Just in Time for Election Day

From “I Like Ike” to the unavoidable Obama ‘O’ icon, buttons have long been used by voters to show their support. Even the original George W. had one at his first inauguration in 1789 which read “G W — Long Live the President.” With the tools of digital design (and even handmade, homegrown design for that matter) so widely accessible, pretty much anyone can create their own little piece of presidential promotion. Graphic arts guru Steven Heller gives us a look at his picks for the best campaign buttons this year.

Is Silver light?

MICROSOFT SILVERLIGHT CONFERENCE: DAY THREE

Sorry for using a pun/riddle to wrap up the Silverlight feature. Let me clarify, I’m using the title as a way to describe something that is less than what it’s supposed to be. Think Bud light without the drunken side-effects. Not unlike light beer, I wondered if I was partaking in watered down software. Here are a few quotes from my instructor.

“The layout design is — not where it needs to be.”
“That’s unfortunate, they really need to fix that.”
“That’s not a bug it’s a feature.”
“After that, hopefully we can get it working. <clicks button> Nope.”

In all honesty, the possibilities for Silverlight are virtually endless. But at this point in time the software seems unfinished.

The Silverlight Chimera

MICROSOFT SILVERLIGHT CONFERENCE: DAY TWO

Allow me to describe my Silverlight experience with this metaphor: If After Effects, Flash, and Illustrator got drunk at the Adobe holiday party and then got it on, the resulting chimera would be Silverlight.

Don’t get me wrong, the application is very powerful. It can create media rich applications that can boggle the mind! Check out how Hard Rock Cafe used Silverlight and a plug-in called Infinite zoom to bring their online memorabilia collection to life.

Pretty impressive, no? My gripe, as a designer, is that the creation of content isn’t all too obvious. How can my creativity be unleashed If I’m in a perpetual state software frustration!