architecture & design

Archive for the 'architecture & design' Category

Font effect in academic environment

January 12th, 2008

Phil Renaud of Fadtastic posted an interesting anectode regarding the effect different fonts had on his essay grades.

Total Times New Roman styled essays: 11
Average Grade: A-

Total Trebuchet MS styled essays: 18
Average Grade: B-

Total Georgia styled essays: 23
Average Grade: A

The only thing I know for certain, is that I’d give a negative grade to any paper set in Comic Sans. Wouldn’t even bother reading it.

Top Interactive Agencies

December 05th, 2007

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Subvert posted a list of what they think are top 10 interactive design agencies but, as is common with such lists, the debate continues. Nobody denies their excellence but some dispute it should be renamed into “top web standards development agencies” or some such… that there are many agencies that rank higher, operate with higher budgets, attract bigger clients etc.

I think that’s a valid argument, after all… if you’re a fortune 500 CEO you likely don’t really give a damn about web standards. You want the job done regardless of how things work underneath. The Subvert list basically gives you a runthrough of standardista blog movement celebrities ignoring the much larger segment of the “real world agencies” that just get the job done (and get paid by people who don’t care and can afford not to care).

However, they should all strive to become the top 10 on Subvert list…

OpenSource & other alternatives

November 13th, 2007

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I guess it wasn’t mentioned in my job description but among my regular duties I’ve been tasked to search for opensource/freeware/cheap alternatives to common windows based tools used for video & photo editing, 3D modelling, DTP etc. that are a part of the usual software porftolio in a design studio (web/print/video/whatever).

I found some interesting options that might be of use to someone but to be honest from the start – although many of these are actually quite capable I’ve found a number of missing features that would be a deal braker for my personal use. But if you’re just starting out or are on a serious budget or there are some specific circumstances (that’s why I’ve been researching this in the first place) then these should do just fine.

Just one more thing… some of these might not be free but cost considerably less than the industry standard.

sound editing:

3D graphics: