video: how to creat a slideshow in PS3

i was looking for some designs for my other class and came across this section of the photoshop website. it shows you how to create a slideshow in photoshop and save it as a html file extension. the video is about 3 minutes long and worth the watching. check it out!!

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-cs3/video-tutorials/cs3-productivity/how-to-create-a-web-photo-gallery-video.html

a design philosophy

I was working on a project for another class and came across the personal website/blog for the visual design lead for Google, Douglas Bowman. Curious to learn more about his background, I clicked on his "about" page and at the very bottom he posts his design philosophy (see below), which I find very inspiring, especially as we begin designing our websites for our final project.

Douglas Bowman's Design Philosophy
Design plays a primary role in the interpretation of a message. It creates a crucial, lasting impression. It encourages examination and generates interest. Accessible, understandable information and beauty of form can engage observers and arrest their attention.

A confusing, poorly designed message will miss its target almost every time. In a world where data bits flow abundantly, our minds have developed filters to sift through the overflow of useless and badly designed information. While design must appeal to our sense of aesthetic, it must not stand in the way of delivery, cause complications, or introduce stumbling blocks. Rather, the presence of design should simplify and facilitate our everyday life, enable us to accomplish our tasks more effectively, and help us enjoy them along the way.

hack your facebook profile photo using photoshop!

i just read this article, 5 Creative Ways to Hack Your Facebook Profile Photo and had to share with my fellow classmates. put your photoshop skills to work and make your facebook profile photo stand out among your friends!

Tetradic Website

Looking at the color combos in class these past couple of weeks, I had a hard time imagining any Web site gracefully using a tetradic color-scheme.
While I was looking for sites for my paper, I came across this one, which uses bright greens, purples, blues and reds (along with yellow) without looking too vibrant or annoying.

Then, I also came across this site that uses complementary colors very well.

I guess now that I'm looking for it, I'll probably find these color schemes on pretty much any well-designed site.

ms. google

i just read a great article this morning on the ny times website ("Putting a Bolder Face on Google") about melissa mayer, google employee no. 20 and the company’s first female engineer AND i must mention that she's only 33 years old!! her role (vice president for search products and user experience) is to bascially stand guard over the look and feel of google's search engine.

you can read the full article on the ny times website. it's a three-page article. so if you don't have time or the interest to read all of it, i've extracted some parts and pasted below that i think apply to what we are learning this semester in visual aesthetics.

1. She [Melissa] ends up giving the same or similar guidelines to managers for various Google features and products in other presentations that day. The guidelines are devised, she said, from myriad internal experiments to gauge users’ preferences. Avoid first- and second-person pronouns. Always write “Google” instead of “we.” If you want to make the design on the page simpler, take away one of these: a type of font, a color or an image. Don’t switch tenses. And steer clear of italics because they are hard to read on a computer screen.

2. A designer, Jamie Divine, had picked out a blue that everyone on his team liked. But a product manager tested a different color with users and found they were more likely to click on the toolbar if it was painted a greener shade.

As trivial as color choices might seem, clicks are a key part of Google’s revenue stream, and anything that enhances clicks means more money. Mr. Divine’s team resisted the greener hue, so Ms. Mayer split the difference by choosing a shade halfway between those of the two camps.

Her decision was diplomatic, but it also amounted to relying on her gut rather than research. Since then, she said, she has asked her team to test the 41 gradations between the competing blues to see which ones consumers might prefer.

This is pretty cool. Someone sent me this email where this gentlemen uses crayons to create art. below is the email that wa sent to me. check out the different textures and colors used in creating these works of art. i think that it goes along with this weeks class that revolves around coloring a cartoon.Don Marco was born in Northern Minnesota in the late 1920's.His interest in art was evident even before starting school. As a young adult in the Army Air Corp, he began his life's career in Air Traffic Control, which continued until his retirement from Honolulu International Airport in 1973. Much of his spare time was spent as a professional artist. Before retirement, Don started developing a technique to create fine art, using Crayola Crayons. Shortly after retiring, he published his first print. Living in Southern California, his work was in demand, including commissions from Burt Reynolds and a one-man show at his Dinner Theater in Florida.

Hard to imagine these are done with crayons!!! I sure would like to see his show

Turner, HBO, Warner Bros. Add Flsh to Web Sites

Interesting article about how Turner, HBO, and Warner Bros are adding Flash to their websites.

"Online audiences are re-defining the way media content is consumed and are demanding customized desktop experiences," John Loiacono, senior vice president of the Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe, said in a statement. "Time Warner Companies are known worldwide as leaders in providing premium media and entertainment and will be working with us to deliver some great video experiences on the Web."

To check out the article
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/zd/20090303/tc_zd/237720