While browsing my usual feeds today I found this post by Jason Santa Maria about the website he did for Gary Hustwit’s new film Objectified. Hustwit is the man behind last year’s documentary Helvetica, a film dedicated to the life and influence of the famous typeface. I found Helvetica to be a fascinating film and the synopsis behind Objectified looks like it will be just as interesting.

Objectified takes a look at the world of industrial design and explores the creativity behind the everyday objects we use in our lives. The film will feature interviews with some very famous industrial designers such as Dieter Rams, IDEO, and Jonathan Ive, the Sr. Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple Inc….think iPod, iPhone, iMac.

The film is scheduled to release in early 2009. Check out some of the production stills on the site for a sneak peak.

Just launched. Tons of new work and quite flashy.

Recently I’ve been browsing through my favorites on Flickr and thinking about all of the various photographic styles my collection contains. I’ve found that most of them have been post processed like having their colors tweaked or altered and in some cases textures added (note the 3rd photo above). Some of these tweaks are minor and probably were done to clean up the photo and give it more “punch” (such as the 1st photo above) while some have completely altered the entire mood of the photo (note the 2nd photo above). With these different examples of post processing, I’ve been asking myself the following question:

“Where is the line between photography and graphic design in regards to post processing?”

Since launching out into photography I’ve spent countless hours viewing the work of other photographers. Not all of those photographers are professional photographers. Some are designers first with a love of photography as an extension of their creative outlets, which is where I would place myself. I’ve found that the majority of photos these designers produce are highly stylized and processed. To me it looks like they extend their skills as designers to their photographs, which I’ve found is a natural extension for myself as well.

I have also viewed numerous portfolios by professional photographers and I’ve often found the opposite to be true. While these photographers have visual styles that make them unique, their photos tend to have a more natural look.

What I’m starting to wonder is if I’m seeing the differences between the kinds of photographers there are. While these designers are not professional photographers, they are still artists and could possibly categorize themselves as art photographers. Since they don’t make their living as professional photographers, they have complete freedom to create what they like. In contrast most professional photographers obviously have to sell their work to live and so maybe that’s why their portfolios are more natural or truer to life, a reality I face myself with my client work.

I’m still curious as to the line between photograph and design, because obviously my natural tendency is to design something. I look at the 3rd photo above, which definitely is very stylized and I see how close it could be to crossing that line. At first glance it’s just a photo, one that looks like it could be quite old and possibly printed on paper that’s faded and changed color over the years. As I look closer I can tell that it’s been processed, that textures have been added, colors changed, and the contrast adjusted. So okay, that’s arguably “safely” within the lines of photography, but what would happen if I added a single line of text, a small illustration or slightly skewed the image? Have I not then stepped over the line into graphic design?

Maybe that’s where the answer lies. Adding elements to a photo, is that when a photo ceases to be just a photo? Are you safely on the side of photography if you’re only adjusting what’s already there in the image regardless of how far those adjustments go? If the first question proves true, then maybe the addition of texture to the 3rd image disqualifies it from still being a “photo”. I don’t know.

If you have any thoughts about this issue, I’d love to hear them. I’m still processing it all myself.

I’m a big fan of the haunting look of vacant spaces, especially those that are normally packed with people. There’s something about viewing a manmade space when it’s not being used, there’s an awkwardness that I find appealing for some reason. The stillness and silence is almost overpowering.

This morning I came across the work of photographer Daniel Everett and I was reminded of these feelings as I browsed his portfolio. He has some great shots on his site and I especially like the compositions he creates from multiple photos of the same scene. Definitely worth heading over to his portfolio and having a browse.

John Hicks, the designer behind the logo for Silverback wrote a short post showing his progress through the logo’s creation. Always nice to see these steps from concept to final artwork. Hicks does amazing work, one logo in particular with which you are all no doubt familiar.

Recently I received my beta invite to try out Dropbox, an online storage solution that has received a lot of positive praise since it first arrived on the scene. Up until now I have tried various methods in sharing data across multiple computers such as USB flash drives, uploading/downloading files via ftp on my server and (shudder) emailing files to myself which usually ends up feeling more like a desperate cry for attention than a solution because my inbox is then full of emails that say from “me” to “me”. What I really wanted was a free, painfree solution that provided a way for me to share files and sync them with little to no effort. When I heard about Dropbox I got excited because it looked promising and now that I had access I’ve been trying it out for about a week.

Please note that my goal with this post is to share my thoughts on the Dropbox experience and to touch on some of it’s features. For a full walkthrough of what Dropbox has to offer, head over to their site and watch the excellent video they’ve put together.

The barrier to entry to Dropbox is dead simple. The first thing you do is create an account which consists of a username (email address) and password. Once that is created Dropbox then walks you through a simple 3 step process to get you up and running. The first step is to download a local version of Dropbox that runs on your Mac or PC. Once that is installed you then link your computer to Dropbox (you can link multiple computers, which is very powerful and where syncing becomes extremely handy), which is step 2. After your computer is linked you’re on to step 3 which is basically a “get started” step meaning you’re done.

The first thing I did after completing the 3 step process was to run the Dropbox application that I had installed. At first I thought something was wrong because nothing happened when I double-clicked on it. It looked like it had launched but nothing popped up. After a little further investigating I found that the application runs as a background app and actually was working perfectly. A little icon had appeared in my titlebar and I had failed to notice it. A simple click on the icon pulls up this menu:

You’ll notice a small green check next to the icon. That signifies that you are successfully connected to your dropbox. The options are simple as you can see. I can “Open My Dropbox” which launches a window that looks like any other system window in your OS. I can see the folders contained in my dropbox and I can drag files in or drag files out. I can even drag files to my trashcan and they’re deleted. Everything acts just like a regular file window but with one major difference. If I drag in a folder or file an uploading icon appears next to it showing me that the folder or file is being added to my Dropbox. As soon as it has been added the same green check appears next to the file or folder icon. These are nice subtle visual cues that I think work much more effectively than an uploading dialog box that appears on your screen.

The next option in the menu launches my web interface and also tells me how much of my 2GB storage limit I’ve used. If I select “Web Interface” then I’m presented with my Dropbox in my browser and it looks like this (click for full resolution):

It’s a very simple interface which is exactly as it should be. Basically this is my home screen and shows me my recent activity in my Dropbox. At the bottom I see my files which looks and acts a lot like a standard file tree system. A click on one of the folder names expands that folder. This is quick and easy, but one of the drawbacks is that after expanding it removes the other folders and files that I didn’t click on. One would think “Okay that’s fine, I should be able to just click again on the same folder and it will collapse” but no. You have to actually click on the folder or file above it to go back up a level which is a little counter-intuitive.

A click on the small gray arrow next to your files and folders expands a contextual menu of options depending on which one you clicked on. For the folders the options are “share”, “upload here”, “download as zip”, and “restore files” and for a file you have “download file” and “revisions”. The “restore files” and “revisions” options are fantastic because it gives you the ability to rollback to previous versions. I don’t know how far back the revision history goes, but regardless it’s a very handy feature.

I haven’t tapped into the “share” feature yet, so I can’t speak to that. The photos feature is cool and works as you think it should. The photos you have in your “photos” folder are displayed as thumbnails and a click on them brings them up in the trendy “lightbox” gallery method where you can go back and forth through your photos. Dropbox also provides you with a link to your photos which you can share with friends so they can view your photos too. It’s quite slick.

Overall my experience has been positive and I’m finding that it meets my needs for sharing and syncing files remotely between multiple computers. Having this in place a few weeks back would have saved me the headache I experienced recently, but alas my invite didn’t appear until after I broke things.

This app is still in beta and so access is restricted to sign-up or invites at the moment, which brings me to my last point. You may have noticed this little piece of info on my Dropbox web interface:

I’d love to “Share the love!” and I have all 10 of my invites remaining. If you’d like to try Dropbox, leave me a comment and I’ll pass one along. I’m all for sharing, plus I’m interested to see if 1. I can get 10 comments which would be a record and 2. how many of you lurkers out there will show your face now that there’s free stuff being offered.