D. T. Shults Designs

A return...

2008-05-06T05:06:00.002-04:00

It's been a while since my last entry, but I assure you, I have not been idle! Between my job, school, and other obligations, I've had little time for bloggery. Never the less, I've come to give you an update, and here it is:
My internship has expanded from a part time affair to a full time job, at least for the summer. Seeing as I have only been there for a few months, my boss has decided to give me a longer go, and at the end of that time, we'll reevaluate whether I might be given a permanent position or not. This is pretty agreeable to me, as even if I don't end up there, I have something loaded up for the months immediately following graduation.
Graduation! Which, by the way, is approaching far too rapidly. Not only does it mark the end of a most excellent era of my life, but it also marks the end of this semester. As I sit here in the library at 5:30AM, I promise you that I am not yet prepared for the end of the semester. My portfolio site was rolling along, sometimes roughly, but surely, until today when I hit a wall. It seems that for reasons unknown to me (and so far, the adobe community at large) buttons inside of movie clips do not care to perform the functions I associate with them. This is a bit of an issue when considering that all of the thumbnails in my portfolio are buttons as such, and are thus unable to call up the work they relate to. God willing a solution will present itself soon.
In the mean time I've been building a PDF version for printing. It's looking a bit rushed at the moment, but I'm hopefully about polishing it up to a lovely shine before zero hour.
What other news? I did some reading in Building Design Portfolios, which seems like a fairly handy book. One thing it has continued to reinforce in me (inadvertently) is my distaste for what I'll call "generic good design". Yes, the status quo is fine, but I feel like the best designers need to be trying to move into new areas and try new things. We can only go so far if we merely repeat and rehash the proven techniques.

Taking Action...

2008-04-10T12:15:00.002-04:00

This past week I have found myself wading through a sea of actionscript. I was assailed from all sides by onEnterFrame()s, button.onRelease()s, movie clip parameters, and a multitude of variables of all types. It was great! Actionscript has proven to be one of the most rewarding things I've gotten out of my education. Having some computer science background, and being able to tie that in with my love of design, complete with a dash of interactivity... well, it's just about the coolest thing you can do in this field. I've put together three things lately-
An interactive flash header for a website: This header has a series of buttons, that upon being clicked, will bring up (with a pretty fading effect) a picture and a link. Also, if left idle, it will cycle through the pictures periodically. That feature was actually an afterthought, and it was nice to see that my code was modular and adaptive enough to allow for it with the introduction of only a single additional function, and a few lines into the main code.
The second project I made was an interactive floor plan map. This one was substantially simpler, and changes some dynamic text and an image in accordance with rollover events.
The third project is of course my portfolio, which is now several hundred lines worth of code. I am happy to report that the navigation is now working quite nicely. The user can use buttons to go where they want to, or use the "edge scrolling" system, where the position of the mouse controls the navigation. I hope to make both run a bit more smoothly, and I think the code is clean enough that it shouldn't be a problem.
Well, I must be off to class. Until next time, aufwiederschreiben!

2008-04-03T12:01:00.003-04:00

Work has been interesting this week. On Tuesday, I designed built and coded a piece in Flash for [EDITED]. It's an interactive map for their "[EDITED]" display, in which you can mouse over different parts of the map, and images and and description will appear. I'm happy to say that the actual coding went very smoothly, which is a relief, because I haven't done much actionscript in the past several months. This is additionally relieving because my entire portfolio will run on actionscript!
Wednesday was less fun, as such, but also interesting. There was a mad dash to get a huge amount of content onto the framework we had built for it before the end of the day. The work was somewhat tedious, but being there for the final stage of the development process was pretty cool. I also got to dig into the CSS a good deal, which was kind of neat.
Work on my portfolio has slowed down a bit due to stresses at work and in other classes, but I think I will be able to pick up a lot over the next week. Hopefully the update I bring you then will be more thrilling!

Train Rolls On...

2008-03-27T11:43:00.002-04:00

This week hasn't brought too much news. Work was an interesting mixture of tedium and real design. I was switching rapidly between data entry (yuck!) and editing an animation in Flash (hurrah!). The combination left me somewhere just north of neutral, since I don't get much opportunity to work in Flash.
And speaking of Flash, work on the portfolio has been a little slow. I'm currently building the raster version of all the artwork on the main page, and while it's coming along, it is slow work. Hopefully the vector versions will be less time consuming, but no matter how I slice it, there's a lot of tracing with the pen tool in my future. After I finish that, it will at last be time to devote myself to Flash. The next step will be building all the code. It's rather daunting, but I have confidence that I can do it. I think on the small scale, nothing I'm attempting to accomplish is that hard, but scaling it up to apply to a whole site seems like a big job. "Baby steps" - that's what I keep telling myself.
In any event, you can check out my progress in this image...
Not looking too bad eh? Maybe so, but it's time for me to buckle down. I've decided that after this weekend, I settle in for the hard push to the end. Wish me luck!

The Journey Continues...

2008-03-20T12:17:00.004-04:00

Work has been increasingly interesting of late. I’m finally at the point with Caffeine where I’m making complete comps for new sites (or more accurately, redesigns of old sites). So far, I’ve done one for [EDITED] and one for the [EDITED]. The work has been very educational, and it’s forced me to consider practical ways to incorporate design into sites that are more conservative than those I make for myself. Subtlety in texture, color palette, and arrangements play a bigger role. (The links above are not for my versions- mine have not been implemented yet.)

The portfolio is also looking pretty cool. I continue to fight my way through the actionscript, and I’ve made a working scrolling system for freely navigating the page. In addition to this, I hope to make a button based system so the scrolling will be automatic if the user so chooses.

The artwork is looking cool too. I’ve designed a cool looking cover that looks like it’s straight out of the pulpy cult films and novels of the 1960s and 70s. Once you start throwing on the grungy beat up stuff, it’s hard to know when to stop! At one point it looked a bit like the whole thing had been through a washing machine, but I scaled the coffee stains and tears back a bit, and it’s in a good place now.

Ever onward...

2008-03-06T15:40:00.002-05:00

The journey continues this week with more work, work, and work. The internship is progressing smoothly. Unfortunately much of my actual design work isn’t up yet, but I have lots of grunt work to display. Behold, dozens of beautiful [EDITED] Keep an eye out for the very sexy placeholder image for those that do not yet have images as well. Hopefully next week I’ll have some more impressive goodies to share.

My efforts toward a grand portfolio also continue. Today I cracked open Flash and started writing snippets of actionscript in an attempt to produce a microcosm of my future site. The startling truth is that it was not coming back to me as readily as I had hoped. But I think that by reviewing some of my old stuff, and devoting some time to studying over the coming spring break, I’ll be in good shape soon. I did manage to get some planning done, however. Just having Flash open helped me to visualize the internal mechanics of the site, and I made some good progress in that area.

I also was forced to make a decision today regarding the look of the site. Some of my comps from last week have a subtle but very cool papery texture going on, but in order to maintain this, they must be raster images. I fear that the size and resolution necessary for the site is going to make using these an oppressively slow option when it comes to the user-end experience, as file size will be exorbitant. The alternative is to use vector based graphics, which while still looking good, lack the same character. I haven’t given up entirely, but due to the style of navigation I’ll be using, vector is probably going to be the only viable option.

On the literary front, I pressed forward in Designing a Digital Portfolio, and also began Building Design Portfolios by Sara Eisenman. Neither book provided much food for thought for me this week, however, as they covered topics I either already knew about, or which don’t pertain very well to me.

Finally, I also picked up Dynamic Figure Drawing by Burne Hogarth on a professor’s recommendation. It looks like an amazingly useful book, and I can’t wait to cozy up with it, a sketchbook, and some freshly sharpened pencils in the near future.

Got Style?

2008-02-28T21:19:00.004-05:00

I blaze ever forward on my quest toward a portfolio. Over the last week, I’ve done a lot of sketches, and even a few rough comps to see if the style I was planning is going to work. Check ‘em out.

I know the style is unconventional for a portfolio, but that’s exactly why I’m doing it. If I have to look through one more neutral colored overly crisp gallery style portfolio, I might just throw my hands up and give up on the world of design. It’s one thing to keep it clean and simple, and another to do exactly what everyone else is doing. It’s my hope that this portfolio will be able to first, attract attention and intrigue people, and second, be a showcase of good artwork and design in itself. Of course, I also hope it’s a good way to show of my work! This coming week, I’m moving on to some organizational things, like coming up with a site map and a master list of things to do in order to complete the site.

My internship is also continuing smoothly. You can check out one of the sites I’ve been working on [EDITED]. Mostly I’ve just done some tweaking and image prep, but it’s been nice to see things come together over the last few weeks. After tomorrow, I’ll have worked there for three weeks.

I have also, of course, done more reading this week. HTBAGDWLYS (that's almost as long as just typing the full title!) provided some insight on the design process from conception through to finished project. One point that was heavily stressed was the importance of good briefs, and the ability of a designer to find the core issues in a brief. Isolating and understand these issues will provide direction and guidance throughout a project. There was also a good point made about using drafts and iteration not as a means of collecting a pile of stuff you simply aren't going to use, but rather as a way of collecting materials that will inform your future versions. This made a lot of sense to me. Just because a given comp doesn't work does not mean that, by observing its strengths and weaknesses, it can't guide you in the right direction.

One pursuit I haven’t mentioned yet is the independent study I’ve been working on. I’m putting together some character animations in Maya. I figure that rigging, skinning, and all that jazz is pretty much the biggest gap in my Maya repertoire, and I aim to plug that gap. So far I’ve run through the appropriate tutorials in Maya at a Glance, and now I’m moving on to some more advanced materials. I’ve already done a walk cycle on a simple character, and while I’m not sure what kind of final product I’m going to strive for, I’d like to tell some kind of short narrative with a character.

Well, I’ve work to do, so I must be on my way. Until next week!

Onward and Upward...

2008-02-21T11:35:00.004-05:00

The plot thickens this week yet again. I’m taking a service learning course on the life and philosophy of Albert Schweitzer, and as part of the course, students must volunteer with a chosen non-profit group on a regular basis. I’ve been in contact with the Greater New Haven Cat Project, a group that cares for stray and feral cats, and when it came up that I was an interactive designer, they wondered if I could give their website a face lift. As you can see, there is room for improvement. This could be an excellent chance to apply some of the skills I’ve acquired, and some of the tricks I’ve picked up at my internship.
Speaking of which, the work I’m doing for Caffeine Interactive has gotten a lot more interesting over the past week. Beyond simple image manipulation, they now have me working on things that bear a strong resemblance to actual design. Just yesterday I was planning layouts and designing graphics for a page that I will be assembling tomorrow. It will be my first complete from-the-ground-up page with Caffeine.
My reading continues in “How To Be a Graphic Designer…”. Topics covered this week include clients and self promotion. The section on clients hit home with me, pointing out some of the observations I’ve made myself over the past few years. I think the most important issue addressed was the power struggle that can occur between designer and client. All too often I have had to suppress a deep sigh as a client requests something which is contrary to good design sense. The Book recommend forging a relationship where you both have a say, and should be firm when you need to. Easier said than done.
I’ve also been progressing further in “Designing a Digital Portfolio”. A brief section on developing old work to a higher standard was of particular interest to me. As a young designer (still a student, even) I do not have an enormous body of work to draw from. The fine art of taking old, lackluster projects and polishing them up will be something I will probably have to master in the coming months.
What other news? I have chosen a logo, and applied it to a range of media, including business cards, envelopes, and letterheads. I cooked up several versions of each, and still need to figure out just which ones to use. You can check ‘em out below.
Well, as usual, I am being whisked off somewhere by the forces of obligation. Until next time, dear reader.

Another Day Another Dollar...

2008-02-14T10:31:00.003-05:00

This week I began my internship at the illustrious Caffeine Interactive. I’ve only been there for two days so far, but they’ve already found lots of important work for me. This mostly involves the kind of repetitive maddening jobs that would drive actual employees insane. “Dan, could you resize these 400 images to fit this template? Thanks.” Fortunately, most interns are already insane for agreeing to work for no pay- but this internship does pay, so I don’t think that rule applies to me. Did I lose anyone?
In all seriousness, however, it’s already proving to be a valuable experience. It’s interesting to take in the process of web design and maintenance from development, to testing, right on through to application. I’ve even learned one or two shortcuts in Photoshop that I didn’t know before.
What other news then? Work continues on my logo design. I’ve narrowed down the specific style I’ll be pursuing (see image below), and it’s only a matter of picking which version exactly I’ll be settling on. I’ve also given more thought to the overall design of my portfolio site, and these logos, whichever I decide on, will definitely be right at home.
Reading also continues from Shaughnessy’s “How to be a Graphic Designer Without Losing Your Soul” and also Cynthia L. Baron’s “Designing a Digital Portfolio.” The latter spent some time discussing researching potential clients and customizing yourself to fit their needs. To me, the process of constantly tweaking, rebuilding, and generally poking at one’s portfolio seems like it would be a tiresome endeavor, but then no one said this was going to be easy.
In any event, I am off to class. The sun is shining for the first time in 40 days, and my dove has wandered back with an olive branch, so I believe it is time for me to depart and see what the wide world can offer me today.

And oh- here are those logos.

To move a mountain...

2008-02-07T11:14:00.000-05:00

The last seven days have been a banner week for me. Toward the middle of last week I sent a resume and portfolio to Caffeine Interactive, a design group running out of New Haven, and they called me in for an interview on the coming Friday. My first impression of the place was that it’s exactly the kind of environment I’d hope for in a design studio. A voluminous brick interior with two story windows draped in crimson curtains, neon signs, air hockey… atmosphere. The kind of place that immediately puts me in the sort of creative mood I usually have to put on some heavily electronic music to get in to.
The interview went well. I liked the people as much as the place, and I guess they liked me too, because I received a call the following Tuesday offering me an internship position. Now here’s the real kicker: They’re even going to pay me. Design gods be praised! I’ll be doing 20 hours a week beginning next Tuesday. It’s going to be a tall order considering my substantial workload at school this semester (and a few independent projects) but I’m confident this will be the real world exposure I need to make a comfortable transition after graduation.

I managed to procure a copy of Adrian Shaughnessy’s How to be a Graphic Designer, Without Losing your Soul this week, and promptly dove in. Immediately striking about the book is its shocking lack of what most conventional people would call, well, design. Its plain blue cover with white text offers almost no initial graphical pizzazz. Each page is densely packed with small black print, and pictures are few and far between. To the casual onlooker, a person with this book might appear to be reading the manual to a large and complicated calculator. The funny thing is, hugely unconventional for a design book though it is, it does have style. As you make your way through it, you begin to appreciate the Spartan simplicity with which the book is put together. There is nothing flashy, but everything is in its place, and done right. I would compare it to the subtle and careful work of Steven Spielberg, whereas most design books hearken closer to Michael Bay.
Another surprise the opening pages of this book have thrown at me is that it’s actually enjoyable to read. Chapters melt away readily, and it is full of useful gems. Of particular interest to me were sections on interviewing and portfolio presentation, as, as I have said, I went through this process over the last week. I was happy to find an emphasis on presenting yourself as an affable person who is easy to, “get on with” as Shaughnessy puts it. I make a point of this in interviews, and try not to focus too much on my ego. I guess it’s panned out.

Finally, I’ve begun work on putting together some logos for myself. One possible option is now visible in the header of this blog. Others are still more in the planning phase . The letters “D” and “T” were not really made to mesh together in an attractive fashion, so I’ve had to, well, get creative in some areas. Some of the logos, however, are less typographically oriented and more graphically oriented. I’m actually leaning toward one of these, but nothing is final yet.

That’s all for now my friends. It appears this body cannot be sustained on high speed internet access alone, so I head off in search of food.

Baby Steps...

2008-01-31T10:20:00.000-05:00

As I gathered my many projects together this week, not only to update my portfolio, but also to apply for an internship, it became abundantly clear that my work is extremely unfocused. I have strong work in print, 3D animation, interactive material, and web development, but none of those categories stand out as my clear calling. I suppose this is a blessing as well as a curse (my options are open), but it still leaves me wondering where I should be focusing my attention in the coming months.
Part of the reason this is so distressing is that the text I've been reading strongly recommends some degree of customization in your portfolio based on the specific field you're trying to enter, or even the specific position at a given company. This makes sense, of course, but is also daunting to someone who may not have that much to show in any one area.
I've been perusing the portfolios of some of my peers for a while now in an attempt to find some inspiration, but I've discovered something a little... disappointing? Many of them are near carbon copies of each other, different only subtly in scheme and proportion. They all have the same style of up-close thumbnails, the same off-white backgrounds, and the same basic navigation. While most of these portfolio's are very good in an objective sense, I have to believe that sticking out in the pack is better than this cookie-cutter routine I'm seeing a lot of. Happily, the style I'm hoping to pursue for my portfolio deviates from this template quite a bit. 'More on that in future entries.

So long for now,
-Dan

So it begins...

2008-01-24T14:35:00.000-05:00

This blog will be a repository for all my materials and musings on the world of design. Welcome Aboard.

-D. T. Shults