#OWL CPS

Week #11 - Welp, It's Official. Class is DONE!

Wed, 14 Mar 2012 01:27:51 -0500

Week #10 In-Class Interactive Jam Session

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:59:00 -0600

Today in class we will continue to jam on either Anthropologie art direction for web, iPhone & iPad and/or take a stab at tomorrow’s apple.com homepage, result of tomorrow’s Apple Keynote, which is supposed to bring on the iPad 3.

Option 1:

Continue to jam on art direction for Antrhopologie and take your campaign to either the iPhone, or iPad through iOS.

Think about your campaign message and translating it to mobile.

Option 2:

Design a new index page for apple.com, guessing what it will look like tomorrow with the hopeful drop of the iPad 3 and other fun products.

Week #9 In-Class Design Assignment Pivot X Info Capture Page

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:34:44 -0600

After presenting our Anthropologie emails, I offered up one of two options to continue build.

1. Pivot - You have been hired away from Anthropologie by a competitor and will be designing/writing the same type of creative for them.

2. Campaign Page - Use your existing Anthropologie email to design a campaign/landing/information capture page. This would be a page that the email would take you to on-click.

Think… where am I going, what is the page supposed to do, what information needs to be collected? This can also be a contest style site where users are asked to upload photos to a feed, or post on social networks.

Week #9 In-Class Site Ideation Logan Square Design Building

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 11:30:40 -0600

In class we discussed breaking down a sites functionality from ground up. We talked ways to get people interested in a website from Tumblr, to Instagram, to Twitter feeds.

The board was a mess, but we ended up with a simple site focused on updated feeds via Twitter/Tumblr/Instagram and Contact Info! Really the important stuff.

Check the board.
http://instagr.am/p/Hk-HPZHmp9/

Week #8 In Class + HW Assignment Copycat Something New

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:42:51 -0600

In class we are jamming on creation of an email campaign using existing art direction. It was a toss up and we are moving forward designing for Antrhopologie.

Homework is to finish up the email campaigns. We will be presenting at the beginning of next class.

Word up.

Week #8 In Class Lecture Photoshop, What is it Good For?

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:31:44 -0600

In class we took it back to the old school and talked Photoshop in a really granular light. What are color profiles? How do they work on the web?

We also talked basic setup in Photoshop around the 960.gs system and how to get the page created correctly for web.

Week #7 In Class Jam Session + Homework

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:47:27 -0600

Keep jamming on those team project index pages.

Homework: Get as far as you can on your index page infusing elements from your Art Direction. Next week in class I will help teams convert what they got on the page to make elements for their full site.

Week #7 In Class - Dieter Ram's 10 Principles For Good Design & Why They Are Important

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 10:45:56 -0600

In class we walked 1-10 through Dieter Ram’s Principles For Good Design with brief explanation of why they are still not only relevant, but more useful than ever as we expand into new interactive markets, like mobile.

Remember, these were created by Rams for Braun’s Industrial Design Department around product development. Apps on your phone are products that need to be developed.

Dieter Rams 10 Principles For Good Design

Week #6 In Class – Copycat

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 11:57:41 -0600

Let’s polish up those design skills.

I personally think the best way to learn is to benchmark off some pre-existing excellent interactive sites on the web. That way we strip Art Direction from the students to focus exclusively on production of existing styles that are doing something really nice.

We picked in random and students jammed on duplicating the sites all the way down to the % of drop shadow.

I demoed recreation of DesktimeApp.com as the example.

We jammed on: Jeep.com, VictoriasSecret.com, Facebook.com, LinkedIn.com, OldSpice.com, 37signals.com, Etsy.com, MarthaStewart.com, Twitter.com, Target.com, & Pinterest.com.

Next week we will post the progress.

Week #6 Lecture – Jon Buda Talks Desktime

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:33:00 -0600

Tonight, Jon Buda is going to come through to talk about the process around making his product Desktime.

http://desktimeapp.com/

Week #6 Plans – Badly Designed Site Audit & Style Copycat

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:06:45 -0600

This week in class we will be auditing a very expensive newly launched website that doesn’t quite cut it. We will assess everything from usability to aesthetics.

We will also be doing a 120 minute in-class design copycat assignment. More on that on Tuesday.

Week #5 Big Thanks To Nick Disabato For Coming Out

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:31:55 -0600

CPS and the class would like to thank Nick Disabato for coming out to speak at our class tonight! Nick was also kind enough to give a digital copy of his book Cadence & Slang to all of the students in attendance, which was a very very nice gesture.

Thanks again Nick.

Week #5 Homework – Finalized Functionality of 2 Pages + Art Direction Main Page

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:30:11 -0600

There are 2 pieces of homework from Class #5:

1. Finalize the functionality of ALL THE PIECES that need to be on the page for 2 main pages from your concept. You pick the pages. This may be your login page, a product page, a question page, or just a content page. Create a sketched wireframe (as a group).

2. Everyone on your team must try to create a PSD layout of 1 of your main pages. Essentially, this is Art Direction, but the goal of getting this all on to the page is to creatively solve problems as to how your product functions.

Week #5 Presentations – Team Project Decks!

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:26:00 -0600

Names have been changed and overall concepts are starting to come together. Take a peek at the project pitches and inspirations.

The Daily Prognosticator

Upcycle

Inquisition

Art School Book

Week #5 In Class Deceptive UX Lecture + Deck Presentations + Feedback

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:13:24 -0600

Class #5 will open with a lecture by Nick Disabato (@nickd) (who you may know from either Cadence & Slang, or his new project Distance.)

Nick will be giving a lecture about deceptive UX techniques, that I heard him give last year before he presented it at the Web 2.0 conference.

After Nick, we will be breaking up into our project groups and presenting our decks to the class, myself and hopefully/possibly Nick.

After presentations, I will choose 1 teams deck to critique (the idea, not the deck itself) with the class.

Once every team has presented, we will start jamming on taking a wireframe and putting a design shell around it.

Week #4 Copy - Design Exchange

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:02:07 -0600

Project: Design Exchange

Team: Lacey, Kelsey & Julia

Tagline:
Reworking

Quick Pitch:
A classified site for quality furnishings.

Long Pitch:
This website is a curated site for home furnishings. The client can buy/sell furniture of a superior quality. This site will exist to week out lower end and used furniture. All photographs will be of exceptional quality and all items will have to be approved before posted.

Week #4 Copy - Ad School Book

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:56:45 -0600

Project: Book Piece

Team: Allie, Courtney & Simon

Allie

Name:
Book Piece

Tagline:
Manage your creativity.

Quick Pitch:
Portfolio school moves fast. Make sure you’re on top of it.

Long Pitch:
Building a strong advertising portfolio takes a lot more than clever headlines and fancy photoshop. Timely project management, creative collaboration and extensive research are necessary to create award-winning and dream-job-worthy work. “Book Piece” is a digital resource for creative students to manage innovative, unique and inspired pieces.

Courtney

Tagline:
Simple project management for ad students

Quick Pitch:
TheBook is an online project management tool for ad school students.

Long Pitch:
TheBook is an easy-to-use tool designed to guide you through ad school and get you the best portfolio possible. Campaigns, research, deadlines, inspiration and directories live in one spot and can be accessed from anywhere there’s an internet connection. Your school controls the homepage, so they’re able to reach all students at one time with announcements and schedule changes when they happen.

Simon

Possible New Names:
Adbase.
Book-buddy.
Thought Bubble.
Idearia… (kidding)

Tagline:
Organizing, Inspiring, collaboration tool for ad students.

Quick Pitch:
Organizing and simplifying ad student collaboration.

Long Pitch:
A good portfolio isn’t built in a day, nor is it built alone. Creatives, not being known for their organization skills, now have the technology to: manage their time, share inspiration with other ad students, and easily follow project development.

Week #4 Copy - Inquisition

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:51:24 -0600

Project: Inquisition

Team: Pat, Ryan, Sarah & Dan

Pat

Name:
Inquisition (Inquisitioner, Inquisitionr, Ask/Answer)

Tagline:
The world asked, answered, and scored;
Learn yourself and your world;
The meaning of life, one question at a time;
Ask your questions, Give your answers;
Ask and Answer the World;
Stop asking yourself and ask the world.

Quick Pitch:
Inquisition is a website that helps you learn more about yourself and your world through asking questions, giving answers, and tracking the results.

Long Pitch:
For every person filled with opinions and questions, Inquisition can help. By asking and answering questions, you will find out more about yourself and your world. You’ll know who feels the same as you do. The best questions get the most answers, so get creative and you might be the Grand Inquisitor.

Ryan

Tag Line:
“Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers”.- Voltaire

Quick Pitch:
Create and answer interesting and creative questions, compete with friends and strangers, connect with new people.

Long Pitch:
Inquisition is a site which, on the surface, is a competitive question creation engine. Users create questions and answer others, and the success of their questions is tallied on a leaderboard. After creating a profile, the data cultivated from the ways in which questions are answered by the user creates a dynamic view of the person, and can be used to foster connections with like-minded people around the world.

Sarah

Tagline:
Answer the Question!

Quick Pitch:
A never-ending quiz of self-visualization.

Long Pitch:
A quiz site built to provide entertainment, while collecting data and insight into the player’s inner-mind in order to build a connecting network based on the answers.

Dan

Possible Name:
Question Authority

Quick Pitch:
The question is the answer.

An entertainment site in which users interact by asking and answering yes/no question.

Long Pitch:
This is a social interaction site with its main purpose being enterainment. Users will post and answer yes/no question with the user determining if the question is good or bad. Questions will be ranked according to how popular they are, and they will also be categorized for browsing convenience Users will be able to compare their answers and recieve data feedback and comparative stats. Users will aslo have a personal profile and the ability to view other users profiles. The site is meant to be fun, though provoking, humorous, and self-revealing.

Coolness Factor:
People have an innate curiosity about the world and themselves. Also, people like to compete with creativity. By setting up a system that rewards creativity and satisfies curiosity, Inquisition will pull interest from creatives, jokers, ponderers, and the like.

There are no wrong answers, only different answers, and as a person responds they get to learn more about their character and what makes them who they are. Content is completely user driven and could include current trends, popular news and intriguing arguments.

Plumb the depths of your imagination.

Week #4 Copy - Daily Pick'em

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:45:22 -0600

Project: Daily Pick’em
Team: Maggie, Trevor & Eddie

Possible new names:

The Daily Pick’em
The Pick’ems
The Daily Prognosticator
The Daily Pulse
The Pulse

Trevor

Taglines:
Winning by predicting
Guess better than the rest
It’s a 50/50 kind of thing.

Quick Pitch:
Win or lose by predicting the outcome, this is the game that let’s you play the future.

Long Pitch:
Nostradamus thought he could predict the future through ambiguous writings. We like to think in more modern terms. Try your hand at fortune telling by making your daily picks, beat your friends, then beat everyone else. Who knows maybe there is something to this whole psychic nonsense?

Eddie

Taglines:
Tomorrow’s news predicted today
Predicting the news of tomorrow
The news of tomorrow predicted today
Share (Add?) your slant to every story

Quick Pitch:
The Daily Prognosticator is a website where people can compete with each other in predicting the news.

Long Pitch:
The Daily Prognosticator is a site where people can competitively predict the news. The user takeaway is a forum to showcase their inner Nostradamus. The visitor (/marketer?) takeaway is the ability to gage the perception of the general public on topical issues.

Coolness factor:
Users can earn bragging rights. Marketers can gain targeted insights into the thoughts and perceptions of the public. Also, “The Archive”…the ability to look back at stories from (up to?) a week ago and see how public perception fared in reality.

Maggie

Taglines:
All the news that’s fit to play.
Play the news.
Read the news, read the future.

Quick Pitch:
Daily Pick’ems is a competitive gaming site that allows you to try your hand at predicting the future.

Long Pitch:
Daily Pick’ems is a competitive gaming site that allows you to try your hand at predicting the future. Foretell the news and compete with yourself and like-minded wizards. Current events have never been so riveting. Read the news, read the future.

Coolness factor:
Keep up to date on the news while you satisfy your gambling/competitive side.

Week #4 13 Typefaces Every Designer Needs by David Airey

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:32:33 -0600

This list is SPOT ON.

http://www.davidairey.com/13-typefaces-every-graphic-designer-needs/

Akzidenz-Grotesk
Avenir
Bodoni
Caslon
Clarendon
Franklin Gothic
Frutiger
Futura
Garamond
Gill Sans
Gotham
Helvetica
Univers