Designers are Like Pizza Ingredients

Dusty — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:35:22 +0000

I’m attempting to do something…tasty. There are different types of graphic designers. There are different types of pizza. So…is it possible to compare designer types with pizza types? Yes, here we go. Agree or disagree with me in the comments.

stock.xchng Photo by katagaci

Cheese – Typographer

A cheese pizza is deceptive. It looks plain. It appears boring. Yet, it tastes good. A cheese pizza is essentially the base of most pizzas.

A typographer is much like a cheese pizza. The idea of typography, to many, is boring. But when you look deep into the stems, serifs, counters, kerning, etc., typography becomes interesting. It is also the base or essential part of many designs.

stock.xchng Photo by katagaci

Pepperoni – Interactive Designer

Interactive designers design interfaces and anything that involves user interaction. A pepperoni pizza is, literally, an interactive platform.

Lay out a pepperoni pizza at a party. If the slices aren’t all consumed, people tend to pick the pepperonis off the remaining slices. It happens every time. User interaction.

stock.xchng Photo by TWINMOM

Supreme – Branding

Those designers involved in branding have to think about everything from environment to communication to visual systems. They literally have to involve themselves in every part of an organization.

Supreme pizzas have almost every ingredient. From peppers to mushrooms to olives to sausage. See the connection?

stock.xchng Photo by DontBblu

Sausage – Web Designers

Web designers are like sausage pizza. Huh?

Think about sausage pizza. It is more popular than cheese but less popular than pepperoni. A good web site needs to have a good level of both interactivity and typography for accessibility/readability.

Flickr Photo by Herman Saksono

Hawaiian – Illustrator

Illustrators have the best lives. They get to relax and draw…all day. Well, some do. Drawing is a good way to relieve stress and portray emotion. Freelance illustrators have a fun job (minus the stresses dealing with clients).

Hawaiian pizza is fun, delicious, and relaxing. The pineapple adds a sweetness to an otherwise bland pizza. Illustrators add life to bland designs.

stock.xchng Photo by pordzik

Canadian Bacon – Print

Real Canadian bacon is big, bold, and full of flavor. Unfortunately it isn’t as dynamic as other pizzas.

Print is the same way. It is out there, you see it everywhere from postcards to brochures to magazines. Good designers add a dynamic flare to print design. Unfortunately many print designs are not that exciting.

stock.xchng Photo by ilco

Three Meat – Advertising

Advertising designers have to design for every marketing venue possible. A good pizza lover will try to get the most amount and variety of meat for a hearty and delicious slice of ‘za.

Three meats are usually bacon, sausage, and pepperoni. I like to add chicken and canadian bacon. Deliciousness.

How iPad will Change MacBook and iPhone

Dusty — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:11:07 +0000

The tech world was overwhelmed recently with all the discussion about Apple’s iPad. I’ve heard the whole spectrum of comments from “I want one now!” to “It sucks, just a larger iPhone.”

But I truly believe, besides my Apple fanboy status, that the iPad is a smart decision by Apple to benefit both the MacBook/MacBook Pro and the iPhone/iPod Touch. I, honestly, do not believe Apple cares about the success of the iPad. They are taking this opportunity to research and see how people react and use the technologies and features existing in the iPad. From that research, Apple will (in my opinion) apply the data to their most precious products.

I’m going to run down some of the features of the iPad and how it will benefit both the MacBook and iPhone.

Touch Display

For the first time, Apple has expanded their touch interface to a larger display. LED-backlit, 9.7-inch diagonal, and fingerprint-resistant, the display is attractive. At a 1024×768 resolution at 132ppi (pixels per inch) this display is crisp and clean. But how can the other product benefit?

Users are already using such a display, only on a much smaller scale with the iPhone/iPod Touch. Apple now has the opportunity to see how users handle a larger display and how developers design their apps from a small interface to a larger one.

The interactions and development may be used to provide a touch display on the MacBook. Imagine being able to have the advantages of a powerful laptop and utilize a touch display. Designers, in particular, could really take advantage of a touch display.

What about the iPhone? It already has a touch display. It’s all about scaling. Developers now have an opportunity to see how their users utilize applications on a larger interface and apply that knowledge to the development of apps to use on the iPhone. It is a new challenge for developers to provide a balance because an iPhone app scaled to the size of the iPad isn’t exactly the best thing for every app.

Wireless 3G Advantage

The new “unlimited” plan for only $29.99 per month without any contract is a pretty good deal. Imagine being able to do that on your MacBook. Not only do you have WiFi, but what about those places that don’t provide free WiFi? Having a constant connection almost anywhere is great. Personally, I’d take advantage of this deal (if it was available on the MacBook) and not purchase internet in my home. It would save me a lot of money. I’m never home, though, so I’d probably be one of the few people taking advantage of this offer.

iPhone users benefit. With a larger strain on the 3G network, this could force AT&T to improve their service nationwide by expanding coverage and upholding better and faster connections. Everyone wins (fingers crossed).

Drive Space

I’ve been telling all of my friends who thought the iPad was supposed to replace their laptops are wrong. But, if you really think about it, this may be true in the long run. How many people want a 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB drive as their main drive? You are very limited to the amount of movies and music that we all hoard today.

But, in the future, a 16GB drive might actually be more than enough. With everything moving to the cloud (documents stored on the internet), faster connections, music and movie streaming (Netflix, Pandora), Google Docs, people really don’t need to store anything on their drives.

Especially with an always-on connection (if 3G comes to the MacBook) there will always be access to data.

The iPhone benefits because larger capacity drives aren’t necessary to store music and movies if it is being streamed.

Of course, there are many features to the iPad that will benefit other Apple products. Share your ideas in the comments. And, obviously, this is strictly my opinion.

You can read all about the iPad here.

Dusty Fields » Opinion