Okay, I Was Wrong
EVERYTHING YOU SAY
EVERYTHING YOU DO
WILL COME BACK
TO STAND WITH YOUEVERYTHING YOU TRUST
EVERYTHING YOU FEEL
WILL COME BACK
TO KNEEL WITH YOUEVERYTHING YOU SAY
EVERYTHING YOU TRY
WILL COME OUT
SOUNDING LIKE A LIEEVERYTHING YOU TRUST
EVERYTHING YOU KNOW
WILL TURN TO DUST
WILL BLOW
AWAY…Oh My My…
I’m cracking
I’m cracking
cracking
I’m cracking into a thousand piecesOPEN UP YOUR EYES
mama mama please come quick
something’s wrong I’m feeling sick
mama mama I’m in a mess
I can’t lose this heavinessoh my…oh my my my…oh my Mother
mary had a little lamb
little lamb
little lamb
mary had a little lamb
its fleece was…oh…mama mama
I searched these hills for my sweet lamb
I carried myself up the mountain
And 5 men came out
And I laid myself down
And I looked around
And I couldn’t find my sweet lamb
I’m looking for my Bottom Line
And as soon as I find it
I’m gonna turn my life aroundoh my…oh my my my…oh my Mother
oh my…oh my my my…oh my BrotherYOU‘RE FLOATING IN A HARBOUR
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
AND YOU‘RE LOOKING ALL AROUND YOU
AND YOU CAN‘T SEE ANY LIGHT
AND THE BLACK AND STARLESS HEAVENS
WEIGH DOWN UPON YOUR SOUL
AND YOU FACE THE OPEN SEA
AND YOU‘RE NOT SURE THAT YOU WANNA GO
AND YOU SCAN THE HORIZON
BUT THE ONLY LIGHT YOU FIND
IS IN THE PLACE YOU CAME FROM
THE PLACE YOU LEFT BEHIND
OH SO YOU‘RE MOVING OUT
MOVING OUT
MOVING OUT
CUTTING THE CORDS
YOU DON‘T KNOW WHERE YOU‘RE GOING
AND YOU DON‘T HAVE ANY MAPS
AND THE ONLY THING YOU‘RE SURE OF
IS YOU AIN‘T…GOING…BACK1. YOU WILL BE BORN INTO A STRANGE AND DESOLATE PLACE.
2. IT WILL BE CALLED “THE AVERAGE HOME.“
3. THE TIMES WILL BE RESTLESS AND FULL OF UNCERTAINTY.
4. YOU WILL SILENTLY QUESTION THIS OF YOUR MOTHER AS YOU WATCH HER MOVE AWAY.Precious Candles
YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR OWN
Is LIFE not Precious?…
YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR OWNmama mama
please come quick
take me home from school
I feel so sickmama mama
something’s wrong
my heart is breaking
but I don’t know whyoh my…oh my my my…oh my Mother
oh my…oh my my my…oh my Brother5. THERE WILL BE NO ANSWER.
6. YOU WILL BEGIN THE LONG PROCESS OF SHUTTING DOWN.
7. YOUR COUNTENANCE WILL REFLECT LESS LIGHT AND LATER WHEN YOU LOOK
AT PICTURES OF YOURSELF YOU WILL WONDER.
8. YOU WILL GIVE UP YOUR BACKBONE TO THE T.V. AND ACCEPT A VALUE SYSTEM
9. PUTTING FORTH LIES, HATRED AND INTOLERANCE IN THE NAME OF LOVE AS ACCEPTABLE.
10. NO ONE WILL STEP FORWARD FROM THE SHADOWS SAYING: “EXPECT THIS, IT IS PART OF THE PATH.“
11. YOU WILL DISCOVER DRUGS AND ALCOHOL.
12. YOU WILL INSTINCTIVELY MOVE TOWARDS YOUR OWN BOTTOM LINE.Precious Candles
YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR OWN
Precious Candles
YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR OWNmama mama please come quick
hold my head I feel so sick
mama mama let me come home
wrap me up I can’t get warmoh my…oh my my my…oh my Mother
oh my…oh my my my…oh my Brother13. YOU WILL RUSH HEADLONG TOWARDS YOUR BOTTOM LINE IN AN INSTINCTIVE ATTEMPT TO HEAL.
14. YOU WILL GO TO AA TO LEARN WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE LEARNED IN SUNDAY SCHOOL.
15. AND THEN YOU WILL GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO CRY. AND YOU WILL CRY AND CRY AND CRY.
16. AND YOUR FRIENDS WILL MOVE AWAY NERVOUSLY AND YOU‘LL FEEL LIKE A FOOL.
17. AND NO ONE WILL STEP FORWARD FROM THE SHADOWS SAYING
18. “THE JOURNEY FORWARD INCLUDES MOVEMENT INTO DESPAIR.“
19. AND YOU WILL BE GATHERING STRENGTH
20. EVEN AS YOU DON‘T UNDERSTAND.
21. AND CERTAIN WORDS LIKE LOVE AND…
22. INTEGRITY WILL BE DRAWN INTO YOUR SPINE.
23. AND THEN ONE DAY…
24. YOU WILL TURN OFF THE T.V.Precious Candles
YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR OWN
Precious Candles
YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR OWNmama mama something’s wrong
there’s only silence where there once was song
I keep hearing all these bells
am I healing or dying? I can’t tell.hey ho
sail on out
sail all night
sail on with all your might
land ahead
land ho
land ho
land hoI sure miss that little lamb
that little lamb called Puff
or…was it…Poof? or…
well, anyways, I sure miss that sweet lamblay down upon your pillow…
just live all you can knowing that’s all
you have to givemama mama I almost did it
I almost carried myself up the mountainside
In my own arms
And laid myself downthere a New Strength nearby, I know
And as soon as I find my Bottom Line
I’m gonna turn my life aroundI sure miss that little lamb…
here I go
Jane Siberry, Oh My My
Yeah, absolutely the intention was to bring everything here — and do interesting things with it.
Alas, if only life worked out that way.
Meanwhile, check out the new digs.
Note: This is the final post to this site (and blog). I’ll leave it up — for learning, for fun, whatever — as long as possible.
Posted by Giles, Monday, December 31, 2007, at 1:20 PM.
Posted to Book design | Business | Personal | Site news | Whatever
85mm 1.4: For Sale
Been absolutely behind the 8-ball recently; apologies for not updating more regularly. Please stay tuned. Meanwhile.…
For the past several months, I’ve been going on and on about how much I love this Nikon setup. However, in order to better equip myself for the tasks to come, I’ve decided to put my beloved 85mm on the auction block.
If you’re a Nikon user, this is the “bokeh master” and a great lens. I’m sure that no matter how much I enjoy its replacement, I’ll miss it — but my loss is your gain. Bid, buy, and enjoy.
Thank you!
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, July 31, 2007, at 1:51 AM.
Posted to Business | Flickr | Love | Personal | Photography
DO: This is My Process
The Design Observer’s Michael Beirut notes, somewhat tongue-in-cheek:
When I do a design project, I begin by listening carefully to you as you talk about your problem and read whatever background material I can find that relates to the issues you face. If you’re lucky, I have also accidentally acquired some firsthand experience with your situation. Somewhere along the way an idea for the design pops into my head from out of the blue. I can’t really explain that part; it’s like magic. Sometimes it even happens before you have a chance to tell me that much about your problem! Now, if it’s a good idea, I try to figure out some strategic justification for the solution so I can explain it to you without relying on good taste you may or may not have. Along the way, I may add some other ideas, either because you made me agree to do so at the outset, or because I’m not sure of the first idea. At any rate, in the earlier phases hopefully I will have gained your trust so that by this point you’re inclined to take my advice. I don’t have any clue how you’d go about proving that my advice is any good except that other people — at least the ones I’ve told you about — have taken my advice in the past and prospered. In other words, could you just sort of, you know…trust me?
Great article. Check it out.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, September 12, 2006, at 11:36 AM.
Posted to Advertising | Book and design blogs | Business | Design | Jobs | Whatever | Writing
Amazon: Yuk
As you’ll recall, I blogged on Kite Runner a while ago. As usual, when it came to finding a graphic to use for the post, I started with Amazon — because when they don’t use the “search inside” feature, their pictures are the largest and best quality. (The Kite Runner image wound up coming from elsewhere, FYI.)
Unfortunately, that also means that I get a ton of trash emails from Amazon. Why?
We track items that you may be interested in for price reductions so that you don’t have to. These additional savings on top of our everyday low price may only be available for a limited time, so act now to take advantage of this alert. Prices can go back up at any time and may never be this low again.
Here’s what they “encouraged” me to purchase today:
Yuk isn’t nearly strong enough. I’m glad I haven’t eaten yet.
There’s a dividing line between people who think that Amazon’s tactics are perfectly legit and those who think it’s invasive. I’m among the latter — especially since Amazon’s been rumored to want to include more personal info from third-party sources to create “super-profiles” of their shoppers, “protected” by privacy rules the company sets — rules not dissimilar to those at AOL, for instance.
I’d like to state for the record that I never purchase from Amazon. I use their web system for my own advantages — tracking bestsellers, looking at covers, researching titles sent to me, etc. — and then never buy from them. Heheh. Take that, Amazon!
Now if I could just come up with a similar way to take advantage of Wal-Mart.…
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, August 16, 2006, at 10:32 AM.
Posted to Book design | Book sellers | Business | Ethics | Personal | Technology
Interview with Penguin's Paul Buckley
…over at Hear, Hear:
No matter what you’re selling - a product, an idea or a skill - the presentation is just as important as the thing itself. Your customers will only do so much research (if at all) when purchasing your product, and when presented with similar choices, they will choose the one they feel most comfortable with. And that decision is most likely based on the packaging. Nothing illustrates this better than the experience of shopping for new books: before we even bother to read the description on the back of a book we have never heard of, we need to first notice the book and have enough desire to pick it up. And that decision is based on the book’s cover.
In this interview, Hear, Hear chats with an expert in book cover design - Paul Buckley, a veteran art director of one of the largest book publishers in the world, Penguin Group.
The interview will be published in two installments; the first went up yesterday (thanks for letting me know, Shawn!), while the next will be next Friday.
Some great stuff here, too, including a bunch of click-for-larger covers to get in to.… Hear, hear — nicely done!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, July 13, 2006, at 9:39 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Book people | Books | Business | Design | Publishing | Type and typography
Microsoft Buys iView
Now here’s an interesting change to the digital-file/media-management landscape:
iView said on its Web site that Microsoft has many plans for iView’s technologies and product line, but those plans would not be announced right away.
iView made a point of noting that its Macintosh versions will continue to be made available and supported.
“Microsoft will fully support the existing Mac products, will continue to sell Mac versions of the current iView product line and will offer upgrade pricing to all Mac users of future products that may be available based on the iView products,” said notes on the iView Web site.
I worked with iView MediaPro at the juice company, and found it great for nearly everything except EPS files, which is what we used most. I looked at it again just recently, but decided that Aperture was the better route for my digital media workflow. Glad I did.
This comes hot on the heels of Adobe’s announcement yesterday of the purchase of the RawShooter conversion engine for use in the Lightroom product. The big boys are definitely solidifying their positions — seems like the battle for who “controls” the media market is just heating up.
Notice that iView promises an upgrade path, not a Mac one. Peter Krogh, author of a digital management book for O’Reilly, calls it a good move — but cautions M$ to keep Mac support.
Time will tell.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, June 27, 2006, at 6:49 PM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Business | Computers | Photography | Technology
Big Brother Assisted by Georgians -- Yuk
Gregory Abowd, an associate professor leading the project, says the new camera-neutralizing technology shows commercial promise in two principal fields - protecting limited areas against clandestine photography or stopping video copying in larger areas such as theaters. “We’re at a point right now where the prototype we have developed could lead to products for markets that have a small, critical area to protect,” Abowd said. “Then we’re also looking to do additional research that could increase the protected area for one of our more interesting [sic] clients, the motion picture industry.”
Abowd said the small-area product could prevent espionage photography in government buildings, industrial settings or trade shows. It could also be used in business settings - for instance, to stop amateur photography where shopping-mall-Santa pictures are being taken.
You know this won’t stop there — this is the beginnings of yet another battle for control. More details — love the trumpeting (not) — here. (At least it doesn’t work with SLRs!)
Dr. Gregory Abowd of Georgia Tech, get stuffed.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, June 21, 2006, at 5:27 PM.
Posted to Business | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Photography | Public domain
BEA Podcasts Available
If you weren’t able to attend BookExpo America 2006 in Washington DC this year, we now have a valuable FREE service from the show — Podcasts from BEA.
We have recorded approximately 24 of the favorite events and sessions and will release them as podcasts over the next couple of months.
Plus, our roving reporter has captured some special interviews in his quest to find out “What’s the Buzz” at BEA this year.
Please visit www.bookexpocast.com where you can subscribe to our podcast by email, iTunes or other popular podcast software. We also have a complete list of our scheduled podcast events under “Upcoming Podcasts” on the site.
I’ve spoken with a couple of people who went to BEA this year; both said it was “underwhelming” and “not as busy as usual.” Anyone else want to venture an opinion?
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, June 6, 2006, at 12:40 PM.
Posted to Book design | Book people | Book sellers | Books | Books, design, art | Business | Jobs | Publishing
On Photography and the Canon Digital Rebel XT, Part 1
Phew: Survived. The last six weeks have been out-of-control busy, in case you couldn’t tell by the lack of posting (or comment moderation). Why? Well, six book covers (including the two Bush covers I’ve posted about), two magazine ads, a new edition of a 56-page catalog, and 100+ hours into this POD project I yapped about a few days ago now. Speaking of which, I’m starting with this because it’s fresh on my mind, then will work my way backwards through my list of once-intended posts over the next few days.
This post is a little off-topic for a book design blog, but I’m posting it for two reasons: One, uh, well, I can. Great thing about blogs — built-in soapbox…;)
Two, some of our “regular” readers might be interested either in this particular camera and how it worked (and didn’t work) for me in a very demanding test, or might be thinking about professional protography and are interested in the opinion of what amounts to an amateur shooting his first wedding — with a camera he’d used for only a few hours, didn’t have a manual or more than one effective (in my hands) lens for, and who undertook this project more than a little ragged after weeks of eighteen-plus-hour days.
Am I glad I did it? Yes. Absolutely, emphatically yes. I learned more about the hoops necessary to do this effectively than a thousand lectures from the best professionals in the world could have given; got to gift a good friend with more than a thousand photographs of his bachelor party, rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception, and a kickin’ party afterwards; and find out under the most grueling conditions possible whether a certain camera system will work for me before I put down the investment.
Couple of notes before I get the review proper underway: Product reviews are not my forté, so I’m hoping you’ll forgive a bit of a haphazard style. I’m going to give you good and bad, followed by a sample gallery of photos, posted through my Flickr account. Some photos are straight out of the Rebel XT (or my current Sony f828), some are altered in Photoshop. No matter what, it’s my opinion. There are Canon vs. Nikon wars aplenty; we don’t need one here. I’m not qualified to speak with authority on anything other than how I feel about this camera equipment, relative to what I have now, as someone serious about taking the step from “amateur” to “professional” photography. (I’ll explain that better, too.)
Continue reading "On Photography and the Canon Digital Rebel XT, Part 1"
Posted by Giles, Monday, May 22, 2006, at 4:24 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Books, design, art | Business | Computers | Flickr | Personal | Photography | Site news | Technology | Writing
Cover Design Competition: Results
Remember this?
The results are in. Vote for your favorite here.
Further comment withheld…;)
Posted by Giles, Thursday, May 11, 2006, at 10:29 AM.
Posted to Book design | Business | Ethics
What Not To Do
Now if this ain’t the truth:
Found through a commenter, Tuesday Gutz, who listed a very nice blog with her comment. Thanks, Tuesday!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, April 13, 2006, at 4:54 PM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Business | Design | Personal | Whatever
Preserved for Posterity
Found myself downright barking at a professional photographer tonight who had argued that restricting access to her work online was better than dealing with a few people out to cause trouble. I felt kinda bad afterwards; I was perhaps a little harsh. (Who? Me?)
I’m not a professional photographer, in the sense that I earn a living exclusively selling photographs, but I do sell photos, deal with photographers’ rights, and sell a creative, copyrighted or work-for-hire product/service that, while not as easily “stolen for use elsewhere,” is subject to a good deal of competition. Above-board, honest people and grab-your-ideas-and-undersell-you-later types alike.
Pushing your work farther and farther out into the world instead of walling it off clearly works. Foreword is my evidence.
Click through to Flickr and look at all the little notes by moving your mouse over the boxes on the photo. They’ll run you through all the stuff in the picture, including the icons, menu items, etc. (Warning: geek alert…;)
Sure, there are hassles. (Looking at new web servers [hosts] this week, for instance, so we can rebuild pages in the middle of the day without timeouts. You wondered why so few mid-day posts…?) It’s definitely a challenge to post regularly with the quality we’d all like to see — and that keeps traffic growing. Oh, and have I mentioned there’s still the rest of the web site to finish?
But it’s so worth it. Glad we can be here together, learning about book design. Whether it’s your first visit or your thousandth, thanks for coming by.
Posted by Giles, Monday, April 10, 2006, at 5:51 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book cover photography | Book design | Books, design, art | Business | Computers | Design | Ethics | Flickr | Freedoms and rights | Jobs | Love | Personal | Photography | Public domain | Publishing | Site news | Technology | Type and typography | Whatever | Writing
Another New Logo: Volvo
Slightly off topic, but hopefully interesting nonetheless. A “Sunday design diversion,” if you will…:
When the decision was taken to start producing Volvo cars in August 1926, financial backer Svenska Kullagerfabriken – SKF – reactivated a company that had been idle since 1920 for the purpose. The name of that company was VOLVO and it had been formed in 1915 for the manufacture and marketing of bearings for the automotive industry.
Not only was the name ingeniously simple, it was also easy to pronounce in most places around the world and with a minimal risk of spelling errors. And best of it all was its immensely strong symbolic connection to the company’s entire operations.
“Volvere” is the infinitive form of the verb “roll” in Latin. In its first person singular form, the verb “volvere” becomes “volvo”, i.e. “I roll”.
At the same time as VOLVO was reactivated, the ancient chemical symbol for iron, a circle with an arrow pointing diagonally upwards to the right, was adopted as a logotype.
My fave, actually, is this flavor from a 1937 prototype — just lovely:
Meanwhile, fast forward to 2006.
Almost 80 years old, it now makes a grand comeback as an updated logotype – the Volvo iron symbol.
Read the rest of this article and tons of other Volvo news, tuning information, and stuff for Swedish car fans at SwedeSpeed.
So, why’s this logo here? I was on “heightened logo awareness,” to coin a phrase, after visiting with Quark’s new effort — and seeing Volvo’s invited the comparison. I believe it an appropriate comparison, too: both are large corporate efforts aimed at the “above-average” consumer; both are round symbols (more or less) that use text as part of the overall piece (Quark’s requires the word “Quark,” remember); both logos will feature prominently in the companies’ marketing; and, both logos are three-dimensional.
Volvo uses a custom flavor (as far as I can tell) of Egyptian for its typeface, original to the logo (1920/6). Quark’s on #2 in six months. Volvo’s icon is tastefully shadowed, conveys strength, taste, and modernism, and portrays the brand with dignity and honor. Quark’s is flashy, feels amateurish, and, let’s say, might appropriately reflect that company’s dignity and honor, too…;)
In short: The old Swede on some new vitamins knocks out the former heavyweight from Denver in a few short rounds. No TKO here — Quark’s deservedly bruised.
By the way, some of you may note that Volvo’s car operations were purchased by Ford in 1999:
The brand name was consequently put into a holding company, Volvo Trademark Holding AB, which is co-owned fifty-fifty by Volvo and Ford, and whose management decides on how the name can be used and in what contexts. Currently, the holding company’s management group consists of Leif Johansson, President & CEO of AB Volvo and Bill Ford Jr, Chairman & CEO of Ford Motor Company.
Smart. Bet those conversations are fun!
Waaay off-topic: I hope Volvo produces the C30. Would be on my shopping list, if so; a European hatchback would be cool and I think I’m getting too old for a GTI — even if it is fast. Heh.
Posted by Giles, Sunday, April 2, 2006, at 1:38 PM.
Posted to Business | Computers | Personal | Technology | Type and typography | Whatever
Former ALAP Plug-Ins Now Quark-Only
QuarkvsInDesign is full of good (back) design news. Or bad news, in this case. Sorry this isn’t an April Fool’s joke.
Once, not long ago, there was a little software company with an interesting name: A Lowly Apprentice Production, Inc., or ALAP.
ALAP didn’t make software that stood on its own. Rather, it made modules that delivered extra power to users of QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign. You knew what they were: If you were a Quarkster, you thought of ALAP’s QuarkXPress xtensions XPert Tools, XPert Print, and XPert Scale; if you were an InDesignista, you thought of some of the best plug-ins for that application, plug-ins like InTools, InBooklet, and InTips, a collaboration with former Mr. QuarkXPress himself, David Blatner.
ALAP produced good software. Adobe fans were particularly fond of InBooklet, a plug-in that brought imposition, or the process of arranging pages in printer’s spreads, into InDesign.
Adobe liked InBooklet enough to include the SE version with InDesign; it’s handy to have (as a preview, or whatever) even if printers do almost always handle it. So, in December, when Quark bought ALAP, I wondered what would happen — but Quark was coy. Well…:
Just hours ago [March 7 —Ed.], the latest edition of the PowerXChange’s enewsletter announced that Quark has ceased distribution of ALAP’s entire line of InDesign plugins—including InBooklet. Although Quark could not be reached for comment, we at Quark VS InDesign.com consider the source credible because the owner of the the PowerXChange is Cyndie Shaffstall, the director of Quark’s QuarkAlliance program and the liaison between Quark and XPress xtensions developers.
The sole concession to the Adobe side of the fence is Imposer Pro, a plug-in for Adobe Acrobat, whose lifecyle has not been officially terminated.
Quark XTension sales, of course, continue unaffected. Like this section of the article particularly:
[T]elling InDesign users that everything is all right, that the future of their workflows is secure, because QuarkXPress xtensions will take over the functions of their InDesign plug-ins is arrogant. More importantly, it misses the point of why designers choose InDesign over QuarkXPress, and why InDesign users keep a copy of QuarkXPress around.
Good stuff — read the rest. Wish they could have found these teeth with respect to the logo.
They note in an update, by the way, that InBooklet SE will continue to ship with InDesign and the Creative Suite. Probably only for the duration of CS2 would be my guess — but here’s hoping some of those developers, or another company altogether, can fill the need for those that rely on InDesign tools like the former ALAP’s.
Posted by Giles, Saturday, April 1, 2006, at 11:45 PM.
Posted to Business | Computers | Technology
Another New Quark Logo
Home sick this weekend, surfing back design news instead of enjoying the 70-degree closing evening of Macon’s Cherry Blossom Festival. Had to complain…;)
Missed this, from the 16th:
The new Quark corporate logo, in “preferred colors” and, well, “flat.”
I’ll say this: it’s better than the last one. Designed in-house this time, it more appropriately resembles a “Q.” That’s about it for positives from here.
Oh, one more thing: I prefer the “flat.” Forgive my saying so, but it’s as if someone came up with the flat and then was instructed to “take it to 11” — hence the “preferred” — by someone who doesn’t understand why going to 11 can be funny instead of better or more.
Others are more enthusiastic. Designorati thinks they got it right:
If Quark desires to connote forward motion, expectation, and excitement, they seem to have hit the target here. Even the typography has been seen to […].
QuarkvsInDesign.com feels similarly:
A potent emblem, the 2006 logo both reminisces as a target and communicates action. It’s circular, three-dimensional relief in green is evocative of a button, implying a call to action — click here to go.
Want to click somewhere? Try the comments link — with your take.
Posted by Giles, Saturday, April 1, 2006, at 10:29 PM.
Posted to Business | Computers | Design | Technology | Type and typography
CS3: 2Q 2007
Rob Galbraith notes a Forbes interview with Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen. The money section:
Acrobat is coming in the fourth quarter of 2006. [Design software package] Creative Suite 3 will be introduced in the second quarter of 2007. Acrobat will take advantage of the Macromedia assets. And you’ll see a lot of activity in the CS3 launch. There will be a lot of integration between [Macromedia] products and [Adobe] products as part of those offerings.
As Rob comments, Universal Binary (read: MacIntel) versions won’t be available until CS3. Kind of a long wait, IMHO — but gives us time to budget for a new machine.…
Posted by Giles, Monday, March 27, 2006, at 7:16 PM.
Posted to Book design | Business | Computers | Design | Technology | Type and typography
Software Update
• FontExplorer X
…doesn’t work for me. It shows maybe a tenth of the previews, won’t move the files, won’t organize them, and won’t auto-activate them in the various applications (probably because it thinks they’re not complete, hence the lack of previews.)
The venerable Suitcase X1 also has one big advantage: huge preview area, small font list. FontExplorer gets it backwards, devoting more space to the font list. In FE’s defence, it can be a WYSIWYG menu, but apparently that requires that the previews work. (Unsurprisingly.) Once I have everything organized and tagged this layout might work, but have to get there, first!
I’m wondering if part of the problems I’m experiencing may be a permissions problem with Mac OS X. I want my fonts folder to be called “Font Library” and be at the root level of my hard drive. FE seems to want all the data in my users folder — but doesn’t list a help item or mention on the web site that it has to go there. No specific permissions error, either — just doesn’t work.
In short, a good first try. I’ll keep checking this one. (And, note to Extensis: I’m a licensed X1 user. Thanks for the notice on Fusion. Hmph. Your loss — I’m staying with X1 until FE is fixed. Have a feeling it won’t be too long.)
• Entourage/Thunderbird
I’ll be out of the office tomorrow and Wednesday, and have a list of things that have to get done before I leave — so in the middle of this, Enter Rage does its final face plant. “Oh, no,” was all I could keep saying. Sheesh. Bad timing!
But, after much coaxing, more than a little head-scratching, and some trial and error, Enter Rage is history, the mail’s migrated, and Thunderbird is in-house:
Installation went fairly easily — once I found this thread explaining how, except that the dragged files are already .mbox files, thus eliminating a step. Not exactly an intuitive import process, but being able to rescue 77 thousand emails from what seemed like certain death was worth it.
Now that it’s installed and working, I like it a great deal. The “vertical” arrangement — three-column panel of folders, email list, and email content — is brilliant. (And just what I want in FontExplorer. Hello, Linotype?) Junk controls that actually work, inline spell-checking, a nice “look,” and, most importantly, open source. That means, like Firefox, my browser of choice, the program is managed by people who care instead of companies that profit. Nice.
Using iCal to replace some of the calendaring functions that went away with Entourage, but the task management there isn’t great. Looking for a few tasks program with a robust notification system, if anyone can suggest such a beast.…
Posted by Giles, Monday, March 27, 2006, at 11:57 AM.
Posted to Business | Computers | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Site news
Foreword: Three Years of Book Design Blogging
Many, many moons ago, it seems now, Amanda and I starting putting HTML “blog” posts regarding books and book design up on the ospreydesign.com site. By the end of 2002, we’d decided that we wanted to do it often, if not daily, as a way to expand our knowledge of book design and set me up for leaving Tropicana and go back to doing freelance design — and try to do book design — full-time.
Back then, the header was based on a photo of Haunting Sunshine, a title that’s aged well, and was 550 pixels wide (here scaled to fit):
Then, three years ago this weekend, March 17-21, 2003, Foreword became “offical.” We purchased Movable Type, got it working, enabled comments, and even had rotating headers. The same 550 pixels wide (and again scaled to fit), the site lost the ospreydesign tie-in (and gained a subdomain) in favor of an emphasis on community. This one was my fave:
The photo on the right was to have been a cover for a book Amanda was working on; she spent a good deal of time wandering about Florida gathing information and photos only to abandon it later. (Unfortunately, IMO.) The books on the left were photographed and Photoshopped in-house.
This one got the most questions — and was another Amanda thing:
Nope, I ain’t answering…;)
Readership that first “offical” month averaged 50/day, at least ten of which were family and friends. But it was a start. The plan from there was yearly redesigns, tons of great book design and publishing news and blurbs, and to build that community. I left the juice company in July, and ospreydesign was full-time again. Readership went over 500/day.
In March of ’04, the site gained the so-called “velvet” look:
Reflecting growing average screen sizes, the site grew to first 600, then 650 pixels wide, so we could better accomodate larger cover pictures. Readership climbed over 1000/day, Foreword started flirting with the top-10 returns in Google for “book design,” and life seemed good — for a while.
By October 2004, it was a different site, really, because things were strained to breaking between the two principle bloggers. Yet despite a change in flavor from lighter, quicker “look what I found” items to more thoughts and feelings and design, readership continued to climb.
By March 2005, Amanda and I had seperated, I’d moved to Georgia, and the site got … wider. I flat out didn’t have time to redo it completely, and knew that part of me wanted to do something more radical (read: a new logo), so in the end, I postponed. And you, dear readers, kept coming — over 3000/day, from all corners of the world. Foreword now flirted with the #1 Google return for “book design,” trading spots with Robin Williams and Amazon.
This year, March 2006, posts are sometimes sporadic, Amanda and I are lawyered up — damned shame, if you ask me — but, thanks to the support of my friends, your support, and with the help of a few talented fellow bloggers, the postings continue. The site even got partially redesigned, but ran aground when I realized I didn’t know how to do what I wanted for the main portion and have been too busy to learn — so it hangs. Maybe in a week or two. Might play with a few details here, too; some of the dingbats on the left haven’t worn too well for my taste, the comments still aren’t clear, and a couple of other little things. (As always, suggestions welcome.)
Meanwhile, Foreword’s now solidly #1 in the Google “book design” rank (out of, when searched without quotes, 512 million), readership is over 5000/day, and we’re going to keep posting on book design, books, photography, writing, design, and probably even too much personal stuff. For another three years — or, hopefully, thirty.
Thank you for stopping by. Thank you for commenting. Most of all, thank you being part of the community.
Posted by Giles, Friday, March 17, 2006, at 2:15 PM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Books | Business | Design | Personal | Photography | Site news
Font Explorer X
FontExplorer X sets a new standard for font management software. Linotype is pleased to announce the missing link to your font collection. With the new FontExplorer X, font management, font sorting, font shopping and font discovery are simple and fun!
Linotype wants you to think iTunes for fonts, I believe — and catch this: it’s free.
Get more info and download here. I’ve downloaded but not installed — no time to mess with. Perhaps over the weekend. Soon, in any case, as Suitcase is getting … old. Others’ experiences appreciated.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, March 15, 2006, at 1:24 PM.
Posted to Business | Computers | Technology | Type and typography
The Search's Copyright: A Good Discussion
Tom Evslin, author of hackoff.com, mentioned not too long ago, has a good conversation with John Battelle, author of The Search — which is about Google et al — regarding the copyright warning in his book:
This warning seems directly aimed at Google Book Search, a project which intends to scan the collections of some of the world’s great libraries and make them searchable online. Now you can find similar language on the copyright page of lots of books but John Battelle is a known strong supporter of the value of having almost everything searchable as anyone who reads either his book or his blog knows.
So I emailed John and asked him about the apparent contradiction. He said the decision was the publisher’s (Penguin) decision to make but “I totally disagree with it.” Of course, at the time he signed his contract with Penguin, no one knew that this issue would exist. He readily agreed to talk to me it.
Tom also notes that hackoff.com has been selected for the short-list of titles being considered in the fiction category for the Lulu Blooker Prize. Congrats.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, March 9, 2006, at 1:18 PM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book people | Book prizes | Books | Business | Computers | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Libraries | Public domain | Publishing | Technology
Theme of the London Book Fair
…was “what technology can do,” says the New York Times.
Margaret Atwood’s robotic arm seems especially amusing.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, March 8, 2006, at 11:35 AM.
Posted to Book people | Book sellers | Books | Business | Publishing | Technology
BEA Reminder
Email from Book Expo America today reminding us that this years’ show is May 19-21. Anybody know if they’re going yet? (I don’t plan to, but.…)
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, February 22, 2006, at 2:45 PM.
Posted to Books | Books, design, art | Business | Jobs | Publishing
50 Books/50 Covers of 2005
Speaking of AIGA and people like Rodrigo reminds me:
Entries close March 3rd. Here’s this year’s jury:
- Nola Burger, University of California Press, Los Angeles
- Michael Carabetta, Chronicle Books, San Francisco (chair)
- John Gall, Vintage Books, New York
- Kevin Lippert, Princeton Architectural Press, New York
- Kristen Nobles, Candlewick Press, Boston
Anybody going to enter? Leave a comment!
Posted by Giles, Friday, February 17, 2006, at 1:15 PM.
Posted to Book design | Book prizes | Books, design, art | Business
Foreword: Connecting Point
Kelly Evans writes:
As I was searching for a cover designer for hackoff.com, I spent a good deal of time on your site. It inspired me and led me to the AIGA website where I found our designer. Long story short, I am just thrilled with the job our designer Rodrigo Corral did!
So I just wanted to email and say thank you so much!
Yeah, that Rodrigo Corral.
The newspaper “look” is tough. (I’ve yet to do one I like, for instance.) This one’s nice when cropped — the ink treatment in the author box is a deft touch — but looks especially good when you can see the whole jacket:
Kelly, it’s our pleasure to have those resources and to be able to help you make those connections with the book design professionals you need. Thank you.
Posted by Giles, Friday, February 17, 2006, at 12:55 PM.
Posted to Advertising | Book and design blogs | Book design | Books, design, art | Business | Design | Publishing | Site news
Foreword asks (again)
Two quick questions, please:
1. How does everyone feel about caps in web addresses? I went a different route (styled the text differently) to acommodate a client’s request to make the web address “stand out more,” rather than the caps (www.WebAddressHere.com). Feel pretty strongly about it, too, but don’t want to be overly anal about it. What have you done when setting covers and interiors?
2. I’ve been getting spammed this week on a massive scale — thousands and thousands of emails directed at least three of the active ospreydesign.com email addresses. If you’ve sent an email our way this week and you haven’t heard back, please accept my apologies and resend when you have a moment.
Part of the problem is a specific type of attachment that makes Entourage — or, as I’ve been calling it these past few days, Enter Rage — crash, often requiring a time-consuming database rebuild. Considering switching to Thunderbird, but I like the integrated calendar/notification part of Entourage. I’m not going to buy the new version of Office or Entourage, and don’t like how Mail’s output looks on PCs or its speed. Other than those, can anyone recommend a good Mac email client? Or a calendar client with notifications more robust than iCal?
Thank you.
Posted by Giles, Friday, February 3, 2006, at 3:29 PM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Business | Computers | Site news | Technology
Happy 22nd Birthday
…to the Macintosh.
The Mac was the brainchild of Jef Raskin, who originally wanted to bring computing to the masses at under $1000. That proved unworkable, Raskin left the project, and the price ballooned to $1499. John Sculley stepped in as Apple CEO. He felt the Mac needed a serious media push and, in an effort to pay for it, pushed the price to $2495.
Read more at Apple Matters.
Meanwhile, Disney is buying Pixar, giving Apple extraordinary influence, and my iMac’s screen continues to give me trouble. The more things change, the more they stay the same, I guess…;)
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, January 24, 2006, at 2:41 PM.
Posted to Advertising | Business | Computers | Personal | Public domain | Technology
Software Conflict 2.0
On the subject of why we’re all here, here’s a book cover design:
Worked on the interior this afternoon and evening; it’s, finally, almost there — precariously balanced between white space and line height. Need to sleep on it before showing it to the client. The cover, though, was tweaked for the final time a few days ago (hopefully…;) and both the client and I am happy with.
It’s 7.5 x 9.25, by the way — a cool size and an interesting creative challenge. Good call on the publisher’s part.
No where near sleep yet tonight, though. Instead of “creatively lighting” the above, I have other plans for Photoshop: this — and another swipe at the poster.
Posted by Giles, Saturday, January 21, 2006, at 12:06 AM.
Posted to Book design | Books, design, art | Business | Computers | Design | Flickr | Jobs | Technology | Type and typography
Follow-Ups
Trying to break the (bad) habit of posting at four in the morning. Wish me luck…;)
If you haven’t alredy, read yesterday’s entry first. Thanks.
1. The poster went down in flames today. One word: “groupthink.” Monica defended it well, I understand, but that’s the way it goes. They’re going to pick another photo and we’ll try again. (Will save the details for another time, heheh.)
2. Managed to get through the missive last night without mentioning Google. Foreword is the #1 response to a search for book design, with or without quotes. Ahead of Amazon! That’s seriously cool.
That’s also exactly why I’d love to spur more conversation. The description on Google, a community in the service of books and book design, is exactly the purpose. Yes, it’s about me. But it’s also about Todd, Chip, Joseph, J., Amanda, and so many others, past, present, and future. Us. A diverse “community,” in the best sense of the word.
3. I don’t feel the “arrogant American” thing was worded well. I absolutely do not care where you physically work from, what language you grew up speaking, what color you are, or how you live your life. I do care about the quality of your work a great deal, however. And I want to help make it better. Because I learn — we all learn — as part of that process.
No matter who you are or where you’re from, if you’re here, it’s for the same reason I am: to have a greater knowledge and understanding of book design.
When I said “quest for expertise,” I meant “collective quest.” By posting a comment that brings an idea to the table, we all benefit. Good design ideas can, thankfully, transcend cultures — someone, somewhere, will look at that idea, and it will lead to another.
For freelancers in a trade such as book design, the internet is the great equalizer. It no longer matters where you live, only that you know what you’re doing. But that doesn’t remove culture.
Foreword is American-centric because the posters and active commenters are mostly American. I’d love to broaden that — we’d all benefit. Bring something to the table, though. Don’t just ask how to do it. Get involved in how to do it. That’s why we’re all here. Let’s share those ideas.
4. Speaking of sharing, I welcome feedback and ideas for improving how this site actually functions. The redesign includes some improvement in code related to comment moderation and posting, but will mostly be a visual thing. I’m currently going around (and around) regarding “quickie” posts; whether I’d do enough “Hey, this is cool…” posts to justify a third column and the CSS tricks necessary to do that properly. Probably not. Site loading speed’s a consideration, too. Simple code with striking visuals (well, and good posts…;) works best for me.
Now is the best time to talk about it. What would you like to see next? Leave a comment.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, January 19, 2006, at 10:46 PM.
Posted to Art | Book and design blogs | Book cover photography | Book design | Books | <