Category: portfolio

This is a portfolio of my work in many forms. It should give you some insight as to the products I might help you to create.

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58 of 365: We are living in Orwell’s 1984

Yevgeny Zamyatin (1923)
Yevgeny Zamyatin (1923) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

I’m not one to be especially paranoid, generally speaking. In fact, I tend to think of myself as generally stable, pragmatic, and realistic. I go on what I sense. However, recently, I began thinking deeply about all the trails we are leaving, especially my own, and how easy it is to know the deeper part, the private part, of who I am, easily.

 

I am okay with this. After all, openness is part of my brand. However, if I had a camera on me, broadcasting everything I do and say, it would be difficult to watch sometimes. I’m flawed, I have an ego, I make mistakes, and I try my best to improve myself. I fail, often, and I am okay with that, but also, I like to think that my worst moments of anger or failure would be seen in the larger context of the good I try to do in the world.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is that we do have the equivalent of cameras on us all the time. I read the dystopian trilogy (Zamyatin’s We, Orwell’s 1984, and Huxley’s Brave New World) as a young man, and it had a great effect on me. I accepted that society has a big-brotherly effect on us, and I try to do my best to satisfy their needs, while being myself to the degree that anyone can within a society. I also try to resist the Soma of this world, embrace emotion in the face of a societal need for me to be less sensitive, and generally respect, but not unequivocally align with authoritative mandates.

 

So consider the reality of the ways in which we are tracked and followed, and know that those records and details might be used against you at some time in the future. If you know it, you can make better decisions in light of it, and avoid the potential issue with reasoning.

 

1. At any given time, no matter where you are, there is likely a reporting sensor that knows that you are there. Your phone is an example, but so are security cameras, fitbits, and computers.

 

2. The data stream of each of these devices is logged in some way, some more overtly, and others more overtly. I can look at the history of my browsing, steps, music listening, book reading, meetings, messages, and photos and video going back over 10 years. There are no gaps.

 

3. There is a technological movement being presented quite reasonably in the form of Robert Scoble’s Age of Context that focuses on Big Data (e.g. credit cards), Social Data (e.g. Facebook), the Internet of Things (e.g. tweeting fridges), and personal  data logging (e.g. fitbit).

 

For more on this topic, please take a look at these slides that I prepared for a talk on sensors, personal data, and context.

 

[gdoc link=”https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1HO7HJ1d_rdjOzTmHPWnCIBrsGUIT33CQz5IIhvDtXPs/edit?usp=sharing” width=”600″]

 

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57 of 365: A Call to Libraries to Devise Policy Regarding Patron Consumer Devices.

phone by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
phone by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
phone by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
phone by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

I recently had the opportunity via LibraryLinkNJ to speak on the topic of Consumer Device Support in Libraries at several of their Tech Speed Dating gatherings, in which librarians from across the state of New Jersey come together to learn about the technologies they might love. It is a platform for dissemination of new technologies and best practices, but also potentially a place to introduce an idea. My idea: New library policy documents about the support for Consumer Devices in Libraries. Please take a look at this document, and use it as you wish, as it is Creative Commons – Attribution licensed. If you use it as is, you need do nothing. If you decide to change it, please mention that is was by John LeMasney via lemasney.com and thanks!

[gdoc link=”https://docs.google.com/document/d/14LSmZ_oCL6EekWkCGnT7JKVQDqdfU8fWVFEiRiyBP9M/edit?usp=sharing” width=”600″]

 

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56 of 365: A three dimensional coffee cup in SketchUp

55 of 365 Coffee Mug by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
55 of 365 Coffee Mug by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
55 of 365 Coffee Mug by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
55 of 365 Coffee Mug by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

This is a three-dimensional coffee cup created in SketchUp, the Trimble-owned, free, three-dimensional modeling application. Given the increased importance of making and three-dimensional printing in contemporary libraries, I have decided to focus a bit on 3D modeling as an area to extend myself into.  I taught a class on this for a full-day staff development session recently for the Long Island Library Resource Council (LILRC), a long-time friend of LeMasney Consulting. I think we discovered a few architects in the audience.

I fell in love with it when Google purchased it. The thing I love about it, despite also loving open source tools like Blender, is that it is incredibly easy to use and learn, comparatively. Honestly, after watching four short ‘getting started’ videos on http://sketchup.com, you’ll know enough to start building very complex shapes. A beautifully simple tool.

 

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54 of 365: That thing gives me the creeps by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

54 of 365 That thing gives me the creeps by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
54 of 365 That thing gives me the creeps by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
54 of 365 That thing gives me the creeps by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
54 of 365 That thing gives me the creeps by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

I was recently on a chat with a friend, and she explained that she really loved this breed of dog that has abundant wrinkles, very short legs, and clipped ears. The name of the breed escapes me, but my reaction was “that thing gives me the creeps”. I paused for a moment and thought about how odd that phrase is, which is usually a trigger for me to illustrate it. I pictured a 1970’s style treatment, dark, and playful.

In Inkscape, I placed the text, and applied the font Ballpark, a staple of my illustrations. I skewed the lines up and to the right. I duplicated and applied an outset to the duplicate, twice. Each time moving the outset shape backwards. I imported a lovely foggy image of red trees in summer morning, and used those colors for the palette.

I picture it being used in social media threads in which one person shares an image or idea that is full of creepiness, and someone shares my illustration as a response.

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53 of 365: On the inconsistency of posts in a post a day series.

Society
Society (Photo credit: Rétrofuturs (Hulk4598) / Stéphane Massa-Bidal)

So, I took on a project in which I am supposed to produce a post a day. I’m already woefully behind. But you know what? That’s okay.

I have several drafts written up and ready to be polished and published. Right now there is (thankfully) a lot going on. Tonight’s post is about my promise: I’ll finish the year with 365 posts. They may not all have original design attached, as this one does not. They may not all be particularly long or detailed. But they will all have something to do with design, technology, branding, libraries or some other aspect of my organizational brand. I promise. Thanks for keeping faith!

 

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52 of 365: On recycling cardstock: hand cut and stamped business cards

Hand-made, stamped, recycled business cards by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Hand-made, stamped, recycled business cards by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Hand-made, stamped, recycled business cards by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Hand-made, stamped, recycled business cards by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Hand-made, stamped, recycled business cards by John LeMasney via lemasney.com

On caring for nature

I was once in an environmental action committee for an organization. In the meetings, we’d plan events to raise awareness for recycling methods, whole food and gardening, saving electricity, promoting alternative fuel sources, and so on. It was quite successful. I was proud to be a part of it, and was active in the meetings.

There were a few times when I think I might have gone a bit too far in my suggestions. For instance, when there were popular suggestions to give out recyclable water bottles and t-shirts, offer games of chance to promote awareness with store-bought-beanbags, and print agendas for the meetings, I protested a bit.

I suggested that we promote the use of already owned recyclable water bottles, (since it seems like everyone already has 10 of them,) and that we offer a small sticker to anyone who shows up with a used bottle, so that we could still share and remind people of our brand.

I said that the new, printed t-shirts should be on-site printed recycled t-shirts, and that the bean bags should be from hand-sewn fabric scraps.

In the case of the agenda printing, I suggested that we use Google Docs instead. This is fairly common for me as a suggestion. Anytime someone offers me a piece of paper with something on it that may change, I suggest that we’d do better, stay more organized, and save costs by moving the document to GDrive.

This is all to say that I take ecological concerns pretty seriously. Which leads me to the point of this post:

Recycled, hand made business cards

I hand out a lot of business cards. If I meet a shop owner, a card almost always comes out. You never know who may need your help someday. I used to get the most beautiful miniature cards from Moo.com that everyone would say something nice about. But because I was printing on new paper, I felt like a hypocrite, when I print so little otherwise.

I work with index cards sometimes to organize my thoughts in physical space, especially for momentary lists, daily to-dos, or to take notes in a phone call. I decided to take these 4×6 cards, used on the lined side. I’d quarter them to use as business cards printed about 20 at a time with a custom stamp I got from staples.com with my contact information and (jl) logo on it. They were fun, obviously hand torn and hand stamped. Imperfect and beautiful, a lovely combination.

A new way to re-use otherwise cast-off cardstock

As I was throwing away a box that held a bulk set of tea bags, I broke it down and opened it up, and realized how nice the weight of the paper was, and how the designer paid attention to the palette to create a soothing package. I decided to cut the box into card sized slices and stamp the unprinted side. The result is lovely: my contact information on one side, and an interesting pattern on the back. They remind me of the recycled vinyl signs that end up as messenger bags. I’ve used the hand stamped cards for about a month, and have gotten some great responses. People I know tend to love hand-made objects of any kind, and my theory is that people are so used to seeing perfectly edged things all day long, that when they see the ‘thumbprints in the clay’, the kind imperfections, I think that they pay special attention to them.

What do you think? Am I a good ecologist, and respecter of nature, or am I just cheap? 🙂 One thing is for sure: my secondary branding is definitely represented by using these cards. Anyone who gets one should be able to see that I’m interested in recycling, that I’m frugal, and that I like making things. That’s a pretty solid set of brand attributes that I’d be proud to align with.

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