This is the last official article in this series unless I decide to crank it up to 11. The current mission statement of my company is organizing and securing your information with the most up-to-date portable media and web technologies. (I may change that slightly in the near future to say compelling content instead of the generic term, “information.”) One of the most overlooked or last things that come to mind in regards to design is preservation or in a broader term, security. Is the first thing that comes into your mind when you hear security someone stealing your assets? That is certainly a consideration but it’s important to remember all of the following;

• Preserving original files
• Backups
• Protection from theft
• Legal Precautions

Before you even consider official backups you need to consider if you are deleting or throwing away assets that should be saved. It’s tempting to throw away original material once a project is done in order to save space or even get rid of things you think are not worthy of being saved.

Backup media is cheap. If possible, save original files and even if you think something is junk it may have a use down the road. This goes beyond digital assets. If you are restoring an old photo that is scratched, yellowed, torn, etc. hold on to it! Yes, You may be able to restore it nicely in Photoshop but who knows what kind of technology advances in the future might be able to do an even better job? Scott Kelby has a great book out called the 7 Point System for Photoshop CS3.  It’s amazing what can be done with seemingly mediocre files however a lot of the tips in the book require using the original file in the original RAW or at least the original image size.  Look the the 7-Point Flickr group to see what people have done with images that otherwise may have been deleted.

How does one go about preserving and securing your designs or the creative assets of others? As far as digital assets go the most important thing you should be doing on a regular basis is creating frequent and dependable backups. I tell people over and over that insurance can cover and replace equipment but no amount of money will ever bring back data lost through natural disasters or more frequently, accidental over writes and deletions. While it’s important to have a good local backup to quickly retrieve data it’s even more crucial to store your backups “off-site.” This can be done by manually taking backups to another location or better yet using an online backup service.

Finally, theft can take many forms. The first thing that comes to mind is a sneaky individual coming into your home or office and running off with valuables like televisions, stereos, laptops, jewelry, wallet, etc. Of course the worst of those things to be stolen, in my personal opinion, is computers like laptops or wallets, because they contain valuable information that can lead it identity or intellectual property theft.

Yes, it’s important to protect yourself and company in such instances but the greatest danger doesn’t come from your typical crook. That sad and scary thing is most intellectual property that is stolen is actually “given away,”  maybe not given away on purpose but it’s really easy to put things on the Internet without thinking of how it will be used.

I’ve told clients if they are concerned about someone accessing their creative works and using them then don’t put them on the Internet in the first place. Even by putting things in a password protected area is not a 100% guarantee your assets will be safe. A lot of people think that by just converting a document to the PDF format will make it non-editable. That’s not exactly true. Converting a document to PDF makes it harder to edit unless you take extra security procedures.

Are you taking the legal precautions by registering copyrights and trademarks, etc?

Look at your practices.  Are you preserving assets for potential future work?  Are you backing up to secure location, not only away from your computer but also away from your home or office. Are you taking legal precautions? and finally are you keeping thinks you don’t want people to access away from the Internet?

In case you haven’t noticed I love to use Flickr to share my photos. I was pleasantly surprised to get word today that Flickr is being used to spread good word of mouth or should I say, “vision of eye” for a new book that has come out. Scott Kelby recently published the 7-Point System for Adobe Photoshop CS3 . A group has sprung up on Flickr showcasing how people are using Scott’s 7 Point System for Adobe Photoshop 3. Scott didn’t start the group but it looks like his publisher has. What a great tool for promoting a book! Are you taking advantage of services like Flickr, You Tube, etc. to promote your work?

We have often heard the term, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” That can be true, …sometimes. Sometimes I see a logo or photo and the only thing that pops into my head is a question mark but other times I am so emotionally moved by a “simple” image that there wouldn’t be enough words to describe. For some reason people want to seperate photography from graphic design because the mistakingly assume the camera is doing all the hard work. I beg to differ.  The camera is just a tool for capturing various levels of light and shadow. It’s the photographers job to set the scene, know the best camera settings and additional tools like lights and lens for capturing those degrees of light.  Even before great software tools like Photoshop (both for Windows and Mac) a professional photographer who developed his or her own film had to know about post processing techniques like cropping, dodging and burning.

One of the most fascinating and ironic aspects of photography is despite the great number of camera owners out there you still see people getting paid to photograph what the purchaser values. Of course on reason not dependent on skill is location. It makes a lot more sense for someone from Greenville, SC to purchase a professional photo from a location shoot in a place like New Zealand than to use their own equipment and incurs huge travel expenses to get their unless their is a great possibility of make a big profit.However if you are not from Greenville,SC and would like to see some very interesting photos that are taken daily and tell stories of the town I would like to suggest visiting the web site of a fellow local blogger, Denton Harryman at Greenville Daily Photo.

Finally their is one thing I was taught once that has helped me greatly.  Get where the action or most interesting view is.  All to often people tend to take a photo right where they are standing or sitting. A camera however does give you a good excuse to go to places and act “odd” for the sake of getting the photo you intended. In this photo of a goat I had to get closer to the goats level to not only capture the goat but also the rich blue sky.  I personally think painters and other artist have great potential for being great photographers as well because both photography and painting or drawing requires consideration of angles, lighting and color (or shades of gray if you are doing black and white).

Oh, feel free to visit the photo blog section of this web site too. I’m pulling in images from my flickr account to this site for quick viewing.

What exactly is graphic design? Wikipedia defines it as “the process of communicating visually using typography and images to present information. Graphic design practice embraces a range of cognitive skills, aesthetics and crafts, including typography, visual arts and page layout. Like other forms of design, graphic design often refers to both the process (designing) by which the communication is created and the products (designs) which are generated.” That’s an official definition and a pretty broad if you ask me.

If someone tells you they do graphic design work or they are a “graphic designer” can you pin down exactly what it is they do? I thought I was breaking down what design meant by specifically reserving on article for “graphic design” but even that can be broken down into areas of advertising, web work, photo editing, journalism, sign makers and professional typographers.

Why would someone tell you they are a “graphic designer” when they are so many specific jobs and services out there? I can tell you from experience one big reason. The personal computer and the variety of software (especially from companies like Adobe) which allows and makes it easy create various types of products in the graphic design field. I personally use and am very experienced with the Adobe Suite of products, specifically Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat and Flash. I do my designing on a Mac but Adobe also sells the same suite for Windows based computers. I love how easy it is to work on a variety of graphic design projects but I admit I do have my favorites. I love using Photoshop to restore old photos and optimize new ones. I also love being about to take a hand drawn sketch and using a program like Illustrator to convert those ideas to clean files that can be used in professional documents and presentations.

I tried to use my graphic design skills to create the header graphic of this web site to not only “brand” our company but also to represent what our particular niches are; logo design, photography, print media (notice the little business card) and the header file itself uses design considerations optimized for the web.

What do you think of when you hear the term, “graphic design” or someone says they are a graphic designer?

Beginning January 1st, 2008 we will present a series of articles called, The Aspect of Design. I will share the many aspects of design beyond the obvious topics of graphic and web design and what all the aspects mean and how they fit into our work flow. The more I work in this field and communicate with friends, family and potential clients the more I am aware of the misconceptions as well as the limited view of the different aspects of design. The following is a list of the articles we will be presenting on this blog in the next few days;

• The Aspects of Design - Part 1: Layout & Navigation - probably the aspect of the design that most people associate with design but even with that their is more than meets the eye.
• The Aspects of Design - Part 2: Graphic Design - probably tied with layout and navigation as what design work is perceived as. Even so it’s more that “pretty pictures.”
• The Aspects of Design - Part 3: Photography - Often perceived as easy and all you have to do is “point and shoot” but so much “design work” is needed in the set up and often in post processing.
• The Aspects of Design - Part 4: The right fonts for the job - You would think their wouldn’t be much of an issue in “just displaying words” You will be surprised.
• The Aspects of Design - Part 5: Clean and Documented Code - computer programmers/web developers and not usually thought of as “designers” but learn and share what it means to write, “beautiful code.”
• The Aspects of Design - Part 6: The Design of Content - The content (articles and other textual information) is not often associated with design but come and learn how designing with words is crucial to blogging, Search Engine Optimization, a positive response to various print publications, etc.
• The Aspects of Design - Part 7: Conversation - How can you craft your content, images and questions in such away to foster conversation about your product?
• The Aspects of Design - Part 8: Sound Design - Learn and share the aspects of sound design from clear recordings, music tracks and times of silence
• The Aspects of Design - Part 9: Interactive Design - How can the right design make the difference between total confusion and falling in love with the product?
• The Aspects of Design - Part 10: Preservation - When all is said and done is the creations of communications preserved for future generations and protected from theft?

I look forward to starting off 2008 with this series. It’s a series I have been wanting to do for a while not only to provide information but also to engage in a conversation where we can learn the many dimensions of design beyond the perceived views. I have now finished the series and added a “Part 11.”