Project 6: Booklet

This booklet will help you make the most of your kiting adventures, regardless of your age or kiting experience. It is not necessary to study aerodynamics to fly a kite. However, some basic knowledge will help you to change the experience from frustrating to enjoyable. For those who have flown kites before, it is an intuitive process. Sure, you lift a kite in the air and run. But if you have ever seen a person fly a kite for the first time, you realize there is more to it and sometimes can be dangerous.

Step1
Check your local weather report to determine if conditions are favorable for kite flying. Warning: Never fly your kite during rain, lightening or a thunderstorm. Electricity in clouds is attracted to damp kite lines and foolish kite fliers.
Step2
Find a large and windy open area free of trees and power lines. These two things are notoriously dangerous for kites and their owners. Warning: Always fly kites away from airports, power lines you already gave this danger, and never fly over roads or near cars.
Step3
Stand with your back to the wind. Hold your kite up by the bridle point and let the line out. If there is sufficient wind, your kite will go right up. Warning: Many people believe you must run with a kite to launch it. Many accidents are caused by people who run with a kite while trying to keep an eye on it instead of watching where they are going.
Step4
Let the kite fly away from you a little, then pull in on the line as the kite points up so it will climb. Repeat this until your kite gains the altitude necessary to find a good steady wind. Warning: A frequent injury during kite flying is a cut or burn from the kite line. Do not allow the line to zip through your fingers. Protect your hands by wearing gloves.
Step5
You will want your kite string to be without knots, clean and wrapped around a spool or spindle. Begin letting out string until the kite reaches a height with which you are comfortable. Warning: If you tangle lines with another kite, don't pull the line or it might break. Fliers should walk together and the tangle will slide right down the line to where you can un wrap it.
Step6
Keep an eye on your kite, as it may come crashing down because of sudden changes in wind. If it dips, run or pull in the string a bit to give it some lift. Warning: Tighten the string around a spool and secure the spool to the ground if you want to tend to other activities. Keep your kite under control, never unattended.
Step7
Enjoy your kite flying. Bring the kite down by slowly winding the kite string around a kite spool. Warning: The most frequent injury during kite flying is sunburn. Be sure to protect yourself from the sun with a hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen.
Step8
Reach out and grab the kite before it hits the ground to avoid damaging it. Warning: Don't fly kite alone. If your kite dives into problems or into someone, you will want the support of others to keep any arguments diplomatic.

So please be careful, and launch both your kite and your spirit into the sky.

FordAdFormula/InformationGraphic by Tyler Lang

Best Book design from all over the world 2008

Pedro Cunill Grau
Geohistoria de la Sensibilidad en Venezuela
Fundación Empresas Polar, Caracas
Design: Álvaro Sotillo & Gabriela Fontanillas & Luis Giraldo

Complex yet very subtle typography. Diverse information is characterised just so as to make it clearly distinguishable. The book-designer has refrained from using coloured type, working instead merely with small contrasts in size, thickness and highlighting. The manner of binding (French fold) opens up a wonderful possibility for navigation through the book. Its front edge is graced by a subtle thumb index. The layout is open and flexible. The designer has not become constrained by his own mesh, as is so often the case with such a large number of illustrations.

Show+Tell:70 Best-Loved Words

An intriguing survey conducted by the British Council collected and compiled the top 70 favorite words of the English language. The Council asked more than 7,000 learners in 46 countries what they considered the most beautiful English words.

The magnificent 70:
1 Mother
2 Passion
3 Smile
4 Love
5 Eternity
6 Fantastic
7 Destiny
8 Freedom
9 Liberty
10 Tranquillity
11 Peace
12 Blossom
13 Sunshine
14 Sweetheart
15 Gorgeous
16 Cherish
17 Enthusiasm
18 Hope
19 Grace
20 Rainbow
21 Blue
22 Sunflower
23 Twinkle
24 Serendipity
25 Bliss
26 Lullaby
27 Sophisticated
28 Renaissance
29 Cute
30 Cosy
31 Butterfly
32 Galaxy
33 Hilarious
34 Moment
35 Extravaganza
36 Aqua
37 Sentiment
38 Cosmopolitan
39 Bubble
40 Pumpkin
41 Banana
42 Lollipop
43 If
44 Bumblebee
45 Giggle
46 Paradox
47 Delicacy
48 Peekaboo
49 Umbrella
50 Kangaroo
51 Flabbergasted
52 Hippopotamus
53 Gothic
54 Coconut
55 Smashing
56 Whoops
57 Tickle
58 Loquacious
59 Flip-flop
60 Smithereens
61 Oi
62 Gazebo
63 Hiccup
64 Hodgepodge
65 Shipshape
66 Explosion
67 Fuselage
68 Zing
69 Gum
70 Hen night

Show+Tell: Collection

This is a welcome present and I really like it. As you might know it's a program that honors the individual 50 states that comprise the United States through a series of circulating quarters being issued from 1999 - 2008. There are five reverse designs appearing each year for 10 years. State Quarter Designs

Design Guidelines

Designs shall maintain a dignity befitting the Nation's coinage.

Designs shall have broad appeal to the citizens of the state and avoid controversial subjects or symbols that are likely to offend.

Suitable subject matter for designs include state landmarks (natural and man-made), landscapes, historically significant buildings, symbols of state resources or industries, official state flora and fauna, state icons (e.g.. Texas Lone Star, Wyoming bronco, etc.), and outlines of the state.

State flags and state seals are not considered suitable for designs.

Consistent with the authorizing legislation, the states are encouraged to submit designs that promote the diffusion of knowledge among the youth of the United States about the state, its history and geography, and the rich diversity of our national heritage.

Priority consideration will be given to designs that are enduring representations of the state. Coins have a commercial life span of at least 30 years and are collected for generations.

Inappropriate design concepts include, but are not limited to logos or depictions of specific commercial, private, educational, civic, religious, sports, or other organizations whose membership or ownership is not universal.

The part I'm missing, obviously, is the 2008 quarters.

Storytelling with flash: turning "effects" into meaning

I found in the Creative Behavior site, this article written by Paul Ortchanian. Paul Ortchanian is Senior Interface Designer/ Developer and creator of reflektions.com – research in new media storytelling.

Recipe for good storytelling with flash

Here is a simple recipe for good storytelling with flash:

1. Establish emotional atmosphere: storytelling with flash is describing and then narrating. It’s about creating a mood to psychologically “immerse” the user.

2. Narrate through interactivity : interactivity is not a choice, it's a willingness to construct. The story is built on how the user relates to the environment on the page.

3. Minimize useless Navigation: In order to truly communicate your message, you need to eliminate useless vocabulary from your page. Navigation is the biggest annoyance. From site to site, users need to understand the intricacies of abstract navigation systems. Ask yourself; what is the true content? What is the user’s interest?

In Conclusion, one must not forget that above all, ATTITUDE is the basis of storytelling. Think about it as telling a story to a 5 year old child before he goes to bed. The story might be written on the pages of the book you are reading, yet without Imagination, Amazement, Magic, Energy, Feeling, Interactivity, Emotion and Creativity….you’ll never get to astound your 5 year old. The same goes with storytelling with flash, above the complex Action Scripting, animation tweenings, design and flash intricacies, storytelling with flash is a question of having the right ATTITUDE.

Example: Colors Magazine Issue 44 : Choi Hung

Project 6: How to fly a kite

Seeing a kite dancing in the air brings good thoughts. Kites give people hope, can even help your imagination flight and help to create fun thoughts. Just what I need for my process.

Searching in the internet I found the image of a wooden lay figure standing on a chair, flying a laptop like a kite by photographer Christopher Gould, GREAT WORK!!

Project 4: Classification

What color is your Café?
Café means more than coffee in Latin America. Coffee has always played an important role in history, literature and everyday life in this region. The coffee industry has had a significant effect on the cultures where it is produced and consumed, but it is in the color and the way coffee effects everyday life that makes it a central theme to Latin American life, prominently referenced in poetry, fiction, and regional history.

Be prepared because when you enter a café and order coffee in Latin America, they will ask what type of coffee you want? What they are really asking is: What color do you want? Coffee is used to describe the skin color of Latin American people, the result of the mixing of races and colors between mulatos and Spanish. On a cultural level, color terminology for race has evolved, and is now used as reference for many things, including types of café.

Based on color variations of human skin tone and traditions, the categories depend on the strength and the proportion of milk. To those who are accustomed to a 12 oz. “tall” cup of coffee being the smallest available size, you may be surprised by the immensely popular Latin America “cafecito”, which is smaller than your average shot of tequila. These intensely flavorful mini-coffees, which cost just a few cents, are a daily treat for many Latin Americans. You can find a cafecito, coffee fix, or a café in many small grocery stores, cafeterias or from street vendors, who carry thermoses full of coffee up and down the overcrowded streets in the most Latin American cities.

GUAYOYO
The Spaniards brought African slaves to Latin America during times of conquest. The native people called the black skin color ouayo, which in time translated to guayoyo. Is a black concentrated coffee beverage brewed by forcing very hot water under high pressure through coffee that has been ground to a consistency between extremely fine and powder. The defining characteristics of this coffee include a thicker consistency than drip coffee, a higher amount of dissolved solids than drip coffee per relative volume, and a serving size that is usually measured in shots.

The guayoyo can be prepared clear or dark and the quality depends in these three major parts: the heart, body, and reddish-brown foam that floats on the surface of the coffee. The dark guayoyo is a short black coffee that is darker and thick, and it is very foamy.

MARRÓN
Means brown in Spanish and is the same word that has been used in the 20th and 21st centuries to describe mixed race Latin Americans. When “black” and “white” humans mix the result is usually some type of “brown”. It’s this brown to refer to a coffee drink with drops of milk served in a glass or a medium cup.

There are two different kinds of Marrón coffees, light brown and dark brown, which is determined by the amount of milk added. Marroncito is the same coffee but served in a small glass or shot.

CAFÉ CON LECHE
Is a coffee-based beverage, which translated from Spanish, literally means "coffee with milk." Similar to the French café au lait and the Italian caffè e latte, café con leche is a Spanish coffee beverage consisting of strong or bold coffee (sometimes espresso) mixed with scalded milk. It is also served with sugar mixed according to taste. The beverage is extremely common in many Latin American countries and communities around the world and is normally served with breakfast.

TETERO
The translated to English word tetero means baby bottle and it refers to the whiter color that this type of coffee has. In Latin American the white populations are descendants of 16th century to 19th century colonial era and post-independence immigrants. White people are distinguished by pale skin which is the color of tetero. In tetero milk is hardly painted with coffee, which gives you a flavor to coffee beverage.

Bottom line, there is a coffee-color tradition. In every block you can find a place to drink coffee, in bakeries, tiny restaurants, ice-cream shops and, of course coffee shops large and small. The best thing is than even in the most modest places you can get a delicious gourmet cup of coffee at a reasonable price. So there you have it a whole variety of coffee for drinking.

You can also ask for the precise temperature you want. A con leche caliente (hot) or a con leche tibio (tepid). They don’ do the cold coffees. But the very best thing is that you can ask for your coffee exactly the way you want. Just ask por favor, (please) and enjoy.

Project 5: Bambola & Occhio

These are my characters in the story, Bambola and Occhio.
It's incredible that although I was really concerned trying to create characters more free form or fun, my realistic and conscious side keeps pushing me to think the reason for every detail. This was easier when I was a child.

Show+Tell: UAMOU

In my everyday search for new up illustration books and coming toys, 'Uamou' the unique character came across, created by Japanese Illustrator and Animator Ayako Takagi. Ayako has also produced a popular selling comic series as well as an excellent range of toys, which are proving to be a real success.

Impressed with the style and beautiful simplicity of these great little characters, I did a little research to find out more about what inspired her to create the Uamou comic, books and toys. 'Uamou' come from a combination of a boy and a devil. In Chinese devil have a similar sounding to Uamou and that's where the name is from.

Other inspirations for this project are certainly Jim Woodring (comic and Toy), Michael Sowa (Germany), Yury Norstein (Russia) director of Tale of Tales a 1979 Sovietic animated film: youtube video, Shigeru Mizuki (Japan) and Doraemon which was the first anime series that we watch at home as child's. Is about a robotic cat named Doraemon, who travels back in time to aid a schoolboy, Nobita Nobi. Good!

Texas is back to being Mexican! Ops! Not anymore

The billboard and press campaign, created by advertising agency Teran\TBWA created for Swedish Absolut Vodka which ran in Mexico, shows a map of the border of Mexico and the United States where it stood before the Mexican-American War of 1848.

Seeing over the obstacles

I'm finished with my Assignment 2, and I have to admit that I NOW THINK TO MUCH before writing anything. OK Assignment 3 here I come. This is what I wrote for my profile. I'd love feedback please.

Seeing over the obstacles.

Marisol Cano-Ordóñez is a Post Doctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins Hospital. When I started this interview, I thought I would write on "macular degeneration" which is Dr. Cano-Ordóñez’s research interest. However, as I sat and listened to Dr. Cano’s interview, I came to believe that there was something else to talk about.

In the summer of 2004, Marisol Cano-Ordóñez (“Dr. Cano”), just married, arrived in Baltimore from Venezuela by herself to complete a post doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Like many immigrants, she confronted the common obstacles of being alien or an “other.” She experienced loneliness and homesickness, missing her husband, family and friends. The language barriers and learning all the new technical language in English for medicine. It was and still is very difficult sometimes but she said she was ready to fight against them.

“It doesn’t really matter what country you are from, life is full of obstacles that defeat us at every turn” she said. "But every day, everything I do I give it my best. I always had hopes, I had dreams. I just knew that if you keep working hard, things are going to turn around your way. I had no doubt in myself".

At work she is always under pressure to complete materials, making experiments that are trying to find a cure for macular degeneration and finishing projects that can show great medical results. She feels that these environments have made her create and adopt a new attitude in her life and work that have helped her to confront the every day obstacles. “The challenge is to find the way for the solution. I will go around, under and over the problem. Been persistence and with determination will get you from where you are to where you want to be, or very close to it”.

Dr. Cano encouraged her husband and two-year old baby girl to take this idea as their motor, “You just take a leap of faith, knowing there's no safer bet than one on yourself. Care about trying".

Show+Tell: Campaign MAKE TRADE FAIR

Fair Trade is a growing, international movement which ensures that producers in poor countries get a fair deal. This means a fair price for their goods (one that covers the cost of production and guarantees a living income), long-term contracts which provide real security; and for many, support to gain the knowledge and skills that they need to develop their businesses and increase sales.

Make Trade Fair is a campaign organized by Oxfam International and many of the world's biggest stars have been dumped on in support of Oxfam's campaign. The objectives are the elimination of several trade practices:
Dumping, which occurs when highly subsized, surplus commodities from rich countries such as rice, cotton, corn, and sugar are sold at low prices and farmers from poor countries have difficulty competing. It is believed that this creates an uneven playing field where farmers in developing countries are unable to compete in the market with cheaper foreign produce and crops.Tariffs, where developed nations enforce high taxes on imported goods, restricting the sales of products from developing nations.Unbalanced labour rights for women, who often earn lower wages than their male counterparts.Stringent patent issues, that drive up the price of medication, drugs, and textbooks. Thus, such essential goods are often inaccessible to developing nations.

Antonio Banderas - actor
5 million farmers and their families are facing ruin because the US governments subsidises its corn farmers to over-produce and dump the surplus at rock-bottom prices in Mexico.

Alanis Morissette - singer
European wheat costs almost twice as much to produce as wheat from poor countries but – with the help of hand-outs from the European Union – it is dumped on poor countries at rock-bottom prices; pushing poor farmers out of business and into poverty.

Gael Garcia Bernal - actor
Ten million cotton farming families in Africa are being forced into poverty because of unfair trade, which benefits just a few hundred cotton farming companies in the US.

Colin Firth - actor
25 million growers face ruin because they don't get a decent price for their coffee – yet some of the world's biggest coffee companies continue to make big profits.

Think before you write

I sit down in the computer hoping to do the perfect job, I have the idea and the time, everything is perfect. Maybe the idea it’s vague at first, but I believe that I have a good chance and possibility this time.

I start constructing the body and becoming more convinced with every word that finally I'm into something. The emotion grows; my fingers are moving so fast across the keyboard. Happiness is my friend again, I'm saying exactly what I want to say. The ending is coming and I can only think this is perfect. Then the pause and I start to read what I’ve written. I feel a huge weight in my stomach, dizzy and scared. Why do I sound so disconnected, I read it again just in case. Yes is bad, to formal, mechanical and far too academic. What was I thinking? Now I have the answer, I was not thinking.

Tell me if this sounds familiar.

Show+Tell: cause and effect

The following two eye-catching print ads are from the World Wildlife Fund anti pollution campaign.

Show+Tell: Compare/Contrast

This could quite possibly be the first Mac vs. PC ad, found in a 1996 issue of MacAddict.

Project: Fun with Food

Compare
The mangosteen is the fruit of a tropical tree originating in Southeast Asia. The fragrant edible flesh is creamy and citrus with some peach flavor. Both Mangosteens and strawberries have a sweet flavor and can be eaten fresh with breakfast, as a dessert, or as juice.

The mangosteen and the strawberry are typically advertised and marketed as part of an emerging category of novel functional foods sometimes called “super fruits” presumed to have a combination of appealing subjective characteristics, such as taste, fragrance and visual qualities. They are also a sodium-free and fat-free food that could potentially lower the risk of brain and nerve disorders and other human diseases.

Both fruits are considered feminine in part because they come from flowers that once open become a fruit and also because they are both called the “Queen Fruit”. Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII had a strawberry shaped birthmark on her neck, which some claimed proved she was a witch. In Asia the mangosteen fruit is known as the "Queen of Fruits" because of a legend that Queen Victoria was offering a cash reward to anyone who could deliver to her the fabled fruit.

Contrast
The strawberry originates in North and South America, it grows both as a wild plant and as a cultivated plant unlike the mangosteen, which comes from the Southeast Asia and is a tropical tree that takes a lot of care and time to grow.

The flesh of the strawberry has yellow seeds piercing its surface, they are meant to be eaten along with the fruit which is not the case in the mangosteen where the seeds are in the inside of the flesh and die quickly when they dry. Strawberries have become increasingly available year-round and the peak of their season is from April through July when they are the most delicious and most abundant. Mangosteen on the other hand has an irregular season and the yield varies from tree to tree and from season to season.

The delicate heart-shaped berry has always connoted purity and passion. It has been used in literature and painting to symbolize perfection and righteousness. Medieval stone masons carved strawberry designs on altars in churches and cathedrals.

Mangosteen vs Strawberry

For thousands of years, the people of Southeast Asia have been quietly savoring the fruit of the mangosteen tree. Tough on the outside, juicy on the inside, the mangosteen is both a fruit and a healthy tradition.
In America is the Strawberry which serve more than just fulfilling the sweet tooth. It is packed with hordes of health benefits, making a nutritious fruit for mind and body.

Fruit of The Loom Campaign

The Fruit Guys are part of a marketing campaign by the Fruit of The Loom company comprised of four guys dressed as different fruits playing instruments and singing about cotton undergarments. More information: http://www.fruitguyfans.com/

About BenettonTalk!

This is a blog that is sponsored by Benetton and shows the global news that the media mass communications don't show. They have seven features: B-GREEN, HAPPINESS, TIMEBANK, POTATOES!, PENWORLDVOICES, PATAGONIATALK, BABEL WORDS. In this features you can find issues and stories that will make you think about our view of the world, and knowing and understanding what is out there.

“Dialogue in the Dark” - an exhibition to discover the unseen.

The concept is simple: Visitors are lead by blind guides in small groups through specially constructed darkened rooms, in which scents, sounds, wind, temperatures and textures conveys the characteristics of daily environments, for example a park, a city or a bar. In the dark, the daily routine becomes a new experience. A reversion of roles is created: sighted people are torn out of their familiar environments; blind people provide them with security and a sense of orientation transmitting a world without pictures. The impact is remarkable: “Dialog in the Dark“ have been presented in the last years in 17 countries throughout Europe, Asia and America.

More information http://www.dialog-im-dunkeln.de/home_en.htm