90 years since his birth on this day and almost 25 years since his passing into immortality; the shadow of Miles Dewey Davis still looms large on the cultural horizon.
Polygraph’s The Universe of Miles Davis quantifies the jazz avatar’s wide ranging influence through his 2,452 Wikipedia mentions (English).
It’s Miles’ World and we’re just living in it.
Through this visually striking interactive site we descend down a digital rabbit hole of recordings, people, and places that traces a through line of Miles’ relevance from the early twentieth-century to today.
“Knowledge is freedom and ignorance is slavery”
—Miles Davis
If Mr. Davis were alive today we are certain he would approve. Happy Birthday Miles!
Helpful content management tool or a sign of the end of civilization?
In the past six years I have had many client inquiries to build a website for a product or service and several have wanted to use a template-based Content Management System (CMS) like WIX.
Although these drag and drop, do-it-yourself sites have been a source of controversy amongst designers and developers (several months ago I attended a designer’s meeting where the disdain was palpable); as a freelance designer and small-business owner I need to consider the factors of time, budget, and functionality and make the right decision for my client. Sometimes that may mean using WIX, like I did for Sparkling Clean Handbags: a client with a small budget, quick turnaround time, and a service and products ready to go to market.
In the end, the client loved the final product and I gained practical UX experience and gleaned invaluable metrics on the strategic planning and pricing of web projects.
CMS services are innovations and tools that are here to stay, so it is necessary to make peace with the machines and fashion a peaceful coexistence. Familiarize oneself with CMS functions, usefulness, and drawbacks in order to provide your client with sound counsel and effective design facilitation based knowledge and experience, not fear and anger.
I loved the movie Whiplash and I think the kinetic energy and jazz subject matter makes it a great springboard to launch into a new illustrative poster project using Adobe Draw CC mobile application (in conjunction with Adobe Illustrator and InDesign). My goal of the poster is to use modern technology to create an homage to classic cinema posters and record albums of the 1940’s and 1950’s.
Despite learning the functions of Adobe Draw CC, using a digital stylus as opposed to pen and ink, and grappling with capturing the detail, color, and movement of BOTH the subject and style; Version 2.2 is progressing well.
Keep posted as the project develops.
Version 2: Initial sketch in Adobe Draw application.Version 2.2; Refining sketch in Adobe Draw with Paintbrush tool.Graphic Inspiration for Whiplash Poster
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