The secret of graphic design, or secrets rather, are four tried-and-true principles brought down the mountain by Robin Williams, a brilliant author who published them in a book called The Non-Designer’s Design Book in 1994. I bought the book when I went back to art school, and I still refer to it every now and then to refresh my ever-fragile (and aging) neural pathways.

If you’re a seasoned pro, then prepare yourself to be refreshed. If you can’t remember driving past an art school—much less going to an actual design class—you’re about to learn some really cool stuff which will enable you to create layouts both visually pleasing and easy to read.

We’ll cover each of Ms. Williams’ principles—proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast—then put them to use on plain-old text, a business card, and an ad.

Proximity, Part 1

Principle number one is that of proximity: Group related items together. Bits of information that have nothing to do with each other should not appear close together on a page. Use spacing to visually convey what information is related and what is not. This helps create structure and organization, and gives the reader a visual clue as to where one piece of information stops and another starts.

To illustrate, let’s take a flyer I designed for Apple, Inc. a couple of years ago to promote their User Group program. Without proper spacing, the text is a mess and really tough to read. However, by adding a little extra space above each subhead, the relationship between subhead and body copy becomes clear at a glance.

CREDIT: LESA SNIDER KING
Credit for the photo on the left in the top row: SARAH FRIEDLANDER

Proximity, Part 2

Now let’s take a business card designed by a local print shop. At first glance, how many times do your eyes stop? Mine stop five times: once in the middle and once at each corner. Because there’s information in the top two corners (why do they always do that?), the natural reaction is to check if there’s something in the other corners as well.

When I apply the rule of proximity and group related information together, the design improves (even though I centered everything). How many times do your eyes stop now? Three times max.

Alignment

The act of aligning items in a like manner creates a visual connection for the reader, and when done properly, gives readers a hard edge for their eyes to follow. This edge forms an invisible line that connects the items on a page, making them stronger, cleaner, and more dramatic. With alignment, each item on the page has a visual connection with another item on the page.

In her book, Ms. Williams states that, “The strength of the edge is what gives strength to the layout.” Maybe you’ve never thought about it that way before, but it’s true. To illustrate, let’s use the same business card and apply a right alignment to the information that’s related. The design is better still, but we’re not finished.

Now let’s apply all this to a truly uninspiring cat clinic ad. It’s not the worst ad I’ve ever seen, but it’s close (use of proximity is its only saving grace). [on left]

By applying a left alignment to the text, we introduce a bit-o-harmony in the design. It’s also easier to read because instead of following text on a curve, our little eyeballs have a single hard edge to follow. Suddenly the ad seems a bit stronger.

Repetition

Repetition is a fun one; just find an element in your design and repeat it throughout the entire piece. It can be as simple as a text style, font, color, or a graphic element. Repetition does wonders for creating a feel of consistency through a design.

On the Apple flyer, I picked up the teal color from the color blocks at the bottom of the page and incorporated that into the subheads. On the business card, I duplicated the star from the logo, enlarged it, screened it back slightly, and floated it off the bottom right of the card. I also incorporated the blue from the logo into key pieces of text.

In the pet clinic ad, I repeated the font, sampled the orange from the cat art, and used it for the phone number. Finally, I duplicated the curve in the cat’s tail, enlarged it, screened it back, and floated it off the bottom right of the page.

As you can see, repetition gave all three designs a more cohesive feel.

Contrast

Contrast is my favorite of all the design secrets. Ms. Williams states that if two elements are similar, then they should be different—very different. Contrast is really important because not only does it create visual interest, but it draws readers’ eyes. Think about it: In almost every ad situation you have approximately five seconds to catch readers’ attention. If you don’t, they’ll never read your copy. Be brave!

Back to the pet clinic ad. We have a few choices for introducing contrast. One idea would be to pick out a word and make it really big and bold. Because I really want to make a statement, I scaled down the cat illustration and added a really big close-up of an angry cat face.

Adding contrast isn’t all about adding stuff either; you can also introduce contrast by taking something away. For example, in this version of the pet clinic ad, I moved the text to the bottom right of the page and introduced a huge area of white space, along with the repetitive paw element. The negative space coupled with the rather small block of text creates contrast.

Final Word

So there you have it: four little secrets that have the power to make or break your designs. Sure there are other things to think about when creating a design, but these principles of proximity, alignment, repetition, and contrast lie at the very heart of everything you create. They are the foundation upon which your entire design will be built. Commit them to memory straight away and be sure to pass “the secret” along to others. They’ll be glad you did.

Possibly one of the most confusing aspects of dealing with digital imagery is resolution-specifically, what it really is and how changing it affects an image. You’d be shocked at the number of brilliant designers who don’t know how to change an image from 72 dpi to 300 dpi-without turning it into a pile of pixel mush. That is, until now.

Today we’re going to talk about the relationship between resolution and pixels, and what it means to you. We’ll discuss the difference between upsampling-a rather evil practice of increasing the resolution (and thereby the number of pixels) in order to make the image larger than it originally was-and changing the resolution of an image without changing pixel data. First, let’s chat briefly about resolution in general.

What is resolution?
Simply put, image resolution is the number of pixels displayed per unit of printed length in an image. It’s a measurement used for printing (hence the phrase "of printed length") and it’s usually stated in pixels per inch (ppi-used when referencing screen images) or dots per inch (dpi-used in printing because printers print dots).

The way resolution affects an image is thus: For a given number of pixels in the width or height of an image, the higher the resolution, the closer the printer packs those pixels together in order to make a beautifully smooth and sharp print. The closer the pixels are packed together, the smaller the image will be physically when printed. Conversely, the lower the resolution, the more loosely those pixels are packed and the larger the image can be physically-though it loses definition and the print will look extremely undesirable and, well, chunky.

Because our monitors can only display a certain amount of information that our eyeballs/brains can process, resolution matters only to printing devices. That’s right, it doesn’t mean a hill of beans until that image is headed for a printer because only a printer can do anything with the resolution measurement. Your monitor just doesn’t care: A 72-dpi image will look exactly the same as a 3000 dpi image.

So how much resolution do you need to make a gorgeous print? It depends on the printer. While the current crop of consumer-level inkjets does a fine job at 225–250 dpi, a professional service bureau may require 300+. If it’s your own printer, run a few tests. If someone else is printing it for you, ask them what dpi they need.

What’s a pixel?
I won’t bore you to tears with a dissertation on how the smallest picture element of any digital image is called a pixel and how images are displayed in tiny blocks (also referred to as dots) of color that together form an entire image (or maybe I just did). That’s a pixel, and for the most part, creative types have been brainwashed not to pay attention to the number of pixels an image contains. We’ve been told to pay attention to its resolution instead. As you now know, this is true when it comes to print but not so much any other time.

But why should I care?
Because any file-the same file-can be measured at 72, 300, or 3000 dpi, its pixel dimensions are what matters most, not its resolution. You’re going to encounter 72 dpi files that need to be printed, and because you’ll need to resize that image, you need to understand how to change one without changing the other.

From digital camera to the big screen
For example, let’s take a photo from a high-quality digital camera (an Olympus Evolt E-330 to be exact). I thought this shot might make good stock photography so I took it on a high-quality setting so I’d have sufficient pixel data for printing. I popped open the photo in Photoshop and took a peek at its Image Size dialog to find that it was 3136×2352 pixels, but only 72 ppi. Does this mean my photo is of low-quality and unsuitable for print? Not at all. Read on.
 

There are several important things to note in this screenshot:

1. At the bottom of the document window, you can see that the file is indeed large-it’s 21 MB (circled in red).

2. Note the pixel dimensions shown in the upper portion of the Image Size dialog: 3136×2352 (also circled in red). Remember these numbers for a few seconds.

3. Note the honking big physical dimensions of this image. If I were to try printing the thing at its current resolution, it’d be more than 43.5 inches by 32.5 inches… INCHES!

Now, watch carefully as I increase the resolution of the image without messing with the number of pixels. Here’s how:

Step 1: In Adobe Photoshop, choose Image>Image Size. TIP: In Photoshop CS2, just press Command-Option-I (PC: Control-Alt-I).

Step 2: At the bottom of the dialog, uncheck Resample Image. This all-powerful magic option locks the number of pixels contained in the image, thereby locking the quality. Enter 300 into the Resolution field and look what happens:

The image is now 300 ppi and the physical size has decreased to about 10.5×7.5 inches. See how the physical dimensions of the image changed but the pixel information didn’t? I have exactly the same number of pixels I started out with: 3136×2352; they’re just packed more tightly together. Furthermore, notice how the file size didn’t change at all? It’s still 21 MB, as evidenced in the document window and in the Image Size dialog (another clue that the pixel data didn’t change). I haven’t changed the quality (pixels), I’ve just changed the measurement (dpi), which only affects the printed image.

Admittedly, this is confusing because the onscreen image didn’t change a bit (see earlier paragraph on monitors, eyeballs, and brains). The truth is only revealed by the Image Size dialog.

The thing to remember is that as long as you uncheck the Resample Image box, you can tweak the resolution ’til the cows come home and you won’t alter the image quality at all. Ever. If you leave the Resample Image box checked, you’ll be practicing a dark magic called upsampling, wherein you’re adding pixels (data) to the image that weren’t originally there. It’s usually a very bad idea; unless, of course, you’re in a real pickle or you’re going for that chunky look in your design.

The (dark) art of upsampling
That being said, (lowers voice to a whisper) there is a very special technique for squeezing pixels into an image without losing too much quality, but one should only use it in the direst of deadline or Extreme Large Format Printing (i.e., billboard) situations. The trick is to pop open the Image Size dialog, leave Resample Image checked and choose Bicubic Smoother from the pop-up menu to its right. Next, change the document dimension pop-ups to Percent and enter anywhere from 105–110%, then click OK. Do this as many times as necessary until you get the desired pixel dimensions. This will indeed add pixels to the image with surprisingly little quality loss, and at super large sizes, no noticeable quality loss at all. With such power comes the need for great restraint, however, so do resist the urge to increase more than 5–10% at a time.

Another alternative is to download software specific to this task. Take a peek at PhotoZoom Pro 2 by BenVista or Genuine Fractals by onOne Software . Both of these applications perform some pretty amazing image enlargement voodoo.

That’s all for now, and I hope this article has helped to clear up whatever resolution confusion you might have had. Until next time, may the creative force be with you all!

Point-and-Shoot Girl Goes Digital SLR
My name is Lesa King and I’m a point-and-shoot addict. While I’m writing this, it’s been 42 minutes since my last shot (a beautifully plated Salmon omelet during Sunday brunch). I admit it, a cute little Canon PowerShot SD30 (5.1 megapixel) goes with me everywhere nestled snugly inside my purse, enabling me to capture culinary delights heretofore never before seen.

My PowerShot and I have been quite happy together—that is, until I was invited to teach at the PhotoshopSoup2Nuts.org conference. Seems all instructors were being invited to attend a private tour of the Matthaei Botanical Gardens to capture the elusive Pink Lady’s Slipper Orchid in bloom. Yikes! A quick review of attendees yielded names like Shelly Katz, Jeff Schewe, and Thomas Knoll, among others. It took only nanoseconds to realize I’d need interchangeable lenses. Oh yes, this calls for a big gun: a digital SLR.

Being the point-and-shoot girl I am—I loathe framing shots through the optical viewfinder—I approached Olympus about their new Evolt E-330: the world’s first digital SLR with a live preview screen. Instead of pressing your face to the camera to frame a shot, the E-330 lets you preview the scene live on the 2.5" LCD screen in all its full-color glory. The screen can be pulled out and extended away from the camera body and swiveled up or down for hard to reach shots. The E-330 also dusts off its own sensor every time you power the camera on. Say goodbye to photo specks forever with this one!

The upside to the E-330’s articulating screen is that to the vertically challenged (myself included), it opens up an entirely new realm of over-the-head shot possibilities. Likewise, you need merely to bend slightly to capture beauties below the knee. Downsides include the loss of image stability from the physical act of pressing the camera body against your face and a bit-o-battery life.

Lenses: The Long and The Short of It
Olympus sent a variety of lenses, of which my favorite was the Macro. I’ve never taken such amazing close-ups before (see Heart of a Daylily shown here). I had an absolute ball with this lens, as evidenced by the plethora of macro shots sprinkled throughout this review.

The E-330 performed equally well on fast action shots using the 10x telephoto, as shown in these two images of track day at Barber Speedway. I found shutter speed pleasantly zippy and I enjoyed the ability to fire off three shots per second with zero shutter lag. If you forget your tripod, use this rapid-fire technique to increase your chances of getting a stable, non-blurry shot. The live-preview mode certainly does drink the battery juice, so action pros will want to toggle the live preview screen off.

One oddity did occur: Twice after swapping lenses the camera refused to focus. I just powered the camera off, removed the lens and put it back on, and everything worked fine. There is a firmware update that I’ve not installed so this may never happen to you.

Battery and Interface
The E-330’s lithium battery life was okay, and I went up to three days without recharging while carrying the camera with me, albeit only shooting intermittently. I also spent a fare amount of that time using playback mode to delete images from the 2-gigabyte Compact Flash Type I memory card (the E-330 also supports CF Type II, MicroDrives, and xD-Picture Cards). To preserve battery life, you’ll need to turn the live preview screen off. To recharge, you’ll have to remove the battery and place it in its own cradle, though I would have liked to recharge the battery by attaching a cable to the camera body instead.

The E-330 comes with 29 shooting modes, which is rare for a digital SLR. For the most part, I left it on Program, where it set the ISO, white balance, and metering automatically; though, veterans would be happier in manual mode, tweaking every setting to perfection. I found the entire menu system and button-set extremely intuitive, and though I read the manual for the purposes of this review, I really didn’t have to.

Files of Many Sizes
The E-330 supports the usual array of file formats including RAW, TIFF, and a variety of JPEG qualities. I liked the ability to shoot in RAW + SHQ mode, thereby capturing two images of every shot: one in RAW at 3136×2352 pixels, approx. 12.9 MB; and another "super high-quality" JPEG at 3136 x 2352 pixels, approx. 5.7 MB. Oh sure, that’ll bloat a memory card at warp speed but for one new to the digital SLR scene, it’s a great way to visually explore the benefits of shooting in one format versus the other.

Admittedly, the transfer rate of the included USB 2.0 cable on a full 2-gig CF card was painfully slow (upwards of 35 minutes), but a quick switch to the LaCie Media Reader (http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10087) yielded a more tolerable commitment of less than 10 minutes.

The Bottom Line
Overall, I’ve gotten some amazingly crystal-clear shots with the E-330. The only downside to the entire experience was bulkiness; however, this is an evil inherent to all digital SLRs. There’s just no way around carrying the equipment with you (save for hiring a camera caddy). Though the camera itself weighs only 1.21 pounds, the lenses and extra gear add up quickly. To get high-quality shots, you’ve got to pay the price in bulkiness and bag weight. Period.

For those jumping into the digital SLR realm, I highly recommend this camera. It’s a great way to transition from point-and-shoot land by having the ability to use the screen to compose shots. For pros, the articulating screen will enable you to capture hard-to-reach shots like never before. Now all I have to do is save up the money to buy one!

PRICE: $999.99 US
FROM: Olympus
PHONE: 1-888-553-4448
WEB: www.olympusamerica.com
RATING: 5

The Broadcast Designer

In high school, Christopher Dominici drew caricatures of his teachers and his friends. He also played piano by ear and wanted a formal music education, but his father wanted him to be an engineer. So he compromised and went to art school, bought a synthesizer, and joined a rock band. The band never made it, but he did get a BFA in Graphic Design.

Later, in his twenties, Dominici was a print designer by day and a musician by night. Then a friend, a sound engineer at a local TV station, asked if he could compose a music package for their news programming. That’s when he bought his first Mac. The TV station soon hired him as a writer/producer/designer.

Since then, he’s been a broadcast designer, a TV promotion writer/producer, a design director, and a creative director at various TV stations and cable networks. Now, he owns his own company, Potomac Motion in Poolesville, Maryland, and provides motion graphics and broadcast design to corporations, broadcast and postproduction facilities, and government agencies.

Staying alive
To keep his music fix alive, Dominici composes original music for a project or two and plays keyboards and low Irish whistle at church on the weekends.

He likes to stay on top of new developments in the industry and likes to play with new applications. “Of course, I try to keep up with the latest software and plug-ins. My best advice to any designer is to try to avoid using any plug-in or software ‘out of the box,’ but to allow some playtime with your new toy and come up with alternate uses of the product. Some of my best motion graphics have come about when I’ve hit the wrong key while designing.”

When I asked Dominici what was the one thing that had the most impact on his career, he responded, “After Effects, without a doubt. When I first used version 4 in 1998, I was elated because here was a program that essentially gave me a timeline and editing capability for Photoshop. I could now edit keyframes (just as I had edited MIDI data the previous ten years) and create motion graphics in much the same way that I create music.”

When asked about the future of video, Dominici answered, “In five years, I expect full-resolution, uncompressed, high-definition video on digital (tapeless) cameras and decks to be the norm. Also, I suspect that the quality of motion graphics will improve exponentially throughout the industry. I can’t wait to see what the best designers will be capable of producing in the not-so-distant future.”

FBITN Presents video open
PHOTO CREDIT: ©2005 FBI TRAINING NETWORK

The Video: FBITN Presents training video open

The Inspiration: The FBI had a training unit that needed a makeover of their logo and their video training materials. This is a program open that Dominici designed, live-action shot, and created in Adobe After Effects. “I had the luxury of choosing the music track for this open (I try to negotiate this option on most jobs), so I can say it was the track that inspired the look and frenetic pace of the animation.”

The Process: “This is the kind of job that, in my recent past, would have taken hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of broadcast hardware and a full creative team to pull off. Now, I can create and execute a piece like this in less than a week with less than $20,000 worth of hardware/software,” according to Dominici. To achieve the final product, he used a Sony HDR-HC1 video camera (www.sony.com); Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator (www.adobe.com) on a Power Mac G5 and a PowerBook G4 (www.apple.com); and the following plug-ins: Aurora Sky (www.digitalanarchy.com), Power Picker (www.fnordware.com), Knoll Light Factory (www.redgiantsoftware.com), ReelSmart Motion Blur (www.revisionfx.com), and Shine (www.trapcode.com).

[To view samples of Dominici’s video opens, visit www.layersmagazine.com/magazine/downloads.—Ed.]

Redskins Gen‘R’ation program open
PHOTO CREDIT: ©2005 THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS

The Video: Redskins Gen‘R’ation program open

The Inspiration: The Washington Redskins were in need of a Saturday morning kids’ show program open. Unfortunately for Dominici, he was asked to use existing footage of players and kids shot in a dark studio with one light source. “I felt that the footage was inappropriate (from a design standpoint) for a fun, lighthearted kids’ show,” he said. So, he grabbed stills from the footage and created a virtual world of team colors and football icons. The footage limitation led to this final design that was a hit with the client.

The Process: For this project Dominici used a Power Mac G5, a PowerBook G4, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Apple Motion, and the following plug-ins: Power Picker, Knoll Light Factory, ReelSmart Motion Blur, and Trapcode’s Particular.

Top 10 things Dominici can’t design without:
1. My eyes
2. My ears
3. Nature
4. A grid
5. Music
6. Typography
7. Single Malt Scotch
8. My cameras
9. My Macs
10. After Effects

The Illustrator

The son of a cartoonist, William Evans (http://wevans.co.uk) was exposed to art and creativity very early on. After finishing grade school, he enrolled in The Arts Institute of Bournemouth in England, where he studied graphic design, illustration, and multimedia. While there, Evans seized each and every opportunity to work in his field of choice, and did time in the trenches at various advertising agencies.

Struggling to find work after finishing college as many bright young designers do, Evans decided to take the digital television and Web career path with Teletext (www.teletext.com). It was during this time that he was bitten by the illustration bug. Thus, in his spare time he created illustrations for sale on iStockphoto.com (www.istockphoto.com/onion). Through the resulting connections, he started branching out and taking on freelance work. This not only boosted Evans’ confidence, but it began opening doors of opportunity for him. A few years and a few doors later, he joined the Electronic Arts team (www.ea.com) as a motion graphics designer, where his previous experiences and projects come into play each and every day.

The art
These days, Evans is not resting on his British laurels; he believes it’s vital to create illustrations every single day, either for clients or for himself. With his eye on the future, he creates the type of artwork he wants to be hired to do. “It sounds strange but I always act out a brief in my head before I do anything,” he said. “Some of the work you do can be of little interest, and this helps in these cases and gives you a starting point.” Evans views each image as a journey. “You never know what you’ll have as the finished product,” he reflected. “I keep going through the process until I’m happy and my client is happy with my work.”

For inspiration, Evans suggests investing in shelves and shelves of books, and to be mindful of what you see in magazines and on the Web. “These will give you the latest trends and new concepts to try out,” he advised. He also sings the praises of having a sketchbook and camera with you whenever possible. “I find that every time I leave the house there is always something to get inspiration from; whether it’s from people watching, objects, city life, or ads that catch my eye,” said Evans thoughtfully.

Designing the future
I asked Evans where he thought the print industry is headed, and what type of changes he sees on the road ahead in the next five years. “It’s always very difficult to answer this kind of question,” he said. “I feel that in the last few years there has been more focus on photographic imagery that’s been manipulated in different ways to create an illustration. Though recently, and in the future, I can see Illustration getting more credit and exposure.” Evans was quick to add that this means added pressure on designers and artists to perform at higher levels.

“I would say that the most recent style trend has been for very clean and slick designs,” Evans stated. “Clients now want designs that look more hand drawn and authentic.” Of course, Evans acknowledges it’s anyone’s guess as to how long that trend will last. He also added that he sees a great opportunity in the stock industry for illustrators. “Personally I think this is a great opportunity for new illustrators and graduates alike to get exposure in this difficult industry, and to open new opportunities.”

Music
PHOTO CREDIT: ©WILLIAM EVANS

The Illustration: Music

The Inspiration: Music and urban living.

The Process: “My thought process was to start on the basis of stencil/graffiti,” Evans remembered. “I started by taking photos, which I then took into Photoshop.… I played around with the Levels and Curves, and Pasteurise until I was happy.” Once he had just the right level of detail, he took his creation into Freehand where he traced the edited images. “I always take images into Freehand first,” he said, “as I am more fluent in that application, and, therefore quicker.” Next, Evans popped the piece into Illustrator to create the composition and add color. “I finished by taking it back into Photoshop to add final detail and extra layer effects.”

Bottle
PHOTO CREDIT: ©WILLIAM EVANS

The Illustration: Bottle

The Inspiration: “I’m constantly thinking of objects I can use in my designs. With this one I took an everyday object then just went off on it, letting it go and not really knowing where it would end up.”

The Process: Evans started by coming up with concepts—exploding, colorful, and energetic—and kept these in mind throughout the process. “I started to play around in a blank Illustrator file deciding on the main focal point, the bottle, and then working around it, adding swirls and sloshes,” Evans said with a smile. Once he was satisfied with the final piece, he used Photoshop to add final detail and extra layer effects.

Top 10 things Evans can’t design without:
1. 2.1-Ghz G5 iMac: “My beautiful baby,” Evans cooed affectionately.
2. Macromedia Freehand MX: “I always start my work here.”
3. Adobe Illustrator CS2
4. Adobe Photoshop CS2
5. www.istockphoto.com
6. www.bbc.co.uk: “I’m constantly checking the news on this website,” Evans said.
7. A sketchbook
8. Digital camera (he’s saving up for a digital SLR)
9. My collection of books
10. iTunes: “My collection of music.”

The Multimedia Guerrilla

Can a hard-core software developer and programmer with no formal training become a successful Web and multimedia designer? Ask Niilo Tippler and you’ll find the answer is a resounding, “Yes!”

A UK native, Tippler’s background in IT and design spans over twenty-four years, and he’s come a long way from developing software for British Telecom. Tippler transitioned into multimedia CD-ROM development in the early 1990s and has produced several critically acclaimed titles. He participated in the production of Peter Gabriel’s groundbreaking XPlora1 CD-ROM, and he also developed a proprietary code engine for analyzing digital audio information and translating it into visual effects, the forerunner to today’s iTunes’ mesmerizing visuals.

Tippler has also worked on highly successful multi-CD infotainment titles, such as McGraw-Hill’s Pony Express Rider and Virgin’s One World Atlas and One Tribe encyclopedia. He has also produced a wide range of CD-ROMs for Fox TV, Fox Sports Net, Sony Vaio, FranklinCovey, and Motown.

Life changes in a Flash
When Tippler discovered Flash, it was love at first launch; and with the introduction of improved scripting features in Flash 4, he began implementing coding techniques from his programming days. “For me, programming is as much art as it is coding; it’s a creative process. I see what I want to do in my head and I just start making it. I never had any formal training so I don’t really do anything by the book,” Tippler said. “Don’t expect specifications, discovery documents, flowcharts, and rigid schedules from me…evolution is the name of the game,” he tells his clients. “Life evolves, so does art; and for me, so does the whole development process.”

His programming background dovetailed perfectly with his newfound passion for creative vision and design. “When it comes to software, I’m a purist,” Tippler said. “I love my basic work suite: Photoshop, ImageReady, Flash, Dreamweaver. These are the core of my production workflow,” stated Tippler. He uses Photoshop’s adjustment layers and layer masking extensively. There’s only one third-party plug-in that he uses regularly, and that’s PictureCode’s Noise Ninja (www.picturecode.com). For removing noise from photos, especially high ISO shots, he says it’s invaluable.

Tippler’s unique blend of engineering and design methodologies result in work that’s the best of both worlds—function and form. “Design by Engineering by Design” is an axiom by which he works, seeing not just the front-end nor the back-end, but the melding of the two. The unique community on iStockphoto.com has also been integral to his success, and their iStock Steel Cage Photoshop battle is where he feels the most creative.

These images are a result of Tippler’s own images, images downloaded from iStockphoto.com, and the images from other players’ blows in one of the iStock Steel Cage battles.

Turning Japanese
When it comes to inspiration, Tippler points to books. “I was able to work my way into the job market through sheer determination and self promotion,” Tippler recalled. “Whenever something came up that I didn’t know, I just got a book and taught myself how to do it.” He loves design anthologies and has a huge library that he browses for ideas. In particular, he likes the Society of Publication Designers Publication Design Annuals and the Creativity series (www.spd.org). For personal inspiration he looks to Japanese marketing design, and back a few generations to the ’60s and ’70s. “Two decades so ultimately different, but whose identities provide immense opportunities for a designer.”

When asked about where the Web and multimedia industry is headed, Tippler said we should look to Japan to see the future. “Technology is far more heavily integrated into Japanese society than it is in the West,” he said. “IT communication is fluid and constant. We think we’re deeply immersed in it here in the U.S. but this is the tip of the iceberg. Japan has always been a couple of generations ahead in terms of the way they use and integrate technology into their daily lives. That’s where we’re heading in a few years.”

In January of 2001, Tippler realized the dream of working for himself by founding UPSIDEDOWNDOG (www.upsidedowndog.com), a multimedia design and development studio, specializing in Flash game and activity development. His client list includes Mattel and Fox Television, and his projects run the gamut of the interactive spectrum. Among his latest are a website for a New Jersey candymaker, a dog training CD-ROM, a paintball game for William Shatner, a website for a technology staffing company, and games for The Simpsons and American Idol.

SusanDeming.com
PHOTO CREDIT: ©NIILO TIPPLER

The Website: SusanDeming.com

The Inspiration: Tippler’s inspiration for Susan’s site came from Monty Python. “Their style of animation, using a mix of cartoons and real objects in a pseudo-realistic setting where perspective, light, and the laws of physics are bent out of shape, seemed perfect,” Tippler said. “Susan was involved in the official Python website, and I’ve always been a huge fan, so this seemed the perfect direction to take.”

The Process: The site was created in Flash, though everything was first put together in Photoshop, then saved as PNGs with transparent backgrounds. “The old ’60s-style record player used to play Susan’s songs shows a particular style of design that I really enjoy producing: real objects with added layers of elements which build it into a user interface,” said Tippler. “It’s this combination of real and unreal which has become something of a trademark in my designs,” he said with a smile.

Method & Red’s Mix It Up
PHOTO CREDIT: ©NIILO TIPPLER

The Media: Method & Red’s Mix It Up

The Inspiration: This was a project for Fox Television to accompany a new hip-hop comedy show called Method & Red. “Hip-hop came from the underground,” Tippler said, “so I wanted to present this audio mixer as something which had been cobbled together with bits and pieces of other equipment, and held together with tape and bits of string. Again, this is where my pseudo-realism style came into play. I built the entire concept in Photoshop, layering numerous elements together, building the interface from old switches and buttons, and using real VU meters whose needles I could animate in Flash. The whole design is a true collaboration of photographic imagery and animated Flash vector elements.

The Process: The specs were quite vague, Tippler remembered, “Just create an audio mixer using supplied sound samples, allow the player to create a short piece of music and then let them email it to a friend. Kind of an audio eCard.” Though the project timeline was unbelievably short (about a week), Tippler said it’s one of the projects he’s most proud of.

Top 10 things Tippler can’t design without:
1. Dual 2-Ghz Power Mac G5 with 2.5GB RAM and 1-TB of hard drive space
2. Twin ViewSonic 18″ VX800 LCD display
3. Macromedia Flash 8 Professional
4. Adobe Photoshop CS
5. Macromedia Dreamweaver MX 2004
6. FontAgent Pro v3.0.2 by Insider Software
7. Transmit FTP v2.6.2 by Panic
8. Apple Titanium PowerBook G4
9. Apple Pages v1.0.2
10. Chocolate (any version!)

How a Bluetooth mouse saved my life… er, wrist

I. Love. This. Mouse. It’s small, it feels so good in my hand, and it’s wireless to boot. Can it possibly get any better than that? Why yes, it certainly can. It has three buttons and—here’s the “biggy"—a scroll wheel (it’s also the third button). Now that may not be a big deal to some, but trust me—this feature literally saved my wrist. Here’s why:

For the entire month of July I’ve been toiling under a particularly nasty deadline on the upcoming iLife ‘05: The Missing Manual book by David Pogue. I created the book from scratch, taking excerpts from various other Missing Manuals—deleting unnecessary chunks, renaming/renumbering graphics—to produce this big monster in InDesign. You can imagine that there was a fair amount of scrolling involved, even with me using Page Down and Page Up keyboard shortcuts. I never dreamed how much this little wheel was going to save me in wrist pain, and the difference was overwhelming. The guys at RadTech sent me this little gem about midway through the project, when I was getting used to going to bed with some pretty serious wrist pain. In about a day, all that changed. You had to feel it to believe it.

The only bit of weirdness I’ve experienced with the mouse is that there are some surfaces it just doesn’t like. I have a black desk that’s really slick and the mouse refuses to work on it; however, if I place a piece of paper underneath, it’s fine. The other minor annoyance was getting it paired with my laptop. Turns out, one really should read the owner’s manual first! If I had, I would have known that it’s necessary to push a little gray button on the bottom for it to be discoverable. Also there’s a handy on/off switch that saves on battery life. The two AAA batteries pop in just beneath the mouse’s backend cover on the top.

Overall, I simply can’t recommend this mouse enough, especially for my small hand size. And with it being so tiny itself, it’s a perfect travel companion. Thank you, RadTech!

PRICE: $54.95-$55.95
FOR: Mac and Windows
FROM: RadTech, LLC
PHONE: 314-209-9993
WEB: www.radtech.com
RATING: 4.0