Ad Fed Blog

Who says there is such a thing as bad publicity? I’m guessing the guy hired to place devices around Boston to market a cartoon show for Turner Broadcasting might after being arrested today.

If your like me, one of your new year’s resolutions is to pick back up that paper and pen and to finally make drawing a habit — you know, part of your everyday routine. Along those lines, I’ve found two great great books that really speak to the process of creating in this manner. Keys to Drawing with Imagination by Bert Dodson is about the most unusual and unique book on drawing I’ve seen in a while — how many books devote the entire first chapter to the process of doodling? Another great read is Danny Gregory’s The Creative License. He concentrates much more on journaling and how it should be a part of your everyday life. Afterall, our observations reflect the way in which we engage with life. Finally, if you need some artistic inspiration, head over to Drawn! and marvel at the artistic and creative illustrations submitted in this blog everyday.

I don’t use tiled patterns very often, but I couldn’t help but bookmarking and sharing this great resource: Pixel Patterns.

Following a social model, they allow you to submit, search, and use the patterns as long as credit is given to the author. The interface is sleek and full of AJAX wonderment. They are at 903 patterns and growing, so finding something you can use shouldn’t be an issue.

And while you’re there, be sure to check out the parent site Kaliber 10000 - The Designers Lunchbox. Lots of great stuff throughout the site.

We all try to create landing pages that entice visitors to act, to give us information, or to buy something from us. It’s hard to engage them with a small budget - but if you’re UPS, the sky’s the limit.

Check out their landing page for the whiteboard campaign. Not only does it use video and audio to attract and hold the visitors attention, it personalizes the experience with a choose-your-own adventure navigation structure. Using a killer Postal Service song as the soundtrack doesn’t hurt either.

Well done big brown.

Curious to see the art and designs the folks over at Cartoon Network have been creating? If you find yourself in Atlanta anytime from February 1st to May 19th, stop by MODA (Museum of Design Atlanta) and enjoy the playful work of the talented designers, animators, writers, and artists of one of the only Cartoon Studios with offices east of the Mississippi (did I spell that right?).

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The title says it all. Check out Lord V’s Flickr set of incredible insect macro photography.

I’ve been a huge fan of information design ever since reading Edward Tufte’s classic books on the subject. That reading set me up for maximum enjoyment of this annual report by designer Feltron.

It’s a detailed and stylish look at Feltron’s activity in 2006, and does a great job of cataloging activities both big and small. Knowing how many songs were played on his iPod (26,059), or how many bars he went to in NYC (94) may be a little OCD, but it sure led to some inspired design.

Did a quick search for typography blogs and here are the results:
Head over to typographica for a dandy look at up and coming fonts as well as some great links to other typography sites and font houses. Check out what fonts the font shop is pawning at their blog. Or for something completely different, visit the site of “Ari Davidow, Hebrew Typesetter Extraordinaire” - he was lucky number 7 in the search results from google. Enjoy!

anyone ever catch that illustrated movie, “A Scanner Darkly”? here’s a great link i came across on how to do this.

http://www.illustratortechniques.com/imitating-a-scanner-darkly.html

Stop by Ad Age to watch a clip of Wired Editor Chris Anderson explain how the comsumer is in charge of the media and why its difficult to make assumptions about what they want to see.