Gatorworks | Baton Rouge Web Design & Development

Today I attended a meeting of the AAF Baton Rouge chapter, and I had a fairly eye-opening experience. I realized though I may work at a Graphic Design firm, I didn’t have any idea about any of the competition in the area. I really had no information from what I’ll call the “outside world”- meaning any company other than Gatorworks.

That being said when I went to this collaboration of designers and artists I was somewhat blown away. They spoke about their processes they went through in order to win the Addy Awards (awards given by the federation for excellence in creative design, marketing and advertising) and it made an impact as to how I view what I do.

One of the speakers (whose name is Greg Milneck) was the winner of an Addy for his work on some local commercials. Now when he spoke about his process it seemed at first that “Oh he’s talking about filmmaking, so this doesn’t really apply to me.” Yet, when I took time to listen and examine what he was saying it all made sense and really fit well into the process of my job.

Pre-production, pre-production, pre-production. Those were the three most important steps in his process. And if you think about it, those should be the 3 most important steps in pretty much any design process. Regardless of whether it’s print design, commercials, or web design, having pre-production as the primary priority in your process is pretty logical. He went on to say that regardless of budget “more time spent on pre-production will allow you to spend less time on the actual production and post-production saving you money in the long run.” That’s why it’s so important. For him, it was to avoid going to a set and having 30 cast and crew not knowing exactly what to do. But for people like me and my coworkers, it’s more about having the site functionality and content laid out in front of you like a blue-print. If it isn’t, the client will make mid-design changes, or even post-approval design changes which cause more time to be spent going back and repeating work.

He had others that he put less emphasis on, but the one that stood out to me as a web designer was “Cooperation between pre- and post-production crew.” Now in terms of web design, this struck a very resonant chord with me. More often than not, I’ve run into an issue in the closing processes of deploying a site because I didn’t inform the designer of the limitations of HTML/CSS. With an increase in collaboration between developer and designer, these hiccups and tiny setbacks that frustrate us all and run minutes/hours off the clock could easily be avoided.

This is why i think even though the speaker was talking about commercial making, the logic and process applies to all walks of life.

My purpose with this post is really just to share with you my experience at the luncheon and how it affected me. If you have any other steps in your design process or workflow that you find is imperative I would love to hear about it. Leave a comment or email me directly.

On November 1, 2008, Prospect.1 New Orleans [P.1], the largest biennial of international contemporary art ever organized in the United States, will open to the public in museums, historic buildings, and found sites throughout New Orleans. Prospect.1 New Orleans [P.1] has been conceived in the tradition of the great international biennials, and will showcase new artistic practices as well as an array of programs benefiting the local community. Over the course of its eleven-week run, Prospect.1 New Orleans [P.1] plans to draw international media attention, creative energy, and new economic activity to the city of New Orleans.

Check out blogger Blake Killian’s interview with Prospect.1 Curator Dan Cameron below:

Check out the list of the participating artists and the list of the participating venues. I know I plan to attend this wonderful event, and I encourage all of you to check it out as well!

Here’s a shining example of Trajan, the font which has become dubiously known as the “Movie Poster Font”. Click the image for a full size picture of one of the most overused fonts in the movie industry.

Welcome to the inaugural post of Typography Wins and Fails. Our purpose here isn’t to bash every use of bad typography we find, but to simply bring to light the frequency of common errors and the good examples of typography in modern media.

My favorite example, Trajan Pro a typeface designed to resemble the lettering on Trajan’s Arch in Rome. This font has been used and overused, and thus one part of this typography article is a focus on Trajan. Alas, Trajan has become a staple in certain industries and thus has earned a a bit of infamy. Namely, it’s commonly known as the “Movie Poster Font” but I have seen it in areas like bus stops, hospitals, real estate floor plans, and many other things.

Example from Smashingmagazine.com

My friends’ and my attempts to show the people common mistakes in typography such as distorting text, hatch marks, and terrible kerning will be documented here along with examples of typography in it’s best form. The focus of this article will shared between good and bad uses of typography.

Hopefully, through this article we can enlighten people about what’s wrong with common uses of typography and have a little fun while doing it.

Typography –when done right– can be beautiful and communicate a strong message. However, when the concept of typography is brandished wildly like a weapon without cause or understanding ends up being a detriment to the overall purpose of the user.

“Most people think typography is about fonts.
Most designers think typography is about fonts.
Typography is more than that, it’s expressing language through type.
Placement, composition, typechoice. ” -Mark Boulton

That being said, we’re going to look at the way a message is conveyed through the application of type effects, colors, placement; while also critiquing the composition as a whole in the near future.

-Chase

Gatorworks was recently selected to design the artwork for an upcoming event at The Howlin’ Wolf featuring New Orleans rap artist Juvenile along with Partners N Crime, MyNameIsJohnMichael, and a surprise special guest.

We enjoyed working with Juvenile on this project, and we hope to work on future projects with him.  We hope to see you guys at the show on Oct. 24th!

Event poster designed by Gatorworks for upcoming musical event.

I know sometimes we all think that what we do isn’t really important, or we wonder if it’s even “all worth it” in the end. We think: What else could be accomplished in the time that we spend picking fonts or finding a successful color palette? How many trees planted? How many houses rebuilt? How many children in Darfur saved? What am I doing? Does it make any sense?

Although I try to tell myself that what I do is tremendously important, I have quite a few weak moments where I feel I should pack up and join the Peace Corps.

Being the mother of a two year old boy, I have learned a lot about communicating on two separate levels, his and mine. Fulfilling the role as a “font of infinite knowledge” to my child can be fun, but it can also be an overwhelming task.

Two year old boys are constantly in the mix of things, yearning for new and exciting ways to be entertained and involved. Like with my child, the constant demand from the audience (i.e.client) to be involved with content ideas, type choices, color etc. has made the effort of a designers craft that much greater.

Like Sagmeister said,

“The audience is much more interested in design now because almost everybody is a designer themselves. This technology driven change has not lead to the predicted job losses but onto a desire for more sophisticated work from professionals.”

I know there are going to be clients that are less than easy to work with. Ones that ask you to “make it look like this (example of someone else’s work).” There is nothing more frustrating than being restricted of your creative rights. I know that if all you do is make compromises, things get less interesting, but, I want you to know there is nothing wrong with conceding, swallowing your pride and taking half damage. Keep your self-respect and commit to your responsibility of designing, but don’t be above learning about your audience.

Remember that creating experiences, even less than satisfactory ones, can’t stifle your passion to create and create effectively. Not every job can be perfect, but it’s the ones that bring “the good” back to your desires to create that make working all the more appealing.

Working on a small budget within an even smaller time frame, dealing with unreasonable demands, and being constantly pressured to tailor to a client’s needs while trying to maintain effective and inspiring ways of communicating can be daunting, but remember to use what you know to play your part and look forward to the next project.

This YouTube video is from the Castner and Walensky show on Rush Radio the other day.  The hosts of the show are interviewing Louisiana U.S. Senate candidate John Kennedy on his upcoming race against Mary Landrieu, and the topic of discussion is domestic oil drilling.  Before they begin the discussion, they immediately mention the campaign website at www.johnkennedy.com.  Go ahead and listen to the first 30 seconds!