AU Blogspot

With their latest groundbreaking video, created from 3-D data captured by the latest in laser scanning technologies, Radiohead continues to close in on the singularity many of our childhood friends may or may not be sleeping through.  The video speaks for itself, so my story ends here.  I’ve included a link to the “making of the video” as well.  These features are usually boring, but this one is actually cool.  Check it out…  

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University 

Ruth Desseault is one of the smartest people I have ever met. I had the privilege of studying photography under her and it changed my understanding of photography and art forever. Ruth’s most well known work is her documentation of the Atlantic Steel Mill project. If you’ve lived in Atlanta for the past seven years or so you remember the enormous abandoned steel mill west of midtown. Because of the nature of the work done there, the land was polluted and could not be used for development, so the mill just sat there rusting.

Developers eventually committed to cleaning up the land and began the enormous development of the plot. Ruth was commissioned to document the land as it was transformed from a turn of the century industrial site, to the hyper trendy condos and skyscrapers that are there presently. Click on the image above to view this incredible project.

Michael R. Nelson
Graphic Design Instructor
Ashworth University

I’d like to take this opportunity to summarize some points of extreme importance for you as a beginning designer.  I have followed these principles throughout my career and have used them to guide me in the development of your graphic design program.  I call this methodology the Michael R. Nelson “12-Point Program for Successful Designers.”

1. Be humble and ready to learn. Even after you complete your program, there is still a vast world of design out there for you to learn, experience, and absorb.

2. Always enter into a design project with clear objectives and criteria.

3. Establish a clear design process with a methodical intent of reducing possible solutions until a clear solution rises to the top.

4. Don’t be afraid to revisit parts of the design process as many times as needed to get it right.

5. Have a clear hierarchy of information in the graphics you design.

6. Respect typography.

7. Make your imagery meaningful. Don’t be overly simplistic with your imagery. Make sure it’s appropriate and communicates your core message.

8. Always push your designs for a higher level of excellence.

9. A successful designer must be willing to self-educate. Never stop learning about design and exposing yourself to creative outlets.

10. Make your own opportunities. Designers do not have the luxury of sitting back and waiting for prospective clients and employers to come to them.

11. Be discriminating in defining what good and bad design is. Whether you are critiquing yourself or work you randomly run across, or you are participating in a formal group critique, hold the work to a high standard and have the confidence to declare it successful or unsuccessful. Allow proven, high-quality work like we cover on this blog define your standards of good work.

12. Don’t let computer programs “own” your designs.

If you can excel at these 12 points, you will be well on your way to becoming a good designer.  Let me know how you are progressing through your program and please reach out to me through this blog if you need any direct assistance.  All you have to do is leave me a comment and I’ll follow up with you right away.  I’m here to do whatever I can to make this learning experience a successful one for you!

Michael R. Nelson
Graphic Design Instructor
Ashworth University

     Thanks to thinbegin for permission to use this Photo.

David Carson spent a decade building his reputation as an underground graphic designer before gaining mainstream popularity in the early 1990’s.  Some have labeled his signature style as “dirty” in the sense that it may appear unpolished, heavy, and visually dense to the common viewer.  Carson was one of the first graphic designers to mash seemingly unrelated typographical and photographic elements into one composition, a practice that is so commonplace today as to almost appear cliché, but at the time,Carson’s ability to convey what were perceived to be complex (subconscious) messages through his work was considered groundbreaking.  In the following video, Carson discusses how his design instincts have always guided his career from day one—and how important it is for young designers to develop their own intuitive style in order to consistently create substantive work.  Click on the image above to watch this video.  I think you’ll find some inspiration in the life and work of David Carson.

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University

Joshua Davis is acknowledged as one of the most innovative multimedia-digital designers the world has ever seen.  Creator of such seminal web sites as Praystation, whose’ radical use of open source flash applications was almost unheard of at the time; Davis has redefined the very concept of “interactivity” for a generation of web designers.  His relentlessly creative work defies classification and incorporates elements of physics, mathematics, code, architecture, etc.  Are you getting the picture?  This guy is a monster.  I decided to post this video chronicling his work on what is now considered a legendary campaign for BMW’s Z4 automobile.  It doesn’t matter if you’re a web designer, graphic designer, or just someone who appreciates brilliance in any form; you should take a few minutes to learn from Joshua Davis.  Let me know your thoughts.  Who are some of your favorite designers?  If you’re not sure, simply share some of your favorite web sites with the Ashworth student community.  Talk to you later.

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University

              Thanks to Starck Ting for permission to use this Photo.

Throughout his career, Philippe Starck has positioned himself ahead of the design curve, practically ignoring it, but not through the prescient recognition and/or early adoption of trends.  Starck instead relies on ingenuity to reinterpret the concept of design itself, reworking the most mundane of objects (clocks, silverware, computer mouses, etc.) until they are capable of being perceived in different contexts—with new meaning and functions.  In this conceptual sense, one can detect traces of Marcel Duchamp and his influential readymade objects.  The following video offers a fine introduction to the vision of Philippe Starck.  Starck’s vision will inspire you.  Click on the image above to watch this video.  Let us know what you think. 

Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University  

        Thanks to Alex Whittaker for permission to use this Photo. 

The Brooklyn Digital Foundry does some great web and digital media work. I think what makes their designs excel is their control of information and how their interfaces gradually reveal only the necessary information.

They also appear to do an excellent job of attracting cool clients, which is a difficult and important design skill to master and taught no where.

Michael R. Nelson
Graphic Design Instructor
Ashworth University  

Chris Jordan creates some great photography. Objects shown in extraordinary repetition tend to really dazzle the senses. However; Chris’ political message is something that I do not completely agree with. The title of his photos depicting waste are titled “Intolerable Beauty: Portraits of American Mass Consumption”. I will agree with anyone who says Americans consume too much, and as an American designer, this is a burden that I struggle with daily as I create objects for people to consume.

However, people need to consume, no matter what (even our more environmentally conscience European cousins consume to some degree-not just Americans). What a lot of environmentalists like to yell about is consumption with no modifiers describing what kind of consumption. What Chris’ photos do not depict to me is egregious consumption. These pictures could have been taken in any country not just America. Consumption must happen; no one (even the most liberal of environmentalist) can claim differently. What needs to be depicted to effectively sway the opinion of bad mass consumers is that irresponsible consumption is bad. Instead, most environmental messages alienate anyone they stand to educate and leave them feeling that they should never own a car and rove the beautiful plains of Kansas naked, hunting and gathering, living off the land like a wild beast. (more…)

We decided it was time to perform some spring cleaning on our Myspace page, and with that we spent an afternoon on our Apple iBook G4, mashing up some HTML and CSS to make create our new sophisticated Myspace theme.

We first created this page in iWeb (available only on Mac OS), because iWeb allowed us to apply the reflection effect to our images quickly and easily. We then imported our site into Adobe (formely Macromedia) Dreamweaver. In Dreamweaver, we were able to incorporate our friends list, and comment box. Once completed, we uploaded our files to a webserver.

It’s tricky coding CSS. We had to first start off by creating an overlay to cover up the default myspace theme. Then we applied our HTML and CSS to our container DIV. There were a few quirks we had to workaround, but in the end we were able to create a nice theme for our Myspace presence. It’s a shame that it is only best viewed in Firefox.

When we get a chance, we’ll upload the steps as a PDF download for those who would like to create their own Apple-esque Theme for Myspace.

Jubril Olayiwola
Web Content Manager
Ashworth University