ASWS drops graphical assistance to the Coffee Talk crew for their new live music night “Coffee Talk Sessions”. Headliner Ernie Cruz Jr. is bringing the Awa fueled live music into Kaimuki on Wednesday nights. Kaimuki is the next Kapahulu, say what? [Continue...]
In their final phase of construction, The Vanguard Lofts required a hand-out for buyers to reference the 36 unit apartments. As a additional piece to the original brochure, a self covering accordion fold brochure was in order. The tour map was designed to allow sales agents quick reference to the unique floor plans while escorting guests through the building or to assist buyers in self-guided tours. [Continue...]
Entering the Flash vs HTML 5 argument is a trip down snoozer lane, but this passage from Hartmut Esslinger’s book ‘A Fine Line’ kind of framed the debate in a new light. Esslinger’s ID company frogdesign helped Apple design the original Macintosh line, he comments on overcoming the challenge of low fidelity dot-matrix printers that were ubiquitous at the time. Apple was focused on designing a computer that could produce high-resolution graphics and needed a printer that could deliver them in a home or office. Esslinger’s aside at the end is a telling piece of history that most people will have long forgotten.
Apple made an under-recognized breakthrough in the 1980s with its advances in desktop publishing. Our goal was to move beyond the horrible graphics of dot-matrix printers, so Apple began by licensing modern typestyles from the German type setting company, Berthold. We then took the Canon’s high-end copy engine and combined it with a Macintosh board, which had the capability to process the high-resolution PostScript graphics of scalable fonts, and added a “soft window” user interface. The printer was an instant success. With it, Apple pioneered an entirely new industry for design software (companies such as Adobe wouldn’t have started without it).
To be fair, Apple did not indirectly create Adobe, as the technology embedded in the printer was in fact Adobe’s first invention – PostScript. Founder John Warnock, a former Xerox PARC employee, created a technology that allowed scalable fonts for high-end main frame printers ($30,000 = high end). A combination of the Apple Laserwriter ($7,000), a copy of Aldus Pagemaker and a Macintosh is what set-off the Desktop Publishing revolution. Esslinger’s passage hints at the lucrative future for the publishing industry that we benefit from today, but their solution for protection against poor-quality graphics is the clue to Apple’s current strategy for the web. In the 1980s, Apple built a computer (the Macintosh) the industry did not understand or need, only until all the pieces were in place did the value of the Macintosh computer ascend. Apple’s foresight to use PostScript within the printer and OS allowed Adobe to be part of that revolution. Today, Apple is still trying to protect itself from poor-quality graphics, ironically from Flash, an Adobe acquisition from Macromedia. If you replace the Macintosh of the 80s with the iPad, you’ll see a pattern that Apple again needs to build the proper ecosystem for the device to exist within. Flash is a capable tool, but to Apple’s standards, it provides them with enough reason to break rank with the Industry – again. The iPad and iPhone is Apple’s new Macintosh and unfortunately for Adobe, Flash is the clunky dot-matrix printer of the 21st century. Oh the drama, nap time.
I gave up TV a few years ago for the greener pastures of the Internet, so far its been a life changing experience. I’m no longer running home to watch my favorite shows or channel surfing to fall asleep. By giving-up the idea of ‘current’ in my normal diet of procedural dramas and late night punditry, the internet is a bottomless well of on-demand content. But, once and awhile I get to sit in front of a real TV signal, live people and all. Of the few times that’s happened, I realized how obvious it was that you’re really watching commercials with story interruptions. I also noticed major trends in thematic programming (vampires, sci-fi, 80s TV) and commercials, but one thing stood out in particular.
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Non-profit organizations constantly depend on the generosity of public, private or government sources. Practical and economical solutions are always a priority for groups tasked with the long-term goal of changing public habits or opinion. The Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii is no stranger to such challenges. ASWS was asked to design their annual report, a major collateral piece for the Coalition, which was attractive and budget friendly. [Continue...]
TheHI gets a flashy new flyer. Look out for a collaborative series of infographics courtesy of ASWS and HI2059.
Anyone who works in a creative industry will often be challenged with the need to ‘invent’ things to prove their creative chops. Like a magician on stage, a creative will strive to produce results that will stun and amaze an audience. The act of performance as a self-imposed job description is a fairly common feeling, mainly generated by the ratio of working creatives in today’s industries; and the need to define your worth among them. As history reminds us, the inventors club is a small elite group of people while the common folk must live in the scrapbooking rank-and-file. As an artist, subjectivity plays a large role in the ability to determine value in a body of work; just the act of doing something can be considered ‘inventing’. But for designers, the role of solution provider creates a definable agenda with predictable outcomes, making the status of inventor increasingly unlikely. [Continue...]
This week brought the introduction of Apple’s latest device to the world – the iPad. A touch tablet running a modified version of the iPhone OS, which appears like a big brother to its tiny iPod siblings. But you know this already, as the media has speculated and traded rumors for years about the mythical device. What we didn’t know is its name. The four letter device has taken criticism because of its decidedly uncool handle . At face value, the word pad can be as boring as a real pad of paper or conjure visions of a particular feminine product. But this is Apple at work, and one thing we can all agree on is nothing is done lightly in Cupertino. I think there is a valuable lesson to learn here. [Continue...]
Check this clip of Teenage Engineering’s upcoming synth project – The OP1. A peek at the onscreen display reveals a jet black OLED screen with high contrast graphics. It gives off a ‘neon ceiling decor from an 80′s nightclub’ vibe; and the GUI is pure get-the-hell-out genius. For anyone who’s fumbled with analog tape recorders will appreciate the nostalgic nod to ye old reel-to-reel. Far removed from Native Instrument’s pixel heavy softsynths, TE seems to have taken their design cues from a Texas instrument calculator (and can you blame them) and early Frog Design Mac prototypes. Maybe this is the first sign that we’re getting over emulation and going back to real? Either way, I gotta get a paper route again, ‘real’ is spendy.
Let the Japanese do it right.
