Canright designers share what stimulates their creative minds. Perspectives on the everyday findings we come across in our world of print and web design, typography, art, music, film, advertising, and literature.
January 14th, 2010 by Aya O'Connor
NOTE TO READERS: Since I’ve posted this blog, I received an email from The Point (the website that organized the donation collections to Yele) which stated that:
“…late last week, official tax documents were released that reveal questionable accounting practices on behalf of Yele.org and its founders. To avoid controversy and ensure that every penny donated goes directly to the struggling people of Haiti, we have decided to redirect our charity efforts towards The Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. This fund was established by President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush to help support immediate relief and long-term recovery efforts in Haiti. All funds pledged through The Point towards, “Helping Haiti!” will be donated directly to Doctors Without Borders. If you would rather withdraw your donation, simply log in to The Point and edit your pledge to $0 (http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/campaign-0-61). We’ll leave the donation page open for a couple more days to give you all a chance to decide. Thank you again for your incredible generosity in this time of great need.”
I apologize if I mislead any readers. I hope that people will still find it in their hearts to help out those in need. See my comments below for alternate organizations to which you can donate.
Thanks,
-Aya
Today I was inspired to donate to the Haiti earthquake relief, thanks to Groupon. Groupon, a project of The Point, has set up a donation page, turning their “collective buying power” into “collective donation power.”
100% of the donations will go to Yele Haiti, the organization set up by Wyclef Jean. (Prior to the earthquake, Yele Haiti’s mission was to transform the country through educational, sports, arts and environmental programs. Currently, the organization is focusing solely on the devastation in Haiti and what it can do to help.) Collected funds will go to support the victims of the earthquake.
I hope you feel inspired to help out as well. You can either donate through Groupon/The Point here, or donate directly to Yele Haiti here.
-Aya
Tags: Groupon, Haiti, The Point, Wyclef Jean, Yele Haiti
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January 6th, 2010 by Canright Communications
Scott McCloud, author of Understanding Comics, has done a terrific job with his comic adaptation of the Google Chrome team’s words. The copy is clear enough on its own, but McCloud’s illustrations add whimsy, fun, and understanding.
Much of the book goes over the logic used to build traditional web browsers, and then gives further insight into why Google made Chrome the way they did. They go over their process for testing, user experience, security, and more.
Chrome is a great, simple, and super fast browser. Available for Windows, Linux, and Intel-based Macs. Unfortunately, there will be no Chrome for Mac users who are relying on their trusty G4s and G5s. It makes sense for Google to abandon these, not only since Apple and Adobe have, but because it would likely not live up to their expectations for speed and performance. If your OS is supported, why not give Chrome a shot?
-Michael
Tags: Chrome, Comics, Google, Scott McCloud
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January 5th, 2010 by Canright Communications
Austin Kleon (whose name rhymes with neon) describes himself as “a writer who draws.” He has gained popularity with what he calls “Blackout Poetry.” He censors the words he doesn’t need, creating something new out of something old. I was introduced to Kleon’s work through a challenge posted on SoulPancake describing the process. I was immediately intrigued and inspired.
I decided this would be perfect fodder for one of our company’s Inspiration Meetings. I brought in a stack of random newspapers, gave a brief description of the process, and handed out Sharpies to our team. Below is the one I created during the meeting:
Kleon also posts “de-signs” on his blog. “De-signs” are the product of a similar process. He takes photos of signs, and uses an iPhone app to erase letters and words that he deems unnecessary.
I find this sort of manipulation is a great way to discover a new way of looking at things.
Austin Kleon has recently released a collection of his Blackout Poetry, available here.
-Michael
Tags: Austin Kleon, blackout poetry
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December 29th, 2009 by Aya O'Connor
When it’s unbearably cold out and the perma-cloud has set in, I like to remind myself of the many wonderful things about Chicago, like how much happiness the tamale guy brings to bar patrons, or how the CTA Bus Tracker has single-handedly improved quality of life in the city.
All kidding aside, one thing I do love about Chicago is that it is a major cultural center—we just love our arts. So much so, that the Art Institute has put together a city-wide art project, supporting “500 Ways of Looking at Modern, the Art Institute’s yearlong exploration and celebration of all things modern.”
Hidden throughout the city are 500 red cubes. The lucky people who find the cubes are instructed to go to the website, enter a code, and receive an art project to pursue. You can then upload a photo, audio, or video of your project to the website to share with others. And then, if you’re really lucky, your project will be featured in a special display at the museum in the spring. So cool, right?
It all started for me when my co-worker, Michael, found one a couple of weeks ago, on his return from lunch.
Immediately struck with a sense of curiosity, jealousy, and excitement, I set out to do whatever I could to get my hands on my very own red cube. Well, almost. Not being a native to Chicago, I immediately ruled out the possibility of running around the city in the middle of winter in search of a red cube. Instead, I was fortunate enough to find that the Art Institute made it much easier for people to participate (from the warm confines of their offices and homes).
I thought it’d be fun to
involve the whole office in a group project, so for my Friday Inspiration Meeting, I had each person make their own cube, and write on the cube the nicest thing anyone had ever said to them. According to the website directions, we were supposed to leave the cube in a place where someone else would find them, but we’ve kept them on our desks, as a reminder of our happy memories.
It’s not too late to participate!
-Aya
Tags: 500 cubes, Art Institute of Chicago, Red Cube Project
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October 30th, 2009 by Aya O'Connor
During the past three weeks, we have been working diligently toward launching a brand new website for our client, Assistive Medical Equipment (AME). AME created the EZRockTM Patient Transfer System, which allows caregivers to safely transfer their patients from wheelchair to bed and vice versa (with no lifting!).
At our first meeting with AME, we had many questions, as we were just getting to know the company and the products they were selling. We covered the basics by establishing target audience, the purpose of the website, current/future goals of the website, and desired content.
After going through all of the material, I realized there was one big question that was left unanswered: How does the EZRockTM work? If I had this question, then potential clients probably would, too.
We were given pictures of the product in use and the product specifications; however, this product—the principle product of AME—needed to be better understood. Without a basic understanding of the product functionality, a potential client would probably be less inclined to trust the product. (And why will they buy without trust?)
We decided to illustrate basic, step-by-step instructions for using the EZRockTM. Because people typically aren’t inclined to read lots of text on a website, the best way to communicate the function was through images. (Check them out by clicking on the image below.)
In the B2B business, not only do you have to consider the needs of your clients, but those of your client’s clients as well. By putting ourselves in AME’s clients’ shoes, we were able to improve the website’s offerings and usability by identifying the things visitors would most likely be looking for when visiting the site.
-Aya
Tags: AME, Assistive Medical Equipment, EZRock, no lifting, Patient Transfer System, targeting your audience, website
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September 8th, 2009 by Canright Communications
Canright partnered with the Center for Christian Life Enrichment (CLE) to redesign the counseling and coaching center’s website. The new site features improved navigation and content organization for a more user-friendly experience. Canright built the site using the WordPress engine as a Content Management System (CMS) so the CLE staff can easily make updates to pages.
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August 10th, 2009 by Canright Communications
Making a website cross compatible among browsers is one of the most challenging aspects of building a website. Let’s keep mobile browsers out of the equation and focus on the main web browsers: Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and, of course, Internet Explorer.
Regardless of the browser, it’s likely when designing a website you’ll have to include some CSS hacks to get your site looking (and functioning) the same across the gamut of browsers. Internet Explorer seems to be the biggest hurdle to jump. IE8 is a definite improvement, and renders many things just as good as Firefox. However, there are still a large amount of users who surf with IE6 (released in 2001). The rendering engine of IE6 is outdated and doesn’t support a lot of the new effects modern browsers can handle, thereby holding back progress of what a website can be.
Companies, including the ever popular YouTube, are starting to announce they will no longer support the old browser. Granted it’d be nice to not have to worry about debugging for IE, but it doesn’t change the fact that a large portion of the market share still favor this version. That’s where websites like push up the web and ie 6 no more come into play. They offer a simple code to put at the top of your code which will alert IE6 users to upgrade to a modern browser.
I like Pushup more as it’s less obtrusive, but I think both sites are good in encouraging the advancement of the online medium. Unfortunately, I think we’re still at a point where a site should work in IE6, but including one of the aforementioned codes should practically be required.
-Michael
See also: CNN.Com – Web citizens trying to kill Internet Explorer 6
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August 6th, 2009 by Aya O'Connor
Social awareness campaigns are one of my favorite avenues of politics in which graphic design plays a vital role.
The design to the left is one in a series of public service announcement posters created by Alphabetica, a New England-based graphic design collaborative.
These posters are being distributed to schools in Boston, San Francisco, and Orange County, Florida for posting at high school campuses. Alphabetica wants to distribute them to even more schools across the country, in hopes of reaching out to the young adults who are just learning the responsibilities of driving.
The message is simple and the design, clever. At first, one may glance at it and see typos, but then come to the realization that “PLS DNT TXT + DRIVE” is in texting lingo, which should be very familiar to the 14-18- year old age range that this poster targets.
With an increase in car accidents caused by cell phone usage, particularly involving texting, it seems like a wise decision to educate and remind people about the dangers of texting and driving.
Make a poster, save a life!
-Aya
Tags: graphic design, pls dnt txt, poster, PSA, social awareness, texting
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July 17th, 2009 by Aya O'Connor
Developed by SPRANQ, a creative communications agency in the Netherlands, Ecofont is a typeface that uses 20% less ink than other fonts.
How, you ask?
They’ve decided to remove parts of the letterform using white circles. See the example below, in 100pt size. It achieves a Broadway awning signage effect (or, as the creator put it, it’s like “Dutch holey cheese”):
So you may be thinking that this font is not practical or that it’s goofy-looking. But check out the font at 12pt (standard document size) in paragraph form:
It’s not the crispest, but it’s pretty readable, if you ask me. You see, the purpose behind the font creation was not commercial usage. The agency wants to create awareness of ink usage in the office. Many offices have paper recycling, but how many have taken efforts to cut down the usage of ink?
With less ink on paper, the less cartridges you go through. The results are great for both financial and environmental fronts.
Give it a try (for free) and tell me what you think!
-Aya
Tags: Ecofont, letterform, SPRANO, typeface
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June 19th, 2009 by Aya O'Connor
This month, The New York Times Magazine unveiled its solution to the problem of rising costs and decreasing ad sales. Not only did they physically shrink the page dimensions (by 9%), they introduced a brand new typeface which allows them to fit the same amount of content on the downsized page.
The typeface, called Lyon Text, was designed by Susana Carvalho and Kai Bernau of the Type]Media program of the Netherlands’ Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
According to Fast Company, the typeface was inspired by the work of a 16th-century punch cutter, “[w]hich is really a decent metaphor for The Times itself, and newspapers in general: An ancient medium, tweaked to suit contemporary palettes using modern techniques.”
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