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Because I intend on looking for another full time graphic design position sometime in the next year (2010), I've been brushing up on my skill set.

In light of that, not too long ago, I ordered a lot of books pertaining to Action Script 3 and Flash CS4, which I've already begun reading.

I also ordered several books which explain print production and digital prepress; classes for these topics were, for some bizarre reason, never even offered at universities with graphic design degrees, not when I was a student at those schools.

I was also planning on purchasing the latest Adobe graphics software, at the very least Flash CS4, but possibly the "suite," which comes with not only Flash, but also Photoshop, Illustrator, and only programs.

Now, however, I am stumped.

In researching the Adobe CS4 suite, I have come across many sites, forum threads, and blog pages by current owners and users of CS4 products which proclaim the line of products useless and horrid.

Many people have complained that they have not been able to get the CS4 products to even install on their computers.

In some cases, CS4 will not install-
1. on machines with the Vista operating systems, and in other cases,
2. CS4 will not install if there are any previous Adobe products on your computer.

In scenario #2 mentioned above, people at various sites have said the standard "remove program" feature will not work, so that one has to manually hunt down and remove files, and in conjunction to that, use something called
CS4 Clean Script from Adobe.

Here are some links about the CS4 installation difficulties:
Problems Removing and Installing Adobe CS4

Problems Removing and Installing Adobe CS4

Adobe CS4 Installation Problems: Vista Home Basic – Dreamweaver – Photoshop – Master Collection – Acer Aspire

Installing CS4 - tips if you're having problems
Then there are those who manage to get CS4 products installed, but the CS4 products are very "buggy," sluggish, slow, and crash a lot.

I've seen some CS4 owners say they were so frustrated that they reverted back to using CS3 products.

Here are just a few of the pages I found which outline the problems of CS4 and of Flash CS4 in particular:
Flash Blog > Have a complaint about Flash CS4?

Adobe UI Gripes
-also discusses other bugs and problems with Adobe products, not just GUI mistakes

Flash CS4: Library Issue
To make matters even more confusing (for me, at least), the people at Adobe announced that they will begin shipping CS5 (five) products as early as April 2010:
Risks for Adobe CS5 as CS4 Upgrade Gets Lukewarm Reception

Flash CS5 Info, Preview, Info
Excerpts from first link:
Many CS3 users will likely skip CS4, making CS5 a much more important release for Adobe's earnings. But without some significant improvements to the functionality, CS5 risks continuing to sell at the level we are seeing for CS4, and many users will continue to use CS3. Gone are the days where Adobe users upgrade simply to have the latest-and-greatest. Adobe CS5 will need to have compelling new features and benefits to attract the many CS3 users that are skipping the CS4 release.
Now I'm left wondering if I should just skip CS4 altogether and wait for the CS5 line to be introduced?

I would like to get the latest graphic design software so I would feel more confident in my abilities and make sure my skills are current, but if the CS4 line is as nightmarish and flawed as people on the blogs and forums are saying, I'm very hesitant to purchase CS4 software.

On the other hand, I don't know if I can or should wait until April 2010 to get the CS5 release.

Then there is the matter of the staggering cost of Adobe products: I've currently found one online store selling the CS4 suite for around $680 (the current price at most stores is something around $1,600 - $1,700), but I'm sure when CS5 rolls out, no site will sell it at that low a price.

I'm amazed that Adobe would roll out CS5 (five) so quickly; it wasn't that long ago that CS4 was released.

Adobe's graphic design software is so insanely expensive, it seems obscene to come out with a new release so quickly, and contrary to the excerpt above, I think there is a segment of graphic designers who feel the need to keep up with the "latest and greatest" software, so some of them are going to feel pressured to purchase CS5, even if they're happy with CS3.
 
 
Current Mood: confused
 
 
gdesigner
19 November 2009 @ 03:18 pm
Clients From Hell site
A collection of anonymously contributed client horror stories from designers.
A few samples from their site:
Lorem ipsum

After I sent a client a mockup with lorem ipsum as filler text:

It’s good but there is a weird language on the page. It will either need to be translated or removed.
[Said the client:]

$1,000 is very expensive, you know. We only want a simple website with our current contents, and contact form as well. And don’t forget about CMS features. We want to add or edit content on our own. And the picture gallery, we want something that stunning and animated. The header should be animated as well. And our logo seems too old, can you design new logo for our company? But the best price we can offer is $300, and we think that’s more than enough
1. Me: I'm on the press check for the brochure, anything I should look out for?
2. Client: Can you make the blue match the color of the sky right now?
 
 
gdesigner
15 August 2009 @ 02:45 pm
~All links will open in new browser windows~

Tutorials or Information


Vector Art


Aviary (Raven: First Online Vector Editor)

Photoshop



The 100 Most Popular Photoshop Tutorials of 2008




40 Spine-Chilling Horror Photoshop Effects

8 Photoshop Cheesy Effects You Secretly Love

Fun blog:
Photoshop Disasters

10+ Sites To Add Amazing Effects To Your Photos

Flash



You deleted your cookies? Think again

Excerpts:
More than half of the internet’s top websites use a little known capability of Adobe’s Flash plug-in to track users and store information about them, but only four of them mention the so-called Flash Cookies in their privacy policies, UC Berkeley researchers reported Monday.

Unlike traditional browser cookies, Flash cookies are relatively unknown to web users, and they are not controlled through the cookie privacy controls in a browser. That means even if a user thinks they have cleared their computer of tracking objects, they most likely have not.

What’s even sneakier?

Several services even use the surreptitious data storage to reinstate traditional cookies that a user deleted, which is called ‘re-spawning’ in homage to video games where zombies come back to life even after being “killed,” the report found. So even if a user gets rid of a website’s tracking cookie, that cookie’s unique ID will be assigned back to a new cookie again using the Flash data as the “backup.”

Tools:

Users who want to control or investigate Flash cookies have several options, according to reader Brian Carpenter:

Windows:
* Better Privacy extension for Firefox

* Ccleaner

Macs:
Flash Cookie Remover for Mac OSX
12 Sites to Help you Learn Flash / Action Script

sIFR Documentation & FAQ

Adobe's Flash Catalyst Forum

Action Script 3- First Impression

ActionScript 3.0: Is It Hard or Not?

How can Adobe make learning ActionScript 3 easier?:

ActionScript 3 Tutorial - What Happened to getURL?

Ru Roh! Adobe Screwed By EcmaScript Standards Agreement

The Charges Against ActionScript 3.0

Action Script 3- First Impression

Action Script 2 is Still Good

Web Page Design



53 CSS Tricks You Can't Live Without

Fast Rollovers Without Preload

CSS Sprites: Image Slicing’s Kiss of Death

CSS Reflections

72 dpi or 96 dpi - What's best for web images?

Art & Miscellaneous



Typeface [Comic Sans] Inspired by Comic Books Has Become a Font of Ill Will

Dirty Car Art Gallery

Retro Graphics Archive

Your Fonts: Make Your Own Handwriting Fonts - Free Preview

An artist, George Vlosich, uses Etch-a-sketch toys to make portraits:
The Etch-A-Sketch President

Off-beat news item:
Former art teacher sketches her own mugger
 
 
gdesigner
15 August 2009 @ 02:03 pm
~All links should open in new browser windows~

Here's an interesting page from Yahoo!, via CNNmoney.com, about the changes various organizations and corporations have made to their logos, complete with before and after images:

What's In a New Logo?

Here are some excerpts from the page:
by Blake Ellis and Josh Glasser
Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Apple - A Chic Redesign

Talk about a makeover.

Just imagine what an iBook or iPhone would look like with this image on it: definitely not as chic.


Logos, before and after
Click image above to view larger image



Ronald Wayne designed Apple's original logo in 1976 when the company was still operating out of a garage.

It shows Isaac Newton sitting beneath a tree with an apple dangling precariously above his head.

Rob Janoff used the same apple in his redesign a year later.

"You can almost feel the '70s and '80s taking place when you take a look at that rainbow apple," says Bill Gardner, principal of Gardner Design.

Apple dropped the multi-colored logo in 1998 for a monochromatic version, produced in every color imaginable, until transitioning it to today's popular shade of chrome.
More from Yahoo! / CNNMoney.com:

Logo Changes: Pepsi Waves Good-Bye to the Smile
 
 
gdesigner
17 May 2009 @ 09:01 am
Quark Interactive Designer
As I was saying in a post about Abobe's "Flash Catalyst," someone should have made an easy- to- use WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Flash-like application years ago, as in the year 2000 or 2001.

The closest thing I have seen to such a WYSIWYG application that can output .swf files would be Swish and Fly Paper.

Even though I learned Action Script 2 (I would say I'm towards the 'intermediate' level of the spectrum, or am getting to that point), it is my view that graphic artists should not have to learn, or even have a passing familiarity with, scripting or programming, including Action Script.

(Microsoft's Silverlight is not a solution, since it, like Flash, apparently requires the use of a scripting language as well, if my understanding is correct.)

About three years ago, QID (Quark Interactive Designer) was released, and it is an attempt at a Flash-like WYSIWYG package.

Quark Interactive Designer 1.0 - review from MacWorld

Excerpt from MacWorld review:
This program has a simple and straightforward interface and concept, and it works very well for creating presentations, interactive tours, online ads and banners, or for converting your pages into a Web site complete with multimedia content. You can also use QuID to create familiar elements such as rollover navigation bars, disjointed rollovers, and animations without any coding, programming, or scripting knowledge.

While the vast majority of designers will be satisfied with the basic actions that QuID supplies (and you’ll need to consult the manual or video to understand how to use them—they are not self-explanatory) some designers will need additional complex effects that are more technically difficult to produce. Nonetheless, compared to Flash, QuID is still much easier to learn and use.
A long quest for a simple, easy-to-learn Flash program is over. Or is it?

Excerpts from the above page:
Quark Enters the Flash Market

Quark Interactive Designer (called QID for the rest of this review) is the latest addition to the QuarkXPress 7 bundle of tricks.

Although you buy QID as an individual product, you must also have a copy of QuarkXPress 7.02 installed. (This is similar to the requirements of QuarkImmedia, the long-defunct multimedia predecessor of QID.) You then launch XPress as usual.

....With QID's flexibility comes a bit of a learning curve--a little bit more of a learning curve than I expected. And there's no summary where you can see all the controls that have been applied to an object. There were too many times I found myself wondering why nothing was happening when I went to preview my presentation.

....Given that the whole point of QID is supposed to be its simple learning curve (using the tools you already know in QuarkXpress), I was disappointed in things that were unnecessarily complicated. QID has tools to let you build sophisticated interfaces, but it fails to help you do so easily or quickly.
 
 
gdesigner
17 May 2009 @ 08:33 am
Adobe is releasing a new product called Flash Catalyst (formerly named "Thermo").

"Flash Catalyst" sounds like a very early version of Flash, or else a very "watered down" version.

I am wondering if Adobe came up with this product because of the backlash they received from infuriated graphic designers who became more and more alienated and frustrated by an ever-increasing complexity with Flash's scripting / programming language, Action Script.
Flast Catalyst


Learning AS2 (Action Script 2) was difficult enough for many graphic artists.

I am no exception in that regard, especially since I am self-taught; I never took any computer science, programming, or scripting courses while in college. (None of the colleges in my area even offered Flash or Action Script courses, either.)

Adobe, unfortunately, made some big changes from version 2 of Action Script to version 3, which furthered increased the difficulty and learning curve.

Here is how the "Flash Catalyst" software is described on Adobe's site (and notice the phrase "without coding"):
Adobe Flash Catalyst is a new professional interaction design tool for rapidly creating application interfaces and interactive content without coding.

These can range from interactive Ads, product guides and design portfolios to user interfaces for applications.

... The designer does this by visually defining events, transitions and motion. Flash Catalyst can output a finished Flash SWF or AIR application that’s ready to publish on the web.

In addition designers can provide the project file to developers who can use Adobe Flex Builder to add additional functionality such as connection to back-end systems.
Notice also that in this product description there is an emphasis here on dividing the tasks between the artist (that is, the front end, visual, creative work) and that of the developer/programmer.

It seems to me the current version of Flash, "CS4," (as well as the previous versions, starting at around 4, 5, or MX all the way to CS3) is aimed more towards computer programmers and application developers.

As such, it should be renamed "Flash for Programmers," while this new product, "Flash Catalyst," should be entitled, "Flash for Graphic Artists," or, "Flash for People Who Hate Coding, Programming, and Scripting and Have No Desire to Learn Any of Those Things."

I cannot, and would not, refer to Flash MX, the current version, or any version in-between, as being "artist friendly," or intuitive to graphic designers.

Forcing artistic, creative types to learn anything even remotely resembling scripting or programming was a very big mistake on Adobe's part, as it was on Macromedia's part (Macromedia being the former owners of Flash).

Adobe, Macromedia, or someone should have created a "WYSIWYG" (what you see is what you get) version of Flash many, many years ago; with "Dreamweaver," Adobe/Macromedia already had such software for web page creation, so why not something similar for Flash?

(About the closest thing I've ever seen to such a package is Swish Zone's "Swish"), and another product called Fly Paper.

If I'm not mistaken, "Flash Catalyst" uses "MXML" and does not provide an option for using Action Script.

If this blog entry is any indication, developers do not like "Flash Catalyst." This one reader comment sums up their feelings (emphasis added):
[by "John O"]
We’ve been talking about the new workflow and came to similar conclusions. At my last 9-5, I was the UI designer for a WPF project using Blend for my work.

After finding out that all the developers wanted was my XAML, I moved back to doing my work in Fireworks and using the Infragistics XAML exporter.

Round tripping sounds great but in reality, no developer I know trusts any auto-generated code.
As one reader ("useflashmore") on another page put it:
Why would Adobe build a new product to do what Flash should have evolved to do?
To read more about Flash Catalyst, try this page:

Adobe's Flash Catalyst Moves Forward
The Adobe tool aims to simplify the creation of interactive applications.


------
 
 
gdesigner
Adobe Flash Format Comes To TV, Set Top Boxes

Adobe's Flash: Coming to a TV (and living room) near you - ZD Net

Adobe in Push to Spread Web Video to TV Sets - New York Times

Adobe to bring Flash software to TV - Biz Journals

Adobe Flash platform coming to televisions and set-top boxes - Telegraph

Adobe Bringing Flash to Your Living Room - IT Business Edge

Adobe's Flash comes to TVs, set-top boxes - CNET

Adobe announces 'straight-to-TV' Flash

Adobe: Flash Video Will Be On TVs This Year - PC Magazine

Adobe's new Flash can stream Internet content to TVs

Excerpt:
By Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service, 04/20/2009

Adobe Systems on Monday unveiled a version of its Flash multimedia streaming technology that would allow people to run entertainment programming directly to television sets from the Internet, a new option for the rapidly changing digital-home market.

Adobe also has signed up a host of partners to support the technology, called the Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home. The new platform is available now to OEMs, and the first devices and processors that will support it should be available in the second half of the year, Adobe said.

Partners that have signed on to support the new version of Flash are Atlantic Records, Broadcom, Comcast, Disney Interactive Media Group, Intel, Netflix, STMicroelectronics, The New York Times Company, NXP Semiconductors and Sigma Designs.

Industry analyst Ben Bajarin, director of consumer technology for Creative Strategies, said the news is significant because it makes Flash the first enabling technology to allow entertainment providers to stream content directly to televisions. Currently, the way to get this kind of content onto televisions is mainly by hooking up a PC to a TV or set-top box, he said.
Adobe extends Flash to TVs, Blu-ray players - MSNBC
Program will let consumers see Internet video on other home devices


Excerpts:
April 20, 2009

Adobe Systems Inc. is extending its Flash platform to digital home entertainment devices like TV sets, Blu-ray players and set-top boxes.

Adobe announced Monday that the move will let people watch high-definition videos, play Flash-based games and access other Web content on their Internet-connected TV sets.

Flash is still not available for the iPhone, one of the most popular smartphones for Web browsing.

.... An Adobe spokesman said previously that the company is “committed to bringing Flash Player to the iPhone,” although no timeline has been given.
Adobe To Move Flash Into Digital TVs

Excerpts:
By Antone Gonsalves
April 20, 2009

Adobe on Monday said its Flash platform for running rich Internet applications and playing online video will ship in major vendors' digital TVs and set-top boxes in the second half of the year.

Flash will be incorporated in the system-on-a-chip products from Broadcom, Intel, NXP, Sigma Designs, and Mediatek. The integration will extend Adobe's reach with Flash beyond PCs and mobile phones.

About 98% of PCs have Flash installed and almost 80% of online video is seen through Flash, according to Adobe. The number of mobile phones shipping with Flash Lite is expected to reach 1 billion this year and more than 2.5 billion by the end of next year, according to Strategy Analytics.

....Companies that have announced plans to offer content for Flash-supporting TVs include Atlantic Records, Disney Interactive Media Group, Netflix, and The New York Times. Adobe and partners made the announcements at the National Association of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas.

A major competitor to Adobe in the market for supplying development platforms for the next-generation Web applications is Microsoft, which offers Flash rival Silverlight. However, Silverlight has nowhere near the reach of Flash, but has seen 350 million downloads, according to Microsoft. Key customers of the platform include NBC and Netflix.
In other Adobe/Flash related news:

How Adobe Air brings Flash to your desktop

Banish Your Browser With Innovative Adobe AIR Apps - PC World

Adobe Systems unveils software framework, code-named Strobe
April 20, 2009

Adobe Systems Inc. announced it has unveiled a software framework, code-named Strobe that will help establish an open industry standard for media players. This software framework accelerates the creation and delivery of high-quality video and interactive experiences for Web audiences third-party developers.
 
 
gdesigner
13 December 2008 @ 07:53 pm
I should have known, but did not: there are entire sites devoted to logo design. Here's one of them:

Logo Design Love

(That site, in turn, links to a tribute site called Iconic Logo Designers.)


Rejected Obama '08 Logo

A few if the blog entries at Logo Design Love currently available are-

Obama logo ideas that weren’t chosen (view one of the designs that didn't make it to the left); and The reality of logo design contests.

I particularly appreciated the entry When Logos Look Alike. As a graphic designer, I strive to come up with original works, but as this article points out, in this day and age, it's difficult to do so.

Sometimes a designer might unintentionally may come up with a creation that strongly resembles another's work.

It can be a very frustrating experience to discover that a logo you believe to be original, one you just came up with, has been done before.
 
 
gdesigner
23 July 2008 @ 07:11 pm
I relate to this artist's dilemma: people who are not artists sometimes try to direct the creative process, which ultimately binds the artist, and some terrible-looking art is the result.

Here's Another Olympic Sport: Skewering the Mascots

Excerpts:
China's Five Characters Spur Confusion;
'Could Have Been Much Better,' Says Creator
By GEOFFREY A. FOWLER
July 23, 2008; Page A1

BEIJING -- If the Beijing Olympics' five cuddly mascots go down in history as a dud, their creator wants no part of the blame.


2008 Beijing Olympic Mascots
Above: the 2008 Beijing Olympic Mascots, the Fuwa

After China's Olympics organizers gave him the assignment, folk artist Han Meilin initially sketched out five children representing the traditional Chinese elements of fire, wood, water, gold and earth. Then the bureaucrats got involved. "There had to be a panda, even though you'd think the public would have had enough of them," says the 72-year-old artist.

Games officials faxed one request after another to his studio for other national images, such as a kite, a sturgeon and ancient cave drawings. So Mr. Han gave them Carmen Miranda-style oversized hats to help hold all the symbolism.

As part of the quest to find something for everyone in a country of 1.3 billion, he drew some 1,000 different models, including a dragon and an anthropomorphic rattle drum.

Ultimately, five cartoon figures (an Olympic record) emerged, representing a fish, a panda, a Tibetan antelope, a swallow and the Olympic flame. Their two-syllable names, when lined up correctly, combine to spell out "Beijing welcomes you" in Chinese.

....But while the Fuwa are ubiquitous, that doesn't mean they're universally liked. A nationwide survey taken by Nielsen Co. in late June found that 60% of Chinese liked the characters, while 40% were indifferent or disliked them -- a high negative response in a society that prizes consensus.

After a string of natural disasters, some Chinese have lately taken to calling them Wuwa, Chinese for "witch dolls," and online Fuwa criticism frequently has been censored.

All suggest the Fuwa risk joining a long tradition of Olympics mascots gone wrong. The idea of having a cute official mascot began innocently enough with Waldi the Dachshund in Munich in 1972. (Before that, pins for the 1968 winter games in Grenoble, France had featured "Schuss," a man on skis.)

By the time the confusing Whatzit? was introduced for the centennial Games in Atlanta in 1996, making fun of the official mascot had become another Olympic sport.

....Critics also have complained it isn't clear whether the Fuwa are animals, children, or aliens. (The characters are officially referred to as children who "also embody the natural characteristics of four of China's most popular animals.")

When they were unveiled to American audiences during the halftime show at a 2006 NFL Game, Joe Bryant, a blogger at Footballguys.com wasn't impressed. "Why do the Olympic mascots have to look like some mutant Pokemon / Telletubbie thing," he wrote. "What's wrong with a bull dog or a cougar or a sweat shop worker for a mascot?"

....Mr. Han, the artist sometimes called "China's Picasso" in a fashion that fits both his artistic skills and grumpy demeanor, says the Fuwa "could have been much better" had they not been so saddled with stuff.

Their creation, he says, got off on the wrong foot when officials opened a national competition for designs. Although he was on the judging committee, Mr. Han didn't like any of the winners.

"Can you believe it? Those are the drafts that they sent through and asked me to modify," he says, pointing to monkey, dragon and tiger designs that he keeps stacked away on a shelf in his workshop. "I'm an artist. It is humiliating," he says.

He tried to drop the assignment, but the officials pressured him to stay on.

While his assistants worked with the winning contest designs, Mr. Han covertly developed his own vision, featuring five children. "I liked children instead of animals, because the love of children is the greatest love," he says. Five is a lucky number, he says, and it matches the five Olympic rings and five elements.

Although his idea for five mascots eventually won out, Games organizers didn't understand the vision behind what Mr. Han still calls "my children," he says. "They asked me to make changes again and again," he says. "Everybody tried to have a hand in the process."

He has the sympathy of Atlanta's John Ryan, the artist behind Whatzit?, the much-derided mascot from the 1996 Games. "This is the war of art and commerce," says Mr. Ryan. Atlanta organizers saddled his blue creature with oversized sneakers, which they thought might be useful for product-tie ins. "When you confront the powers that be, there is no respect for the artist. They all kind of jump on it to have their way."

....the Fuwa have most recently been beset by an online rumor that associates each one with a recent Chinese national disaster: Jingjing the panda, for example, represents Sichuan's earthquake, while Huanhuan the flame represent the Olympic torch relay beset by protests. Nini the swallow, whose hat features wings, has been associated with a plague of locusts that began heading from Inner Mongolia toward Beijing last month.

Asked about the curse, Mr. Han just sighs with exhaustion.

He suffered two heart attacks creating the creatures, and just days before the Games begin doesn't like to talk about the Fuwa. At a large museum dedicated to his work that opened last month in Beijing, there's not a Fuwa to be found.

His relations with the Olympic committee are frosty. "I was supposed to be paid one yuan for making the Fuwa, but haven't yet even gotten that."
 
 
gdesigner
09 June 2008 @ 02:44 pm
Excerpts from an article in today's Houston Chronicle:
Judging the Label, Not What's Inside
Consumers often judge products by labels
By BRENT HUNSBERGER

Do we judge a wine by its label?

Yes, and new research counts the ways.

The results shed light not only on consumers’ snap shopping judgments but also on marketing opportunities for other consumer products, including fragrances, footwear and MP3 players.

“There’s a lot of money to be made in helping consumers make a good choice,” said Keven Malkewitz, an assistant marketing professor at Oregon State University who co-authored the study. “The package helps people make a decision.”

The study, “Holistic Package Design and Consumer Brand Impressions,” appeared this month in the Journal of Marketing, co-written by Ulrich Orth, a marketing professor at the University of Kiel in Germany. It was funded in part by Willamette Valley Vineyards in Turner, Ore.

To figure that out, Malkewitz and Orth photographed 160 wine bottles, mostly of less-recognized brands. They asked 125 experts — graphic or industrial designers — to analyze the aesthetic attributes of each bottle. Then, they sorted responses into five primary design types: massive (or bold), contrasting, natural, delicate and nondescript.
Next, researchers showed photos of the bottles to 268 consumers in Oregon. They asked 15 questions about each bottle’s “brand personality,” including whether the brands seemed sincere, exciting, competent, sophisticated or even rugged.

The results? Consumers found “massive” packaging (Wine by Joe was an example) and contrasting designs (the label on Australia’s Yellow Tail) to be exciting and eye-catching. But they also expected them to be low in competence and sophistication, of lower quality and less expensive, the study found. Additionally, wines with highly contrasting designs were thought to be rugged.

Natural designs — like Washington state's Chateau Ste. Michelle — were thought to be sincere, competent and sophisticated wines, but not especially exciting. Consumers also expected these wines to be expensive but of high quality and a good value.

Delicate designs — Italy's Travaglini, for example — also scored high on competence and sophistication and were expected to be of high quality, classy and expensive. Consumers found nondescript designs — California's Fusee — insincere, and believed they were corporate and of little value for the money.

...."We fully expect there to be differences in product categories," Malkewitz said. But he said the research should provide marketers and managers guidance for how to talk to designers and how to evoke consumer responses to their products. Appealing package designs might prompt consumers to pay higher prices for that product, he said.
 
 
gdesigner
28 January 2008 @ 05:21 pm
Flypaper Inc.

I found a story in the Technology and Health section of the Wall Street Journal today highlighting a new product that produces Flash-type movies but that doesn't require the user to know Action Scripting.

I have often wondered why Adobe (or any company for that matter) hasn't made a similiar product, since the learning curve for Action Script is very steep and most graphic designers do not find it easy or intuitive.

(I'll leave discussion of Swish for another post in the future.)

Slide-show software spotlighted

.... Flypaper - now the company's new name - allows users to more easily create slide shows and presentations using video, music and other content, and then upload it directly to sites like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Users don't need training in Flash, an animation program that requires a technical background in Internet programming, Flypaper President Greg Head said.

"Flash doesn't apply to the non-technical person at all," he said.

The company planned to begin offering a free beta version of the software for download today at www .flypaper.net.
Visit them here -

FlyPaper.net or try FlyPaper.com

___
 
 
 
 

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