designerdlog

What are these services that Cary's providing now? Has he finally come to the point where he has to offer "services" to make money? Dirty.

Like the cards Dave. I think they work really well as a series. Hopefully if I were to just receive one of them, I'd get it...and I vote for orange too.

thanks angie.
I think that 100 song idea of your friend's was pretty cool.
Also crazy...

so am i to assume that cary is not offering actual photographing services, just editing services? what if (man i shouldn't give my great ideas away) you took this pixelated idea and and cropped in tight or somehow took a photo and pixelated it out and put it on one side of the card or on one half of the card if you wanted one sided, and you made it abstract enought that when viewed up close you couldn't tell what it was, but the when viewed far away the image appeared, very chuck close-ish. just a thought, that will be 1000 dollars.

also, i think these would work great as long as you are marketing to someone very familiar with photo-editing software, otherwise they will be lost.

i think the periwinkle is very representative of cary, it gets my vote. SIKE! orange.

it could also be cool to have all three marks on one card.

you could also think about bringing the marquee into this as an element, since all the tools use the marquee.

i am not saying all this stuff because i don't like it, i do, i am just still in teacher mode.

gobble gobble

Yea, I was sort of hinting to the whole: "these would work great as long as you are marketing to someone very familiar with photo-editing software" thing. And seriously, I was wondering what services he's offering...digital retouching? color correction?

damn it why isnt this just easy!

welcome to graphic design, you photographer...

ok,
here's the deal. I think there is a communication breakdown because of a lack of a singular direction and purpose. I'm not completely sure what kind of services Cary definitely wants to offer, possibly because he hasn't decided himself. That said...

I designed them with the idea that he was offering post-production services such as color correction/cropping/contrast correction/ etc. to professional photographers, thus the "inside" joke or dialog with the bitmapped photoshop tools. However, I never thought that everybody would 'get it'. In fact, I still don't think that everyone has to 'get it'. I think that the fact that the images are blatantly bitmapped speaks to a technical quality that they carry independently of the literal meaning. I think this may be a situation where we as a group of designers are overemphasing this point because we all get it and then it hits us that others may not or probably won't get it, depending upon their exposure to a piece of software. I am thinking of these icons a little more abstractly in that they carry a weight of their own (the image of a lasso conjures a roping in of someone or something, the image of a magic wand speaks for itself). Imagine a photographer who hasn't quite come to grips with digital photography in his/her profession. They themselves may not know what the icons mean, but would be prodded to ask, therefore creating a great conversation piece for Cary to be able to explain what it is that he does and present his knowledge. As well, the fact that icons that represent these 'tools' are so prominent could suggest to the photographer that Cary has a history of experience and deep working knowledge of not only the software, but the ends and outs of post-production photo work. I think this could inspire a deal of confidence even before any services are rendered.

On the other hand, if a photographer 'gets it', then so much the better and ....the last sentence in the paragraph above is even more applicable.

So what are you guys' thoughts, now that you know the intended audience, etc?

pondering, pondering, pondering...

i really like the idea of using the "tools" as the logo of sort, and it definitely nails the audience, i mean, i think most everyone that would hire cary to do this stuff would probably have at least a working knowledge of photoshop and would recognize the icons. I think what i don't like about it is that it is so singular in focus, and i don't understand, or like particularly, the box around the icon. I think it could be nice to show all three icons on one card, sort of like a "tool belt" or arsenal of sorts (of sort, is my phrase of the day) I think it would imply more that cary could do all these jobs, and that he is a photoshop rennaisance man of sorts. On a side note, that font really bothers me too. what is going on with that "g" in the middle, on the lasso especially the font has a very distinctively western feel.

on another side note, just fyi, if you want something that is very pixelated such as these icons to stay nice and clearly pixelated when you enlarge them, make sure you are enlarging using "nearest neighbor" instead of bicubic or bilinear or any of those. you can set that in image size and in preferences for using transform.

slow,
ok, i think you are right about the font. I searched, but never really found what i was looking for. I wanted a more "plakatbau", but not quite so needy. Just something all caps that has a hand made organic nature to it, but not overdone (like an old hand lettered sign, perfect at a glance, but teeming with small indescrepencies).

However, I must argue on the points about the square and singularity of the icon. I think that using all three icons on the same card would destroy the abstractness and charming mystery of the icons. also, lining up a lasso + magic wand + cropping tool would make the icons start to compete...by this i mean that their individual nature and meaning would have to be looked at analyzed with the other icons in mind. For example, "what does this mean, is the lasso trying to capture the little square box with the line through it, and what the hell is that little dandelion?" You see, they start to talk to one another and that is my desired effect at all. As well, I think three bitmapped icons together would destroy some of the power of using bitmapping to begin with. They might start to look like mistakes or worse yet, cute little clip art that was rasterized. Anyhow, back to the singularity issue. Take the lasso... put it by itself smack dab in the middle of that frame of a square it make you think about one thing. "ok, there is a lasso. it is bitmapped. why is it bitmapped? it looks technical. What is he trying to lasso? is Cary using the lasso? Is he trying to lasso me? Is he trying to catch something?" Anyway, I think there is a mystery there even if you know that this is the tool in Photoshop that selects certain pixels. "Is Cary selecting me? Or am I selecting Cary?"

Anyway, on a last note... I think that anyone who notices that these really are photoshop tools would respect Cary anyway. I really don't think that having more than one on the card would add more respect or confidence. The simple presentation of the idea holds the power, not quantity or repetition.

Ok, last, last note. About the hairline square that frames the icon... I was thinking that maybe on a tertiary level of design element and a secondary level of abstraction, this square just might represent the following: depending on the working environment of digital or film (this element could even be seen as a bridge between the two) it could be the print paper or the digital workspace. I think that hinting at the idea of a workspace in general, whether it be a sheet of print paper or a pixel by pixel dimension can be a powerful suggestion.

I'm done