Plasmic Studio

Six Things New Clients Often Ask About Website Design 

(and if these things don't come up early... they should probably be brought up)

1. screen resolution - how different monitor sizes and resolution settings can affect the site layouts clients are viewing
2. Flash - when to use it, how it can enhance a site, what percentage of users have it installed and how to handle (or not handle) those who do not
3. text layouts in HTML - why fine-tuning text breaks for a client's particular window size and font size settings is often futile, and can lead to problems further along a website's development
4. MySpace - how to plan ahead to create a MySpace page that works in conjunction with a website, and understanding the inherent limitations of MySpace's layout idiosyncracies
5. contact forms - how to set them up so they function smoothly, and how to best manage the information they generate
6. search engines - how an HTML index page can help Google and other search engines index Flash websites, how long Google takes to find a page, and how to create keyword-dense HTML copy that allows for organic indexing

Software I Use Daily. 

• Photoshop - the staple image editing software. I've been using it for over 15 years now. Hey... that means I should be a lot faster with that bezier pen tool.
• Freehand - the most intuitive vector-based tool out there, ever. I use it for page layout, character design, logos, technical illustrations - anything I can. Illustrator just cannot compare. Adobe, please please please do not smash Freehand into smithereens. If you keep it, we will come (for annual upgrades).
• GarageBand - thank you, Apple, for making multi-track audio recording and editing as easy as this. I can compose a sound bed for a website, sequence dialogue for an animation, or just jam out on my Trigger Finger electronic drums. GarageBand rocks my socks off.
• Flash - there's nothing like Flash, and it improves its features by leaps and bounds with each release. I've been there nearly since the beginning, when you could effectively make a nice circle move across the screen. It was fun back then, and it's even more fun today. And hey - shouldn't all software-using be fun?

What Do We Pay For When We Pay For Design? 

• Our time - of course - that's a given. And hopefully it is strategically-planned, efficiently-used time.
• Our creative vision - the ability to take a client's rough concept and see how it can be shaped into something effective, distinctive and amazing.
• Our technical skills - the ability to kern type, to color correct photography, to collect files from an InDesign layout and burn them onto a CD in a single bound. The boring stuff we learn in design school that turns out to be essential to our profession.
• Our technical resources - not to be confused with the above. Often this is what the client perceives to be the primary value of a designer. We have the software, the huge font library, the 500 GB hard drive that we use to back up all your files. And the 750 GB drive to back up the other one.
• Our experience - hopefully all those mistakes we made when we just started out taught us lessons that you'll benefit from. Yes, we can give you your logo as a .jpg, but we're going to design it in Freehand or Illustrator first so you have a vector version, too. See how smart we are?
• Our ability to adapt - when you swear that the hosting plan you purchased has PHP enabled, but your contact form isn't sending you e-mails, we'll be able to work out a temporary fix and then get on the phone with your host to check out the situation. Those kind of situations are old hat to us, honey.
• Our mental catalog - every logo, every ad, every website we've seen for years has been analyzed, deconstructed and taken into our memory banks. If you want to add an animated sea anemone tour guide to your website, we'll know if it's been done before and what techniques were used (I think you're in the clear on that one, though).
• Our reliability - we're going to be there to answer the phone when you accidentally renamed all the files in your root directory. This is when that 750 GB hard drive comes in handy.
• Our communication skills - incisiveness in laying out exactly what we plan to do for you, clarity in updating you throughout the various stages of the project, and tact when we have to explain to you why your company's logo really shouldn't fill up the top half of the screen. We promise to be gentle.
• Our humor - if we're boring and stuffy, our work probably comes off that way too. And nobody wants that. Except banks. Banks like stuffy.

Steve's Peeves 

an ongoing list of designy things that bother me

• Taglines with three words: "Better. Stronger. Faster." "Shiny. Happy. People." Blech. The original - "Little. Yellow. Different." - was so distinctive that I can't hear another three-words-with-periods tagline without it sounding completely derivitive.
• Logos built around an arc. Like any fad, this one burned up on re-entry. In the mid- to late-90's, everyone had to have an arc/swoosh/curve in their logo, and they had to have it now. (And yes, I designed a few myself. I was weak.)
• The long, thin, scroll-for-ages website. Just not feelin' it.
• Bursts (multi-pointed badges) - no matter how well-designed they are (today they tend have that funky blown-glass look), they just feel cheap and schlocky. I can't shake the supermarket circular feeling they give me. "Half off on canned goods" - like that.
• The side-by-side comparison - you've seen it. You put a tricycle on the left side of the page (plain white background behind it, of course) and label it something like "Your Competitors." Make sure you keep the period in there, too. Then you put a chromed-out Harley on the right side of the page, and you label it "You." And you have to add some grey-dashed-line callouts, too. It's innovative, I tell you - or it was, the first time it was done - a decade ago.
• The old-timey movie effect in Flash - compressed sound, flickery effect, vertical scratches that move slowly from side to side, and the little splotches that appear from time to time. The thing is, I've seen it done many, many times, and it's almost always done well - but it just seems to easy to do and too common to really be effective.
• Thermography on business cards - the rubbery look on lettering has never spoken to me on a deep, personal level. I think this just falls into the "it's different so it's got to be good" category. Maybe someday I'll be won over by thermography, but I'd really rather see true metal-infused letters. Now THAT would be hot.
• The Flash book-style, page-flipping thing. Yes, the effect is astoundingly realistic - you mouse over the right page, the upper corner waves at you seductively, you click, hold, and drag to the left - it flips over, just like a real book. You, confused, begin sniffing your monitor for that new-book-smell. But again - it's so common now that it's lost that special feeling. It's gone, gone gone... whohohohooooah.

Five Reasons Why Rushing a Design is Non-Optimal 

(which we all know, but just to elucidate...)

1. Letting a project percolate in a designer's head for a week or two can only improve the final result - bad ideas can come and go before they're even developed, while more solid, innovative ideas are likely to rise to the forefront.
2. Testing technical issues in stages is a massive time saver. You need a dynamically-loaded series of video files integrated into your site? If there's time to test just ONE of those videos in different file formats, on different platforms, different browsers and different monitor settings, it'll certainly expose the most stable setup before going whole-hog on the rest of those puppies.
3. Sitting on a logo design for a week or so after it's "complete" will likely turn up minor tweaks in color, typography, and other small-but-important elements. Better to do that final cleanup before you integrate that logo into the website, ads, the stationery system and anywhere else that will require slow, painful changes.
4. Someone's going to miss something - a typo, a broken link, a digital asset for the InDesign layout - and you'll look amateurish, or worse - your project won't hit your compressed deadline anyway. And then all the frazzled nerves, last minute phone calls and disorganized e-mails are for nought. Shame.
5. You'll be paying more for that last-minute launch. Aren't there better things to spend money on, like video games? Of course there are.

Questions People Ask Me Regularly 

• Is it hard to think up a bunch of ideas when you know only one will be used?
• Where do you get all your ideas?
• How do you make a website?
• Is it exciting to know so many people will see your work?
• Is it hard to make a Flash game?
• Did you go to school for this?
• How much does it cost to make a website?
• Why is it bad to make an ad in Word?
• Does it hurt your feelings when a client tears your work apart?
• Can you make a logo that looks like this one?
• How do you make yourself be creative every day?

Ambitious and Nutritious 

Things I Have Not Yet Designed, But Would Like To

• A toy store. Yes, the whole friggin' store - logo and website, too!
• A console video game. Not just an online, play-for-five-minutes, then-get-bored game, but a full-on video game.
• Film titles. Like the titles from Se7en, but even more idiosyncratic.
• Trade show graphics. I want to walk into a booth at E3 and have it be all me.
• A children's picture book - written, designed and illustrated. I've done my own, but it wasn't published. Houghton-Mifflin, give me a shout.
• An animated series. I want to build one, from the ground up. I'm working on it, slowly but surely.
• A clothing line. Well, maybe just t-shirts - but a full line. I've designed a few shirts and hats in my day, and let me tell you - it's cool to see people wearing your stuff. My college roommate saw someone on a train in New York wearing a shirt I designed in 1991 - and I'm still reeling from that. Yowza!

Just Enough Rope 

Horrible Things Clients Have Said To Me

• "I think you just rushed into that project without really thinking about it."
• "I haven't seen anything in your designs that I liked enough to pay for."
• "I can design a better logo myself."
• "I feel like you padded out this invoice."
• "I feel like you increased this estimate to compensate for the trouble [unbillable time over estimate] we had with the last project."
• "It couldn't possibly have taken as much time as you're claiming."
• "Do you really plan to charge me your full price for a project that I'm so unhappy with that I won't be using at all?"
• "You didn't act like a professional."
• "I told you what I needed, but you went off and did what you wanted to do anyway."
• "The fonts you picked look totally cheesy. Did you listen to me at all?"
• "The game you made is boring and unplayable."
• "My impression of you is that you do this as a hobby, and not as your job."
• "We were hoping for something that looked... better."

Don't Touch My Crutch 

Avoiding Design Ruts Via Public Confession

• Using the same small selection of fonts for websites, because they've been proven to work well, and exploring other options will add additional time to the project.
• Laying elements out in a simple grid, because it's always going to look at least halfway decent.
• Not exploring more ornate image effects because of the time and effort involved in developing them.
• Using a simple one- or two-color (plus black) pallette for a particular project, because there's less risk of colors not working together if their numbers are limited.
• Working with standard Photoshop brushes, rather than creating custom brushes, because it takes less time to work with out-of-the-box tools.
• Not looking into using stock photography, because the client will probably want to avoid spending extra on it.
• Using the same Photoshop effects (drop shadow plus outer glow) on text laid over images, because it's the easiest way to make sure the text remains readable.

That's Not My Job 

The Ever-Expanding Role of "Designer"

• Maintaining Macs - I never expected I'd be opening my computer, installing new hard drives, resetting the battery, using Disk Warrior to clean up the directory, and performing many other tasks listed on the Mac Genius job description. I tell you this with zero hesitation: I have tapped into the kernel and lived to write about it.
• Communicating with hosting companies - I've logged many phone hours with internet hosting companies, mostly on behalf of my clients. Usually these calls involve a lot of waiting (especially before you speak to a representative from the company), a lot of frantic scribbling/typing, and at least one follow-up call. A good speaker phone helps.
• Setting up networks - and keeping them secure. If you do it perfectly, there's no real reward - you just get to be connected, and not be hacked into. If you mess up - you've got trouble a-comin'.
• Tracking packages - copy from e-mail, paste into FedEx/USPS/UPS tracking field (make sure to accept their terms!), get details, and update anyone who needs updating on where that durn package is. Excitement embodied.
• Invoicing - does anyone ever relax in a nice bubble bath, surrounded by candles, sip champagne, and fantasize about writing up detailed invoices? I sincerely hope not. But a clear, detailed invoice makes everybody happy. And happy is good. And good is... nice.
• Creating a project brief - this is the way designers get work, and the value for us is it forces you to go over the information your client (or potential client) has given you in earlier discussions. Working out a detailed brief can also spotlight potential problem points before they come up. Which is great - I just don't remember my 8th grade art teacher ever mentioning the "project brief" term. She liked my egg tempera work, though.
• Proofreading and editing - I'm the graphics guy, not the text guy. Or so I thought. But when a client has developed rough copy for their website and/or brochure, and it's going to go live/be printed tomorrow, and the client's wife is out of town, I pull out my red pen and start correcting.
• Backing up files - an absolute necessity. I lost a hard drive once, back in ought-one, and almost lost all the data it contained. A wise Mac tech imparted to me some pearls of wisdom, and I took that wisdom to heart. Now I'm an unabashedly paranoid backupaholic. I even have a backup of this Squidoo lens... just in case. Seriously.

Self-Improvement Plan 

• PHP - I want to do more than set up "Email a Friend" components and contact forms.
• Video Production - I want to make short films. Working on this one actively now.
• 3D Design - I want to use Maya, a program I have thus far only read about. I feel a true 3D robot in my future.
• Flash remoting - I want to set up a Flash site that a client can administer to remotely, adding content at their whims. It'll come in time, I'm sure.
• Databases - this one makes me shudder, but I want to have the capacity to create a full community site with user login, control panel, and cross-user-interaction. Maybe a holiday with me, my Mac, WIFI and a remote location will help bring this one about.
• True multitrack recording - I want to be able to record a full band at once - specifically, a full drum set, which is the toughest row to hoe in recording. I'm pushing hardest on this one now - I've got most of the gear, the software has been ordered as well as a spankin' new MacPro - just for music - and I'm setting up the space. Let me know if your band needs to cut a demo - I'll be able to help you out shortly.

If You Insist 

Last-Ditch Guidelines When You Can't Hire a Designer

• You can't change a file format just by changing its extension - so if you need to send a JPEG, changing the suffix from .eps to .jpg doesn't do diddlysquat - except confuse people (and computers).
• You can take a low-res .jpg into Photoshop or another image manipulation application and make it 300 dpi, but it will never look as clean and crisp as the original high-resolution file (if one exists). Never ever.
• Do not fear the white space.
• If you're using a logo, don't stretch it horizontally or vertically to fill up a space. It's far better to have a small, in-proportion logo than one that was originally wide, but is now stretched vertically to fill a square space.
• Same with photos. Expand proportionately - grab the handles in the corner to resize - not the side handless - and hold down that Shift key.
• Using no image might be better than using a piece of clipart.
• RGB for screen, CMYK for print.
• 72 dpi for monitor usage, 150 for inkjet, 200 for laser, 300 for offset - and 600 for pure black and white lineart.
• If you save a .jpg once, it adds visual compression - and every time you open and re-save that .jpg, more and more compression gets piled on - so the image will look worse with each save. The file size won't get any smaller, either.
• You can't edit a .pdf - except with Adobe Acrobat Professional - and you probably still shouldn't do it that way. And no, sorry - Adobe Reader is not the same program. Get the source file that generated the .pdf if humanly possible.
• Making each letter in a word a different color? Not as attractive as you think it is.
• Word and PowerPoint have atrocious color handling "capability". Those pograms can't handle CMYK-mode images. Since the "K" in CMYK stands for blacK, all your blacks will become a horrendous combination of all four printing colors. And since most printers don't print perfectly, the edges of those black areas are going to look unclear. Of course type, with its thin lines, will look the worst, so try to make all your black text actual text, and not part of a graphic.
• One solid, legible font for a document is most often better than using three decent fonts. It's always better than using a different font for each headline. If you do that, people will laugh at you and call you names behind your back.
• Create a three-tier hierarchy - large, bold fonts (maybe 14-16 points) of one color for the biggest section headings (there should be the fewest of these), a smaller (about 11-13 points) bold font of another color for the sub-sections within those main sections, and an even smaller font (8-10 points) for the main text. Once you've locked down your hierarchy, stick to it at all costs.
• Increasing the space between lines lets the eye breathe. Yes, eyes really can breathe.
• Underlining was invented for the typewriter. You know - that tool that hunt-and-pecked out its death rattle a couple decades ago? Now, it's used for links on websites - and in cheesy print pieces by people who are not designers (sorry - that was harsh). So instead of underlining the text you'd like to emphasize, why not just bold it instead? It'll make you feeeeeel good.
• If you have a lot of fonts, that's wonderful. Just don't expect everyone else to have the same fonts you do - they won't. Designers "collect for output", and gather up all the fonts and images needed for their layouts. Word doesn't have that feature, so if you have to send your Word file to someone else for printing, make sure to manually find the font files you're using and include them in your .zip file or on your CD. Better yet, purchase pdfFactory (or a similar program), which will allow you to generate a much-more-professional .pdf version of your layout - and the fonts will be embedded (Mac users, of course, know they can automatically generate .pdfs at the system level, from any application).
• Times is the default font on almost every computer post-ENIAC. It might be wise to use a different font - even if you have to purchase one.
• Huge typefaces are good for road signs, not for brochures.
• Animated gifs are a great way to spice up your website! No they're not - they almost always look like poop.
• Setting up a grid (or guidelines) is a simple way to create a cohesive page layout.
• Butting each element right up against the others causes the overall page design to look crammed. Leave some room between your text, photos and graphic elements, and the world will be your oyster. Or they'll beat a path to your door. One of those.
• Ornate fonts - the kind with curlicues or built-in 3D effects - are called "Display Faces", and they're intended for very limited use - like the initial capital letter you'll sometimes see used to indicate the beginning of a paragraph. If you use those fonts for all of your text, people will assume that you are utilizing hallucinogens.
• Spell check is good to do. And, it is free.

Why I Am Cautious 

(in relation to design, as well as life in general)

• As a senior Graphic Design major in college, I was required to develop a personal logo - an identity to be placed on my resume, letterhead, envelopes, and business cards, as a means to get a job after graduation. My logo was very well received by my fellow design students, as well as my teachers. One teacher told me it was the strongest logo he'd seen come out of the school, and I'd have no problem getting the (entry level) design job of my choice.
  
  I graduated in 1992, and couldn't get a job in the field of design for another 3 years.
• A personal connection introduced me to the head of a firm that develops toys and toy packaging for major toy manufacturers - movie tie-ins and everything. This firm is located less than a mile from where I live. The head of this firm told me that he felt fortunate to meet me, that my style would blend with with theirs perfectly, and he assured me that he would have loads of freelance illustration assignments for me shortly. "I PROMISE you, Steve, you WILL be working for us. Just call me every week and I'll let you know when I have something for you." (emphasis his).
  
  I left their offices feeling elated. That was in 1997. I called weekly, as requested but could never get the head of the firm on the phone - nor could I get a return call. Eventually his receptionist asked me to stop calling. I did.
• I interviewed for a job at a large web development firm. This firm, I discovered, had been founded a few years earlier by a friend from college, with whom I'd lost touch. This firm also had a famous drummer as their client, and his site needed a refresh (and I am a drummer, which they knew from my resume).
  
  Because of these connections, I felt I was "in". They introduced me around the office, in my three hour interview/visit. They even offered me advice on which roads to take on the way to work, once I was hired.
  
  Then, they called and said they hired someone else because that person had superior HTML skills - HTML being something they'd told me I would never have to do - their team of coders (12 coders in a company of 30 employees) handled exclusively.
  
  Eventually one of their clients came to me for a big website development project. It was very, very difficult not to gloat.
• I interviewed for a firm that created interactive presentations for kiosks. The interview went very well ("You're exactly the person we're looking for", I was told that day) and all I needed to do was complete one freelance project for them first ("just a formality - something we like to do before we hire anyone") before they'd make an offer.
  
  The project came in, and my one point of contact was an unpleasant, disorganized traffic manager with horrific communication skills. She either sabotaged me intentionally, or she was so befuddled in doing her job that she impeded the flow of information to me, and my completed work to the firm. Senior management was unhappy with the results, or so I surmised - the offer never came.
• An animation teacher had met the owner of a notable agency in Philadelphia. When I was still looking for a job, this teacher kindly gave this person my name, and recommended me to him. I set up an interview - the worst "interview" ever. On a bitter, snowy winter day, I unknowingly parked 12 blocks south of the firm's office. I ran, portfolio in hand, and arrived on time - but sweating like a fool.
  
  I was kept waiting by the firm's owner for over 45 minutes. He trudged into the interview room, made no apology - he did not greet me. I said hello and he scowled silently. His assistant passed him my portfolio, which he flipped through in under one minute (15 pages in 55 seconds). Without looking at me once, he said, "We do not do any work like this" and crawled out of the room - probably into his dungeon, to torture children.
• A friend connected me to the art director of a large music manufacturer/CD duplication service that was local to me. The art director and her father (the company's owner) delighted in my portfolio, holding up individual pieces and gleefly saying, "Can you imagine if we had someone here who could illustrate like this from scratch?! We wouldn't need to use stock photos!" They admired my hand-drawn typography, saying it was just like - but better than - fonts they'd purchased. Being a musician (okay - a drummer) and being in a band was a huge plus as well - so they claimed.
  
  A week later, the company sent me a form rejection notice.
  
  Five years later, my band used that company to manufacture our first CD. I designed the cover, worked with the same art director who didn't remember me at all. She was impressed with my packaging design, though.
• I'm going to name names here. I sent illustration submissions into Highlights Magazine in the mid 90's. I followed their way-too-particular submission requirements, wrote a cover letter, sent in the package feeling confident that my style was very kid-friendly and would jibe with their sensibilities.
  
  They wrote back - three months later. "Your style is not what we're looking for, and we will not be using you. Do not submit your work to us again at any point in the future."
  
  That. Was. Mean.
• A large weekly newspaper had an open call for illustrators, which a friend alerted me to. I had been working a non-design temp job - which paid terribly - and I took a day off to go through the required process of dropping my portfolio off in the city (pre-digital days, kids - this was 1993) and wait for the results.
  
  I ate lunch, killed time, and four hours later picked up my portfolio from the chipper art directors (there were two of them) who'd reviewed it. They said I'd find out their response soon. I assumed they meant by mail, but when I got back I found mustard-stained note in the MIDDLE OF MY PORTFOLIO PAGES! It just said, "Not interested."
  
  One year later, they were fired. A new art director came in, and she actually knew my name and work from a zine I'd co-published with a friend. I was hired for a series of spot illustrations, and eventually, I illustrated the cover of a special summer issue. Circulation: 600,000 issues.
  
  Whew. I was hoping to end this list with a semi-positive experience. Mission accomplished.

An Analysis of the Relationship Between Visual Design and Audio Recording 

How very academic of me.

• In Photoshop, we can create a histogram, analyzing the spectrum of an image file. In ProTools, an audio manipulation program, a visual representation of a sound file's frequence range can be generated.
• Similarly, in Photoshop we can compress an image, bringing the dark and light ends of an image closer to the center point. Audio recording allows the very same thing, proportionately raising the volume of the quieter, more subtle notes of a bass so they're closer to the level of louder notes in that track.
• What are Photoshop's layers, if not the image-oriented equivalent of multitrack recording?
• Effects in Photoshop = effects in audio recording - they are represented live while previewing the file, but they're not permanently attached to the layer/track until you rasterize layers in Photoshop, or apply the effect (or maybe record with the effect on) in an audio application.
• You feather an edge in Photoshop to ease the transition between two pieces of the image. Same deal in audio recording, via the crossfade feature.
• In both image manipulation and audio recording, it is good - very good - to determine the resolution and format you'll need your final output in before you begin work on the project.