Here is me being candid: I support Barack Obama, but it’s probably not for the reason you think. By no means am I diminishing the serious issues that face our nation and our planet. But only with Mr. Obama do I see a candidate for President who respects the issue which is closest to my heart: good design.

I realize neither candidate actually did the work I’m critiquing. But, as Harry Truman said, “the buck stops here.” Each candidate is ultimately responsible for how they portray themselves. So, for the purposes of discussion, let’s take a look at the candidates’ web sites:

Barack Obama

barackobama.com

Much like the crowds he draws, Mr. Obama’s website has gotten lots of attention. Rightfully so, as the level of sophistication in execution extends from the macro to the micro.

Layout

• Astutely organized with a focus on usability and flexibility. The page has a ton of links and information without being complex or cumbersome.
• Navigational items are clear and easy to find.
• Informational hierarchy is intelligently laid out and tiered to best suit the medium.

Aesthetics

• Logo is at once clever and elegant (when can you even recall a candidate having something you could even remotely call a logo?)
• Typography is savvy and refined (you really can’t go wrong with Gotham as your primary brand font).
• Design limits itself to silhouetted photography, vector graphics and lighting gradients which allows for depth and complexity while always remaining consistent.
• No detail is overlooked: Check out the text detail in the rollover navigation and custom icons.

Technology

• Stylesheets are incredibly sleek, simple and modern. Feel free to take a look at the CSS yourself, or you could just trust me.
• HTML markup is standards-based and semantically appropriate.
• Uses unobtrusive Flash and Javascript to subtly add rich content.

John McCain

johnmccain.com

Mr. McCain’s website approaches design… differently.

Layout

• Navigation is extremely difficult to find sandwiched in between a massive (but otherwise useless) banner and an annoying bar demanding that I know what kind of voter I am.
• Organization is terrible in general, creating a burden on the user to locate information.

Aesthetics

• For arguments sake, I will concede that McCain has a “logo”. But stars? C’mon EVERY politician uses stars. At least make the attempt toward originality and use stars in a different way.
• Typography is bland and completely inconsistent.
• Design is flat and all over the board, at times looking like a patchwork of separate ideas rather than a single, focused message.
• Icons look like bad stock art and buttons look like trite Photoshop filters gone wild.

Technology

• CSS is wasteful and unorganized. To be blunt, it looks like it was done by someone’s friend’s nephew who learned to code last summer.
• Tables? Tables? Only programming dinosaurs still use tables.
• Uses Flash and Javascript, but the technology is being asked to overcome the deficiencies in layout. Take for example the functionally confusing trio of sliding graphics to the left.

With politics being full of tacky one-liners and status quos, it is refreshing to see design taken seriously on the national stage. Mr. Obama claims this is “change we can believe in.” Indeed, Mr. Obama. Indeed.

Tags: Musings by Brian
No Comments »

NJREBEL.COM, a website designed and developed by Square360, has garnered numerous recognitions across the Web, including Adobe’s prestigious Site of the Day. Adobe recognizes projects based on strong visual design, technical execution, usability, interesting and/or timely content, as well as overall innovative use of Adobe products. Developed in conjunction with Winning Strategies, the website features cutting-edge techniques in design and technology and leverages everything from video tour guides, Facebook games, student-led blogs, rankings for smoking facts and video parodies.

To date, NJREBEL.COM has been featured on:

• Adobe Site of the Day
• Best Web Gallery
• BOTWG
• Command Shift3
• CoolHomePages
• CSSLoggia
• CSSMania
• DZine
• Faveup
• Kinoa
• Most Inspired
• My3W
• ScreenFluent
• Smashing Magazine
• The Daily Slurp
• Waacoo
• WebDesignerWall

REBEL, which stands for Reaching Everyone By Exposing Lies, is a statewide, youth-led, anti-tobacco movement dedicated to educating peers and the community about the dangers of smoking.

Tags: Musings by Brian
No Comments »

The Square360 team was on set Saturday to shoot video for our latest project. We don’t want to let the cat out of the bag just yet, so you’ll have to stay tuned for the big launch later this spring.

Special thanks to Rainne, Nancy and Brian (not me, another one) for braving their illnesses and making it happen.

Tags: Musings by Brian
No Comments »

or “I know what I did this summer”

My son Gavin was born on May 16th, 2007 @ 11:28AM. He was 6 pounds, 12 ounces. He was also very sick. We had no idea of what we were about to face when he arrived. The following is a recounting of my communications to my friends outlining the events as they unfolded.

June 1, 2007

I thought everyone deserved an update.

Gavin is quite sick and is has been in the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) since he was born on the 16th. He was originally admitted because of some breathing problems, but the situation has magnified quite a bit in the past two weeks. They continue to run a battery of tests on him. There is A LOT going on, but here are the most pressing issues:

Gavin had been diagnosed with severe hydronephrosis in utero. Basically, he had enlarged kidneys. They’ve done two studies on his kidneys and determined there is a blockage on both sides where the uraters meets the kidneys, with possible blockages where the uraters meet the bladder. This requires prompt surgery. He will be transfered on Monday or Tuesday from Christiana Care to A.I. Dupont Children’s Hospital for additional testing and surgery.

Gavin has a large VSD (ventricular septal defect) or a hole in the wall of his heart. VSDs are actually quite common and most people don’t know they have it. Gavin’s, however, is 6mm: larger than the diameter of his aorta. Consequently, he is having trouble breathing and therefore trouble eating. He is currently on two heart medications, but this issue will also require surgery. Unfortunately, since he is a little guy, the only option is open heart surgery. Cardiology and urology are still discussing the order in which the surgeries will take place.

The good news is that while no surgery is without risk, the neonatologists tell us the success rate for both procedures is around 95%, but the real test for Gavin will be in recovery. Heather and I will, of course, feel more confident when we hear that directly from a surgeon, but it’s what we have so far.

As I said, there is much more than just that, but that pretty well summarizes our immediate concerns. All that I ask is to think positive thoughts for the health of my son.

June 14, 2007

First of all, sincerest thanks to everyone for all the support and well-wishes we’ve been getting. All of your thoughts for Gavin are GREATLY appreciated.

Good news first ( I have 2 actually). Gavin’s last echocardiogram revealed that the supporting wall of the valve between his atrium and ventricle in his heart is partially restricting his VSD. The short version is that while surgery is by no means our of the picture, it is no longer a foregone conclusion. The cardiologist feels the heart medications are doing their job and believes it is a possibility the heart will heal itself (he may always have a small hole, but as long as it does not impact him they will leave it alone).

Second bit of good news. After almost 3 weeks of being fed through a tube in his nose, Gavin can and remembers how to eat. The concern was that he had some physical issue that prevented him or discouraged him from eating normally. The end result solution could have been a peg tube directly into his stomach (i think?). As of Sunday night, however, he has taken all of his bottles by mouth and he no longer has a tube in his nose. It still takes him a while to eat, but that he is able to is very positive.

Now for the not so good news. Gavin will be going into surgery to his kidneys/uraters at around 1PM Thursday (maybe earlier). The urologists are still unclear about the exact nature and location of the problem(s). But since both kidneys are affected, they feel they must intervene. The will be performing one last test before surgery to try to determine the best course of action: they will inject dye directly into his kidney, take X-rays to see what happens, and figure out how they will operate. Whatever the case, they will not be able to fix the issue at this time. If all goes well, this will be a temporary fix for a year so that he doesn’t go into kidney failure. Then they will start looking into doing something more permanent. At any rate, today is the first big hurtle of his young life. The surgeons and anesthesiologists are all confident in Gavin’s ability to tolerate surgery; we are just nervous because 1) it’s surgery and 2) we wish they knew what they were cutting him open to fix.

There is always more, but that’s the important stuff for now.

July 13, 2007

Thanks again to everyone’s messages of support.

Unfortunately, we rebounded back to the hospital in less than a week. Gavin started having more and more problems eating, and then started vomiting his bottles, so they admitted him two Fridays ago. His heart was larger and the pressures in his heart were worse. And even though he was gaining decent weight, they believed his VSD would steal energy away from the growth and development of his other organs, so the consensus was to operate.

Gavin went into heart surgery at 10:30AM on Monday. As everyone knows, any surgery has an inherent risk, but this time was, without a doubt, much more difficult handing him over at the operating room door. This round of surgery was comparatively fast to the previous one: only 2 hours, half of which was spent getting him onto bypass and (essentially) stopping his heart. Heather and I were told that one of the signs of a successful surgery would be if they closed his chest, otherwise they would leave him open to have continued and direct access to the heart. By the time we got our second update from surgery, we were already told his sternum was wired shut and he was moving to ICU.

I expected we would be in the ICU for a few days. He was there for slightly over 24 hours. Gavin was moved to a stepdown unit, where again I expected he would be for a few days. Less than a day later, he was back in his room. The following day (Thursday) he had already started taking his bottles orally again. Gavin has done so well with recovery, there is talk of sending us home next week. So Gavin has basically gone from having his heart exposed to demanding he be fed promptly… within 3 days. He’s a helluva lot tougher than I am, that’s for sure.

His murmur is pretty much gone. The hole that was 6mm now registers as 1mm, which will hopefully close all the way. His breathing is much smoother and less labored. We are restricted in how we hold him (ex. no over the shoulder, no belly time) but his sternum should be healed within 4-6 weeks. He is certainly having some pain issues and a few other minor things we are keeping our eye on, but overall he is doing excellent.

I hope everyone is well.

We’ve had many more challenges since Gavin came home, and he has mostly risen to the occasion. We’ve also seen Gavin’s floor-mates struggle and, in one case, lose their battle. I’m not claiming to not be worried: As any parent will tell you, its hard not to worry about the future for your children. What I am is genuinely appreciative for everything that I have, including the charm of one dashing, toothless smile.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Tags: Musings by Brian
No Comments »

My x-wing is broken. Everyone around me is zooming around in their x-wings and mine won’t leave the hangar bay. I ask myself, “Why am I sitting in the basement of FITC Toronto, bummed that I can’t get my x-wing to fly?!” One Reason:

Papervision3D - a.k.a. “PV3D”, a.k.a. “the Flash 3D Engine that Could”.

If you haven’t heard of it, you will. Papervision3D is “an open source 3D engine for the Flash platform,” developed by a small core of programmers, with a growing community of Flash developers, programmers, and 3D visual artists. It’s the next step in interactivity, entertainment, communication in the world of flash. Not “cheat 3D”, we’re talking taking 3D models, importing them into flash, rendering them, interacting with them, z-sorting, interaction, and more…all in a light-weight platform with a 90+% penetration rate in the computer-using world. Let me simplify:

It’s the hoverboard.

I first heard about it at my local FlashCoder’s New York Group I go to (every Wednesday at Think Cafe!), when Seb Lee-Delisle came to visit and give us the low-down on how to build 3D flash from scratch. We talked a bit after that, and he clued me in to the PV3D team. After that, plugged into the Papervision mailing list.

I lurked. I tried. I failed. I tried again. I failed better.

Then I heard John Grden was coming to FITC Toronto for a marathon weekend of Papervision Training! Square360 booked my ticket, and I took a nail-gripping 2-hour flight to Toronto, and crashed in a hostel right in the middle of Kensington at 2 a.m., and began a journey of vast amounts of caffeine, swimming graphics, and 72 hours of high-octane programming. There were 3D artists, programmers, designers, developers, young, old, and all eager. But I couldn’t get my wing to fly…

Ken (an x-wing co-pilot doing donuts) pointed to my x-wing, and said, “Try swapping MovieMaterial with MovieAssetMaterial”.

And BAM I’m flying with everyone else!

Next Up: a 3D Drink Display for Bar Friday

Here’s a taste:

Tags: Musings by Dominic
No Comments »

Dear Verizon DSL‚

I got your message. I’m both nervous and excited; no one has ever offered me Price for Life before. I’ve thought long and hard about it and I feel ready to take the plunge. I am ready to commit to you for the rest of my internet life! Please forgive my initial hesitation. I was slightly taken aback when you proudly announced the requirement of a 2-year service commitment before we could be together. I just thought that since we are going to be faithful to each other for the next 40+ years, what’s the point in bickering over 2 years. Unless of course, you don’t really love me and only want me for my money.

Since I’m in it for the long haul anyway, I’ll sign the agreement. Have your 2 years. At least I’ll have internet for the rest of my life and we can be together. Besides, there is nothing wrong with 40-year old technology (No, please, you can leave your 8-tracks at home). But in 2047, when our grandchildren are flying their Hoverboards to school, our neighbor is bragging about the 240″ Plasma 3D she just had installed in her family room and the rest of the world is downloading at 768,000,000,000 Kbps on their brain implants, you are still going to be giving me 768 Kbps? You can’t really call it High-Speed Internet at that point, can you? So is that the plan? To gradually just stop trying and until we barely even need each other anymore?

And there was that one thing you said on your website:

We’ll keep your High Speed Internet rate the same for as long as we offer the service to your location

Oh I see: You can decide to see other people but I can’t? What is it? Am I not attractive enough for you? I could lose some weight, really I could. No, its the hair. You hate my hair. I can change, just gimme another chance. I thought we were going to go all the way. FOR LIFE. Why are you already looking for an out? I thought it might be that you have issues getting emotionally close to someone. That is until I read this:

termination or disconnection may result in an early termination fee.

So you are going to leave me AND take my money? Why don’t I just sign over my paychecks and custody of the kids to you right now and save us both the time? You know what? Fine. Go! Just go. Take your internet service back to your mamma! You were never that fast anyway!

And just so you know I HAVE BEEN DOWNLOADING WITH FIOS THIS WHOLE TIME!

Tags: Musings by Brian
No Comments »

Looking back, I’m surprised she didn’t hit me.

“What’s typography?” I asked the nice interviewer for the MFA program at the School of Visual Arts. This was the first thing I said after she rather breathlessly informed me that only a thorough knowledge of the subject, something she declared to be the most vital, potent element of graphic design, would admit me to their fine institution. I like to think I’m smarter these days.

Fast forward three years, and I’m finally studying this most awesome subject post-post graduate at the MFA program that did admit me, the Design and Technology department at the Parsons School of Design. Judith Landsman is the teacher, and she’s informative, tireless and demanding, all the sort of things one wants in an instructor. My design background was largely in illustration (due to my work background being primarily in 2D animation), and even that was mostly self-taught. I like to think my relative lack of formal training and sparse background in most aspects of graphics design, especially in Typography puts me in a unique position that allows me to see things with a fresh, untainted eye. I heard it’s this sort of magical thinking that gives kitteh fur that fluff.

Behold a few things I’ve learned so far as a typography/graphics design tadpole:

1) Tangents

Possibly the biggest thing I’ve had to unlearn as an illustrator and fully embrace as a graphics designer is the tangent.

Tangents have no place in Illustration. Illustrators hate tangents. What illustrators call “tangents” are illustrative lines that meet up but do not intersect. Imagine three human subjects standing next to each other in an illustration. As an illustrator, one would not:
Make them all the same height
Make them all the same width
Make them all equally spaced apart
Make elements in their dress/features/etc line up with anything else in the picture if at all possible. For example, if you could draw a straight line from, say, the bottom of a window in the window and have it line up perfectly to the cuff of someone’s shirt sleeve, that is a very bad thing.

If you were creating a graphic design, with type or anything else, you would want to do all the things I just listed. Three columns of text? Make em’ all the same height, or at least all the same width. And if you can’t do either of those, at least make sure all the elements within each column correspond in some way-type treatment, spacing, etc. While having multiple elements line up in an illustration would be a definite no-no, in graphics design and typography, it is a definite yes-yes.

Next post I will talk about negative space. Considering I’ve only taken been taking typography class for two weeks, I don’t currently know enough about negative space in type to comment about its differences from negative space in illustration. So in the meantime I will leave you with this awesome link my friend Ritwik Dey gave me on typography:
http://ilovetypography.com/

Tags: Musings by Rainne
No Comments »

As Hunter S. Thompson once wrote in Song of the Sausage Creature, “There are some things nobody needs in this world, and a bright-red, hunch-back, warp-speed 900cc cafe racer is one of them - but I want one anyway, and on some days I actually believe I need one.”

Here, here Hunter!

I’ve coveted this bike since my first encounter with Ducati motorcycles in 2001, so in June I bought my own.

All excited, and armed with $3,250.00 in cash, I drove the Honda Mini Van (the mommy-mobile, the toaster and the soccer van as it has been dubbed by some of my friends) to New Hampshire to pick up my most recent eBay purchase. Although I am sure Honda did not have this in mind when they designed the Odyssey, you guessed it, the bike fits in the back.

With a bit of a tilt, my bike, the oh so beautiful 1995 Ducati 900ss with 944 kit, gets wheeled into the mommy-mobile for the ride to NYC. It “just” fit, snug as a bug in a rug.

I get back to NYC and make plans to take the bike to a friend’s repair shop for a full check-up. I can not get there till after the 4th of July weekend so the bike takes a trip with me to Central PA to visit the family. The following weekend I get the bike to European Cycle Services in Middletown, NY for its full check-up.

The list of needs:
Steering head bearing
Cam seal
Layshaft seal
Carbs need to be cleaned
Oil change
Timing belts
Rear brake pads
Front brake pads
New steel braided clutch and brake lines
Crank case oil breather
New clutch
New clutch slave
New tires
New sprockts
New chain
Turn signal bulb
Tank has a little bit of rust in it
The forks are pitting
and the killer - the frame is cracked!

Given the bike’s age I knew it would need some work and I was prepared to put a bit of money into it. However, I was a bit surprised at the extent of the previous owner’s neglect. How could anyone let such a beautiful piece of machinery fall into such disrepair.

So, after I took notes on the costs for all this work I decided I still wanted the bike, ordered all the parts and tell the repair shop to get the bike ready to ride.

When I am telling my very dear friend Ross everything the bike needs to get it serviceable he decides that it would be fun and a great bonding experience if he and a few of the guys did the work them selves to get the bike in running order for me. So, back up to Middletown, NY to load the bike into the back of the Odyssey once again for the trip to LaGrangeville, NY where the guys would do the work. The coordination of three busy schedules means the work does not get done till mid-August.

Finally the day arrives. Three guys took three days (I’m sure more bonding happened than working) to install a new clutch, new layshaft seal, new oil breather and seal, new timing belts, new chain, new sprockets, new tires, new steel braided clutch and brake lines, new clutch cover, a new case protector, and new brake pads. One of the guys takes the bike for a spin and declares the bike serviceable. The cracked frame will wait until Ducati can make me a new one.

All proud of their accomplishments they get the bike ready for me to pick up and again, it gets wheeled up into the mommy-mobile for the ride home to the city.

So once again the bike is in its mobile garage for the week till I can find time to take it to European Cycle Services for the once over and the thumbs up/OK to ride. The bike takes a trip to Ikea and Fairway since I am not capable of taking it out by myself.

The bike finally makes it back to ECS for the once over and five days later I get the dreaded call from Jay, mechanic extraordinaire.

Jay: We have to redo everything.

Me: Ha ha ha, very funny…

Jay: NO for real we have to redo everything. Bolts are falling out, master link over crimped, oil breather so loose you can see the seal, now it won’t start, and it needs new clutch starter… oh and the used shock you just bought on eBay is for an Elephant, not a 900ss.

Me: WHAT?!?! how much now?

Jay: About a grand and we can have it ready next Saturday.

So, for anyone keeping tabs:
$3,250.00 for the bike
$1,753.00 for the parts
$1,250.00 for more parts and labor
$120.00 for detailing
and, approximately 975 miles traveled in the back of the soccer van.

Next Saturday is the day. Now that the bike is ready and deemed ride-able, I am picking it up at ECS in the morning, loading it once again into its mobile garage and driving to New Hampshire (yes back to NH) to spend the week with friends.

When asked by friends if I am excited to finally ride it, I am reminded of the immortal words of Hunter S. Thompson, “Do you have the balls to ride this BOTTOMLESS PIT OF TORQUE?”

Frankly … NO! So, meanwhile I continue to ride my faithful 2002 Ducati Monster.

Tags: Musings by Nancy
No Comments »