Anyways, it’s a good read for anyone aspiring to be a design lead, and better, what you should be look from your design lead.

You can now go directly to PunyPNG via this new URL:

http://www.punypng.com

(http://www.gracepointafterfive.com/punypng will now be redirected to the new URL, but any API calls will not be redirected)

This is what I saw on it’s homepage:

• Smashing Magazine
• Strobist, DPreview, Joe McNally’s Blog, Digital Photography School
• Mac Rumors, Mac World
• Lifehacker, Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki

Wow!  How did Alltop anticipate all of my interests?  It was like it knew what all my subscribed RSS feeds were.  Perhaps some new fancy Web tech where they got into my Google Reader feeds or something.  So I fired up another browser, cleared the cookies and went back to Alltop, only to see the exact same feeds!

And so, it hit me.  Alltop is psychic.

That or perhaps all who are part of the my middle-age web techie demographic are all predictably into the exact same things.

Sigh.

Anyways, check out Alltop, it’s pretty cool.

Recently, our church purchased a sweet Canon EOS 7D for the express purpose of shooting video.  It’s an awesome camera, but most of us didn’t know how to use it.  After spending a few months with this camera, I decided to record this tutorial on using the 7D to shoot video.  Though having photography fundamentals is really useful, the tutorial just assumes you’ve shot on a consumer DV camera in the past and introduces the basics and not-so basics of the 7D — all from the perspective of shooting video.

Now, this video is really, really rough.  I threw my own personal 7D on a tripod and hit record.  My son was just born when I made this recording so I know I look like a zombie in this footage.  Focus on the camera, not me ;)

Tutorial Chapters:

1. Introduction (11 min)
2. Lens Overview (19 min)
3. More Lenses (14 min)
4. Camera / ISO / Exposure (15 min)
5. Exposure Triangle (20 min)
6. White Balance (8 min)
7. Presets (7 min)
8. Production Techniques (12 min)
9. More Production Techniques (8 min)

Tutorial Notes (PDF, 2MB)

You can also watch see the entire tutorial as a playlist album.

If I could give a few tips (aside from these) to new designers, it would be:

1. Be careful in following after trends (some people love using flares; I hate the depth of field junk)
2. Develop a good color sense

Following after trends is almost inevitable. We like to do what we like, and what we like tend to be the trendy stuff. I’m no exception — I love the retro look and feel. I’m not proposing to never use trendy designs, but rather, use them with caution.

Numero dos — color theory. A good way to start is to minimize your color palette. Too often, I see new designers use the whole spectrum of colors. What usually results is not Avatar but skittle barf (a term Kevan affectionately coined). Don’t be afraid to desaturate your designs — usually, that looks better. There is a reason why Ansel Adams only processed his photographs in black and white.

With that said, I would like to introduce the works of Alex Varanese. If you look carefully at his portfolio, you’ll notice that he’s following after another trend: the use of 3D elements in graphic designs. However, I think most people wouldn’t have noticed this at first glance. This is one of the reasons why his designs are so refreshing because he doesn’t make his 3D images go kablamo into your face; much of his time is spent to tone it down and fit it within a 2D environment (the poster).

Something even more noticeable is his use of the color red. I’ve never seen someone so persistent in using one specific color palette — but it sure works! Even in his reds, he doesn’t go all out — he’s very limiting in his choice of reds, browns, and off-whites. His boundaries doesn’t cripple him in his designs; in fact, they are the very things that make his work look so professional.

What blows me away with his stuff is that he has a ton of hi-quality posters within each series. He seems to have his workflow down to a science, so that he is able to produce at the speed that he does. Very incredible.

View Alex’s portfolio | Read about his process

We just pushed out some hot new features to PunyPNG today:

• Added option to preserve EXIF data, to maintain copyright and other image metadata
• Added option to skip bit reduction when compressing.  This improved IE6 compatibility (see PunyPNG’s IE6 support)
• REST-based API support (beta)

We also fixed a handful of outstanding issues:

• Improved performance of dirty transparency compression
• Improved simultaneous uploading of multiple files
• Fixed bug where the total savings being reported were incorrect

You can now sign up for PunyPNG to save your custom compression options and get assigned an API key.  We’re also excited to release the long-awaited PunyPNG API.  This will give you the ability to optimize multiple files in batch using a REST-based API (responses are in JSON).  Smusher is a great example of how you can use the command-line to invoke PunyPNG without sacrificing your own CPU cycles.  The API is currently in limited beta, with some restrictions to ensure nobody decides to optimize their entire photo archive library over winter break or something.

Look out for more updates in the coming weeks.  Your feedback and feature requests are invaluable to making PunyPNG the awesome compression tool available.   Keep it coming.

Merry Christmas!!

For the Designer

Thinking with Type - $15

Whether you are a web designer or a graphic designer (or a motion graphics guy), Thinking with Type is the essential book on typography. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve seen so many “type crimes” in the world of design; many a times, I, too, am a culprit. I refer to this book again and again; it’s one of the books closest to me (in proximity) at work. Any designer who has mastery over typography and text treatment will tell you that she has read this book from cover to cover — multiple times.

For the Filmmaker + Editor

In the Blink of an Eye - $10

Walter Murch is hailed as one of the best editors out there. Ever. With films such as The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The English Patient, and many more under his belt, he has a thing or two (or six, actually) to share about the fine art of editing in The Blink of an Eye. It’s a short and fast read, as Walter blazes through the history of editing to — what’s more important to me — the basic principles.

For the Writer

The Elements of Style - $15

Ok, I lied — I think everyone should read this book. It matters not whether you’re a coder, a designer, a moviemaker, a cook, or whatever — the written language is still the most basic form of communication. Originally written as a handbook for students at Cornell, The Elements of Style combines valuable tips and insights with humor and sarcasm. Engineers out there: read this book.

For Artists Everywhere

Art and the Bible - $8

We live in a world steeped in relativism and subjectivity, and such worldviews are fiercest in the realm of the arts. How can we be objective about the arts while dealing with different styles and approaches? How can anyone say that one style is better than another? I think Francis Schaeffer, in Art and the Bible, does an excellent job in walking the tightrope in addressing these very issues. Rather than siding with the extremities, he gives proper guidance and principles when approaching art, and how all this relates back to a biblical worldview.

For the Coder + Programmer

King Lear - $7

No, this is no joke. If you thought I was going to recommend a Ruby on Rails book or something, then you don’t know me very well. Over break, step aside from the computer and read! King Lear (side by side) is often hailed as Shakespeare’s greatest work, and if anything, it will expand your imagination (if not vocabulary). The side-by-side series are great because half the time, I just don’t have a clue as to what Shakespeare is saying, nor do I have easy access to an English major.

With that said, from all of us at Gracepoint After Five, Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!

Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.

Much has been said about inspirations lately, but one thing I do want to mention: inspirations alone do not produce great work. Thomas Edison¹ was onto something when he said that “none of [his] inventions came by accident.” It takes work and effort. A lot of it.

Ira Glass, a reporter who’s now famous for hosting This American Life on National Public Radio, has something similar to say with regards to the art of storytelling². Ira is now renowned for his ability to take a story and make it very interesting — he’s able to put a spin on it that causes you to think about a subject in which you’ve never thought about before. In short, he’s a Jedi Master.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As a master of the craft, he has a lot of advice to give. “Do a lot of work. Put a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline.” “I took longer to know how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met.” From the way he talks and the passion that just exudes out of his pores — you know he’s sincere. The thing that really drew me to this short video is around the 3 minute mark, when he plays a tape from his eighth year at work. He pauses the tape from time to time to address to the audience — to us — how horrible he was. Now, to a novice in radio story-telling like moi, it sounded fine. However, pay close attention to his facial expression as he listens to his younger self with much anguish and pain, almost as if someone was clawing at the blackboard.

I admit that it’s far easier to criticize one’s past than it is for the present, but I’ll bet that he was just as harsh back then to himself as he is now. He must have; there’s no other way for improvement if one (1) doesn’t self-analyze and self-criticize and (2) make much effort to improve. As Ira stated in the beginning of this video, many new artists — whether they are designers, film makers, illustrators, etc — recognize that their work is not as good as their “taste”³. Unfortunately, so many people become defeated and quit. And here, I just want to echo what Ira said:

It’s going to take a while. It’s natural to take a while… you just have to fight your way through it.

The base elements

As usual, much time was spent in looking for good stock photography. Perusing Flickr, it wasn’t long before I spotted the USC football player. Once I saw it — even in the thumbnails — I knew that was it. Beautiful lighting with a dark background. Menacing. In short: amazing. Finding a similar photo for the Cal Bears was another story. In the end, I settled for the one above. Even though the time of day didn’t match, the most important thing is making sure that the light source is similar. If you look at the two photographs above, you’ll notice that the light seems to be coming from “behind the camera” and to the left.

Compositing

In the rough poster above, I’ve masked the players, adjusted their levels slightly, and slapped on a cloudy background. Since the light source is similar, it’s more believable that the two of them were taken in the same shot (except the USC player is humungous compared to the Cal). Unfortunately, notice that the USC dude is cut off on the bottom. The cheap and easy way to solve this problem is to simply allow him to dissolve into the background. However, that method is very difficult to pull off professionally; that trick is used so many times that it’s become rather amateurish. The solution I chose is to incorporate typography as an element within the poster.

Typography: an element, not an afterthought

I still notice many designers using typography as an afterthought. They do their basic designs with their photo elements and brushes, but when it’s time to enter in text, they seem to slap it on rather than treating them as elements. In the step shown above, I’ve used the text treatment to cover up the USC player without it looking awkward. However, the text is more than mere fig leaves; words were carefully chosen, placement and layout were thought out, and font-families hand-picked (Aachen and Avant Garde Bk). In other words, don’t treat the text as second-rate citizens. They’re the elements that communicate to the audience; without the text, it’s just a meaningless poster. Learn more about typography. Use them well.

Blue and gold used here goes without saying.

Grids

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying this over and over again. Grids are your friends. Back in the day, designers would have to manually draw out their grids with pencils and rulers. (Even further back, they would have to draw out their fonts!) Nowadays, it’s as simple as hitting apple+’.

There’s no excuse to be lazy. Use grids (and guides).

Final poster design can be viewed here.