vodori

Since the advent of the electronic revolution, creatives of all kinds have longed for a digital parallel to traditional drawing methods. In the early days, Apple gave us the mouse—a breakthrough in human computer interaction but greatly lacking in any fine control for detailed graphics. Seeing a huge opportunity in this space, Wacom, with their various drawing tablets and stylus products, has been a leading innovator for as long as I can remember when it comes to drawing tablets. Enter in the iPad, mobile company FiftyThree, and their creation Paper.

Paper is a gesture-based iPad app that eloquently allows you to paint, sketch, and take notes with either a stylus or simply with your fingers. The interface is best described as clean, simple and unobtrusive. Unlike other drawing apps, you will find no hints of binder rings, lined paper, or other forms of skeuomorphism here.

The Paper app interface is simple and clean. One of the default journals (shown above) shows you the various tools available to you with an in-app purchase. One is provided for free.

You are at first presented with three sketchbooks, one on how to use Paper, one provided for sketches, and another for ideas. This is their way of queueing users that with Paper, you can organize notebooks into various subject matter. To move in and out of your sketchbooks, use gestures such as pinching, swiping to cycle through sketchbooks, and flicking to turn pages. Buttons are not a common component in Paper and can take a few minutes of experimentation to become familiar but you'll soon find that gestural navigation here is quite natural with only a few hang ups.

A look at the full Paper toolset

 

"I love using Paper. It's replaced my notebook as well as my sketchpad. I feel less pressure having a digital sketchbook where as a physical one I feel once I have a crappy drawing in it I feel like the book is ruined. This eliminates that irrational fear. While I truly love the app I really am hoping for some updates soon that help it become a more versatile tool."—Collin Green

A sample website sketch in Paper	A sample drawing from Collin

Paper features we love:

• Paper features a beautiful and simple interface, which, keeps things from becoming cluttered
• Gesture controls are ease use
• Responsive to finger and stylus movements so you can still use the app even if you have left your stylus elsewhere, unlike drawing tablets of the past
• Share your drawings via email
• There are a small and well selected number of drawing tools. Users are not overwhelmed with tools that they would likely never use anyways
• Easily undo, or as Paper calls it "rewind," up to 20 previous steps by a simple two-fingered counter-clockwise gesture
• Create as many journals as you want
• Delete and add pages to your journals
• It's fast—this app loads and responds very quickly

Things on our "room for improvement" list:

• Since your hand can't touch the surface when drawing or writing, it is slightly awkward to take notes with Paper (either with or without a stylus).
• Page turn gestures: Sometimes you inadvertingly write or turn a page. This can be problematic, as leaving a page erases the rewind history so if you don't notice that you (or your friend looking at your awesome drawing) made an accidental mark on a sketch and then turns the page…congratulations that's now a part of your creation.
• Brush size options amongst the existing toolset would give users more variety and further control of the look/style of their drawing.
• The limited color palette, while very nice, is well…limited. We would love to see the ability to select or create more color options available in the future.
• There is currently no support for page or journal reordering
• At the time of this writing, there is no export or backup system to save your journals outside of Paper
• Edges of the UI are too responsive causing flyout menus to open when doodling. This is probably the one time where you want to introduce a button rather than rely solely on gesturing.
• More paper background options would be nice as well, e.g., watercolor paper, plain paper, canvas, etc.

So overall, we give the Paper app very high marks and think it can help even the unlikely artist create something worth sharing. We greatly look forward to future updates on this creation from FiftyThree as we continue to look for ways to brainstorm and collaborate amongst our teams in new and effective ways. One of the greatest things that any tool can offer, is giving its users the freedom to create and find new ways to express ideas no matter where you are—and Paper for the iPad does just that.

Have you tried Paper yet? If so, let us know what you think in the comments below.

As a web designer, I spend the majority of my day sitting in front of a computer monitor (or two), because when it comes down to it, nearly the entire creative process from conception to completion is done within the digital world. Wire framing, mood boards, page layouts, and illustrations are all done in one Adobe Creative Suite program or another.

All of these elements are tested on a number of “form factors”—which in layman's terms means asking, “do you have a big screen or a little screen?” At any given moment, my desk will have three or four different screens lit up and blaring their millions of colors at me (and they’re beautiful). 

It makes sense that the majority of my working day is spent creating things digitally: I design websites, which, for as long as they’ve been around, have been exclusively electronic entities. Meticulously designing a ten template website on 8 ½" x 11" paper just doesn’t make sense. 

The problem with living solely in the online realm is that my brain gets complacent thinking only in digital terms. I find that creativity at its best is usually achieved when it’s pressured and forced outside of its comfort zone. For me, that means putting down the mouse and picking up a pencil at least once a day. 

Don’t get me wrong, sketching isn’t a foreign concept to me (or to a designer of any kind, for that matter) I’ve been drawing my entire life—not particularly well, maybe, but drawing nonetheless. Illustration and creating in physical media are a part of my creative background, and I consider them a foundation of my design abilities. I just never draw on my own anymore. So, to both foster increased creativity and to give my eyes a break from the beauty of millions of colors, I’ve begun what I’ve dubbed the “Drawing-a-Day Project.” 

The concept is simple: Five minutes, one pen, one yellow sticky note. Draw the first thing that comes into your head. Repeat daily. Not a novel exercise, but one I’m really enjoying participating in. It forces me to be imaginative outside of my daily projects and to just be creative for the sake of being creative. 

So far it’s been going on for a week. Here's a sample of what I've whipped up so far: 

"Portrait of the Muppet As A Young Frog"	"Jellyfish Descending"	"Ampersand in Repose"

When Creative Converting decided to launch its first full-fledged e-commerce site, it represented a wide-open opportunity for everyone involved. Even as one of America's leading manufacturers and distributors of paper party goods, Creative Converting had little experience reaching their customers online. Their solution was to bring in Vodori. (Call me biased, but I think it was a darn wise decision.)

Needless to say, we were excited. Building a comprehensive digital presence almost from scratch gave everyone on the team a chance to flex their imaginations and try new things. All three of our core units—Strategy, Creative, and Technology—relished tackling the limitless possibilities offered by a blank canvas.

Everyone’s on the guest list

Our strategists started out by identifying the site's audiences and their various needs—primarily, seeking product info and direct purchasing. Understanding how customers would browse and search for product offerings (and other company information) was vital to shaping the catalog's top-level navigation.

This customer research was served up to our creative crew. They pored over the data and constructed a visual home that reflects the client's signature aesthetics—a showcase for the fashion-forward design of Creative Converting products (my personal favorite being the Monster Mania Standup Centerpiece, of course). Textures from the party goods were transformed into graphic elements seen across the site.

It was up to the technology team to bring it all to life on the web—implementing, testing, and supporting a host of new features. Chief among these are a complete web catalog of over 7,000 products and an online ordering system powered by Magento software, integrated with Creative Converting's own ERP system.

The fruits of all three disciplines come together in one popular feature, right on the homepage: a crowd-pleasing color wheel, which helps you browse through all thirty-six Touch of Color swatches for single-tone plates, cups, napkins, cutlery, tablecloths, etc. 'Round and 'round it goes!

All work…and some play

Our partnership was as energizing as the work itself, thanks in part to Creative Converting's laid-back style and sense of humor—evident in product offerings like the Bandanarama Plastic 100' Banquet Roll and Paw-ty Time! Honeycomb Centerpiece. In short, they know how to paw-ty! (Or purr-ty, if cats are more your speed.) Little touches injected plenty of fun into our daily working relationship. One day it might be hearing clients sign onto a conference call as "Bonnie and Clyde." Another day it might be having my face Photoshopped onto Zach Galifianakis's body. And of course, we provided a shoulder for our Indianapolis-based clients to cry on during Manning-induced sadness.

It's all combined to make the 15-months-and-counting experience pretty special. We've helped our client open up a whole new sales dimension, built a beautiful website, and had fun doing it. Not too shabby.

The start of another month at Vodori Blog HQ means that it's time to deploy Wordle and examine the mysteries, secrets, and cheat codes contained herein. As devoted followers know, last time we peered into the blog's word cloud, we spied a handful of less-than-charitable pointers. 

This time around, the Oracle seems to be more sympathetic to (if a bit cynical about) the challenges we face as marketers: 

1. Expect ROI, get grey. 

No lie: figuring out how to consistently measure, predict, and boost return on investment isn't easy. But nobody here has suffered grey hairs as a result. So far. 

Maybe to counteract that perceived stress, or maybe just because spring is around the corner, the ol' blog is feeling downright festive this month.

The February 2012 Vodori Blog Word Cloud.

2. Something social first

Sounds right up our alley. Team fun is in the Vodori DNA, whether we're partaking in Friday happy hours around the office (complete with crowdsourced jigsaw puzzles) or venturing out for some competitive high-speed collisions. What did you have in mind? 

3. Pretty technology

Shiny things—good call. I'm sure we've got a few high-tech party favors around here. But our developers are hard at work on the pièce de résistance: the forthcoming, über-snazzy version of our Pepper® platform. 

4. Go large strategy

Well, sure. What good is pretty technology without large strategy to guide it? Executing that strategy, however, is a little tougher than just announcing it like you're summoning Captain Planet. 

5. Dress honchos

Let's not go nuts here. I'm sure we can rock suitably fancy attire without big-shots turning this into cotillion. Besides, I defy you to tell me that this is a group in need of sartorial guidance:

Ain't no party like an argyle party, etc.

Parties are a group effort, of course. Do you see any other tips or tricks in the cloud we should heed? Let us know in the comments.

Inspiration is a funny thing. You never know when it will strike and it seems to come when you expect it least. Twitter is a perfect tool to facilitate your next great “AH-HA!” That’s why
I try to keep an eye on the following companies, resources, and people.

Have a few of your own? Please share with us in the comments below.

Dabble (@dabblehq)

Commitment-phobes, this is the learning community for you! If signing up for multi-week classes is just too much, here you’ll get a smattering of information on a wide variety of topics. Whatever you’re into (or not quite yet) there’s always something interesting to learn. And since inspiration sometimes comes from the strangest of places, the more variety the better!

Technori (@Technori)

About once a week, Technori—a community dedicated to Chicago entrepreneurs—turns it’s focus to just one Chicagoan and tells their life story. If you’re in the tech business and looking for inspiration on a range of topics, this is the place to look.

I Love Typography (@ilovetypography)

All the way from Japan, John Boardley brings you nothing but the best in type-related topics for font-philes. Truth be told, John does a good job making type interesting to more than just the geekiest of designers. A great place to start is “On Choosing Type,” in which, he walks us through the thought-process a designer undertakes when selecting fonts.

Dalai Lama (@DalaiLama)

Yes, the Dalai Lama is actually on Twitter (and apparently so is the Pope). Tune in here for an occasional burst of sage advice, such as, “The ultimate source of comfort and peace is within ourselves.” Don’t you already feel less stressed?

Interactive Design Archive (@idarchive)

For a little more work–related inspiration, be sure to take a look at some of the great digital finds posted here daily—from apps, to Flash, to OpenGL, and much, much more.

Dictionary.com (@dictionarycom)

If you tend to fancy words over pixels, then be sure to follow Dictionary.com for a daily dose of linguistic leisure. While I can’t promise you true inspiration with this one, you’ll at least learn a few interesting facts. 

There are a plethora of great resources on Twitter...far too many for one post alone. What accounts or sites do you rely on when you need a little disruptive innovation? Tell us below.

Still craving more?

• Where do you get your design inspiration by Collin Green
• Twitter Creatives: Who to follow and why by David Stinnette
• 5 copywriting tools that have nothing to do with copywriting
  by Andrew Daglas

The Vodori blog has been off to a productive start in 2012—so much so that the blog itself has started chiming in with its own feedback, not all of which is entirely welcome. 

That's the takeaway from January's word cloud (see below). Just like a few weeks ago, we turned to Wordle for a glimpse into our collective subconscious. After the cloud assembles the words most frequently used in recent blog posts, trained Vodori cryptographers* meticulously analyze the results in search of hidden messages. 

*Okay, one guy who had a free half-hour on a Tuesday afternoon. 

Apparently, the blog has learned to anticipate such scrutiny. Because this time, it dealt out a series of eerily didactic koans which, taken together, make for some awfully dubious web design advice.

"Never work sans blog." Talk about the ego on this thing!

1. "Many one getting optimization."

Or, in its more familiar Latin phrasing, "SEO pluribus Unum." 

2. "Let good websites constantly design."

At first this sounds like a terrific principle. Until you realize it requires the websites themselves to become sentient and self-evolving, and as we all know, that way lies Skynet. 

3. "Campaign without developers."

Maybe it's supposed to be a kind of Zen thing, but it seems a bit drastic. Our developers are savvy problem-solvers, and damn persistent to boot. 

4. "Consider plan changes."

Straight out of the Magic 8-Ball School of profoundly vague counsel. Which changes? What plan? Wait, is this about our cell phone coverage? 

5. "Seconds effort also bad."

Dude, cut us some slack. You didn't exactly provide a lot of clear guidance about those plan changes. 

6. "Design working probably."

Sigh. At this point we'll take whatever half-hearted praise we can get.  

What do you see in this month's word cloud? Any constructive criticism in there that we overlooked? Let us know in the comments.

You can argue that there are no bad typefaces, just bad choices. Each typeface has a personality, and selecting the wrong personality for your message can distort it entirely. 

And yet, some typefaces probably should be buried and forgotten, either because they're overused, dull, or downright homely. The classic example of a font designers love to hate is Comic Sans. It was meant to be used for comic books, not the educational pamphlets in a dentist's office. Had it never been preinstalled on your computer, you'd probably see it a lot less.

While it's easy to pick on, Comic Sans is far from the only font that sets off aesthetic alarm bells. Here are a few other mainstays that have worn out their welcomes, along with some more refreshing alternatives for rendering your text. 

Times New Roman

Always a default, and consequently, always unoriginal. It is easy to read, especially in long blocks of copy—but that's because it's designed for print, not for the web. If eye-catching design is your goal, you couldn't select a more antithetical font.

Consider instead: Droid Serif, Lora, Calluna.

Brush Script

It doesn't look like any handwriting in modern times, which pretty much defeats the purpose of a script font. And yet, along with Mistral, this remains a popular choice when looking for a casual script. That popularity is not shared by people who have to try and read it, however.

Consider instead: Wisdom Script. (Available at the Lost Type Co-op, a collaboration of font fans 100% funded by users.)

Impact

Not a terrible typeface, but plenty of stronger options exist. It's readable, but really too thin for its weight. Its ascenders and decscenders are short, making it more difficult to read. Plus, these days it's nearly impossible to shake Impact's association with LOLCats.

Consider instead: A bold-face version of Helvetica, League Gothic, or Franklin Gothic.

Copperplate

This font dates back to the early 1900s, originally created to mimic engraved letters on copperplate. It's wide and squarish, and best for short headlines since it's difficult to read in long blocks of content. Although it can make sense for stationery and invitations, it has no business in body copy.

Consider instead: Adelle, Arvo, Rockwell.

Courier

It's well made, but abused often. It's meant to mimic a typewriter, so the width and height of its letters translate poorly to an electronic screen. Fans of old-school design can find plenty of it on Mad Men or Downton Abbey—and leave the typefaces of the past back in the past.

Consider instead: Droid Sans Mono, Morse code.

Papyrus

Styled after Egyptian quill writing, an influence so clear and specific that the font fits with almost no design situation you're likely to encounter. That became doubly true after it was used as the signature font for Avatar, angering a lot of designers...who still paid to see the movie anyway.

Consider instead: Hieroglyphics, rewatching Firefly. 

Finally, if you're looking for free fonts that aren't pre-installed on your computer, check out websites such as Font Squirrel, Dafont, or Google Web Fonts. You should be able to find a more appealing and original option for your project.

What do you think?

What typefaces do you think belong in the dustbin of design history? Will you defend Times New Roman with the zeal of a centurion? Let us know in the comments.

So, your website is rocking a pristine design, and your search engine optimization has been fine-tuned to perfection (mostly). Now all you need is the scintillating content that'll convert visitors into customers and customers into advocates. 

But cranking out crisp, engaging copy every day isn't easy (at least, not until SEO-generating algorithms gain sentience and take over the planet). Every content creator stumbles into a rut now and then. 

Often, the trick to revivifying your writerly instincts is as simple as changing your perspective. Think of it like mental crop rotation—mixing up your creative nutrients to keep your brain matter fertile. Here are a few tools I use to stay sharp. 

1. The visual arts 

Give your left brain a breather, and tap your right brain in for a round. Decorate your workspace with stimulating sights. Take up doodling. Visit a museum's online collection (try The Art Institute of Chicago and the National Gallery of Art, for instance). Rather than one static wallpaper on your computer, use the slideshow feature to keep your favorite images in steady rotation. 

Whether your taste runs towards landscapes, architecture, abstract expressionism, or...whatever the heck this is, indulging in non-verbal creativity can spark fresh and unexpected inspiration. 

2. The musculoskeletal system 

When the body is sedentary for too long, it's easy for the mind to follow—so get kinetic. Take a stroll around the block, squeeze a stress ball, or find an out-of-the-way corner of the office where you can play air guitar to "Achilles Last Stand" to your heart's content. 

3. Entirely different writing 

It's a given that you have to read plenty in order to be a good writer. Just as important as the volume of your reading, though, is the diversity. Cramming your cerebrum with nothing but marketing strategy and search engine optimization tips leads to stale, generic output.

A writer cannot live by business blogs alone. Um...except this one, of course.

Cultivate a diet of history, fantasy, feature journalism, literary fiction, poetry, humor—whatever happens to grab you. Absorbing various styles of writing hones your craft. And studying a broad range of human behavior sharpens your understanding of, and ability to connect with, different audiences.

4. Twitter

Many consider Twitter the arch-nemesis of productivity, but it's really more of a frenemy. Yes, it's a distraction—but don't underestimate the power of distraction for maneuvering around mental roadblocks. One of the great joys of Twitter is scanning your feed for jokes and insights about a dozen different topics at once, and then spinning your gears to add a joke or insight of your own. It's the epitome of large-scale brainstorming. 

5. Free association 

Just start writing down words. They don't have to be relevant, or even real. Mash two together at random, and then invent a definition for your shiny new portmanteau. Games like these let you nudge your conscious brain out of the way and see what tumbles through. 

Few design concepts blend the strengths of the left brain and the right brain quite as elegantly as the golden ratio. A formula that traces its roots to the Classical Era in both mathematics and the arts, today the golden ratio is still one of the most vital principles of cutting-edge Internet design. 

So...what the heck is it?

Let's break it down: the golden ratio exists when the ratio of the sum of two quantities to the larger quantity is equal to the ratio of the larger quantity to the smaller one. This yields an irrational mathematical constant with a value of approximately 1.61803399. 

A visual representation of the golden ratio formula.

Simple, right? 

The ratio is closely related to the Fibonacci sequence—simply put, a series of numbers, starting with zero and one, in which every number equals the sum of the two numbers that precede it. Crank it out, and it looks something like this:

It goes on like that. You get the idea.

A handy visual representation of this sequence is known as the golden spiral:

The golden spiral, in all its geometrically-sound glory.

OK, Math Whiz: Why does it matter?

This sequence is reflected in countless natural and man-made objects. The golden ratio is expressed in many plants in the arrangement of branches to their stems. The architecture of structures as old as the Great Pyramid of Giza and the Parthenon can be analyzed with the ratio. Master works of art have drawn on the principle, from Salvador Dali's The Sacrament of the Last Supper to, according to some, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. 

Though no one is totally sure why, the golden ratio seems to exercise a powerful aesthetic pull on most people. That's why, intentionally or not, it recurs so often in almost every area of design—including our own. 

The golden ratio, as applied to the creation of the Vodori logo.

I carry the idea of the golden ratio into web design to evoke a sense of familiarity—bringing common patterns from the physical world into the digital one. A design that draws on natural order resonates with viewers subconsciously. 

The ratio can also serve as a canvas: I use it to help break down content and assets when I'm wireframing pages. It provides a versatile means of defining the relationships between objects, dictating the importance of each level of the site, and determining scale. Other aesthetics are then fine-tuned deeper into in the design process. 

Finally, it's a valuable corrective for those times when my design hits a wall. When different approaches don't quite gel, and other options have been exhausted, that's when I blow the dust off this classic, reliable tool from my artistic roots. How can you go wrong with a device that has been so effective for centuries?

I'm going to let you all in on a little secret: this blog has big things in store for it in 2012. Some of our plans are already underway. Some are still in the brainstorming process. A couple are so grand that we can't resist a booming, maniacal laugh after monologuing about them to our captured nemeses. 

In order to best plan where you're headed, you need a solid understanding of where you've been. Thanks to the word cloud generation powers of Wordle, we're able to get a thorough (and awfully snazzy) overview of what Vodori blogged about most frequently in 2011. 

The word cloud gathers the most commonly occurring words within the source text you provide (in this case, the Vodori blog). These words are then jumbled up and arrayed randomly yet stylishly. The more prevalent the word, the greater its prominence in the cloud.

Click the thumnbail below to see the full cloud.

click to enlarge

It's no surprise that people were at the forefront of our hive mind: Vodori is dedicated to cultivating close relationships with our clients, and to creating websites that people find engaging, enjoyable, and easy to use. And the fact that work kept popping up, well, that's what happens when you love what you do. (It helps when it's fueled so powerfully by music and coffee.) 

If you look closely at the data, you'll see a sailboat. But if you look even more closely, a few patterns emerge that are, to say the least, unexpected: 

1. "Senior year." True, we're a young company, but we had no idea we were all looking forward to graduation so much. 

2. "Designer dance." We've seen this dance. Frequently. Usually without wanting to. Picture a cross between the Macarena and the Watusi. We suspect it will not take America by storm. 

3. "Making beer." If it turns out that this whole Internet thing is just a fad, it appears we've got a future in craft brewing. Or maybe moonshine. 

4. "Great beyond." Whoa. And to think, we nearly decided not to invest in that Ouija board. 

5. "Vodorians monitor quality." Actually, that's not unexpected at all.

What hidden messages do you see in the cloud? Leave a comment and let us know!