Archive for January, 2010
Crocodile Tears
In an effort to further peel back the curtain and grant a glimpse of my personal life, part of my new years resolution to post more content on this blog, I offer the following:
Last night I sent an email to a friend of mine whining about how each day seems to bring fresh new evidence of how little I really know.
The two examples I gave were the crocodile from Peter Pan and the pen knife. You all probably know this already but the crocodile who swallowed the clock and chases Hook from one end of Neverland to the other, represents time or mortality and its relentless pursuit of man, hunting him down with a tick tick tick until he is finally chomped. The pen knife on the other hand, is called a pen knife because it was originally used to sharpen quills, the original pens.
I’ve seen Peter Pan as well as Hook numerous time and never made the connection. I’ve owned and used pen knives for years and never wondered why it was called a pen knife. How I can be thirty eight years old and this ignorant is beyond me.
So I fired off an email from my phone to a friend, lamenting my retched state. Did he offer a Socratic pronouncement about how the road to wisdom begins with a humble acknowledge of one’s own ignorance? No. Instead he sent this:
Not a lot of hope for you, I’m afraid. You’re telling me that – when considering the story of an ageless, forever-boy, who lives in “Neverland,” the idea that a ticking clock in the bowels of a reptilian monster represents mortality – this idea never occurred to you?
And as far as the etymology of “pen knife” goes, a passing familiarity with Old French should suffice to inform the average observer that the word penne – meaning the feather of a bird, or quill – had simply been contracted in English to ‘pen’ to describe the writing instrument of the past. Sheesh!
I suppose its helpful to know, prior to digitally self immolating via email, which friends throw water and which throw gas.
That being said, I will conclude by offering a movie recommendation for Finding Neverland. A little late to the party, I know, but it really is a wonderful movie and if you have not seen it, rent it. Prepare to cry like a baby, not a croc.
Which reminds me, RIP Steve, life was better with you around.
Buffing Up Some Buff Seasoned Babes.
Posted by Craig in case studies, new projects on January 18th, 2010
Managing client’s artwork files is consistently one of our biggest challenges. The proliferation of different types of files contribute to said challenges. When it comes to understanding file types, we cheekily divide most people into three categories. Those who understand the difference between vector and raster files, those who don’t and those we call The Digitized. They think that anything that has been digitized can be blown up and printed at any size they want. (“Don’t worry, it’s DIGITIZED!”) Throw ad agencies into the mix and things get even more interesting. Multiple parties, from multiple camps, all participating in the process, all insisting they know what can be done and all sure their expectations are reasonable. Phew!
Recently one of our clients came in requesting a 20′ display backdrop from a single image. Expecting the worst we were pleasantly surprised when the original file actually seemed scalable to the size we needed. The display is a fabric backwall, and fabric tends to be a little more forgiving when it comes to resolution, so we were feeling pretty good. “One more thing,” the client added (here it comes, wait for it, wait for it…) “we want you to remove the text on the banner and replace it with different text. “No problem, I’m pretty sure we have a magic eraser around here somewhere…
Buff seasoned babes aside (Shades is my personal favorite), we set to work and the results were, dare I say… Impressive. Following are the images before, during and after the alteration.
Here is the original image with the original text:
The client requested we remove the the text from the banner and insert new text. A bit of a challenge considering the wrinkles and the shading (on the banner, sheesh). It’s one thing to do a little photoshop work on a small image that is going to only be viewed on a screen. Making it look good at 10′ X 20′ is another.
This is what it looked like once we removed the text:
And finally, the finished product with the new text:
Here are some close ups of the before, during and after stages:
We have yet to receive the show shots of the finished display in all its glory. When we do we will follow up with a post to show what the finished product looked like. It turned out really cool and the client was pleased.
If you have a project requiring digital manipulation of artwork and large format printing, please consider giving us a call.
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