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This is an advertisment project that I think I touched on in an earlier post, but I decided a couple of weeks ago which charity I’m doing. I actually hadn’t heard anything like it until I had researched some charities, so I think I can make it quite an original advertisment campaign if I try hard enough.

My charity is called Cancer and Bio- Detection Dogs and I think they are amazing to be honest. Apparently, when someone has diabetes, their odour changes dramatically when their sugar levels go up and down, and dogs can sense this. So before the person goes into a coma, the dogs can warn them of it before it happens. I’m probably not explaining very well, so just click on this link! 

So for this project we have to create at least two forms of advertising. One of mine will be a magazine ad (yet to decide wha sort of magazine, because of target audience), and the other will be an information pack, that would be sent to your door if you required more information and a donation form off of the website.

So far, I have the bookle nearly sorted for the information pack, and the envelope that you would send the donation form back in. So I have lots to do yet!  Here is part of the booklet (taken from Illustrator, haven’t printed and made it up yet). I probably won’t use these colours though.

More updates soon hopefully

This is another project(like book design) which is coming to a close now, with only 2 weeks left until the deadline!

With it being our first project when we got back into the 2nd year of our course we all have struggled with this project really, as its coming to the point now where we are running around like headless chickens – we will learn, sometime in the future!

Basically, the brief is to design 3 whole CDs; front cover, back cover, booklet, CD, spines – EVEYTHING! Our tutor set us classical music because he knew that none of us were really into classical music so we could do a project that we didn’t know anything about. He gave us Chopin, Mendelssohn and Mozart to choose between and then we were off into the world of CD design… mainly focusing on the typography. I listened to works from all 3 and chose Mozart because I liked his work the best.

My mind spluttered like a car that has ran out of petrol. Eurgh. Where to start? Well, we had to avoid all the cliche images associated with classical music e.g. flowers, music notes, instruments, the composer, so that helped eliminate some ideas. I listened to some previews of the music to see what it reminded me of, if anything and I used watercolour paints to draw strokes in reflection to the music. I thought about using these with black ink line drawings over the top like work by Natalia Grosner and Baiba Ladiga.

Natalia Grosner (above)

Baiba Ladiga (above)

My watercolour efforts – not as elegant unfortuantly, I am NEW to watercolour (only the second time I have used them) I scanned these in at 500% to get good detail!

After a discussion with my tutor, who saw some of the painting work to be like contours of mountains on a map, I then changed my mind and focused on producing a more typography based design on the style of maps.

I discussed the new idea with my fellow Graphic Design student Luis, and he suggested a more subtle style using white and shades of grey instead of bright, childish colours.

This is the map that is kind of inspiration, found here.

THEN it developed further – I had a brainwave! Luis (now on the foundation course) had been a second year on the National Diploma last year and for one of his projects he had cut some letters (in helvetica of course!) from foam and covered them in white emulsion paint to get a dripping effect. I thought this would be a good way to create my mountain ranges on white paper, and then I could photograph them to get the grey shadows I wanted!

The first attempt didn’t really go how I planned, I left the paint to dry and hoped it would crack a bit – but it didn’t turn out the way I wanted. So I tried again, this time taking my pictures while the paint was wet. I got some good shots, but wasn’t totally happy with them because there was so much grey:

….so I tried again! And this time I used a bit of photoshop, I like the result:

I’ve also been working on the inside booklet, which I have decided to make a fold-out poster of a contour map. Here is the first version, but I need to sort out the font size, colour and create some kind of key so that reading the passage in order is easy to do:

Based on a second world war bomber manual.

Don’t ask me why.

The Zest Air Voyager Pass is a whole new way of traveling to your favorite Z2 destinations. It’s a booklet with 11 one-way flight coupons sold for travel to Z2 destinations. What is even better is you don’t have to stand in line whenever you have to book your flight. All you have to do is call the hotline, fill up and write on the ticket yourself and check-in for your flight! No waiting, no queueing, no kidding!

MECHANICS

Renilson Marques, from  Jaboatão, Pernambuco, requested the CPTN free booklet on how to overcome Depression through our website. Recently he sent us an e-mail telling his story:

I’d like to thank you for sending me this wonderful booklet. It was the best publication I’ve ever received. A year and half ago, I’ve got Meningitis.  I was at the Hospital, in a very critical situation, so that the doctors told me to call my parents for a “last goodbye”.

But God has different plans for our lives. In a few days I left the ICU and I could come back home. The doctors who were treating me were surprised!

The Meningitis brought some consequences, and as a result of this, I felt in a depression state. I couldn’t get out of my bedroom and for me, being alive was a torment.

Certain day, as I was on the internet, I decided to request the booklet on how to overcome depression at the CPTN website. I read it, and the booklet showed me how blessed I was. I realized that God gave me a new chance to living. After receiving that booklet I could live again.

Thank you so much, CPTN, for the opportunity to retake my life.

At the picture, Renilson.

Il mercato musicale attraverso le nuove tecnologie avrebbe (sulla carta) migliaia di possibilità precedentemente impensabili. Una di queste è l’Augmented Reality. Per capire cosa è, come funziona e cosa offre vi invito a visitare il blog Augmented Reality Marketing.

Intanto vi mostro un video di quello che è possibile fare attraverso la realtà aumentata applicata ai booklet dei cd fisici. Il gruppo pop N’Dubz ha inserito all’interno del booklet del loro nuovo album “Against All Odds” (6° questa settimana in UK con oltre 60.000 copie vendute) la possibilità di accedere, come mostrato nel video, a una sorta di esibizione live in realtà aumentata.

You know, I really like how Rihanna portrayed herself in the 20/20 interview, but I’m not buying this hard, edgy image AT ALL.  Why, you may ask?  It’s simple:  her music doesn’t back up her edgy look.  There’s nothing unique, mind-blowing, or edgy about it.  It’s all still very generic, and typical of much of the music out these days.

Girl, take a note from Santigold and get some style in your music.

On that note (no pun intended), click away for a look at her Rated R booklet.  I was close to saying she looks fierce, but this image is obviously so manufactured that I’m not even going to.  And taking off your clothes isn’t exactly the best message to send to your young fans unless there’s an actual empowering reason behind it.  Just sayin’.

source

Following CNET’s initial hands on of the Booklet 3G [$299 + 2year AT&T contract - Windows 7 Starter; 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 215MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 500; 120GB Toshiba 4,200rpm] is a set of performance tests in comparison with:

• Asus Eee PC 1101HA $380

Windows XP Home Edition SP3; 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 256MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 500; 160GB Hitachi 5,400rpm

• Dell Inspiron Mini 10 $480 – 640




Windows XP Home Edition SP3; 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 256MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 950; 160GB Western Digital 5,400rpm

• HP Mini 311 $400 – 520

Windows XP Home SP3; 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280; 1024MB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz; 512MB (Shared) Nvidia Ion LE; 160GB Seagate 5,400rpm

• Sony Vaio X (VPCX115KX/N) – $1500

Windows 7 Home Premium; 2.0GHz Intel ATOM Processor Z550; 2048MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 762MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 500; 128GB Samsung SSD

• Sony Vaio W $500

Windows XP Home Edition SP3; 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280; 1024MB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz; 128MB (Shared) Mobile Intel GMA 950; 160GB Toshiba 5,400rpm

It’s not surprising that the highest spec’d, and most expensive ($1500) Vaio X tops every single performance aspect (except battery life). It would have been nice to seen some Acer and Samsung netbooks in the mix.

What does this all really mean? How does the Booklet 3G fare? What criteria went in these tests (for the latter, click here)

Well it doesn’t seem to be that good with multitasking – of similar performance here with a Dell Mini 10. At least based on CNET’s method of a simultanous QuickTime and iTunes conversion.

In terms of using Photoshop, (though who’d be using a netbook for this?) the booklet 3G ranks slowest for CS3 processing under a set of predefined automated actions.

The booklet 3G is of similar performance to the Vaio X at Jalbum photo conversion and fairly average for iTunes conversion.

In terms of battery life tests (CNET used video playback), the Booklet 3G has over 7 hours of video playback. The Vaio’s both struggle with just 2 hours. I’m not sure how this would translate to general net surfing and document editing (which is the main purpose of these netbooks). The Booklet 3G is supposed to achieve highs of up to 12 hour battery life on a single charge with its 16-cell battery.

However, the EEE PC in this battery test pushes the Booklet 3G to second place video as 1101HA gets over 8 hours (nearly 9) of video playback.

Check out CNET’s review of the booklet 3G

The Nokia Booklet 3G is one of the nicest netbooks you can buy, with a build that aspires to be a 10-inch MacBook Pro. But it’s still just a netbook, and therein lies the problem.

Price

$300 with 2-year AT&T contract, $600 à la carte

Verdict

Nokia has built a great netbook, but they’ve done nothing to redefine the genre. Their 10-inch Booklet 3G has your typical 1.6GHz Atom, 120GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM. Running Windows 7, that means the performance is just passable. I’d be this close to pounding my head against the wall when a program would begin installing or a video would load.

That’s typical.

What’s ever so less typical is the sharp, sub-3lb unibody-esque construction (complete with sweet MacBook-like under-hatch battery and a hinge that bends nearly 180-degrees), HDMI output (not that you can really playback HD videos smoothly on an Atom) and, of course, solid integrated 3G and integrated GPS (though Nokia’s bundled Ovi software apparently requires a phone or PC to activate, and after 30 minutes of fiddling, I honestly gave up on mapping.)

The battery life is impressive, too. In nonstop 3G browsing and app running with the screen at 80% brightness, the machine’s svelte 16-cell battery ran for a bit over 6 hours and 30 minutes. That was a strenuous test, and dimming the screen and/or browsing through Wi-Fi should truly be enough to get you through the workday sans-recharge. (For instance, CrunchGear’s John Biggs reported a pretty remarkable 10 hours of movie playback.)

But alas, even for a nice netbook, the Booklet’s price is a bit too opulent for what you’re really getting: an ever-so gussied up version of the same machine you could buy from Acer, Asus, HP, etc, for half the price (before subsidies). Meanwhile, there are plenty of ULV systems in the $700 range with bigger screens, better performance and portable-minded design (of course, they’ll mostly require 3G dongles).

THE GOOD

• Quality build
• Long battery life

THE BAD

• Plastic monitor back makes whole thing feel cheaper
• It’s still a $600 netbook

[Gizmodo]

Here is the Nokia Booklet 3G. Enjoy the video!

I thank God for all these things...

This week we read a story about being thankful that originally comes from the bible (you can read it in Luke 17:11-19).

Only one man out of ten was thankful for his restored health.  What are you thankful for?

We made little booklets out of paper and other craft supplies, which you can see here to the right.  We used magazines, cotton balls, popsicle sticks and crayons to make the pages of our little “thankful booklets.”  You can see all the cute pages we made at our photos page.

We are thankful for Danielle’s Place, which gave us this wonderful craft idea!

Next Week:

What is your favorite food that you are thankful for?  Come play with us!

Um membro do fórum de um fã-clube americano postou o encarte do Play On. É lindo, vale a pena conferir

Microsoft Courier

Say what you want about Microsoft, but the folks at Redmond are having quite a good 2009. First came the revamped Zune HD, then came Windows 7, and now…Microsoft Courier.

What is it you ask? Well with the craze in e-book readers lately and the advancement in “touch” technology, the Courier is a “tablet” engineered by Microsoft themselves. However, Microsoft refers to their new project as a “booklet” instead of a tablet because…well it is designed like book. The current design of the Courier has the “booklet” rocking two 7 inch screens that support multi-touch gestures and can be used with a tablet pen. The middle/spine of the “booklet” has a iPhone-esque “home” button and a “Library” button. In my opinion, the leaked pictures of the Courier show a beautifully designed product that makes you wonder “what-if” Microsoft designed their own products.

The functionality of the Courier aims to combine media, e-books, and productivity (such as taking notes, creating a presentation, designing, PDF, etc.) in one “journal” format. The multi-touch gestures let you search, move, copy, clip, zoom, and probably more. The clip, tuck, & paste feature is one of the most innovative UI features as it allows you to “clip” something (a picture for example) and “tuck” it to the spine of the “booklet” where you can copy or move the item to either side of the screen. Another great feature so far is the”smart” tablet pen that is designed to have two buttons, an eraser, and a twisting mechanism. Pressing the front button on the pen lets you quickly choose different pens and colors. The twisting mechanism probably brings up a more robust set of drawing tools. The eraser is straightforward, while the top button is a dedicated “undo” button. From watching the demo, the pen is so natural that users will not have to guess about the pen. It may not be new to tablet users but with the added multi-touch gestures, the pen is bound to be a workhorse. The UI uses a lot of Cover Flow to access content, moving page to page is as easy as “flipping,” and the “Library” is the main file system to access all your files. Lastly there is hints that this product will rely on cloud computing. So lets say you create a presentation in San Francisco and your clients in Chicago need it, just publish your presentation and they can access it. It probably is not a surprise to say that powering the OS is Windows 7. My first impression from the demo alone show that the Courier is trying to take the guesswork out of how to use it. It just seems to work and feel natural so that users can get to work quickly and efficiently.

Since Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer claimed he did not know of Courier, consumers probably will not be seeing this product on the market right away. Gizmodo and CNET say that Courier is projected for a mid-2010 release but still has to undergo further in-depth testing. As of now, Courier probably does not apply to everyone but expect journalists, project managers, designers, e-book readers, and students to make up the bulk of users.

…hell if Ford can turn in profit, why can’t Microsoft design their own gorgeous products?

Gestures: The basic finger gestures are exactly what you would expect. A one-finger tap-and-hold clips content, one-finger flicks scroll vertically and turn pages. Two-finger gestures open and close apps: Up or down opens an app, while a swipe offscreen closes it. Flicking toward the other screen with two fingers slides it across. Pinches come into play, for zooming out from the Journal to the Library. These gestures can and probably will change to some degree, possibly incorporating more fingers. - From Gizmodo.com

Smart Agenda: The sum total of content in the Courier is called the Infinite Journal, but of course there are different ways to view that. "If Pagestream was a novel, Smart Agenda would be your Cliff Notes." That's how the Smart Agenda is described—it summarizes the flowing Pagestream view into an easier-to-manage block of appointments, emails, to-dos, weather and messages from friends. It appears to be the closest thing to a "home screen" found in Courier. - From Gizmodo.com

Journal Overview: Here's a more sprawled out view of the journal, highlighting the ability to create a custom cover and more details about search: Besides time, location, file name and tags, it suggests search also works via handwriting recognition (which would be key to making Courier actually work). - From Gizmodo.com

The Cloud: The "cloud" is mentioned throughout documents about Courier. Here, we see some of what the cloud means for Courier: Collaborators can leave comments on shared portions of your journal that will show up instantly, with a notification appearing in the Smart Agenda. More importantly, you can "access your journal from any web browser" to make changes, suggesting true fluffy cloud connectivity. - From Gizmodo.com

The Browser: Courier's browser looks straightforward, though it uses an index-card metaphor to flip through your history, like a vertical version of Cover Flow. What makes it special is the power to easily clip content, like photos, to keep it in your journal. - From Gizmodo.com

Clip, Tuck, Paste: Perhaps the most interesting interface element of Courier—aside from the pen—is clip, tuck and paste. A lot is made of the ability to clip virtually any content, which is "tucked" into the spine to move it from one page or section of Courier to another. - From Gizmodo.com

Infinite Journal: The Infinite Journal, as we mentioned, is the heart of Courier. It's an endless notebook for writing, drawing, storing content like a scrapbook and sharing notes with other people. It's paginated, and every item is tagged with a timestamp and geotag. You can also tag pages, for easy searching. - From Gizmodo.com

The Pen: The Courier pen is not a dumb stylus: There are two buttons, an eraser, and a twisting mechanism to switch to a different drawing mode. The top button is an undo button, so you won't have to flip it to erase something every time you screw up. - From Gizmodo.com

The Library: The Library is the Courier's main file browser. It is where everything is organized and cataloged, from journals, photos and applications to "books and subscriptions," suggesting that Microsoft is looking at Courier as a reading device as well. - From Gizmodo.com

Gizmodo’s Courier Coverage

CNET’s Courier Coverage

Credits to Gizmodo.com for the pictures, story, and descriptions in the pictures!

Attention all architects, shopfitters, plantscapers, landscape architects and other creative minds… The resourceful team at Badec Bros Deco has prepared a brand new brochure and price list, in preparation for 2010!

This informative booklet will be available via a link on our instructive and imaginative website at www.badecbrosdeco.com  

You will need a password, in order to access your very own Badec Bros Deco brochure and pricelist. Please contact our energetic and knowledgeable sales representative, Mareleen van Zijl, on her cell phone at 078 800 5112, the office number at 012 460 7990, or via e-mail at mareleen@badecbros.com, to obtain your password.

You can also contact Mareleen, should you wish to have your very own signature Badec Bros Deco Cubedec pot and liner, gabion counter, narration stand, gabion light cage, gabion bollard, gabion water feature, sculptured living wall, sculptured flagpoles, unique pot and drip tray, customized sculpture, Cubedec bench, trendy steel décor with your company logo emblazoned on it, mild steel inspirational slogan, steel laser-cut signage, mild steel mould, Cubedec Pot, hanging sculpture, gabion pot, gabion wall or gabion terrace, wooden or steel feature poles, bar code trellis, Cubedec water feature, pergola, arch, sculpture, dustbin or trellis.

She will gladly arrange an appointment with you to listen to your ideas and to stun you with our own creative ideas! You dream it, we manufacture it!

Badec Bros Deco will create a 3 dimensional render and calculate a quotation FREE OF CHARGE for you! We can deliver your unique Badec Bros Deco product(s) within 10 to 15 working days, upon acceptance of the design and quotation and the required 50% deposit. These services come standard and will not cost you a cent extra! We offer a 1 year guarantee on all our products.