Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

My home has two AC window units, one upstairs and one in the living room. This normally works out perfectly considering mine and my wife’s opposite body temperatures. I keep my office door closed and windows open. This keeps our electric bill down and keeps me from freezing all day.

I don’t often get too hot. I’d even use the term “rarely”, but when MichiganRadio.org says today’s 91º “feels like 99º”, I know what they mean. So I’m toughing it out this week, considering the AC would never reach into my office anyway. And I’m utilizing an advantage of working from home: working in your underwear. TMI? Too bad.

It’s Moustache May, and disparate group of moustache wearers have gathered again at MoustacheMay.com. The official rules are as follows:

You Moustache May:

1. Have / Grow a glorious moustache
2. Post one image per day
3. Participate in frequent shenanigans

You Moustache May NOT:

1. Go more than one week without posting.
2. Detract from your moustache with other overly prominent facial hair.
3. Be mean spirited, vulgar, or socially inappropriate.
4. Photoshop your images. Let’s keep it classy.

In addition to following these rules, I made Moustache May a personal project this year. My brother helped me build a stand that suspends a pane of glass between myself and the camera, and I’ve been creating a drawing each day and photographing the combination of myself and the drawing. My progress through May 16 is below (click to enlarge). Follow the madness and see full size images here.

If you didn’t know, facebook advertisers target their ads to certain demographics based on the information in user’s profiles. So a local restaurant could advertise to you if where you live is part of your profile. That’s why I always get ads for [insert any product or service here] showing women with big boobs (demographic: male, 30 years old).

This set of ads came up in my account today, and it’s a great example of the pros and cons of demographic advertising. Yes, I’m a 30-year-old man, but no, I am not interested in laser hair removal. On the other hand, whoever targeted this moustache t-shirt ad hit me dead on. I’m pretty sure facebook doesn’t know I’m participating in Moustache May. I haven’t even blogged about it yet, and it certainly isn’t part of my demographic info. But I’m not complaining. Great t-shirt.

I finally had the chance to participate in a sketchcrawl this month. I invited several friends to come, but it was just as well they couldn’t make it. I’m pretty out of practice and took a fair amount of wandering before getting a few good drawings out at the Detroit Zoo.

The first sketch is of the butterfly gardens and free flight aviary, the second from the reptile house. I felt surprisingly comfortable drawing at the zoo — I rarely draw in public. It reminded me how much I enjoy drawing from life, taking what I see and translating it onto the paper.

Check out the other results (from literally all over the world) in the Sketchcrawl forum.

This is the credo for Make, a DIY technology magazine that’s become one of my favorite online destinations. Here are some notable items I now “own” according to this inspiring, if demanding, slogan:

Macintosh 700 MHz G4 Emac (upgraded optical drive)
Macintosh 1Gb G4 Powerbook Aluminum (replaced/upgraded optical drive)
Macintosh 4th Gen U2 Edition Ipod (replaced battery)

Notable items I do not “own”:
1998 Chrysler Town & Country (unless you count opening the door)

I’m was researching Chicago’s “El” train for a Chicago based logo design project I’m working on. I found this commentary by Ian Sohn on Dentyne’s “make face time” ad campaign:
Quote:
“I’m not here to critique the creative, although I do happen to like it.  Rather, I’m just a bit surprised we (or maybe it’s just me) haven’t seen more brands use popular social media cues in their marketing communications.

Again, creative aside I like a few things here:

1. It’s current (i.e. shows Dentyne is paying attention to the world around it)
2. The imagery is emotional
3. There is no URL on the ad.  That’s right, no URL.  Think about the call-to-action … “Make Face Time.”  A URL would be a conflicting message.  Glad to see this execution won out in what I can only imagine was a rigorous debate.”

I think this ad campaign is brilliant, and I would add a fourth note to Ian’s commentary: It’s an effective marketing message specifically for chewing gum. Gum is as “offline” a commodity as I can think of. Not only isn’t it bought online. All of it’s social impact is strictly face to face. Whether positive (flavored kisses, fresh breath) or negative (incessant popping, loud chewing), none of chewing gum’s effects translate over the web.

I also resonate personally with the message. My workdays are spent almost entirely online, and I love the web. Still, my most meaningful friendships are offline, only augmented by e-contact when nothing else will work. My brother and I work together, he in Chicago and me here in Detroit. We talk “face to face” over skype nearly every day. Yet, when we meet in person I inevitably comment, “In the flesh!” and give him a big hug as if I haven’t seen him in months. I haven’t.

My friend Josh introduced me to Field Notes when I needed a replacement for my Franklin-Covey planner. Almost all my scheduling and task management are on my laptop or online now, so I just needed a nice, pocket-sized notebook for taking notes and jotting down tasks or sketches.

Enter Field Notes. They’re the perfect size, and the interior is graph paper (which I love). The key to their success, however, is being tailor made for the consumate design geek. The back inside cover gives detailed production specs in witty, feel-good one liners. The cover is described like this:

Cover: French Dur-O-Tone 80#C “Packing Brown Wrap,” with a thick, brute force, 1-Color application of “Dachshund Nose” black ink.

and the binding like this:

Binding by a Mueller saddle stitcher, with quiet appreciation to Samuel Slocum, George W. McGill and William J. Brown – the “Founding Fathers of the Staple.”

If that doesn’t give you a warm feeling inside, you’re not a design geek. If it does, I’ll bet you’re two seconds away from Googling “Field Notes” and buying a set. I’ll save you the trouble:

http://fieldnotesbrand.com

Molly ran across this ad while looking through, of all things, her latest Martha Stewart magazine. We both erroneously associated it with the series of beef ads featuring meat landscapes.

Molly: Ugh, meat is not appetizing Don’t make it bigger! Put a little piece on a plate and surround it by leaves or something.
Seth: You’re just not the target market, honey.
Molly: I can’t imagine Martha Stewart readers are the target. And I even like meat!

I had to admit she had a point. Who exactly is this ad targeting? I love meat, and I find this at best unattractive. Yet when I went searching for the aforementioned beef ads, I also found some even more disgusting raw meat landscapes from Negroni. Stop the madness, people.

I launched the latest version of sethkimball.com about a half hour ago. I converted the site to Wordpress, which is the system I use for my $500 website package. It’s a basic wordpress installation with plugins to help handle images, SEO, and a sitemap.

Notable additions are a blog (which you’re looking at) and detailed descriptions of the design services I provide (click “Home” to check it out). Some of the links may have gotten wonky in the redesign process, so if you find anything strange happening with the site, please let me know