Fall Tour of Interactive Studios : Day 1 & 2

 

FTIS : the Fall Tour of Interactive Studios – a two day event, presented by Oddly Studios.

PROMO VIDEO (from 2009):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_joGB7gE5

This year was my first year on the tour and I must say, It was definitely worth while to be there! I feel like although the first day might have been a little rocky, the second was a better experience. I got to tour some really interesting agencies and meet some really nice people. We were not just attending presentations by junior or senior designers, we actually got to have conversations with the presidents, vice presidents, art directors, and creative directors. It was a great event to start and continue the networking adventure. I can safely say that I most positively have a new found knowledge about the industry and where I would most likely fit in. Although some studios stood out to me more than others, I have a great appreciation for all those that I attended and that were involved. And special thanks to Tim Wilson for putting this whole event together.

D A Y   O N E   I T I N E R A R Y :

• John St – http://www.johnst.com/

• Ameobacorp – http://www.amoebacorp.com/

• Pixel Dreams – http://pixeldreams.com/

• Mighty – http://mighty.ca/

• Organic – http://www.organic.com/

• Jalani Morgan – http://www.jalanimorgan.com/

• Derooted – http://derooted.com/

• Pixel Gallery – http://www.pixelgallery.org/#/news/bobo/

• Ubisoft – http://www.ubi.com/ENCA/default.aspx

D A Y   T W O   I T I N E R A R Y :

• Secret Location – http://www.thesecretlocation.com/

• sociMedia – http://www.socimedia.com/index.html

• Digital Cement – http://www.digitalcement.com/

• WIDEawake – http://www.wideawakehc.com/

• YES – http://www.yes.on.ca/

• Jam3 – http://jam3media.com/

– Networking Event | After Party

   Along the journey I made a few new friends, some great contacts, and may have even solved the mystery of where I would like to work. Now all I have to do is watch those companies and keep my tabs marked! I could sit here and type all the notes I took for each company, but I think it might be a waste of your time. It was just the basics and some simple notes about what I will remember them by when the time of job hunting comes around. I definitely recommend checking out the sites if you are working in this field or trying to break into this field. I also recommend being a participant of the Tour next year, it is a very beneficial experience and I can not thank my teachers enough for bringing us this oppourtunity.

S O M E   M E M O R A B L E   T H I N G S :

• The Guy at Home in his Underwear by John St/Amoebacorp/The Secret Location

http://guyathome.com/

http://www.facebook.com/guyathome?ref=ts&v=app_4949752878

• Photography by Jalani Morgan

http://www.jalanimorgan.com/

• St. Francis Table by Digital Cement

http://www.digitalcement.com/case-studies/stfrancis_table.html

• Storming Juno by The Secret Location

(not yet released - but keep your eye out!!!)

Ryan O'Brien - CTV Creative Director

CTVs' Creative Director, Ryan O'Brien came to Sheridan Colleges' Web Design Program to give a guest lecture on his job and what it is like to work his job in the industry. Under the wing of CTV lies famous other networks like:

• MuchMusic
• MTV

• Fashion Television
• Discovery
• and tons of local news stations

   Just 2 years ago, CTV bought Chum.

CTV scale : infrastructure runs differently than any broadcaster. They run on 2 virtual atmospheres. CTV currently has 110 websites which are all managed by a group staff of approximately seventy (70) people. Since video has taken a big turn in the interactive web world, this section of their department has been governing all the attention and focus. CTV has increased their video usage by 200 – 300% more than their competitors. Traditional aspects of usability like leaderboard and big box advertising have been down in value - web and interactive media are the way of the future. Ryan showed us a video on CTV globe media. They have over 50 destinations online, making them the number one destination in online video. TSN is number one in sports online. They have very high level clients - very recognizable. This video that was shown was first introduced by the CEO of the company which was just released last year. CTV has now been bought by Bell so it's like going from six thousand (6, 000) employees to sixty thousand (60, 000).

   As a creative director, it is Ryans' job to work on brand management and placing, all aspects of usuability (including interactive design for mobile), web proportions, as well as video platforms, and other various areas. It is also part of Ryans' job to work with the marketing department, sales teams, and the creative agency (an internal group) who create & manage the brands they are working on.
  Ryan is quoted saying, "To be in this industry, you better like working with people - it is a must-have asset. Everything used to be basic enough that you could potentially get away with doing it all by yourself - good luck with that now. All teams manage themselves independently, but work together overall, as a whole.".

   Ryan grew up in Niagara Falls, attended art school, learned audio, lighting, and how to build stages. He obtained an internship with a staging company called Uptex where he spent his time delivering equipment to the shows that he now puts on. He also attended Humber College for Technical Theatre – which, at the time, only had a 2% success of getting a job right out of school. Ryan thinks that is weird compared to what the statistics are now.
  He got hired as a body piercer at a local piercing and tattoo parlour where he stayed with them for a couple years. He then ventured off into a new area of personal protection for Chum. This was all happening back when MuchMusic was live fr eight (8) hours a day. He states that, "It was extremely bizarre in contrast to the rest of my life." He was able to meet artists and he become good friend with one of the acts. They would meet up while they were in town and later on, he started a clothing company. It took off and did quite well, so he moved to LA and lived in Hollywood for two (2) years. His clothing was featured in stores such as Bloomingdales and Macy's and even in store within the Eaton Centre in Canada. However, retail took a big nose dive after 9/11 hit, so it was time to move on. Ryan relocated back to Toronto, approached an executive from Chum and was hired as a Web Designer for MuchMusic (February 2002). He was the only designer for the 6 music commute stations. The sites he was working on were being updated in real time which Ryan had a "very interesting time doing". He was promoted to Art Director with Chum Interactive – the first one to ever exist within the company. He did brand management for a few years and then he was promoted again to his current job as Creative Director.

C O N T E N T   M A N A G E M E N T :

Music and Youth Services have their own digital team. It consists of:

• 2-3 designers

• 1 developer

• content manager (licenser agreements/issues). 

* Believe it or not, it was actually hard to convince people that others would care about television being on the internet (before it became the norm).

Ryan states that he loves his job because he essentially gets to live in the future. "I get to live in the future. I'm always thinking about 2 - 4 years from now," he continues, "But people never believe you when you tell them the future". Nothing is ever the same for him. He gets to learn something new everyday from colleagues specialized in this own areas of expertise. “Everything is always an educated guess... You do the best you can to guess correctly. Even if you aren't completely right, you have the be able to swim in all pools”.

S T R A T E G Y :

"I need to come up with new ways for putting something in your face and not annoying you with it. Users get involved with content, and it can be sponsored content. People are going to get the content they want no matter what, so you need to try to give it to them in a legal way and still be able to make money off of it". - Ryan O'Brien

(This was mentioned in relation to the high quality video CTV wanted to provide, but couldn't because of bandwidth issues with the people they were trying to provide it for).

H O W   T O   P R I O R I T I Z E :

The Analytics Department will assist with the educating guessing game.
But in a world of so many varying platforms, how do you know who to design for first? Everything needs to be seen on all platforms, (Blackberry, Apple, Android, and all the different web browsers, etc, etc.). 

"Just because people click on it, doesnt mean it was successful".

Consider that accessibility has become a really big issue in Canada. For example, the Federal Government regulates access to/for really big sites. Everything was getting fast & loose so they needed to start making rules to include those who are hearing and/or seeing impaired. These regulations were made for accessibility in the terms of adjusting font sizes actually on the browser. ie) tabbing properly through form fields, zooming in, etc. Studies show that 45-65 year old people take up a big percentage of those who use the internet the most nowadays. They are using video, which means they are using a video player, online. These older generation people, need to be taken into consideration when it comes to usability. Usability as a whole, is a core focus for anyone in this industry. It can be overlooked easily. Developers will develop things that make sense to them, but not things that are necessarily usable for everyone else.

B I G   A C C O M P L I S H M E N T S :

http://www.ctv.ca/malawi/

A five (5) part documentary that originally started out as a web series. It had so many hits online that it was re-cut and aired on broadcast television during the holiday season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWgZkUcC9hM

17days @ the 2010 Winter Olympics in British Columbia. Everyone shot great stories. They were a lightweight team consisting of only 2 HD cameras, extra external drives, all digital suite, all editing on macbook pros on location and uploading remotely to the video structure online. They were producing five-seven (5-7) stories a day each. 

Ryan finishes of his lecture by saying that he is "always surrounded by really super smart people and they all have a flexible mindset. There is never one right way to do something. A lot of collaboration and ideas coming together happen. You need to keep an open mind so that innovation can happen. It is often seen that crazy ideas come from the craziest of plans and often work out. In the office, it is not strange of us to pull random people from hallways or off the street to get their opinion on something we've designed. You can never have an accurate representation of everyones' ideas, but you need as much as an educated guess as you can".

He then answers two of the most popular questions from our young minds:

A) WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR IN US?:

The fundamentals are very much the same;
• solid foundation: coding in notepad is a great thing and always appreciated. People get used to dragging and dropping and not understanding the relationship between things. Having an intimate knowledge of how websites work with each other, with other websites, within itself etc.

• understanding emerging technologies (like query etc.).

• html 5 watching. Google Chrome OS.
Usability architecture and design all go hand in hand with this job. They are core assets to have.

• soft skills - communication is a SUPER important thing.
• passion about the internet - actually care about this thing.
Ryan always ask for previous work- your design and site to look at the code.
Teamwork is key. You need a sick day? You need someone to hand your current project off to. Change jobs? You need someone to take over what you left off on.

Never leave something in a state that someone else can not understand it. Label your folders by name, colour, number, etc. Adding notes to files. Labeling your layers appropriately.

Ryan suggests these authors to us:

• Steve Krugg. - usability author.
• Jacob Nielson - usability guru.


B) WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? (he did say he gets to live in it always).

• tablets & mobile = huge (there are 105 tablet releases for 2011 already).
• 4g network = huge game changer
• Google Chrome OS = huge game changer as well. It's very rare that a new OS comes out.

• blackberry + security = game changer as well. business application useful.
• apples facetime - HUGE game changer. bypass cellular and just use wifi. super wifi which can travel in miles, not feet. City-wide accessible for cheap. (like wimax, but on steroids).
• a lot of clouds syncing technologies are coming out now that are specifically aimed at people. Video is a huge focus.

• 3Dtv. = interesting, however, Ryan is very curious and interested in knowing the long-term effects of watching 3D tv after being immersed in it for so long.

• Junos-3d. sports-hockey 3d (this year)

In the end, this lecture was very insightful. He has gotten to travel and have a variety of jobs within his lifetime so far. For more information, please visit the CTV website: www.ctv.ca

Or if you like to contact Ryan, you can find him on LinkedIn:

http://ca.linkedin.com/in/ryanobrien

or here:

http://instituteofbetterfication.com/about/

Juniper Parks' Stephen Bennett Gives Us A Guest Lecture

Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this informative guest lecture due to participation in the Living Pink Through Fashion - Runway Show and Calendar Launch Event that happened at Hamilton Place this past Friday. However, thanks to Lam Yeung for providing me with notes from the lecture as well as a few photos for me to use in my blog. You can find Lams' blog by clicking here.

Stephen Bennett is the current Creative Director at Juniper Park- a conventional ad agency located at 2 Bloor St W, 6fl in Toronto, Ontario. He started out as a traditional designer – like most of us who attended the lecture – who worked with brand identity, print design, and traditional advertising. He realized that there was a big space for potential to grow with the Internet and other digital mediums, which caused him to move forward into working with digital design. 

Juniper Park is a company that is little over 3 years old- just a baby. It has over 75 employees and their major clients include: 

• Fritos Lays

• Pepsico

• Quaker

• Mrs Vickies

• Sun Chips

• Virgin Mobile

"Stephen showed the class a model of the three primary thinking segments that come into play when it comes to solving design problems. He said that it is important that these three elements integrate together when it comes to thinking about design solutions."

If you wake up tomorrow and they were gone, would you care?

This is what it all comes down to. It’s not likely we’ll care if a certain product is gone from our lives. This is because the brand was not connected to us. But a good company will have a brand that is connected to our lives and if it’s gone from us, we might care. Apple is a great example of this.

Stephen also gave some advice to the class when they step out into the industry:
• It's not about whom you know, but who knows you
• Digital is in a healthy place right now. It's expanding
• Make Friends
• Be Curious
• Take Your Time
• Execution is Everything
• What's Your Story?

(Please visit Lams' blog if you wish to find out a detailed version of these points).

it is important that we stay relevant.

To learn more about Juniper Park, please feel free to visit the website below:

http://www.juniperpark.com/ 

And to contact Steve: stephen.bennett@juniperpark.com  

Guest Lecture by Meg Kerr from Mosaic

Today our guest lecture was courtesy of Meg Kerr - Social Media Integration Marketer for Mosaic. Mosaic is an experiential marketing company. It's no wonder that with over 20 years of success, Mosaic "is the clear leader in outsourced in-field services". They "execute 1000's of consumer events every year at retail locations, community events, or other targeted locations".
Mosaic is tied with such social media events as Bud Camp and has worked with such name brands as Stride and Stella Artois. To find out more about Mosaic, please visit their website at www.mosaicxm.com.

   Now for more about Miss Meg Kerr and her very informative presentation. This is Meg (photo to the right, girl on the left). As previously mentioned Meg is the Social Media Integration Marketer of Mosaic. She has been with the company since 2006 and full time since 2007. She considers herself very lucky that she gets to experience so much and loves that travel is sometimes a bonus for her job. She has an Undergraduate Degree from Western University in Media Information and Technology, as well as attended Fanshawe College for Broadcast Journalism.
   As the SMIM, Meg is responsible for coming up with a social media marketing strategy, analytics, communicating to management, monitoring, and various other day-to-day tasks. She has minimal involvement in the ideation process of the projects, but is involved with creating the complete concept. How it works is that an idea will get pitched to her and her input will be asked for on what type of social media is best suitable for that idea (there are various forms, 'social networking' is just one). She also mentions that she does about four (4) hours of research 'homework', but if you have all of your work done, you can basically stroll in at a decent hour.
   One of her favourite projects to work on was for the Rogers Cup where digital branders were hired to tweet about one experience (being at the Cup). People from everywhere were able to tweet and a big screen was located at the event where had a certain word be tweeted related to the event, the tweet would appear on the screen. This way, people from India could still have the interaction experience along with everyone else.

   She started off her presentation with an awesome video (link below) and quote from Avinash Kaushik - an analytics evangelist at Google. He says, "Social Media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it, no one knows how, when finally done, there is surprise it's not better".

s o c i a l n o m i c s  =  s o c i a l   m e d i a   r e v o l u t i o n s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIFYPQjYhv8

4 TRENDS : in social media.

i) REALTIME + SMARTPHONES CHANGE EVERYTHING

This is like Word of Mouth (WOM) on steroids. One Third (1/3) of Canadians own a smartphone and although his number is actually not that big, web traffic has increased by 193%. It is predicted that by 1013, smartphones will overtake PCs as the most common device used for web access worldwide. With the vast availability to post whatever we want, when we want, news spreads quicker more than ever. "Everything used to be published by professionals, not anymore." - by Clay Shirby; author, professor at NYU. That day is dead.
   For example, the Tiger Wood scandal, when it first happened was just a car accident report. After @breakingnews (a twitter account) posted it, you were able to search details within ten (10) minutes on google. Forty-five (45) minutes later, CNN was breaking it on the television worldwide. And again, earlier this month there was a wide spread rumor that Pauly Shore had passed away, which was not true.

SO WITH ALL THIS ACCESS : it becomes : s p e e d  v s .  a c c u r a c y

ii) LOCAL BASED SERVICES & GEO-TAGGING ie) Foursquare, Gowalla, and Yelp.

For those of you who are not familiar with geo-tagging, the above names have been linked to their site for you to check them out at your own leisure. However, for my example, I will be using Foursquare. Foursquare is a way for you to "check in" to where you are. So.. Starbucks for example. You can open your Foursquare Ap on your phone, click "check in" and your friends will be notified. If you check in the most times in one location, you become "mayor" of that location. In this case, Starbucks has teamed up with Foursquare to offer certain discounts to the "mayors" of their locations (you have to show the cashier proof though). Also, if you check in five (5) times, you earn a badge. That's right! You can earn badges by checking into different locations for many times, etc. It's sort of like the farmville of letting people know where you are.
   This trend is growing faster and faster by the day. Just last March (2010) Meg said she did this presentation at another lecture and Foursquare was only at one (1) million people. When she presented today, it has reached three (3) million people. Twitter took almost two (2) years to get 1 million people. Speaking of Twitter, it has also added a geo-tagging feature and in the U.S., Facebook has realeased "Facebook Places", which will bring geo-tagging even more into the mainstream.

iii) HELLO WORLD, GOODBYE PRIVACY!

please be  c a r e f u l  of who you let know what
example : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PO8gYalntVQ

You must, must, MUST! be careful when posting things you probably should not be posting. Many social networking sites let you link accounts. Such as linking your Twitter account to your Facebook account, and your blogging account, and your Foursquare account and the other million accounts you may or may not have. In relation to the video posted above, this site was also presented to us by Meg : http://pleaserobme.com/
   This site was posting the links to the accounts of people notifying everyone and anyone that they were not at home, just asking to be robbed like the previous story. I think this is a very valid point and I hope it has showed people how a simple status update can cost you in real life.

your  d i g i t a l  life and  r e a l  life are  C O N N E C T E D !

iv) SOCIAL MEDIA GETS LESS SOCIAL

if generation one (1) and two (2) opened up the door to social media, generation three (3) must close it. We need to cut through the clutter! Social Networking sites like Facebook have a lot going on - the gamers post, the non-stop poster, and various other information that you just do not care about or want to know about. Because of this, there has actually been a decrease in using social networking sites, although overall worldwide, it has increased. However, there are certain networking sites that you can only have an account if your resume is accepted (bluechipexpert.com), or sometimes a criteria is not even provided (aprivateclub.com - New Yorkers Only), or you must be a student or graduate (doostang.com).
   A lot of people have become reliant on sites - like facebook - and feel withdrawl symptoms when away from it for longer than a few hours. There are those that delete their accounts to give themselves a break for a day or two, or even weeks and months at a time and still will come back and reactivate their account. A great example would be students who finally think they should be spending more time on their studies then tweeting about how many pages of homework they have to read and essays to write.

delete  a l l   y o u r   a c c o u n t s  at once via :

http://suicidemachine.org/

"What shall I do after I've killed myself with the web2.0 suicide machine?"

"Try calling some friends, take a walk in a park or buy a bottle of wine and start enjoying your real life again. Some Social Suiciders reported that their lives has improved by an approximate average of 25%. Don't worry, if you feel empty right after you committed suicide. This is a normal reaction which will slowly fade away within the first 24-72 hours."

Meg leaves us with a few last facts and thoughts:

i) 5 of the top 7 countries that first embraced social networking devices have declined in number of users.
Does this suggest the Canary in the Coal Mine theory?

ii) in some schools, in their lecture classes, use a separate projector to display a live twitter feed for those in the lecture to use. This is designed for those students who feel a little shy about asking questions in front of people they do not know, or just feel that their question may not be worth asking, but do not want to get laughed at - a common issue in all schools.

iii) there are social media regulations for companies that have outlines on what can and can not be shared through social networking. For example, a beer company may not allow showing of a picture where someones' beer is half empty at a party environment because it can potentially be viewed as them condoning abuse of alcohol consumption. Also, a lot of companies have it said that if you are working for them and are to attend a promo event, you must disclose that you are doing business what that company. Anything that may come across as 'trying to hide something' may have serious consequences - this is mainly being seen in the U.S. as of late.

iv) the increase number of parents and older generation male and females logging onto social networking sites, like Facebook, may put forth a movement of teens and kids moving onto other networking sites. I mean.. no one wants to like what their parent likes, right? People may become more selective of the networks they join and why.

She also left us with this last image : open for debate.

Jay Schacher comes for a visit.

This, is Jay. Currently positioned as Senior Designer at Henderson Bas - a graphic design firm located at 479 Wellington St. W, Toronto, Ontario (photo provided below, taken from Google.ca). There is about 80 people currently employed by HB (Henderson Bas). One creative department usually consists of the following:
• four (4) junior designers
• three (3) senior designers
• three (3) art directors
• one (1) associate creative directore
• one (1) creative director.
   In being a senior designer, some of the jobs that Jay in charge of completing are: brainstorming, concepts, design, overseeing, and meeting timelines.



  The flow of how work travels from person to person works like any other design firm : 
art > creative director > account manager > client / input > redesign 1/2/3/etc > happy client.

  Henderson Bas mostly specializes in mobil interactive web ads, and some print. Already HB has made their mark in the industry by working on websites with such brands as Coca Cola, Joe Fresh, Tim Hortons, Nintendo, Ally, LG, and others.

During Jays' stay at HB he has had the pleasure to work on name brands such as:
• Timex - Ironman
• LG - Shine Plus ; get connected website
• Coca Cola - iCoke ; FIFA World Cup.
• Mercedes Benz

    Jay enjoys his job very much and when asked if he sees himself there for much longer, he replied with, "Yes, HB has a wonderful culture and I like the jobs on which I get to work on". Jay also mentioned that at HB all the employees are more than welcome to bring their dogs to work – as long as they are trained of course! Jay is currently living in Ancaster and commuting into Toronto every day, he says that sometimes it's bad, and sometimes it's okay.
   "Henderson Bas is an extremely fast-paced environment," says Jay, "a concept design may take about two or three days, the design of that concept about 2 days and the build of it maybe half a day to a day and a half - so about a week and a half in total". When asked about how his work hours are, Jay replies with, "Basically, you leave until your work is done. Sometimes you stroll in around 9 or 10am and leave at 5pm or even 8pm if your work isn't done - but then it's time for you to grab some dinner".

   After a few hours of insightfullness, Jay leaves the class with a few pieces of advice:
• stay close with your classmates - you never know when you can help eachother out on a job someday. Your classmates will be the perfect people to call on.
• network a lot - it is very key to keep ties and get your name out there. Jay also suggests to obtain a profile on Linked In - a professional networking site. http://www.linkedin.com/nhome/.
• usually the clients want to opposite of what you want (ie : nine tries for a  toolbar design).
• be a team player, not a hero.

To view more of Jays' work, you may visit his web portfolio at http://www.jayshack.com/.

HENDERSON BAS : http://www.theniceagency.com/
479 Wellington St. W, Toronto, Ontario

3D Paper Inspirations and A Simple Reminder From the Past

Inspired by a fellow classmate of mine, I had gone in search of some old links and photos that inspired me on 3D paper art. The technical skill and patience to perfect such beautiful imagery and sculptures is a feat on its' own. Just simply searching "3D paper art" on google displays an array of incredible creations by only using paper:

http://www.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=3D%20paper%20art&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1280&bih=539

Discovered in one of my years at Niagara College was a man by the name of Bert Simmons. Creating 3D paper artwork is among many of his other design talents. You can view the rest of his portfolio at:

http://www.bertsimons.nl/zenphoto/

NEXT: The inspiration from the classmate previously mentioned was from a link that she posted on her facebook. PaperCutProject.com.  Two girls - Nikki Salk and Amy Flurry are the artists behind these fabulous 3D creations. Their paper wigs have been featured in Jeffrey Clothing Stores in New York and Atlana. To visit Jeffrey please use this link : http://www.jeffreynewyork.com/

 

http://www.paper-cut-project.com/

NEXT: A SIMPLE REMINDER FROM THE PAST : think different.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oAB83Z1ydE&feature=related

Hair Design and Two Inspiring Graphic Design Sites

As a model I deal with various forms of design : clothing, makeup, hair, bodyshape (posing), and the design within the shoot location. So for my first piece of "interesting" that I show you today is a hair design. The story behind why I was trying this in the first place is that I've been invited to a "Red, White, and Black" Birthday Party. Naturally, I wanted to try something new with my hair.

I was first inspired by this video (below) to try a fauxhawk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dv8MSWlxoQ&feature=related

After browsing some more, I found this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQfNmks4PNI&feature=channel

I decided I wanted to go with the first version of the video rather than the second. However...since I was using cheap Hairspray (found at the dollarstore) it did not make my hair stiff enough to accomplish what I was going for. So I just started playing around, and without realizing it, I came up with the result of half of each video. One side more fauxhawk and the other more of an updo type bun.
Also, I actually completed this look without the use of any hair-ties or a "bump it". I only used about 10 bobby pins, a few tiny clips, and 2 big clips that snap together. 

NEXT : makeup design.

This lovely girl goes by the name of Melynda Moon - model and makeup artist. You can find her via her ModelMayhem profile :

http://www.modelmayhem.com/MelyndaMoon

and facebook fanpage : 

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=14697308&fbid=10150250513800403&id=613600402&ref=nf#!/pages/Melynda-Moon/153508064660592?ref=ts

The use of 2 soft primary colours (red and blue) and the third (yellow) as an accent, I think was an excellent choice to match her absolutely gorgeous eyes and fair skin. Not to mention the creative "artsy fartsy" design she added in black. She is definitly a must see look through on my books of great make up design.

NEXT : GRAPHICS!

two great community graphic design websites that I have discovered (with the help of some previous cloassmates) within the last few months are the following:

GOOD 50x70 : An annual contest, confronting seven of the critical issues affecting today’s world. These issues are linked up with a charity and posted to the public and those who want to participate in the contest are to design a poster (50"x70") and submit it to the site where it will be judged by some of the industries top designers/influences. There is no limit to the number of posters you may submit. The best 30 designs from each category are chosen and given to the charity that it ispaired with and the charity uses them as potential communication tools (advertising/promotion for public awareness).

http://good50x70.org/2010/

facebook :  http://www.facebook.com/#!/good50x70?ref=ts

LOOKS LIKE GOOD DESIGN  : basically, a blog website controlled by one person- Jonas Kamber- dedicated to the world of art. Categories that are available for viewing are: graphic design, illustration, motion, photography, industrial, architecture, typography, textil/fashion, as well as 4 others. It's a fantastic way to get your art out there and also see what everyone else is up too. There is a huge abundance of creativity on this site and is never ceases to amaze me. Definitely check this out! To email your designs and potentially get posted, email post-this@lookslikegooddesign.com

http://lookslikegooddesign.com/

facebook : http://www.facebook.com/pages/LooksLikeGoodDesign-Inspiration-Blog/230398364250?ref=nf