“I’m in the early stage of planning a redesign of actsofvolition.com. Plans include a series of minor refinements and, most significantly, a move from ColdFusion to PHP for the programming. What I haven’t yet decided for the redesign, is what formatting standards to use. Should I stay with the tried and true HTML tables, or should I take the leap into the emerging world of Cascading Style Sheets? The purpose of this article is to seek feedback, suggestions, answers, and ultimately a better understanding of the state of web design practices in the face of emerging standards.”

“Making a character’s walk look realistic is a long-lost, and long-cherished, secret of animation. There’s no magic button to push, sadly, but the steps can be broken down into easily digestible bites that are easy to understand and recreate. And that’s just what this tutorial is going to show you how to do. In the pages that follow, I will show you how to build a simple walk cycle using an example character that I’ve kept fairly basic — with no detail or extreme style to distract you, applying the principles you learn here to your own designs later will be effortless.”

“Are there techniques that managers could learn that would help them make more objective — and better — decisions about marketing communications? We believe there are, but first we wanted to find out if decisionmaking was as arbitrary as we believed. We picked a real packaging design project: the launch of a new fruit beverage called Fruit Fix. We asked a number of experienced marketing practitioners, most of them middle or senior marketing managers and some experienced designers, to comment on the effectiveness of eight label concepts and select the best one. Was there an overwhelming consensus on which designs would be sure winners? No. There was little consensus.”

“Creative Public is a resource and information guide for today’s graphic designer: Designer search, forms, contracts, pricing guides… I developed this Web site dedicated to showing designers what to do and what not to do in the graphic design business. This site was created to give graphic designers resources for starting their own business or expanding into a freelance role without having to go through the headaches that I did.”

“The use (and misuse) of period typography in movies… Chocolat (2000, Mirimax) wasn’t a bad movie. It managed to get five Academy Award Nominations. But if they gave out Oscars for Best Type Direction, it would not have been among the nominees.”

“The use (and misuse) of period typography in movies… Chocolat (2000, Mirimax) wasn’t a bad movie. It managed to get five Academy Award Nominations. But if they gave out Oscars for Best Type Direction, it would not have been among the nominees.”

“I’m in the early stage of planning a redesign of actsofvolition.com. Plans include a series of minor refinements and, most significantly, a move from ColdFusion to PHP for the programming. What I haven’t yet decided for the redesign, is what formatting standards to use. Should I stay with the tried and true HTML tables, or should I take the leap into the emerging world of Cascading Style Sheets? The purpose of this article is to seek feedback, suggestions, answers, and ultimately a better understanding of the state of web design practices in the face of emerging standards.”

The St. Louis Group for Information Architecture is pleased to announce: Tuesday, January 26, 7 p.m. At the offices of XPLANE; 809 Geyer Avenue (in St. Louis’ historic Soulard neighborhood).

“We will be talking about user-centered design and its relationship to information architecture. Attendees are asked to bring a object to show to the group and explain what makes the object easy/hard to use, what they like/dislike about it, and how the object could be improved. The ‘object’ can be whatever the attendee wishes: an actual physical product, a picture of a product, a screenshot of a website or software application, etc. This meeting is open to all. An informal cocktail hour will follow afterwards at Norton’s. Hope to see you next Tuesday!”

“…IDSA held one of their National ‘DesignAbouts’ in Manhattan, with hosts Symbol Technologies. The conference theme, ‘Innovation,’ attracted about 100 of ID’s best and brightest… A few take-away points: -Simplicity takes ages to master; -Rekindle the loss of childhood imagination with the “mastery of play” as a tactic for innovation; -Sasha says, ‘If you don’t want to see something, open your eyes.’”

“Analogous to the various models used in business to guide strategic planning, quality improvement, problem solving and other activities, there are models to guide creativity and innovation. In this working paper, we will explore the various models for creative thinking that have been suggested in the literature over the past 80 years. We will extract common themes from these various models and present a composite model that integrates these themes.”

“…IDSA held one of their National ‘DesignAbouts’ in Manhattan, with hosts Symbol Technologies. The conference theme, ‘Innovation,’ attracted about 100 of ID’s best and brightest… A few take-away points: -Simplicity takes ages to master; -Rekindle the loss of childhood imagination with the “mastery of play” as a tactic for innovation; -Sasha says, ‘If you don’t want to see something, open your eyes.’”

“In English, time rushes forward. In Mandarin Chinese, it moves down. The past lies above, and the future lies below. So is the mind of a Mandarin speaker different from the mind of an English speaker? The question is one of science’s loaded topics, a politically charged theory with a racist past. But researchers now say they are uncovering proof that it may be true.”

“This is a listing of the most commonly used traffic signs in the United States… Traffic signs are devices placed along, beside, or above a highway, roadway, pathway, or other route to guide, warn, and regulate the flow of traffic, including motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, equestrians, and other travelers.” And here’s the official government Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

“This is a listing of the most commonly used traffic signs in the United States… Traffic signs are devices placed along, beside, or above a highway, roadway, pathway, or other route to guide, warn, and regulate the flow of traffic, including motor vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, equestrians, and other travelers.” And here’s the official government Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

“What everyone should know about advertising: Clients, brand managers, and account directors will find this information useful, perhaps interesting. But it is written by and for creative people, those of us who make ads, create marketing campaigns.”