Beta Boy Blog

I just found this site while reading a “listing” in the Creative Gigs section of CraigsList. This is really disgusting:

http://geniusrocket.com/

It’s basically a social networking site for creatives. However, the main draw of the site is not the networking function - GeniusRocket offers money prizes through “requests for brilliance”, which are basically thinly-veiled calls for spec work from young creatives who should probably know better.

Now, I’ll admit that a few of the money prizes are halfway decent. But what really bothers  me is that this site is still in beta and already claims to have over 5000 users. All creatives face requests for spec work from time to time, but the existence of such a large-scale spec work “clearinghouse” like this further devalues what we all do.  

I encourage all of you to spread the word about this site. Complain about it on your blog, Digg the complaints about it on your blog - whatever. Also discourage fellow creatives from joining the site, unless they plan on subverting it from the inside

In the Web 2.0 world of function over form, it was just a matter of time until designers started making their portfolios extacly one page deep. One Page Folios lists many such sites. I’m not sure how I feel about this trend. I’m sure potential employers love not having to trudge through a 20 page-deep portfolio website, but when I’m looking at portfolios, I enjoy digging around and sniffing out those few choice graphical truffles like some sort of specially-trained French pig. How do you folks feel about this trend?

I mentioned Saul Bass in my last post. For anyone unfamiliar with his work, he was a graphic designer and filmmaker, but is probably best known for creating many memorable animated title sequences for films. Using minimal design elements (which often resembled paper cutouts), he created a very unique visual “brand” for each film he worked on, from the film’s title sequence to its posters:

For folks not familiar with these older films, the title sequence of 2002’s Catch Me if You Can was very much a Saul Bass tribute.

Well, some genius on YouTube has posted Star Wars vs Saul Bass, which posits what would happen, “if Star Wars was filmed two decades earlier and Saul Bass did the opening title sequence”. Pure genius. 

Of course, another YouTube user soon posted the Special Edition.

Thanks to my buddy Lance for the link.

Ian & Alex of The Art of the the Title Sequence have done a wonderful thing - they’ve trimmed away all the boring plot and character development endemic to so many movies nowadays and delivered nothing but really cool title sequences. A great site that features a good balance of films both old and new, Art of the Title is a fantastic resource for anyone needing a little visual inspiration.

Some of my favorites: 
•Vertigo - Saul Bass goodness.
•Bullitt -Steve McQueen. ’Nuff said.
•Delicatessen - Because City of Lost Children & Amelie are waaay overated.
•The best Bond title sequence not designed by Maurice Binder.
•They even give anime its due with this groovy number. Now, if they would only create entries for Paranoia Agent & Paprika…

I’ve been working with Adobe Illustrator since the early 1990’s, but it wasn’t until about eleven years ago that it became the primary software I work with. Over that time, I’ve truly grown to love the program’s rich feature set, as well as some of its eccentricities.

One of the biggest challenges facing new users of Illustrator is how to create visually-pleasing linework. By linework, I’m referring to the contour lines (or outlines) of a given illustration. One of the things that initially turns off some folks with Illustrator and other vector drawing programs is that they think they have to settle for the outline assigned to a shape that they draw:

Click on the Ellipse Tool in Illustrator, and you’ll probably get a result that looks something like the above circle. Many Illustrator novices draw a few shapes, or take some chances with the pen tool and draw a few free form shapes - but all the while, they think they have to use the same boring black outline. In the forthcoming lessons, I’ll show you that the possibilities for clean linework go way beyond Window>Stroke>Weight: 1 pt.
More to come in Part 02!

Self-employed? Business a little slow during the economic crunch? Maybe a shift in your perspective is in order. I stumbled upon the Kiva website a few months back. It was started by a bunch of socially conscious folks from the San Francisco Bay Area, and it furnishes microloans to entrepreneurs in developing counties. An average loan runs about $25, and repayment terms usually run between 6 to 12 months, depending on the size of the loan. You can even build lending teams with other members. It’s a quick & easy way to help out entrepreneurs like yourself - and maybe build up a little bit of good business karma. 

My lender page is located here. Let’s do some good together!