Vootie's blog

Despite every precaution and the expertise of those involved, there's always a certain amount of chance involved when full-color publications hit the press. And there's nothing quite like that sickening feeling when you realize that the beige you so carefully chose was rendered with pink overtones. But now you can try your luck with process color without risking your client's money or your reputation, thanks to CMYK playing cards from the Hundred Million site.

It's been a long time coming but early indications are that Adobe has delivered a solid iteration of Photoshop Touch for those with phones running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) or using an iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 or fifth-generation iPod Touch. Priced at $4.99, it's now available for purchase on the Apple App Store and Google Play.

It would seem that sometimes even when you win, you lose. If Ang Lee's Life of Pi cleaned up at the box office and then swept the Oscars, this was in no small part due to the movie's masterful mix of live action and digital effects. These were created by veteran effects firm Rhythm & Hues which, despite its evident expertise, last week filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy and fired 250 employees.

The Oscars have become a venerable (some would say tired) institution. Awarded consistently for apparently all the wrong reasons, this annual event still somehow holds our attention, to the point where it has become the platform for all kinds of riffs. Designer Matteo Civaschi of H-57 created a series of pictograms intepreting some of the hottest contenders, with the entire series available on the My Modern Met site.

That's right, today is the birthday of the King of Pop, that master shapeshifter who spent his career exploring the intersection of popular culture, art and commerce. Mostly commerce, it would seem, since last year he remained the top-selling artist at auction. Sales of his work hit $381 million, with the wily old master Pablo Picasso coming in a close second at $370 million, trailed by Gerhard Richter, whose dour opus inexplicably found buyers willing to shell out $299 million. Yup, that adds up to a cool billion. Crisis, what crisis? For you and me maybe but apparently not for the happy few. Oh well, no point being bitter. Of the three, Warhol was by far the most amusing (I think in particular of his urine paintings), so why not join in the festivities by using EarthCam to experience live views of the exhibits inside The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Nothing happening, you say? Boring? Ha! You have obviously not experienced Warhol's epic Sleep movie, which consists of five hours of someone sleeping. Try sitting through that.

Let's face it, most music videos are pretty banal, endlessly recycling a visual language that goes back to the 80s. So when an attempt is made to break out of this tired mold, it's worth celebrating. This is certainly the case for a recent interactive video created by design agency OKFocus to promote Not the Same, a tune by Tanlines. Best experienced with Google Chrome, the site mimics aspects of the Photoshop interface, complete with layers and a toolbar that lets move and resize band members and choose from a selection of backgrounds that includes webcams and animations. You can even click on the word Experiment up near the top to have your Instagram photos tagged with #notthesame show up as the background of the site's Instagram layer. Fun stuff.

Illustration of course has a long and rich history, so how could it be compressed into just a seven-minute presentation? Only by blazing through the high points at lightning speed, which is exactly what the latest episode in the PBS Off Book series covering art, design and culture does. The effect is rather dizzying but there's some interesting work presented — as long as you can hit the Pause button fast enough to get a chance to really look at it. I've posted a few favorites below.

You may recall that Adobe recently posted download links to the entire Creative Suite 2, complete with license numbers, and then was shocked, shocked I tell you, when people mistakenly interpreted that as a gesture on the firm's part to make old, commercially unviable versions of their apps available for free download. You'd think Adobe would like that little incident swept under the rug.

That's title of an upcoming free webcast in the AIGA Voices series, in which designers explore a wide range of topics. This iteration will be led by Christopher Liechty, an AIGA Fellow and partner at Culture3, which focuses on the challenges of working effectively in global teams. In the Global Zoom talk Liechty will provide practical tips for managing global brands and creating global campaigns, encouraging you to imagine that you have a “zoom lens” that allows you to change your focus from global to local. The event is schedule for February 19, 2 pm ET, with more information and registration available on the AIGA site. You can also view a recording of his earlier webcast, Out of Your Skin: Understanding Culture and Difference.

At least, that was my first thought on watching this clip demonstrating voice-controlled image editing. We're barely into the era of touch but it's a safe bet that voice will be the next "big thing" in interface innovation. The example here shows off PixelTone, an experimental effort created by Adobe Research and the University of Michigan that combines voice and touch.