Beau’s Blog » 2007 »

May 26

thank you photoshop actions

(Here’s a font I made a while back using my front bike light. Swinging my arms around in my dorm room making each letter individually, backwards.)




So in prep for the internship, I’ve been trying to really hone my Photoshop/Illustrator skills. 
Two photoshop things I learned recently:
1a) I was really discouraged when I opened my photos in photoshop and saw that their Image Size was only 72 dpi, but they were ~30 inches tall. I discovered that in the Image > Image Size palette, in the bottom left corner is a Resample check box. I don’t want to resample. (Leave that unchecked) Just change the Resolution from 72 to 300 and you’ll see the size go from 30 inches tall to 8 inches tall. That’s it. The canvas shrinks in to accommodate the new smaller image. 
1b) If you check the Resample Size box in the Image size pallette, this allows you to edit things independently. You can change the Resolution without the size of the image changing. 300 dpi 30 inch image. That’s huge, but it will do it. There’s that box that says Resample with Bicubic. Basically that means it’s using some complex calculus and fractals to guess what the dots per inch should be since you’re altering it.
This article explains Resizing/Resampling a little more thoroughly
2.)Photoshop actions: What’s that? On the History Palette, there’s another tab just to the right called Actions. Actions are saved series of things you do to your files. For example, I wanted to create a key command that would change my photos’ resolution to 300 easily. 
So in the Action’s palette, I click the little arrow in the circle in the top right and clicked Create New Action. This dialog box asks you what the action will be called, what set (folder) it will be stored in, and if you want to create a key command shortcut. (hells yeah). Once you define those things, click record, and then do what you want to the file. In my case, I changed the DPI. Then go back to the Actions box, and click the square stop button. 
Now your action is saved and you’ll see it listed in that Actions palette. For the laptop kids, if you defined your shortcut as Command (apple key) + F4, that will just turn the volume down. So you have to hit Command, then the Fn key (bottom left of your keyboard), and then F4.
Again, here’s a link that explains this maybe better than I did. Enjoi.


	
	  
    
	  May 24
	  
        bringing the heat: colossus
		Uncategorized No Comments »
		
			





Working on my self promo book. I was thinking a James Brown aesthetic, but then I opted for the classic cool sophistication of old jazz records, namely Blue Note Records. This Sonny Rollins record is excellent. Highly stimulating.
While matching the fonts isn’t exactly perfect, I got pretty close. Fetted Egyptian (for the title) and Street Corner Slab (for the Ferocious HI-FI) with just a bit of stroke (both from dafont.com) and then Helvetica Neu thin condensed for the secondary info. The colors are a bit warmer printed.
///shopped with my dad today to get prepped for looking polished. It went really well and I’ve got some new sweet shoes that are more professional. (even I will admit this.) The Cavaliers need to beat the Pistons.///
		
	  
	
	
	  
    
	  May 23
	  
        samples
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Here’s a track I put together last night messing around with all the oddball music I’ve been getting from the library.
It contains: drums from a Nuggets track, Spanish vocals from “A Rough guide to Mexico,” Joan Baez whaling, and Otis Redding. I like it. Perhaps a new musical directions for me.
Today I’m working on little books that I will be producing to give to the gang at Crispin Porter so that I establish myself as a creative designer.
Here are some posters I made for a show in Ybor City. I had done these scary face drawings a while back and I thought it might fit for “the dark romantics.” The guy loved them, but they haven’t got any comments on gigposters.com.  Hmmm….

Hopefully tomorrow, I’ll post some spreads of the self promo book! Stay tuned—-
		
	  
	
	
	  
    
	  May 17
	  
        milk and cereal. cereal and milk.
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Thoughts on cereal.
So I was thinking of fun, self-initiated design projects (the list is lengthy), and I thought cereal boxes.
What other product in the grocery store has the same billboard size and stature? Standing proud on the shelves, cereal boxes: you are a design dream.
…laundry detergent boxes are a close second place. They’re pretty stout and drenched in day-glo colors, but they can’t compete with the cartoon characters and milk explosions that can be found on the breakfast aisle.
So…I took my sketchbook and camera to Albertson’s to study the cereal aisle. SPOILER ALERT: I was eventually asked to not photograph the products: so I left. I felt like I was in a fine art museum sneaking photos of the merchandise. “Umm, excuse me sir, you can’t photograph Tony the Tiger.”
And now my observations in no particular order:
Healthy Hierarchy: 5 shelves of cereal: the lowest shelf is the least healthy. this is where you’ll find the most cartoon characters. (eye level for tots) Top shelf = Cardboard in a box.
Color=Brand: with all the visual clutter of the cereal aisle, one the most effective ways to stand out is to shout your color. Yellow is Pops. Softer yellow is Cheerios. Orange is Wheaties (the only cereal to feature a full head-to-toe person). Red is Fruit Loops. Brown means chocolate. Purple/magenta is Raisin Bran. In the time I was on the aisle, 2 customers bought Raisin Bran. A young attractive lady bought Special K which leads me to my next point>>>
Special K = Sexy: Special K is doing a great job of marketing their product to people (mostly women) that want to be/stay sexy. Their logo (the Red K, which looks a bit like a shapely silhouette working out in a track suit (maybe this is just my imagination)) is the most stand-out logo on the whole aisle. Red K, white box, a little bit of cereal, that’s it. What other cereals are pushing their cereal on a specific demographic other than kids and people with cholestoral issues? 
Kellogs design > General Mills: On the top of almost every cereal box now, the companies tell you what vitamins and minerals are contained. Kellogs has that info contained in little non-obstrusive pennants hanging from the top of the box. General mills has that info in a awkward lime green rectangle. That steals away from the overall impact of the brand color.
Bagged cereal = sad: I don’t doubt its the same product, and definitely much cheaper, but these amorphous lumps don’t stand a chance. Why can’t these bags be hung so that they’d have more shelf presence? -segue’-
Why do store brand cereals look inferior: Albertson’s design strategy is to replicate it’s competitor’s design. I haven’t studied a Publix cereal aisle yet, but I’d bet that they opt for the clean Publix aesthetic. 
There isn’t a standard box size? Some are slimmer. Others are taller. Is there a cereal box golden ratio?




		

	  

	

	
	  
    
	  May 16
	  
        somethings last a long time—
		Uncategorized 3 Comments »
		
			So I’ve got my sweet summer blog looking more my own flavor. Hugely satisfying.
It’s the nerd in me that keeps me coming back to these code-a-website-tinker-with-jargon projects. I really enjoy the problem solving element. Trial and error.  I’m working on getting a mp3 player on this blog.
Let me set the scene: it’s late, my favorite huge orange desk lamp (drippy orange ceramic base, huge cylindrical fuzzy lamp shade) is glowing, a stack of my favorite New York Times magazines that I picked through today have got me feeling artistically stimulated, and I’ve got a ton of new music from going to the  library every day this week and checking out the max 5 cds.
Here’s a bit of what I’m rocking:
Hits of the Seventies: Blue Swede’s ‘Hooked on a Feeling” —you can’t deny that disco goodness. Whoever decided on creating that “oog-a chug-a” intro is a genius.  2.) Season’s in the Sun - Warble-y distorted guitars, goth-ish lyrics set to sunny melody: mmmm. There are a bunch of cover versions of this song, but the Nirvana video on the box set stands out in my mind as most intimate and endearing: Kurt on drums, Krist on guitar trying to find the riff, and Dave plodding through the 4 notes of the bass line.
Yeah Yeah Yeah’s “Mysteries”: ramble around the room guitar shake-up chased by Karen Oh! I avoided this album last summer because it sounded a bit too blue, but it’s growing on me. It’s still no Fever to Tell.
Queen: Radio Ga Ga: Insistent synth keyboards, piano chords that shoot toward space, and Freddie Mercury making the masses of Live 8 pump their fists. 
Electrelane: To the East: This bassline is a pretty heavy handed lift from every Arcade Fire song ever, but it still makes me pull the curtains shut and dance around the room.
Best for last: I’ve been rediscovering my love for Animal Collective, and in the process I discovered Dan Deacon. Don’t stop the electronic loops, layers of noise, waves of rave-up catchiness, thrift store junk instrumentation. This stuff inspires me in every way. Here’s a link to some new Animal Collective supposedly coming soon:

		
	  
	
	
	  
    
	  May 13
	  
        Blog is the new black~
		Uncategorized 1 Comment »
		
			So excited to get this set up. I will be posting all summer my daily rock star life. Big thanks to Vishal for helping me get this going!

thank you photoshop actions

bringing the heat: colossus

samples

milk and cereal. cereal and milk.

somethings last a long time—

Blog is the new black~

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