If you’ve ever visited the culture section on our website, you may have noticed that we are very much into dogs. That’s Bailey, Kirk’s dog on the site. Barb even used a pug in three of her blog illustrations. Take Your Dog to Work Day is not just a yearly event at Gravity—it’s every Tuesday and Thursday. We even have clients who schedule their meetings on those days alone.

Recently I have been fortunate enough to have a couple of my dog house designs (Mutt and Moddy Doggy) featured on the popular dog blog, Dog-Milk. Moby is pictured in the first image. I haven’t been to a lot of these pet-focused blogs but am discovering how popular they are. It’s cool to see how much designers love to make products for their pets. I am tickled with the humor and the cleverness of the things they come up with. Here are few of my favorites:

Magis Dog House (top left) – I loved this even before I started designing furniture. The Magis Dog House was one of the first ones out there and a definite inspiration.


One of Barb’s favorites from Straight Line Designs (top right). She wants to get one for Moby.


Simple is always the best. I really like this one by Archimania (bottom row).

The funniest toys I have ever seen:

Humunga Tongue Toy and Humunga Stache Toy


Thanks to Jaime Derringer at Dog-Milk for all the great finds.
-Jesse Doquilo

“…at the end of 1990, a revolution took place that changed the way we live today.”

Even though there is no virtual yardstick to measure advances made within the World Wide Web, there is no doubt it has come a long way.

In 1990, a physicist, Tim Berners-Lee finalized a proposal to build a “Hypertext project”  as a “Web” of “hypertext documents” to be viewed by “browsers”. Or, in other words, a common information space in which we communicate by sharing information. Originally it was created to allow physicists to track each other’s progress. The idea was that people working in different places could learn what each other was doing by looking at a hypertextual document set up on a computer that could be accessed through the Internet.

What would this new browser be called? The Mine of Information and The Information Mesh were two names considered. When they settled on a name in May 1990, it was the World Wide Web. Can you imagine using the alternative, “Just surfin’ the Mesh”?

A NeXT Computer, used by Berners-Lee, was the world’s first web server and also used to write the first web browser, WorldWideWeb. http://info.cern.ch/, was the address of the world’s first-ever website and web server, and running on a NeXT computer. Though the site has been altered a bit to keep in step with today’s protocol, its juvenile essence remains. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a site published at the dawn of this era; single page, no border control, float image right, and then float image left, well you get the idea.

It definitely served its purpose as an information exchange. But do you think the creators of this revolution could have foreseen the endless role the Web plays in our lives today?

Fast-forward 20 years, into today’s world, and you have to agree that the World Wide Web has truly changed the way we live. From the way we travel, design our dream kitchen, recreate, or even meet new friends; the Web has seeped into most aspects of our lives and held on. Most of us could not imagine our lives without it. Don’t deny it, I bet you just checked your Facebook page.

The current era of the Web is commonly referred to as Web 2.0.  Features of this matured phase of the Web are applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, social networking, online media (music, video, etc), user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web.

According to a Netcraft Web Server Survey, nowadays there are upwards of 100 million websites, with more and more computers connected to the Internet and surfing the Web. If households nowadays want a computer, it is not to compute, but to go on the Web.

-Lindsay Lush

As a graphic designer for the past 25 years I have an appreciation for all aspects of design and how it integrates into my life. There are two things that I have identified that I am very passionate about – typography and mod furniture.

The two came together around five years ago. My artist wife Laura Zeck and I remodeled two houses and a condo during that time. We gradually got better at being handy and gained lots of confidence with power tools. Our last endeavor was a former gang/crack house that was a massive 4500-square foot, four story mansion built in 1904.

The house needed major renovation at every level. For instance, when we moved in there was no kitchen and a barely-working toilet. There was so much space to redesign and fill that we decided to take a shot at making some of our own furniture.

A year into the project and a few prototypes later, I created some typography-influenced pieces: The X lounge and the Z perch. My biggest influences were the Bauhaus classics: the Barcelona chair by Mies van der Rohe and the Zig-Zag chair by Gerrit Rietveld. There were quite a few avant-garde type designers in the movement (such as Herbert Bayer and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy) and I am sure it had an effect.

Currently we are working on our third house, an underwhelming mid-century dwelling (way smaller!) in the outskirts of Seattle with good bones to work from. New house, new furniture – my latest work features a few new pieces that are typographically inclined.

The one relative to Gravity Design is the X stool. We will be commemorating our tenth anniversary this year and the X stool will be one of our giveaways at our party in October. Here is a sneak peak:

-Jesse Doquilo

Just as we’re contemplating the use of Flash in our own site, the tech world as a whole is also in a huge debate over the role of Flash. Apple has made a strong stand against using Flash on the iPhone and iPad, and Adobe is trying its best to fight back.

Here are a few articles I’ve been reading that will help you get up-to-date on the current debate:

Thoughts on Flash by Steve Jobs

We Heart Choice (Apple’s response to Steve Jobs)

Adobe, You Brought An Advertisement To A Gun Fight

Flash, iPad, Standards

Why It’s Not A War, And Why Flash Won’t Die

-Brijean Brennan

Congratulations! You have now actually secured an interview for a design position. The competition was fierce, but you studied their qualifications carefully, spelled the word stationery correctly and didn’t respond to the question: “How big was the last department where you worked?” with the answer “Three stories.” (an actual response from someone’s application).

Of course there are lots of things you should remember to do when you bring your precious book in for a portfolio review:
• DO be on time for the meeting.
• DO wear good shoes. (Really. Cool shoes are the new skinny glasses).
• DO post your work in an online portfolio so the agency you’re interested in can easily browse your work and resumè.
• DO bring business cards to leave behind.
• DO research the place and the kind of work they do so you can not only tailor your book accordingly but speak intelligently about their projects.
• DO send a follow-up note or another small collection of samples with a personal comment that will help them remember you.

All good DOs. But today we’ll elaborate on three DON’Ts that have happened all too frequently over the past millenium that I’ve been interviewing designers. The following are actually pretty easy to get right and I hope they help your next portfolio review go swimmingly.

Please DON’T:

1  Lie about the work or your role with it. This is a no-brainer right? Right, but designers are marketers after all, and there may be a temptation to embellish what your role was on a job just to make you look more desirable as a creative force. Problem is, they’ll know right after you’re hired whether or not you’re the real deal. And if not, everyone’s unhappy and you may very well lose that job and your credibility.

A blatant instance of this for me happened many years ago when a young guy proudly showed a point-of-sale piece he said he’d designed. The only problem was that we had designed it. And it was on our website.

bottom line: Tell the truth. Be honest about your skills and experience and you’ll have a much better chance of finding a great fit.

2  Bring too many samples. This isn’t the worst offense, but it can turn the tide against you if you end up boring your interviewer. If they start to look at their watch or flip quickly through your work, it’s a good sign that you’ve brought too much or the wrong stuff. If you’re not sure how many projects, or specifically what type of work to show, just ask them. And never ever ever ever (really don’t) bring a dog-eared book with your sketches or personal art.

cool tip: Your work and thought process can be helpful to see, if you do it well. One student I saw at Reality Check this year had printed little random crops of his sketches on each page with the finished piece. I got an idea of how his mind worked on each project, that his mind did work, without having to view pages and pages of sketches.

bottom line: Only bring your best stuff and be prepared to speak clearly and succinctly about your role on each piece and why you’re showing it.

3   Wait with bated breath for when you next get to talk. You need to listen and pick up cues from the interviewer. What are they saying about the position? About their company? Interviewers love it when you want to know how their company works, what they are looking for, how you might fit in. So in general, ask, don’t tell.

smart tip: Take notes. It helps you to not talk too much and also shows that you do want to remember what the interviewer is saying. Plus you can often forget important things they’re saying when you’re nervous and notes will help recall critical details about their job requirements like having to work every weekend, or get a tattoo with the company logo on your neck, or put a dollar in a jar every time you say a swear word.

smart tip two: Rehearse your spiel. You know how important clear communication is in design and marketing. If you rehearse what you want to say, to ask, to describe about your work and yourself, it’s much easier to sound polished and confident, and maybe even enjoy the experience.

bottom line: Getting a job should be win/win. When you listen more and talk less, you’ll find out more about the position and the studio and it will be easier to decide if you’re a good fit. It doesn’t help to snag a job where you don’t fit. You won’t last long and your resumè will show it.

Remember this isn’t just a show, it’s a show and tell. If it were all about the book, you’d be leaving it at the front counter and just called back to discuss salary requirements. So you do need to speak up and communicate well about yourself and how you might help the company. Just don’t forget to listen. And pay attention to kerning and typography. And spell stationery correctly. Good luck!

-Barbara Combs

Right now, we’re in a search for a new designer at Gravity and once again, I’m reminded how important it is to proof your work. PROOF YOUR WORK, PEOPLE! Whew, had to yell for a minute there. Design is a detailed profession. Get the details right or you look less than competent.

The truth is, you don’t stand much of a chance to get to the interview stage, much less get hired, if you make dumb mistakes on your cover letter or resumè. The following tips are just a few things I expect in a qualified designer candidate and hope they help you polish your profile and portfolio:

1. Find out the name of the hiring person and use it. If you don’t have a name, just start in with your message or use the company name as in Dear Gravity or even Hi Gravity—never To Whom it May Concern. And for pity’s sake, don’t use another company’s name by mistake. I’ve gotten this one many times (See warning above about Proofing).
2. Spell everything correctly. If you have typos in your resumè or cover letter, I’ll assume the same will happen in your work, or emails to clients. And here’s a quick tip that Spellcheck won’t catch and it’s a pet peeve of mine: stationery vs. stationary. If you’ve designed the stuff, it’s stationery (remember “e” for “letter”) and if you’re not moving anywhere, you’re stationary (“a” for “stay”).
   
3. Keep your ego under control. Confidence: good. Staccato statements about how you rock: bad. Truthfulness and humility are great qualities.
4. Detail your skills and experience very clearly. Don’t get creative with this part.
5. Give just a bit of your backstory. A little detail about you helps you stand out and lets me see how you’d fit in with our team—but don’t let hobbies or your love of extensive travel overshadow your skills and experience. What you can do creatively to help me build my business is uppermost in my mind. Lead with skills and end with why you’d be a good hire.
   
6. Show only your top work in your first samples. Maybe 7-9 pieces total. Let me want to see more.
7. Read the qualifications and don’t waste my time. If you DO send a resumè from out of state when we’ve said you must be local, or with only 1 year experience when we require 4, acknowledge that you know we asked for something else, but explain why you still think you should be considered. Our last designer search brought hundreds of resumès and I’m sure other agencies are the same. If someone doesn’t match the requirements and doesn’t acknowledge it, they are bounced without a backward glance.
8. Remember your resumè and samples may be your ONLY chance to make an impression and snag that interview request. Be professional, choose your samples wisely, and proof proof proof proof proof.

Now the fun stuff. In the interest of helping you get to the next level, we present some classic resumè mistakes that we sincerely hope you do not make. At least with us:

From Resumè Hell:
• “Career break in 1999 to renovate my horse”
•  Hobbies: “enjoy cooking Chinese and Italians”
• “Service for old man to check they are still alive or not.”
•  “I’m intrested to here more about that. I’m working today in a furniture factory as a drawer”

From Amy Joyce on Resumè Bloopers:
• “Skills: Strong Work Ethic, Attention to Detail, Team Player, Self Motivated, Attention to Detail”
• Woman who sent her résumé and cover letter without deleting someone else’s editing, including such comments as “I don’t think you want to say this about yourself here”

From Ask Annie’s article about resumè blunders:
• In the section that read “Emergency Contact Number” she wrote “911.”
• Misspelled the word “proofreading” in her skill set.
• Experience: “Stalking, shipping & receiving”
• “I am great with the pubic.”
• A candidate listed her e-mail address as pornstardelight@*****.com

From Careerbuilder.com’s Top 12 Wackiest Resume Blunders:
• Candidate explained a gap in employment by saying it was because he was getting over the death of his cat for three months.
• Candidate explained an arrest by stating, “We stole a pig, but it was a really small pig.”

From Fortune Magazine via HumorMatters.com:
• “It’s best for employers that I not work with people.”
• “Let’s meet, so you can ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over my experience.”
•  Personal interests: “Donating blood. Fourteen gallons so far.”
•  “Instrumental in ruining entire operation for a Midwest chain store.”

From Resumania’s Archive:
• Experience: “Chapter president, 1887-1992.”
• Experience: “I’m a hard worker, etc.”
• Objective: “So one of the main things for me is, as the movie ‘Jerry McGuire’ puts it, ‘Show me the money!’”
• Skills: “I have technical skills that will take your breath away.”
• Qualifications: “I have guts, drive, ambition and heart, which is probably more than a lot of the drones that you have working for you.”
• Qualifications: “Twin sister has accounting degree.”
• Experience: “Child care provider: Organized activities; prepared lunches and snakes.”
• References: “Please do not contact my immediate supervisor at the company. My colleagues will give me a better reference.”

-Barbara Combs

The Haiti Poster Project has launched what they describe as a “collaborative effort by the design community to help effect change through our work. Signed and numbered, limited edition posters have been donated by designers and artists from around the world. All money raised will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.” Browse the stunning collection here.

If fonts are something you’re interested in, the Society of Typographic Aficionados have compiled an ampersand-only font. The project is called “FontAid IV: Coming Together,” and you can read more about it here.  The font is only $20 and all proceeds benefit Doctors Without Borders.

American Eagle compiled a CD available in stores and online here. The CD costs only $10 and all proceeds benefit the Haiti recovery effort. Artists include Beck, Snow Patrol, Of Montreal, Vampire Weekend, and 13 more.

What other good samaritan shopportunities have you come across?

-Jennifer Pritchard

As we face a new quarter and a recovering economy, we at Gravity Design decided it was the opportune time to rebrand. We wanted to reflect our colorful style, bold approach, and modern thinking. Our new look embraces our creativity, fresh approach, and energy. And as all creative people know, Comic Sans is always the right answer.

For some reason, there are a lot of rebrands floating around the web today so we’ve collected a few for your consideration. Enjoy!

And in last place, Google. Apparently the story about the Mayor of Topeka wanting to change the city’s name to Google isn’t as widespread as they thought. Better luck next year, guys.

What are some good April Fool’s web pranks you’ve seen?

-Jennifer Pritchard

A recent Harvard Business Review article by Alexandra Samuel titled “The Science of Swag” started me thinking about promotional items and what our clients should really consider before producing tradeshow giveaways.

Equating swag to science is understandable, but the whole idea of how to influence people with varied incarnations of promotional merchandise when troops of other exhibitors are doing the same all around you, has become more than science. This is war.

To me, being stationed in a tradeshow booth or behind a be-draped table, is like hunkering down in the trenches, lobbing your ammo of logo’d keychains, pens and t-shirts out into the crowds, hoping to make a hit.

Yeah, yeah it shouldn’t be all about the promo. You’re a great company and people just need your URL to remind them of that when they get home. But that’s not how it works. Because everyone has swag these days and attendees’ show bags are overloaded, your carefully thought-out giveaway is going to be kept or tossed based on quick judgments just before check-out time. And sadly, most will end up in hotel room trash cans.

So what will be useful or cool enough to be kept? As Ms. Samuel says in her article, the win is when your giveaway ends up on the attendee’s desk, a daily reminder of your product or service.

Even more successful, is when your swag causes “buzz”. We were fortunate enough to have a buzz giveaway recently when we designed a Threat Modeling card game for one of our Microsoft clients, who personally handed out the decks to software developers at the show. He was repeatedly asked to autograph the boxes, and Twitter was abuzz with chat about them.

But if you don’t have the time or budget to create something on that order, you can still be remembered.  Some solid swag tips:

1. A great business card is a must. Of all things you can hand out, the business card is the direct connection back to you—and if it’s memorable, it will be kept and maybe even shown around. If you’re not a designer, hire the best to create your card.

2. Give them something that keeps on giving. If you have an offer or reward that the attendee can redeem, your promo will probably go home with them even if they don’t have time to take advantage right away.

3. Dress it up. If your wearable is cool enough, your audience will not only keep it, but wear it,  effortlessly spreading your name and at the same time, giving your brand a little endorsement. At every tradeshow I’ve attended, tshirts, caps, and buttons have been snapped up fast—even clamored for if they were well designed. Just remember to keep it tasty.

4. Give ‘em what they want. This seems to be a no-brainer, but if it really was, there would be far fewer keychains with logos in this world. According to Jenna Rensch of Sunrise Identity, some of the top promo products for 2010 are:

Memory Sticks (flash drives)

Private label hand sanitizer

USB Tech gadgets

Eco-friendly products

Organic T-shirts

Journal books

So arm yourself with all the knowledge you can about your audience, plan your campaign strategy carefully with a good offer and thoughtful promo, and you’re sure to come home victorious. And think outside the keychain, okay? All’s fair in swag and war.

-Barbara Combs

Sailors do it. Musicians do it. And now even geeks and grandmas do it. These days tattoos are almost ho hum, almost de riguer. But still of intense interest to designers and other fans of visual art.

The reasons behind particular tattoo choices may be personal but a lot of people seem to be using their bodies like they use the bumpers of their car. If you can’t get that vanity plate you wanted, why not just pay to have someone permanently embed the message into your skin—with needles?

Maybe the weirdest decisions to do this are on the behalf of those that want to show their love of new technology. Tattooing your brand loyalty may have seemed hip in 1984 and could be cool in 2010…

…and being a geek can look cutting-edge. At least to other geeks:

But what happens if Apple goes the way of Toyota or Britney or you know…Microsoft? Will you look even more uncool? Is that possible?

And for pity’s sake, can’t you just say “I’m a PC”?:

Number One rule for tattoos or anything else you put out there: PROOF BEFORE YOU PUBLISH! Please do designers—and the rest of the tasteful world—a favor. Watch that kerning, willya?

Thank you.

-Barbara Combs