Next week we’re traveling to Denver to cover three, three, three HOW conferences and we’ll have all sorts of content every day. Mark your calendars. We’ve got, like, all kinds of mess.

Late Friday post! I wonder if anyone will see this before Monday? What can I say, I’m a working man, too. So much so, in fact, that I am struggling to find something wonderful to say at the beginning of this post and I got… nothing.

Creatively tapped out. Hopefully some Mass Effect 2 this weekend will cure it. Expect next week’s Force Justify comics to take a freak sci-fi twist if that pans out. Happy weekend, everybody!

Force Justify 2! I love drawing these strips, and composing them without panels this time around is an interesting challenge. So far I’ve been a little time crunched on each comic so they’re coming together similarly, I have high hopes of expanding on the visual storytelling here.

The writing is, of course, sooper-dooper time consuming. Graphic-design-based detective noir is a fairly specific subset of authoring, and I feel like I’m hitting the keys at the pace of a cro-magnon.

Next strip is Friday if my computer continues to hold up. So far every day begins with an adventure titled “How Many Startups Before It Stops Kernal Panicing?” It’s not a very fun game.

Back from a ten-day hiatus with perhaps the longest title ever. Just in case you’re on a small monitor, I want you to know we’ve got a lot of killer stuff under these comic posts, like the new episode of The Reflex Blue Show that launched today, too. We’re still working with WordPress and ComicPress to figure the new system out.

Force Justify first started here and ran for five strips. The sequel, as sequels must, will be a bit broader in scope. I made that logo special just for you.

This has been a hellish month for the strip. First I cut off my damn finger, which is healing very nicely into a dramatic scar. I can type with it again, but it still lacks the sensation of touch for such activities. Then, all last week, my computer experienced kernel panic after kernel panic, for five straight days. After much trial and error I determined that my Wacom driver needed to be updated. This is the current theory, even though I’ve had that thing hooked for two and half years without incident. When you’re a freelancer and your computer takes a dump, let me tell you, you start thinking about things. And stuff. And the general need for backup plans should such unfortunate events prove lasting.

If I ever come up with one I’ll be sure to let you know.

Juuuuuust right.

Newton’s communication woes continue. I believe this is known as an “overcorrection.” I also realize this makes three of my four main characters that we have now seen post-ahem, and I promise I’m not trying to maintain a trend. (And you shouldn’t hold your breath on ever seeing the fourth one.)

We’ve been talking a lot lately about how to talk to clients to get the most out of those relationships. I think we’d all love to be brutally honest, but that’s rarely the right tactic. In my youth, I once overheard a senior designer tell a client that “it would be irresponsible of me as a designer to make the changes you are suggesting.” We never heard from them again.

Leave it to me to have a comic ready to go for today that has nothing directly related to graphic design in it (you know, aside from the fallout inherent in slicing off your own finger making mockups) on a day where we were named one of HOW Magazine’s Top Ten Websites for Designers. If you like what you see, get your follow on for the latest comic updates.

However, if the above is not your cup of tea, we did just put the finishing touches on our second episode of the third season of The Reflex Blue Show, upon which Donovan toils next to me. It should be available shortly.

The recovery from Finger Gate is proceeding, though slowly, and I must apologize for the near week-long absence of the comic. If you are bothered by it, I encourage you to accidentally lacerate yourself in the most useful part of the most useful finger of your most useful hand. No, actually, don’t do that.

Obviously though, if you did, and you had some Super 77 hanging around, well, it just starts to make sense, doesn’t it?

So this comic took a little extra doing. Actually, it took the normal amount of doing, just with the added benefit of a right hand index finger plagued by seven stitches and a formerly gaping slice.

I took a chunk of a finger off a few years ago at my first job making a mockup under pressure, and I once had to drive a student to the emergency room when she did the same thing only way worse. This injury way less heroic where putting your life on the line for your job is concerned. After years of cutting everything I could get my hands on with a super-sharp exacto-knife, I cut the living crap out of myself… washing a steak-knife in my sink.

Seven stitches and still rocking the comic. Booya.

A friendly 36 Point reminder: Let’s all be good to each other out there.

Sometimes I’ll do a comic and not really have anything to say.  This one doesn’t need a lot of commentary I don’t think. Nice to see more sides of Marie, though.

Do check out The Reflex Blue Show Season 3 Premier where we cover the crap out of Adobe CS5, available now with super-hot in-browser player!! It’s been an awesome week here on 36 Point and we’ve got lots more planned. See you soon —

I missed about… 90% of the Adobe launch video this morning. I did see Mig‘s beautiful face pop up near the end though, so I guess that was worth it. Nope, the part I caught was some guy going on and on about some Flash-driven application something geared towards tablets. The strip practically wrote itself.

I livestreamed the creation of today’s comic on my Ustream Channel because I’m working from HQ today. So it’s not something I’ll be able to do all the time, but I had so much fun chatting it up with people during the creation of the comic I promise to do it again as soon as possible!

The CS5 web launch (is it really a launch if you can’t buy it that day? Isn’t it an “announcement?”) is Monday, and I’m sure I’ll be watching because… well at this point I’m kind of committed. Gotta follow through.

I wrote off the iPad the instant Steve Jobs showed it on stage and it was just a big iPod Touch. I said “really?!” and walked away. Last night, I had some time to kill and stopped by a Best Buy, the greatest of all places for a man to kill time. After stumbling around looking at Transformers mega dvd sets and limited edition xboxes I wandered over to play on some macbooks at their little Apple kiosk area. Low and behold, there were four iPads just sitting around to play with and no-one playing with them.

I am past the point of getting excited about Adobe CS5, though they are doing their darndest to get me that way. Yes, there are cool features being added in. No, I will likely never use them with any regularity. It’s the things I do use regularly (the snowflake upon the tip of the iceberg touched on in today’s strip, for instance) that have been bothering me since the turn of the century that they stubbornly refuse to fix. I say “stubbornly” because when we interviewed Von Glitschka back when CS4 came out, he told us that was exactly the way they behaved in the face of his feedback. One imagines some dickhead in front of a team of young programmers stating emphatically that “we don’t need to change the way our software works, you need to change the way you work with our software.”

One imagines, anyway.

But the usability differences between similar programs have become too small and too stupid not to simply become fixed through less effort than it takes to devise a way for Photoshop to invent a photo for you. The spacing between a page and the edge of a window should be no different in Illustrator than it is in InDesign, for instance, and in InDesign it is a comfortable amount of pixels. In Illustrator it smacks up against the side like a 14-year-old at a junior high dance. When you turn on rulers, the page in the window should adjust for the encroachment upon the available space. In some programs this happens, again, comfortably. In Illustrator it does not care what you turn on or off, or how you resize the page in the window, or what zoom you are putting to it. For crying out loud, it doesn’t even recenter the window in a resized window if you have the bloody page centered in the window to begin with! Photoshop and InDesign do this. As the original family of software, there is really no excuse for this kind of shoddy craftsmanship.

I understand that Flash and Dreamweaver are their own animals and require very different interfaces to achieve the goals of each program. I get that. Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator are so similar in use and function however, that a unified approach to usability is demanded.

Adobe’s options in this matter are to either fix these problems straight out, or explain to me in a rational fashion why default rotation in Photoshop is clockwise and default rotation in Illustrator is counter-clockwise. There have pretty smart people over there. I’m sure someone has noticed by now.

Continued from last week.

Following my stint of epic-and-epicly-unexpected freelance busy-ness, I of course succumbed to an illness that wound its leathery fingers around my very soul. This beast did not loosen it’s icy grip for several days, during which more projects were coming due and yet more were starting up. It occurred to me how much pre-planning and thought an independent designer would need to put into creating such a thing as “paid sick days,” and what a rarity those must be in our profession. It’s a shame, really, but we persevere.

Here we are, still …here, I guess? We broke a lot of stuff on the site Monday. I’m just saying. If you see today’s comic, and I hope you do, I cannot guarantee you will be able to see any of the 175 others. Of course, as with any good home improvement project, we’re breaking it all so we can make it better. Wildly, haphazardly breaking it. But ho! Forward we march into the wild blue yonder here at 36 Point.

Verily, I have no time to chat this morning aside from to say this happened to me this week while judging the ADDYs of Spokane, Washington. There is, in fact, a category of online games, and this was an area I found their community to show strength in. Perhaps if I had gotten a high score, they, too, would have found high scores?

Naw, that’s not really how I did it.

Or was it?

Naw. It wasn’t.

OR WAS IT?!?!?

It wasn’t.

If you’re wondering where we were last week, we were doing the same thing Conrad was doing. Sorry for the unannounced sabbatical, but since the site wasn’t burned down in my absence, and we did put out a pretty rocking podcast, I assume all is well.

You may be asking why this strip has a certain pink-and-magenta-based holiday at its core, and I will tell you. If you are doing a Valentine’s self promotion for your design business, now is the time of making. Not that I’m going to, necessarily. No, my efforts are being put into this contest for the Nebraska AIGA chapter. They do this sort of thing from time to time as a creative exercise and a fundraiser (free to enter, though). Since there’s absolutely no rule stating that you must be a Nebraska resident to enter, I highly suggest rocking something out and entering it. I expect my entries to be full of … character?

That is all. Voss Out.

I submit today’s strip as the new litmus test of what true bad design can bring upon the world. So no more bitching about Papyrus or Comic Sans. Even spec-work doesn’t unleash demon spawn from a non-hell.

I admit though, I am very turned-on by the idea of developing a typeface of my own at this point. Something to replace Anime Ace here on the comic would be good. I’m not guaranteeing anything here, but it’s something Jeff Smith did for Bone a decade ago and it worked wonders for the lettering-to-art juxtaposition in his work. And based on what Newton’s face looks like these days you can bet just about anything that man does is something I want to do.

I just want to say that the most important thing to take away from all of this is that Conrad has switched to black pants, and that’s a major step for me. I actually looked at Marie’s very first character sketch in an old sketchbook and she originally had a lot more black to her look as well, so look for that in the future. Some things didn’t transition as smoothly to black-and-white and I had thought, and others were apparently built for it, I just forgot. For, you know, a year.

Also: Designing your own typeface. Done it?

Last week’s blog comic set up, in my mind at least, the return of the Wandering Design Ninja, last seen (no joke) almost a year ago. It’s still one of my favorites, despite the terrible hack-job logo I shat out for it. At least we got some red up in here, though.

This one goes out to a friend from whom I pulled the initial client quote, which I think we’ve all heard at one point or another. I call it the kiss of death, generally with “projects” and “success” as the victims. There could be other interpretations, I suppose.

Hey everyone, it’s yesterday’s strip, today! Happy new year. That is all — see you next week!

W00t! Daily comics this week! Yesterday’s went up at like, almost 5:00, so if you missed it, see how this ball gets a rollin’. If not, you know… here. Admittedly this storyline is only tangently related to graphic design, but I think I’m just about done making excuses for going off-topic like this, it happens so often lately. Be sure to tune in tomorrow morning and then Merry Christmas!

Oh, and if you haven’t been around long enough to get the reference for the last panel, it comes from the 17th 1PT.Rule comic back last year. I am hesitant to link to it as it clearly marks the low-water mark of the quality of artwork present on this strip. It literally pains me to give this link to you, so consider yourself warned and protect your eyeballs.

Also Donovan posted our triumphant storming of the main stage at AIGA Make/Think in Memphis last October. We’re at the start of the video, though be sure you stick around for the other presentations — there’s some amazing stuff in there.

Here’s a little late-in-the-day comic action for you office types this week. This is actually so late in the day (unless you’re left-coasting it or something) it almost counts as Wednesday’s strip, but nay! Wednesday has its own strip. I will draw it Wednesday, as I wrote it last week. We are G-2-G in this situation people.

Yesterday we had a fun little thing on twitter. See, I’ve made these toys called Paper Dummies which you can pick up on our downloads page, print out and assemble of out the paper of your choice. We have the entire cast of 1PT.Rule available, with the exception of our stylish ladies man Steve Jordan (about whom the previous week’s worth of comics centered around). Well I took the opportunity of having a story line centered around Steve to finally kick out his Paper Dummy and then sent the thing over to site mega-friend Steve Gordon to do a custom-”paint” of the figure over the weekend. He turned out some hotness in record time and we sent it to everyone who re-tweeted the comic yesterday (almost everyone, I’m still missing a few e-mail addresses). That was the entirety of the window of opportunity there, folks. It was brief and fun.

The Regular Edition Steve Jordan Paper Dummy will be available next week.

Does Steve Jordan’s cool know no limits? I’m not sure of that anymore. I also wanted to use this strip to throw a little bit of doubt on the misdeeds of one Mr. Conrad Thompson. Is it all happening in his head? We can hope.

If you missed the first two parts (Rules 1 thru 6) you can find them here and here, and while you’re at it you might as well get some actual tips from the man himself, Steve J- er, Gordon, by checking out our interview with him from this time last year, and checking out his terrific book filled with actual advice for freelancers, 100 Habits of Successful Freelance Designers, available from those fine fine Rockport people. 

Do you follow me on twitter? You should, because not we’re offering something pretty cool over there today for fans of the strip. It’s also the best place to hear when the new comics launch and my thoughts on things like… I dunno… toast? It’s twitter.

And I almost forgot to say there’s new comics everday this week (well, every day this week that isn’t Christmas) for my peeps that are at their offices before the holiday! Check back tomorrow for some Secret-Santa action.

–nv–

I always tend to meet people who read the strip for the first time on weeks where I fail to manage a full three strips. This throws me off my game and I forget to act like an aloof rock star. That happened yesterday and I wanted to be all like “oh, you read it? That’s cool, I guess.” and instead involved an embarrassing display of fist pumping, high fives, and 80′s breakdancing moves.

Maybe Steve has a guide for that, too.

There will be comics next week! The current plan is Monday thru Thursday, to wrap up Steve Jordan’s Guide 2 Freelance Design and see how the office Secret Santa plays out with the rest of our cast.

That’s the plan, anyway. Happy almost holidays!

I have a bunch of these. I was going to put today’s up with a special bonus, the long-awaited Steve Jordan Paper Dummy, but it’s taking a little longer than expected and, frankly, I’ve got other ways I need to spend my afternoon. But don’t fear! It is on the way this week–along with some special bonus for the people who follow me on Twitter. Late –

I’m on the job hunt, currently, which occasionally feels more like a scavenge, and I will from time to time get a heads up for Craigslist. I don’t frequent it. The reason for this is that every time I do, every post I see looks exactly like the one above. It starts with an insult to an unnamed foe, continues with the promise of a world-changing idea, and reaches its climax on several notes that make a vague commitment to something resembling, but never confirming, compensation. I have a friend or two — in larger markets — who swear by it, but I can hold no feelings of legitimacy for those who post their jobs on it.

Though I heard that’s where Pentagram gets their partners. Maybe?

I’m short-winded today; as Mondays go, today’s been a little rough. Not the least of which for that damn new AOL, er, Aol. logo that the snakes at Wolff Olins cooked up (check the amazing write-up by friend-of-the-site Alyssa Walker over n Fast Company). “My company’s logo is confusingly-lowercased letters over stock photos!” is the cheer that I’m sure went up to the employees at AOL who didn’t just lose their jobs. Expect a more thorough examination of that situation later.

Also, I’m taking votes as to whether or not to do a comic this Friday. If a lot of you read this are working that day, then yes, but you’ve got to sound off in the comments. If you’re not working, cut me some slack and let me know, and I’ll cook up magic for you first thing Monday morning.

Smiles — nv–

How many Citizen Kane jokes are too many Citizen Kane jokes? I don’t know the answer to that question.

Conrad’s mad goal of becoming the AIGA Director of Chairs (?!?) for fun and profit continues unabated this day. There’s a point there, which, when reading up on the AIGA page, throws the concept of being on that board into sharp relief. You are required to give or raise $10,000, and that does not include sponsorships. So, outside of asking your dad for some serious scratch or sending your kids door-to-door selling M&M’s for $1 ten-thousand times, I’m not sure what options you have for not just writing them a check for some cold, hard cash. This is a barrier for entry, no doubt, the responsibilities of which are surely not lost on the organization. It gets you an upper-crust of designer leader, or at least some scam-artists who are good at price-jacking clients (I have no information that the latter has ever occurred).

But to me, it sounds an awful lot like that WK12 “internship” that students and young designers go batshit for. It’s an internship, and it costs you unknown thousands of dollars. That’s if they accept you. Now, I’ve actually known two people from my town that have gone through that internship, and they are not doing poorly — not by a stretch — as a result. But still. Not the highest road.

AIGA was kind enough to send me an electronic letter the other day, which suggested I might nominate myself (or someone I know) to their national board. Of course someone sprang immediately to mind, and the wheels were set in motion.

I never really see a lot of this process, though there’s a handy webpage to introduce you to it, and it all seems unintentionally secretive. No-one really campaigns to be on the board of directors, it all just sort-of happens. You don’t see posters or viral ads, campaigns spitting bile back and forth at one-another. It’s all rather boring, I think, and that’s why we never see it. Debbie Millman’s President of the AIGA now, and that just sort of makes sense. But did anyone run against her? Was there a smear campaign and a debate? Perhaps a spunky, back-water running mate? Obviously this process has a long way to go.

To help it along, show your support for AIGA’s next National Director of Chairs, Conrad H. Thompson, by downloading this extreme-election wallpaper to your computer or iphone:

I’m not even sure how I got this comic done today, really. Between designing websites, updating online portfolios and job hunting, plus, well Modern Warfare 2 on my Xbox, it’s almost a miracle. So, that being said — here! Enjoy!

I really wasn’t happy with Conrad’s exclamation in Monday’s strip — the bold type today nails it a lot better I think. 

I am not “Oscar Mike”

Ahoy!

Looks like we’re going to get a Saturday, proper Halloween episode after all! Be sure to tune in tomorrow — SATURDAY — for the exciting conclusion!

Boo!

Big delay but we’re still rolling on this tomb… er, tome. Whichever.

The Meat Puppets poster by the good fellows at Aesthetic Apparatus has long been a source of the feelings of both love and hate within my peer group. Basically it’s a poster-child (no pun intended!) for meaningless, clip-art driven design, and yet you can’t deny the thing is a beauty, and it kinda looks like the mask is made out of hamburger. So that’s hot. So for me I have days that go one way and days that go another, but I’ll bet you never knew what he looked like beneath that mask. As the piece that I can most directly tie to the resurgence of the gig poster as an art form, I have no trouble putting it along side the other works in this story, that’s for sure.

And here we have come to the meat of it… prepare yourselves for sheer, unadulterated terror!

Of some sort, I think.

Be sure to tune back in tomorrow, yes that’s right I said tomorrow, for the next chapter!

I hesitated from posting this strip when the event, depicted as accurately as possible in the strip, originally occurred. I told people about it, to be sure, but things posted online seem to have a way of being found. I’m over it. Imagine, if you will, not just your standard I-cannot-pay-you new client meeting scenario, but one in which your absolute dream project, perhaps the very thing you have wanted to build since childhood, is dangled in front of you for an hour of your life. And that, at the end of this hour, you have received assurances that this is a legit deal, they are a legit business, and they want only you for this.

And then they say, “But of course we can’t afford to pay you yet.”

For those not in design, try the following exercise in order to relate: Find an adorable 4-year-old girl. Give her a puppy. Let her name it; let her pet it and hug it. Then take the puppy and throw it off a cliff. The girl’s face is my face. That was the analogy. Your mind is blown.

I hope everyone is enjoying the Hobo experience here on 36Hobo now. What will these little rascals get themselves into next? $5 logos on iStock? That sure would buy a lotta soup!

Quest for cool continues. Today I pick a fight with designers who have Golden Tee. I hate you. I hate you so hard. Not really. But anyone who thinks there’s a difference between Golden Tee and the crappy touch-screen video-strip poker that’s always up at the bar; or worse yet anyone who thinks there’s no difference between Golden Tee and Street Fighter, can go straight to hell.

I plan to keep the hot designer-blood-boiling conversation topics coming at this pace. Buckle up for Friday’s take on Netflix. OOOOOOOOOOOOh!

I feel like I should have something meaningful to say about design here, but I’m kind of tapped out today. I’ve sort of resigned myself to a Tuesday/Thursday/Friday schedule until mid-August. I’ve just begun work on my second children’s book and the schedule for personal projects (ie: this comic) has to adjust accordingly, at least until a new window opens up in a few weeks.

So here’s your Tuesday comic!

It’s very late, at night I mean, but I enjoyed drawing this strip. Everyone’s getting a different outfit for a fancy night out on the town. I may retroactively add a dragon print to Steve’s shirt, I’m not sure. Wednesday’s strip will be much closer to on time, I think.

If it weren’t the end of a long day I would write more. HUGS.

Panda Kitchen is, I believe, the name of the restaurant where our scene today takes place. This is… somehow related to graphic design, I am sure. Actually I have this whole thing plotted out and yes, yes it does. Somewhere around 100 comics you start looking for ways for your characters to interact in new ways. Here’s too people that have never met. I wonder what might happen when they do? Let’s give our secondary-tier supporters some screen-time, shall we?

Late for a very important date, here’s today post-HOW comic. Hope you had fun!

Get on the bus to Austin if you’re going to the HOW Conference this week, ooooooooooor stay right where you are if you’re like me and you’re not going, and try to prepare for days and days of #HOWconf tags assaulting your senses in Twitter.

Just like in real life, one of our intrepid designers is making the journey, the other will stay behind to man the fort. We’ll have live-ish podcasts from the conference all week long with anyone who is willing to sit in front of the mic, so you’d best add us to your bookmarks right now so you don’t miss a thing!

Also, we started a new lil’ thing on the site today, so be a friend and check it out.

Sometimes the most ruthlessly evil ideas will occur to me, and it is during these moments I am glad I have to comic strip as an outlet. I fear that if I did not, I would be absolutely compelled to follow-through on completely awesome ideas like the one in today’s comic.

You want to know how to step it up a notch? I will tell you: Students. Students designers. Ooooh, ouch. No, that’s a little too evil, even for me. Don’t do that. Forget I said that.

I had a great deal of fun last night as I attempted to let the hurt begin to heal at the local AIGA’s social night — it’s a lot like social media, only you interact with actual human beings instead of their avatars. I spoke to one young lady last night for about 15 minutes before realizing that I follow her on Twitter. Worlds collided there, if only momentarily. If your local AIGA has bar nights like this, I highly recommend getting yourself out to one. I even managed to snag a “Become and AIGA volunteer” card, so, *snicker*, we’ll see where that leads, I guess?

]]> 1 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=192 2010-03-28T11:04:03Z 2009-06-17T06:45:29Z

So if you missed Monday’s comic, that’s because I missed Monday’s comic, and it happened to fall on Tuesday this week. You may want to read it to give today’s strip a little more context, but, if not, no biggie. I’m sure you get the gist. It’s been a somewhat distracting week for me as [...]]]>

So if you missed Monday’s comic, that’s because I missed Monday’s comic, and it happened to fall on Tuesday this week. You may want to read it to give today’s strip a little more context, but, if not, no biggie. I’m sure you get the gist.

It’s been a somewhat distracting week for me as my partner in crime has been tracking pinball and arcade machines with the restless zeal of Aragorn himself. Of course, me being a tremendous gaming nerd, I’ve found myself bitten by the bug as well, learning way more about MAMEs and JAMMAs and replacement joysticks than I ever thought possible. Did you know it’s theoretically possible to pay a pretty low price for a random, crappy arcade cabinet, drop in a new motherboard for the game you want (purchased at 1/10th the cost) and just sort of, slip it in and go to town? Well you do now.

I do believe arcade games will soon become the design office accessory to have.

]]> 1 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=191 2010-03-28T11:03:09Z 2009-06-16T09:31:53Z

A day late and hopefully not a dollar short.]]>

A day late and hopefully not a dollar short.

]]> 0 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=190 2010-03-28T10:28:50Z 2009-06-12T10:12:43Z

Before we begin, do check out our latest, news-heavy episode of the Reflex Blue Show. I’ve listened to it, it’s a gas. I have found that, now that Debbie is indeed the President of AIGA, I am experiencing some guilt about not being an active member. There’s not a whole lot to be done about [...]]]>

Before we begin, do check out our latest, news-heavy episode of the Reflex Blue Show. I’ve listened to it, it’s a gas.

I have found that, now that Debbie is indeed the President of AIGA, I am experiencing some guilt about not being an active member. There’s not a whole lot to be done about it today, as today’s strip suggests it would take some draconian plans to work the colossal cost of membership into my current professional budget. It would be nice if that number could come down somewhat — maybe chill out on expenditures of supporting design in China for a while — or that (and I’m just throwing this out there) qualified sole-proprietors/independent designers could merit a softer point of entry during the current economic climate.

I won’t hold my breath if you don’t.

]]> 3 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=188 2010-03-28T10:25:40Z 2009-06-10T06:56:37Z

This strip really took off for me at panel three. Of course he has an eyepatch. At some point something is going to go down and that eyepatch is going to be a necessity. This is officially a part of the cannon now. It is in continuity. Apparently so is ear hair. There’s a new [...]]]>

This strip really took off for me at panel three. Of course he has an eyepatch. At some point something is going to go down and that eyepatch is going to be a necessity. This is officially a part of the cannon now. It is in continuity. Apparently so is ear hair.

There’s a new podcast on the way tomorrow with some exciting official announcements about our show and some mammoth design conference that is quickly approaching, and sometime in the next seven days we plan on finally getting a brand new feature for 36 Point out to the world, bring the reasons you have to visit this site from a paltry two to an unfathomable three. Get ready.

]]> 0 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=187 2010-03-28T10:24:47Z 2009-06-08T07:14:00Z

I’m on a short clock today, so I must be brief. First, sorry for today’s horrible art on the strip. Second, this announcement did indeed find its way onto my TweetDeck yesterday, and I’m pretty excited (for him) about it. I think a Chip Kidd-written Batman book could only be described as “a hoot.” Chip [...]]]>

I’m on a short clock today, so I must be brief. First, sorry for today’s horrible art on the strip. Second, this announcement did indeed find its way onto my TweetDeck yesterday, and I’m pretty excited (for him) about it. I think a Chip Kidd-written Batman book could only be described as “a hoot.” Chip can only really be described as the world’s biggest Batman nerd, as well as the King Geek of Design, so this project has to be one of those life-long, dream-come-true situations. I get it: Read books. Read Batman books. Design books. Then design Batman books. Then write books. Then write Batman books. 

Like Paul Rudd’s character’s line in Knocked Up, “I wish I loved anything as much as my kids love bubbles,” I’m not sure I can relate. This would be like me making a Star Wars movie, Halo game, and X-Men comic all at once.

Don’t believe me? Listen to our barely-safe-for-work interview with Chip Kidd and hear for yourself!

]]> 0 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=186 2010-03-28T10:23:06Z 2009-06-05T09:59:45Z

And our camping adventure comes to an end, the only way it ever does. With sadness and tears, and long, long walks home. Today is National Donut Day, and I am going to partake. The rest of the day will be spent at the new eleven19/36 Point HQ testing out some big, big ideas we’ve [...]]]>

And our camping adventure comes to an end, the only way it ever does. With sadness and tears, and long, long walks home.

Today is National Donut Day, and I am going to partake. The rest of the day will be spent at the new eleven19/36 Point HQ testing out some big, big ideas we’ve had. If you follow HOW’s twitter, you already know about one of them, and we’ve got two more we’re working on. More soon.

]]> 1 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=185 2010-03-28T10:22:14Z 2009-06-03T13:20:56Z

Hey, let’s have a comic! Getting out and doing some hands-on creative stuff — for simply the sake of doing it — is a damn relief for me as a designer. Putting the research, planning, study, and fundamentals aside for a damn minute and just making something the way you want to make it just [...]]]>

Hey, let’s have a comic!

Getting out and doing some hands-on creative stuff — for simply the sake of doing it — is a damn relief for me as a designer. Putting the research, planning, study, and fundamentals aside for a damn minute and just making something the way you want to make it just feels good. The last proper creative retreat I was on was a mix of creative exercises, departmental planning, and guilt-laden “why aren’t you better” management speak, and I’m not sure about anyone else, but the battery-recharging didn’t really take. Designer Camping is a thing, I ‘spose, we’ve done in our neck of the woods — we have hats — and for some reason always serves as a proper refresher. Fresh air and great weather do wonders, and I’d recommend everybody go get some as soon as possible.

Go Summer.

]]> 1 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=184 2010-03-28T10:21:22Z 2009-06-01T12:23:28Z

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]]> 4 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=183 2010-03-28T10:20:53Z 2009-05-29T10:34:42Z

I don’t have a lot to say about today’s strip other than you will see this story continuing next week. Also, that’s maybe my favorite middle-panel of all time. What luscious, amber-hued locks that mofo must’ve had in college! All the ladies swooned during critiques, of this I am certain. Be sure to check out [...]]]>

I don’t have a lot to say about today’s strip other than you will see this story continuing next week. Also, that’s maybe my favorite middle-panel of all time. What luscious, amber-hued locks that mofo must’ve had in college! All the ladies swooned during critiques, of this I am certain.

Be sure to check out yesterday’s amazing Reflex Blue Show, too. Talking about critiques and the very Tip of Mig himself.

Monday should also bring a Supporter-Goodies update (by the end of the day) and a more in-depth look at how those work in conjunction with our store and donations to the site. WORD/..

]]> 3 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=181 2010-03-28T10:17:24Z 2009-05-27T09:13:50Z

I had this wonderful conversation yesterday with my partner in crime, who is producing some goodies for people attending the HOW Conference. I won’t spoil it, but should you spot Donovan Beery and perhaps drop a secret password on him (or perhaps not), you may receive something of perceived value. What I can tell you [...]]]>

I had this wonderful conversation yesterday with my partner in crime, who is producing some goodies for people attending the HOW Conference. I won’t spoil it, but should you spot Donovan Beery and perhaps drop a secret password on him (or perhaps not), you may receive something of perceived value. What I can tell you is, when you see this package of fun, you will find a piece of it is dead sexy in white type reversed out of a black background. I take 100% full credit for this design direction, as the first panel of today’s comic was essentially the entire above-mentioned conversation. Black type on white will always fall to white type on black. Always. It’s like math.

]]> 2 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=180 2010-03-28T10:16:36Z 2009-05-26T10:56:31Z

Hello! Welcome back from Memorial Day, I guess. As a working man, 4-day weeks always mess up my clock. Let’s pretend it’s Monday and call it comic day. We’re still going to pretend tomorrow is Wednesday, which it is, so we’ll have a comic then, too. Then Thursday is podcast day, and everyone will live [...]]]>

Hello! Welcome back from Memorial Day, I guess. As a working man, 4-day weeks always mess up my clock. Let’s pretend it’s Monday and call it comic day. We’re still going to pretend tomorrow is Wednesday, which it is, so we’ll have a comic then, too. Then Thursday is podcast day, and everyone will live happily ever after.

I want you guys to check out The Brads, if you haven’t yet, and add it to your bookmarks in a folder called “Awesome Webcomics Based Around Design” right after 1PT.Rule. It’s a weekly, but creator Brad Colbow makes up for fewer updates with full-color and an ability to weave the very structure of comics in a web-based format into the humor of his strip that I find myself very jealous of. Check it out.

]]> 2 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=179 2010-03-28T10:15:35Z 2009-05-22T10:52:58Z

Raise your hand if you’ve done this. Now, the rest of you, raise your hands because you’re lying. Since Wednesday, there have been developments in the ongoing Nebraska License Plate Debacle. And by developments, I mean the kind head-removal-from-anus that cannot be called anything other than “heroic” in the world of politics. What was once [...]]]>

Raise your hand if you’ve done this. Now, the rest of you, raise your hands because you’re lying.

Since Wednesday, there have been developments in the ongoing Nebraska License Plate Debacle. And by developments, I mean the kind head-removal-from-anus that cannot be called anything other than “heroic” in the world of politics. What was once stonewalling and inability to admit failure has transformed into someone in local government actually standing up and saying “you know what? This is a little fucked up right here and we may have to do something about it.“

Throughout it all, the gang at CollegeHumor.com (which has only been identified as “a college humor website” by the local press — subtle, right?) has floored me as the strut about as some bizarre peacock-unicorn hybrid with their insistence of victory and balls-out unapologetic manner. They remind me of those two dudes who punked Boston with the Moonenite graphics for Cartoon Network a year or two ago. It’s sort of totally awesome. If I lived anywhere else I’d give that guy a high five. Living here, probably I’d fake the high-five and punch him in the balls.

But really, if these recent developments hold, his actions will actually guarantee that the worst option never gets made into the newest license plate, something we should all be thankful for, should it come to pass. The real problem here is how the designs themselves are “commissioned” and selected for presentation for the state to vote on. Until that’s fixed, we’re all just picking out our favorite turd to smear our cars with.

]]> 1 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=178 2010-03-28T10:14:11Z 2009-05-20T10:09:48Z

So yesterday this happened, followed swiftly by the general discovery of this having happened, followed moments later by College Humor taking credit en masse like insurgents from a cave. Officials deny the massive prank had anything to do with the outcome, but I’d wager the results would be quite different if they removed votes that [...]]]>

So yesterday this happened, followed swiftly by the general discovery of this having happened, followed moments later by College Humor taking credit en masse like insurgents from a cave. Officials deny the massive prank had anything to do with the outcome, but I’d wager the results would be quite different if they removed votes that came via the site. Not that we’d have better plates in two years or anything.

The plates, which vertically read “NEERASKA” (but don’t worry because it says “NEBRASKA” again right fucking next to it) was designed “professionally” by a dude or lady at the manufacturer of the materials that are used to make license plates. This is exactly the place I want my artistic representations of the state I call home because all of the most creatively talented and inspired artists work in the office of a metal shop. 

The government response has been Political Sidestepping 101, with officials spouting platitudes such as “You can’t please everyone” and “nobody ever likes the license plate designs” coming from either the Gov’nor himself or the woman in charge of the situation, though I would posit the following:

I you gave everyone you know a present every year, but that present was always you kicking them in the nuts, you may come to believe “Well people just don’t like presents.” 

While I don’t think the state would ever eliminate voting, they certainly could commission actual artists to deliver the selections the voters have to choose from, ensuring that any winning design would have actual artistic merit, and while no, it may not please everyone, it also won’t make us look like a bunch of idiots when we go on a road trip. I would be happy to spearhead a subcommittee to select these artists, Mr. Governor, and my door is always open to you.

]]> 0 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=177 2010-03-28T10:12:46Z 2009-05-18T09:44:48Z

Sometimes the process of writing these comics astounds me. I cannot recall the intended joke of today’s strip, only that it was far, far removed from what I wound up with. Somewhere around panel two things took a seriously unexpected turn when Newton started explaining his technique of meeting new clients. This is, of course, [...]]]>

Sometimes the process of writing these comics astounds me. I cannot recall the intended joke of today’s strip, only that it was far, far removed from what I wound up with. Somewhere around panel two things took a seriously unexpected turn when Newton started explaining his technique of meeting new clients. This is, of course, derived somewhat from reality. I do have a client meeting today and I do not intend to bring along a portfolio of work.

Some time ago I became a no-go-portfolio guy. I had a few meetings with potential clients that went famously well, and at the end, there I was, with this big black case filled with my previous work just sitting there, unopened. Once or twice I actually asked if they wanted to see it as we were winding down, and I cannot recall anyone answering in the positive. I occurred to me that I sent along my portfolio’s webpage (newest version here) long before the initial meet-up, and by the time we were in a face-to-face, it was really more about people getting to know each other and each other’s business, and less about “check out this sweet poster i did.”

So I’m a confirmed No-Go-Portfolio guy. Are you?

]]> 4 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=176 2010-03-28T10:11:46Z 2009-05-15T08:47:28Z

When we were children, my brother and I play-fought quite a bit, usually with toy guys or, better yet, toy lightsabers. It was all good fun until someone got whacked in the hand inadvertently and the beat-downs began. There was a secret phase the accidental aggressor could say to help stem the tide of these [...]]]>

When we were children, my brother and I play-fought quite a bit, usually with toy guys or, better yet, toy lightsabers. It was all good fun until someone got whacked in the hand inadvertently and the beat-downs began. There was a secret phase the accidental aggressor could say to help stem the tide of these retaliatory beat-downs, and I will tell it again now:

SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY!

That being said, we love Debbie Millman over here, and would like to congratulate her on 100 great episodes of Design Matters. You’re the best Debbie. Hugs.

–nv–

]]> 3 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=173 2010-03-28T10:02:18Z 2009-05-13T12:34:21Z

You ever have one of those days where something you do doesn’t live up to your own expectations for yourself? So I had this sweet experience the other day… I went to a skateshop to attempt some research for a client project that so far hasn’t actually materialized. I found, upon entering, that I had [...]]]>

You ever have one of those days where something you do doesn’t live up to your own expectations for yourself? So I had this sweet experience the other day…

I went to a skateshop to attempt some research for a client project that so far hasn’t actually materialized. I found, upon entering, that I had a full 90-seconds worth of imagined street cred to be standing there in my khaki’s and polo/Express shirt, pretending to be cool enough to actually look at anything in there. I could not muster the strength to look behind Skinny-Totally-Disinterested-In-Me guy to see any real skateboard designs. Mostly I looked at shoes. Owning one pair of cool sneaks myself — which of course I was not wearing that day — I figured this might be an adequate way for me to inch closer to people who actually have cred. For as it stands now, I know that I have none.

My wife has cred, and does not understand this in me. I believe that I am somewhat a master of the subset of cool known as “geek” and a few of it’s subsidiaries, but when it comes to anything that is actually cool — indie music, skating, scrapbooking — I become instantly socially incompetent. This is, I suppose, mostly imagined on my part, but is nonetheless the last bastion of my teenage insecurities that remains.

At least I have a boss-hog Star Trek movie to keep me safe.

]]> 1 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=172 2010-03-28T10:01:05Z 2009-05-11T11:35:10Z

Hey! I don’t have much time to chat about today’s comic — other than it is based on real-life experiences and will continue this week on Wednesday and possibly Friday. Happy Monday everyone. Enjoy – –nv–]]>

Hey! I don’t have much time to chat about today’s comic — other than it is based on real-life experiences and will continue this week on Wednesday and possibly Friday. Happy Monday everyone. Enjoy –

–nv–

]]> 1 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=171 2010-03-28T09:58:33Z 2009-05-08T14:13:09Z

Hey everyone. I wrote a whole post for this strip and the Movable Type, our (non-webcomics friendly) publishing platform was kind enough to delete it. So whatever. Here’s a recap: Two “middle-panel-as-screenshot” strips in a row was totally by accident I am excited about Star Trek The art on this strip kind of sucks because [...]]]>

Hey everyone. I wrote a whole post for this strip and the Movable Type, our (non-webcomics friendly) publishing platform was kind enough to delete it. So whatever. Here’s a recap:

Two “middle-panel-as-screenshot” strips in a row was totally by accident

I am excited about Star Trek

The art on this strip kind of sucks because I’m illustrating on Donovan’s GIGANTOR iMac today, and you almost have to re-learn how to draw on a Wacom at that size.

Word up. Have a great weekend everybody!

]]> 2 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=169 2010-03-28T09:17:16Z 2009-05-06T11:47:10Z

I had another strip in my mind, all ready to go today, and then last night I was checking out the differences between AIGA Design Jobs’ portfolios and the straight-up Colorflot set. I was speaking with a friend of mine recently who jumped back into freelance life and as a longtime AIGA supporter was going [...]]]>

I had another strip in my mind, all ready to go today, and then last night I was checking out the differences between AIGA Design Jobs’ portfolios and the straight-up Colorflot set. I was speaking with a friend of mine recently who jumped back into freelance life and as a longtime AIGA supporter was going to use their service rather than Coroflots’s, and I became curious as to the differences. I’ve gotten way into Coroflot lately because of upgrades they made late last year that make it a lot easier to use and give some pretty basic friend/follow functionality. I believe (because no-one I’m following ever seems to make any updates) that when they do, Coroflot will let me know if Steve or Jeff drop some new work up there.

In theory, again due to a shortage of people thinking it is as awesome as I do, this would be a fantastic way to keep up on the work my friends are up to. I pretty much always want to know what my friends are working on, because many of them are better designers than me, and I want to see what I should be doing if I want to stay cool. Rather than hitting up 25 different websites that probably never get updated, if everyone just plugged their new work into their Coroflot page (and dude that part is easy), everyone gets to stay up to date with everyone else.

That’s not to say there isn’t room for improvement. The profile summary and resume text field’s inability to handle even the most basic html styling comes to mind. But it’s when I looked over the port to AIGA Design Jobs — formerly my mecca of online portfolios — that I saw something that really needs some fixing. The AIGA set is basically a stripped-down version of the full Coroflot feature set, meaning that when paying for your AIGA membership you actually receive less functionality. Also, it bares stating that Coroflot’s site is set up with a prettier and easier-to-use UI design, so when you port it over to AIGA’s CSS styles it just kind of goes all ugly and, in typical aiga.com fashion, becomes harder to use.

As I recall from my days on the AIGA site, there is a button to publish on Coroflot simultaneously, a feature I wholeheartedly recommend. When you do this, I believe the AIGA sticker is added to your profile and that’s what you get for your membership. Hopefully full feature parity is in the works, because many of my friends have, for some reason, chosen not to hit that simultaneous button on their profiles.

]]> 4 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=168 2010-03-28T09:15:40Z 2009-05-04T09:39:29Z

I was driving home with my wife yesterday and the sheer metrics of the swine flu “pandemic” hit me in a way that rarely hits anyone living outside the world of graphic design: as an info-graphic. Sadly, today’s comic — while accurate to my rounded mathematic calculations and official projected U.S. population — only visually [...]]]>

I was driving home with my wife yesterday and the sheer metrics of the swine flu “pandemic” hit me in a way that rarely hits anyone living outside the world of graphic design: as an info-graphic. Sadly, today’s comic — while accurate to my rounded mathematic calculations and official projected U.S. population — only visually demonstrates 1/384th of our total population. Bandwidth and Photoshop’s ridiculous limitation to 600,000 pixels prevented me from drilling this thing out to an actual comparison.

As it stands we’re at about 6,000 pixels tall today, so imagine this chart 100 times taller, then understand that would require more than 500,000 more pixels to finish the chart off properly. In other words: it would be a very, very big chart. 

At screen resolution, 72 dpi, the chart would be almost 15,000 inches tall, which is equal to 1,250 feet, filled with all green “people” and one pink “pig.”

For your easy comparison, the Empire State Building is 1,250 feet tall. So soak that in for a second before you start canceling your lunch plans.

]]> 6 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=166 2010-03-28T08:54:50Z 2009-04-29T18:12:04Z

I gotta admit, working on this strip kinda brought me down today. Thankfully we had a really great chat with Bryn Mooth of the HOW Empire late this afternoon that we will be turning into podcast happiness to share with all of you sometime tomorrow (Thurs), and that was more than enough to snap me [...]]]>

I gotta admit, working on this strip kinda brought me down today. Thankfully we had a really great chat with Bryn Mooth of the HOW Empire late this afternoon that we will be turning into podcast happiness to share with all of you sometime tomorrow (Thurs), and that was more than enough to snap me out of my funk. Enjoy!

]]> 4 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=164 2010-03-28T09:59:33Z 2009-04-27T14:24:57Z

In my twitter-life I often seek out advice for my real, independent-professional-designer life in the form of articles and lists linked and retweeted up the mountain that must surely contain the sweet nectar of the divine — new business. Often I am shocked at how valueless these lists are. Not that they all suffer from some [...]]]>

In my twitter-life I often seek out advice for my real, independent-professional-designer life in the form of articles and lists linked and retweeted up the mountain that must surely contain the sweet nectar of the divine — new business. Often I am shocked at how valueless these lists are. Not that they all suffer from some massive dearth of actual content, but that the content they share usually has little to do with how to find new clients, or establishing new connections, and falls more along the lines of: 1. You should get some new clients, and 2. You need to establish new connections. As helpful as a 12-year-old may find that advice, to struggling indies it hold little value. But the Twitterverse loves its lists, and so my search goes on.

Then there are advice columns from the über-stars, or mega-designers, or, I don’t know, graphic design world-devourers where the advice seems to be like that of a parent admonishing their child for doing the exact same thing they themselves once did all the time. Like they’ve forgotten what it means to be starting out. It’s easy, they say, just invite the VPs of Marketing from the top four employers in your city to golf at your private country club. Oh yes, I forgot, it is that easy. How silly of us all.

Almost forgot — big thanks to superstar designer Drew Davies for essentially writing this strip in an iChat last Friday and Prescott Perez-Fox for our design megastar’s nom de guerre.

]]> 1 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=163 2010-03-28T08:51:41Z 2009-04-24T11:12:35Z

Hey. Logo contests are bad alright? And by bad I mean totally awesome bad. I’ve always felt like there’s some serious untapped potential for mayhem in those, and I feel it’s our duty as professional designer to… wait, I just said “dooty.” LOLZ. Sorry for a low count on comics this week — my brother [...]]]>

Hey. Logo contests are bad alright? And by bad I mean totally awesome bad. I’ve always felt like there’s some serious untapped potential for mayhem in those, and I feel it’s our duty as professional designer to… wait, I just said “dooty.” LOLZ.

Sorry for a low count on comics this week — my brother was even giving me a hard time about my launch schedule yesterday — planning to get back on track next week. And, for you Reflex Blue Show listeners, we just lined up a great interview for next week’s show that we’re really excited about. Not sure HOW we managed it (wicked-awesome pun win!!), but be sure you tune next Thursday!

Update: If you want to know how I really feel, check out this article on Vossome.com.

]]> 1 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=162 2010-03-28T08:50:33Z 2009-04-22T10:48:59Z

I’d be lying if I tried to tell you I do not covet the Winterhouse writing award. I do. Like Boromir, I fear this desire will destroy me, or at least drive me to beat up Elijah Wood, which is something I really wouldn’t want to do. Every year Design Observer puts out the call [...]]]>

I’d be lying if I tried to tell you I do not covet the Winterhouse writing award. I do. Like Boromir, I fear this desire will destroy me, or at least drive me to beat up Elijah Wood, which is something I really wouldn’t want to do.

Every year Design Observer puts out the call for entries and that amazing $10,000 prize taunts me like Mohammed Ali, letting me know that as much writing and commentary as I produce on design on a weekly basis, it is not worth $10,000. This could be a false assumption, because I do believe the first prize went to a girl who obsessively dissected emoticons. And that seems to be it: like most of the over-long and painfully dull (re:non-Bierut & Heller) articles on DO, you have to write obsessively about something nobody cares about. Like coffee-filter packaging or something. I’m sure somewhere right now there’s some obsessive-compulsive design writer putting together a three-part thesis on coffee-filter packaging and that’s probably going to take the 2010 prize. 

I was looking through the 70 (if you count the one currently-produced Special) strips I’ve got here and feel pretty good about a few of them and the medium’s ability to comment on design, and then the rule set of the Winterhouse took over and I remembered the part about everything needing to be set in Courier. This, by the way, is basically designers removing the design from their papers, and I get it. It’s supposed to remove any typographic context. Maybe the judges have a hard-on for mono-spaced fonts, I don’t know.

With a relatively low entry fee (only $25), I am still considering entering the strip, if only to piss off the judges. However, I think I will wait for next year, in all seriousness, when my journals of milk-cap sticker designs and their impact on the American consciousness are completed.

]]> 1 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=161 2010-03-28T08:48:28Z 2009-04-17T14:24:34Z

I had very mixed feelings when the closing of SpeakUp was announced this week. Throughout the years I had a very pleasant love/hate relationship with that website. I loved what it did for design, I hated what it did to designers. With all the high talk of promoting a dialog and/or discussion of design, my experiences there often boiled down to calling the person who disagreed with you a fuckwad and vice versa, or piling on some poor bastard’s logo design even when, let’s face it, there really is nothing wrong with UPS’s logo these days. They were just ahead of the curve. By the way that fisasco went down (which was the first time I found SpeakUp) you’d think they clubbed a baby seal at Peta convention.

But on the other hand, SpeakUp opened my eyes to a lot of things. Some intentionally — like finally realizing I don’t have to agree with or support everything the AIGA does just because they do it. Or my severe dislike of the word “just” when discussing projects. Or, eventually, the fact that just because you have a strong opinion on design, doesn’t mean you absolutely have to shove it down everyone’s throats. It certainly taught me how to be mindful of the comments I make online to others.

I’ve had a few conversations with Armin, some pleasant and supportive, some less so, but never anywhere near the length of yesterday’s interview. Love it or hate it, no designer can deny that SpeakUp essentially created the online graphic design community — which I would describe as thriving — and that we are all richer for the experience.

–nv–

]]> 4 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=159 2010-03-28T08:43:55Z 2009-04-16T10:08:57Z

This is a thing that really happened about a week and a half ago. Huge job shows up on my doorstep, practically gift-wrapped. And it’s big, it’s a lot of work. I send out a fair price, the client comes back, and we settle on something a little lower but still doable. Life is good. [...]]]>

This is a thing that really happened about a week and a half ago. Huge job shows up on my doorstep, practically gift-wrapped. And it’s big, it’s a lot of work. I send out a fair price, the client comes back, and we settle on something a little lower but still doable. Life is good.

A few days later I get the “guy knows a guy who’d do it for this.” And THIS turned out to be 10% of my bid. My response to this was, well, who the F is this guy bidding huge jobs that low? Was it a teenager? Because I can counter that in a conversation. No, it turned out to be a guy who makes a great living doing something completely unrelated, and just does crap like this on the side to make extra money for ipods or something. Crap Like This being the thing I make a living on.

And I wrote on my page: “I lost a job to someone who bid 10% of my price and in walked a man 10% of my size.”

]]> 1 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=156 2010-03-28T08:35:40Z 2009-04-13T15:06:16Z

What started out as a horrible story of one man wronged by the powerful, fighting tooth and nail for his livelihood and reputation, not to mention thousands of dollars to feed this hulking evil behemoth which pursued him, quickly turned into a zany flip-flop of animosity once his pleading case was looked over with the slightest amount of scrutiny. It is my understanding the founder of said evil conglomerate StockArt.com has entered the fray, while the original post by Mr. #savejon seems nowhere to be found this afternoon.

The lesson to learn here is that whipping up a frenzied mob using your blog and carefully-constructed tweets is very easy, and indeed, very fun. So far, this has been my favorite graphic design moment of 2009. There’s a few months left to top it, though, and my sights are set high.

]]> 3 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=155 2010-03-28T08:34:24Z 2009-04-10T09:53:47Z

Don’t ever let anyone say that when I tease a kick in the balls, I don’t follow-through. Sorry I didn’t ever get around to posting anything to go along with Wednesday’s strip. I got pretty comfortable with my buffer and apparently decided I didn’t need to do any work at all that day. That buffer, [...]]]>

Don’t ever let anyone say that when I tease a kick in the balls, I don’t follow-through.

Sorry I didn’t ever get around to posting anything to go along with Wednesday’s strip. I got pretty comfortable with my buffer and apparently decided I didn’t need to do any work at all that day. That buffer, if you can tell by the time of this posting, has evaporated already, but was nice. I will have some time this weekend to myself, I may spend it getting up to speed again. I already have next week written, no reason to sit on my duff I guess.

If you haven’t heard it yet, be sure to check out our interview with Timothy O’Donnell about Sketchbook. Despite the underwater “effects” that seem to have hampered our recording, it really is a great interview. Leave it to us to try haphazardly to step up our remote-recording systems on an episode that actually carries some weight.

]]> 0 Nate Voss http://www.vossome.com http://36point.com/wordpress/?p=154 2010-03-28T08:33:11Z 2009-04-08T07:48:26Z

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