Peter V Cook

Visualizing Large Numbers

Peter V Cook — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:23:42 +0000

1 million, 1 billion what’s the difference, just 1 letter? This collection of videos are great case studies in how to help your audience understand the magnitude of big numbers.

Nice and Easy

Peter V Cook — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:15:22 +0000

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” -Charles Mingus

jQuery Cycle Plugin

Peter V Cook — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 16:14:44 +0000

A very flexible and lightweight jQuery sideshow plug-in, it even works with non-images. Check out the lite version if you don’t need fancy transitions.

Jqtransform

Peter V Cook — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:15:39 +0000

Actually have control over what forms elements look like. This fantastic jQuery plugin has the perfect level of control via CSS

I can’t draw either

Peter V Cook — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:50:35 +0000

“Sketchbook are not about being a good artist, they’re about being a good thinker.” -Jason Santa Maria

Real SEO: Practical Steps to Findability

Peter V Cook — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:34:20 +0000

There’s a little too much black magic in SEO. At Cre8tiveGroup.com I write about a few real life things content owners can do to improve their placement in targeted searchs.

Unique to our industry

Peter V Cook — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 23:17:58 +0000

“Clients with the most money can make demands until they get the agency’s worth product, while the small client with little to spend must meekly accept the agency’s best.” –Thomas D. Murray

Future of Web Design Conference

Peter V Cook — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:49:17 +0000

Design Rot

Peter V Cook — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:36:53 +0000

Why do designs look worse a year later than the day you designed it? I explain the phenomenon over at Cre8tive Group’s blog.

Five Design Exercises

Peter V Cook — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:17:55 +0000

The same old rut, for the same old clients, can get a little boring especially for graphic designers and other creative types. Plus, with the economy slowing there may not be a large professional development budget for high cost inspiration. Here are five ideas that take from a half hour to have a day and are sure to spark up a Friday afternoon. Not in an office environment with other creatives? Challenge some of your fellow freelancers to some friendly competition.

My (lame) entry in Cre8tive Group first lightboxing match

30 Minute Business Cards

Create a short design brief, complete with company name, description and other design requirements. Then challenge members of your team to create the most original business cards for this fictional client. This is especially fun to do with web designers or others who don’t normally get the opportunity to design business cards. Additional rules can be introduced such as doubling the time to 1 hour but not using a computer for the first 30 minutes, only paper and pencil for concepting.

Lightboxing

Everyone’s favorite stock photo outfitter, Veer, gets credit for this one. Give 2 or more designers the same small lightbox of elements. Designate a time limit and theme then set them loose. Judge the entries at the end or just play for fun.

Layer Tennis

Taking the Lightboxing idea one step further by passing a design from one person to the next and back again is Photoshop Tennis. You can play volley style with two designers or form a huge round robin match by including up to 10. This can keep the heart pounding because each designer is only allowed to have the file for 15 minutes at a time and can even be enhanced with a third party offering live play by play. You can easily get your not print designers involved by turning Photoshop Tennis into Flash Tennis, CSS Tennis or FinalCut Tennis.

Album Cover

You may have seen this bouncing around Facebook. You take a random quote, a random Wikipedia entry and a random photo and create an album cover for a fictional band. If you work solo, this exercise can still be a blast. If you don’t, consider getting the whole office involved, even non-graphic designers can participate thanks to services like Adobe’s Free Photoshop.com.

Helvetica Film

Certainly someone in the office has a NetFlix subscription. This film on the creation and life of one of the ubiquitous fonts is available to watch streaming on demand from NetFlix.com. Granted vegging out in front of the conference room video projector is a passive way to spend two hours, but it is sure to inspire you and your team.