From print to iPad: A Designer’s journey where pixels are lost in the vast sea of RGB.
In the begining
One of my first major projects at Softchoice was designing articles and ads for a quarterly magazine named the Softchoice Advisor. A magazine focused on IT related issues targeted towards IT managers, CIOs and anyone interested in B2B IT.
As a fresh new designer in the industry, this was HUGE! - designing a whole magazine. I felt as if I was thrown into a sea without a lifejacket. Not in a sense that I didn’t have help, but in a sense that I wasn’t expecting to design a whole magazine. I had designed a few ads here and there for magazines while I was in school, or interning, but never a whole publication. Oh, and that wasn’t even the deep end either - the kicker was that this was going in front of 20,000+ people. Again, I had just stepped one foot outside of school, I was new, fresh, barely opened my eyes.
As the time passed, I got braver and started playing around with the look of the Advisor. I got used to designing it and I felt as if I had reached land. I could feel sand beneath my feet and I was ready to plant my feet on land.
WRONG!
It was a mirage. Just as I felt comfortable, something new came along and had me kicking my feet faster than before.
Enter, the iPad.
It was a sunny day and I walking to the office holding a nice, freshly brewed venti bold. The first Advisor of 2011 was at the printers and I was ready to start thinking about the next issue.
Just as I thought I was in the clear, the idea of publishing on the iPad came about.
Umm… WHAT?!
I had seen a few magazines slowly transition over to the iPad but never really had a chance to explore them. I hadn’t even owned an iPad at this point. The idea of even buying one hadn’t even crossed my mind. But this was exciting. It was new. Just as I thought I had reached land the tides switched direction and took me with them.
Not again!
But, It was obvious - this was the next step of the Advisor. There is a great deal of benefits to having The Advisor ,specifically, as an iPad app. There’s a vast amount of content, videos and interactive features that we produce on the blogs and that our partners have on their end. Not to mention, the huge benefit of having the ability to now share all of this content at the swipe of a finger. Really, it was hard to see why we wouldn’t turn the static into something dynamic.
So, the first stage of the journey was research - what were other publications doing, what was working and what wasn’t. Where were peoples eyes positioned while looking at articles, how would people interact with articles and ads? So many questions and so much unexplored territory. I was out at sea again, with no land in sight.
At around this time the iPad 2 came out and I thought, hey, what better time to get one that now. We had started working and testing a few templates, iPad 2 came out and, oh yeah… tax season was in and I had a few extra bucks to spend.
As soon as I got it I went on a downloading spree. I downloaded as many major publications for iPad as I could find. From there I would test them out, I was the customer. I was observing my patterns on how I was interacting with articles, ads and whatever else each had to offer.
Before this, I had read few blogs about designing for iPad, but I found I wasn’t really grasping anything from reading a few tips and tricks. It was almost as if I had a professional swimming instructor with me lost at sea - great, I’ll become a better swimmer, but where the hell do I go? That’s why actually going out and testing was key - it plays as a compass, a guide or a map. I felt a sense of comfort, I could even start swimming without being pushed by tides.
PHEW!
After a few weeks of research and testing, I was ready to transition the printed issue of the first Advisor to iPad.
The good news was that all the artwork was high-res, 300dpi and easily scalable. The bad news - where the hell do I start and what can I do?
I had found myself, yet again being tossed out to a big sea of opportunity sans life jacket, much like when I had first started. I hadn’t done this before and it wasn’t like I had a manual to follow when re-creating the printed version.
Paddle, paddle, paddle, kick, kick, kick.
After a couple of weeks of back-and-forth, I had come up with key templates, buttons and interactive features. Things were falling into place. I had stopped asking “what can I do?”, and let my creativity run wild with things I thought would make the overall experience better.
The tides died down and with each stroke and kick I felt I was getting stronger. I started taking advantage of the situation and made this iPad app into something I would want to read. I felt as if I had found a powerboat complete with GPS and I could point it in whichever direction I wanted at full throttle. I loved it!
Screw land, comfort and predictability! I want excitement and unpredictability. I want to be Kevin Costner in Waterworld.
One of the overall things I took away from this adventure was that, as a designer, I have to stop being scared of the unknown and take advantage of each new possibly. People look to me for my creativity and problem solving skills. They’re scared to swim, afraid of drowning and don’t have the same breaststroke skills I have.
I’ve learned that I’ll always be thrown into a large sea of opportunities with no life jacket, but I’ve also learned that it’s not scary at all, it’s exhilarating!
If you have an iPad you can check out the app here
Calling all designers!
Recently we’ve been cooking up a new way to rate the work we’ve been creating at Softchoice.
For the past two years we’ve been sending out scorecards with our work internally and it got great reviews, but there was one problem - it was feedback in a bubble. We simply weren’t learning anything.
So, our goal is to be able to claim to have the best IT design work. In order to do so, we need two things: external feedback outside the company and even the IT industry from other designers and related marketing and design materials from competitors, so it can be put up against our work.
This is where I need your help. I’m asking for about 15 minutes of your time one or two times a month to judge some of the work we’ve been doing. In exchange I’d be happy to put time aside to personally provide my feedback on any work you’ve done. Over coffee, drinks (if you’re in the GTA) or a simple email - your call.
I believe this is a new way to provide peer feedback and just grow as designers.
If you’re interested or have any questions get in touch!
danioanitescu@gmail.com
@danisonfire
Infographics: A Graphic Designers playground.
My first ever infographic!
I’m a huge fan of infographics, so when I got the chance to make one, I jumped all over the opportunity.
The premise behind this infographic is to show where organizations are when it comes to deploying Windows 7.
Our angle was to look at it as a race, showing where organizations are when it comes to deployment - start, middle or finish.
Now, originally the drawn up concept was 3d and showing people running to the finish line. But after some research, I noticed that some of my favorite infographics were very simple and clean - not a lot of filters, just simple vector art. So based off that, I decided to draw up something clean, simple and integrating simple shapes.
We stuck with the race theme, but I decided to make the objects representing the organizations cars instead of people. To keep everything clean, while still giving some depth, I decided to give the overall piece an arial view with darker and lighter colors to represent shadows and highlights. I find the arial view keeps everything balanced and looks clean.
This was a Softchoice branded piece, so I had to stick with an overall orange and grey color scheme. I did have some wiggle room to add in different colors to represent the different organizations. I also find that the different colors center the focus on the most important part of the infographic, which is key.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out - it’s simple, clean and easy to read. It does everything an infographic should - tell a story using visual aids in the most effective and efficient way possible.
Check out the final piece below.
Check out the original blog post for this study on the Microsoft Navigator blog.
Branding 2012
There are few designers who get the opportunity to brand a million dollar event, even fewer who get to brand what an entire year will look like for a billion dollar company.
I was lucky enough to do both.
I was presented at first with a strategy and a name.
”Age of Potential”
The “Age of” part was to stay, where as the “Potential” part had to be dynamic, in that it had to be easily changed into other words - for example, Age of Possibilities, Age of Technology, Age of Connection and so on - while still maintaining the overall look.
The overall idea and brand strategy behind Age of Potential is that through connections there’s infinite possibilities. To paint a clearer picture, it’s about people bringing their individual strengths to create something amazing.
The brand had to not only be carried across a variety of materials, but across 2012.
A very nice challenge for any designer.
With the initial research stage taking place, the thought of chemistry kept popping up. The thought of different elements being made up of multiple molecules. We started playing around with this idea.
We then started combining this idea of chemistry with the interaction between colors. Colors, will generally be made up of a mixture of different colors. So both of these ideas kept the theme of interaction and align perfectly to the idea of things coming together to create something.
By combining the ideas of chemistry and colors, we ended up with circles of varying sizes and color. We chose six different vibrant colors - Orange, purple, blue, green, yellow and red. By keeping with just six colors, we can keep it simple and stay consistent throughout the year. Each color would also represent a different department within the company, something which would be very useful when it comes to badges and signs. It also works perfectly with regards to the overall logo and theme - for example, when the colors come together they form the logo, much like when the different department come together for the event, they make up the entire company.
To drive the idea further, we overlaid the circles on top of each other so it shows that interaction and mixture that we wanted to achieve.
To then make sure we emphasize “Potential” and any other words replacing it, we made sure to not only make it bigger than “Age of” but we knocked it out of the different colors. We did this to show that when these circles come together, they make up the knocked out word. The other benefit of using a knockout treatment was that it kept the overall look clean and simple, which is key to any logo.
The brand was now complete. The overall look was bright, vibrant and exciting. The colors we chose appeared rich and bold on everything from lcd screens, paper and projector screens. The concept also worked well with badges, PowerPoint slides, signage, awards and video animations.
The brand overall showed excitement through the mixture of colors, it tied into the strategy perfectly.
So, with that in mind, please click through some examples of what we came up with for the event and brand.
Who Am I?
Typography? Web design? Print? UI design?
Yes to all.
I’ve done all and love all equally as they were my children.
I am a graphic designer by the name of Dan Ioanitescu and I’m here to share, what I like to call my “Indiana Jones-like design adventures”.
Now of course there are less snakes and swords, but don’t let that stop you from reading, as I have much to share. Things like wrestling the struggles of having a great work/life balance, overcoming and conquering the creatures that kill productivity, finding inspiration and running away with it and much, much more.
I’ve covered some experience I’ve had through out school in my last three posts, but what do I do now, you ask?
Well, I am an in-house designer with a specialty for IT B2B design. Put in laymen’s terms I specialize in designing for technology brands who market to big businesses. So my passion for technology and design meet on daily basis.
I’ve been out of school for about two years now and I’ve had the opportunity to design for almost all of the major technology brands and have worked on everything from ads, publications, web pages, mailers and even iPad apps. So it’s safe to say that although I’m still earning my design wings, I’ve learned quite a bit.
I work at Softchoice, a company of 1000 people and about 80 dogs. I work as the Graphic Designer (duh) on the Corporate Marketing team. Now, If you’re thinking I work in a cubicle in a big cold office space where no one talks to one another excluding the occasional water cooler trip, you couldn’t be more wrong. It’s a great environment with meeting rooms named after roller coasters and dogs sitting by co-workers desk’s. I could go on, but if you want to read more on the culture at Softchoice, I highly recommend reading our CSR Blog at blogs.softchoice.com/csr.
So, here I am, ready share all I’ve learned with designers from all walks of life. From young designers who are looking for some intel on how to to get their foot in the door to older veteran designers who are looking to see how young designers such as myself view design. I am here to provide those eager black and white thoughts with some vibrant color.
My last semester: A story of Late nights, job hunting, caffeine and X-Acto knives.
Part 3 of 3.
You’ve got a bite, now what?
I loved the anticipation of waiting for the email or call back from someone I’ve applied to. I remember going to sleep every night with high hopes of receiving an email back. But, once I’ve received one, then I really started getting nervous.
Is my portfolio good enough? What should I wear? What should I say? What questions are they going to ask? Am I prepared to explain, in full detail, why I did what I did on that Rocky poster I made?
Once I received that email, asking me to come in for an interview my mind was engulfed in questions. I didn’t want to mess this up, so it’s no surprise this was happening.
So, I had to calm my nerves, sit down and organize myself.
I had to start with the meat of what the interview will be about – the work! I had to make sure the work was bulletproof, that’s why I spent a good 80-90% focusing on my portfolio. I already knew where I came from and why I did what I did when it came to work, school and life, so priority number one was portfolio.
This shouldn’t be a surprise – as a graphic designer, you’re constantly displaying and talking about your work, so an interview should be no different.
I’ll cut to the chase and give you the straight goods on what you can do to prepare for an interview.
1. The actual work in your portfolio
You can get as much feedback as you want on what you should and shouldn’t put in, at the end of the day, make sure it’s your best work and it’s work that you can talk about. Make sure you can talk about the smallest details on everything in your portfolio. Basically, you don’t want to be caught off guard with any question thrown your way.
2. The portfolio itself
Make sure it’s in great shape. The way your present your work is just as important as the work itself. Graphic designer are visual people, so the the more you can visually please with regards to your work, the better. Keep it clean simple and original.
3. Research
Before you go into the interview, do your research and make sure you know as much as possible about the company you’re going to. The worst thing you can possibly do is know nothing about the company. It shows you don’t care and people might take that as you don’t want to work there.
4. Questions
After doing your research, prepare questions you’d like to ask. Is there something they left out on their website and you want to know? Great! Ask it. This just continues to show that you care and want to learn more about them. Have a list hand if you need to. The more you can do to show that you care and you’re interested, the better!
5. Relax
Breathe, don’t get too nervous or else you’ll go in there sweating and stumbling over every word. Go in there clam and collect. If you know you’re a nervous person, go in a little early and mentally prepare yourself. Have a perfect scenario in your head and try to match it.
I don’t want to say go in there and be yourself, it’s too cliché and you don’t just want to be yourself, you want to be your best self. Remember you’re going into an interview to impress, so showing to that other person that you’re prepared and know as much as possible about their company and your work should be top of mind.
My last semester: A story of late nights, job hunting, caffeine and X-Acto knives.
Part 2 of 3.
Apply, apply and apply like it’s out of style!
One challenge that I found kills hopes and dreams is overcoming the challenge of patience and the not getting a response after applying for a position. This applies for all jobs, not just for graphic design jobs. But, I personally find it especially applies to graphic designers. When you apply for a position as a graphic designer, you’re not only sending a resume and cover letter – properly designed, of course – but you’re sending a taste of what you can do, a portfolio teaser, something that will catch the Creative or Art Director’s attention. Needless to say, a lot of thought and effort should go into this package you’re sending out, so it’s no surprise then that it’s very easy to feel a sense of disappointment when you don’t receive a response. But it doesn’t mean you should stop trying, quite the opposite should happen, keep looking, trying and building.
Keep in mind - Creative Directors and Art Directors are very busy people. They have clients to please and work to finish, so their mind isn’t always on who’s applying, or finding the next great designer to add to their team.
I remember I applied to numerous agencies and studios, ones I had my heart set one, ones I thought I’d surely get a call back – wrong!
I also remember I’d also feel a sense of disappointment when a week, two weeks and three weeks would go by and I wouldn’t get calls, emails or anything back. So, Instead of giving up, turning on my Playstation and moping around, I turned that disappointment into energy. I used that energy as application fuel. What was I doing? Could I do something better? I was constantly questioning everything I was doing and looking for feedback in order to improve.
So with that, here are a few tips I learned along the way:
1. Make a list
Make a list of your favorite agencies, studios and other places you want to apply to. Keep looking back to it and use it as a checklist. As you go on, cross off places applied to and add new ones as you find more. This will keep you on track and will keep you organized.
2. Do your research
Know who you’re applying to and who’s going to be looking at your portfolio. Know their work and company. Once you’ve done this, personalize each package you send out for each specific place. Show them that you’ve done your research and you’ve given some thought to what you’re sending them.
3. Get Feedback
From your teachers, peers, parents, friends. Get feedback from anyone and everyone, it will only make you better and see your work from a different light. Remember you’ve chosen a career path where you’ll constantly be given criticism, get used to it and make it a habit to get as much feedback as possible.
4. Be original
Remember Creative Directors, Art Directors and anyone who’s in charge of hiring has probably come across hundreds of packages, gifts and samplers from designers. What will make yours stand out? What will make them want to pick yours up and have a look through it? Keep asking yourself that as you’re crafting up what it is you’ll eventually send. Think of it this way – If you’re a Creative Director working at the agency you’ve just applied to, would you pick up and have a look through what you’ve just submitted?
5. Reflect
Before you submit anything, make sure you have a grace period of a day or two of looking back on what you’ve created. Is it still looking good to you after a day or two? Is there something you’re missing? Keep looking back and make sure what you send out is perfect.
Repeat.
If there’s one thing to take away from this it’s this: keep building yourself, if something doesn’t work keep moving forward and try something new.
Landing a full time job as a graphic designer right out of school isn’t the easiest, but if you lose sight of it and lose that initial drive to keep applying, you won’t get very far.
Next stop, Interviewville!
My last semester: A story of late nights, job hunting, caffeine and X-Acto knives.
Part 1 of 3.
As a Graphic Designer working in the field for almost two years now, I am constantly looking back to see the progression I’ve made from student to professional. I find one of the first conversations I have upon meeting new people is about how I got to be where I am.
Without going too far back I’ll rewind to my last semester of school where I found myself working two part-time jobs, drinking way too much Red Bull, working on projects and constantly looking for job and internship opportunities.
If you’re a Graphic Design student, these next three posts are for you! If you’re a Graphic Design student in their last year, these posts are especially for you! I’ll talk about my struggles and I’ll throw in some tips that helped me along the way. I’ll cut out the fluff and give you the straight goods on managing your time, applying for jobs and going in for an interview.
1. Time is your currency, invest wisely.
One of the first things I remember about the last few months of school is that I was constantly busy. This is the case with most last-year students and should be nothing new. What I can tell you is, learn how to effectively manage your time. Get to know your work and school schedule early in the semester and stay on top of it.
Going into my last year, I found I was unprepared for the amount of work I would be coming across. As the work started piling, I knew I had to do something before I drowned in the sea of project briefs.
I found some time management tips online, but quickly came to realize that they didn’t all work for me. They simply weren’t sticking. So, I had to find out what was working for me and what techniques I could stick to for at least a semester.
So, here’s five key ingredients that worked for me and still do to this day:
1. Get an agenda! This will be your best friend. The more you’ll use it the more it’ll benefit you. I had a physical agenda that I would constantly update. Now, there are more efficient time-management tools online and even as apps. Any smart phone these days will have some standard calendar tool. It all comes down to what works best for you. I still use a physical agenda and written lists to this day – why? Because it’s what works best for me.
2. Prioritize! What projects are due when? Which projects will take you longer? This works hand-in-hand with your agenda. Make a list and put the most urgent project first. Or, put smaller projects that will take less time first. Get the smaller projects out of the way so you have more time to work on the bigger projects. Also, don’t write your list and forget it, stay on it, keep checking it and cross out what’s done and look at what’s next. Make daily list of what you want to accomplish that day, or even a weekly list – again, it’s what works best for you. No matter which one works best for you, I guarantee that the great feeling of crossing out a project is universal.
3. Make good use of free work periods at school. This should be a given, but I found, it’s easy to get distracted and I even found myself watching videos on YouTube, updating twitter or playing Angry Birds. Free work periods are an essential time profs will give you where you can work on projects and even get some help with them. Use them! You’ll thank me when you rack up a few more hours of sleep. Profs know you’re stressed, believe it or not – they’re trying to help, so, get the most bang for your buck and take advantage of that help.
4. Overestimate. For every single project you have on your list, overestimate the time it will take you to complete it. That way you’re prepared for the worst and if it takes less time, well, then you just earned yourself some Angry Birds time - #SCORE! Be over prepared rather than under prepared and you’ll still have some hair after you graduate.
5. Make sure you have a savings account! Unexpected projects and random nights with friends are very likely to happen. So, just like a savings account, make sure you give yourself time for such unexpected events. You’re more than likely going to have a couple hours or more each day of free time. So, move that time accordingly.
Take it from someone who was in your shoes not too long ago, knowing how to manage your time effectively will only help you get things done and prepare you for the future. Learn how to do it early on, that way it won’t turn into a project in itself and add to the stress rather than helping with it.
Want to learn how I went about looking and applying for jobs and internships? Check back for my next post and I’ll tell you my story and give you some tips along the way.
Ford Elements design: My love for cars and design comes together.
This was a project I initially did in school and has evolved since. Originally it started as an illustration project. The premise of the project was to come up with 4 illustrations, all in the same consistent style. So, since the project was basically open for me to Illustrate anything and in any style I wanted, I chose to do cars in vector art. From there I decided to restrict myself to working in one main colour and 5-6 shades of the chosen colour. This is about the time I had an idea of how I could turn this project into something more. I decided to take one car company which had a wide selection of cars - from trucks, sports cars to family sedans and crossovers. Then I chose four cars, each in its own category. I wanted to represent each category from a new angle. To do this, I chose the four elements.
I found choosing the four elements was smart because: Each can be represented by a different colour-and ultimately different shades of each colour- and each has something to describe the car it represents. A perfect match!
Now, as for the cars I chose. The first one was the Ford Mustang. There were many great angles of this car. I just needed one was was simple and serious. Next I decided to make the Mustang fire because, well, It’s a car that represents speed and passion which goes hand-in-hand with fire. You think of the power and speed this car has, you’d generally think of fire and typically the colour red. From there I started playing around with the colour red, which eventually turned more into an orange and progressing towards a yellow.
Next, and one of my favorites, was the Ford Raptor Truck. Best represented by earth. One of my favorite things about this one is the angle of the shot. I instantly fell in love with it. It shows power and dominance. As soon as I saw the picture of the truck, the first colour to come to mind was brown. The rich browns from the muddy earth that this truck could go through is the prefect colour to represent it.
The next car I illustrated was the Ford Flex. Again, for this car I wanted a simple angle. I went with a side profile shot because I loved the simple lines and length of it, I find the side of the Flex is really what makes it stand out. For this car I chose air, to represent it. Reasoning being because this car is a “cooler” version of the minivan. It’s also got a simple and clean design as well as a spacious interior. For air, I went with the colour green because when I think of air, I tend to think of wind, trees and leaves. Also, I did not want to use blue because it is too closely associated with water.
Lastly, I had to choose a car that represents the sedan market. So I thought what better than the Ford Fusion Hybrid. I chose the hybrid because it’s a great way to show a sedan that easy on the eyes and the environment. Naturally, this car would be represented by water. Water and the colour blue represent cleanliness, peace and distance. Perfect for a car that’s clean and travels long distances without becoming too familiar with the gas refill pitstops.
The last step was to place the illustrations on an ad layout. For this I wanted to keep it simple. I wanted the layout to show off the car and not the background or any other item on the page. So, I placed the illustration on a light grey background and kept the type in grey. This way the the only colours on the page are on the cars and the Ford logo. Lastly I wated to show off the rich colours of each element. So At the top I placed a strip which shows the shade progression of each specific colour.
Personally I wanted to show each car as being a work of art while at the same time being represented by an element. I love how they turned out just as much as I loved the challenge of working in just one colour.
So, what’s your element?
Lately, I’m quite often finding myself looking forward to getting a pencil in my hand, rather than a mouse. Looking past the twenty-some-odd inches of LED screen and generating raw ideas. It’s very easy to get lost in the plethora of google-generated ideas, especially as a new(er) designer. But it’s important to keep in mind that there are other people doing just that, fiddling with old ideas and tweaking what’s been done before. What happens then is-a very slow and gradual transition instead of a leap at something new. This is when old and tweaked ideas are seen as good and new ideas are seen as gold, rather than a standard. We should get in the mindset of having new ideas as something normal.
My thoughts, and first post.
-Dan
