agitcraft

I just saw this again for the first time since around my freshman year of high school. Back then I imagined that I’d skip all the industry BS and get straight to making digital fine art in the form of cool compositions and websites. Now I work in the advertising industry. Wild, huh? The text of the manifesto is below:

First Things First 1964
a manifesto

We, the undersigned, are graphic designers, photographers and students who have been brought up in a world in which the techniques and apparatus of advertising have persistently been presented to us as the most lucrative, effective and desirable means of using our talents. We have been bombarded with publications devoted to this belief, applauding the work of those who have flogged their skill and imagination to sell such things as: cat food, stomach powders, detergent, hair restorer, striped toothpaste, aftershave lotion, beforeshave lotion, slimming diets, fattening diets, deodorants, fizzy water, cigarettes, roll-ons, pull-ons and slip-ons.

By far the greatest effort of those working in the advertising industry are wasted on these trivial purposes, which contribute little or nothing to our national prosperity.

In common with an increasing numer of the general public, we have reached a saturation point at which the high pitched scream of consumer selling is no more than sheer noise. We think that there are other things more worth using our skill and experience on. There are signs for streets and buildings, books and periodicals, catalogues, instructional manuals, industrial photography, educational aids, films, television features, scientific and industrial publications and all the other media through which we promote our trade, our education, our culture and our greater awareness of the world.

We do not advocate the abolition of high pressure consumer advertising: this is not feasible. Nor do we want to take any of the fun out of life. But we are proposing a reversal of priorities in favour of the more useful and more lasting forms of communication. We hope that our society will tire of gimmick merchants, status salesmen and hidden persuaders, and that the prior call on our skills will be for worthwhile purposes. With this in mind we propose to share our experience and opinions, and to make them available to colleagues, students and others who may be interested.

signed:

Edward Wright
Geoffrey White
William Slack
Caroline Rawlence
Ian McLaren
Sam Lambert
Ivor Kamlish
Gerald Jones
Bernard Higton
Brian Grimbly
John Garner
Ken Garland
Anthony Froshaug
Robin Fior
Germano Facetti
Ivan Dodd
Harriet Crowder
Anthony Clift
Gerry Cinamon
Robert Chapman
Ray Carpenter
Ken Briggs

The link above includes additional documents, including the update of the manifesto that AdBusters published years later. I still read AdBusters, and I still agree with this manifesto, but I wonder what the 15 year old version of me would think of the 25 year old version of me based on what I ended up doing with myself.

When I was at AdobeMax on the convention floor, I noticed that MapQuest had a booth touting their API and a new logo. Now honestly, I was more curious about the logo than the API. Does MapQuest do anything better than Google Maps? If so, I’m not aware of it. Anyway, on to the story of the logo redesign.

Maybe you remember MapQuest’s old logo?

Old MapQuest Logo

It’s fun. Quirky maybe? What’s up with that font?

What it really is is dated. That’s not to say that everything should have a reflection under it, be written in helvetica, or look like a fucking sticker peeling off the wall, but this logo clearly comes from the days of a more innocent internet.

Enter the new logo:

New MapQuest Logo

I don’t like this much better. In fact, I specifically don’t care for the superscript thrown on the Q, or the balance of font sizes between the M and the Q. The color choice is okay, if not a bit loud for a company that’s been around for almost as long as I’ve been using the internet.

Hmm…come to think of it, how long has MapQuest been around? I remember using them before Google Maps came out, but how early did that start? Let’s head over to the About page. Maybe there’s some information there.

MapQuest: The Company!

Ok, reading along here…woah! Now just wait a minute! Did you read what I read?

MapQuest has been helping people find places, get maps and directions for over 40 years. As one of the most recognized and trusted brands on the internet, we’ve created mapping solutions that support consumers and businesses alike. Learn how MapQuest mapping solutions can help you get to where you need to go.

40 Years? How could that be? Did they publish printed maps in the past? Then again, this is starting to make sense. Look at this:

MapQuest Classic

This is what MapQuest used to look like. In fact, MapQuest has looked pretty much like this for a long time. If anything has happened to the interface in the past decade, I believe it was that the map down screen got larger and had improved controls added to it.

Have you seen the new MapQuest homepage?

The New MapQuest!

This design is definitely much cleaner. You couldn’t see it in the screenshot of Classic MapQuest, but a lot of garbage content has been stripped from the interface in favor of a design that brings you straight to the point: Maps! There’s even a press release about the redesign.

Something about this redesign doesn’t sit well with me. It gives me a strange sort of “uncanny valley” vibe with regards to some other website…

Google Maps

Oh that’s right! Google Maps! Isn’t it incredible how similar the two now look?

Let’s get to the point and call this exactly what it is: A midlife crisis. MapQuest is 40 years old and has been replaced by a much younger competitor with a better design and better functionality, so they’ve gone the route of the redesign in a very pathetic attempt to outdo their youthful nemesis.

This is no different than an older man buying a motorcycle, or an older woman getting cosmetic surgery. It’s a sad attempt by MapQuest to remain youthful and relevant in a world that is leaving it behind.

I just recently heard about Wylio and thought I’d check it out and give it a try. It’s not as if I’m at a loss for imagery (most of my images consist of screen shots of the topic at hand), but it might be nice at times to have something additional to work with.
photo © 2010 Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales | more info (via: Wylio)
The image above, for example, was produced using Wylio when I did a search on the company’s own name. I don’t know what the hell three faeries have to do with Wylio, but it is interesting.

I’d just like to take this opportunity to be early to point out how gloriously wonderful the movie posters are for Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming “Black Swan,” out on December 3rd. Check them out below.

I dig the dreamy repetition of the silhouette of the ballerina and the melancholy swan. I’ll be stealing this color scheme soon, I’m sure.

Dig the double masking! This is probably my favorite out of all of them.

The use of a single eye for both the swan and the ballerina is a nice touch. The font choice on this one makes me think of a horror film.

The fractured, geometric form of the ballerina (and the title font) and the expression on her face suggest a mental breakdown. This one is notable in that it seems to do away with the swan motif seen in every other poster.

I’d love to see more work by whoever put these together.

The larger and more complex an application is, the more important it is that functional rules be strongly enforced.

It’s easiest to enforce functional rules (and to make a case for their enforcement) when they’ve been clearly defined from day one.

Exceptions break patterns. Without patterns to act on, you’re not really programming.

I was just looking at some code for a colleague of mine and noticed something.

import lt.uza.utils.Global;

 public class Main extends Sprite {

 private var global:Global = Global.getInstance();

 public function Main() {

 global.stage=stage;

 setupStage();
 ApplicationFacade.getInstance().startup(stage);
 }
 public function setupStage():void {
 stage.quality=StageQuality.HIGH;
 stage.scaleMode=StageScaleMode.NO_SCALE;
 stage.align=StageAlign.TOP_LEFT;
 }

 }

What is this “Global” business?

I followed the trail and found Uza’s global class. I was going to chime in against globals but I was beaten to the punch. Robert Penner (!) said it best.

The developer explained himself as follows:

@Robert Penner

Thanks for dropping by!

Although I admit that global variables CAN cause problems, many programs can benefit from them if used in a controlled manner. I’m using development patterns myself everyday, however I find Global class a great addition to my toolset letting me create difficult systems with less code and clutter.

Another reason is that if you are doing real life development on a tight budget and an even tighter timeline (thus cannot invest time in using propper MVC), Global will most probably be your best solution to get things done fast and clean.

OOP strongly opposes any global variables, however I believe my AS3 implementation is quite compatible to pass the check.

Give it a try!

Am I the only person who finds this excuse inadequate?

As I probably promised before in the post announcing my itinerary for Adobe MAX 2010, I now have video for all of the sessions I attended.

Deep Dive into Mobile Development with the Flex SDK

Deep Dive into Flash Player Rendering

Creating Testable Flex Applications

Performance Tips and Tricks for Flex  and Flash Development

Having Fun with Layouts in Flex 4

FutuRIA: The Convergence of Rich Internet and Enterprise Applications

Somehow or another (I’m not entirely sure) I’ve found myself trapped in the sixth circle of hell with everyone else on Fandango’s mailing list. How did I get here? I must have purchased a movie ticket through Fandango at some point, and they must have automatically opted me into their mailing list.

Fine.

Whatever.

Generally I just unsubscribe from these things as soon as possible (if possible, hencforth known as  ASAP(IP)), but I do have an interest in the latest happenings and releases in film, and since I don’t have many other forms of casual exposure at the moment I decided to let it slide.

I felt like it had been wise of me to do so when I saw this in my inbox:

Batman 3! New Villian! Awesome! Let’s click through and find out more!

Huh? Where’s my batman? Ohhh…

How long did it take you to find it? I scanned the e-mail for about 30 seconds before I found anything Batman related. This sort of behavior is pretty well documented in places like DarkPatterns.org.

When you consider the subject of the e-mail and how much screen real estate is actually devoted to said subject, it’s clear that this entire e-mail is just a lousy Bait and Switch. Fandango tosses out their batman shaped hook (a batarang perhaps?) to lure me into viewing their glossy, full page advertisement.

Fandango, consider yourself unsubscribed!

Bonus:

Because I’m a responsible citizen, after unsubscribing I felt it was my duty to provide Fandango with some feedback about why in the future I’ll go on without their colorful e-mails:

Ignore this everybody: 79PZNGN2GDR6

Yet another edition of “What am I working on?”

This time around I’m actually trying to design an experiment.  A real experiment. I think. Allow me to explain.

The Example

Example 1

First of all, let’s call this what it is: a cropped selection from the wonderful “The Joy of Life” by the also wonderful Henri Matisse, duplicated side by side three times. Here’s what you may not have taken note of: Each of the images above was originally compressed at a different “quality” level according to Photoshop’s “Save for Web” feature. The cell on far right is has a quality of 100 (the maximum), the cell in the middle is 50, and the cell no the left is 0 (minimum).

The Explanation

At this size it is probably very hard to tell, but when you look at the images themselves it’s another story.

Quality of 100

The above is the same clip  (not scaled) presented at 100 percent quality.

Quality of 0

Here’s the same image presented at 0 percent quality. It should be easy to see the difference. The lower quality image (which has a higher compression and therefore a smaller file size) is noticeably grainy, muddy, and washed out.

Clearly the lower quality image would be unacceptable for use in any real project, but what about this one?

Quality of 50

I would feel fairly comfortable using the above in a project. We may even be able to reduce the quality even further and still end up with something acceptable.

Why would we want to do that?

The Problem

As I see it, the problem is that as developers we have two competing interests at play here:

1. Our work needs to look good. If we’re using images, this means that we must keep them to a certain standard of quality.
2. Our work needs to arrive fast. That is, we need to minimize the size of our projects to guarantee that when people consume them they don’t get bored waiting for them to load or display and go away.

The tension between these demands has been around for as long as people have been doing work online.

We may have preconceptions about how to best balance these demands (“I just export at the default”), but perhaps we can find an answer.

Perhaps we can figure out the optimal compression level for an image according to the needs of both file size and image quality.

The Project

I’m working on a web application right now that will attempt to discover that very thing. It’s evolving into the form of what I hope will be a formal experimental study.

I’m building it with the MultiCore edition of PureMVC. I’m using the wonderful Pipes and AsyncCommand utilities. Those are my shout outs.

I’ll announce it when it comes out. I expect to be done with it whenever.

Also, because Technorati is a hater, here’s a token: Z3A58QAU6DU6