Recently in Flash Category

Our friends over at the Rich Media Institute are in feeling in a generous mood these days and are offering two free online Flash courses this months to any and all takers.

Through Feb. 15th, R. Blank's Comprehensive ActionScript 3 will be available. (And yes, they mean comprehensive. The course is 9+ hours.)

For those who like the Lite side of things, through Feb. 28th, Introduction to ActionScript Development with FDT is being offered gratis. (It's 37 minutes. Which means you could eat dinner and watch it.)

And yes, since it's online, even though the Rich Media Institute is based in LA's Venice section, you can attend from anywhere!

Except, possibly, from North Korea.

Or China.


Photo by John Kratz

I'm smart enough to trust the talented people I know and further, trust their taste and perspective.  Often a great new site or a talented designer is driven into my inbox or posted to my Wall by an equally talented designer friend of mine and I'm always grateful for the guidance of my web Sherpas.  

So when half a dozen people independently sent me links to the same mindblowing Papervision3D site, needless to say it captured my attention.  

As it turned out, as these things often do in a parochial town like Philadelphia, I knew by extension a few of the guys that contributed to the site and a year or so later I spoke with one of the site's visionary architects to discuss his work with Papervision3D and the bumps and bruises he experienced along the way. 

He's delivered a great presentation here where he illuminates the 5 things he wished he knew before he got started so that the talented developers and designers in the Aquent network can learn from his discoveries and breakthroughs to deliver their own amazing experiences.

Here it is.  5 Things on Papervision3D (to know BEFORE you start)...

https://cc.readytalk.com/play?id=gvh9cb

Aquent partnered with Monster to uncover the key to "attracting, keeping and developing Web talent in an uncertain economy" and we presented our findings in an AMA webcast today (I've embedded the slides below for your viewing convenience).

It would seem that, while others in the creative class may be struggling, the web folk are feeling fairly confident. 72% of our respondents said they would rate their current position as moderately to highly secure. 52% feel that they would have a good or excellent chance of finding another web position were they to look (a belief that is semi-bolstered by the fact that 37% of our client respondents said they plan on hiring web talent in 2009). And 51% saw their compensation increase over the last twelve months.

This level of confidence amongst the web-enabled is understandable. From the standpoint of companies looking for web talent, it also makes these folks "available." Indeed, 43% percent of the people we asked said that they will actively seek another position within the next 12 months, while an additional 35% said they would make a move if the right opportunity presented itself. In other words, 78% of working web talent are "out there."

I'm not a math guy, but all signs point to this being a good time to be looking for web talent (and a good time to actually be a talented web professional). If you are in the hiring game, you might want to consider the following to lure the interactive moths to your particular flame: web folk are looking for stable positions, flexible schedules, and access to professional development. If you've got that on offer, then get busy offering!

As mentioned, the slides:

@iamkhayyam turned me on to this inspiredology post featuring intriguing examples of "horizontal" web design (i.e., sites that scroll from right to left instead of up and down). Checking them out made me realize a) that I don't see this enough, b) you can use a lot of different visual metaphors to indicate when a site is loading, and c) some human beings are really, truly, super creative.

The majority of these are portfolio sites. If you don't have time to look at all 25, I recommend that you at least take a gander at these four:

Cesar Jacobi/Mutanz- Pythonesque surreal animation and cool t-shirts (among other work).

BBH London - Very elegant, fluid layout and amazing commercial work.

SectionSeven Inc. - Slick 3D foldout animation.

Ole Häntzschel - Clever use of distortion, illegibility, and rollovers.

If you've still got time, here's two more:

Sonido - Nice "Word Search" Menu Metaphor.

Nile Studio - Russian design studio with a typical horizontal portfolio but very trippy cyrillic type work.

Have you seen any good examples of horizontal design that aren't on inspiredology's list? They've got to be out there...

Image Courtesy of Môsieur J..

I wrote a post here advocating greater transparency in the staffing business and someone left the following comment:

"Graphic design is a tough business. That being said, seeing positions posted for a web designer that knows Flash, web design, and print design for the jaw-dropping salary of 35K isn't going to cut it. That is senior-level design knowledge."

I couldn't help but agree with this individual, and not just because recent salary data published by Robert Half puts starting salaries for graphic designers at $36K, with motion graphics specialists commanding salaries starting in the mid-$50Ks.

I thought that we had put the days of kitchen-sink web positions well behind us. Overlooking the significant and long-acknowledged differences between print and web design, a position description like the one above indicates a failure to recognize that certain sub-specialties of web design, as one might consider Flash, for example, have actually become viable career options in their own right.

Interactive design has always been a team sport precisely because it is interactive. The web is undeniably a visual medium, hence the importance of visual design in the creation of websites. But a web site must function in addition to looking pretty and the technical complexity of its functioning demands skills and expertise that are more math than Matisse, if you know what I mean.

The classic division of labor on web projects has always been design AND development. Although most designers will have some technical chops, and developers, on the front-end anyway, will understand design basics, this just means they can communicate and collaborate with each other, not that they are interchangeable. Indeed, they are less interchangeable than ever as the "classic" division of yesteryear has been replaced by today's "baroque" arrangement of sundry strategists and marketing mavens corralling a shifting constellation of user experience specialists, designers, copywriters, Actionscripters, programmers, and analysts, and more.

I know that money is tight and that the web is critical to everyone's efforts. Nevertheless, you don't do yourself or your business any favors by trying to cut costs by hiring one person to do the work of four (or more). Instead, you will be better served by starting with a comprehensive plan for your web efforts, which may in the end be "owned" by one person, and then hiring talented specialists on a project or contract basis to bring the plan to life. Just like it takes a village to raise a child, it ALWAYS takes a team to create good web stuff.

Image Courtesy of elvissa.

Talent Spotlight

Jon Billett is a designer represented by Aquent's Philadelphia office who has spent the last several years making the transition from print to web. Of the work he's done that you may have seen are a set of banner ads featuring Regis and Kelly which Jon created for TD Bank.

I asked Jon a few questions about his career, the process of moving from print design to interactive design, and the key to creating effective banner ads. Here's what he told me.

You started your career as a graphic designer, right?

Yep, my background is in print design. It's what I studied in school and it's what gave me my foundation in layout, aesthetics, and making things look pretty.

So how did you build your interactive chops?

After I graduated, I basically taught myself at first and then networked with as many people as I could to learn from them. I made an online Flash portfolio and was fortunate enough to land a job through Craigslist with 3601, the internal ad agency at the Wachovia Center here in Philly.

What sort of stuff did you do with 3601??

This was back in 2006 and they really hadn't done too much Flash or web stuff themselves, so they hired me to create banner ads, put together the web site for the agency, and things like that. I also worked on the design of the iWalls that they have installed there. These huge displays allow fans to interact with hi-def timelines dedicated to the Flyers and the Sixers. It's really great to see people on TV playing with them, and being a fan myself, I had a lot of fun creating them.

Was it challenging to be "the web guy" on the team?

In a way. I was the only person who knew how to do this stuff, so when I had problems, there wasn't anyone in the office that I could turn to. I had to reach out and find other sources to get answers.

What sources did you find?

I got a lot of help from TechnicalLead.com, which also runs LearnFlash.com. I joined as a member so I could have access to their tutorial videos but the best part of the service was access to mentors - experts who have really mastered this technology. Having a specific person you can tap for help is ideal, though you really need to be at a certain level to make the most of mentoring.

I realize that banner ads are just part of what you've done, but what would you say is the key to a successful banner ad design?

A banner ad can't be distracting, but it still has to attract attention and be intriguing. You have to put enough in the ad to pique someone's curiosity and get them to click without making it too busy (and not just because you want to keep the file sizes down). Aside from making the ads entertaining and engaging, I like using the format to throw in new animation tricks I've learned.

Last question. Who are your influences?

On the print side, I would say that my biggest influences have been Saul Bass, David Carson, with his "type as image" stuff, and street/urban things like Shephard Fairey. On the web front, I absolutely love the work being done by AYC Media.