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Thanks for subscribing. (If you already read Design Briefing 208, read no further, this is a repeat sent on a different day in the hope of reaching those who missed it.)
Italics, all caps, bold, highlighting, underlining, increased size, and so on are good ways of adding emphasis to a line of text.
But also making an italicized phrase (for example) both bold and underlined does not mean it then has three times the emphasis.
Occasionally, it's necessary to point out that we need to step back and let a design have its effect. Simple is almost always better.
All the best,
Chuck
Hundreds of hours of setup, page layout, and formatting you need not repeat
315 template files in 19 different categories -- Everything from brochures, newsletters, and direct mail to packaging, calendars, and books (one CD works with both Mac and PC). Use two or three files and you'll pay for the entire book and disc...
For Adobe InDesign
For QuarkXPress
Are you a freelancer or a business consultant?
Nick Disabato shares some interesting ideas about repackaging your freelance business.
Following the Hunch: How to Make Freelancing Into a Durable Business by Nick Disabato...
Disabato runs Draft...
For writing, I use a skin-and-bones text editor
I have no interest in formatting text until I get it into either an online content management system or into Illustrator or InDesign. If someone sends me a word processing or presentation document, typically, the first thing I do is select all the text and paste it into my text editor to remove all the formatting (unless, of course, there are lots of attributes that need saving).
On my Mac I use TextWrangler, on the PC Notepad++. What's your writing workflow?
TextWrangler...
Notepad++...
Meet the new Apple system font: San Francisco
It's called San Francisco and it's kinda beautiful.
From Apple: Introducing the new system font San Francisco...
From Gizmodo: Trust Us, Change Your Yosemite Font From Helvetica to San Francisco...
From Fast Company: Apple Releases Its Most Important Typeface In 20 Years...
From Gigaom: Looking back at iOS 7 and the fuss about Helvetica Neue...
Snagit/Screencast is a great way to communicate with your clients
Of all the productivity tools I've ever used, Snagit is the most usefulAnd I use lots of different tools.
Snagit allows me to sit at my computer and easily record the screen (or a portion of it) and create a voice-over. In a matter of seconds, I publish it to Screencast (another Techsmith tool), a link is automatically copied to my clipboard, and I paste the link into an email or text message for forwarding to my client. The process itself takes a matter of seconds.
The fact that I can speak my point and record the screen, rather than type it out and attach images, saves me countless hours.
For example...
An overview of Snagit...
Snagit provides the tools to capture video and images, Screencast is a place to post them for others to see (for free)...
As you have probably already read, Google is now part of Alphabet
Here's their website...
Exploring 20th-century advertising
Here's a fun, fascinating look at vintage advertising from the University of Virginia Alumni News. Some of it seems to do a better job of telling a product story than the typical ads of 2015.
Thanks to Deborah Green for pointing us to it.
Example 1...
Example 2...
Example 3...
From BackStory: New & Improved: Advertising in America...
You Deserve a Break Today!: An exploration of 20th-century advertising...
The science behind creating a powerful profile picture
If you're designing social media profiles for clients (or you need some help convincing them to make a change), you might want to check out this article about the science of profile pictures and facial expressions.
The Research & Science Behind Finding Your Best Profile Picture...
If you're interested, here's the data: Modeling first impressions from highly variable facial images (1.1MB PDF)...
Have you used Processing?
I see some interesting examples of how artists and designers use this software but I know nothing about it. I'm sure many who read these posts would appreciate hearing from folks who have used it.
From "Processing is a flexible software sketchbook and a language for learning how to code within the context of the visual arts. Since 2001, Processing has promoted software literacy within the visual arts and visual literacy within technology. There are tens of thousands of students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists who use Processing for learning and prototyping."
An introduction to Processing...
The processing website...
An exhibition of projects created with Processing...
About installing InDesign CC 2015
In the August issue of InDesign Secrets, Steve Werner tells us that, by default, if you install CC 2015 apps, your previous versions will be removed. Yikes--glad I read that, I keep several versions on my systems for support reasons.
You can elect to change it, but, as he says, "It should be made far more obvious that a major change will happen if you click Update."
I don't know if you get InDesign Secrets, but it is well worth the price.
Check out the Briefing Archive...
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