Ever wonder about the origin of language and the alphabet? Here is a fascinating article from the I Love Typography blog, about the evolution and history of letterforms, and especially, the symbolism behind the letter "A." A fascinating read for typophiles!
An important issue was raised today regarding the freedom of information across the Internet, and how to keep it open and accessible to all who use it — including website content developers, small businesses, artists, social networking sites, as well as major search engine and resource sites like Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia. The SOPA legislation seeks to enforce regulations that would help to prevent foreign piracy and protect Intellectual Property Rights, but the impact of the legislation may impede the very access to websites and their information, that has been so beneficial to the growth and development of many of users and businesses across the net. The leglislation many feel, would be detrimental to the very nature of the Internet, as a free and open resource, however the question of Intellectual Property rights violations and online piracy must be dealt with too.
There are other ways to fight piracy. Don’t support SOPA! The White House expresses its concern in this article about how to deal with threats like online foreign piracy, and thievery, and seeks input from the public on ways to combat things like this, without jeopardizing the open nature of the Internet, and the progress and positive benefits that it has brought to everyone around the globe, along with that.
@SocialTimes.com, RT: “How #Twitter Can Make You {1/one} a Better Writer”... and thinker *
November, 2011
A very interesting article by Amanda Cosco, about the use of the English language, and how being creative with the 140-word Twitter format can actually make you a "better" writer, according to author. After all, language is just a collection of symbols arranged in various ways to express one's thoughts and ideas, that mean something to those who are familiar with it, creating a vehicle of written communication. The author believes Twitter is a natural format as a result, for writers, and encourages the development of new ways of thinking about language (and perhaps, symbols); forcing us to think about expression in more concise ways, at the same time. Twitter has a symbolic way of abbreviating language through the use of its “lingo,” with things like hastags and abbreviations that would not ordinarily be considered good grammar. However, It also serves as a vehicle for “getting the word out quickly,” and making the message concise and to the point — through its brevity and use of symbols. Seems that our modern society is more and more about pictograms, graphics, and symbols.
“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.”
“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition — they somehow already know what you truly want to become...everything else is secondary.”
— Steve Jobs in his address to the Stanford Graduating class of 2005
The world lost a true visionary on Wednesday. Steve Jobs was a highly imaginative innovator, who recognized that computers could be so much more than machines inside of plastic boxes. He realized the possibilities of all that they could do and then some, technologically; and made his Apple products intuitive, aesthetic devices which allowed people to accomplish amazing things. I was especially impressed by the fact that after he dropped out of Reed college, he described how he went back to just take one course— in calligraphy— which, he said, changed the course of his life. Through the calligraphy course he was inspired to see how fonts and beautiful typography could be digitized and translated for display on computer screens, thereby becoming an intrinsic part of the Apple computers’ aesthetic design. This in itself was something of a quantum leap, and perhaps in his words, an example of “connecting the dots.”
He eventually translated this vision into beautiful interfaces for modern computer devices, taking them to a whole new level that no one else had, previously. (The MACs surely have a more creative bent than the PCs, especially when it comes to the fonts installed on their operating systems, and their vivid color display, as well as other features like the animated program launches. ) Paired with the simplicity of using images to convey messages on a screen as a part of the computer interface, one can see how later, these same images were turned into animations which gave people the ability to institute computer commands by simply touching the screen; (or, similarly, to carry a music-player with a nanochip loaded with the latest songs that could fit in your back pocket). It goes without saying that Jobs’ inventions are among some of the most impressive technological accomplishments in this age of computers. The Apple iPod, iPhone and iPad, as well as the MAC computers, are all technological innovations which have, literally, changedthe face of our human communications.
RIP Steve, and thank you for all you have done! I hope you are in IPhone/IPad heaven somewhere up there, enjoying some interesting new app that can do something no one has ever heard of, yet... which we mortals here on earth may never have a chance to experience!
The Webby Awards first live broadcast via Internet video, was entertaining and fun. Not quite the Oscars, with the short acceptance speeches, but just as important to recognize these new Internet venues and their technologies, inventions, and achievements around the world.
I liked the five-word acceptance speech format, in keeping with the whole Internet Twitter trend — and how they served as catchy taglines for each winners’ organization or entity.
Some of my favorite five-worders included:
Martin Cooper, inventor of the original cell phone, on being given a Lifetime Webby Achivement Award, highlighting how he “brought access to the world, uniting science & technology with culture” — and also by implication, how far the Internet has evolved from its original dial-up connections to broadband and the wireless handheld devices of today. Upon accepting his award, he appropriately asked: "Can you hear me now?"
Fandango’s speech for winning the Best Shopping Tablet: "You had me at Fandango."
National Geographic’s speechline for their webby for the National Geographic Magazine: "(Our world), Our lens knows no boundaries."
Interactive Knowledge’s speech commented upon one of the results of both the Internet, and their own product: “Increase and Diffusion of Knowledge”
The African organization, Ushahidi was given the Red Webby Award for their use of open-source software to enable on the ground mobilization of volunteers, unitiing communities to fight things like AIDS in Africa, through social media and mobile technology. Their software was used to create interactive data visualizations that allowed for a productive crisis response to the situations. The software was repurposed, and used again later in the Middle East as a tool for democratization and ground-up self-organizing, by presenting effective visual online mapping tools—which in turn, empowered users, making the world a better place for them.
Ushahidi’s acceptance speech was short, and very much to the point: "Our Voices Revolutionize the World."
Related speech: Christian Amanpour also recognizing the Egyptians who helped to advance the revolution through social media as well, stated: "Justice, oppression, social media = revolution."
FotoD.C. held their first-ever National Cherry Blossom photography contestat the beginning of April. They had over 2,000 entries of beautiful photos from the tidal basin and monuments of blooming cherry trees, festivities and people enjoying the blossoms. It was fun to see all of the entries. One of my photos was selected in the first round, and appeared in the YouTube video they put online, and on Facebook.
his web site began as a project for my Interface Design class
at The Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C., where I completed a certificate program in Electronic Publishing/Web Design
in 2001. The assignment was to create a portfolio of our
school work, with an emphasis on a particular theme or skill,
or to show photography and other graphic arts projects.
My site started out as a travel photo portfolio of a trip to France, (the explanation for my url/domain name), along with some of my class projects.
Over time, however, it has expanded to become a web design portfolio site showing
all of my current (and some past) website design projects, which are
displayed on my Portfolio
Projects page. I also have an interest in typography, and have a page devoted to Typography and Gaphic design projects, which show some of my typography posters and other things that I have created, after I took a class in typography at The Corcoran. (Please see the graphic link in the right column of this page, called “What is Typography?” ) I am also a frequent visitor to other
typography and graphic design-related blogs on the Internet, some of which
are listed under my Web Resources page, since typography and color are two of my favorite design topics!
One of my projects has included developing a WordPress blog for a friend/client who took a summer travel sabbatical, and blogged
about his visits to land trusts between Maine and Montana. The purpose of the blog was to write about how land trusts help to protect and preserve undeveloped, wild regions and lands throughout our country, and at the same time, help to save them by setting up conservation easements, through the acquisition of landtrust easements and cooperation from individual landowners, who would like to donate and/or sell their lands for conservation, people can conserve these places for future generations to enjoy and help the planet at the same time. His blog, "Unity to Wisdom," (the name referring to the blogger’s beginning and ending destination towns), is located at: http://www.unitytowisdom.org. I took a class to develop
my skills with WordPress, and then learned how to set up a blog, as well as how to incorporate the blog posts with social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. I then transferred management of the blog to the client, so he could update it himself. The blog featured podcasts of his visits to the land trusts which he recorded and uploaded using a plug-in for podcasts, making his travel stories more interesting and interactive. The blog development was a fun
learning project for me from a design aspect, in terms of learning how to create a distinctive blog look through the use of plug-ins, link colors, and adding navigation and additional, non-posting, static pages to the blog. I also set up one other blog for another small client, and that one was fun to maintain myself, until it was hacked due to a security issue with my hosting company. Since then I have not had time to recreate the blog, but learned from the hacking experience, as well. In the future, perhaps I will have time for my own design blog at some point — but for now, due to my job schedule and maintaining all of these other websites, my website is being used as an “improvisational” blog, with the occasional posts on things, as you can see above.On my own website also like to use fun, colorful graphics and images, and spend time creating new headers around the seasons, and holidays. I use the right-hand column of this page for links to other sites that are either design-related, or of some other newsworthy interest. Being a nature-enthusiast, I also have a resources page on the topic of Global Warming which has several links to various environmental websites, articles, and things like videos about this urgent and timelyl topic, and what we can be doing to try to solve it. I also have some website pages devoted just to travel photos from trips, although the France photos have since been replaced with photos from California and Ireland. I may add to this section in the future, when I have more time.
My other website projects include ongoing web
work for The Northern Virginia Chorale, as well as some sites for small businesses and/or individual clients. The Northern Virginia Chorale’s website I frequently update with their seasonal concert information, as well as content for their For Singers’ Only section, which serves as an internal resource of music links and downloadable materials for their voice and learning practice.
Beyond my own freelance work, I have worked as a web content editor and developer
for a number of associations where I have helped to manage larger,
more complicated websites, and created things like e-newsletters,
flyers, and online registration processes. I have also worked with
other graphic design team members to prepare photos and graphics for
both print and web publications. Between my freelance work and the association work, I have experience
with everything from designing the site architecture, navigation,
and graphics; to writing, editing, taking photos, and developing
visual content. My work for the associations such as The Nature Conservancy, has involved creation of new content, adn updating exsiting pages within the larger framework of different content management systems. I also assisted the TNC with a website migration to their new Oracle-based CMS. You can read about all of my website projects by clcking on the individual icons on
myPortfolio projects page.
There
is always something new and exciting happening on the Internet
in terms of technology, but I try to concentrate
my efforts on the things that I know how to do best for
now in web design, and adding to what I know, through reading and keeping up with the trends, depending upon how much time I have to learn new things. I have gained inspiration from reading
other designers’ and bloggers’ websites, like Veerle Pieters’Design Blog, where she has spent much time creating tutorials and writing about graphic deisgn, providing much insight
into both graphic and web design, for designers like me. I find the
web design work to be both fun and challenging, and enjoy
the creative, artistic, as well as the technical aspects
of it. I also like to write and edit, and find that web design
lends itself to all of these things. Before working
as a web designer, I was a paralegal, and have a degree
in political science. However, I have always maintained an avid
interest in things like art as well as graphic design, so
like other career-changers, decided to pursue something
that was more in keeping with my own individual passions
and interests!
Thank you for visiting my site. I appreciate all those visitors who continue to come back.
--
Jacquie Apel
ContaCt:
To
contact me, please use my online
form.
My
web design experience includes working with
the following
graphic design and web design programs:
PROGRAMS: I currently use Dreamweaver CS4, Illustrator CS4
and Photoshop CS. In addition, I have some experience with Flash, as well as InDesign CS3, hand-coding with both
HTML and CSS stylesheets, implementing Javascript,
coding forms to work with various kinds of scripts,
setting up online membership registration processes that use other programming languages, and a basic understanding of the principles of
interface architecture and design. I have worked with a variety of Content Management Systems, in which I have implemented hand-coded scripts, as well as prepared website content in all formats — graphic, photographic, coded HTML, PDF, as well as preparing Flash slideshow presentations.
IN
THE PROCESS OF: Learning
more about current web trends in usability and design,
including HTML 5.0 and other coding languages.
Please
visit my web
resources page
for links to other websites and helpful information
for designers.
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS: 
Recomended reading for the New Year >> 
his web site began as a project for my Interface Design class
at The Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C., where I completed a certificate program in Electronic Publishing/Web Design
in 2001. The assignment was to create a portfolio of our
school work, with an emphasis on a particular theme or skill,
or to show photography and other graphic arts projects.
My site started out as a travel photo portfolio of a trip to France, (the explanation for my url/domain name), along with some of my class projects.
Over time, however, it has expanded to become a web design portfolio site showing
all of my current (and some past) website design projects, which are
displayed on my 
