Pictaculous – Free Color Palettes Based on Your Images
May 4, 2012
Here’s a nifty little service brought to you by the fine folks at mailchimp, the free email marketing service. It’s called Pictaculous and it does one thing wonderfully well. You upload an image and it spits back a color palette based on it. I find this sort of thing very useful in the early stages of a design project for limiting my color selections to a range of compatible choices. (It’s also a nice way to jump-start a project you may be stuck on).
Restrictions are file formats of png, gif & jpeg only and a file size of 500k. You can download an Adobe Swatch File (.aco format), view the HTML color codes or see what COLOURlovers suggests. BTW, COLOURlovers is a great site to get color inspiration from. They’ve got over 2 million user-created palettes to scan through.
Americans and their Social Media: Infographic
April 29, 2012
I remain a skeptic about the true value of Social Media to their many users. Collecting all that personal data about us is quite valuable to the Dark Overlords of the Interwebs – I’m looking at you, Mr. Zuckerburg – and, obviously, governments.
It seems to me that a week doesn’t go by without news of someone losing a job, alienating friends, getting caught for criminal activity, or wrecking a marriage or relationship by ‘over sharing’ on Facebook. It also seems just plain sad that so many people have redefined ‘social’ as typing on their keyboards, instead of actually going out of their homes and interacting in the ‘real world.’
Didn’t the Grateful Dead sum this problem up in their November 1970 release, “Truckin’” ?
Most of the cats that you meet on the street speak of true love,
Most of the time they’re sitting and cryin’ at home.
One of these days you know they better get goin’
Out of the door and down on the streets all alone.
Then again, I think most television is an absolute waste of time and – Good Lord! – we Americans seem to spend a third of our lives watching TV. Here’s an infographic that details American usage of Social Media platforms. I’m appalled but your reaction may be different. . .
Click on image for larger size.
How to Bleach Images in Photoshop from Mac|Life
April 21, 2012
The bleached out color effect is a popular one these days and you may have wondered exactly how this is achieved. This tutorial on the “bleach bypass process” by Rob Lawton from the Mac|Life website shows you how to do it in clear, easy to follow steps.
I’ve been a subscriber to their print magazine since it was called MacAddict and was the first American Mac-centric publication to include a CD-ROM with each issue back in 1996.
The editorial tone is far less fannish and insular these days and more accurately reflects the broad appeal of Apple products to the audience beyond the fanboys. They used to have an inane stick-figure mascot named Max and their reviews used to rate software and products from “Blech” to “Freakin’ Awesome.”
At that time it always seemed to me a mash-up of skate-board kulture and computing. Adults would hide their copies behind an issue of the more mainstream and respectable MacWorld (where New York Times tech columnsit David Pogue got his start).
Today no one needs to hide their copies of Mac|Life; it’s been one of the most successful re-brandings of a print publication in this new century, IMO.
WordPress Stats Infographic from Yoast
April 20, 2012
Click image for larger size.
Facebook is Evil: 5 Binding Terms of Service That Should Give You Pause
April 20, 2012
If you know me, and you probably don’t, I think Facebook is evil, as I’ve said before. Any group, online or off, with close to a billion members is one I want to avoid on the Groucho principal: ”I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member.”
I was once told that because I wasn’t on Facebook I didn’t exist. This person couldn’t understand my elation at that thought.
She did not grasp that people are only tolerable in strictly limited numbers. As my close personal friend Jean-Paul Sartre is always reminding me, ”L’enfer, c’est les autres.” (I won’t translate, someday you’ll understand). Get a group of them together and what do you have? A mob. And mobs are capable of the most vicious things imaginable. Except when they gather together for a Zombie Walk. Then they are just swell.
Here’s an article from Business Pundit that lists 5 sections of the Facebook terms of service that should give you pause.
1.) Facebook retains the right to use your content however they see fit, forever.
2.) Facebook tracks you based on where you log in, even after you’ve logged off.
3.) Facebook’s arbitration statement insures that they will never be held liable for any damages you may suffer from their service.
4.) Facebook sells your address, your email, your cell phone number and all other information it collects to third-party developers, external websites and advertisers.
5.) Finally, like most TOS or EULA’s (end user license agreements) Facebook can change their Terms of Service any time without notifying you.
So go ahead. Give your digital life over to Mark Zuckerberg. You can trust him with your intimate relationships, your marriage, your career, your future job prospects, your friends, your family and your reputation. He’d never do anything that might cause you the slightest difficulty. After all, his only concern is making money off you. And when did that ever go horribly, horribly wrong?
Facebook: You Are Not Its Customer, You Are Its Product
February 5, 2012
Now it’s not just about whether my dinner will be interrupted by a telemarketer. It’s about whether my dreams will be dashed by the collection of bits and bytes over which I have no control and for which companies are currently unaccountable. – Lori Andrews
Orwell’s Big Brother is here and instead of coercing you to reveal everything about yourself you do it willingly, eagerly. So you can share pictures and music and private thoughts and brand choices. And play FarmVille and Words with Friends. Good for Zynga and Mark Zuckerberg. But good for you? Didn’t we have ways to do all those things before Facebook, even before the Internet?
I am not on Facebook though I make my living with my software skills and use my Mac every day.
I know people who are afraid of online predators and concerned about online bullying that allow their adolescent children to have Facebook accounts (all their friends are on Facebook, they say). I know people who rail against big government and telemarketers who complain of Facebook “withdrawal” when they can’t access their accounts multiple times during the day.
One of the heaviest Facebook users I know explains that it’s easier to deal with her friends and family via Facebook, instead of say, actually visiting or interacting with them. (I’m sure that’s true). I have had people tell me that I don’t really “exist” because I don’t have a Facebook account “like everyone else.” These are folks who have never read Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles MacKay.
For some reasons to be concerned about Facebook (and social networks in general) I highly recommend this article in the New York Times, Facebook Is Using You by Lori Andrews, author of I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy.
The WordPress Journey: Infographic
January 12, 2012
Obviously, I’m a fan of WordPress for content management and as a modular way of creating websites with advanced functionality. Here’s an infographic that gives on overview of WordPress’ development. . .click on image for larger size.
Great Mac Software Bundles – at Great Prices for a Limited Time
December 15, 2011
MacUpdate is offering a bundle of 12 applications, including the essential repair utility Tech Tool Pro 6. A total retail value of $741 for only $49.99 (a 94% discount, saving you $691). As of this writing you’ve got 6 days to take advantage of this offer.
BundleHunt is also offering 12 applications for $49.99, (95% off a full retail of $1,100). Six are design-oriented and six are general Mac apps. Included are 14 e-books, listed below:
- Mastering CSS for Web Developers
- Professional Web Design, Vol. 2
- Getting the Hang of Web Typography
- Mastering Photoshop for Web Design, Volume2
- Create Selling eCommerce Websites
- Mobile Design for iPhone & iPad
- Mastering Photoshop for Web Design
- Successful Freelancing
- Professional Web Design
- Creative Set for eBook Design
- Book 1: Where Stellar Messages Come From (55-page PDF)
- Book 2: Formatting & The Essentials of Web Writing (54-page PDF)
- Book 3: Headlines, Subheads & Value Propositions (52-page PDF)
- Book 4: Buttons & Click-Worthy Calls to Action (55-page PDF)
Email is Dead? So say the Pundits, but the Numbers Tell a Different Story
September 14, 2011
I’ve been a big fan of Leo Laporte and his This Week in Technology (TWIT) podcast for years. He’s been so successful that he now has a network of video and audio podcasts covering a wide range of digital topics; This Week in Google, TWIT Photo, Security Now, iPad Today, MacBreak Weekly, Windows Weekly, Tech News Today, All About Android and more. If you don’t already listen to one of these shows, start. It’s simple as that.
However, as a prognosticator he’s come up short a number of times. He predicted failure for things like the iPhone (“that’s not a business Apple should be in”) and Apple retail stores (“Remember Gateway?”). My personal opinion is that predictions are an area of chronic weakness in human intelligence; even the best informed experts have the same success ratio over the long run as a coin-flip. So I don’t really blame him for missing the boat with his guesses; I take them with the customary grain of salt.
But recently he’s been on a tear claiming that Email is Dead, replaced by social media like Twitter and The FaceBook (can you tell I’m not a fan of either?). I put social media in the same category as reality television: the most productive people I know consume very little of either. In the spirit of money talks and BS walks, let’s take look at the numbers in the infographic below.
- There are 3 times as many email accounts as there are Facebook and Twitter accounts combined.
- The total posts on Facebook and Twitter combined add up to 0.2% of all email traffic.
- The total number of searches on Google, Yahoo! and Bing combined equal just 1.1% of all email traffic.
- The total number of all page views on the Internet equal only 25% of the total numbers of email sent.
- Nearly 4 times as many emails are sent each day as the total number of Facebook/Twitter updates, Google/Yahoo!/Bing searches and Internet page views combined.
So, with no disrespect to Leo, the answer to the question Is Email Dead? has to be, not hardly.
This is leading.
Click image for larger size.
“Just My Type” by Simon Garfield: My Favorite Book So Far This Year in Any Category
September 10, 2011
Just My Type by Simon Garfield is a unique book about a subject that is all around us and, except for professional graphic designers, mostly ignored by the general public.
However below the radar the subject of typefaces may be, it is also abundantly clear that they exert an enormous influence on how we perceive the written word. In everything from brand logos, the headlines and body copy of newspapers and magazines and, of increasing importance, in all digital user interfaces from the Web, smart phones to eReaders and tablet computers.
This book is sure to be on this Christmas’ wish lift for every graphic designer you know, but I would argue his real achievement is to take a niche subject and make it thoroughly engaging for the lay reader. Everyone is confronted with a variety of fonts every day, they are literally unavoidable. So I’d make the case that this book can be rewarding to every reader, not just those with a professional stake in the game. Because the story of typefaces is, at its root, also the story of people and communication.
26 letters plus a variety of numbers and symbols (ligatures, accents, fractions and dingbats) yield an almost infinite variety of styles, past, present and future – new typefaces are being designed and released every day. And all more accessible than ever before to the average computer user – even if all you ever type is a business letter – from the drop down menu in your word processor of choice. We can thank Steve Jobs and his college course in calligraphy for the early emphasis on good fonts in the personal computer market.
Garfield uses short chapters and abundant illustrations of his subject matter that include both biographic and historic detail that I found fascinating. I learned perhaps more than I ever wanted to know about the personal life of the creator of one of my all time favorite typefaces: who would’ve thought that a book on fonts could include topics like incest and bestiality? (It’s ranked number 8 on the chart below).
The take-away? Just My Type is my favorite book so far this year in any category and carries my highest recommendation. Buy it, read it, give a copy to every graphic designer you know.
Here’s a wonderful chart that’s used as the end papers of Garfield’s book, the Periodic Table of Typefaces – Popular, Influential & Notorious.
Click on image for larger size. Note: Full image is 3150 wide by 2100 pixels high.
