tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61502768855636183322024-03-04T22:39:15.137-08:00neurotripping[intercepted thoughts from the digital mindscape]neurospacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244457494618320835noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150276885563618332.post-75868930192005998502012-09-16T09:03:00.000-07:002012-09-16T09:03:13.139-07:00Marketing a Party Event (Part 4 of 5): Giving Out The Invitations<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once the ads have been broadcast, it was time to set-up the actual party and give out the invitations. After so much fruitless searching for the perfect venue to host the party, we were fortunate enough to land a reservation in a social hall (near a church). So the rest of the team went about in setting up the place while I took over creating the invitations for the upcoming event.</span><br />
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</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Designing the invitations</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In order to maintain consistency between the ads (created in <a href="http://neurospaceman.blogspot.com/2011/12/hyping-party-part-1-of-5.html" target="_blank">the</a> <a href="http://neurospaceman.blogspot.com/2011/12/marketing-party-event-part-2-of-5.html" target="_blank">previous</a> <a href="http://neurospaceman.blogspot.com/2011/12/marketing-party-event-part-3-of-5.html" target="_blank">weeks</a>) and the planned invites, I recycled past designs and re-used them in the invites. I made sure that in order for the resolution comes out in print-quality, the Photoshop canvas used was upped to at least 300 dpi (400 dpi or more is recommended). Event details (laid out in text) made up the majority of the print space, while some food and champagne imagery were also incorporated in order to "soften" the look, and provided the viewer ideas on what to expect in the party itself. A couple of designs were submitted for print, as the main design was intended for the staff, while an alternate was to be given to the executives.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/4cwesuLW_yma6u6gYpmgfxkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglIEI19aLL_B4SwoRMv58rhUUwkVaEr6Mwm1HGyWGopk7nRGjGVIZBscy2dPSm_k3BvqsU2wV5f9uSpbzsmsAT_97cnkFuBqCP3_SxeFZ1gguxBoPWrKUUfcOVbZDM0EJJEqH3IdarMYY/s288/CoffeeTalk%2520Teaser%2520Week%252002_Final.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Main version of the invite</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6BfXfxfAc8AKsD2MMnva5BkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx3tW8aNj7WV4SMySj6o9USZXPtvpj0Q-R0PGh6mWDB5zEXWtgRQLZQjxZdMNirKvrO7l9QuJdFivqSeYBE8ioALquJWh2lp_235OMYvBvQuj-0fwXdy-ZExSdQwWuOnTWe1RnWA14ILw/s288/CoffeeTalk%2520Teaser%2520Week%252002_v4.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Alternate version of the invite</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Next up will be the final installment in this series, which will include a retrospection of the event that happened.</span></div>
neurospacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244457494618320835noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150276885563618332.post-74142980038517258212012-09-05T05:04:00.000-07:002012-09-05T05:09:02.879-07:00A New Take on the Old-Fashioned Mix Tape<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Mix tapes (ones in cassette form) were all the rage during my high school halcyon heydays of the 90's (compact discs or CDs were still expensive then and were still in the process of becoming the dominant music and video medium) and were the gift of choice to one's special person as this required a surprising effort to make (as music files in digital form were not yet ubiquitous, and therefore one had be creative and enterprising in being able to cull the necessary tracks which will comprise the album of songs in) the mix tape in question. The means were difficult but the payout is richly rewarding, as the lucky recipient almost always appreciates the thought behind this particular gift, as seeing the act of enjoyment over the gift is the reward by itself.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_8MhP9ArIz65LogrvDZ7P8_vln_rHYxhlqFyYedJOhstfiCteltYuLP9aTpQmqcXTu-uON4dzjs-Ov61V9of-QguWET_7vZSXSQwqsRPCSKYsPY7Zw_LrQE6mfpt3M077fzOwtj1xjYU/s1600/cassette+tape.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_8MhP9ArIz65LogrvDZ7P8_vln_rHYxhlqFyYedJOhstfiCteltYuLP9aTpQmqcXTu-uON4dzjs-Ov61V9of-QguWET_7vZSXSQwqsRPCSKYsPY7Zw_LrQE6mfpt3M077fzOwtj1xjYU/s200/cassette+tape.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Behold...one of the greatest gifts one can get during the 90's.<br />
Just pray that the songs inside are inclined to your musical tastes.</span></td></tr>
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<div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fast-forward a decade later, mix tapes nowadays are easier to produce (and they are now producible in CD and DVD forms) as the tracks you need are amply supplied by the Internet, one can shamelessly "download" these files without feeling shame (I do!) in less than a three steps. Regardless, the spirit of the process of giving these to your loved ones still lives, albeit in a new medium as the CD/DVD replaced those cassette tapes as the storage and musical fidelity of the former completely overshadowed the latter.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Moving on from this retrospective, I encountered the unfortunately dilemma of having run out of ideas on what to give my very special someone on our upcoming monthsary. While surfing the 'net in order to inspire myself to an idea for the gift, I came upon her blog profile and came to enjoy reading her musical interests and her eclectic taste in music, and it suddenly hit me...why not give her a mix tape and perhaps one she can call personally her own? As she was fond of giving me my own mix tapes I can play in my car stereo, I can give her her own and take it one step further, by customizing the album sleeve that will both reflect my feelings for her and make the gift more unique and more personal.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the digital component of the gift, I started first by making a listing of the songs lifted from her music profile. Next, I downloaded the songs, taking time to select those that were encoded at 128 kbps at least. Anything higher, the better (as musical fidelity increases proportionally). Finally, I re-arranged the songs and then listed their respective track details (title of the song, name of the album where the song came from, the song artist or author, as well as the track time). Now this was the easy part.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The next part, and admittedly the more difficult one, is to create the album sleeve for the CD. I bought the blank CD, and made sure it came with labeling sleeves, as I needed their dimensions to create my own sleeves. I opted to create a front cover, as well as a back sleeve (with an extended part to account for the side label portion of the CD jacket).</span></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/UztXwiC-L7yiFs2dN5g2CxkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSvFMPR08opAbt-xvae5NQZKMtnRwyLoKRSWGIoo89Col5J6rDdKsmhxWl81j6reEMiXYcHubRIjQlOLsirQu8lxEGYdRZNhkEdqPHq0yu1DhhRl1ze-fSp_20zXlwxPgxrR7XLdJvB-Q/s288/01_Front%2520copy_RGB.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Front-sleeve</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/3kCNsO9rgKiYj5EHq_XqKRkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU-BN2C41GFvJfC2LE9WVtEnSyPBVBd9hqli4trk1kBLCwaut8-cbwYuyvQjkH-pAyNM_4_UbRjwx2op7Z-YXXQ6zZ6HFFjFSwsNsKf1BvL6obXdarph6TyvF8VxZ2GOjyTA1GEgrAO30/s288/02_Back%2520copy_RGB.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Back-sleeve with side labeling and pseudo-barcode</span></td></tr>
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</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had them printed at 300dpi (admittedly, there were still hints of pixels...the next time I'll be creating them in 400dpi or higher resolution) at a print shop in order to make the print more authentic and closer to a commercial CD sleeve's resolution. All that's left to be done is to package the gift and hand-deliver it personally to my girl, and there you have it, Project Mix Tape is mission-accomplished.</span><br />
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</span></div>neurospacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244457494618320835noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150276885563618332.post-76188284216672282452011-12-28T09:04:00.000-08:002012-01-02T05:05:39.845-08:00Marketing a Party Event (Part 3 of 5): Broadcasting the Party<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(T minus 3 weeks until showtime...)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the studies have been presented and reviewed during the conceptualization stage, it's now time to get down and dirty with the actual execution of the ads. As the plans for the event were still being granulated down to the last detail, I still had not much idea to put into the ads themselves other than that it will be a formal event on the 14th of December, with awards being presented out and would be serving dinner and cocktail drinks to the attendees.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The design as a marriage of imagery and typography</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With these things in mind, I came up with the first two designs (variants of each other) that used a cocktail drink as its main imagery with majority of the design area pervaded by information text (with playful color reinterpretation):</span><br />
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<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/2Ce8zV8zo7GA7kORGVzaERkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtUbnEqUUilAvgHgBvZERNIlE0ddN-1FPHL3wZRHwQEZyqcS9rJExf45KSVzYmieXvWzST7XKTchsjZL96yVU1iZ6cbgn-dlWAa-sXfnLpnOvryiUEatJY9VftJxw7h2sKsDr0gn5heh0/s400/CoffeeTalk%252520Teaser%252520Week%25252001_03.jpg" width="309" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wavy and vibrant lines were added at the background in order to convey the festive atmosphere anticipated for such an event. However, it has been determined that the aesthetics of the design lacked the vibrancy that would entice the target event participants. The next design hopefully solved this dilemma:</span><br />
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<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Q15TzFAAhT1Pl7YmIRG2pxkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfOWQqsyin6riy_nUQQD-vPBbWyoSFide7fVAp3B3uWVvzMs70wK8a6nOHDLOFbj5c4kARMhY-u8egq_HoVsmtRnj0DXEtqxP8y22n8d0vXYHpqzKplMsr6cEq66NmjVLHwfFf1YQcgpQ/s400/CoffeeTalk%252520Teaser%252520Week%25252001_03%252520with%252520light%252520balls.jpg" width="309" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This approach however implied drinking and dancing the night away and sort of did not impress the need for the event, which was to have a town-hall meeting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Letting the design speak a thousand words</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the past couple of designs were giving too much information away and (in my opinion) not investing on the audience's interest too much, I decided to play on the idea with the awards component of the event. I came up with the award envelope as a symbolic image of the event.</span><br />
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<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/BA4ug80ZB0SI1RU33u8jnxkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVmOhzi1358JR7kOevWDnSzEG7hHWApYuxT_FyIa-wpUS7XtaoxWYxlR-2l6uFATtmtikqmaGjSlr_q7piZVrsVWO8GDwbBSsg5EAxl0bCMjMwUU9Vs80cxqMpkSyP7fMCotld6xkV86E/s288/CoffeeTalk%252520Teaser%252520Week%25252001_01.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/q4kYLB1bsZeDusJ2Axlg9BkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilBmfdSS7ZiIx4YTGU6pyUKQ2BwqUhVmbUs6Zb5HDJByG53QdjjL2gds-A3ipQiezXCMt-NG0KhXMQYudbsRx5_u6nshGwqI0TcZzWIcec-1POPSfFazFWtadJEopjAkFvYjoDeIpkrvs/s288/CoffeeTalk%252520Teaser%252520Week%25252001_02%252520v2.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Im2SQ-hwENCNTsFnZ4qMqRkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivfKDAfwfSGm_WpAL6DQCTXIEY2qxxUF6F-odl0IENEFkSE9uudhH78e3_x20SPxnNh_PZjf4QYx7qirMQJGSMnYfrn6-7TgbcBn8Dpbjh5t441LrlfzwuPN7IQOtExKkpKg7CdaicvWk/s288/CoffeeTalk%252520Teaser%252520Week%25252001_02.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I went on to mix and match different backgrounds to go with the main image and found that the simplest look of the three above spoke the loudest and therefore was selected unanimously to be finalized into the following final design:</span><br />
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<div align="center"><a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/6vHpCc9R9WuM02Plb22-xhkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpRpVwS2GBGu8veKtoNSaDs0mHgXGpEKd1vdEcQCS7yNMkQUpCtFb15MZkRLe5Alijwt3uAbYGZ5miNfW772siQy25puMutTJMqk6P9m0ulMwgLSxAholDzkDR9lDP1KwoW5oPJR9ipWc/s400/CoffeeTalk%252520Teaser%252520Week%25252001_Final.jpg" height="309" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And thus, Ad 01 of 03 was completed.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>To be continued...</i></span>neurospacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244457494618320835noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150276885563618332.post-6280895799692769942011-12-27T06:46:00.000-08:002011-12-30T15:06:36.450-08:00Marketing a Party Event (Part 2 of 5): Conceptualizing the Party<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once the event planning wheels started rolling towards implementation, it became necessary to start handing out communication items to the target party participants. Layers upon layers of required party specifics started to come to light that defined what the party should be, where it should be and how the party will be started to manifest clearly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, these publications promoting the party needed to be first studied, in order to produce preliminary work that would bring out the necessary as well as important aesthetic elements in the ads that would pique maximum interest without giving away too much. Besides, one needs to impress people that you know what you are doing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I came up with five teaser studies that incorporated five different designs that tied up to one goal, which is to announce to people that an important event will be happening in the next couple of weeks or so. I made sure that each study is reviewable, elements were renewable in future designs and conveyed that a specific date needed to be blocked off and saved in their calendars.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Study #1: An ensemble of cocktail party quotes</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For this study, I came up with a typographic design peppered with famous party quotes (especially cocktail ones). I took a quote from the legendary <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Warhol" target="_blank">Andy Warhol</a> and made this the main quote that emphasized what one may expect from the event being teased.</span>
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<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ycEpXrqL8J4DVvm-gzXtUxkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2MxBn_A_YaxP3XNFDECQ_Jkw8SYdoax-0sxBeShdKwh660yeI84tH4Lx5-qlTUxDqDNHkz-MSCgjFlFxO5NWPpWzY0GRm9YU12G7I6ZSr9VXu5yaoflxTZuSxE3ysIUTHZoAUXmHc880/s400/Cocktail%252520Coffeetalk%252520Teaser%252520ConceptStudy%25252001.jpg" width="309" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For this design, I used <a href="http://www.dafont.com/carbontype.font" target="_blank">typewriter font type</a>, created a couple of paper textures (carbon paper as well as a normal bond) and the date information and meshed them together to resemble an old-school type of communique.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Study #s 2 and 3: The grunge look</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Grunge was the basic theme for the next couple of studies. The informal look kinda clashed with the "formality" of the event being teased but there's no minus points for venturing into unconventional territory. On one hand there are schools of (design) thought that believe that being conventional will always be quintessential and deliver the message about-face and on the other there are those that nevertheless veer away from the conventional as this is perceived to be "boring" and "uninspired" and it's better to be edgy and cutting-edge. For me personally I believe in having one foot in one and the other foot in the other.</span><br />
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<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_54cnwj8VqShQCNN5U7cixkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSQqinvd6YZg_9qttA8m-7O39rOS1DF1GNaDg8Ht1kbIOst0Pr5S-frw7MREC3IDjFzj8Jf3KVoxiYGMzQUJwWkpCZV7vWmZ2gPS2auna_uMK2OdNC2LKjQckHe-wf_0Y7OvSLBULRF3M/s400/Cocktail%252520Coffeetalk%252520Teaser%252520ConceptStudy%25252002.jpg" width="309" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For the second study (see above) I intentionally used a single image (of a girl in a party costume) as I intended for this to be a powerful way of letting viewers use their creative minds (people in my department are like that) in using their imagination to form their impressions on the upcoming event. Formal typography and clean diagonal lines were used in order to soften the majority of the design elements that were grimy and edgy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the next one (see below) I dropped all hints of subtlety and gave a more "thorough" description of the event by incorporating images common to cocktail parties, which are cocktail drinks.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div align="center">
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/oLpEodDKLbuLy6UTkEgQthkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKuEd1aqTlvFBQv4qYFkh4RL7rNw5L_L-AvlvkT6lY988chkmCYh2am-UgmP0lTdskzOxqNpLakJsFlRe15YJj85Yhi31063V8KbxmwKBng7FvWaJLivBQaM52okdTJXJXpOZW01X7BUo/s400/Cocktail%252520Coffeetalk%252520Teaser%252520ConceptStudy%25252003.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I added a silhouette of a city skyline with rays of "sunlight" to complete the look and give the impression that participants can party from evening to the wee hours of the morning.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Study #s 4 and 5: Get your facts straight, this will be a cocktail party</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the last mentioned study, I gradually peeled away the layer of mystery with the planned event. For the last two for these set of studies, I violently stripped away this layer and left a little to the targeted audience's imagination.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<div align="center">
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/yNOBCJfGYYjMAtQuF49BHhkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhO3AJnXh98oGU7jEi0fFdwSsNifHkI626ZH-JKMPJtokh8iesBH-N5vTu773LaA2bt5j1HkQyIHdPeSBZNJeuolk65Iw1xWMeHmhGS55TVEfjipmMnofOFTUI-O0hmy0Asw7HMdxJ6wkE/s400/Cocktail%252520Coffeetalk%252520Teaser%252520ConceptStudy%25252004.jpg" width="309" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />For the fourth study, I made the image of a cocktail drink as the centerpiece of the design and made the background a deep black in order to draw the audience to the phrase commonly associated with cocktail parties as well as to the said image. I added wavy lines (using <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Illustrator" target="_blank">Adobe Illustrator</a>) so as to give that sci-fi look and feel (of that medium I am very fond of). This was admittedly and arguably the best of the bunch in terms of creative output as the next and last one came off uninspired, to say the least.</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/mhedWLa4kHVdJVfdjRr38BkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd3ZVnlCLrQux5B1Mmkv_Jd8yJiWoi-l9pTfX4bA2n-B0PeKCwWuqdawVb3ZM0IrZqEIdPEkvEcnAKIcGpfzHca0Qh0kcvIYnJQRsyJ6COccavIV_S0RtC2VGm2QV3FOAeIDR589-myvs/s400/Cocktail%252520Coffeetalk%252520Teaser%252520ConceptStudy%25252005.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The fifth and last one ventured into Captain Obvious territory in terms of the design as admittedly there were hints of Star Wars and Terminator as a couple of films from each franchise were recently viewed by me prior to working on this particular study and therefore kind of "influenced" the design process. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After finishing all of these, all that was left was to submit these concepts for review by my team in order to start finalizing the posters that will be rolled out (one each) for the next three weeks left in the work schedule before showtime.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>To be continued...</i></span>neurospacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244457494618320835noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150276885563618332.post-33246264618827239612011-12-26T06:22:00.000-08:002012-01-02T03:43:18.844-08:00Marketing a Party Event (Part 1 of 5): Planning the Party<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ah, December. A month-long of celebration and parties in and out of the office. It's always fun if you're the one attending the party but organizing one, especially a big one, is an operation that demands time and concerted effort among the organizers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recently the test management team (that yours truly belong to) was abruptly tasked to undertake the organization of our monthly coffeetalk (i.e. town hall meeting) that would double as the department's year-end party. The theme selected was that of a cocktail party-type of event. Tight battle plans were drawn in each of the planning sessions and workstream tasks allocated to each member of our team. Naturally I drew the marketing and communication assignment (a.k.a. poster-making) and was tasked to embark on an advertising campaign that would hype (within reasonable levels) and entice people belonging to the department to come to the party and inform them of major stuff that would happen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Challenges ahead</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A couple of challenges presented itself at the onset. First, there was the short timeline. We only had at most three weeks to plan, prepare and execute everything until the day of the party. Second and last was the project workload component. Each of us more or less were heading or were involved with our own projects, and the mere act of freeing oneself up to attend to the party planning and status update sessions required utmost effort (at least to me haha). Fortunately, since each team member showed utmost devotion in the party preparation and was prepared to sacrifice a bit of our individual (and scarce) free time the planning sessions proved fruitful.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As a designer, I had to tackle my part in the party by coming up with one, a central logo for the party, two, e-mail-ready teaser posters that would be used for the first half of the advertising campaign, and finally a final poster with the accompanying invite as well as the requisite venue map</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, of which all of these bits and pieces will hopefully entice our targeted attendees in attending and participating in the event</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The party logo</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First up is the overall party logo that would be used. The concept formulated was that the logo needed to (visually) convey immediately the event's theme without spelling it out, as the monthly frequency of past coffeetalks gave an impression of the formulaic to the attendees. Note that the final design needed to me in template mode in order to be re-used in other design work related to the party.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The genesis from concept to finished product was fortunately an easy process. This started first by laying out the text for the logo using a "formal" type of font. "Formal" was personally defined as regal and symmetrical with a dash of old school typography. For this, the <a href="http://store1.adobe.com/cfusion/store/html/index.cfm?store=OLS-US&event=displayFontPackage&code=1724" target="_blank">Trajan Pro</a> was selected (buy it or if you have Adobe Photoshop CS installed, know that this is already pre-installed in the Font folder of your machine). Next, a powerful image needed to be added, thus, vector silhouettes of a <a href="http://bestdesignoptions.com/?p=1542" target="_blank">male</a> and <a href="http://all-free-download.com/free-vector/vector-people/sexy_girls_graphics_58355.html" target="_blank">female</a> figures formally dressed up were conjured up and added to the logo text. Lastly, as the ongoing logo design was deemed too "hard" to look at, some sprucing up was done in order to soften up the look and give the following look (which coincidentally fast-forwarded the design to its final form):</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<div align="center">
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/rDmWlx1El1WBcJnB5t92vBkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite"><img height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpdPkLAihfrDXMijKrlKua3UyJUwt_oQJbgHc9c-cREDWY-D7y9ft-DBte_ZCZaRTMe-JxuM4UtMaiFw-6JqBL7eIa63BRRap-EpbX6XC0SZ2GW6liX0C4Y7BCDh7Uxf7CetFWTQ8cHmo/s400/Party%252520Logo.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The final touches were done by adding a snowflake (as this is December after all) and some wavy vegetation was added. You can get these shapes (one's just a brush) for the snowflake and the vegetation, respectively, <a href="http://www.vecteezy.com/Nature/171-Snow-Flake-Vectors" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?l5vuvqcww6dizxa" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that's how you do a party logo. Next up in the plate were the first batch of party teasers ads. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To be continued</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">...</span></i>neurospacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244457494618320835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150276885563618332.post-21948930424216686702011-11-11T00:21:00.000-08:002011-12-30T15:35:47.171-08:00The Evolution of a Newsletter<br />
<h3 class="r g0" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">
<span style="padding-bottom: 14px; padding-right: 15px;"><em style="font-style: normal; font-weight: bold;">news·let·ter</em></span><span style="font: normal normal normal smaller/normal 'Doulos SIL', Gentum, 'TITUS Cyberbit Basic', Junicode, 'Aborigonal Serif', 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'Chrysanthi Unicode'; padding-bottom: 7px;">/ˈn(y)o͞ozˌletər/</span><div id="sound_flash" style="height: 0px; position: absolute; width: 0px;">
</div>
<span class="speaker-icon-listen-off" id="speaker_icon" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: url(https://ssl.gstatic.com/dictionary/static/images/icons/1/pronunciation.png); background-origin: initial; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-left-color: transparent; border-left-style: solid; border-left-width: 1px; border-right-color: transparent; border-right-style: solid; border-right-width: 1px; border-top-color: transparent; border-top-style: solid; border-top-width: 1px; display: inline-block; float: none; height: 16px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.7em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; opacity: 0.55; vertical-align: bottom; width: 16px;"></span></h3>
<div class="s" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 15px; max-width: 42em;">
<table class="ts" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="color: #666666; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;" valign="top" width="80px">Noun:</td><td style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;" valign="top"><table class="ts" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">A bulletin issued periodically to the members of a society, business, or organization.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</td></tr>
<tr bgcolor="#ddd" height="1px"><td colspan="2" height="1px" style="padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"></td></tr>
<tr><td style="color: #666666; padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;" valign="top" width="80px">Synonyms:</td><td style="padding-bottom: 5px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;" valign="top"><div>
bulletin</div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When one is commissioned to do a newsletter, the effort put in to producing one should not be a taxing and can be even be a fun experience given the following:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a well, though-out design and layout concept,</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the appropriate visual appeal, and;</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the proper tools for the job.</span></li>
<br />
</ul>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">About a couple of weeks ago, a call for volunteers to design and do the layouts of the quality services department's quarterly newsletter was made. This commission entailed two volunteers from the communications group (of which I recently became a part of) to work hand-in-hand to translate a smorgasbord of news articles and images (three months' worth) into a blog with an e-mail front. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This was too good of a chance to pass up as producing this work will enable me to flex my artistic muscles </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(recently inactive due to project commitments)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and venture out into a design frontier well-known to me, so naturally, I came forward. I volunteered to do the e-mail user interface while another person volunteered to the blog part.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">well, though-out design and layout concept</span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A trio of challenges presented itself during the conceptualization phase. The first was how to produce the e-mail component that should interface seamlessly with the newsletter blog. The second was how to produce the task in a week's time (given that the targeted release was by the month's end. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And third, after the needs for the first two problems have been met, the question that needed to be answered will be, "What design layout should be chosen in order to make the newsletter visually appealing to the targeted audience who will view it?".</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first two challenges were met by formulating the simple solution of having the articles summarized into bulletin capsules </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(with the accompanying images)</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and laid out by easily digestable categories into a </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Document_Format" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">PDF</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> document that in turn would hyperlink and open to their full versions in the blog. Now the road to the finalized newsletter was less obstructed.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>The appropriate visual appeal</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Admittedly though, the solution to the third and final challenge was more tricky, as people busy with their respective work will not (usually) stop doing their respective tasks just to take a gander at stuff that most consider will not probably help them complete their project milestones. And so the responsibility of the designer in this case is to ensure that the layout will pique the intended audience's interest enough to make them drop their work for a while to check it out. For this reason I decided to make the design zany but at the same time appealing and unique by itself.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While perusing the articles, I was able to come across an item regarding the department's bulletin board. From there I decided that the look and feel should be that of articles laid out bulletin board-style due to the fun factor involved (design-wise and viewership-wise) that hyperlinked to their respective segments in the blog. From there the work on the task will certainly flow out effortlessly.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Proper tools for the job</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now was the time to implement the design and layout, but in order to do this, one must evidently select the proper design and layout tools to execute and finish the job. In this case I decided to split up the work by:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">firstly, producing the visual design in </span><a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank">Adobe Photoshop</a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(produce the bulletin board backgrounds and pin the article images to them), and;</span></li>
<li><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">lastly, lay outing the article texts in <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign.html" target="_blank">Adobe InDesign</a> (and finalizing the PDF document)</span></li>
</ul>
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I decided to split the backgrounds into four 8" x 11" pages with 300 dpi resolution (the number is determined usually by the amount of articles to be worked into the design). Next, I gathered various free-to-use <a href="http://psd.tutsplus.com/freebies/texture/corkboard-texture-pack/" target="_blank">cork board</a> and <a href="http://www.photoshoproadmap.com/Photoshop-blog/2009/03/20/60-beautiful-high-resolution-paper-backgrounds/" target="_blank">textured paper</a> packs culled from the web, superimposed them along with the article images into multiple layers and laid them out accordingly via the planned categories. One important thing to note is that one needs to space out the images amply in order to properly lay out the text that will be added later via InDesign. These were the results:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/sW7-AU1-Ix_8wsZD8lsPPxkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8k0zUpJGONJR2VAddenDwYwMlsJyKwp0n9GIInPlQtsyHP2kNPUet3BWJJesGovjTh-oKJwCu_OkouqoMrGdJiiQAKw8tuYgWU7vofGl04NXs6tPAZALIIJOlo_rOcMqVVW5lb8SQNxQ/s144/Q42011_Part01%252520Bkgrnd.jpg" width="111" /></a>
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ZGfP801v0DNoX7XJOCms3hkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXKU3eTFw104c5bKIt_Z9-KwIeVInEBwNicuzYoJDkiYE9nnQW6X7OdvhCUT2ktYo7CIzwK2EBJoHhyl9XhXmTZRN9Ta65fIdLD4KpX_OIMNlzlnXpzGeM7Mif8uNfS7iHAZZL8-qTLQg/s144/Q42011_Part02%252520Bkgrnd.jpg" width="111" /></a>
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/dSI59qB99sbSISV4MsBseRkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3wI0cdP0RUX6CDc_97wm7mMW5Ru2VGAZKMSlbmRuA7UjacuA9wFd-y2Frkzl3FRiUVbdQ_Sbv5U9LUGbTZdds8OisPhqFScxv1muke-elkwWSbJqy6gceCg0Y4LkBdTXoLsYFZR9Olww/s144/Q42011_Part03%252520Bkgrnd.jpg" width="111" /></a>
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ZrHFHTv9oMzcQ6q72foELxkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSgAS31zYhm7oXS3qHTjCnIxx0sye0k3eVtnw-q_5cNdSNkx4MgDGbDovtgGoiG52sfOYR3IMj3EvsTDfETbJVbPhDwr0fK_khe1MBzLYaU6UvBOOYgZhyphenhyphen-vI3WBUdYm5TR0cPhMP-8CM/s144/Q42011_Part04%252520Bkgrnd.jpg" width="111" /></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After doing this, one probably has completed 90% of the effort needed to produce my part for the newsletter.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once the backgrounds have been done, one simply has to layout the first few paragraphs of each of the articles in InDesign. Create the pages needed in the application in order to place the Photoshop backgrounds. After placing the backgrounds, just place the article texts individually on each page and wrap the text around the images in order to not obscure both the text and image components of the newsletter as I've done here:</span><br />
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<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/5xL4RPcUViNgNfoN9JtWEBkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHZr6R9uMrRTAiFxZUOWw1m1sI86PIagGSmwF6f32ZmyVr9NevHVYoYFAJopXx27UKZpNBynAoK9rm3SzlPCuJNZHZjFnvqEbJrnktBilrNe9mvs5cyPqCy_K1p8GBZFlSGG-hxZTYRnU/s144/QS%252520Times%252520Q42011%252520Newsletter.jpg" width="111" /></a>
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/ptXNg-5vdDQjtm9_vtTpmBkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDuKMJnFxz4pPFtKNI4RVSv9qvLgo5rxpzi_4osclz3NN_syGmef7QT47mXMao0YL65C5QRhqAv9jKPx6j4PqYdXx3GoHNkwrWmCXFCYPxUFL3gJKek0S2Hx49nHM6z_wGzTJt7D2UEr0/s144/QS%252520Times%252520Q42011%252520Newsletter2.jpg" width="111" /></a>
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/2GWZ8WcMjUnx1-mo6kigERkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMJNiHvQmNqHENUbNQpv7N5E_E954Px2eiz3jyj0edk-oma83JtSLWoDj6m86GyAfmDTdqVA69cqWhItcIxv7IOT_tTS6GBTvkDmPpL0UzEGVIqChcatMpORbBXwncKF4gjnXbweqlbnc/s144/QS%252520Times%252520Q42011%252520Newsletter3.jpg" width="111" /></a>
<a href="https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/Y9axoFvI6-H3ut4x8rLYFBkbdGKJ22jyuo2kiXea9Bk?feat=embedwebsite" target="_blank"><img height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOUm7V0TsmRT_cqq-4b2H_3BsTz0JNriOd42fC25yO8shv0zUooowrTmp6jjZUp4sFtUVwQD216dbgSPlpLI9iYYtFkuxkNnnnUyWp8yMdeJzZKBPJlMXvf-0ukYn_1nDW7WFbtNAjGPw/s144/QS%252520Times%252520Q42011%252520Newsletter4.jpg" width="111" /></a><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And voila! A couple of final things to do left is to link the articles to the sections in the blog. What I did here is to place some Read More icons at the end of each article and hyperlinked these icons to their respective sections in the blog. Lastly, export the InDesign work as an interactive PDF document and the newsletter is complete.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In conclusion, this is just one of the myriad ways one can produce a newsletter. There are other ways obviously, and one can check out the numerous examples available in the web that will fit one's desire to create the proper newsletter. Just coming in with right concept, design/layout outlook and use of the proper tools will help one produce quickly with minimal effort and maximum satisfaction the newsletter that your viewers will savor to read and ultimately enjoy.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>neurospacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244457494618320835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150276885563618332.post-68731181460329075732011-11-10T05:10:00.000-08:002011-12-30T15:33:18.472-08:00A Cover Picture Gift<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The problem, I confess, was that I have run out of ideas on what to give my gal -- that of a simple but thoughtful mid-anniversary gift as a result of of me working on an unrelenting series of grueling deliverables in the office coupled with countless weeks of irregular sleep. So the perceived onus for such an event was that I needed to buy or produce something that I could squeeze from my scant free time.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I just give her a kiss? (Nah, too cheap-ass.) Give her a bouquet of flowers or a box of chocolates? (Nope, too cliché.) Pretend I forgot our mid-anniversary and still expect some cuddletime with her? (Uhm...</span><br />
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<center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/3zNjQecyjE8" width="420"></iframe></center><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then I got the inspired idea to give her a cover picture for her <a href="http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline" target="_blank">Facebook Timeline</a> page so she can spruce up visually her profile page. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fortunately I was willing to try something urban or grungy as it matched my mood during that time, I had a couple of hours of free time, and couple of items regarding her that I wanted to communicate visually. And I hope it showed in the final look:</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://goo.gl/photos/9ai3vPmVHX" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkEMvuES9RG35YHSmQKfz9vSohjLBx3eA-TGHiiOcMaymqJKEnpClxw84I0Ct9l9njBWcWvZEyO4lvimHhLMA8OfZjGl7Fj9DcNHOW0pWbtqj1-a5hJ6mfaxsET4Gp9l7Mhf7XymVjx1M/s512/Timeline%252520Hontaru%2525206th%252520Monthsary_v3.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now my girl's a gangsta, heh.</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For this design, I used a picture I had of her wearing one of my sunglasses and posing as one from the 'hood and made it look that I tore from that said picture. Next, I superimposed her on my own take of a pastiche of album covers reminiscent of grunge bands prevalent in the</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">early 90's</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">. Icons were then added that represented the things she enjoy most (e.g. movies are represented by a film reel icon). Lastly, I finalized the design by sprucing up the work with some simple ink-splattered graffiti to complete the look.</span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>neurospacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244457494618320835noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150276885563618332.post-20624002860025762192011-11-09T16:01:00.000-08:002011-12-30T15:36:25.620-08:00A Facebook Noob's Take On The Timeline Cover Picture Feature<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I must confess that I just joined the Facebook bandwagon just over a year ago, but this social application's series of rich features continue to grow on me.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline" target="_blank">Timeline</a> is one such feature in <a href="http://www.facebook.com/" target="_blank">Facebook</a> that it gives users a powerful way to tell their story (to their friends and acquaintances) in a chronological fashion, sort of their life told in the context of a visual novel in one's profile page.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As such, my designer brain couldn't just resist fidgeting with the social application's new kid on the feature block, specifically the social application's cover picture sub-feature. I had to design something that gives a more aesthetic appeal to my profile page and give it a more distinguished look over others' Timeline pages.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A couple of hours later, this was the result:</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://goo.gl/photos/v79O9pA5XI" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNmsrHqbhuevWykZBv-n22jyQU929UQm69U8LGAncaTcbMRPoWmuZZ9c59FycVgFpJ5kl8zgO3j2lO92SHRxnOtilH6x6Gq2JTlOX2YxQTNEmY6reoSZU4NbjVUYkGOlJc_7v0ZCiMxIc/s512/TimeLine%252520Cover%252520Pic%25252001.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Facebook's new Timeline feature gives its users a way to customize further their profile pages by giving them a chance to upload a cover picture on top of their profile picture.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The concept formed while designing this is that I wanted to combine a bunch of snapshots of the important people in my life as well as images of the current stuff that I'm currently crazy for. Then in the process of completing the final design I tried to form them into a cobbled collage that best describes and defines my life, one that viewers of my Facebook profile can view like a static slideshow and discern immediately that this is what is the me is all about -- having a hectic lifestyle (which is primarily due to the grueling day job) but still finding the time to sit back, relax and enjoy life's offerings afforded to me.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the next couple of weeks I'll give a quick tutorial on how one can create and upload their own Timeline cover picture and therefore give a unique customization to their own profile pages.</span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>neurospacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244457494618320835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150276885563618332.post-56532387379414694432011-11-08T01:15:00.000-08:002012-01-02T03:40:52.926-08:00Wanted to Redesign the Site Header (But Got Lazy and This is the Result)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After crashing home after office hours, some musings on the original header for this site were done and a thought occurred wherein the redesign of this site's banner was in order. Here was the earth-shattering, paradigm-shifting result:</span>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://goo.gl/photos/DBQinqueCk" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlfn5UxXpP_IAm8ey3RrN0Ixw-TgJk8EU9ANWF7_vfoWZBmRtnJIoX1n06uLdZq3ho7SGUlyv8uAZjxd7Dhd_6o76oI0UMwudcnkG49LAq70bdY0wpzUV_y8L-ogY8AHqWtuoUj3hPjo0/s512/Header%252520Final%25252001.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hmm...I guess I got lazy with the design here, haha.</span></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sarcasm aside...when you design, make sure that you not only set aside the ample time to do it, but you are inspired to take the task head-on as well!</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll be posting more stuff that I designed (in the past) later.</span></div>
<br />neurospacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244457494618320835noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6150276885563618332.post-49931502040450866132011-11-07T20:20:00.000-08:002012-01-02T03:41:46.601-08:00First! Post<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi53rZmjqLHSTUBu0S762n116I3xRxuwKWK7gbK_JMOb1dq67fZOBAxxMbiK1fDWexL0V1E3S2dWCKYXVDXjH9iL5AucvfHU7ahk0i6pDdzb9CF9aWqXmeRQkiaeB74iivr8i6lQRhUvu0/s512/Header%252520Final%25252002.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Welcome!</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">"Hello, World."</span></i><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These are the first two words that I encountered when I first got into the Information Technology industry (many, many years ago), as coming from an Architectural college background, all IT-related knowledge I had after procuring my college degree were just limited to PC and console games. People say to me that that was a big jump, I reply that this is inevitable given my predisposition for wanting to know (and have) the latest techie news and gadgets which is only rivalled by my intrinsic love for anything that pertains to art and graphic design.</span>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anyways, as the title of the blog implies, I aim to post entries that deal with stuff that I love, namely, graphic design, video games information, film and animation reviews, and any other things that tickle my fancy and might tickle your fancy (given that you love the stuff that I love too obviously).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;">So sit back and enjoy the ride.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Postscript:</b> This is my first foray into having and hosting a blog site myself, as previously I just trolled my friends' sites for a hobby. Ha! Going back to the quote above, no truer words aptly describe my virgin journey to the world of blogging. I hope to enjoy this as well as you, reader.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></span>neurospacemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09244457494618320835noreply@blogger.com3