Indice dei contenuti per December 2017 in Computer Arts

After the minimalist beauty of Jim Sutherland’s glow-in-the-dark cover for last month’s Studio Rankings special, there was nowhere else to go except louder this month. Luckily, with our investigations into self-promo, mass communication and targeting social media more effectively, a screaming sequence of garish messages seemed appropriate. We decided to take advantage of our four-up cover printing process (four covers printed on each sheet of paper at the printers) to make four separate covers, each one featuring a call-out common to all contemporary designers searching for eyeballs and finger-clicks in our massively competitive industry. Our cover printer runs up to five colours per pass, so passing the covers through the press twice gave us 10 colours to play with: four CMYK and six spot colours. Naturally, we chose the most…

NICK CARSON EDITOR Nick has been busy with wedding activity, with one week to go as we go to press. Many hours have been spent browsing Etsy and Not On The High Street, as well as crafting awesome cardboard dinosaur masks. MARK WYNNE ART EDITOR Mark sampled the (cosmic) spirit of Dom Sylvester Houédard in this month’s social media promotion report (p42). But if using InDesign instead of an Olivetti typewriter is so much quicker, why did it take so long? ROSIE HILDER OPERATIONS EDITOR Rosie covered herself and her living room in hessian while creating several metres of bunting for Nick’s upcoming wedding. She also spent a rainy day devouring Philip Pullman’s new book in one sitting. KEY CONTRIBUTORS GARETH JONES VIDEO PRODUCER Gareth has been keeping busy by…

ADC 97th Annual Awards call for entries 31 January 2018 deadline www.adcawards.org The ADC 97th Annual Awards has the theme ‘Where Craft Will Take Us’, and introduces quite a few important changes to the previous format. A new tiered pricing structure means studios of more than 21 people pay the standard entry fee; those with 2–20 pay less; and solo entrants less again. Interestingly, freelancers can now enter for their contribution to a campaign or project created by an agency, too. The event itself is in May. Us By Night Antwerp, Belgium 23–25 November www.usbynight.be A three-day event featuring more than 50 speakers from around the world. Actually, it’s a three-night event, with keynotes running from 5–11pm each day, with a night market on hand to serve food and drink,…

You used to pick up 30 followers and 250 likes with every post. Now, it’s more like 20 likes and two followers. You’ve tried everything: slideshows; sponsored posts; switching to a business account. Hashtags that once worked just don’t any more – engagement has fallen off a cliff. Sound familiar? Even without the ever-changing algorithms, social media can feel like a full-time job – and indeed it is at the Googles and Red Bulls of this world. So what about when it’s just you? Are there best-practice rules to help boost engagement that anyone can follow, whether you’re a freelancer, small studio or full-blown creative agency? How can you make social media work more effectively for you and your clients? ENGAGE WITH THE RIGHT PEOPLE Before we get into the…

01 TAP INTO CURRENT AFF AIRS “Facebook wants the best possible experience for its users, so it’s constantly re-evaluating the value it puts on a piece of content, depending on how it thinks people will react to it,” says David Glenwright. “Try where you can to talk about popular or current affairs. By using these keywords in your content, Facebook will identify your post as being timely and relevant, and show it to more people.” 02 SHARE YOUR PORTFOLIO WITH DROPBOX “You can share Dropbox files on Twitter,” advises Ben Mottershead, “which is a great way to put out your latest PDFolio if you’re touting for freelance work, or a new job. This is particularly useful for graduates.” 03 USE THE GOLDEN RATIO What’s the right mix of first-party and…

OUR DESIGNERS SHARE THEIR TIPS FOR GETTING IT RIGHT 1 EFFICIENCY IS KEY “Always ask what digital output the assets are needed for, how many versions you will need and across how many breakpoints,” says Ollie Rone-Clarke of Conran Design Group. “Set up a process that anyone else on the design team can pick up. Make sure you have a definitive list of assets that need to be created.” 2 UNDERSTAND GOALS “Be clear about what you’re designing for and where the asset will end up,” says Chloe Holden of Conran Design Group. “Then you’ll know how to create the optimum design to suit each digital application. For example, an asset for Instagram will look very different to one for a web page.” 3 ADJUST SCREEN BRIGHTNESS “When altering colours…

At its core, design is all about solving problems, and a well-thought-out client brief with genuine depth and substance can be the perfect catalyst for great design. But what if you’re the problem? Self-branding can be one of the hardest exercises for a designer: it’s just too close to home. Our special report (page 58) explores different approaches to ‘brand you’, and how finding that distinctive niche to occupy can become the cornerstone of effective self-promotion. Balancing out this more holistic approach is our guide to the art and science of social media (page 42), and how to get the most from different platforms. It’s not an exact science, but a bit of insider knowledge can make all the difference. Great self-promo doesn’t have to be about crowing your own…

London-based Bompas & Parr may have started out by creating craft jelly, but it has rapidly expanded into a fully-fledged creative studio offering food and drink design. Its latest venture is a catering division specialising in multisensory experiential events. Sam Bompas explains why the company is branching out. What fascinates you about food in general, and the crossover with experiential design in particular? Well, we swiftly learnt that if you slap a jelly on the table, everyone smiles and shares some nostalgic tale. But to approach the scale we sought, we had to work on designing complete experiences around the jelly, addressing all the senses and borrowing from disciplines beyond the realm of the culinary. This included architecture, biochemistry, magic, toxicology, engineering, psychology and pyrotechnics. In each case the different…

KEY INFO: Location St George’s Bristol www.somethinggoodbristol.com When 6–7 October 2017 Attendees 300 Key speakers Gavin Strange, Anthony Burrill, Morag Myerscough, Trapped In Suburbia, Wilfrid Wood, Brendan Dawes, Marta Veludo, Snask After building momentum with its thread events series, Bristol agency Fiasco launched its first two-day festival, Something Good. The diverse line-up ranged from the infectious enthusiasm of local success story Gavin Strange to the anti-establishment surrealism of Swedish superstars Snask, with their leather-clad band Väg in tow. Perhaps the most memorable takeaway from Strange’s talk was the pie chart that revealed how he splits his time to accommodate a day job at Aardman, his passion projects under the JamFactory alias, and family life – a packed schedule that includes taking advantage of being awake at 5am (for baby-soothing duties)…

INSIGHT Strong opinion and analysis from across the global design industry HOLLY KIELTY CREATIVE DIRECTOR, DESIGN BRIDGE www.designbridge.com Holly is creative dircctor of brand language at Design Bridge. She began her career as an art director but soon her love of language prevailed. Recent work includes ‘all things wordy’ for Guinness, Tanqueray, Fortnum & Mason and Lipton. GREG QUINTON CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER, THE PARTNERS www.the-partners.com Greg is chief creative office of multi-award-winning brand agency The Partners – which is about to become part of an even larger mega-agency within WPP. On page 25, he argues that in the creative business, being bigger is most definitely better. DESIGN MATTERS: What’s your preferred social media tool for self-promotion? – page 24 PLUS: Three views on ASHA’s rebrand of the League Against Cruel…

AGAINST CRUEL SPORTS Focus on: League Against Cruel Sports Gloucestershire agency ASHA has given the animal welfare charity a new visual identity. We critique the new branding… MARKSTEEN ADAMSON Founding partner, ASHA www.ashawebsite.co.uk “Previously, the League Against Cruel Sports portrayed animals as tortured victims, often leaving audiences feeling powerless themselves. Our generative idea, ‘Humanity for Animals’, creates the distinction that it’s all about acting for animals, as anyone should who is truly human. That’s why the new LEAGUE brand identity has had changes to many of its core brand elements, by creating three simple categories: Investigate, Educate and Protect. You can’t change perception by logo redesign alone. So we created a visual positioning that shows the joy in the human and animal relationship, with the concept of ‘Soul to Soul’.…

DAVID KUTCHNER David is co-founder of Massachusetts-based Confluent Forms, providing web design, web development, branding, graphic design and custom software development services. www.confluentforms.com JOANNA SHI Freelance graphic designer and marketing consultant Joanna is based in Singapore. Prior to joining the design world, she spent six years advising top brands on marketing strategy. www.joannashi.com DAVID GLENWRIGHT David has spent the last five years applying the art of strategy to social media, as head of training services at JC Social Media. His work helps organisations understand the social media battleground. www.jcsocialmedia.com BEN MOTTERSHEAD Based in London, Ben is a quintessential ‘Jack of all trades’ designer. By day he works in a motion design studio; by night he works across a wide range of passion and freelance projects. www.behance.net/ben_designs AMANDA RUIZ Amanda is…

01 MASTER LIVE VIDEO All social networks are competing to become the ultimate live-streaming platform. They’re rewarding early adopters with increased reach, so experiment with Facebook Live 360, Instagram Stories, and so on. 02 TEST LIVE-STREAM VIDEOS Put them on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube – even Snapchat – and see what works. Distribute your social videos across all platforms that your target audience is likely to use. 03 DON’T GO OVER A MINUTE “People’s attention spans are very short,” explains Amanda Ruiz. “I’d recommend 15 seconds for an Instagram story and 60 seconds for Instagram video.” 04 HAVE A STRONG START “Keep video content to under a minute where possible,” agrees David Glenwright, “and ensure that the opening 20 seconds are enticing enough to keep people engaged.” 05 DON’T ASSUME YOUR…

Preparing assets for digital use is a core task for junior designers today. You may get asked to create or adapt images for websites, social media campaigns, display ads, email newsletters, video animations, infographics and app designs, to name but a few. At Conran Design Group, for example, a typical task might be to produce imagery for use in a responsive website, explains senior designer Ollie Rone-Clarke. “Once the design has been signed off, we’ll create a core master file of each asset size and these will then be saved for the web, using the right file format to make the files as small as possible, while still retaining key detail – so that these assets are fast to download, for example, on mobile.” So how you go about creating…

JACK RENWICK Graphic designer and founder of the Jack Renwick Studio in London, Jack confesses her love for second-hand oddities on page 98 – but it’s all in the name of finding inspiration. www.jackrenwickstudio.com JARED NICKERSON Originally from Nova Scotia, Halifax, Jared now runs his design studio Jthree Concepts in San Diego. The accomplished illustrator demonstrates a new CorelDRAW tool on page 88. www.jthreeconcepts.com AMANDA RUIZ Amanda is a PR expert who specialises in training clients to gain more press exposure. She’s one of the many gurus contributing to our feature on social media self-promotion on page 42. www.amandaruiz.co.uk GABRIELLA MARCELLA GABRIELLA MARCELLA www.gabriellamarcella.com MAX OTTIGNON Max is co-founder of, and creative director at, branding specialists Ragged Edge. As part of our video profile on page 76, he reveals why…

GAVIN STRANGE Senior designer, Aardman www.twitter.com/JamFactory “Twitter is my platform of choice for self-promotion. I know Instagram seems like the obvious choice, especially for a designer, but I’m a sucker for loyalty and Twitter’s been good to me for over 10 years now. I like the constraints of 140 characters (or 280 now?) and I love the inclusion of GIFs. It’s everything I need! The network of artists is always constantly inspiring, my feed is a constant barrage of inspiration, and retweets mean I get to see a lot of great work that I wouldn’t otherwise have spotted. I feel like there’s a great community on there too, and after spending a decade building my profile, I really feel like I’m a part of something. That’s nice.” ANNIE ATKINS Graphic…

HOW TO MAKE SURE YOUR POSTS FIT YOUR AUDIENCE’S SCHEDULE 01 FIND YOUR AUDIENCE Basic demographic research using Google Analytics should quickly show you where in the world your audience is based. Locate your audience and target them accordingly, using a handy tool like social media management platform Buffer to schedule your updates. This enables you to sidestep the issue of different time zones and concentrate on design. 02 POST ON FACE BOOK IN THE EARLY AFTERNOON According to CoSchedule, the best time to post on Facebook is from 1–4pm, with 1pm attracting the most shares and 3pm the most clicks. Wednesday at 3pm is also a key time, as is 12–1pm at the weekend. Facebook engagement during the working week, meanwhile, is apparently highest on Thursday and Friday –…

1 NOT UNDERSTANDING BRIEFS “Young designers often don’t understand the brief correctly,” says Osman Gani of Hogarth Worldwide. “This means they make assumptions or guess what needs to be done, instead of asking the project owner directly.” 2 FAILING TO ASK QUESTIONS “The most common mistake juniors make is not asking enough questions,” says Ollie Rone-Clarke of Conran Design Group. “Working in the design world can be a bit of shock for junior staff, especially regarding project time management. You haven’t got the luxury of time when you are on a tight client deadline.” 3 GETTING COLOURS WRONG “Before saving - and in fact, before you even start designing or adapting - check if all the colours are RGB and not CMYK,” stresses Andrea Esteban of Battenhall. “RGB has really…

Multi-award winning designer Jack Renwick runs her creative branding agency, Jack Renwick Studio in Whitechapel, when she’s not out hunting for second-hand treasure. Not with a metal detector or a pirate map, but hunting for the unique – the random objects and items that can only to be found in car boot sales, junk shops and flea markets, the stuff that you just can’t find anywhere else. It doesn’t matter what you discover, it’s the anticipation of starting the hunt and the potential of the complete unknown that excites. I grew up with parents who also had this bug. Professional bargain-hunters, hagglers and negotiators, we spent our weekends at markets, charity shops, house clearances or jumble sales. Most Sundays were spent at The Barras in the east end of Glasgow which was,…