A list apart’s website has a great article on this new problem with pixels and pixel based screen designs. As if designers didn’t have enough to worry about trying to cater to 500+ screen resolutions and devices, we now have a number of different types of pixels to measure by. Hardware pixel or reference pixel? To find out what the difference is and how to use media queris to fix this – read the full article here: www.alistapart.com/articles/a-pixel-identity-crisis/.
This made me want to scream & pull my hair out – and you may have the same reaction. But keep in mind we live in exciting times with design and technology. We are creating the future of how people will interact. These are obstacles we need to overcome and standards that need to be built for us to move forward

If you don’t yet know about SOPA, and the laws about banning IPs and copyright issues online going on, you should google it.
There are many sites that are going on “blackout” mode today as protest, thankfully WordPress is one of them. If you are a Canadian and want to speak out against SOPA, go here: openmedia.ca/SOPA. I’ve signed already, get on board! Speak up now!

A great little article on Stungeye here on Copyright law in Canada and some changes they’re proposing.

I also had to include this little graphic and blurb. Please do take the time to send in a letter to the Canadian government, this will effect all of us…

“Canada celebrated New Year’s Day this year by welcoming the likes of Ernest Hemingway and Carl Jung into the public domain just as European countries were celebrating the arrival of James Joyce and Virginia Woolf, 20 years after both entered the Canadian public domain. Canada’s term of copyright meets the international standard of life of the author plus 50 years, which has now become a competitive advantage when compared to the United States, Australia, and Europe, which have copyright terms that extend an additional 20 years.”

“The Canadian government filed notice of a public consultation on December 31, 2011 on the possible Canadian entry into the Trans Pacific Partnership (TTP) negotiations, trade talks that could result in an extension in the term of copyright that would mean nothing new would enter the Canadian public domain until 2032 or beyond.”

“Now is the opportunity to help preserve the public domain in Canada by speaking out against TPP copyright provisions that would extend the term of copyright or impose even stricter digital lock rules. The consultation is open until February 14, 2012. All it takes a single email with your name, address, and comments on the issue.

The email can be sent to consultations@international.gc.ca.”

Well it’s a new day… And a new year! Perhaps the last year according to the Mayans(?!!)…

I love the year end lists of the “best of” this and that collections that pop up at the end of the year. Here are a few favorites that I’ve come across over the last few weeks that I thought I’d share with you.

Best visualizations

From visual.ly blog here’s an article on some of the best visualizations of 2011. I really have fallen in love with infographics, but I really like this list because it also includes some interactive information (http://cnn-ecosphere.com/ was my favorite for sure – zoom in and check out the tweets around the world!) as well as some great videos that are packed with interesting and useful information. I hope you enjoy these as much as I did! Another wonderful couple resources for infographics are Good magazine’s infographic page here: http://www.good.is/infographics and http://visualjournalism.com/

http://blog.visual.ly/20-great-visualizations-of-2011/

Best typefaces

Coming from venturebeat.com – here is a decent short list of  the best web and mobile typefaces of 2011:

http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/22/best-2011-fonts/

Best cheat sheets

The best wordpress cheat sheets that I’ve found this year are from wptuts+ (love all the tuts+ sites!)

http://wp.tutsplus.com/category/articles/cheat-sheets/

Best movies???

The best movie list of the year – errrrrrr… I have yet to find one that I totally agree with.

Rolling stone has a decent list here: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/10-best-movies-of-2011-20111207 but there are for sure a few in their list that I would swap out. They don’t really have foreign films or any documentaries listed. I could probably make a list of 10 top documentaries because I watch so many… One of my favorites from this year was Waiting for Superman. If you are a student, or work in any part of education – or if you have children or are the least bit interested in education as a whole it’s a must-see.  The hangover 2 and Sherlock Holmes were quite good, and Drive – although it was nicely done was a bit too slow for me – artistic and beautiful yes but also slow. The Tree of life was again beautiful but I like it more as a visual background than a story.

Best music!? Ahhhh that’s always a list too long and complex…

This is a great little site if you want to hear some funny client quotes and stories.

One of my favorites:

“The screenshot you sent is all wrong. It doesn’t let me play the video. It seems to simply function like a photograph of someone’s screen.”

Want to generate some text for that new project and have a little fun doing it? This is the site for you.

Not for the faint at heart, or the easily offended! Use www.swearemipsum.com to generate your designer latin text~!

Read this article from netmagazine.com to get 10 great steps to living a long lasting design career.
# 10 is one of my favorite tips here – “be forever curious”, and a great conclusion as well. Remember to live life. I think it’s very important to get out and get inspired in this industry. Travel, meet interesting people, see and do interesting things and do whatever you need to do to be and stay inspired…

I always had a hard time explaining to my mother what it is that I did all day as a graphic designer… This is a great little video by DKNG studio on the process of creating a poster which from start to finish took about 40 hours. Enjoy!

The Black Keys – Poster Process from DKNG Studios on Vimeo.

Good design or just sex appeal? I’m not sure if I agree with using sex to sell ads but it’s been working since the beginning of time… and advertising like this still works otherwise no one would keep doing it. With everything around us these days though, does this really hold any shock value anymore?
Great comments and discussion on this on the imprint magazine site here.

Here’s a great little video to watch. An example of how you need to have multiple ways to advertise to your customers these days. Having an ad just on tv will not get the reach you need. Read Google’s full article on this here:

google-cpg.blogspot.com