Blogimal: Kangaroo.

Interesting Fact: I can write with my toes (or maybe scribble).

Browser of Choice: Firefox, baby

Program that is Always Open: Outlook

Daily Grind: Gmail, CNN, Basecamp, Harvest, and azul7 (promotional wink wink)

Best Site on the Web: azul7.com, obviously. (I really can’t think of an answer for this)

Worst Site on the Web: hamsterdance.com (Hoopdang! that’s bad)

Blogimal: Snow Monkey, I think? I’m pretty sure people only call it that because we’re in Minnesota, if we were in California it’d be called a Sun Monkey. What’s with all the regional weather discrimination anyway?

Interesting Fact: Sometimes my car does not start ten minutes at a time, but I make good use of the time… I call friends and family.

Browser of Choice: Used the most out of habit: Safari. Boy this question sounds serious though, like “weapon of choice”, choose your browser wisely…

Program that is Always Open: Entourage (my 2nd favorite TV show)

Daily Grind: azul7.com , duh. Oh, and Google, just once in awhile.

Best Site on the Web: I can’t honestly commit to a “best”, I think the digital and interactive landscape is changing so rapidly it’s almost impossible to pick the best. The best this month might be 3rd best next month.

Worst Site on the Web: tampax.com (Honestly, sideways navigation makes me want to puke.)

Blogimal: Bunny Rabbit, but I don’t know if that is really the best fit for me. I wanted to be a fox or a unicorn, but Liina would not let me be a unicorn because SHE does not believe them to be real.

Interesting Fact: I was born on the summer solstice when the sun reached its highest point in the sky, resulting in the longest day of the year.

Browser of Choice: Foxfire with 7 to 27 tabs open at all times.

Program that is Always Open: Photoshop, Illustrator, iTunes, macMail, iCal and Adium

Daily Grind: Yahoo, Gmail, You Tube (the world must watch Charlie The Unicorn), ABC (who needs a TV), Facebook, Facebook Mind Jolt Games, QBN, Wells Fargo and Lynda(so I can nerd out)

Best Site on the Web: See above it is mainly the sites that I use everyday.

Worst Site on the Web: This is hard, there are so many, but I would have to say MySpace because it is so prevalent. I knows me so Ugly. How do you know if your website sucks fill out the Does Your Web Site Suck? Checklist.

Blogimal: Don’t know? It better not be a hyena.

Interesting Fact:  I once had a mustache. I wish that I still had it.

Browser of Choice: Safari/Webkit Nightlies

Program that is Always Open: Terminal & iTunes

Daily Grind: scribbls and forecast.weather (weather is nice)

Best Site on the Web: It’s a tie: hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com or
scribbls.com

Worst Site on the Web: microsoft.com

Blogimal: Lynx.

Interesting Fact:  Hmm. I am a total geek.

Browser of Choice: Mozilla Firefox

Program that is Always Open: Mozilla Firefox

Daily Grind: Google, Facebook, DailyPuppy and CNN.

Best Site on the Web: Anything google does. Email, docs, calendar by Google

Worst Site on the Web: MySpace

Blogimal:  Birdie

Interesting Fact:  I love pumpkin pie (If it is pumpkin, I generally love it - minus pumpkin lattes. That is just nonsense.)

Browser of Choice: 50% Firefox - 50% Safari

Program that is Always Open: Mozilla Firefox

Daily Grind: Daily: NyTimes, Startribune, Youtube, and Google At least once a week LinkedIn, Plaxo, Twitter, Wellsfargo and Huffingtonpost.com

Best Site on the Web: Wellsfargo.com (online bill pay and all my accounts are in one place-LOVE IT)

Worst Site on the Web: All governments sites out there (except careeronestop.com of course)

Blogimal: Peacock

Interesting Fact:  I was born in San Francisco - Haight Ashbury to hippy parents.

Browser of Choice: Firefox

Program that is Always Open: Outlook, Harvest, Word, Excel (lame, I know)

Daily Grind: Harvest, Basecamp, GMail, and Netscape Some faves (not daily) - youtube, ebay, thriftyhipster, and reverbnation

Best Site on the Web: barackobama.com

Worst Site on the Web: johnmccain.com

Blogimal: Meerkat

Interesting Fact:  Grew up in the town of Blue Earth which is in Fairbault County, when the city of Fairbault is in County but Mankato is in Blue Earth County.

Browser of Choice: WebKit nightly builds

Program that is Always Open: There are a lot of them: WebKit, TextMate, Apple Mail, Adium, iTunes, Twitterific and Last.fm is always running so you can music stalk me. And when my computer just isn’t running slow enough, I open Photoshop.

Daily Grind: Google Reader is open all day.

Best Site on the Web: The “Blog” of Unnecessary Quotation Marks quotation-marks.blogspot.com
Regret the Error regrettheerror.com

Worst Site on the Web: Any site not designed by Azul 7 (natch)

Blogimal: Porcupine

Interesting Fact:  I made my own 200 serving wedding cake with my husband!

Browser of Choice: Safari

Program that is Always Open: Photoshop

Daily Grind: CNN, Communication Arts, Facebook, and Martha Stewart ( I know, very embarrassing)

Best Site on the Web: Google and Blurb

Worst Site on the Web: MySpace Pages - too much freedom for people to use bad fonts and color combinations

Blogimal: Husky.

Interesting Fact:  I have dual citizenship with the US and Ireland due to a distant relationship.

Browser of Choice: Firefox - because of the developer tools - but I want Chrome for the Mac.

Program that is Always Open: Quicksilver is always open in the background, even when there are no programs open, but I usually have Firefox and Mail open too.

Daily Grind: I am always looking up a solution to a problem, or learning something new, using Google.  And I have to have a tab open to the NY Times.

Best Site on the Web:  My favorite sites aggregate other useful information from the web.  For example, I’ve come to rely on Lifehacker.com for cool tips about getting things done.  And there’s nothing like getting lost in a chain of someone else’s favorite sites at ma.gnolia.com.

Worst Site on the Web: Back when I was a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (don’t tell anyone), the most-hated and most-needed site was the Microsoft technical solutions website (technet.microsoft.com).  They had all the answers we needed every day, but you couldn’t FIND them using the search tools.  All the geeks used Google to search the site.  Worst, you had to use IE - the site was broken for most other browsers.

Blogimal: Barracuda

Interesting Fact: I am from Texas. Like big hats and guns.

Browser of Choice: Firefox

Program that is Always Open: Outlook and Firefox

Daily Grind: MarketWatch

Best Site on the Web:  MarketWatch

Worst Site on the Web: …

Blogimal: Octopus… I chose my blogimal because I figured an octopus sprays ink… writers use ink… and, of course, the eight slimy tenticles that we have in common. I hide them well.

Interesting Fact: …She forgot that she is not a Octopus but Septopus.

Browser of Choice: I tend to alternate between Internet Explorer and Mozilla.

Program that is Always Open: Hands down, Microsoft Word. If they could just provide me with a freakin’ dictionary, my life as a writer would be complete. But no. Instead, I have to rely on the thesaurus, which isn’t even that great. Take that, MS Word!

Daily Grind: There are too many to list! Let’s see… I’m addicted to spoilerfix.com (anxiously awaiting the next Lost spoiler! Yes, I also read the ends of books first), people.com, cnn.com, and sometimes foxnews.com if I want to entertain myself with the overly-dramatized version of a story. I use Wikipedia more times a day that I could ever count… Adsoftheworld.com, adage.com, oh, I also like to torture myself by hitting up travelzoo.com and looking at all the trips I can’t afford! And, who could go more than a few days without checking facebook?

Best Site on the Web:  I <3 Google (apparently, enough for me to type <3, which is nothing short of ridiculous). Especially when they have new illustrations for their icon. You know, the ones that correspond to the day? Like a few weeks ago, it was teddy bear day. I would never have known if it weren’t for Google. When I think of all the teddy bears that might have suffered…

Worst Site on the Web: Any website that I can’t figure out how to navigate. If a sudoku puzzle were to suddenly transform into a website, it’d be this one: bbdo.com

When working with system fonts, you need to stop and ask yourself, is this something I can even work with? I have selected the top three system fonts based on accessibility, history and functional properties. Don’t get me wrong, I am not head over heels for any of these fonts. But based on my limited selection I have chosen Helvetica, Georgia, and Verdana.

I have not included any of the new Windows Vista fonts because they have not been made accessible to me. In the words of Adam Gedde, the Great, “Don’t rely on anything from Microsoft to be free, available or to work”. I see some of the new Windows Vista fonts have a contemporary look and functional properties. However, I am not willing to pay $299.00 for system fonts when I would rather be spending my cash money on fonts from Emigre, Hoefler & Frere-Jones, 2Rebels, or Under Ware, just to name a few.

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“I am a words person, that is why typography is the obvious extension, it just makes my words visible.” Erik Spiekermann

As a designer, I have a special place tucked away in my heart for fonts. However, I find working with system fonts tragically disappointing. I am faced with this disappointment every day when creating accessible interactive spaces. Spaces that need to be compatible with every operating system and web browser. This is the dilemma, how do you create engaging spaces that are accessible to everyone when there are so many limitations?

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When working with system fonts you need to stop and ask yourself, is this something I can even work with. Some system fonts are absolutely useless but no need to worry I rated each one for you.

Is Arial something I can work with?

Absolutely Useless 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 Tolerable

Designed by: Robin Nicholas and Patricia Sauders in 1982.

Classification: Humanist Sans-Serif

Is Calibri something I can work with?

Absolutely Useless 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 Tolerable

Designed by: Luc(as) de Groot in 2007

Classification: Modern Sans-Serif

Is Cambria something I can work with?

Absolutely Useless 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 Tolerable

Designed by: Ian Koshnick in 1989

Classification: Transitional Serif

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The twentieth-century saw a great shift in the style and purpose of art and design.

The Art Nouveau movement at the turn of the century had elaborate, lush, organic ornamentation that provided a decorative visual language with an emotional quality. Art Nouveau laid the groundwork for abstraction by breaking organic forms down to basic shapes rather than creating realistic representations.

In A History of Graphic Design Philip Meggs states, “Art Nouveau became the initial phase of the modern movement, preparing the way for the twentieth century by sweeping this backward looking spirit from design.”

The sparse geometric style of the modern movement was a stark contrast to Art Nouveau, and modern design went beyond mere decorative element; it served a purpose.

In A History of Graphic Design, Meggs discusses Walter Gropius’ beliefs on purposeful design. Gropius was one of the founders of the Bauhaus, one of the primary influences on modern architecture and design.

“Recognizing the common roots of both fine and applied visual arts, Gropius sought a new unity of art and technology as he enlisted a generation of artists in a struggle to solve problems of visual design created by industrialism. It was hoped that artistically trained designers could ‘breathe a soul into the dead product of the machine’ for Gropius believed that only the most brilliant ideas were good enough to justify multiplication by industry.”

Now at the turn of the twenty first century, we asked ourselves, what is the designer’s role in the age of mass production? We create so much, and the work that we create needs to have a purpose. We aim to unite art and technology by creating interactive spaces that are both functional and memorable. Creating rooms with walls that talk. Exploiting technology to create structures that the visitor can engage with. Spaces where the creative is fully integrated into the structural planning, not just a facade.

When working through a creative exercise, you have to be willing to fall flat on your face. Taking risks and making mistakes can leave us in a vulnerable place, but it also releases us to be creative. It is a part of making something new and different. If we need to create work that captures minds and does not let go, then we need to be creating work that is memorable, using new ideas that break out of the norm–going beyond safe solutions and creating fearless creative.

Paula Scher, a principal at the Pentagram New York office, creates fearless work that has infiltrated American society. Her work comes out of a courageous mindset. She completely trusts herself and relies purely on her instincts. In an interview for the AIGA Artist Video Series, Scher described how she approaches her projects. “I operate very strongly with my instincts … It is a very intuitive kind of process for me. I have never been a refiner. My best work has been big bold strokes that came very quickly.”

Working on an instinctual level can bring immediate results. Scher also states in her interview for the AIGA Artist Video Series, “How can it be done in a second, but it is done in second? It is done in a second and forty-three years. It is done in a second and every experience, every move and every thing of my life that is in my head.” Scher trusts her creative instincts and the reservoir within her mind to create fearless, fresh, engaging work.

But creating fearless, fresh and engaging work takes guts. Stefan Sagmeister, founder of Sagmeister Inc., creates work that is gutsy and far from being just another safe solution. His work has a transparent quality that leaves every beautiful flaw visible. In a recent interview for the AIGA Artist Video Series, Sagmeister talked about how he writes in his dairy as a way to reflect and improve. “I find the time when I write, I really am forced to look back and evaluate what went well and what did not go so well.”

Sagmeister takes every opportunity to learn from his successes as well as his failures. Engaging work comes when you push the boundaries, and I want to find myself in that place, creating something captivating and risky and avoiding what is truly detrimental–setting boundaries and creating limitations to try to prevent failure. Because mistakes are often a turning point. When a creative direction proves to be a failure, you are free to move on to a new idea and create something fearless and captivating.

In studying great advertising, we see visions of brightness: lightness, darkness, and the colored shapes of textures among the silences. We hear sounds and detect impulses awakening our inclinations to touch, engaging with our moods, our hearts, and our minds. Those surprise juxtapositions create meaning and tell stories that touch us. It is what makes us humans. They are our connections with what is good, what is wonderful in our world.

And great advertising can bring us to that wonderful place.

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