Month: February 2010

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Recap: National Gallery of Art – East Wing

This last weekend I went to visit my sister who lives outside of Baltimore. Last time I went to visit, we took a walk around a few museums in Washington DC, one of which was the National Gallery of Art. We spent most of our time in that amazing building, so much so, we couldn’t check out the East Wing which houses Modern Art. This last visit was different. We started out in the East Wing. I have to say, it was one of the more impressive collection of Modern Art I have seen.

I am a massive Mark Rothko fan. I feel in love with his Abstract Expressionist art back in college. When I look at his works, I become engulfed by them. I can stare at his attempt to find emotion through paint and color for days. Naturally, the East Wing had a Rothko in one of their exhibition rooms. But, to my surprise as we moved through the museum, they had a few more. One such room had three Rothkos. Three Rothkos from his vibrant color period, with such amazing color, feeling and size. That is another aspect of Rothko’s work, I love the size of his paintings. He painted on such a grand scale, you get consumed by the work. It overpowers the room, takes your attention away from everything else. I just sat there for a while to soak it all in.

We moved further into the museum and we came across Rothko El Dorado. Yes, they had, what must have been, nine Rothko paintings on display from the Rothko Chapel in Texas. They were all situated in one room, on the top floor of the museum in their own chapel if you will. Indirect sunlight was coming through the ceiling that illuminated the works perfectly. Just two benches for viewers to sit on in the massively solemn room. There was a sense of spirituality in this minimalistic approach to his work. It was simply amazing. While I sat in that room, taking Rothko’s last step toward a transcendental enlightenment, I started to feel what he was going after. I started to understand his spirituality and at the same time, was understanding my own. It was an amazing experience and I didn’t want to leave.

The rest of the works in the museum were magnificent as well. A Barnett Newman room of paintings, much in the style of Rothko’s Chapel works. The museum also had a significant amount of Roy Lichtenstein paintings, Jasper Johns paintings and prints (the prints were pretty fantastic) and Robert Rauschenberg works, including my favorite silk screens. What a deeply religious experience to be had in the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art. I cannot wait to return!

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#GoogleBuzz Concerns

Everyone is talking about Google Buzz it seems like. I started to use the service myself today more in depth. I have to say, it’s pretty intuitive. It’s a great way to share information and updates with your friends and other users. However, there are a few things that I’m not 100% on board with.

Privacy:
I’m still working out the kinks in the privacy aspect of Buzz. Yes, I am aware that I can limit the privacy of my posts and such, but what if someone, who is public, starts responding to my post, does that come up in search? Probably not, but I’m still concerned about it. Or, conversely, if my friends wish to remain private, yet they respond to my public post, should that be a concern of theirs or mine? Another piece of privacy that I’m concerned about is search. Yes, my profile is set to private, yet it still can be searched for, along with everything I post, if you’re good at searching. Does my email come up in that search, or my other contact information?

Frequency:
Yes, Buzz is a valuable tool for communicating with your friends and other users whom you share common interest with. However, what is the frequency of posting? How fast should you return comments? Do I share my time with Twitter? Of course, these are questions that will be resolved in the coming months by monitoring the use by users. But, what I see happening is people are anxious to use the service and promote them on it. Which, is good, however, it adds another level of social media, on top of the already saturated market.

Integration:
Google, during the release of the product, did state that two-way integration isn’t here just yet for Buzz and it may not come at all. However, I do believe in order to make this more useful for the social media crowd and basic consumer usage, you will need the app to communicate both ways with other platforms, specifically Facebook and Twitter. Otherwise, you are limiting growth and functionality of the site.

Let me be clear, I am sold on the whole idea of Google Buzz. I like where Google is taking their social network. However, I’m concerned with certain things that are in place right now and the practice of using it. Like I said before, I’m sure these issues will be addressed very soon and more functionality will be added into it. After all, it was just released a few days ago. I’ll keep using it and see what the trends say. Who knows, maybe I’ll only use Buzz instead of Gmail.

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Recap: The Marriage of Figaro

I recently had a wonderful opportunity to go see the Skylight Opera Company’s rendition of The Marriage of Fiagro last week with my friend Matt. I have to say, what an amazing performance across the board.

First off, the opera was performed in English. Yes, different from the original Mozart composition, however, having it performed in English really helps out in the overall understanding of what specifically is being said during the performance. English did not really have that much of an adverse effect in the performance. There were a few points where you could tell the performers had a difficult time saying an English word instead of the original Italian, but they pulled it off admirably.

The orchestra was comprised of woodwinds and a piano. Going into the show, I didn’t know how this would play out, musically speaking, but it seemed to work very much in favor of the performance. Not too loud, not too soft; just right.

Art direction was pretty well executed. The costumes and make up were brilliant and historically accurate. Stage design was adequate to fit the needs of the performance, however, I think the painting could have been a bit better. Stage lighting was excellent. Great mood setting blues and yellows.

The performers were excellent, all of them. I would like to point a few out. Diane Lane who played Cherubino, Alicia Berneche who played Susanna, and Tanya Kruse who played Countess, all have some of the most amazing operatic voices. And last, but certainly not least, Susie Weidmeyer, who played Barbarina, has a stunning operatic sound and a great solo in the second half.

Overall, the performance was amazing, the night perfect and the company fantastic. I highly recommend you spend some quality time taking in one of Mozart’s greatest operas at the Skylight. Act quickly, for they’re only performing it until Valentine’s Day.

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Please Don’t Do That On Twitter

I have been on Twitter for years now. I have made a lot of new friends, connections and networked with many in my industry. Twitter has taught me a lot about how to communicate in social media and helped me get what ever message I wanted out to the world.

Certain Twitter methods can yield great results for you and your brand. However, there are methods that can prove to be detrimental. Methods that annoy users and consequently discourage users from interacting with you and your brand, enable users to stop following you, or in the extreme cases, these detrimental methods could lead to you being reported and shut down.

This is what I’m going to focus on, the detrimental. I will focus on some methods that you should not employ while on Twitter. (Incidentally, these methods make me really annoyed too.)

Blast/Burst Posting:
Blast posting is posting tweets anywhere from every 30 seconds to every 2 minutes. Yes, Twitter is all about real time updating, however, it needs to be done in moderation. If you blast post, it becomes difficult for your followers to read what else is going on in the world from other users. Followers become annoyed and develop a negative perception of you or your brand. Burst posting is similar to blast. Bursting is posting 3-5± tweets within a small time frame (like two minutes or so), then waiting a bit, then doing it again. Followers feel the same about burst posting as they do blast.

Spam:
This is a no brainer. Do not spam, at all, period. Spam on Twitter usually comes in the form of a user that follows you in the hope you follow them back to read all their advertisement tweets from some sort of API they have developed. Common spam users will offer “how to get more followers,” “check out my pics,” or “how to make money tweeting.” Users on Twitter tend to be ‘seekers’ of information. They seek out the info they want from users that provide it. If they wanted to learn how to make money tweeting, they will follow you, not the other way around.

Negativity:
Typically, the overall vibe on Twitter is a happy one. No one likes it when you put someone down, argue with other users or whatever. People who are negative on Twitter are not completely called out about it, but they do become quarantined from other users. Your Twitter profile is an extension of yourself or your brand. To remain positive in any and all circumstances will result in a positive association of yourself or your brand.

Check Out My Blog:
Another annoying bit of Twitter is when users, who are either added by you or add you themselves, direct message you to check out their blog or website. “Hi, nice to meet you. Check out my site.” I can’t tell you how many people tell me to do that. Again, Twitter users are seekers of information, they will seek the info out if they want to. Especially, when most likely, that information will be in your profile anyway. When you message someone on Twitter, make it as personable as possible. Which leads me to the next annoyance.

Scheduled/Auto Tweets:
Scheduling your tweets can take away a sense of personality to your Twitter profile. I’m not saying that services like Hootsuite are all bad, quite the opposite. What I am saying is, using automatic tweets only for your profile’s tweets becomes detrimental when trying to develop an audience of followers. Followers like the interaction, they hunger for it. It is ok to, at times, use tweet schedulers for relaying informational links and product launches. However, solely using schedulers, auto responders, and auto tweets separates you from your followers and thus the message becomes lost in a sea of information.

Bots:
Twitter bots, oh man, these are nasty little programs. They vary in their application. Sometimes they show up if you tweet a certain word and they retweet you or send you a direct message. Other times they seek you out based upon your tweets and profile to send you specific messages for their advertisers. These bots become annoying and reflect negatively on anything they tweet about. Let’s say, I tweet about Obama. I will get a retweet about Obama with a link inside it. And let’s say, I get four retweets about that. That becomes annoying and congestive. Also, since they are retweeting me, my followers get annoyed. Again, Twitter is a land of seekers, if they want the info, they’ll find it.

So, there is the list. Yes, most of these annoy me a great deal. But, I’d like to think it’s a good look into what not to do in the Twitter world. Keep this in mind: remain positive, encourage interaction and be personable.

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Followers, Following, Tweets – It’s Not Always A Numbers Game

When it comes to Twitter, many users are so focused on either how many people they’re following, or how many people are following them or how many tweets they have. We live in a world of numbers and it can be difficult to separate yourself from trying to get the larger number. Perhaps the number isn’t what’s important, it’s how that number is relative to your account.

Followers:
We have a desire to be popular. We want more people to listen and care about what we are saying. A higher follower count will make it seem that you have a lot of followers, but are they really following what you have to say? Are they robots/spambots? This is not to say that you don’t ideally want a high number of followers. What I am saying is you have to know WHY you want more followers. What do you want out of Twitter? The number isn’t everything to all users when they look at your profile. It may feel like you are popular, but do you actually communicate with all those followers, or are they just a number.

Following:
One client of mine wanted a strong follower/following ratio on their Twitter page. They wanted more followers than who they are following. I can see the reasoning, but in the end, who cares. You will want to follow those who provide the best content and the most engaging relationships. If that is more than who are following you, so be it. Social media is about the sharing of information and the formulation of relationships. You’re sharing information with your followers, why not share the information from them as well? This will help your account build relationships.

Tweets:
Yes, some accounts have five digit numbers of tweets, some only have three digit counts. Quantity is important in tweeting, however nowhere near as important as quality of the tweets. Think of it this way, would you enjoy following someone who tweets about every mundane thing in their life, every minute? Usually you don’t. However, those who tweet valuable information and insight are the ones you can’t take your eye off of. Basically, it’s great to have a high number of tweets, but make them count.

In social media, numbers are valuable, but they’re not the whole story. You need to have the content, value and relationships along with those numbers to build a strong social media presence.

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The Wallpaper Initiative

I came across a website with a slew of wallpapers for iPhones today. There were so many great designs including music, movies, and general graphics. As I was looking through all of these, I had a strong desire to make one. In fact, I want to design a whole bunch of wallpapers for the iPhone. And why stop there? Why not make wallpapers for desktop machines too? Maybe the iPad as well.

So, that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to start to design wallpapers for devices. Use my design talent and make some killer papers. I think I will first make wallpapers for ebreakdown, then branch out and create some papers for Son of Erik, wallpapers for music, wallpapers for art and the list goes on.

I’ll be sure to post links to the wallpapers as soon as I design them.

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Type: Put the Sans back into Comic Sans

Yes, I hate Comic Sans. Most serious graphic designers do. The reason I brought this topic up, is I just ran across a friend’s website that used Comic Sans on every page and yes, I think I did just threw up a bit in my mouth.

I have nothing against decorative typefaces, however I do have something against typefaces that are made specifically to “make people happy” or when they use it or to have “something different” — when that is the only reason for the birth of the ugly. How about this, try out Garamond? Or, try Helvetica instead of Arial as a face? I know, for something fun and light hearted, let’s try out Cooper Black. Yeah, yeah, I said Cooper Black. At least Cooper Black was created with some forethought by a master type designer.

I really think the entity to blame for the pandemic of Comic Sans is Microsoft. Had they not lumped this bogus face into the heap of five and dime typefaces in their crash-prone programs, the world would have been saved from the likes of Comic Sans and Arial.

Yes, I’m very passionate about this. I have lived in a Comic Sans infested world for years. Perhaps it is time for the Comic Sans Emancipation Proclamation. Who wants to help me write it? I will not stand any longer to see Comic Sans be used in place of, well, anything else. I want to be free!

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OpEd: What Makes a Good Designer?

I’ve been putting a lot of thought into this lately. Perused the design blogs, the design portfolios online looking for the answer to the question, what makes a good designer. What makes a great designer? I have come to the conclusion that the majority of designers are good, few are great. I’m not saying that I’m a great designer, or you need to be a great designer to see who isn’t. It’s merely the social order of things. Everyone can’t be great, if they all are great, then there is nothing bad; we have no way to judge good design from bad. Good design, not great. Yes, most designers are “good.” Every once in a while do designers make great designs, but for the most part, they are just good, average, adept. This by no means is not a bad thing, these are the designers that help make the world go round. The cooks in the kitchen if you will. It is also important to realize that probably 25% of designers are not good, 74% of designers are good and 1% of designers are great. I have noticed there are ways to judge this, judging through aptitude, passion, integration and evolutionary insight. Let me explain…

Aptitude
Strictly speaking, this level of critique is based solely upon education of whatever sort in the field of design. Gestalt, color theory, history, form and function. This proves to be the foundation of design and the designer. Lack of knowledge in this department is noticed quite readily in the designs. Red serif type on Black provides an immediate conclusion. Granted, some argue that design is visceral. It can be, yes. But, only after a designer has learned the basics of design, can the designer be adept at designing intuitively. Most designers have this already under their belt and from a foundation standpoint, helps make them a good designer.

Passion
Design is an art. Art requires passion. If a designer doesn’t have passion for their work, or at least passion for the ideal of design, then they’re in trouble. Enough said on that.

Integration
To judge a design and thusly the designer, an integration of aptitude, passion and solution of design must be presented. Taking the knowledge of design, applying it to the job or project with a passion is how we work. This is where most designers are in the world. If the designer can integrate everything they have and know into their designs and overall thought process while maintaing a passion for what they do, most likely you will find good design coming out of it.

Evolutionary Insight
This is the the precipice of designers. These designers incorporate Aptitude, Passion, Integration along with something else. That spark. That whole understanding of how things work now and how they will work a year from now. They are the trend makers and the elite. These designers are the ones that set the standard for the good designers. Example: The web2.0 look or the reflection look, each were most likely thought of by one designer. One. Now, it is such a trend that everyone is doing it. Most likely they have moved onto something else that we as good designers will see in a year. These designers have that insight into the evolution and trends. They know what will work. They are the top 1% of designers in the world.

It is important to understand that my intention is not to insult the average designer, nor interrupt their dreams. It’s the whole notion that we all can be president. In truth, we all can’t be. There are limitations in life. We can strive to become that top 1%, but it takes time, talent, passion and drive. Not all of us can be the pacesetters. There is NOTHING wrong with being good. In fact, there is everything right about being good. Good designers are hard to come by. Also, like I mentioned before, good designers are those who make the world work. I would love to be great. I strive for it. I know my place too, I’m a good designer.

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Son of Erik Mixtape Release: Innocent Idealism

This mix is all about music that I listened to when I was younger. Music that is aligned with the feeling of idealism from back in the day when I still had my innocence. There are a few contemporary tracks in this mixtape as well that help reinforce that nostalgic feeling. I’m sure you may not get the same feeling, however, this is more of a personal look back at a time long-lost.

I have provided a link for you (at the bottom of this post) to download the mixtape. (If you would like it split into tracks, let me know, and I’ll provide.)

The track-listing is as follows:

If Everybody Looked The Same – Groove Armada
DARE – Gorillaz
Do Your Thing – Basement Jaxx
Audacity Of Huge – Simian Mobile Disco
The Creeps – Camille Jones vs Fedde Le Grande
Let Forever Be – The Chemical Brothers
So Many Times – Gadjo
Poppiholla – Chicane
Right Here Right Now (Redanka Mix) – Fatboy Slim
No Air (Jason Nevins Remix) – Jordin Sparks & Chris Brown
Love Island – Fatboy Slim
Tao of the Machine – BT & The Roots
Dealing With The Roster – Junkie XL
Never Gonna Come Back Down – BT
Stop The Rock – Apollo 440

Download Innocent Idealism Here

These mixes are not intended for sale or reproduction. Son of Erik does not and will not receive any proceeds from the production of these mixes. Please respect the copyright of the original artists that have been listed.