Colorizing: vision or violation?

What happens to the meaning of an iconic black & white photo when it’s meticulously reinterpreted as a color image? Do we gain insight? Or do we lose the impact and value of the original image? Or both?

As you’ll see if you read the comments, this series by Swedish artist and photo restoration expert Sanna Dullaway invites controversy.

Personally, I think it’s a fascinating experiment, and helps me see how the photographers worked — interpreting the colorful world around them as black & white compositions, capturing the “decisive moment”, seeing what we mere mortals might have overlooked.

iconic black-and-white photos photoshopped in colour.

Typographic excavations

Michelangelo spoke about releasing his sculptures from the marble. In the case of Brian Dettmer, he’s releasing them from old books.

Like a surgeon working carefully with small instruments, he explores the anatomical peculiarities of dictionaries and other vintage texts. Like an archeologist, as he digs deeper and deeper, he unearths meaning and finds small gems that interact with the elements he’s already uncovered. Like a magician, he forces the viewer to see familiar objects in a surprising new way, and to wonder what else is hiding in them.

I marvel at his craftsmanship and his patience. It’s well worth clicking through to the site to see his other pieces — this is just the tip of the iceberg.

brian dettmer: textonomy.

Latest cosmetic breakthrough!

How do they do it? The secrets of the supermodels — revealed by director Jesse Rosten.

South Pacific: a new face for an old friend

Designing a poster for a musical that everyone already knows is both fun and a little intimidating. The Rodgers & Hammerstein classic has been interpreted by designers for over half a century. Is there room for another one?

Apparently so.

Here’s my image for the Santa Monica High School production. For those who don’t know, South Pacific is based on James Michener’s Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel, and won 10 Tony Awards on Broadway. Songs like “Some Enchanted Evening,” “There is Nothing Like a Dame,” “Bali Ha’i” and “Younger Than Springtime” are all from this play. The big splashy type, the palm trees and the chorus line of 1940′s pin-up girls are intended to remind the viewer of its history and scope. In a way, the show doesn’t require a lot of explanation; the image just needs to trigger your memory.

But the more profound aspect of the musical is the way in which it deals with racism — hence the little orange/tan pin-up girl. That’s what keeps the show relevant and powerful.

South Pacific opens March 1 at big, beautiful Barnum Hall. For tickets and more information, visit samohitheatre.org.

PS. My son Gabriel landed the role of expatriate Emile DeBecque. We’ll see if he can pull off a heroic middle-aged Frenchman while channeling a little Ezio Pinza!

Form follows function — or fancy?

I’m reading the Walter Isaacson bio of Steve Jobs, and it leads me to wonder about the new Kube2 MP3 player from Bluetree Electronics.  (And what the heck is going on with all the “blue” company names? Maybe that’s another post.) The device, dubbed the world’s smallest touch MP3 player, will be introduced at CES in January. It’s a tiny cube-shaped block that can have a custom skin wrapped around it. It definitely has a certain coolness level. But you have to wonder about using it.

Personally, the last thing I want to carry in my pocket is a chunk of metal and glass in the shape of a cube. It sounds uncomfortable. I think my keys or coins would trash it before I finished the first playlist. With a surface area so small, how big a pain is it to select a song or a podcast? How hard is it to read the name of what you’re trying to play?

Needless to say, Apple has been making its tiny iPod Shuffle for years, and I know many people who find the experience of using it frustrating just because of its small size. If that’s true, then what’s the Kube2 going to feel like?

Plus, the Shuffle and the Nano are both flat. Which means you can clip them to your clothing, wear them as a watch, or slip them comfortably into a pocket. What do you do with the Kube2? Drop it into your purse?

Steve Jobs obsessed over designing his NeXT computer as a perfect cube —  to the point of making it almost impossible to manufacturer. It was a tragic case of form ignoring function and helping to drive its price into the stratosphere.This little gadget isn’t a perfect cube and doesn’t look like the product of obsession. But it does look like a cute visual trick that will get a little notice — and disappear.

I’d love to know what  you think about it. Leave a comment, and let’s talk.

Predicting color for 2012

The venerable Pantone company — the international masters of color-matching — are predicting the hottest new color for 2012: Tangerine Tango.

I tend to take these color predictions with a grain of salt. But maybe that’s because our color palettes usually are more emotionally-, culturally-, story-telling- or logically-based than fashion-driven. If anything, I think we try to transcend trends rather than ride them.

Last year, Pantone predicted something called Honeysuckle, which is basically a hot raspberry-influenced pink.

“Described as courageous, confident and vital, [Honeysuckle] is deliberately bold and meant to contrast with last year’s more calming turquoise. …the intensity of this festive reddish pink allures and engages…Honeysuckle may also bring a wave of nostalgia for its associated delicious scent reminiscent of the carefree days of spring and summer.”

Yeah, that worked out well. Somehow, I don’t see 2011 as the year of “carefree days of spring and summer,” and I don’t remember seeing all that much pink around this past year.

This new red-orange, though, seems to me to have a little more potential — a warm hue that feels cozy and friendly might be just what we need heading into 2012. With a predicted 2.4% growth in the economy, maybe things will feel more genuinely hopeful, and Tangerine Tango will provide just the rhythm and heat we need to keep the fire burning.

New issue of AbilityFirst Magazine

One of our favorite clients is the incredible AbilityFirst. The work they do with developmentally disabled people and their families changes lives for the better, dramatically, every single day.

We just posted the newest edition of their semi-annual magazine on issuu.com. It’s full of moving personal stories like T.J. Mitchell’s, the 10-year-old with Down syndrome featured on the cover. T.J. has made tremendous progress through the loving, supportive programs AbilityFirst provides its participants.

They were also at the center of the effort to pass California Bill SB-309, the legislation that enables support for families with disabled high school students, without which their educational programs would have been cut off.

You can read the current issue of AbilityFirst Magazine online by clicking the image, or this link.

10 New Google Analytics Features

Google will disconnect its old Analytics system next month. If you haven’t gotten the word, it’s time to catch up. Rachael Gerson  at Mashable.com put up a post that clearly and quickly explains the changes.

10 New Google Analytics Features You Need to Start Using.

Google really seems to be doing a good job of making it easier for us non-analysts to figure what’s going on. If the web is a key piece of your business (and I’ll bet it is), check it out.

Designing with a limited palette

When we begin working with a new client — unless we’re doing a complete re-branding – there are often style guidelines in place. And as much fun as it might be to start fresh, strategically it makes no sense. In that case, our job becomes one of interpretation.

Green Hasson Janks had recently completed a major overhaul of their visual identity. They needed a blog designed and built that would complement their existing website, which already reflected the new look and feel.

Given the tight restrictions, we came up with an interpretation that gently stretched the guidelines without violating the integrity of the brand.

In a well thought-through identity system, there’s almost always some creative leeway. After all, when we design one, we don’t want to tie our own hands, nor do we want to make it difficult for others to interpret the new style. So we create a set of “colors” (both literal and metaphorical) that allow interpretation while maintaining continuity.

Above is our take on Green Hasson Janks’ Taxing Thoughts, which went live just before Thanksgiving. Take a look, then click through to their main site to see how it feels in context.

We also created a printed announcement to introduce their staff and clients to the new blog, and help launch it with a bang. It’s been well received, and it both reinforces and expands their brand identity.

Turn any website into an app on your Mac

At FreeAssociates, we manage our projects with Basecamp, a wonderful, simple online system from 37Signals. I’m constantly closing the window — accidentally or through force of habit — then having to re-open it in my browser. I really just want it to act like an app on my Mac and function independently from my other web browsing.

Guess what? It can!

With Fluid, which was named a Macworld “Gem” for good reason, you can turn any website into a real application, running independently in its own separate window, with its own custom icon in your Dock. That’s how Basecamp now runs on my system. I’ve made one for Google Calendar, too, which is just like having it on my hard drive.

Such a simple, smart solution to an annoying problem — one I didn’t entirely realize I had!

(For you Windows users, you can try Google Chrome’s Application Shortcuts feature or Prism, which uses Firefox and is also available for Mac and Linux)