Shedwa

Shedwa Weekly Roundup: My Favorite Podcasts

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:54:00 +0000

Welcome to Shedwa's Weekly Roundup! This week I've pulled together some of my favorite podcasts. These podcasts aren't necessarily design related, but I listen to them regularly, very much enjoy them, and gain lots of information from each episode.

Nerdist - Host Chris Hardwick interviews a wide range of guests from Conan O'Brien to The Muppets. Themes range from comedy to movies to pop culture to all things nerdy. Very entertaining.

Eventual Millionaire - Interview series with highly-successful individuals. Great insight into the minds and strategies of millionaires, with a focus on educating and encouraging people who want to be successful. I find this podcast very interesting and inspiring.

This American Life - Famous NPR radio program with a wide range of themes. Extremely well produced, always entertaining, and very informative. One of my most enjoyable podcasts.

The Dave Ramsey Show - The podcast of the wide-reaching radio show of the same name. Dave Ramsey offers simple personal finance device, such as how to get out of debt and stay out of debt. Great reinforcement for living a successful financial life.

The Clark Howard Show - The podcast of Clark Howard's radio and TV show. Clark takes calls from people dealing with all sorts of finance-related issues, from claiming a refund to booking a cheap flight. Great tips and tricks for getting the most out of your money.

Empire State - A Love Story (or Not) Book Review

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:19:00 +0000

I want to share a quick review of a graphic novel I recently read. The book is Empire State - A Love Story (or Not) by Jason Shiga. Empire State follows the path of two friends, Jimmy and Sara, as they navigate the changes in their relationship while Sara moves to New York and Jimmy remains in Oakland. Jimmy embarks on a bus trip across the country to visit Sara, and eventually finds Sara in New York, immersed in a new life.

I very much enjoyed the book, and it was a super fast read. I read all 144 pages in one sitting. The illustration style is fun and unique, and the story is entertaining. I especially enjoyed the illustrations on the large, full-spread splash pages, as well as the random placement of the comic book cells, and the geeky humor sprinkled throughout the pages.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who appreciates graphic novels and is looking for a fun, light-hearted story.

Shedwa Weekly Roundup: Great Fictional Logos from Movies

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Welcome to Shedwa's Weekly Roundup! This week I've pulled together some great logos from fictional brands that appeared in movies. Some of my favorites include Jurassic Park, Ghostbusters and Sterling Cooper Draper Price.

Most Popular Fictional Logo Designs - Lots of great fictional logos, from Superman to Jurassic Park.

Can you name the movies from the logos of their fictional companies? - Test your knowledge of movie logos.

Cool Fictional Company Logos from Famous Movies - Lots of logos and how they were used in the film.

Plex iPhone App Puts All My Media in My Pocket

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I use Plex on my HTPC. Now, I want to share a bit about the Plex iPhone App, which I also use.

Plex pulls together all of your media on your computer into one application. The Plex iPhone App pushes all of that media to your mobile device. It's great to have 100% of my media collection with me at all times. I really enjoy using the Plex App to watch one of my movies or TV shows while I'm waiting for a flight at the airport, or on a treadmill at the gym. Depending on the strength of your internet or cell connection, your video quality may fall below your personally acceptable standards, but in my experience the quality is more than fine 9 times out of 10.

In order to access your media remotely, you will need to do a bit of setup within the Plex Media Manager on your computer, and perhaps also within your router. This may take some knowledge of how to open ports on your router, but for the most part Plex does the heavy lifting in the setup.

Once setup and functioning, the Plex App gives you access to all of your media from wherever you are (assuming you have Wi-Fi or cell service). Because the app is pulling the media from your home computer or server, you don't have to worry about the amount of space the media takes up on your phone. I have full access to my more than 250 movies, hundreds of TV show episodes, all of my home videos, photos and music.

The Plex App remote.

Another feature of the Plex App is a fully functioning remote for Plex. The remote allows you to control Plex running on your HTPC using your iPhone. I use this remote the majority of the time I am running Plex through my TV, as my iPhone is usually closer to reach for than my wireless keyboard. The remote sometimes has a bit of a lag, but it works wonderfully more times than not.

The Plex App is available in the iTunes store. The $4.99 price tag may scare some people off, but having purchased the app several months ago, I can say that if you have taken the time to organize your media and use Plex on your computer, it is well worth the five dollars to have all that media in your pocket wherever you go. There is also a Plex App for iPad, which I also use. It is extremely similar to the iPhone version.

Do you use the Plex iPhone App? Have you had a good experience with it?

Shedwa Weekly Roundup: Free HTPC Apps

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 13:30:00 +0000

Welcome to Shedwa's Weekly Roundup! This week I've pulled together some cool applications to make the most of your Home Theater Personal computer (HTPC). Did I mention they are free?

Hulu Desktop - Explore the wide world of on-demand television.

Skype - Turn your TV into a video chatting super center.

Plex - Make the most of your media.

NoSquint Firefox Plugin - Increase the size of your web pages by zooming in and out for easy couch potato web surfing.

McDonalds Large Coffee Ads

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:41:00 +0000

Love these. Great idea, beautiful execution. Well done.

Agency: DDB, Helsinki, Finland
Creative Director: Vesa Tujunen
Art Director: Jukka Mannio
Copywriter: Vesa Tujunen
Graphic Designer: Antti Salminen
Photographer: Marjo Tokkari
Retoucher: Fake Graphics

via adgoodness

King Kong Leaves Tracks on Santa Monica Beach

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:00:00 +0000

A great publicity stunt can get people talking, and social media moving your message faster than any traditional advertising method. This marketing strategy for Universal Studio's King Kong 3D attraction appeared on the Santa Monica Beach. I like.

Agency: David&Goliath, USA
Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn

via adgoodness

Using Instaproofs To Sell Your Photographs

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:30:00 +0000

This is a guest post from Imogen Reed.

There are many online providers who will handle your portfolio and help promote your photographic stock to the marketplace. It is important to be able to look at the various options and measure up the best provider for your particular requirement. Whether you are selling high end artistic portraits or just simple effective shots of table lamps there are many perils and pitfalls out there and you need to measure up all the key ingredients of cost, storage, accessibility and appearance to make an informed choice for you and for the people who want to buy your pictures.

Do I need my own website?

To have complete authorial control over the presentation of your portfolio constructing your own website is a desirable option, but not always a must. There are plenty of design companies who will do this for you, but when you look at the final product you might be forgiven for wondering how many levels of Chinese whispers your proposals must have gone through before they ended up looking as they have. You can always purchase a domain and build the site yourself, but the process is time consuming, the software is often difficult to work with and you may end up settling for something which is not quite what you wanted in the first place.

In the current fast changing face of this second generation Internet having your own website is no longer a must. It is possible to promote your work via a blog or Facebook or twitter and then outsource a company to handle the watermarking storage and processing of those all important sales. Connecting the various posts, threads, discussions and ultimately customers to your stock can be a tricky process and it is important that if you chose to outsource your storage and sales that the click to find your pictures is as simple a process as can be possible.

Instaproof

Instaproof is one of several options on the market like iStockphoto, which offers you the benefit of have some handle your storage and sales whilst leaving you at the business end of a camera doing what it is that you do best. It is not the best option for everyone and although there are no initial costs if your business does upscale then the slice that you lose makes it a less favourable option, but certainly for fledgling businesses it does provide a less expensive method for gaining a foothold.

How does it work?

Creating an account is simple, just head to instaproofs.com, click on sign up and follow the process through. It literally only takes a few minutes and you really only need an email address. From that point you can begin uploading images to the site. One clear advantage here is that there are no initial costs, and there is no limit on storage or bandwidth. There is a time limit of 270 days but this does give you plenty of time to set your own promotional wheels on motion and to start directing potential customers to your stock.

The company have worked with their clients to try and improve the sales process so they have a number of built in features which you can use if you want to improve the prospects of selling your work. Features that you can use from the site include automated sale and discount notifications, social bookmarking, photo forwarding, exportable visitor lists, and a referral commission program, but be aware that these do come at a cost and will reduce the mark up you make on each of the images that you sell.

Are my images secure via instaproofs?

Nothing can guarantee total security and once your pictures can be viewed by the web there is always the possibility via screen shot and secondary software that someone will be able to reproduce the image elsewhere. Instaproof does include a number of tools to try and restrict access to your work and allows you to be involved in this process. You can choose where to watermark your images, have the right click feature disabled and password protect certain events or images to ensure direct clients are the only ones who can access selected groups of images.

There are a host of other features within the website which make their 15% commission seem like a very reasonable cut. A major downside is the level of competition. There are a lot of very competent practitioners using the site so directing a customer to have a look may leave you in danger of sending a client elsewhere.

You Can Judge a Book by Its Cover

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 14:35:00 +0000

As a very visual person, I often break the rule of not judging a book by its cover. In an interview with book cover designer Chip Kidd that I recently read, he referred to the book cover as the book's face. I like that analogy. No, the quality of what's inside the book may not be properly communicated by the cover design, but I think that the cover does play a big part in immediately giving the potential reader insight into the theme and emotion of the book.

I think one big purpose the book cover needs to serve is as advertising for the book. It needs to allow that particular book to stand out amongst a large crowd on a shelf, and intrigue someone enough to be interested in opening it up.

Below I've pulled together some of my favorite book covers, which also happen to be fantastic reads.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

Buddha, Vol. 1 by Osamu Tezuka

What are some of your favorite book cover designs? Do you judge a book by its cover?

Shedwa Weekly Roundup: Inspiring Design Quotes

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Welcome to Shedwa's Weekly Roundup! This week I've pulled together some inspiring quotes for designers.

40 Memorable Design Quotes Visualized - A picture is worth a thousand words.

7 Inspirational Steve Jobs Quotes for Designers - Words from the mind behind Apple.

Famous Artist & Graphic Design Quotes - Design is art at the end of the day.

Graphic Design Software and Skills Infographic

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 15:02:00 +0000

Here's a really great infographic giving you insight into the standards of today's graphic design industry. The statistics behind this infographic come from a survey of professional designers on topics ranging from software used to skills they use.

Show off your graphic design skills with business cards from UPrinting!

via You the Designer

5 Essential Branding Lessons Anyone Can Learn From the Dallas Cowboys

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:16:00 +0000

This is a guest post from Anthony Jones. Anthony is a contributor all over the web and for Sports Management Colleges, a site that helps students pursue a career in sports.

According to Forbes.com, the Dallas Cowboys are the fourth biggest sports brand in the world. With the brand itself valued at over $200 million, the football team can teach anyone a lot about the practice of branding. To help give you a better idea, we have collected just five lessons in branding from the Dallas Cowboys below.

1. Logo is everything - Did you know that the Dallas Cowboys have established themselves as "America's team?" By utilizing the feeling that they play for the whole country, and not just their specific city or state, fans can relate to a football team that everyone can root for.

2. Winning isn't everything - While they may be the best loved team in the NFL, they have not been the most winning. In fact, the last time they won a Superbowl or appeared in one was in the 1996 win against the Pittsburgh Steelers. While the Cowboys can make an appearance during the playoffs, they are often relegated to the Wild Card games, as in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2004, and 2007.

3. Records aren't everything - While the Cowboys have played in the NFL Superbowl eight separate times and have won five of them, they are not the record holder. They come in tied with the San Francisco 49ers and second to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have won six Superbowls.

4. Showcase what you do have - If there is ever a star on the Cowboys team, he is sure to be featured on the front page, multiple interviews, and even tons of endorsement teams. The Dallas Cowboys know the value of having superstars on their team and how important being in and remaining in the spotlight is.

5. Numbers don't lie - With an estimated worth of $208 million, the Cowboys are worth $52 million more than their next competitor, the New England Patriots, and $128 million more than the average NFL team.

Bosch Refrigerator Dinosaur Leg and Sabertooth Filet Ads

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 17:00:00 +0000

I'm not sure the idea behind these ads is immediately clear, but once you recognize they are for a refrigerator, I think they are very clever. Plus, I just love dinosaurs.

Advertising Agency: DDB, Berlin, Germany
Chief Creative Officer: Amir Kassaei
Executive Creative Director: Stefan Schulte
Creative Director: Birgit Van Den Valentyn/Tim Stuebane
Account Manager: Gesa Birkmann
Art Buyer: Kerstin Kraus
Art Director: René Gebhardt/Björn Kernspeckt/Gen Sadakane/Wulf Rechtacek
Photographer: Szymon Plewa
Other Credits: Graphic: Sebastian Kamp/Anke Vera Zink; Modelbuilding: Angelika Mende

via I Believe in Advertising

The Brain of a Blogger Infographic

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:05:00 +0000

Infographics combine so many of my favorite things. Interesting information, statistics, great design and often times a bit of comedy. This infographic by Infolinks highlighting the brain of a blogger and the process of creating a blog is funny, and very true.

Plex: My HTPC Media Application

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0000

I have a very large media collection. I'm a sucker for movies on DVD and TV shows on DVD. I also have a giant photo collection, along with lots of home movies. I'm also a hyper-organizer. Given all of that, last year I put together a fully equipped home theater personal computer (HTPC) to house my media collection. A HTPC is simply a computer that is connected to some sort of large monitor, such as a TV or projector. The computer houses all of your media, as well as offers other great things such as video chatting and game playing.

In this post, I'll discuss Plex, the program that I use to access and navigate all of my media on my HTPC. Plex pulls together all of your movies, TV shows, home videos, music and photography into one application with a great user interface. It compliments your media with fan art, ratings, descriptions and more from popular online databases. The result is an easy to use, visually impressive experience for experiencing your media.

Writing all about how exactly to set-up Plex and all that it does would require a very long post, and others have already written about how to use Plex. What I'll do here is simply give you an overview of my experience with the program, what I use it for, and hopefully inspire you to consider using it yourself, as I really enjoy Plex.

One of the many browsing views of Plex.

What I most enjoy about Plex is the main purpose it serves: having all of my media in one place and easily accessible. With all of my media fully organized and in Plex, it takes only seconds to pull up a movie, browse the photos from my most recent vacation, or share a home video with visiting friends.

I also like that Plex automatically pulls fan art to supply movie posters, background, TV theme songs and information for all of my media. Some of my more obscure movies did not have images available, but Plex allows me to create my own posters to use, which is great.

Beyond the desktop Plex application, there are also iPhone and iPad versions, as well as online information about your media using myPlex. These apps allow me to access all of my media virtually anytime, anywhere. That's right, all of the media I have (see below) is available on all of my devices.

What I Have in Plex

my full DVD movie collection (more than 250 movies)
my full TV on DVD collection (hundreds of TV show episodes, seasons and full series)
my full home video collection (hundreds of short home videos)
my full personal photo archive (more than 27,000 photos)
my full music collection (thousands of songs)

What I Like About Plex

all my media in one place
beautiful, customizable interface
the Plex iPhone and iPad apps work great with the desktop version
the Plex forums are a great knowledge base community

What I Wish Plex Had

photo metadata searches

If you're willing to put in the work to properly organize your media, I highly suggest you look into Plex or a similar application, such as Boxee. It will help you get your movies out of their dusty DVD cases and onto your TV.

Do you use Plex? What do you like about it? What things have you done to customize Plex to your personal media collection?

Shedwa Weekly Roundup: Vintage Poster Tutorials

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:30:00 +0000

Welcome to Shedwa's Weekly Roundup! This week I've pulled together some great vintage poster tutorials for you.

Design a Vintage Style Swissair Travel Poster in Photoshop - Swiss style, vintage look, great results.

How to Create a Retro Boxing Poster in Photoshop - Great for an actual fight or a unique party invitation.

Super Cool Retro Poster in 10 Steps in Photoshop - The title says it all.

Create a Retro Grunge Typographic Poster in Photoshop - Include some type in your retro poster.

Create a Retro Urban Gig Poster in Photoshop - Big city, big concert, big poster.

Monetizing Your Photography Hobby with Stock Photography

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:44:00 +0000

I have loved photography for a large portion of my life. I enjoy the process of making a photograph, the system for organizing my photo archive, and the pleasure of sharing my memories with family and friends. Combining my love of travel with photography makes my vacations even more enjoyable and memorable.

A few years ago, I became interested in the idea of monetizing my photography hobby. I researched various stock photography sites, how those sites market your photos, and how the photographer benefits. The basic premise of stock photo sites is that you, the photographer, upload your photo to the site, the photo then becomes part of a large, trusted database for prospective buyers. When someone purchases a copy of your photo, the stock site keeps a portion of the money for themselves, and you, the photographer is paid a fee for your photo. One catch is that most sites have a minimum total proceed amount that you must meet before actually being paid any money. This is one thing to keep in mind when deciding to monetize your photos. You may sell many photos, but if you never meet the required minimum for a check to be sent to you, then you will never see any money in your pocket.

After considering the process of selling stock photography, I decided to try iStockphoto with a small selection of my travel photos. There is a small application process to become an uploaded with iStockphoto, during which the photographer needs to pass a short quiz regarding general photography practices, as well as upload sample photos for quality inspection. After completing this steps, I was approved as an uploader and free to submit my photos for inclusion in the iStockphoto database.

I began uploading the best of my photos, considering what subject matters may appeal to the public. Stock photography is not your family Christmas photos and personal wedding images. Stock photography is general images that would appeal to people searching for general imagery to illustrate a specific idea or theme, such as newspapers, advertisers, or other publications. Your stock photos need to be general enough to appeal to a large amount of buyers, but unique enough to make your specific image stand out amongst thousands of other choices.

One of my stock photos.

The upload process itself is for the most part simple, but does require some time. Stock photography sites review each and every photo submission for content and quality, and I can say that a large amount of my uploads were rejected for quality issues, which is frustrating. During the upload process, you can tag your photo with keywords. Keywords are how your photos will be found when would-be purchasers search for photos they are interested in. You may have the most unique, beautiful photo in the world, but if it is not tagged with the proper keywords, nobody will ever find it.

Once your photo is accepted to the stock photo site, it is there for everyone and anyone to purchase. Some sites also allow users to rate and comment on your images. It's interesting and exciting to see people rate your photos, purchase them and enjoy something you created.

In the years that followed my initial start with iStockphoto, I have interacted with the site sparingly, mostly because I do not take a great number of photos that lend themselves to stock. My iStockphoto portfolio includes a few dozen photos, many of which have been bought multiple times. The payment structure of iStockphoto requires you to amass $100 in sales before being able to collect any money. I've eclipsed this amount, but barely.

As an individual who considers photography a hobby, and uses stock photography simply as a way to share my photos with the possibility of monetizing them, I've enjoyed the stock photography process. If I had more time to work with my photos, I would be able to expand my collection on iStockphoto, and therefore have a greater revenue flow from my photos. Some people who have an extremely large amount of photos available on stock sites, or have a small amount of very unique, high-demand photos are able to make a very consistent, substantial amount of money from their photos. In this scenario, stock photography is a great income producing asset to have as a passive income stream.

If you're a part-time photographer looking for a way to get your photos out in the world, or monetize them, you should consider stock photo sites. Be sure to do some research first, however, and know all of the rules, copyright issues, and ways your photos will be used once uploaded on the stock photo site.

Do you use stock photo sites, either to buy or sell photos? What tips do you have for maximizing the monetary value of your photos?

Back to the Future Hoverboard Being Produced

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:25:00 +0000

Great scott! It's true! The hoverboard made famous by Back to the Future 2 is being produced for sale by Mattel. The production levels will be very limited, with a pre-sale starting March 1st on Matty Collector. This item has just sky-rocketed to the top of my wish list.

via ToyArk

The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers Review

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:35:00 +0000

I just finished reading The Dam Book by Peter Krogh and it was incredibly useful. As someone with a personal photo archive of more than 27,000 photos, I immensely appreciate the thought and effort Peter put into this definitive guide to digital photo management. Much of what Peter practices is in line with the system I have created for myself. Having determined the best file naming, folder structure, programs, and metadata systems for myself, it was reassuring to learn that very similar practices are considered industry standard.

The book reads like a college textbook, with a clear progressive structure, along with shout-outs along the way highlighting various aspects of the photo archive and management practice. It serves a great purpose of both explaining the fundamentals and reasoning behind various file types and programs, as well as outlining a very systematic, easy to use system for utilizing all of the digital asset management tools at your disposal.

If anyone is interested in learning more about how to organize a photo archive, how to utilize metadata and keywords, what programs are best for image sorting and editing, or how to ensure you are fully protected against file corruption and drive failure, you definitely should consider The DAM Book. It will answer the questions you have, make you think about things you haven't considered, and ensure you are building and maintaining a robust photo system that will last for years to come.

Good Girl vs. Bad Girl in "Moving On" is a Fun Little Book

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Sat, 01 Oct 2011 00:25:00 +0000

I'm very proud to share a new book with you. Good Girl vs. Bad Girl in "Moving On" by Victoria Waite (my wife) is now available for purchase. The book is a comic/graphic about how a girl sees the relationship that she’s currently in deteriorating while another one grows into something that she really starts to like. Putting aside that the author is my wonderful wife, I find this little book to be a very cute story presented in a unique way. I love the illustration style and the emotion captured in the illustrations. Victoria has a great ability to convey the feelings of her characters through her artwork, and it was fun to see her character work through the dilemma presented in the book. A very fun read! Buy your copy today.

Mercedes Benz Showcases Left Brain and Right Brain

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:41:00 +0000

Being someone who is constantly being pulled between my left and right brains (I'm an art director who is also head of finances for crying out loud), I absolutely love these Mercedes Benz ads. The art direction on them is great as well.

Agency: Shalmor Avnon Amichay/Y&R Interactive Tel Aviv, Israel
Chief Creative Director: Gideon Amichay
Executive Creative Director: Tzur Golan
Creative Director: Yariv Twig
Art Directors: Gil Aviyam, Dror Nachumi
Illustrators: Gil Aviyam, Lena Guberman
Copywriters: Sharon Refael, Oren Meir

Photo of the Week - 02.18.2011

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:30:00 +0000

Project Any Decor on White Living Room

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 21:46:00 +0000

This all-white living room uses video mapping from two projectors to transform the motif of the room instantly. Incredible. I'd like to see what happens when a person enters the room.

Photo of the Week - 02.11.2011

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:30:00 +0000

Back to the Future iPhone Wallpaper

noreply@blogger.com (shedwa) — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 15:50:00 +0000

Feeling like it was time for a change to my iPhone wallpaper, I came up with this new Back to the Future wallpaper. The lock screen wallpaper is from Back to the Future: The Game. Now every time I use my phone, I feel like I'm commanding the Delorean. All I need is a time machine app to take me to 1955.

Download this Back to the Future iPhone wallpaper.