Friday, July 13, 2012
Monday, July 9, 2012
Summer time for Schmizza!
It's summer time and Pizza Schmizza is teaming up with Jones Soda to kick off Free Soda Fridays. Here is the Facebook cover photo I designed to promote the deal!
Schmizza's summer is already off to a good start with a visit from Saturday Night Live/Portlandia actor Fred Armisen!
Check out Schmizza on Facebook for more details on the free soda!
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Land of the Fearless!
Zzoom Media's newest client, Fearless Brewing was in need of a facebook cover photo and twitter background. The idea we came up with was to display Fearless' viking theme and communicate that it is an Oregon-based brewery. To convey this, I created a map of the Portland area in the style of an old viking map.
Before working on the computer, I illustrated the map by hand using prismacolor markers, colored pencils, and rapidograph on illustration board.
I Printed a map(above) of the region to use as a reference, then I used tracing paper to create the rivers and boundaries.
I used the prismacolor to create a base color (above), and then used colored pencils(below) to add details.
After scanning the illustration, it was time to finish the map on the computer.
Saturday, May 5, 2012
How well do you know your typefaces?
Here's a fun game to test your knowledge of fonts. I'm currently ranked #4 for daily high score (not all time).
http://www.deep.co.uk/games/font_game/
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Don't Give Up
"Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow. "-Agent K, Men In Black (1997 movie)
Don't Give Up.
Sometimes people are just wrong.
Taken from James Robert Watson's design blog:
"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."
-Drillers who Edwin Drake tried to enlist in 1859
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication."
-Western Union internal memo, 1876
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
-President, Royal Society, 1895
"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
-Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
-Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899
"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
-Response to Sarnoff's urging for radio investment, 1920s
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
- HM Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927
"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper."
- Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the lead role in 'Gone With The Wind.'
"The problem with television is that the people must sit and keep their eyes glued to a screen: the average American family hasn't time for it."
-New York Times, 1939
"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this."
-Spencer Silver on the work that led to the adhesive for 3-M Post-It notepads.
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
-Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
-Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
"You ain't goin' nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck."
-Manager of the Grand Ole Opry, firing Elvis Presley, 1954
"I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
-Editor, Prentice Hall Business Books, 1957
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
-Decca Records, rejecting the Beatles, 1962
"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C', the idea must be feasible."
-Yale professor commenting on a paper by Fred Smith (who later founded FedEx) proposing overnight delivery service
"But what . . . is it good for?"
-IBM executive commenting on the microchip, 1968
"So we went to Atari, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' They said, 'No.' So we went to Hewlett-Packard, they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'"
-Steve Jobs, trying to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak's Apple personal computer.
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-President, Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977
"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
-Bill Gates, 1981
Don't Give Up.
Sometimes people are just wrong.
Taken from James Robert Watson's design blog:
"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."
-Drillers who Edwin Drake tried to enlist in 1859
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication."
-Western Union internal memo, 1876
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."
-President, Royal Society, 1895
"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."
-Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented."
-Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899
"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
-Response to Sarnoff's urging for radio investment, 1920s
"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
- HM Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927
"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper."
- Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the lead role in 'Gone With The Wind.'
"The problem with television is that the people must sit and keep their eyes glued to a screen: the average American family hasn't time for it."
-New York Times, 1939
"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this."
-Spencer Silver on the work that led to the adhesive for 3-M Post-It notepads.
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
-Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
-Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
"You ain't goin' nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck."
-Manager of the Grand Ole Opry, firing Elvis Presley, 1954
"I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."
-Editor, Prentice Hall Business Books, 1957
"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
-Decca Records, rejecting the Beatles, 1962
"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C', the idea must be feasible."
-Yale professor commenting on a paper by Fred Smith (who later founded FedEx) proposing overnight delivery service
"But what . . . is it good for?"
-IBM executive commenting on the microchip, 1968
"So we went to Atari, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' They said, 'No.' So we went to Hewlett-Packard, they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'"
-Steve Jobs, trying to get Atari and HP interested in his and Steve Wozniak's Apple personal computer.
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-President, Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977
"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
-Bill Gates, 1981
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Stop. Grammar time!
for this entry i'm going to be a rebel and refrain from capital letters.
capitalizing the first word of a sentence seems like a dumb grammatical rule. one knows a word is the beginning of a sentence because it is following a punctuation mark. the capital letter is unnecessary.
the purpose of most rules in grammar is to make a sentence or paragraph more easy to read and to limit confusion.
while i'm at it, here's another thing people do that is not only unnecessary, but also considered bad typography: double spaces after a period. here's a great article about why one should never do it.
edit: my mother brought up a possible purpose for capitalizing the first word of a paragraph. it does distinguish between punctuation marks used for things such as an abbreviation and punctuation that symbolizes the end of a thought. for example: "Meet me on Burnside St. before dark." capitalizing the beginnings of sentences does prevent one from thinking that "before dark" is a new sentence. while i'm talking about abbreviations, why in the hell is "abbreviation", which means shortening a word, such a long word?
capitalizing the first word of a sentence seems like a dumb grammatical rule. one knows a word is the beginning of a sentence because it is following a punctuation mark. the capital letter is unnecessary.
the purpose of most rules in grammar is to make a sentence or paragraph more easy to read and to limit confusion.
edit: my mother brought up a possible purpose for capitalizing the first word of a paragraph. it does distinguish between punctuation marks used for things such as an abbreviation and punctuation that symbolizes the end of a thought. for example: "Meet me on Burnside St. before dark." capitalizing the beginnings of sentences does prevent one from thinking that "before dark" is a new sentence. while i'm talking about abbreviations, why in the hell is "abbreviation", which means shortening a word, such a long word?
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Coolest door ever?
I never thought I'd be advocating an award for "best door ever", but this is surely deserving.
It is, however, smaller than a legit ping pong table. Perhaps it can find its niche amongst college students as a beer pong table?
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/ping-pong-door/
It is, however, smaller than a legit ping pong table. Perhaps it can find its niche amongst college students as a beer pong table?
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/ping-pong-door/
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Friday, February 3, 2012
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Imagine what you'll know tomorrow
"1500 years ago, everybody knew that the earth was the center of the universe. 500 years ago, everybody knew that the earth was flat. And 15 minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow."--Kay (Men In Black)
Friday, January 6, 2012
Better Soda Fountain Design
Below is a photo of the soda fountain at Panda Express.
The Problem
People often have their hands full and have only one hand available to both hold the cup and fill the soda. This is especially likely at a place like Panda Express where a plate of food and cup is handed to you at once and the soda fountain is located before seating. The customer thus is carrying a plate of food in one hand, and a cup in the other. As a result, one must set the cup down beneath the soda nozzle and aim the soda. This particular fountain's nozzles are too high and it is difficult to accurately place the cup below.
A Better Solution
One solution is to design the fountain where nozzles are lower and it is easier to place the cup directly beneath the nozzles, but an even better design is shown below:
One doesn't have to set the cup down. The user can simply fill the drink by pressing the cup against the buttons. It is a far more convenient design for the user.
The Problem
People often have their hands full and have only one hand available to both hold the cup and fill the soda. This is especially likely at a place like Panda Express where a plate of food and cup is handed to you at once and the soda fountain is located before seating. The customer thus is carrying a plate of food in one hand, and a cup in the other. As a result, one must set the cup down beneath the soda nozzle and aim the soda. This particular fountain's nozzles are too high and it is difficult to accurately place the cup below.
A Better Solution
One solution is to design the fountain where nozzles are lower and it is easier to place the cup directly beneath the nozzles, but an even better design is shown below:
One doesn't have to set the cup down. The user can simply fill the drink by pressing the cup against the buttons. It is a far more convenient design for the user.
Monday, December 26, 2011
learn to kern
Last weekend some friends and I traveled to Seattle for the Niners vs Seahawks game. It was a great game and the Niners won. The team played very well. Today, I was perusing the 49ers' website to watch post-game interviews, but instead it was the poor typography that stood out to me. I'm not even sure how one could possibly mess up the kerning so much. Even if one didn't kern the type at all, it wouldn't look this bad. Did their designer seriously spend time spacing these letters and decide that this was finished?
Monday, December 12, 2011
Sunday, December 4, 2011
BCS (BullCrapSystem): *almost* every game counts.
Bowl season is upon us so I am going to switch gears and talk football today. Alabama finished ahead of Oklahoma State in the polls and will get a rematch against LSU in the BCS championship game. Personally, I'm glad OSU didn't jump 'Bama in the polls because if they had, I would have had to hear from 'Bama fans for the next eight months about how they never even had the chance to even play LSU this year. Oh wait…they did.
I'll preface this by saying that my criticisms are with the BCS system, not Alabama. I think LSU and Alabama are the two best teams in the country. I think both would easily beat Oklahoma State. However, it's not determined based solely on what I think and while I do think the bcs placed the two best teams in the NC game, to do so they had to counter many arguments they've made against a playoff system in previous years and contradict many previous bcs decisions. As an advocate of a playoff system and an opponent of the flawed bcs system, I'm glad BCS chose Alabama. It just shows the inconsistencies of the system and they can no longer bring up the argument "playoffs would make the regular season matter less!!! with bsc, every reg season game counts!!!".
Each time a playoff system is brought up, BCS advocates will state that it would diminish the importance of the regular season and they will often claim that the regular season IS the playoffs for the BCS. I guess this year they forgot to mention that it is a double elimination playoff. By allowing Alabama to have a rematch against LSU, the BCS contradicts their strongest argument for keeping the BCS rather than implementing a playoff system. If BCS advocates are going to try to say "every game counts", then they have to count the game where Alabama lost at home to LSU. ESPN analyst Rick Reilly brought up the fact that the BCS's twitter handle is @everygamecounts (which he later suggests they change to "@EveryGameCountsUnlessAnSECTeamLoses"). For a system who names their twitter "everygamecounts" and below that has the tagline "best regular season in sports", they are massive hypocrites for ignoring a regular season loss and granting Alabama a mulligan.
The reason Alabama gets the nod over the other 1-loss team, Oklahoma State, is because Alabama's one loss is to a better team. And this does absolutely go in Alabama's favor. Alabama lost at home to the number one team in the country, while Oklahoma State lost on the road to unranked Iowa State. But should it be solely about losses? Shouldn't wins be a factor as well? After all Oklahoma State beat five top 25 teams and seven top 50 teams, while Alabama beat two top 25 teams and five top 50 teams. Oklahoma State also won their conference unlike Alabama. But despite the fact that Oklahoma State won their conference (why have conference championships at all if it is no factor in the NC game?), played the 10th hardest schedule (compared to Alabama's 38th most difficult schedule) people overlooked all of this and made decisions based on losses instead. This also contradicts past BCS decisions.
In previous season, undefeated teams like Boise St., TCU, or Utah--teams that played weak schedules--were excluded (and rightfully so) because they beat bad teams, while 1 loss teams from stronger conferences jumped them in rankings. The argument was that losses weren't as important as quality of wins. Yet for Alabama to get the nod over OKstate, one would have to focus on the quality of loss, rather than the quality of wins. Again, I'm not necessarily saying Alabama does not deserve to play in the game, but that the BCS is inconsistent with its past decisions and arguments by sending them.
And, let's not forget the 2006 Ohio State vs Michigan game, which ended with Ohio State barely edging Michigan in an epic game. Many were advocating a rematch, while others felt Florida, who had lost to Auburn earlier in the year, should go face Ohio St. in the championship game instead. Florida ended up playing in the game rather than Michigan and most experts expected Ohio State to destroy them (just as most would expect LSU to destroy OkState). Of course, Florida destroyed the Buckeyes in that game. No one knows what will happen with OKstate vs LSU. I think LSU would win, but I don't know that (I thought OU would beat OKstate in the Bedlam game too). The truth is, no one truly knows who the best teams are unless they play. And can we be certain that Ohio State and Florida were the two best teams in 2006? USC embarrassed Michigan in the Rose Bowl. How are we certain they wouldn't have destroyed Ohio State as well? It can be argued that USC and Florida were actually the two best teams that year.
Unfortunately, this happens nearly every year. There is always a team that can make a good case for being deserving of a national title shot, but they don't get the chance. When was the last time any NFL team claimed they deserved to play in the superbowl rather than one of the other two teams? Did the 1994 Dallas Cowboys (who many agree were the 2nd best team that year) argue that they should get a rematch against the 49ers in the superbowl? No. I doubt even a single Cowboys fan will say they deserved to play in that game over the Chargers, even though many think Dallas had a better team than San Diego. It doesn't happen in the NFL because teams have a chance in the playoffs. In the flawed bcs system, there is always the team the can make a good case for why they should be in the game and we'll never truly know unless it happens. That is why the BCS is a joke, and always has been.
I'll preface this by saying that my criticisms are with the BCS system, not Alabama. I think LSU and Alabama are the two best teams in the country. I think both would easily beat Oklahoma State. However, it's not determined based solely on what I think and while I do think the bcs placed the two best teams in the NC game, to do so they had to counter many arguments they've made against a playoff system in previous years and contradict many previous bcs decisions. As an advocate of a playoff system and an opponent of the flawed bcs system, I'm glad BCS chose Alabama. It just shows the inconsistencies of the system and they can no longer bring up the argument "playoffs would make the regular season matter less!!! with bsc, every reg season game counts!!!".
Each time a playoff system is brought up, BCS advocates will state that it would diminish the importance of the regular season and they will often claim that the regular season IS the playoffs for the BCS. I guess this year they forgot to mention that it is a double elimination playoff. By allowing Alabama to have a rematch against LSU, the BCS contradicts their strongest argument for keeping the BCS rather than implementing a playoff system. If BCS advocates are going to try to say "every game counts", then they have to count the game where Alabama lost at home to LSU. ESPN analyst Rick Reilly brought up the fact that the BCS's twitter handle is @everygamecounts (which he later suggests they change to "@EveryGameCountsUnlessAnSECTeamLoses"). For a system who names their twitter "everygamecounts" and below that has the tagline "best regular season in sports", they are massive hypocrites for ignoring a regular season loss and granting Alabama a mulligan.
The reason Alabama gets the nod over the other 1-loss team, Oklahoma State, is because Alabama's one loss is to a better team. And this does absolutely go in Alabama's favor. Alabama lost at home to the number one team in the country, while Oklahoma State lost on the road to unranked Iowa State. But should it be solely about losses? Shouldn't wins be a factor as well? After all Oklahoma State beat five top 25 teams and seven top 50 teams, while Alabama beat two top 25 teams and five top 50 teams. Oklahoma State also won their conference unlike Alabama. But despite the fact that Oklahoma State won their conference (why have conference championships at all if it is no factor in the NC game?), played the 10th hardest schedule (compared to Alabama's 38th most difficult schedule) people overlooked all of this and made decisions based on losses instead. This also contradicts past BCS decisions.
In previous season, undefeated teams like Boise St., TCU, or Utah--teams that played weak schedules--were excluded (and rightfully so) because they beat bad teams, while 1 loss teams from stronger conferences jumped them in rankings. The argument was that losses weren't as important as quality of wins. Yet for Alabama to get the nod over OKstate, one would have to focus on the quality of loss, rather than the quality of wins. Again, I'm not necessarily saying Alabama does not deserve to play in the game, but that the BCS is inconsistent with its past decisions and arguments by sending them.
And, let's not forget the 2006 Ohio State vs Michigan game, which ended with Ohio State barely edging Michigan in an epic game. Many were advocating a rematch, while others felt Florida, who had lost to Auburn earlier in the year, should go face Ohio St. in the championship game instead. Florida ended up playing in the game rather than Michigan and most experts expected Ohio State to destroy them (just as most would expect LSU to destroy OkState). Of course, Florida destroyed the Buckeyes in that game. No one knows what will happen with OKstate vs LSU. I think LSU would win, but I don't know that (I thought OU would beat OKstate in the Bedlam game too). The truth is, no one truly knows who the best teams are unless they play. And can we be certain that Ohio State and Florida were the two best teams in 2006? USC embarrassed Michigan in the Rose Bowl. How are we certain they wouldn't have destroyed Ohio State as well? It can be argued that USC and Florida were actually the two best teams that year.
Unfortunately, this happens nearly every year. There is always a team that can make a good case for being deserving of a national title shot, but they don't get the chance. When was the last time any NFL team claimed they deserved to play in the superbowl rather than one of the other two teams? Did the 1994 Dallas Cowboys (who many agree were the 2nd best team that year) argue that they should get a rematch against the 49ers in the superbowl? No. I doubt even a single Cowboys fan will say they deserved to play in that game over the Chargers, even though many think Dallas had a better team than San Diego. It doesn't happen in the NFL because teams have a chance in the playoffs. In the flawed bcs system, there is always the team the can make a good case for why they should be in the game and we'll never truly know unless it happens. That is why the BCS is a joke, and always has been.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Design is a battlefield (and we are winning)!
Here is a very well done video by The University of Central Oklahoma's Design program (my alma mater) about the accomplishments and exciting future of their design program.
A timeline of activities and achievements of the Department of Design at the University of Central Oklahoma designed by AdamGault, MFA Design Candidate for a class project.
A timeline of activities and achievements of the Department of Design at the University of Central Oklahoma designed by AdamGault, MFA Design Candidate for a class project.
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