After a nice weekend with my kids, Monday morning comes along and I make the mistake of turning on my computer. I really have no choice as I need it to work but the mass of emails that have piled up await my attention and to feed my anxiety about certain bits of good news about the design industry. Let’s share!

 If you remember the article that ran here a short while ago, “5 Minute Logos Makes Designers Go Bat Sh!t Crazy,” it was a brilliant and funny initiative thought up by illustrator Von Glitschka. He created a site named “5ive Minute Logo,” which promised some fun and very cool logos he would do for five dollars, in five minutes.

It was a joke that backfired as he thought he would get enough requests to buy a cup of coffee every day. Unfortunately for “Vonster,” as he’s also known, it backfired and the wait for a logo that used to be a day, is almost a week. No one can drink that much coffee, so he must be turning a tidy profit (I’ve ordered one for every family  member).

There were plenty of graphic designers who were livid that Vonster was doing logos for $5, probably because his logos were far and above the level of talent they had when spending weeks on a logo for $50, not realizing his site and offer was a well-played joke on clients, telling them they couldn’t art direct, make suggestions or bitch about the results of a $5 logo done in 5 minutes.

In the article I made the mistake of doing some easy math:

Vonster won’t become rich from doing five dollar logos, unless he can fill eight hours a day with a constant flow of work, which will gross him $2,400 a week or $120,000 a year with two weeks off.

Perhaps that’s what inspired the next bit of frightening news? Do you know about Fiverr? Originally, it was a fun idea for people who would offer to make a birthday video for you while wearing a clown costume, over react to anything, make a tutu for your pet or write a letter of complaint for you so you get comps and free stuff. I guess it was only a matter of time before people started offering logos and web sites for $5.

Now, you’ll rationalize this as what kind of logo can you get for $5 or, it must be done by someone in a country where $5 is a good income for a month. Well, the people doing these are Americans, offering, in many cases, unlimited revisions.

Sure, the logos will probably be crap without the humor invoked by 5ive Minute Logo or the people who offer this will get tired of the “unlimited revisions” and drop out of Fiverr, but Fiverr is promoting the hell out of this service on everything from cartoons and caricatures, to flyers and brochures, business cards, ebook covers and other graphic services that should go for slightly above $5.

Personally, for most of my career, at least a year out of art school, when a prospective client smiled and told me my fee was too high and he/she could get an art student to do a logo for $25 or free, I smiled back and told them to go ahead. It’ll be much easier to turn them down when they tell me they can get a logo for $5.

Featured image ©GL Stock Images

Groundwalk Grass Sandals
by Fabu Shu

Groundwalk sandals bring you closer to nature wherever you go. Our sandals are made with synthetic grass, rubber and durable foam. The synthetic grass is similar in texture to real grass, so our sandals are both stylish and comfortable. Kickstarter Page

Puking Kitty Saucy Boat
by GingerELA

The Puking Kitty Saucy Boat has a remarkable true-to-life action and has proven to be excellent for all manner of culinary semi-liquids. Kickstarter Page

Gift Couture: Premium Wrapping Paper Sets
by Sarah Fay & Justin Colt

Gift Couture will offer high-quality wrapping paper sets that feature original photography and design. Our main goal is to produce unique papers that coordinate together into conceptualized themes and sets. This is exemplified in the Cheeseburger set that we chose to use as this initial project. This includes 5 different wrapping paper designs; a bun, hamburger, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes, all of the components of a Cheeseburger! Kickstarter Page

Engrain Tactile Keys
by Michael Roopenian

Naturally Textured Wooden Stickers for Apple Keyboards. Individually unique and handcrafted in in Brooklyn NY. Why couldn’t your keyboard be designed as a unique object of beauty, to both compliment your desktop visually, and make you want to touch it whenever it’s time to type? That’s the idea behind the Engrain Tactile Keys. Kickstarter Page

Lumio: A Modern Folding Lamp
by Max Gunawan

Lumio unfolds from a book into a multi-purpose portable lamp. Transform Lumio into many shapes to meet your needs! Lumio started as an exploration to design a modular home that can fold flat and fit into a compact car. When I decided to pivot and translate the concept into a folding lamp, it was a natural progression to use the form of the sketchbook as a way to package the lamp. That’s how Lumio was born. Kickstarter Page

Grilled Cheesus
by Rob Corso and Meg Sheehan

The GRILLED CHEESUS™ is an electronic sandwich press that toasts the face of Jesus onto your sandwich bread! What a great way to inspire your family at the dining room table or your children in the lunchroom. It’s also a fun way to impress your friends at a party or the congregation at your church coffee hour! However you slice it, the GRILLED CHEESUS™ lets you bring little grilled miracles to mealtime, snack time, or anytime. Kickstarter Page

Rest In Pets. Because we love our furry little friends
by Jane & Mat

The loss of a pet is often a child’s first experience with life’s tough questions, and the sadness and confusion death brings. Our range of personalisable, biodegradable pet caskets enable children to farewell their pets in a meaningful, dignified manner. Rest In Pets helps start conversations about death – while commemorating very special little lives. Kickstarter Page

If you haven’t heard, billionaire, Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, has entered the crowdsourcing arena with his controversial call for free designs for the team uniform… or is it controversial?

 If you ask any professional designer what they think of design contests and crowdsourcing, prepare for a very passionate verbal beat down. Most will scream that these practices are destroying the design industry and lowering fees among smaller clients. Others are not so quick to agree.

“I’m not interested in clients who want logos for $100-$200,” said one designer. “There will always be small clients who can’t afford the fees a professional will charge, and that’s okay, ” he continued. “There are clients who just want a simple logo and others who know they need branding and a designer who can work with them to create that brand… and it will cost money!”

That seems to be the question about Mr. Cuban’s belief that the team’s fans will supply a winning logo for his team. Is he looking for a simple logo, or a brand for the team. Either he has enough money that he’s not worried about branding the team, the logo will be good enough for a sports team that needs no branding as the merchandise will sell to fans no matter what, or, as such a savvy businessman, he doesn’t know about designed branding.

Cuban Calls for Designs 

On May 13th, Mr. Cuban placed the call for submissions on his blog. This (verbatim, including grammar and punctuation) is what he wrote:

The Mavs are going to re-do our uniforms for the 2015-16 season… if we get a unique and original design. What’s the best way to come up with creative ideas ? You ask for them. So we are going to crowd source the design and colors of our uniforms.

You know what an NBA uniform looks like. You know what the Mavs colors are for today and the past.  We want some new ideas that stay true to our logo and at least close to our current color schemes. Show us what you got !

How do you participate ? You post your ideas/pictures/graphics/videos/photos directly on this blog.  Yes we want every one to see them.  Steve Jobs said “everything is a remix” . Uniforms probably more so than even technology. So we want every post to inspire other ideas and posts.

Who will own your design ? The minute you post it, the Mavs will.  If you think its horrible that the Mavs own your design. Do not post. If you think its cool that the Mavs could possibly use your design and you will have eternal bragging rights , then post away. If we really like your design and you , I may even throw in some tickets.  If we don’t use your design, it will still be here on this site for now and ever more for you to glance longingly at.  If your design is close , if not identical to other designs and we pick one of the other designs, for whatever reason, then thats just the way it goes.

If we don’t choose any of the designs,including yours.then we don’t choose any of the designs. That is life in the big city. Move on.

This is your chance to get bragging rights and put your signature design on the Dallas Mavs and the NBA.

This opportunity will last till the last day in May.

Let’s see what you got

The post received over one-thousand comments. Some from fans, eager to contribute, but the majority are people not being so kind to the idea of a billionaire asking for free work in such a straightforward manner.

Kudos must be given Mr. Cuban for doing his own dirty work and writing the blog entry without any proofreading. Most people of his wealth and business standing would just turn it all over to a PR firm while he goes about the daily headaches of running his vast financial empire. It was, however, his words of outlining the ownership and contributors having no expectations if they lose or win that seems to be the most upsetting to opponents of design contests.

One has to admit that in light of the legalese of design contest terms, Mr. Cuban makes it easy to understand what contributors can expect. You have to admire at least that honesty.

Eric Freeman (Ball Don’t Lie), writer for Yahoo Sports, sees some brilliance in Cuban’s running of this initiative:

 While the ethics of not paying the designer are questionable (to Cuban’s credit, he’s upfront about the arrangement), this is a great way to ensure the Mavs will end up with the best uniforms possible. For one thing, it’s not a contest, so the team isn’t obligated to choose a lackluster design in the name of fan outreach. Plus, as we learned when the New Orleans Hornets announced their new existence as the Pelicans, fan designs can often be better than their professionally commissioned counterparts. And if the Mavs do get a great uniform out of these submissions, they’ll likely get something unique and avoid some of the same-ness that typifies sports jerseys.

At the very least, Cuban has made a bold move to bring new ideas into the design process. It’s an open question as to whether the best designers will want to hand over their ideas for free, but it’s nice to see an owner who considers other methods of finding the best solution to a problem.

As Mr. Freeman is not a professional designer, his opinion may not hold certain considerations, especially with a statement such as, “fan designs can often be better than their professionally commissioned counterparts.” It has never been proven that this is the case.

There is one certainty in Mr. Cuban’s plan and that is, whatever logo is chosen, he will then have to spend money on having it professionally “tuned up” into camera ready art. No doubt, that will be paid to a company in China, that will also produce the uniforms and merchandise.

Is Crowdsourcing a Real Threat? 

Stirring the pot a bit, Alec Lynch’s article, “7 Logos That Should Have Been Crowdsourced” focuses attention on some recent redesigned logos that brought huge criticism from designers all over the globe as “horrid solutions,” “giving in to design-by-committee” and over priced pieces of crap.”

As expected, while commenters agreed the logos were horrid, they put down the idea of crowdsourcing them.

A surprise to many designers was the recent Fraggle Rock 30th Anniversary design competition, sanction nonetheless, by the Jim Henson Company. Many lamented that the late Jim Henson would never trample artist’s rights in such a way. Apparently those left behind to run the company thought nothing of it. The rules were simple — the company owns everything submitted

The prizes, were laid out as such:

The winning design will be featured and produced in elements of Fraggle Rock’s 30th anniversary merchandise line, which will be promoted and sold on their online store. In addition, the winner will receive:

A private tour of The Jim Henson Company and attendance to Fraggle Rock’s 30th anniversary party (travel and two nights’ accommodation in Los Angeles for two provided)

A framed copy of their artwork

A feature on Henson.com and Henson’s Facebook page

$2,500

Eight runners-up, as selected by The Jim Henson Company, will each receive:

A feature on Henson.com and Henson’s Facebook page

A framed copy of their artwork

$500

People’s Choice

The highest voted artist will receive:

A feature on Henson.com and Henson’s Facebook page

A framed copy of their artwork

$500

Additionally the winner, eight runners-up and the highest voted artist will each have their winning submission featured on CafePress for 30 days for creatives to create multiple types of merchandise including t-shirts, iPhone case, bags and types of wall art consisting of posters and banners.

©Jim Henson Company

The official rules were standard legal mumbo-jumbo but upon closer inspection, the winners would see their lives thrown into a Lindsay Lohan-like upskirt shot by the following:

 6. Publicity Release; Use of Personal Information.  By accepting a prize, all winners agree and acknowledge that Sponsor and any of its designees, clients, sponsors, or licensees may, without any limitation or further compensation, use his/her name, voice, biographical data, likeness, picture, entry materials, photograph, Work (in whole or in part), city name and audio and/or video recording of him/her in any and all media now known or hereinafter devised, throughout the universe and in perpetuity, for the purpose of advertising and promoting the Contest or for any other promotional purpose, except where prohibited by law.  By participating in the Contest, entrants will be sharing their personal information with Sponsor.  Personal information collected by Sponsor will be used for administration of the Contest and awarding the prize and as set forth in the Privacy Policy.

The first battle was the comments from professional designers vs. the fans who saw this as their lifelong dream and a chance for immortal bragging rights. The second battle was after the voting and the unprofessional back-biting and insults were thrown at the winner by other contestants not picked for their… er, fabulous artwork. In fact, one look at the quality between the winner, runners-up and the entries following the prize positions gives a hint at how many pieces of crap the Henson Company now owns. There is, however, one evident fact — the winner was of professional caliber, as was a couple of runner ups. Beyond that, other entires are unusable.

If you click onto Cafe Press, where the merchandise from the contest resides, you will find the winning entry was apparently short-lived. There are, however, many uses of the runner-up art. They did say they had the right to use anything and everything.

©Jim Henson Company

Is There Room For Everyone?

A friend of mine works for 99designs, while another connection works for designcontest.com. Both of them have always had some honest and informative discussions with me when I write an article on crowdsourcing. Interestingly enough, as with the arguments aired by many professional designers, they say that crowdsourcing has a place within the industry. My friend at 99designs once said to me, “there’s room enough for everyone.”

I have to admit the simple truth is, she was right. Mr. Cuban will find his winning design and chances are, he will be kinder to the winner of the contest than his waffling statement of possible tickets if he “likes” the winner. That winner will have his or her 15 minutes of fame and “eternal bragging rights” but even that will be short-lived as the uniform changes again, a few dribbles down the court… or road. As with the recent changes to the Microsoft, bay, Wendy’s and other iconic logos, there are no eternal bragging rights. The design industry will go on and new ways of paying for work or not will continue, whether a design contest with the best intentions is how it is done, or that lone businessperson who sits across a desk, telling some designer how working for free is an “opportunity” and promising “lots of money later on.”

Mr. Cuban’s words only echo that of the highest design professional — “If you think its horrible that the Mavs own your design. Do not post.”

I’m afraid that’s the only choice professionals have when it comes to crowdsourcing.

Top image ©GL Stock Images

Riding your bike is fun and good for your health… until it kills you in a very nasty, bloody manner! Yes, before the days of helmets and texting while riding, kids met horrible endings while playing on their bikes and other activities enjoyed by the Leave it to Beaver, 1960′s crowd. I guess God doesn’t like bikes for sinners!

So, let’s step back into the days of girls in neat skirts, boys with crew cuts and collared shirts, no homeless or people of color in a fantasy world of two-color printing, art that looks like it was drawn in prison, sentence breaks done by illiterates and certain death if you break the rules.

Especially if it’s in the middle of the road.

As opposed to the bikes we’ll see later on? At least this is a “clean” death.

It’s only red ink. Stop being such a crybaby!

No. Parked cars don’t move. It’s the moving cars you need to avoid. You would think cowboys would know that!

Chuck obviously had a one-track mind if he didn’t see the train coming. Darwinism in action!

“Crumpled” is a great word! Oh, and too bad about Elmer. Maybe some glue will help?

From a bike crash? Were they going 100 miles an hour? Sounds like Bill and Joe had an insurance scam going.

She was run down by the haircut police!

Is life in a town where all vehicles are red as frightening as it seems? Maybe they are already in Hell, suffering the same bike accident over and over… for eternity!

He seems bored by being on fire. I would be jumping around and screaming.

Another fatal accident caused by the killar misspelled sign truck!

Joe seems to be in a lot of accidents. Why do they keep giving him a bike… the implement of death?!

Then he is to blame and I don’t feel sorry for him at all. He was my least favorite Beatle, anyway!

“Another healthy boy?” Sounds like a pedo-writer was the author.

And once again, Joe is a killer. Won’t anyone stop him and his “Schwinn o’ Death”?!

It’s just too bad they couldn’t find the bike’s handlebars after the accident.

The badly drawn driver AND Jack seem very pleased. “YAY! Another healthy boy for Heaven!”

Will she ride a bike again?

Propaganda art is fascinating, powerful and plays on emotions. There are few nations in the world who keep up with this art form but it’s usually aimed at encouraging the country’s citizens to study hard, increase production, have male babies and not watch American Idol. Still, the dedicated and proud people of North Korea keep up the struggle against the running imperialist dogs of America on a daily basis while their former leader collected Precious Moments statuettes and Barbies and his replacement can’t seem to find a good barber.

So, to help the people forget their troubles, propaganda is cranked out to convince the citizens that as bad as things might be… er, I mean as wonderful as things might be… it’s preferable to the torture and death that will be brought by hip hop-humming, iPhone-using, pants-down-around-their-asses-wearing, video game-playing Americans. Can you blame them?

“Death to US imperialists, our sworn enemy!” You can identify Americans by the flag we wear wrapped around us and the giant “missile” sticking out of our pants.

“The US is truly an Axis of Evil” And apparently in very bad need of a manicure.

It says something about ridding the planet of America. Even so, McDonald’s will continue to take over the world.

We will bring Koreans the horrors of American dentistry!

Americans use Korean women as bulletin boards to leave messages of hate and shopping lists.

Kim Jong-Il tests the new bumper car model for the Pyongyang Six Flags… with matching .50 caliber machine guns and grenade launcher!

Seriously, aside from the examples of great graphics and art that comes out fo hate and fear, people are really all the same no matter where they are from and often victim to political agenda when all they want to do is live, love and laugh. So, I invite the North Koreans to a big dance mixer with Americans. That should clear up we are not so different after all.

Images stolen by imperialist aggression, from the Weird Retro page on Facebook. ©The Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea.

Sometimes there’s just too much good stuff on the web at one time. So, instead of the 10 best of this or the top designed that, here’s some recent cool, weird and strange creative stuff from all over the web.

RIP Ray Harryhausen

You know his work and yesterday Facebook was filled with sad memorials to Ray Harryhausen, the man who made special effects what they are today through his stop-motion animation, inspiring generations of filmakers and amazing filmgoers. Mr. Harryhausen was 92 and his body of work was so huge, no other special effects professional will ever be able to match the number of films he had worked upon.

One of Harryhausen’s earliest works was for a George Pal short, animating the screwballs in this piece that was obviously a poke at the fascism spreading across Europe at the time.

May ALLAH Your Dreams Come True!

And the complaints have already started rolling in on this greeting card from Nobleworks, a greeting card company in New Jersey that is no stranger to complaints. The company motto is “Dare to Laugh,” according to NobleWorks president, Ron Kanfi. It’s apparently also “F@#% ‘em if They Can’t Take a Joke!”

The Muslim doll may be a dynamite joke to some but the Council on American-Islamic Relations isn’t amused. A case of “too soon?” Well, when it comes to shocking cards, NobleWorks thinks it’s always just right.

This isn’t thee first time NobleWorks, Inc. has felt the heat on one of their cards. The first card, created by the original owner, the late Chris Noble, was a cat recipe card, showing a cat and a meatloaf with the words, “from this, to this.” Animal rights activists weren’t so pleased by that one, or the seasonal reindeer recipe card, either.

Weird Retro

There are some weird pages on Facebook, but if you enjoy retro and weirdness, then you need to “like” the Weird Retro page to see some really cool stuff!

You’ll know you’ve found the page when you see the cover image.

Nothing sells 1970s fashion like Ultraman villains attacking models.

Search as I could, there was no news about anyone winning this prize. I’m guessing it was one of those comic book ad things that were made out of cardboard and atomic waste.

Speaking of atomic waste, this science kit toy from the 1950s contained actual samples of U-238. That’s why grandpa’s hair fell out and he glows in the dark.

What kid wants harmless fun?

And we were told not to play with our food. Guaranteed to satisfy your desire for something sweet and a poked out eye!

Nothing like taking out one’s anger on a beloved cartoon character… like a baby Bam-Bam or the mentally handicapped “Scatterbrain.” Who wouldn’t want to smack Spongebob or an elderly person in a wheelchair?

Just think… these women are someone’s grandmother. Hey, you’ll put out someone’s eye with those pointy things!

Making fun of North Koreans is always in season. Do they really have secret weapon purses that shoot death rays?

A 1951 magazine cover from Japan. She is the egg woman… coo-coo-ka-choo!

Back when child abuse was a selling point for coffee.

Creative Child Abuse Ads

From Y & R Mexico, these ads show the cycle of abuse in a powerful way.

The hidden Message About Abuse Only Kids Can See

In an effort to provide abused children with a safe way to reach out for help, a Spanish organization called the Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk Foundation, or ANAR for short, created an ad that displays a different message for adults and children at the same time.

Obi-Wanna Find Out Your Star Wars Job?

Nothing like a good nerd infographic for a career choice. Why bother with the high school guidance counselor when the force is there for you?

 Barbie’s Dream Train Station

New York’s Grand Central Station has seen its share of art installations and urine puddles but this life-sized doll house is probably the largest piece of art since the station’s astronomy ceiling was installed. Having travelled through GCS for most of my life, I can confidently say it also makes a great nightly hotel for some homeless people who live in the corners and tunnels of the station.

Are You Truly A-CLONE in This World?

In her project called ‘Stranger Visions,’ NYC-based artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg creates sculpted faces of people — all of whom she has never met—by using their DNA.

Collecting discarded pieces of gum, cigarette butts and loose hair, she extracts the DNA from these samples and uses a software to turn them into creepy life-like human masks, which she hangs on gallery walls — like mounted heads. At least she CLAIMS she uses DNA and these are just models. YIPES!

Gun Show Fun

Gun shows aren’t just a collection of thousands of weapons, ammo, T-shirts warning of government conspiracies and future self-inflicted wound people. There are also some products that are fun for the entire family!

Guns and Roses?

Is a million volts the same power they use to execute criminals in the electric chair? Thank goodness it’s marked that it’s not a functioning cell phone, even though I’m guessing someone will hit the wrong button to make a call and fry their head. Hooray for Darwinism!

What’s “South of Your Border?”

AY! It’s Señor Cajonés and he’s the new mascot in Brazil to bring the problem testicles face each and every day, when hugged and patted by beautiful women. Actually, it’s to publicize testicular cancer, but it’s still a strange way of doing it. I just don’t want to see the mascot, “Limpy” for male erectile disfunction or “Stinky” the Colon. I’ll bet no woman would be hugging them!

Hola, ladies!

Why is it that Señor Cajonés has a really stupid look on his face? I mean, do men make stupid choices based on our… oh, never mind. We do.

Thumbs up for… I really don’t want to know!

Gif Me More of These!

Creating gifs is fun and can become viral marketing of your work, as well as embarrass the hell out of friends and loved ones!

There are some great art schools out there. If not for my instructors and the school, I wouldn’t have made it in the design industry. There are also some really bad art schools out there, too. In fact, there are too many bad art schools out there, making false promises to students, smiling as they help arrange a $40,000 debt to the poor saps who think online learning for a visual, thinking career can be learned AND earned via the internet, as well as the for-profit schools that shove a new batch of wide-eyed hopefuls through the mill in just two years. Welcome to the biggest design-related scam of the past decade.

There are people who are self-taught, who have an innate talent, more a gift, for design and creativity, and, at the other end of the spectrum, those who have no hope at all to create something that’s not pro boon because that’s all they can get, along with the $25 logos they do for family members. Then there are those who by lack of means, have limited choices for studying the craft. They are stuck in schools that are not known for turning out successful professionals because they have limited budgets for design courses.

As I travel the United States, speaking at different schools, meeting administrators and teachers alike, I’ve realized that there are people out there that have no freaking idea what it is they are teaching. One connection of mine, who teaches several courses for a well-known online art school, emails me every now and then, asking if I can give him freelance work or advice on how to find clients.

“Don’t you teach a business course for students on how to find and deal with clients?” He never really answers that but it brings up the old saying, those who can’t do, teach. What about those who can’t teach? They get tenure at certain schools… and you pay $10,000 a semester to “learn” from them.

Just the other day, before a local design group meeting (an loose organization that has no dues or membership requirements — only that one should be a professional designer), one particular talentless individual who stalks other members for advice and portfolio reviews, only to argue every point given her and never having done a professional project, announced she wouldn’t make the meeting because she was hired as a volunteer coordinator for some small, non-creative organization, but would be teaching typography at a local college.

At the meeting, someone brought up the posting by this person and asked how the hell could she be hired to teach anything design related, much less something as important and difficult as typography. It’s something I’ve noticed — “art schools” often hire happy morons who won’t really teach students that the design field is not artPLAY. It’s artWORK!

While I apologize for the generality in these words, knowing many fine teachers who give their all to teach and mentor students and steer them into success, let these words also be the proverbial “spit in the face” to those who should never mention they teach design in front of professional designers, illustrators and photographers who see through the haze and know shite when they smell it.

Sure enough, it was only a matter of time before someone got serious about bridging the gap for serious students with bad art school degrees and talented individuals who seek to learn themselves through the resources on the internet. With the brand name, “Damn You Art School,” it seems pretty clear what they think of the state of art schools and they supply a chance for dedicated creatives to round out and sharpen their skills and needs for a successful career.

When I first ran across the site, my first thought was that they were ripping off my series of articles, written for instantshift.com, entitled, “Professional Practices They Don’t Teach You in Art School” as well as my other articles around web design blogs, bashing art schools for helping to destroy the industry and the lives of those who merely wish to enter the creative field. It turns out the site offers some impressive tools for freelancers — tools I have never heard one “design teacher” ever suggest. Looks like they hit a needed niche.

Owned by 4ormat.com, the portfolio site, Damn You Art School (DYAS) is, to quote a spokesperson:

Recognizing the lack of knowledge regarding business-enhancing resources in the creative community, Damn You Art School was born to help creative independent business owners be more successful.

You mean others are recognizing that art schools don’t prepare creatives for their chosen industry? I’m so surprised

According to Ms. Sofija Obradovic, the Marketing Manager of DYAS:

Damn You Art School (DYAS) was an initiative created by 4ormat as a way to give back to the creative community. After recognizing the lack of education photographers, designers, and artists face with respect to business enhancing resources, DYAS was made to educate creatives on services to enhance productivity and time management, improve technical skills, better manage their personal business, and encourage inspiration.

That’s a pretty… assertive name for the site. What do the people at DYAS think established art schools lack and why?

The name “Damn You Art School” is meant to be tongue and cheek. As art school graduates, we realized the struggles that creatives face when it comes to running a professional business. We received a fantastic education in our respective fields but we lacked knowledge on how to run the business side of our creative pursuits and found ourselves from time-to-time muttering “Damn You School!”. Though how much business knowledge can we really expect? Just like a medical school provides education on the ins and outs of being a doctor, an art/design school is not expected to provide a business education. That’s what business school is for and that’s why DYAS was born.

As creative professionals we’ve been lucky to learn about business enhancing tools through word of mouth, our web design/programmer friends, and keeping up with tech and creative publications. We decided what better way to give back to our fellow creatives than to put all of these wonderful tools in one place. A place they can reference, bookmark, and use as business toolkits to aid in their success.

How has the site been received since it launched? Ms. Obradovic says:

Damn You Art School has generated quite the buzz with over 11,000 views since our launch last Friday, in conjunction with 2013 World Creativity and Innovation Week.

Not bad, but what is the growth potential for DYAS?

Since DYAS was created as a free initiative to give back to the creative community, we have no particular growth prospects. We simply hope that creatives find it useful and share the knowledge with their fellow creatives, so that everyone has a chance of reaching their full potential.

What? Free? No huge debt for learning? Reaching one’s full potential? Click around the DYAS site and see some of the cool apps and tools that will help creatives at any level in the profession and kudos to them for doing it all for free!

The internet has affected many industries. Retail is losing out to ecommerce. Cable TV is fighting online services for TV shows and movies. Will art schools lose out to internet resources for creatives? Online art schools don’t offer this much and certainly not for free. What a shame if (more so, when) these online school scam shops go out of business. I hope they take some physical schools along with them into a cold and lonely grave, fading from memory and any damage they can do to dedicated art students.

Well, Mad Men are back on the air, reminding us of a somewhat skewed view of life and business of advertising on Madison Avenue in the 1960s. Still, while the backstabbing, sexual affairs, backstabbing and more backstabbing is as accurate as can be, even for censors of a late night cable show, the ads they work on just aren’t true to the creative force of the day. While Hollyweird can’t match the creativity of the day… or any creativity now, The least they could do was look up the plethora of ads that had people sitting in front of the TV to watch the commercials, which were as entertaining as the shows themselves. Maybe more so!

Yes, every brand had a “jingle.” These musicals for the short-attention-span audience were original and fully orchestrated, as opposed to the practice of using existing pop tunes these days.

During the 1960s, most shows had one sponsor and being sponsored by one company, the characters often did the commercials for the sponsor’s product. There are many shows from the 1960s you won’t see on tv because the opening of the show included a cigarette commercial or for a product that is no longer a sponsor. If you do see these shows, the openings are cut out, which allows for other advertisers and more saved original content.

There are hours upon hours of commercials available on YouTube, so, enjoy, observe, learn and figure out why we make such different commercials these days.

Of course, as movies and drive-ins were still popular, before the days of BetaMax, VCRs, LaserDisc and DVDs, there was a need for commercials for the theaters, as well as the coming attractions. Madison Avenue jumped on that like people just on the latest social media app.

McDonald’s has been on the forefront of advertising since the 1960s, helping it become the number one restaurant choice, global entity, billion dollar corporation with the most recognized logo in our known universe. I guess their contract with da debil worked out?!

It’s those old Saturday morning commercials that were probably the most challenging to the Mad Men. They couldn’t use smoking, drinking or large-breasted models in the ads for kids…. so they only went with the large-breasted model route. If you like retro toy commercials, check out this article with a ton of funny and cool toy commercials!

And toys were specialized advertising in the 1960s; for whites, to whites. from whites. Diversity and inclusion wasn’t a factor as that had not been scientifically discovered until 1996.

But, remember, these were the changing 1960s and even though the words, characters and themes were the horrid, un-pc things that would never be used now, are part of the history of Madison Avenue and the whole United States at that moment in time. The one common thread that reaches from then until now are the actors in these ads. The hairstyles, music and fashions may change, but those souess actors and voiceovers will always be with us, unchanged… a walking dead, so to speak.

And we leave you with the creepiest commercial ever made… also a product of the 1960s. Thanks for the nightmares, Mad Men!

Featured image ©GL Stock Images

Boston Strong

Artwork: Tawng and vectomart

Boston Marathon 2013 Memorial

Artwork: bender and yurkaimmortal

Boston Strong 2

Artwork: Tawng and yurkaimmortal

If you walk into a design studio, you are sure to find two things designers love: Toys and tattoos. I’m no different, sporting a dozen or so different pictures on my body with more to be added. If you have one, you know they are addictive and you can hardly wait to get your next inking.

I’ve always drawn my own tattoo designs, then I get a few friends to hold me down while a tattoo artists inks me. When I see great inspiration, I get excited about my next tat and these watercolor tattoos (not the inks, just the style and look) are high art but I’m not a watercolor artist, so I doubt I’ll be doing one of these for myself. Still, seeing some of these makes me think of what I could do for something along this line. Take a look at these (see more on Buzzfeed) and I’m sure you’ll be seeing your favorite tattoo artists very, very soon.

A close-up view of a forearm with the technique to make tattoo ink appear to be a watercolor.

Paper and skin. Two different drawing surfaces and two different mediums.

Yes, it’s beautiful work, unlike some examples of the worst tattoos that appear on the web. Be careful who you pick to place that permanent mark on your body and when you find that talented artist, hold onto him or her because a great tattoo artist isn’t so easy to find.