May 26, 2013, 12:31 PM
Monthly Archives: May 2013
That’s a very different field than the previous post, that of the video game industry, however the kind of campaign is similar. And not for just any game, one of the best ever in my opinion, Deus Ex Human Revolution.
For that game the marketing team made a “mini” website, the Sarif industries website. Of course that company doesn’t actually exist, it is part of the game’s plot, a company specialized in cybernetic implants for which the hero is chief of security, and is going to start asking himself questions, first about his employer, then about the whole system, the whole world, figuring out the democracy he believes he is living in is not as democratic as one might think, especially because the medias are under a very strong control… Not only that website is the homepage of a fictional company, but which seems to be a real one, showing the different devices they sell and their advantages, news extracts, etc. just like a real corporate website would, but it is also placed into the game’s context, where an anti implants activists group, which apparently seem to be against cybernetic implants for ethical reasons, is at war against them. That website therefore looks as if it had been hacked by that activists group, and navigation is malfunctioning, but that’s done on purpose, (more…)
Posted in Beautiful websites, Interesting websites
May 22, 2013, 7:17 PM
You certainly don’t know about that TV series, as it’s a French one (as it was very successful in France it got exported so actually you might), but even though I’m not at all in the target audience (feminine, and older than me), I love Fais pas ci, fais pas ça. It’s, in my opinion, a French TV series at its best: one which doesn’t try to take itself seriously, which enables finding original concepts, in that case the criticism of a certain part of society though two fictional families, who live in the same street, and both of which are part of the upper middle class, but very different kinds: one is bobo (that French term literally translates to Bohemian upper middle class, it means upper middle class people who try to act as if they were not, drinking sustainable coffee to show they care for people for example, but showing off with their i-phone) and the other one is a very traditional family, very religious, the husband working and the wife at home. They seem to be exact opposites, at least that’s how they see each other, yet sometimes they actually aren’t, the bobo family wants to look cool, and open minded, but more often than not the mother is actually putting a lot of stress into her children. And when they are actually doing things very differently than the other family, it is not a good thing as they are way too careless. The other family being very traditional they have all the defaults linked to that, and they hate the bobo family. But their children know each other and are friends of each other. That leads to a lot of funny situations. Anyway that article is not about the TV series but about its marketing campaign : The Denis Bouley method website (Sorry, it’s in French only). (more…)
Posted in Interesting websites
May 18, 2013, 5:07 PM
It’s a real revolution for all graphic designers who like traveling and want to be able to work on the road, such as me. I love traveling, but the problem is that you are limited in both weight and volume when you do that, because there’s a maximum weight I can physically carry, and because of the weight limitations of airplane companies. You can’t carry with you an external screen. But that’s a necessity for any true graphic designer, because one quickly becomes cluttered with the huge amount of tools that come with graphic design software such as Photoshop, and that’s even more true with video software such as After Effects. Especially when you have invested in a light and small computer for convenience. Although small, it can be very powerful, more than enough for motion graphics, customized in order to be the most efficient possible, with an SSD hard drive an 8 gigabytes of memory, but the 13 inch screen quickly becomes an issue.
What about a tablet ? Basic tablets, Android or iOs powered, are not usable for graphic design by themselves, because of software and hardware limitations : not powerful enough, and touchscreens are not suitable for graphic design, you need either a stylus or a mouse. But what about using them as external screens for a laptop? Bad idea. There are software solutions for that, but they’re not suitable to graphic design as the tablet doesn’t work as a real screen, more like a second graphics card. That means it doesn’t use your graphics card’s graphic acceleration, a necessity for graphic design. Other than that the tablet is used as a server with these solutions, it’s a network system that enables connectivity with the computer. A USB2 network… That’s slow. Therefore you will have some lag on the display. Far from perfect.
But that’s the past. (more…)
Posted in Hardware
May 17, 2013, 4:39 PM
For once, I will exceptionally use this blog for self-advertisement. As you might have realised, it is a sobdaimain of the www.emotion-designer.com website, which I own, and which is my online portfolio / show-reel. Why emotion designer ? Because I’m a freelance motion designer, but the domain name was not available. However the « e » stands for new technologies, and also for creating emotions through animated images. What is a motion designer? (more…)
Posted in Others
, 4:39 PM
As stated previously, I’m a graphic designer, but I don’t like Macs. And I’ve got good reasons for that: why pay an expensive price for a product you can have, much cheaper, and more powerful, in the PC world? Especially when you see some expensive Macbook pros are sold around 1,800 euros, without a dedicated graphics card, just the integrated Intel chipset coming with Intel Core i microprocessors… Especially when, the PC world, often wrongly accused of copying Macs (whereas actually the copy is two way, actually even three way as both Microsoft and Apple copy from the Linux world, making user friendly innovative ideas in a system which is unfortunately not for being too difficult to use for everyday users and for not having the most popular software, Steve Jobs himself said a lot of good about copying other people’s work, saying somebody who just copied something was a bandit, but somebody who copied something to make something better out of it was a genius, which makes you wonder why while he was still alive he launched so many legal procedures against companies such as HTC or Samsung) is in fact becoming the most creative one, thanks to Windows 8: Even though I don’t consider that system as being a progress at all for normal computers, with a mouse and no touchscreen, it has the merit of trying to encourage a complete different way of conceiving computers themselves, with the hope that altogether new way will be more comfortable to people than the original concept which now dates from a few decades already, it enables having a real, full-fledged computer, in the shape of a tablet, instead of encouraging the use of multiple gadgets as Apple does with its iPad, because the iPad can be more comfortable to use for some things, but you still need a real laptop as its functions are limited, a waste of money. (more…)
May 16, 2013, 6:27 PM
OK so, a few years ago I created this blog, searching for editorial guidelines which wouldn’t be the classical ones that graphic designers like to use: a blog which is nothing else than their portfolio, or about some designs they like. My editorial guidelines were not to write about graphic design itself, but about the technologies that are in orbit around it, and thus without any advertisement for Apple, as it is a cliché that a graphic designer should use a Mac for his work. Not only it isn’t true but Adobe software is in fact better optimized for the hardware using the Windows 7 Operating System. That’s the reason why, in the traditional area of graphic design, still images, nearly everybody uses a Mac, even though that’s the one that needs the less processing power. But for motion design, where processing power is much more important, only half of the people do, even though I must admit the Prores video codec which comes with Final Cut Pro is a serious advantage. And then in the 3D area, most people use PCs. (more…)
Posted in Others