A couple of weeks ago the announcement of 8 Faces took the design world by storm. It is a limited edition magazine about typography and design. For the first issue a thousand copies was sold out in 2 hours. It also caught the interest of The Independent, New Statesman, Typedia, Needs/Wants, and PSFK. I was one of the lucky ones to get my hands on a copy.

My first impression, holding the magazine in my hands — a bit smaller than I thought— 21X21cm to be exact. I think the sneak peek from the PDF, viewed from view port to view port on a relatively big monitor, put me under the wrong impression. To justify the excellent overall design and layout I had more along the lines of 25X25cm in mind.

Besides size and the excellent overall design and layout, I love the attention to detail. I received the magazine in decent packaging to avoid any damage in the post with a little 8 Faces sticker on the outside front. It is printed on a heavy uncoated stock. As a huge fan of print finishes, the silver foil blocked title is the cherry on the cake! Oh, last but not least, included is a bookmark (a MOO card) to say ‘thank you for the purchase’. Even though it is the digital age and a lot of people think print is dying, clearly there was a gap in the market for a venture like this.

The concept is an interview with eight leading designers from the fields of web design, print design, illustration and type design. Each interview end with the answer to the question; If you could use just eight typefaces for the rest of your life, which would you choose? The first issue feature interviews with designers Erik Spiekermann, Jessica Hische, Ian Coyle, Jason Santa Maria, Jos Buivenga, Jon Tan and Bruce Willen & Nolen Strals and The League of Movable Type. I guess, not strangely enough, the type designers choose mostly their own fonts.

The editor also hits it on the nail with the articles and interviewees. It ties in well with a few lines out of Jason Santa Maria‘s interview:

What matters is the story that we’re telling: the content. And the design of that content is there to reinforce it – it’s there to help tell that story.

All in all 8 Faces #1, with Loreena McKennitt in the background, completed my Saturday afternoon. It is a great read on great designers touching topics such as lettering, typography and typography on the web today.

On the printing side of things

I read Elliot Jay Stock’s blog post On publishing. He talks about the production process of the magazine, different printing processes and how he decided to go with the digital print option.

For a print run of a thousand copies or higher, I am definitely a fan of lithographic printing. Some of the known issues with digital printing are the dot size, especially when it comes to printing a shade of a colour. Even more so, with gray shapes that is made up of a percentage of black ink only. Even though the quality of digital printers has improved a lot over the last years, lithographic printers are still ahead of the game when it comes to quality. The dot pattern of lithographic printing are a lot finer. This is noticeable in the gray text and lines in the magazine.

The advantage though with this issue printed digitally, was to dynamically number each copy. Even though I am more of a litho printed gray dot fan, for a digital printed magazine it is made really well. Another issue with printing digital is getting the registration spot on. The design of the magazine has a thick stroke that runs horizontal across the page through out the magazine. And through out the magazine it matches up perfectly, including from one spread to another.

From a print point of view it would be interesting the compare the first digital printed issue with the second lithographic printed issue. From an overall magazine point of view, I am looking forward to read the next issue!

The new Adobe Creative Suite 5 was launched 12 April 2010! I am still working in CS3 everyday. I have done a few things in CS4, but not enough to have a real opinion. From what I have come across on the internet, people are not sure if it is worth the upgrade. Looking at new features in a few applications of CS5 and the new additions, Adobes’ Business Catalyst and Flash Catalyst, it is pretty exciting stuff to me. Adobe has also introduced CS Live. It is a collection of online services that work within the CS5 applications. This is a feature I have been after for while. It makes it easy to collaborate with colleagues and clients on projects.

From a design point of view

Adobe kept the dominating colours that was implemented with CS3. With CS5 the Desktop Brand team at Adobe decided to concentrate more on the splash screen. It is based on the isometric grid similar to Otl Aicher’s work for the 1972 Munich Olympics. The five pieces give the shapes exactly the right amount of complexity and it ties in nicely with the fifth CS release. Read the in depth discussion about the design process at idsgn.

Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium

In a nutshell I will point out a few new features in Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium that consist of the following:
(Including Bridge CS5, Device Central CS5 and integrates with CS Live online services)

• Photoshop CS5 Extended
• Illustrator CS5
• InDesign CS5
• Flash Catalyst CS5
• Flash Professional CS5
• Dreamweaver CS5
• Fireworks CS5
• Acrobat 9 Pro

Photoshop CS5 Extended

Painting
Adobe has created a new painting engine in Photoshop. By clicking on the paintbrush and selecting the mixer brush, it will show a preview of an actual brush on the screen. ‘Pick’ up the new art brush from the walk-on tablet and a 3D preview appear by rotating the barrel of the brush. With previous versions, pushing colours was the only options. Now colours can be blended too. Paint directly over an photograph or just create original art.

Puppet Warp
This feature accurately warp images with exact precision. Say, you have an object with a transparent background, by selecting >Edit>Puppet Warp a mash will appear over the object. The mash can be turned on and off. By adding control points/pins to specific points on the object to lock areas down, you can achieve more control with accuracy. Different modes are available for this feature, for example normal and distort.

HDR Pro
Use it to merge together multiple images. It can merge together different exposures from the Merge to HDR Pro dialogue. In a drop down menu there are different toning presets. A new unique feature added on to it, is Remove ghosts feature. It isolates a preferred single master frame within the HDR image.

Refine Mask
The ability to make a very accurate mask a lot easier. It first makes a quick mask selection. It don’t necessarily has to select for example hair’s fine detail. In the masking panel under Refine Mask panel are the new controls to paint in the areas of transition. Radius and edge detection is the key to get the better selection for the mask. With a brush, go over the edges and defined details will emerge. By exporting the new mask it will create a new layer leaving the original untouched.

Content Aware Fill
This new feature works nicely with the Refine Mask feature for photo manipulation. If you have removed an object to a new layer and want to rid of it in the background of the original layer/image, this feature comes in handy. In the Fill dialogue, under the drop-down menu is the Content Aware option. With one click it removes the object from the background. It basically examines the area around a selection and replaces it based on what it decides is a good match.

Illustrator

Perspective Drawing
The new perspective drawing tools create a perspective grid that can be changed and manipulated to hearts end. By using any of the drawing tools and by selecting a pane, the artwork will go on the grid in perspective. With short cuts it is easy to change panels. Objects from other files can be applied.

Variable Stroke Width Tool
By using the Width tool, you can place plots anywhere on a stroke and change the width of the stroke. If there is a stroke that you are particular proud of and want to use again, just save it as a profile.

Shape Builder Tool
This tool detects various pieces/objects that is grouped together. By dragging the cursor from the one object to the other it creates one single shape. Hold down shift key to combine multiple objects.

Drawing Mode: Draw Inside
This feature constrain drawing within an object. Even if you draw outside of the lines, it will constrain (and mask for that matter) the drawing to the outline of the object. With this mode you can even paste grouped objects in live text.

Indesign

The new additions to Indesign that I mention here are all specifically ones that I have been waiting for. And talking to a few other Indesign everyday users, they agree.

Multiple Page Sizes
It is basically what the heading says. Now the pages can also change the orientation. This will work especially well with setting up a page foldout.

Spanning and Splitting for Columns
Normally I would have to create a separate text box for a heading to span over columns, which result in to many text boxes all over the page. Now by just selecting the header and choosing the ‘span’ command with different options to the amount of columns.

Splitting works well with a list of bullet points that can easily fit in two columns within a column. With the Split command (opposite from the above mentioned), the selected text only can easily be split into 2 columns.

Borrow content from another Indesign Document
With Mini Bridge within the Workspace, you can select links from another Indesign project and drag it into the open Indesign document you are working on.

Gap Tool

This tool detects the gaps between frames and automatically drag and resize the frames whilst keeping the gaps between the frames equal. Interactive gap and frame placement takes place. By holding down the shift key, the two top and bottom frames can be change independently.

Interactive Live Corner Effect
Rounded corners is possible for frames of previous versions, but not with a live stroke. Dragging the corners changes the radius and by keeping in shift, each corner can be changed individually to get different corner effects for each corner.

Interactive Indesign Documents
Flip through the document, get sound, animations, roll overs, slide shows, flash video to play directly inside of the document. All happening in Indesign with out writing a single line of code.

Dreamweaver

Inspect Mode
Inspect Mode needs to be turned on by having Live View open. By hovering over areas on the page it uses colour codes to show how CSS is effecting the page. By hovering over a section, it freezes that state in the CSS rules panel. It makes it quick and easy to make changes to the CSS file.
This works well if you want to play around with different options for an element. A CSS rule can be ‘switched off’ with one click. The result can be viewed immediately in real time.

Live View Navigation
I must have feature when working with a dynamic website. Make changes to a .php include and in Live View it will render the whole web page as it would in a browser. With this you can actually click around and navigate through the test website.

Dynamically Related
By turning on Live Code, it renders the code the browser see. Then there is also a way to get to all the related files and assets. Click on the new feature Discover, which will turn on another new feature, Dynamically Related files. There is an option to exclude some of the files in the list (that could be way to long). For example, by selecting CSS from a drop down menu it will only show .css files. A custom filter is also available to search more specifically.

Final Thought

I personally think there are enough useful new features to make the upgrade worth while (especially from CS3). CS Live will make my life a lot easier by streamlining work flow and save time and the client’s time. For those sharing the same excitement, the English language version is expected to be available for shipping by mid-May 2010.

Most of you have probably seen the epic movie, American Psycho… at least once.

America Psycho is originally from the novel by Bret Easton Ellis. The psychological thriller is told in the first person by Manhattan businessman, Patrick Bateman. He is a serial killer in his ‘spare time’. In 2000 the novel was adapted to the film by Mary Harron. The talented Christian Bale plays the role as Patrick Bateman brilliantly.

As a graphic designer, when I watched the move, one of the parts stood out for my amusement and appreciation. And in general it is one the most famous parts of the movie – the scene about the business cards. I like watching the business men use their business cards to compete with type, stock and print finishes.

That’s ‘Bone’. And the lettering is called something like Silian Braille.

Eggshell white with Romalian type. Nice.

Look at the subtle off-white colouring. A tasteful thickness of it. My God, it even has a watermark.

View the Business Card Scene on YouTube. I am not able to embed the video in this post. YouTube: Embedding disabled by request.

The image above, of the advert on the billboard has been going around the internet lately. An excellent add-on to the American Psycho repertoire.

I think I need to watch the movie again…

Venice Carnival 2010 took place 5-16 February this year. I am glad I was able to attend this extraordinary tradition. Last week I blogged about the Fire Show by a French group, La Salamandre. I am still on the Venice Carnival topic (sorry, can not help it). In this post I will showcase a few of the costumes I was able to capture with my camera.

A Little Bit of History

The word carnival comes from Latin for “Farewell, meat!”. The Carnival takes place just before Lent. All meat, butter and eggs had to be used before the fasting period starts. This was a great opportunity for a party! The history of the Venice Carnival tradition began after 1162. Although, 1268 dates the first document mentioning the use of masks.

In the beginning of the 1900s, Mussolini banned the Carnival. Luckily, in 1979, a group of Venetians and lovers of Venice decided to revive the tradition. Since then the image of the mask has become a worldwide icon of Venice.

Venice Carnival Masks

It is the masks in particular that makes the Venice Carnival so unique. The idea is to overturn the social order in Venice. If you cannot identify the person behind the mask, you do not know his/her social status.

Some of the masks depicted Commedia dell’Arte (Italian, meaning “comedy of professional artists”) characters. Others were more sinister.

The famous white-beaked mask was originally for the Plague Doctor. The mask was to protect the face, which included protective crystal eyes. The beak which was stuffed with spices or herbs to purify the air that the doctor breathed.

Another one of my favourites is the Gatto (means cat in Italian). Cats were so scarce in Venice that they became the subject of one of the most typical masks. Legend has it that a man who owned nothing but his old cat, came to Venice from China. The cat got rid of all the mice in the palace and the man became rich. I have also heard that prostitutes start wearing the Gatto masks.

A Few Costumes I Captured

More photos of the Carnival and my trip around Venice can be viewed at my Flickr photostream.

I feel blessed to have had a break to the Carnival in Venice, 12-15 February 2010. I am still mesmerized by the whole experience. The sun was out, the people were friendly and the vibe of the festival in general was merry. During the time of the Carnival (Saturday, 06 February 2010 – Tuesday, 16 February 2010) numerous events take place everyday. One in particular stood out for me. A fire show in the Garden of Wonders of the Piazza San Marco by French group of six, “La Salamandre” on Saturday 13 February at 20:30. They had a second show on the Sunday night, at the same time.

I am still a novice at photography, but try to experiment as much as I can when I go traveling. The photography in this post was taken by me. I find night photography still a bit difficult. Another challenge is movement with strong contrast in light and dark. On top of that I was in a crowd of people, but managed or tried to take advantage of my height.

The first photo was still in the experimenting stage, but the ‘effect’ is rather interesting.

Watching the fire show with their chosen music gave me goosebumps. I have managed to find a short snippet, video clip on YouTube to get an (slight) idea.

More photos of the Carnival and my trip around Venice can be viewed at my Flickr photostream.