Illuminated LED on a MacBook Pro

I was watching TV the other week when the screen suddenly powered down and went blank. The status light that would normally be a solid red to indicate it was off, was flashing in a rapid, urgent succession, indicating to me that something grave had transpired.

Connected to the TV lay one of my Apple computers. The gentle, white, undulating light on the front reassuringly communicated to me that unlike its TV cousin—it was not dead—it was merely “sleeping.”

There are things we immediately, if subconsciously, find comforting or soothing and, in that moment, I found comfort in that little white light. In designing and engineering something as complicated as a computer, a status light seems like a minor detail in the grand scheme of things. But it’s details like this that can psychologically make a block of aluminum and silicon more communicative and more personal. And it took Apple two patents and hundreds of hours in R&D to make it happen.

In July 2002, Apple filed a patent for a “Breathing Status LED Indicator” (No. US 6,658,577 B2). The status light is intentionally designed to simulate sleep and the patent filing described it as a “blinking effect of the sleep-mode indicator in accordance with the present invention mimics the rhythm of breathing which is psychologically appealing.”

Prior to the patent filing, Apple carried out research into breathing rates during sleep and found that the average respiratory rate for adults is 12–20 breaths per minute. They used a rate of 12 cycles per minute (the low end of the scale) to derive a model for how the light should behave to create a feeling of calm and make the product seem more human.

But finding the right rate wasn’t enough, they needed the light to not just blink, but “breathe.” Most previous sleep LEDs were just driven directly from the system chipset and could only switch on or off and not have the gradual glow that Apple integrated into their devices. This meant going to the expense of creating a new controller chip which could drive the LED light and change its brightness when the main CPU was shut down, all without harming battery life.

On more recent machines, you’ll also notice that the status light is completely invisible from the surface when the computer is in use. There’s no transparent plastic or glass where the light emanates from. The light seems to glow straight off the surface of the aluminum and, in fact, that’s exactly what it’s doing.

This feat of engineering is achieved though Apple’s “Invisible, light-transmissive display” (No Us. 7,880,131). During the manufacturing process of the computer body, a CNC machine first thins out the aluminum. Then a laser drill creates small perforations for the LED light to shine through, creating the illusion of a seamless surface when the light is off.

Several years ago Dell decided to mimic Apple, and add a similar sleep status feature to their computers. They decided to use a rate of 40 cycles per minute for their indicator. Comically, this is the average respiratory rate for adults during strenuous exercise—not very indicative of sleep.

Attention to detail is what makes Apple products feel so impeccable. The team there doesn’t just pore over financial spreadsheets and personnel issues as most companies do. They don’t just think about design, they obsess over it to the smallest details. There are many companies that have the talent and the resources to potentially mimic Apple’s success, but without getting the details right, it ends up just looking like strenuous exercise—inelegant and labored.

I am a sucker for beautiful packaging. So it is no surprise that while drifting through the aisles at my local Safeway three years ago, I spied some hand soap and moisturizer that was absolutely beautiful and also at closeout prices. Needless to say, as the bargain shopper that I am, I scarfed up 10 bars of soap and several bottles of body wash. And that is how I was introduced to the Method brand, one of the most progressive brands in the market today.

When customers expressed their thoughts on the blog to changes to the packaging, a Method employee gave an informed and thoughtful response

I recommend spending some time on their website and to pay close attention to their social media (Twitter and Facebook) since they seem to be doing everything right. They use their site and their blog to tap into the desires of their loyal fan base—and most importantly they actually listen and act on what users say. Take the pink grapefruit dish soap. Now this is a dish soap that I can really get behind—it has a lovely smell, has great packaging and is priced right. About a year ago they decided to change not only the packaging, but to rotate in a new fragrance. BTW—they are unique in that they are constantly changing fragrances and producing limited editions. If a limited edition proves to be very popular, it is elevated to permanent status. Well, pink grapefruit was rotated out. Pink grapefruit lovers were irked, voiced their complaints, and the company has brought back the fragrance and will most likely give it permanent status.

Not only is Method customer friendly, but environmentally friendly as well. Method uses the minimum amount of materials when creating their package design, and the few materials that are used, are  biodegradable. Even the product (inside their package) has been designed to be eco friendly as well. Their site has a section devoted to the environment, their products and many of the their mantras have to do with being more eco-friendly.

Perhaps what I like most about this brand is that they are aggressive about engaging their audience. Their blog is up-to-date and interesting. They listen to and respond to comments in a thoughtful way, and their web presence fosters a friendly, engaged, progressive brand, and most importantly, they have brought back pink grapefruit!

Grafik has been honored a Silver Award by The International Academy of Visual Arts W³ Awards for our work on Software AG’s “Know” campaign at knowyoursupplychain.com.

The W³ Awards is a web competition comprised of and judged by preeminent executives from businesses of all sizes, such as Disney, Yahoo, and Microsoft, and recognizes small firms to Fortune 500 companies for their work online—websites, marketing campaigns, and videos. The W³ Awards received over 3,000 entries this year and we are proud to be among those honored. Other winners include EXPO, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, and Volunteers of America.

The W³ firmly believes that recognition from the Academy proves to your clients and your peers that your work is truly outstanding.

Gift cards available to all guests wherein you can donate the amount enclosed to a charity of your choice

Client: Anybill
Title: Doing Good is Good for Business, Event Branding
Exposure: Logo / Save-the-Date Email / Invitation / Event Signage / PowerPoint / Additional Event Collateral: T-shirt, napkins, name tag, and photobooth artwork
The Challenge: Generate interest in attending an annual informative event on corporate social responsibility hosted by Anybill on the rooftop of Charlie Palmer Steak
The Solution: Brand the event — “Doing Good is Good for Business”
The Result: Drawing in nearly 100 guests, this was Anybill’s most successful event in their philanthropic series to date. The overwhelming feedback leaves a lot of anticipation for next year.

“Doing Good is Good for Business is an effort to bring together the local business and social community for a common cause and purpose. That purpose is to highlight and foster the relationship between business and community, while recognizing that one cannot exist without the other.  In fact, it is a co-dependent and symbiotic relationship. When local business supports the community, the community in turn can better support local businesses. We believe this to be true and have demonstrated our commitment to this principle through our support of Companies for Causes, the Catalogue of Philanthropy – Greater Washington, and our own in-house Corporate Social Responsibility program, Pay It Forward.”

Peter Bepler, President/Co-Founder of Anybill

Invitation (cover)

Invitation (interior)

Banners

Napkins

T-shirt modeled by Grafik designer Brandon

Nobel Prize winner Dan Shechtman's quasicrystal

Dan Shechtman, an Israeli scientist, who’s this year’s Noble Prize winner in Chemistry, reminds me of Steve Jobs. In 1982, Shechtman discovered quasicrystals—matter that is made of atoms arranged in patterns that never repeat themselves. Prior to his discovery, it was thought that crystals could only be made up of atoms that are packed in symmetrical patterns that repeat themselves over and over. I won’t even pretend to understand most of the details, but there is a fascinating description on the Nobel site that describes this in detail.

2011 Nobel Prize winner for Chemistry Dan Shechtman

However fascinating this is, it is not what grabbed my attention about the Nobel laureate. After his discovery, he found that instead of being honored, he was at the beginning of a fierce battle against established science. He recalls in an interview on NPR how he was booted from his research group. “The head of his research team said, ‘You are a disgrace to our group, and I cannot bear this disgrace.’ And he asked me to leave the group. So, I left the group,” said Shechtman. The double Nobel laureate of the time, Linus Pauling, led a fierce crusade against him stating, “There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists.” He was accused of a making a huge blunder and was the laughing stock of the scientific world for two years. He fought back, refused to take a back seat to his critics and the rest is history.

Steve Jobs is considered one of the most forward thinking individuals of our time

While many would argue that Steve Jobs is in a different league, I see similarities between the two men. They share a passion for their work, unyielding optimism that what they are doing is right, and the drive to continue despite their critics. Who can forget the years that Jobs was not everyone’s darling while Bill Gates was at the top of the heap? Or the fact that he was pushed out of Apple in 1985 because of disappointing sales? Or the early days of NeXT where the startup was close to bankruptcy? Many of the Jobs’ quotes talk about the necessity of marching to a different drummer and having the courage to follow one’s heart, brain, and convictions. And possibly, it is this personality that separates most of us from the enlightened.

Last week, Mark Zuckerberg announced a major redesign of the Facebook profile. To be rolling out in the coming weeks, the new profile called Timeline aims to paint a more accurate picture of who you are.

“Timeline is the story of your life,” said Mark Zuckerberg. “All your stories, all your apps, express who you are.”

Timeline will essentially take all your profile’s content—photos, comments, activities, events, apps, etc.—and reweave them into a timeline format that goes as far back as the day you were born. The Timeline highlights the most important content, with what seems to have a strong emphasis on photos, wherein your more recent activities are in detail and then becomes more summarized as you go further down the timeline. Think of it as the scrapbook of your life, but all in one single Facebook page.

As I watched Zuckerberg explain the new features onstage at the f8 developer conference, it made me realize my reliance on the social network to learn about new and existing friends—consequently, also the importance of the accuracy of the profile.

The look of my Facebook Timeline

When I meet someone and I generally get along with that person, it has become my instinct to look for that person on Facebook and add them as a friend. If I want to learn about that person I just met or catch up on what my other friends are doing lately, I turn to their Facebook profiles—that is if I don’t readily have the opportunity to catch up in person. Just as the name suggests, Facebook is essentially an online book resource of who you are. But, does it really reflect who you are? Your accomplishments, interests and what you do? I believe to some extent it does express your basic info and what you have been up to recently, but it does not depict a true picture of who you are—the important events, relationships, and experiences in your life. And Timeline aims to change that with the use of new social apps.

One of the first apps I installed was Spotify which shows on my Timeline the music I'm listening to as well as what my friends are listening to.

The new Open Graph Apps seamlessly integrate within your Timeline. Divided in different categories such as games, media, and lifestyle, apps are a new way of showing your interests and activities on your profile in a much more robust fashion than the simple “Like” button. One interesting facet about these apps is how easy they are to add and use boasting about the ridding of useless prompts after the initial add.

I was able to get the Timeline profile yesterday and have just barely scratched the surface on how rich Timeline and the apps truly are. Overall, it may take some getting used to, but I like this change. I was starting to feel like the Facebook interface was getting cluttered with small add ons here and there and this fresh, streamlined look is a lot more pleasing to the eye, at least to mine.

You can view your Facebook Places check-ins plotted on a map

What do you think about Timeline? Love it? Hate it? I would love to hear your thoughts. If your profile hasn’t converted yet, watch the short introduction video here.

So I’m sitting in the car waiting outside the drugstore and I look up and see this “W” logo for Walgreens. I’m thinking that I’ve seen that logo somewhere. It took me a while (I’m not really a baseball fan) to realize I was looking at a “W” that looked very similar to the Washington Nationals’ mark. I wanted to see if Walgreens had undergone a brand refresh so I did a bit of research on the web to see if this was so.

Turns out that Walgreens has not had a brand refresh in quite sometime, but I came upon a few articles written in 2010 talking about Walgreens suing Wegmans (a food chain that is in the same geographic region and same area as Walgreens) and was amused to read about the two giants going to battle over their logos. Ah, deep pockets and lawyers…

Walgreens was clearly not worried about the Nationals’ logo since it is in a different business sector and a sports team will probably not be confused with a drugstore chain.

If I was a member of the jury, I would tell Walgreens that it has a weak case against Wegmans if you look only at their use of the “W.” Wegmans does not use the “W” logo alone. It is usually attached to the full name. And Walgreens mostly uses its full name as well—often with a poorly drawn mortar and pestle over the letters.

But, when you compare the logos using the full names a different set of issues arise. Both use script fonts and it is possible that those who are untrained in the differences between fonts could be confused—leading them to confuse the drugstore chain with the grocery chain. The fonts are completely different—take a look at the different a’s or the g’s in the two word marks. And I would bet my bottom dollar that Wegmans has altered some of the letters of their font making it easier to protect. Companies that simply typeset their name without changing any of the letters are asking for trouble. There is also an issue of color. Walgreens uses red and Wegmans uses brown. I dare say it would be impossible to confuse the two.

So, my advice to the legal team at Walgreens—this one is hard to win. And instead of fighting this battle, invest in a brand refresh—it will net you more than any settlement for sure.

Looking at my Twitter feed, I came upon an interesting headline, Millionaire Extorts $$$ from Artist, Street Artists Strike Back. Since I follow a lot of street art, I decided to look into the article further to see what this was all about. After all, it is hard to see how a millionaire could blackmail a street artist.

The basic story: Andy Baio, a writer and tech entrepreneur in Portland, Oregon, produced a chiptune tribute to Miles Davis. For those who do not know what a chiptune is, according to Wikipedia, it is also known as chip music, and it is synthesized electronic music often produced with the sound chips of old computers and video game consoles. Andy wanted to remake one of Davis’ seminal works and one of the best selling jazz albums ever, Kind of Blue. Andy is no dummy and he  went out of his way to pay fees to the original musicians.

Andy explains, “To create this album, I hope to raise $2,000 to pay royalties, pay the artists, and print CDs. Legally releasing cover songs requires paying mechanical licenses to the song publishers through the Harry Fox Agency, totaling about $420 for every 250 downloads and a $75 processing fee. I’ll be using the remainder to print a very limited run of CDs for Kickstarter backers, and split the rest evenly among the five musicians for their painstaking work. (This is a labor of love for me, so I won’t be keeping a dime.)” And, he secured permission to use the score — but he neglected to contact photographer, Jay Maisel, to get permission to reuse the photo on the album cover  originally produced for Miles Davis’ record. Maisel found out about it and was not pleased. He contacted his lawyers and let them handle the copyright infringement.

Jay Maisel, the photographer whose work was used without permission, is a well-known photographer.  His most famous work includes images of Miles Davis, Marilyn Monroe, and a host of well-known luminaries. His bold use of color and his graphic eye made his photography worthy of many awards in the design and photography worlds. He is definitely a heavyweight in the world of professional photographers.

Maisel’s lawyers wrote Andy a letter to cease and desist which he did, but after a year of negotiation, he still ended up paying Maisel $37,500. It is worth reading Andy’s version of this dispute. It is quite lucid and fair-minded and is a really good explanation of “Fair Use” — what constitutes an infringement of copyright and what is allowable under the law. Baio, very successful in his own right, writes clearly on the battle between artists and copyright holders and makes this relevant to digital reinterpretations of copyrighted works. Naturally he felt angered that he had to absorb a large financial hit.

Cut now to a blog posting on Hyperallergic, a blog that in their own words “is a forum for serious, playful, and radical thinking about art in the world today.” Here is where the rant starts. The blog heard wind of Andy’s story and decided to take action. Working with  several street artists they decided that the way to “punish” Jay Maisel for collecting a payment from Andy Baio was to take the original digitized image of Miles Davis and make a street poster adding the line, “All art is theft” and plaster these on Jay’s building at the corner of Spring and Bowery in Manhattan. The blog’s initial headline stated that Maisel was ripping off a poor street artist — which is laughable since Baio is a well-to-do writer and tech entrepreneur.  The blog basically claims that these posters were a “legitimate artistic and political expression.”

A legitimate artistic and political expression? About what?

In the late ’60s and early ’70s photographers were fighting to protect their work from being used without permission. Through the ASMP and the dedication of many important artists including Jay Maisel,  photographers were able to secure rights that limited the use of their images without compensation. It is from these early battles that photographers were able to secure copyrights for their work, and that designers were taught to ask before using, and negotiate payment before using it. These early battles were hard fought and there was a steep education curve as most people were accustomed to use a photograph as many times as they wanted without paying the owners one red cent. This was also an era where most photography was commissioned and you were either dealing directly with the artist or the artist’s representative to negotiate pricing so there was no confusion regarding rights. And back then, with the internet in its infancy, it was impossible to steal an image by merely dragging it to your desktop.

Enter the world of computers and stock photography, and the age where lifting images is as simple as drag and drop. Enter the digital age where no image is sacred — rather it is a base from which experimentation starts…. Well, that is all well and good if the people using an original photograph have actually secured permission, but increasingly there is a trend where people think that it is not necessary to ask permission if you are going to significantly alter the image. Witness the Shepard Fairey ripoff of an Obama news photo, or go one better and check out this site that has dozens of appropriated images.

Reading the  comments to Hyperallergic’s post was even more interesting. Some of comments were clearly against Jay Maisel and took him to task for protecting his work. Many felt that Maisel was being inflexible. After all Baio did cease and desist and tried to work things out. Many of the comments saw a difference between stealing music — which in their eyes is wrong versus stealing imagery —which is allowable and is classified as art.

“Stealing music and fair use are completely separate issues. One is genuine theft, the other is creating something new and adding to culture. Every generation has fed off the ones before.”

Thankfully many more of the posters understood Maisel’s position and supported his right to protect his copyright:

“Jay Maisel busted his ass for 50+ years in the fine art and commercial art businesses, is a pioneer for artist rights, took massive risks, and became a success. I hope Mr. Maisel WINS his case…Fair use?! BULLSHIT…That is a VERY iconic image that is known by even those who know nothing of jazz (plus all the phonies who SAY they love jazz yet only have a CD of Kind Of Blue)…ALL ART IS NOT THEFT, but theft is the FOUNDATION of the trash put out by talentless punks who need to sample and steal to produce anything…There’s no technique, no practice, no SACRIFICE. We are SURROUNDED by mediocrity in this “user-generated” digital-piracy age…”

And yet another poster comments:

The year was 1981. We had a brand new software company as a client—VM Software, and they needed a poster to attract visibility at a trade show. The 80′s were a tumultuous time in the technology space. Mainframes were king, and it would be the mid to late part of the decade before we would even own a Macintosh which we leased  along with a 10″ (maybe 12″) monitor, keyboard and mouse, for the princely sum of $15,000.

Along with my former partner, Alex Berry, we conceived a poster that would take the famous Hokusai wave and morph it into a  new format—representing the transition from analog to digital and is reflective of where the software/hardware industry was starting to move. Mainframe technology and legacy systems were on their way out, and a new order was in its infancy. The internet was still just an experiment and would not be available to the public for many years to come.

Bits and bytes were just starting to be seen and I had this idea of morphing an image from an oil painting to a digitized version to line work. I had recently graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Design in 1977 and was fascinated with the research being done there by Eric Teicholz and the Harvard Laboratory for Computer and Spatial Graphics. They were located one floor above my studio space and I remembered seeing a very different kind of map. I remembered being fascinated by the line work on the maps and intrigued that they were generated by mapping data sets using a computer—not by hand. These maps gave birth to an idea for a poster for our new client, VM Software.

Unfortunately, mapping of this kind was prohibitively expensive and out of our reach. I contacted the Harvard Lab and remembered talking to Eric, but it soon became clear that if I wanted a digitized image, or a bit mapped one, I was going to have to create it myself—and in 1981—that meant creating it by hand.

Getting an image of the Hokusai wave was easy. I then contacted an illustrator that I had worked with and asked him if he would be able to create a digitized section of the map. Brad Pomeroy labored on creating hundreds of tiny little squares by overlaying an acetate sheet over a copy of the original lithograph and coloring each and every one by hand using Prismacolor pencils. While Brad was working on the digital version, we tried to figure out how to attack the line work. While this might be easy today using Illustrator or Photoshop—back then those programs did not exist. Instead, I had two designers laboriously ink each line on another vellum overlap using rapidographs and ink. Since the line work had to be precise, each artist could only work on it for 1/2 hour at a time—so three of us spent untold hours switching off.

Then we had to figure out a way to blend the digitized portion with the original and the line work to the digitized portion. That involved two more overlays and yet another one for where the black would appear. With a total of six overlays—there was really no way to be certain how the final piece would turn out. I handled all of the transitions, hand coloring odd shapes, carefully adding squares that would blend into the line work and supervising the colors that would peak out from the line work. Then we had to turn the entire set over to the printer, Virginia Lithograph, and trust that it would work out on press.

As a young designer, I was nervous that my brainchild poster would flop and untold hours of time and expense would not be successful. Plus, I had a client that was growing impatient and needed this poster for the upcoming tradeshow. I remember the butterflies in my stomach as I watched the poster emerge on press—I was terrified and almost could not look at it. Luckily, the owner of Virgina Lithograph, master printer Roger Chavez took over and made sure everything went well.

The poster was a huge success for VM Software—and was reprinted many times. It went into commercial printing in 1983 and was actually part of a divorce settlement between my former partner and his third wife. After that, I lost track of how many times it was reprinted. I have seen the poster on TV, in movies, and I even have a jigsaw puzzle that was made from the poster. I still get requests for copies of the poster and people often want to know what program I used to create it and what filters I used. I get a chuckle out of that thinking that this poster really did portend the wave of the future. Oh, and one last hidden clue that I have never revealed—the Japanese calligraphy in the top left hand corner—it means “Grafik.”