Image of Hoboken taken by NASA (red line shows where Hoboken is). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Last week, I was fortunate to meet for four hours with a company that wanted to learn how to use PowerPoint 2010 more effectively, make better, more engaging presentations, learn a bit about design tools like Inkscape and the GIMP, and develop a base of design skills. We all learned a lot about color, look, feel, design success, and more. Thanks so much to the company in question, and I love Hoboken‘s view of NYC. I can’t wait to go back.
Here are the presentations I used to walk the group through the issues.
Have you seen those beautiful posters that visualize and demonstrate statistics in fun and elegant ways? Those are called infographics, and you can make them with some time, practice, and free design tools. In this two-hour session, John LeMasney shows you how to make interesting, sharable graphics that help you make your point. We’ll look at some examples of great infographics, recreate one or two, and then use what you learned to make an original personal infographic that might be the next viral hit on Pinterest, Facebook, and everywhere else. Skill Level: Intermediate No registration necessary”
Maybe you are a long time iOS user and are not sure why everyone is excited about Samsung Android products. Perhaps you are new to mobile computing, and want to know more about the options that Android provides. Maybe you are a long time Android user, and want to get more out of it. In any case, I’d love to see you there tonight.
Here is the presentation that I gave for this talk.
In this quick video (video is now working, sorry for anyone who tried earlier), I give an overview of the reasons why I love Android, and invite viewers to come and see me talk about it at Princeton Public Library on Tuesday, April 9th, 2013 at 7 pm in the Technology Center.
on the space between art and design cc-by lemasney
on the space between art and design cc-by lemasney
It may interest you to know that I have worked in the field of Instructional Technology and Design for 14 years, but that I have an undergraduate degree in Sculpture. This is the point at which people usually crinkle up their face and say “How did that happen?” I sometimes mention that I followed it up with a MA in organizational leadership, and I can see their hand twitch, ready to scratch their head.
A man with roots, firmly planted by John LeMasney via 365sketches.org #creativecommons #design #cc-by #tree #roots
The answer is that I love technology, especially in organizational use. I am passionate about it. I adore the ways in which technology is an extension, a tool set, a solution to problems. My undergrad sculpture degree taught me about creative problem solving, visual structure and communication, and things like space, color, texture, planning, and their intersection between the arts, including graphic design. I started off studying drafting and architecture in high school, and through a series of events that will be its own post later, I went into the fine arts, but continued to use electives and other channels to learn about computers, design, printmaking, food, business, and networking. Those skills have made it possible to go in lots of different directions in my career, including graphic design, as much of a passion for me as technology itself.
A primary color study by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
I thought it would be interesting to look at the ways in which my workflow, choices, methods and outcomes change when I’m either working in the fine arts or graphic design. Others may have their own differences, and may even disagree with my divisions, but these are mine.
Graphic design is typically digital, the fine arts is typically analog.
I do most of my work in Inkscape and GIMP for graphic design. I create most of my fine arts work on paper. This fact informs the rest of these points pretty directly.
Graphic design is precise by nature, the fine arts are typically more chaotic.
I have always colored outside the lines. My sister used to tease me about it. My painting and drawing teachers encouraged it. My graphic design work allowed me to make choices about precision in my work.
Ampersand by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Graphic design is typically more direct and less ambiguous, the fine arts may create more questions than it answers.
Usually if I am working on a graphic design project there is a clear deliverable point that I am trying to get across, such as “Our name is Spacely Sprockets, and we make great gadgets”. When I work in the fine arts, I am typically looking to answer more fundamental questions about humanity, the act of living, or the experience of a moment. There is sometimes an overlap of these kinds of ideas between the two disciplines, but even then, the design work has less ambiguity.
Glasses off by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Graphic design work is highly portable, the fine arts typically create a storage issue.
All of my graphic design work is sitting in its original state on various hard drives, cloud storage services, and other portable media. Except for a show or two of my graphic work in which pieces were printed, framed, and sold, and a paper portfolio of some of my best graphic work, and excluding the prints, fliers, signs and other versions of client work, the work exists online. Most of my original fine arts work sits hidden in portfolios, discarded in moves, or only in photos where the work does not exist anymore. The photo is typically a sad facsimile of the work itself, and hardly ever captures anything of the experience.
A fiery line by John LeMasney via lemasney.com
Graphic design work is easily shared in its original form, and represented well in copies. Fine art is best taken in with all the senses.
My design portfolio shows you the work in both its original and final forms. There is no need, in my opinion, to see it printed to see the work. My fine arts work, as well as most art, really should be felt in the way that a sculpture affects the air, tasted and smelled in the way that oil paint can activate the back of your tongue, heard in the sense of the way the sound of the space changes with the work in it, and seen in such a way that you can sense the texture of brushstrokes, the bend of a piece of metal in space, the thousand points of view in a site specific piece.
Any of you who know me know very well that I am drinking the Goog-Aid. I believe in the company, give them the benefit of the doubt when they profess that they are not evil, and in general, agree with their business, technology, and work philosophy. Today, I thought I’d share why and how I came to this conclusion.
Their stuff is free (as in free pizza). Google’s products, for the most part, are free. While there are usually optional upgrade costs, such as more storage, they usually offer the fully featured product at no cost to users. Their business model is advertising based, and so the more eyes that look at their products, the more money they get. I can get behind that, especially because it means that I can suggest a Google based solution to a client or colleague and not have to explain why they have to pay a fee. See also my support for Inkscape, GIMP, Open Office, and so on.
Google Code (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Their support of open standards. When I work with others, it often means that I have to decide the best way to deal with them. Do we use the same applications, services, and methods, or do we need to find a bridge between us? With Google, their products often use and support open standards and methods, such as XML, HTML 5, SVG, ATOM, and others, meaning that as long as another product (even proprietary ones) can understand the standard, we are good to go.
Open Source Logo (Photo credit: phradaka)
Their support of open source. In answering the mobile platform question “Why do you love Android so much?” my first answer is always “Because it’s open source.” Many people wonder why I care so much about open source (the source code that is written and compiled into the binary application is distributed along with the application), especially since I’m more of a user than a developer with most application code. The answer is that because developers get access to open sourced code, screen it for flaws, integrate improvements and can shape the code themselves, they act on my behalf. We all benefit from the changes that developers make to open sourced code. With proprietary solutions, those same developers are often cut off from adding their own code, seeing how it works, or checking it for flaws. Google uses open source in many of its projects, and supports its distribution through Google Code.
Music Beta by Google (aka Google Music) (Photo credit: pmsyyz)
They offer portable music, documents, photos, and bookmarks, automatically backed up. I have a music collection of many, many gigabytes. It once was available on only one of my machines. When Google Music launched, it allowed me to upload all of my music to their service for streaming and download to any device that could visit their website, meaning every computer, phone, tablet, and set-top box I owned. They back up my music collection automatically, and make it available wherever internet access is present, which for me is nearly everywhere, anytime. Oh, and this goes for every photo I take with my phone, every document I write in Drive, and every presentation I’ve given for the last 5 years.
Google Plus logo (Photo credit: Bruce Clay, Inc)
Google Plus, Hangouts, and YouTube. Google launched Plus, a social layer for its services a little while back. The obvious suggestion by critics was that they were trying to oust Facebook as king of social, but they are doing something different. They are making it easy to unify their services, share the products you make with them, and house it all under one roof: Plus. One feature of Plus, in particular, stands out as a disruptor: Hangouts. Hangouts, the ability to have up to ten people collaborate on documents, video chat, and more, has an on-air feature, with which you can do a live broadcast to thousands, archive the broadcast, and share it with people via YouTube. 5 years ago, it took a technologist with system administration skills to do this. Today, you just click the Hangout button on Plus.
They make it especially easy to share and collaborate. Because I use Gmail, and have for a very long time, practically everyone I’ve exchanged email with or gotten a business card from in the last ten years is part of Google Contacts. Anytime I want to share a photo, document, spreadsheet, music, or other item with any of them, Google offers their contact info from my contacts just by starting to type their name. In many cases, I can invite them to collaboratively, virtually meet and work on the item in real-time, with voice, video, and screen actions.
Logo image created by Matt_Stang for the Android Open Source Project and XDA community. Source: https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=545151 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Android operating System. I’ll write on this at length in the future, but for now I’ll just say that excluding the Ubuntu mobile operating system, no other phone OS even begins to tempt me.
The Chrome Operating System. I have a Chromebook. In fact, I have two. I bought them each used for $100. They both do only one thing: run the Chrome browser on a thin sheet of Linux. I can tell you from a lot of use that often that is all that you need to get work done.
It extends my senses, my memory, and my ability. When I want to know more about a topic that came up in conversation, I Google what others concluded about it. When I want to see all the photos I’ve ever taken of myself, I open Picasa, and look at the photos that Picasa found my face in. When I want to read a book on any topic, I go to Google Play Books or Google Books, or Google Scholar to investigate it. When I sign into Google, I am just a few keystrokes away from learning, knowing, or remembering it all.
Google Self Driving Car (Photo credit: loudtiger)
The Glass project and self-driving cars. Glass is a wearable computing platform that heralds the next big change in computing. Many are already dismissing it as too weird for mainstream use, but if we can get used to Bluetooth headsets, I think that wireframes that look like glasses without the lenses but that give you a heads-up-display on the world with camera, mic, and sound (powered by Android) would be worth the average person’s cultural shift in visual acceptance. And of course, any company that allows a blind person to drive himself to the store is a company that I stand behind.
I could go on, but I’ll stop here for now. If you are interested in how I think you could begin to integrate the Googleverse into your business workflow, please give me a call. I’m at lemasney@gmail.com and 609-553-9498
Related articles
The new look of Google management
Google’s Eric Schmidt denies merging of Android and Chrome
Death by Powerpoint
What to do with Charts
Design beautiful PowerPoint slide decks with Slidevana
WeVideo Launches “iMovie Competitor” for Android
The Beginners FAQ to Android Rooting
Will Facebook “New Home On Android” be an Android fork à la Kindle?
Android Is Winning
Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie: Rumours and Expectations
The new look of Google management
Google’s Eric Schmidt denies merging of Android and Chrome
Lunch & Learn: John LeMasney – 10 things you should know about Android and the Nexus 7.