Smokers to face graphic picture warnings

From The Guardian

(Images from The BBC)

Gruesome images highlighting the harmful effects of smoking will be printed on all cigarette packets sold in the UK from next year, the government said today.
The graphic images, which include pictures of diseased lungs, must be printed on all tobacco products made in the UK by the end of 2009, under the new regulations.

After public consultation 15 images have been chosen to accompany text warnings about smoking related diseases, including lung cancer and heart disease.

The charity Cancer Research UK estimates the images could help an additional 10,000 smokers in England to quit. But smokers' lobby group Forest said they were being 'victimised'.

The health secretary, Alan Johnson, denied that smokers were being 'demonised'. He said the graphic images were necessary because of the diminishing impact of written warnings on tobacco products.

Mr Johnson told GMTV: 'We've had the messages on cigarette packets since 2003, warning that smoking kills, for instance. The evidence is that's very effective, but it's diminishing in its effect.

'Using graphic images to get the same message across - that smoking kills, that people who smoke will die younger, that smoking actually makes your skin age - these are important messages, and if you can introduce graphics into it as well it has a more dramatic effect.'

The chief medical officer for England, Sir Liam Donaldson, added: 'This will help promote better awareness of the damage that smoking does to lives and families, an essential step towards reducing the number of people who start smoking.'

Cigarette packs that only feature written warnings will not be allowed on sale in the UK after September 30 next year. For other tobacco products the deadline is September 30, 2009.

Canada was the first country to put visual warnings on cigarettes in 2000. More than 70% of adults and nearly 90% of youths in Canada believe the images are effective, according to the Department of Health.

A poll of Canadian smokers found that more than half said they smoked less around other people as a result of the graphic images.

In Singapore, where the graphic images were introduced in 2004, a quarter of smokers felt motivated to quit. Professor Robert West, director of tobacco studies at Cancer Research UK, said one study found that 33% of Canadian smokers said they were more likely to quit as a result of seeing the images.

He said that taking into account wishful thinking on the part of smokers wanting to quit, his estimate was that 1 in 1,000 smokers would quit as a result of similar measures in the UK.

'That wouldn't even show as a blip on the official statistics but it equates to around 10,000 people in England alone. That's quite a lot of lives saved,' Prof West said.

So, smokers - what do you think? Will this stop you smoking?

The Seven Levels of Prodct Packaging

"A couple of weeks back Apple came out with a new keyboard, and due to the local Mac retailers not receiving their shipments immediately, I decided to order direct from Apple. I picked up the box today, and expecting something vaguely keyboard-sized, I nearly choked when the receptionist pulled out a rather large box. Inside of which was another box. Inside of which was another box. Not to mention the plastic. Observe:"

Figure: The seven levels of hell product packaging.

(Via mezzoblue.)

Image resizing

Some new software in development. Watch the video and then see if you can guess why I think this is a dreadful idea (even though it's rather clever)

Whoops! She did it again...

Britney Spears's perfume logo is a rip off?



Read this article for the full story. If it's a coincidence it's bizarre. And if it's theft it's brazen.

(Via Daring Fireball)

Font rendering philosophies of Windows and Mac OS X

The way Windows renders type on screen is different to the way the Mac does it. This has long been the case, and one of the reasons the Mac has been preferred by graphic designers. But recently, with the launch of Vista, the argument has been revived with lots of Windows afficionados saying Mac faunts look 'blurred'.

In this article a very simple (and, to me, persuasive) case for the Mac's approach is put forward (to put it in terms others might understand, designing for print on a PC is like designing a dress using a pattern that is distorted so it might fit you horizontally, but it will be too long. Or the other way around. But you won't know until it's made, or you run out of cloth).

But this quote caught my eye:

The issue is reminiscent of the 'I hate black bars on wide-screen films' brigade who believe that the film should be chopped, panned, scaled and otherwise distorted from the artists original intention simply so that it fits better on their display.

Typography has a rich and interesting history developed and honed over centuries. It is a shame to misrepresent typefaces especially as the pixel-grid approach becomes less relevant as displays reach higher resolutions."

Read the full article for more, including links to the various sides in the argument.

Nazi concerns denied as Barclays eagle comes down

More on the Barclays 'Nazi' logo from

The Guardian:

A giant metal eagle has been lowered from the top of one of Barclays' landmark buildings amid claims that the bank is dropping the logo because of the bird's links with Nazi Germany.
Slowly and carefully, the eagle, which weighs more than a tonne, was taken down from its perch on Barclays House in Poole, to the dismay of many residents of the Dorset town.

There have been claims that the Poole eagle has landed because Barclays' proposed Dutch partner, ABN Amro, was queasy about the symbol's Nazi connotations.

Barclays, which has used the eagle brand for more than 300 years, insisted yesterday that the particular symbol at the Poole building was out of date branding - and a more up-to-date eagle symbol was still to be found at Barclays branches and on its cards, cheque books and website.

But a spokesman would not say whether, in that case, a new eagle would ascend in Poole. The spokesman also declined to say if the eagle symbol would survive the proposed merger."

(Read the full article.)

Healthier options 'boost brands'

BBC News reports:

Brands that have responded to consumer demand for healthier products have shown strong UK sales in the past year, a survey suggests.
The study conducted by TNS Worldpanel and Marketing magazine found that Kellogg's was the top grocery brand with sales up 4% to more than £550m.

Walker's Crisps and Coca-Cola - which both launched healthier versions of traditional products also did well. However, alcohol brands were also among those making the biggest gains.

The report said that there were several examples of 'growth following the introduction or repositioning of health benefits'.
Researchers said that the launch of Coke Zero - a sugar free drink - had helped the Coca-Cola brand boost UK sales by 7% in the year to the week ending April 22 2007.

Walker's reduction of saturated fat and introduction of baked crisps was another "key example" of the trend, adding 5% to sales. Another snack brand, Pringles, added 17% to sales, partly through the launch of rice crackers and by highlighting that its crisps had lower fat than many of its rivals.

---

MOST POPULAR TAKE HOME GROCERY BRANDS

1. Kellogg's - £550m (+4%)


2. Heinz - £520m (-1%)


3. Walker's Crisps - £490m (+5%)


4. Cadbury - £490m (-1%)


5. Birds Eye - £465m (-2%)

Sales in year to April 22 2007. Growth in % is year-on-year.

Source: TNS Worldpanel/Marketing magazine

"It's clear which way the wind is blowing - brands ignore the trend toward health at their peril," says Lucy Barrett, deputy editor of Marketing magazine.

---

"Savvy companies such as Walkers and McCain have responded and are now thriving. This year's figures show that consumers are only too willing to punish brands that don't take similar steps."

Despite the trend, alcohol brands were among the biggest selling groceries, with wine maker Gallo adding 33% to its annual sales and lager firm Carling up 26%.

"Whilst we are striving for healthier lifestyles, we still adopt a credit/debt attitude by seeking rewards such as alcohol, to congratulate ourselves for healthy living in other areas," said TNS Worldpanel's research director, Edward Garner.

Sales of Bernard Matthews products fell 17% in the year to about £245m, the survey said, amid concern over the outbreak of bird flu at one of its Norfolk farms.

Ms Barrett said that the negative publicity surrounding Turkey Twizzlers - the processed food much derided by high profile figures such as Jamie Oliver - had also dented its performance.

"It missed the opportunity to use this public exposure for its own benefit," Ms Barrett said.

"Companies often use stories such as these to highlight how committed they are to the public good. It failed to do so, and the subsequent consumer backlash is reflected in a downturn in sales."

Cartoon characters labelled food villains

The Guardian reports:

Food products promoted by popular cartoons and film characters are undermining parents' efforts to make their children eat healthily, according to a survey published by a consumer group today.
It warns that biscuits and other snacks are being advertised as ideal for school lunchboxes when in fact they are high in fat and sugar. The unhealthiest foods include many popular cereals as well as biscuits. Products on the blacklist all attract red "traffic light" labels under the new system introduced by the government's Food Standards Agency.

The series and characters identified by Which? for its Cartoon Heroes and Villains report include The Simpsons, Bratz, Shrek and Spider-Man, as well as new characters created by food companies themselves. Three-quarters of parents interviewed by Which? said they thought it was irresponsible for companies to feature cartoon characters on unhealthy foods and wanted the practice to be stopped. They also objected to marketing practices linking purchases to competitions and promotions on websites.

The report cites Bratz characters appearing on packs of Bon Bon Buddies' Fabulous Biscuits, said to be high in fat, saturates and sugar, and characters from the film Flushed Away on packs of Burton's Jammie Dodgers and on Kellogg's Coco Pops Straws, which are both identified as high in saturates and sugar.

A Happy Feet penguin was used on the box of high-sugar Weetabix chocolate flavour Weetos, and Shrek appeared on packs of Kellogg's Frosties. The Simpsons appeared on Butterkist honey nut popcorn, which is high in sugar, while Spider-Man was used on packs of Nesquik chocolate flavour cereal.

Winnie the Pooh and Tigger appeared on a selection of products including Marks & Spencer's soft fruit gums and Nestlé's little chocolate pots, high in both saturates and sugar. The Pink Panther was used on Northumbrian Fine Foods' Jammy Wheels, which are high in saturates and sugar.

Sue Davies, chief policy adviser of Which?, said: "There are precious few examples of cartoons being used to promote healthy products. Our research shows that the majority are being used to encourage children to eat fatty, sugary and salty foods. We are calling on companies to follow the example of Warner Bros and Disney, and no longer use cartoons to promote unhealthy foods.

"With so many parents fed up with the amount of marketing aimed at their children, it also makes commercial sense for cartoon brands to distance themselves from unhealthy food products. Regulation should be put in place to protect children from all forms of irresponsible marketing of unhealthy foods, whether it's TV advertising, packaging, free gifts or websites."

For its research Which? bought examples of products featuring popular cartoon characters from supermarkets and looked at other food promotions using cartoon characters between March and June. It then questioned 557 UK adults with children under 16 in face-to-face interviews at the beginning of July.

Julian Hunt, director of communications at the Food and Drink Federation, said: "The report is bizarre given that the UK already has some of the strictest regulations in the world when it comes to advertising and promoting food and drink products to children, and industry is fully complying with these rules.

"There are regulations in place that ban the use of licensed characters on TV ads for high fat, sugar and salt products aimed at primary school children or younger."

Kellogg's said in a statement: "No further Kellogg's promotions will use licensed characters; the focus is now on entertainment, health or activity."

The blacklist


Bratz (MGA Entertainment). Bon Bon Buddies Bratz Fabulous Biscuits, promoted as being ideal for lunchboxes, contained 24.6g of fat, 15.4g of saturates and 37.6g of sugar per 100g

The Simpsons (20th Century Fox) were used to promote Honey Nut Popcorn from Butterkist with 41.3g sugar per 100g.

Shrek the Third (Dreamworks) featured on Kellogg's Frosties, with the incentive of a free child's cinema ticket for which it was necessary to collect three different codes from special packs (37g sugar per 100g).

Coco the Monkey (Kellogg's) was shown in ads with other cartoon animals promoting Coco Pops Straws (6g saturates per 100g, 34g sugar per 100g) and other Coco Pops products.

Spider-Man (Marvel) comics came free with Nesquik Chocolate Flavour Cereal (36.1g sugar per 100g).

Pink Panther (MGM). Northumbrian Fine Foods Pink Panther Jammy Wheels contained 10.4g saturates per 100g and 30.1g sugar per 100g.

Source: Which?

Design for the Other 90%

From Design Observer:

The well-documented efforts of other professions to assist impoverished nations is already a part of the legend and legacy of global altruism, but designers often seem woefully behind the times. After ten months in Africa, I recently visited the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum to see Design for the Other 90%. Here, I thought, was an exhibition I could enthusiastically embrace. Unfortunately, I soon learned the culture shock I experience every time I return to America was in no way diminished by an exhibition supposedly sympathetic to the plight of billions of the world’s poorest people."

Read the rest of the article

Dissertation and essay tip: Active and Passive Verbs

Although no one ever believes me until they see it for themselves, one of the bigest problems encountered by people writing dissertations is that they have too many words, not too few.

One of the reasons for this (aside from wanting to say too much or show off all the research you did) is writing in the 'passive voice' rather than the 'active voice'. And easy example of this is "the man was bitten by the dog". That's 'passive' - the object of the sentence (the man) is given the verb (was bitten). Turn it round to read "the dog bit the man" and suddenly not only does it make more sense, more importantly it is more interesting to read and it uses fewer words.

Take a look at these examples:

• "The iPod was designed by Jonathan Ive" -- "Jonathan Ive designed the iPod"


• "Textiles in Dundee were mainly produced by women" -- "women produced the textiles in Dundee"


• "Cash machines are often attacked by vandals" -- "vandals often attack cash machines"


• "A girl's best friends are diamonds" -- "Diamonds are a girl's best friend"
  

Some of these are subtly different, but in each case it is the second version that is more interesting to read and (usually) use fewer words - and trust me, getting the word count down will be a major challenge for many of you!

It's a good idea to get in to the habit of spotting the passive tense in your writing. Look for 'were' or 'was' before verbs, as this is often a clue. But use your word processor's grammar tools too - Microsoft Word has an excellent grammar checker that will identify (and change) passive voice into active voice (although it's not infallible, so don't abdicate responsibility yourself). In fact, failure to use Word's spelling and grammar checkers is another big problem with essays and dissertations - there's really no excuse for poor spelling if you use Word: look for the wavy red lines under words (spelling) and green (grammar) then right-click/control click to see an alternative suggestion.

And don't forget that swapping your writing with a friend is one of the best things you can do - it's difficult to proof your own writing but you will often see mistakes in someone else's that they have missed. So always leave plenty of time for this, or do it regularly.

For more on active and passive verbs see this site.

Are these good or bad business cards?

Here's an interesting article from David Airey on the drawback of novelty in design. Sometimes things are 'obvious' for a reason:

‘Wow! I’ve never seen anything like it!’

Well, where business cards are concerned, there’s normally a very good reason for that.

One idea might, on the surface, seem to be innovative and unique, but sometimes the designer forgets about functionality, and where the card is going to end up.

The image above, showing a design for Eduard Cehovin, is a wooden clothes peg with the contact details printed on. Yes, it’s a novel idea, and some people would think it great if used for a dry cleaner, or laundry service etc., although there’s no functionality. No-one will carry a clothes peg around, nor can they file it or keep it in a business card holder.

Here’s a business card that sprouts vegetation when watered, by Jamie Wieck. It was designed to be kept on your table, but I’m curious, would you really leave a bunch of cress growing on your desktop? Besides, where do you think the card will go when the cress dies?

This rubber business card, created by Chris Hirsch for personal trainer Poul Nielsen, is another unique idea, but without very much functionality. Poul only had 10 of the items made, but last I heard was planning for a reprint, with his tagline on the reverse. Notice how you have to use both hands to read the telephone number? That makes it a two person job to give Poul a call.

In saying all this, these designs prompt people to talk about them. They generate interest. If they were more subtle in appearance I wouldn’t have written this blog post. So are there different functions to a business card? Is a business card used for more than just conveying information?

(Via David Airey :: Creative Design ::.)

"Hotness is always the tie-breaker."

Watashi-chan sound-activated inflatable clothing lets you simulate a blowfish

This entry into the Ima-karada art show in Japan, . Designed by Tomoko Ueyama, the Watashi-chan sound-activated inflatable shirt responds to six frequency bands of sound -- including one inaudible by human ears -- by inflating a corresponding balloon for one second. Since this is purely an art project, it's not meant to be useful, but that doesn't mean we don't want one.

(Via Engadget.)

Critiquing design for sustainability

I like the philosophy in this article, from which I've posted an extract below - that design which only contributes towards offsetting its own environmental impact is not 'good' for the environment, simply not as bad as it could have been.

Perhaps this needs to be considered more widely. The last time I flew I offset the carbon. It only cost £1. Well why not pay £2 and offset the carbon of the person next to me, just in case he hasn't? Or even if he has? Why do we think in terms of ofsetting our personal impact when it would be far more cost-effective and probably easier to jump right in and think more socially.

Would this encourage others not to do it, thinking that do-gooders like me will do it for them? Well not if you subscribe to Richard Dawkin's ideas of altruism in The Selfish Gene where he explains why strangers risk life and limb to save the lives of other people's kids. Because we know that if we do we encourage a society that will look after our own kids when we're not able to.

Unless a 'green' building actively remediates its local environment – for instance, scrubbing toxins from the air or absorbing carbon dioxide – that building is not 'good' for the environment. It's simply not as bad as it could have been.

Buildings aren't (yet) like huge Brita filters that you can install in a city somewhere and thus deliver pure water, cleaner air, better topsoil, or increased biodiversity to the local population.

I hope buildings will do all of that someday – and some architects are already proposing such structures – but, for the most part, today's 'green' buildings are simply not as bad as they could have been.

A high-rise that off-sets some of its power use through the installation of rooftop wind turbines is great: it looks cool, magazine readers go crazy for it, and the building's future tenants save loads of money on electricity bills. But once you factor in these savings, something like the new Castle House eco-skyscraper still ends up being a net drain on the system.

It's not good for the environment; it's just not as bad as it could have been.

(Read the whole thing at BLDGBLOG: Architectural Sustainability.)

Design Gangsta Rap

(Via Noisy Decent Graphics)

Say enough, more. Or how to design the perfect shave.

An interesting article over at

Noisy Decent Graphics, from which just an excerpt (read the whole thing by clicking on the link):

In The Hidden Persuaders [by Vance Packard - well worth hunting down] there's a great story about a guy who was asked to double shampoo sales. He came back and said that they should add the words 'repeat if necessary' to the text on the back of the bottle. Sales doubled almost immediately. OK, I'm paraphrasing that, but you all know the story and you get my point.

Yet again we've taken something that was perfectly good at its job and we've added another layer that actually makes the experience worse not better. Not only that we've made it 'cheap' and 'disposable', the complete opposite of valued.

If we are to take the environment and Reduce, Reuse, Recycle seriously then we've got to stop adding layers of badly designed, badly thought ought extra stuff into everything. We've got to make the best use of the materials available to us. We've got to really think about what we're designing and not just keeping adding blades."

(Via Noisy Decent Graphics.)

The "repeat as necessary" anecdote is similar to the "just add an egg" message I mentioned in a lecture last semester as a way of getting proud 'housewives' to by cake mixes. The addition of an egg made them think they were using skill instead of a packet...

Distressed denim trend costs Mexican farmers the earth

This is why you should read a decent newspaper...



(Above: Untreated waste from a factory that 'distresses' denim for jeans being poured into local water supplies)



(Above: Farmer Mariano Barragan stands on the peeling blue-grey crust left behind on his field. The crust comes from the water he uses to irrigate the land, drawn from a canal allegedly contaminated by the production of distressed jeans)

More photos by Jo Tuckman here

Jo Tuckman in Tehuacán

The Guardian Friday August 17 2007

Mariano Baragán looked down at the blue-grey crust peeling off the field he irrigates from a canal. Nearby factories were the problem - dozens of them, which are dedicated to doing to jeans in hours what used to take years of wear.

'As well as being blue, it burns the seedlings and sterilises the earth,' the 67-year-old subsistence farmer said. And the cause? A wry smile hovered on his lips. 'It's the fashion.'

Fashion is no stranger to suffering, as the peasants in the Tehuacán valley in central Mexico can attest.

Overlooked by volcanoes and laced by underground waterways, the city of Tehuacán was once famous for its mineral springs and spas. The 'city of health' was already in decline by the time the area became a hub for the global denim industry in the 1990s.

More recently competition from Asia and Central America has closed some factories, but Tehuacán still has more than 700 clothes manufacturers. Many of these produce jeans for big US brands as well as lesser-known local labels, which copy the new styles set by the bigger players.

'Jeans were born to be used by workers,' said a local activist, Martín Barrios. 'Now they can cost thousands of dollars and are produced on the backs of exploitation and environmental destruction.'



Mr Barrios and his colleagues in the local Human Rights Commission spend most of their time defending workers' rights in the factories, which range from large well-established facilities to clandestine sweatshops that disappear at the first hint of inspection.

Of most concern environmentally are the laundries where the clothes are sent for distressing. There, jeans are sandpapered, marked with mechanical tools and faded with large quantities of potassium permanganate - a bleaching agent once commonly used to trigger illegal abortions.

Then there is the stonewashing, fabric softening and a final crescendo of washing and rewashing. The clean garments are left ready for sale, while in many factories the chemicals used to treat them are left to flow away in bright indigo waste.

Over the years consciousness-raising campaigns, aided by US-based international solidarity groups, have persuaded the multinationals to pressure Tehuacán's most established factories to fulfil minimum international standards.

Last week inspectors sent by Gap were in town to visit Grupo Navarra - the city's biggest manufacturer, which supplies the multinational - prompted by a dispute involving a group of workers who say they were sacked for trying to form an independent union. The company is one of the few with a water treatment plant on site.

'The contamination is mainly the fault of the companies that act outside the law,' said Juan Carlos López, the firm's chief of health, hygiene and the environment. He points to the transparent water flowing from his plant. 'We are always getting inspected. Nobody inspects the others.'

But activists claim the government is simply not prepared to take on the economic interests of the factory owners.

A substantial array of institutions at local, state and federal level have some degree of responsibility. Those contacted all recognised that the problem is serious, but claimed they were doing everything within their jurisdiction while implying that other authorities were not.

'We don't think that the problem is wearing denim,' Mr Barrios said, standing on a small mountain of blue pumice stone beside the waste canal leaving Tehuacán's Lavacolor laundry. 'The problem is the toxic styles imposed by the big brands.'"

Stranger than Fiction infographics

3D & animated information graphics from the opening sequence of the movie Stranger than Fiction. Visual effects were developed by MK12 studio. (i.e. infographic art, closing credits effects) & Intelligent Creatures (i.e. opening scene, flat demolition).

See also An Inconvenient Truth infographics.

(Via information aesthetics.)

Michael Johnson on the new BBC Radio identities

Michael Johnson writes almost exactly the same thing I woke up this morning thinking about (I really must get out more):

Earlier this year, Fallon beat off several proper design companies to review BBC radio’s idents.

Here was a chance for advertising to flex those design muscles, and show ’em how it’s done. And yes, they are better than they were, but that’s damning with faint praise - look how awful they were before.

Taking their cue from the previous Radio 1 identity (a ‘1’ in a circle) they’ve taken the decision to, er, put all the numbers in circles. Coloured circles, mind you. Some of the numbers have little ‘gags’ - the ‘3’ contains a bass clef (for music, you see), the ‘4’ a quote mark (I guess that must be for talking), and so on.

Not being a Radio 7 listener I presumed it aired DIY shows until it was pointed out that the symbol was a smile, not a bent nail (shame - that’s an interesting idea for a logo).

What was probably quite a neat little system fell apart somewhere between soho and white city - rather than have any gags for radios 1, 2, 5 and 6, we just have coloured numbers. Oh, and some hair for the Asian network. All for 120,000 pounds.

Now don’t get me wrong, I really like Fallon’s work and think they have a better ‘design’ eye than most. But if we’re applying the ‘wish I’d done that’ test, well I don’t. Had this been a blind tasting I’d have guessed this came from a mid-table design company who had their first idea messed up by the client.

Mmm. Maybe this design thing isn’t as easy as it seems?

This is an adaptation of an article by Michael Johnson in this week’s Campaign magazine

(Via the johnson banks thought for the week.)

Facebook can map your encounters

Here's an interesting idea from the uNiversity of Bath. Cityware is a Facebook application that connects to a Bluetooth-enabled device and logs who you encounter throughout the day (assuming they are also on Facebook and using Cityware).

It has a lot of potential in the social networking area. You could, in theory, look at your daily log and then pry in to the personal details of anyone who even so much as wandered past you in the supermarket.

Scary. But there you go. I'm up for giving it a go, in the name of science.

(Of course, it'll give the civil liberties lot nightmares. If the government suggested everyone wander round with devices tracking their movements there'd be uproar. But as it's Facebook, it's okay...)

To sign up you need to visit the Cityware page on Facebook. Oh, and you also need to be living in a Cityware node but there are only three in the world at the moment. However, it's easy to set your own computer up as a node.
So although I'm now using this application, as I don't have any plans to visit UC San Diego, the University of Bath, or UCL in London any time soon it'll be a long time before I pop up on anyone's radar. Unless we can get one started at Dundee. In the interests of science.

On second thoughts I've just thought of several reasons why this might be a bad idea... It would obviate the need for gossip, for one thing. Just check Facebook every morning and you'd immediately see if your suspicions about Jill from Graphics and Fred from Textiles were true (made up names and people, incidentally - heaven forbid I've stumbled on something there!)

What do you think? Would you sign up for it, or is it an invasion of privacy too far?

Stop your food playing with you...

Now this is what product designers can do if they put their mind to it... ;-)

From fingerprints to visual DNA

Of interest if you've ever wondered about copyright and digital media...

From The Guardian:

Computers can recognise faces in pictures, and even (it's often claimed - and disputed) filter out porn images from normal ones. But can they understand what is copyrighted content and what isn't? That's the problem facing engineers at Google-owned video site YouTube. But while the company says it is developing software to do just that, some experts are suggesting that the challenges are more to do with business than technology.

In March, YouTube was served with a $1bn (£497m) copyright infringement lawsuit by Viacom, which claimed that copyright-protected videos had been viewed 1.5bn times on the site. In May, the Football Association Premier League launched a class action lawsuit against YouTube, and has since been joined by other content providers.

The site said recently that it would roll out better technology to help detect copyright-protected video content: 'Apart from being reactive and removing content when asked, what we have in place now is our digital hashing technology.'

When someone uploads a video, YouTube feeds the binary digits making up the file into a program that produces a short alphanumeric string representing that file. Each file's string - or hash - is unique. YouTube can compare the hash for an uploaded video against a database of hashes for copyright files. If it finds a match, it knows that someone else owns the video."

(Full article )

Perceptions of Beauty

If you've not seen it before, this commercial from Dove is quite a good, to-the-point, examination of the way our ideas of 'beauty' are manipulated. The role of Photoshop in all this is something to behold...

Mural competition

Up Against It

The 'Up Against It wall' is seen every day by 2,000 commuters on their way to and from London's city centre.

The competition is open to all types of creative and artistic expression. Your entry will be judged on your response to the words "Closer than you think".

The top 20 entries voted by the public will then be judged a panel of influential artists and designers. The winning entry will be displayed on the 'Up Against It wall' in Deptford, London.

Entries close 1 September...

Inspired: Church Magazines in the 1960s

From Inspired: Church Magazines in the 1960s:

"I love design from the 1960s. The abundance of handcrafted typography and illustration. Layouts inspired by the European avant garde. Design that is beautiful and functional—despite the mysterious absence of drop shadows, rounded corners, and gradients. On this mini-site are examples of great 1960s design I found when helping my mother-in-law move a few years ago. The spreads and detail shots are from ‘The Improvement Era’, the precursor to ‘The Ensign’, a publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."

Take a look at the site.)

YouGov needs you! (And will pay...)

Ever wondered who takes part in opinion polls? YouGov, a web-based polling company, is recruiting participants. All you have to do is sign up on their web site and reply to any emails they send you. You don't have to take part in every survey but for those you do take part in, your account will be credited with 50p. When you've got £50 in your account they will send you a cheque. (You will be credited with £1.00 when you sign up).

If nothing else, it's a way to earn a bit of cash ;-)

Surveys are commissioned by clients on everything from voting intentions to shopping habits. But you won't be hounded with spam or marketing messages from clients - your details are confidential.

Click here to sign up and feel free to pass the information on.

CBBC rebrands to focus on older children

"The BBC has unveiled a new look for CBBC as part of a relaunch of the children's channel to appeal to the older end of its six- to 12-year-old target demographic."

New logo:



Current logo:



Full story at The Guardian.

British Jewellers' Association

The British Jewellers' Association "is the national trade association which promotes and protects the growth and prosperity of UK jewellery and silverware suppliers. With almost 800 member companies, BJA represents manufacturers, bullion suppliers, casting houses, diamond and gem dealers, designer jewellers, silversmiths, craftsmen and women, equipment suppliers, wholesalers, galleries, internet retailers and traders."

Their site contains news of exhibitions and competitions, jobs and lots of other information.

Jewellery students and graduates can sign up for the BJA's free e-mail newsletter. According to the BJA, "this contains news and information to support the development of your career or business". Download the form (Word document).

Jewellery blog from Glasgow

I found this rather interesting blog from Abigail Percy, a Glasgow-based jewellery designer. Worth subscribing to: lots of information on working processes etc

Interactive textiles

Two textile posts today:

Two different concepts of wearable displays (or 'performative textiles') shown at the recent siggraph conference.



Kameraflage (left) is a display garment with elements that appear only in digital photographs as a sort of digital camouflage. for instance, students at private schools & employees of chain-stores will be able to express themselves to their camera phone toting peers. (More details here)

Animated Textiles (right) uses cloth as an animated surface that is receptive & responsive to external stimuli. all electronic components such as LED lights & circuits are fully integrated into the fabric. in the future, both cloth & clothing will be able to display real-time data input from a variety of sources (see this site for full details on the research)

(Via Infosthetics.)

Gravitas versus graphics: ITV news to ditch the gimmicks

The Guardian reports:

ITV is to go back to basics with its news bulletins and cut back on gimmicks. Ever since Kirsty Young changed convention by perching on a desk at Five News, broadcasters have been striving for new ways to make news bulletins more innovative and informal.
Bulletins have also increasingly relied on the more hi-tech graphics pioneered by 24-hour news channels. However, sources say ITV plans to ensure there are fewer distractions for viewers and is planning 'more substance' to its news bulletins.

Proposed changes are understood to include allowing ITV's 6.30pm bulletin anchors Mark Austin and Mary Nightingale to sit down to read the news. Their height difference has often caused comment.

According to sources, ITV's director of news and sport, Mark Sharman, is reviewing all areas of the output and prefers gravitas to graphics.

Personally I think this is great. I can't watch the news these days for all the flashy animations and other graphics. Hopefully they'll also get rid of the 'tell us what you think' rubbish as well...

Making pictures from strips of cloth isn't art at all - but it mocks art's pretentions to the core

Interesting article from The Guardian on a new artwork made from textiles:

What could be the point of such an exercise in futility? The work of art is supposed to defy time but fabric is bound to fade and rot, even when it is kept in between layers of tissue paper and shut away from sight.

There's nothing new in this kind of heroic pointlessness; women have frittered their lives away stitching things for which there is no demand ever since vicarious leisure was invented. Mrs Delaney was spending hours of concentration making effigies of flowers out of bits of coloured paper mounted on black card as long ago as 1771. Why didn't she just paint them? You can see her paper mosaics in the Enlightenment gallery of the British Museum, if you insist, but be warned. You could end up profoundly depressed by yet more evidence that, for centuries, women have been kept busy wasting their time.

It is really difficult to make a picture out of scraps of printed cloth. It is not in the least difficult to buy a kit with pre-cut colour-coordinated scraps and toil away at ironing the pieces round the paper cut-outs, pressing their faces together, stitching them from behind and ironing them flat, until you've recreated the quilt in the illustration, but even then you can't read or watch telly or even think while you're doing it. There was a time when women made patchworks together, in quilting bees, and chatted as they worked. The materials were worn-out clothing and aprons; the pattern was a variant on a stock pattern, learned from the older women and modified to fit the circumstances. Such quilts are dignified, dense and often very beautiful objects. They have no pretensions to being works of art, or had none until some impious philistine decided to stretch them flat and hang them on walls. The same thing happened to the Navajo blanket. Taut against the walls of the Whitney museum, the lightning blankets that used to flash and flicker on the plains are dead as shot crows on a fence."

Read the full article here.

Die Speech Bubble Logo, Die.

From The Eachday Blog:

"It’s frothy out there in web round 2, assuming we’re in round 2, and all those bubbles really add to the effect. Each day, I see more than one new speech bubble logo. Am I the only one who thinks this has passed the point of group think, and entered the realm of comedy?

As a catch-all symbol, the speech bubble is tough to resist. It contains what everyone wants to say about the ‘new’ web: user-generated, communication, collaboration, commenting, social media, community, self-published, my voice, our voice, rating, ranking, sharing and the rest. On top of that, it’s simple with a minimum of line, approachable and cuddly, and you can always count on people getting it. What more could a would-be communicator want?

But, it’s over. The day has come to pronounce from far and wide – ‘Attention all startups, it’s a bad idea to hang your ID hat on a speech bubble. Just don’t.’

Here is just a fraction of what’s going down out there in Web Bubble Logo Land. This is what happens when the perfect symbol, a symbol so good that it does all the thinking for you, gets together with a sea of designers who aren’t thinking enough"

Eight ways to drive a graphic designer mad.

From ghisroy.com - Rants, Comics & other Sillyness:

As everyone knows, graphic designers are the reason there are so many wars in this world. They get inside our heads with their subliminal advertising, force us against our will to spend money on the worst pieces of shit, and eventually, drive us to depression and random acts of violence. And of course, most of them are communists.

So to do my part to save the world from them, i made a list of things you can do when working with a graphic designer, to assure that they have a burn-out and leave this business FOREVER.

1-Microsoft Office

When you have to send a graphic designer a document, make sure it's made with a program from Microsoft Office. PC version if possible. If you have to send pictures, you'll have more success in driving them mad if, instead of just sending a jpeg or a raw camera file, you embed the pictures inside a Microsoft Office document like Word or Powerpoint. Don't forget to lower the resolution to 72 dpi so that they'll have to contact you again for a higher quality version. When you send them the 'higher' version, make sure the size is at least 50% smaller. And if you're using email to send the pictures, forget the attatchment once in a while.

2-Fonts

If the graphic designer chooses Helvetica for a font, ask for Arial. If he chooses Arial, ask for Comic Sans. If he chooses Comic Sans, he's already half-insane, so your job's half done.

3-More is better

Let's say you want a newsletter designed. Graphic designers will always try to leave white space everywhere. Large margins, the leading and kerning of text, etc. They will tell you that they do this because it's easier to read, and leads to a more clean, professional look. But do not believe those lies. The reason they do this is to make the document bigger, with more pages, so that it costs you more at the print shop. Why do they do it? Because graphic designers hate you. They also eat babies. Uncooked, raw baby meat.

So make sure you ask them to put smaller margins and really, really small text. Many different fonts are also suggested (bonus if you ask for Comic Sans, Arial or Sand). Ask for clipart. Ask for many pictures (if you don't know how to send them, refer to #1). They will try to argument, and defend their choices but don't worry, in the end the client is always right and they will bow to your many requests.

4-Logos

If you have to send a graphic designer a logo for a particular project, let's say of a sponsor or partner, be sure to have it really really small and in a low-res gif or jpeg format. Again, bonus points if you insert it in a Word document before sending it. Now you might think that would be enough but if you really want to be successful in lowering the mental stability of a graphic designer, do your best to send a version of the logo over a hard to cut-out background. Black or white backgrounds should be avoided, as they are easy to cut-out with the darken or lighten layer style in photoshop. Once the graphic designer is done working on that bitmap logo, tell him you need it to be bigger.

If you need a custom made logo, make your own sketches on a napkin. Or better yet, make your 9 year old kid draw it. Your sketch shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to make. You don't want to make something that's detailed and easy to understand, because the less the designer understands what you want, the more you can make him change things afterwards. Never accept the first logo. Never accept the 9th, make him do many changes, colors, fonts & clip art. Ask him to add a picture in the logo. Bevels. Gradients. Comic Sans. And when he's at his 10th attempt, tell him that you like the 2nd one the most. I know, it's mean but remember: graphic designers are the cause of breast cancer among middle aged women.

5-Choosing your words

When describing what you want in a design, make sure to use terms that don't really mean anything. Terms like 'jazz it up a bit' or 'can you make it more webbish?'. 'I would like the design to be beautiful' or 'I prefer nice graphics, graphics that, you know, when you look at them you go: Those are nice graphics.' are other options. Don't feel bad about it, you've got the right. In fact, it's your duty because we all know that on fullmoons, graphic designers shapeshift into werewolves.

6-Colors

The best way for you to pick colors (because you don't want to let the graphic designer choose) is to write random colors on pieces of paper, put them in a hat and choose. The graphic designer will suggest to stay with 2-3 main colors at the most, but no. Choose as many as you like, and make sure to do the hat thing in front of him. While doing it, sing a very annoying song.

7-Deadlines

When it's your turn to approve the design, take your time. There is no rush. Take two days. Take six. Just as long as when the deadline of the project approaches, you get back to the designer with more corrections and changes that he has time to make. After all, graphic designers are responsible for the 911 attacks.

8-Finish him

After you've applied this list on your victim, it is part of human nature (although some would argue weather they're human or not) to get a bit insecure. As he realises that he just can't satisfy your needs, the graphic designer will most likely abandon all hopes of winning an argument and will just do whatever you tell him to do, without question. You want that in purple? Purple it is. Six different fonts? Sure!

You would think that at this point you have won, but don't forget the goal of this: he has to quit this business. So be ready for the final blow: When making final decisions on colors, shapes, fonts, etc, tell him that you are disappointed by his lack of initiative. Tell him that after all, he is the designer and that he should be the one to put his expertise and talent at work, not you. That you were expecting more output and advices about design from him.

Tell him you've had enough with his lack of creativity and that you would rather do your own layouts on Publisher instead of paying for his services. And there you go. You should have graphic designer all tucked into a straight jacket in no time!

It's funny 'cos it's true...

Design's three ways of working?

There's an interesting interview with Jakob Nielsen, the web usability 'guru' over at The Guardian that's well worth a read.

My eye was caught by this line:

"all designs work in three main ways: visceral, behavioural and reflective."

In short, what does it look like, what does it make you do, and what does it say about the person/company?

To find out more, and read the whole interview (of interest even if you're not in to web design) visit the Guardian site.)

BBC to screen history of comics

The Guardian reports:

"BBC4 is to explore the world of British comics in a new season of programmes that includes a history of the genre and a documentary in which Jonathan Ross goes in search of his hero.
The three-part Comics Britannia will look at classic comic strips from the past 70 years from the Beano to Bunty, Commando to Viz and Eagle to 2000AD.

Narrated by The Thick of It creator Armando Iannucci, the series will feature those who wrote and illustrated the strips, comic experts and a range of celebrity fans who will relive their favourite moments and characters.

The Bash Street Kids, Dennis the Menace, Roy of The Rovers, the Fat Slags, Watchmen and V for Vendetta will all be brought to life."

Apparently it wil be part of the Autumn schedules. One to look out for...

Read the full article.

New York subway map arguments

A great article at Johnson Banks on the merits (or otherwise) of the various New York Subway maps:

We followed a link recently to an article that interviewed the designer of the NYC Subway map, Michael Hertz. Now we’ll admit to being slightly behind this debate on this side of the pond, but we get the feeling that Hertz’s map is still widely disliked by many people. But it has frustrated nearly everyone by still being there, 30 years later.

Hertz himself obviously prides himself on this and says ‘it is a 30 year-old design. This kind of longevity is virtually unheard of in the transit business with the exception of London’.

Ah yes. London. That’s the fly in the ointment here. New York’s closet modernists love to gripe about the fact that they had a design worthy of Harry Beck’s masterpiece in the shape of Vignelli’s 45 degree tour-de-force, but that was chucked out after a decade by the Manhattan Transit Authority (MTA).

Truth is Vignelli’s was a map made for dry mounting and putting on a wall, not being used, but Hertz’s organic monster (recently called a ‘mongrel’ by the New York Times) is surely the worst subway map of the world’s great cities. This is its current incarnation. Lovely.

Here’s London’s, as if you needed any reminding.

And Paris.

And Berlin.

And Tokyo. (OK it looks challenging but it does cover a city of 30 million people, and it works).

Luckily Hertz’s proposed re-design of London’s map based on ‘modified geography’ has never seen the light of day (we can only guess it would mean something a little like this).

In case you’ve never seen it, London’s map (prior to Beck’s brainwave) was an organic disaster zone too (apologies to any living relatives of its designer, a Mr Fred Stingemore. True).

It seems that Hertz is a little riled by a newcomer to this story, in the shape of the Kick Map, designed by Eddie Jabbour. It looks like this.

And putting the two maps end to end, you can see the difference.

You don’t have to be either a brain surgeon or indeed a map designer to work out which one is working for us. And looking at these kind of discussions, a lot of New Yorkers seem to agree.

The main complaint about the proposal seems to be that Jabbour’s design has concentrated on the tube lines and abandoned any real pretence of being a road map of Manhattan at the same time, which might leave people disorientated when leaving a station. But if a medieval city layout like London can survive without a definitive street map, why should Manhattan (based, after all on a grid system) need one? It takes ten seconds at the most to orientate yourself on any Manhattan corner - ever tried working out which exit you need to take at Bank station in London, or Shinjuku? Now that’s difficult.

Of course you have the occasional geographical quirk with simplified maps, such as the two stops on the London map, Charing Cross and Embankment being a couple of hundred yards apart, not the mile it might seem on the map. And there’s the thousands of tourists who diligently change lines to get to Covent Garden not knowing it’s just a minute’s walk from Leicester Square. These are just little design ‘trades’ we make in return for clarity.

Apparently the Kick Map has been rejected by the MTA who still say they prefer what they have, clinging on to some weird and rather quaint notion of geographical accuracy. Trouble is they seem to have forgotten that most first time visitors to New York will look at the MTA map, recoil in horror and use the simpler one in their guide book.

We’d take clarity over chaos any day of the week.

(Via the johnson banks thought for the week.)

Bid to cut crime with new design

According to the BBC:

"The government is launching a new drive to cut crime through innovative design.
It wants designers to develop new theft-proof products to try to reduce the number of items being stolen.

These would include things such as theft-proof bikes and buildings which are more difficult to break into.

The Home Office says one example is the 51 per cent fall in vehicle crime which can be attributed to design improvements such as immobilisers and toughened glass.

The Design and Technology Alliance will be made up of a panel of independent experts, who will work with the design industry to develop new products.

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said clever designs alone cannot stop a criminal.

'Designing to prevent a crime isn't the only solution. Of course tough law enforcement goes alongside that and criminals will always try to get round the new techniques that are in place.

'But I think that what you can say is that improved design makes a phenomenal difference.'"

See also:

Design Against Crime

The Home Office Design Against Crime site

DAC @ Central St Martins

Furniture puts on chameleon show

From the BBC:

"An interactive table and chairs that can change colour has been developed by Japanese researchers.
On display at the Siggraph show, the Fuwapica furniture uses sensors embedded in the table-top to work out the colour of items placed upon it.



The colour of the stools then change to match the colour of whatever has been placed on the sensitive table-top.

Sensors in the stools also work out the weight of anyone sat on them - heavier people are treated to darker shades.



The circular table acts as the central control point for the four stools. Sensors sit beneath a glass plate on the top of the table and scan any object placed on it.

The sensors bounce red, green and blue light off the objects in frequencies that humans cannot see and records which hues are reflected.

An Apple Mac buried in the table then sends wireless messages to the four stools, which project light through their translucent shells to match, as closely as possible, the colour of the object on the table top.

The colours are also made to pulse lighter and darker at about the same tempo of human breathing in a bid to make the stools seem more life-like.

Placing many objects on the table-top makes the system mix and merge colours to match the shades seen in the collection of artefacts.

The designers suggest that people can change the colour of the chairs to match their mood.

Dreamed up by Shinya Matsuyama and colleagues from the Studio Mongoose design company in Japan, the Fuwapica furniture draws on the country's ancient notions that gods inhabit every manmade artefact, be it chopsticks, dishes or tables.

The designers say that instead of furniture being inert and silent, it should be given a chance to interact with the people that use it."

I'm not sure the weight-detecting thing will go down particularly well with your guests, though you could use it at an all-you-can-eat buffet to highlight the gannets...

Legal fight over red cross symbol

The BBC is reporting a legal fight over red cross symbol:

Medical firm Johnson & Johnson (J&J) is suing the American Red Cross, alleging the charity has misused the famous red cross symbol for commercial purposes.
J&J said a deal with the charity's founder in 1895 gave it the 'exclusive use' of the symbol as a trademark for drug, chemical and surgical products.

It said American Red Cross had violated this agreement by licensing the symbol to other firms to sell certain goods.

The charity described the lawsuit as 'obscene'.

It said many of the products at issue were health and safety kits and that profits from their sale had been used to support disaster-relief campaigns.

The lawsuit asks for sales of disputed products - also including medical gloves, nail clippers, combs and toothbrushes - to be stopped and unsold items to be handed over to J&J."

Read the rest....

Makes you feel all warm inside, doesn't it?

Conservatives rebrand - again

Design Week reports:

The Conservative Party is changing its tree logo from green (above) to blue, less than a year after its launch.

The identity redesign retains the scribbled tree shape, but it is now sky blue and features a cloud and a ray of sunlight.

The £40 000 scribbled tree logo was created by London design group Perfect Day to replace the flaming ‘freedom’ torch identity, which was introduced in 1977.

The new logo invited criticism when it was unveiled in September 2006, being compared to a child’s drawing, broccoli, and a coin scratch on a lottery card.

Party officials said last year that the tree represented ‘strength, endurance, renewal and growth’, and emphasised the party’s Green credentials.

Onlookers are speculating that the change in hue is calculated to appease the Party’s right-wing members, coming at a time when party leader David Cameron’s authority has been under attack. A party spokesperson responded by saying that the Tory logo was always intended to be flexible, to ‘display any number of background images’.

At the party’s spring conference, the logo was covered with blossom, while at the autumn conference in October it was given a yellowish tinge.

Mobile snaps reveal invisible art

From BBC News:

"Scottish researchers are turning to camera phones to help bridge the virtual and real worlds.
Using image-matching algorithms the researchers have found a way to adorn the real world with digital content.



The technology has already been used to create a guide of Edinburgh that allows people to find vitual artworks placed around the city using their mobile. Another related project uses the technology to automatically update a person's blog with their location.

'It's about using a camera phone as a magic wand,' said Dr Mark Wright of the Division of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh who came up with the idea.

At the heart of Spellbinder, as the project is known, is a database of all the places that participants have added data to. People query it by taking a snap of a location with their phone then using multimedia text messages to send it to Spellbinder. Dr Wright said powerful image-matching algorithms are used to analyse the image that can deal with snaps of the same place being taken under different lighting conditions or orientations.

Once Spellbinder has worked out the location of an image it consults the database and sends back an image with the extras added to it.

Previous projects to augment the real world with digital content used barcodes on objects or a software download that participants installed on their phones. But barcodes required someone to go out labelling everything, Dr Wright said, and software can be hard to maintain and tweak for every possible handset that could use it.



The first use of the system has been in an Invisible Art project set in Edinburgh. This, said Dr Wright, encouraged people to explore the city and take snaps of landmarks to see whether others had added anything to them.

A game has also been developed using the system in which players wear a large individual image on their body and are given a 'base' or location to protect. Points are given for shooting snaps of the images on rival players' clothes or of their base.

Another project called Comera could be a boon to keen bloggers or users of social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace as it consults the Spellbinder database to automatically update webpages with location data. Although Spellbinder has been used to spot locations it could, said Dr Wright, be used to match almost anything.

'With Spellbinder, the real world becomes a computational resource,' he said.

The project was unveiled at the Siggraph show held in San Diego, US from 5-9 August."

Study: Food in McDonald's wrapper tastes better to kids

According to CNN.com:

"Anything made by McDonald's tastes better, preschoolers said in a study that powerfully demonstrates how advertising can trick the taste buds of young children.

Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.

The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald's foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost the taste test.

'You see a McDonald's label and kids start salivating,' said Diane Levin, a childhood development specialist who campaigns against advertising to kids. She had no role in the research.

Levin said it was 'the first study I know of that has shown so simply and clearly what's going on with (marketing to) young children.'

Study author Dr. Tom Robinson said the kids' perception of taste was 'physically altered by the branding.' The Stanford University researcher said it was remarkable how children so young were already so influenced by advertising.

The study involved 63 low-income children ages 3 to 5 from Head Start centers in San Mateo County, Calif. Robinson believes the results would be similar for children from wealthier families.

The research, appearing in August's Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, was funded by Stanford and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The study is likely to stir more debate over the movement to restrict ads to kids. It comes less than a month after 11 major food and drink companies, including McDonald's, announced new curbs on marketing to children under 12.

McDonald's says the only Happy Meals it will promote to young children will contain fruit and have fewer calories and less fat.

'This is an important subject and McDonald's has been actively addressing it for quite some time,' said company spokesman Walt Riker. 'We've always wanted to be part of the solution and we are providing solutions.'

But Dr. Victor Strasburger, an author of an American Academy of Pediatrics policy urging limits on marketing to children, said the study shows too little is being done.

'It's an amazing study and it's very sad,' Strasburger said.

'Advertisers have tried to do exactly what this study is talking about -- to brand younger and younger children, to instill in them an almost obsessional desire for a particular brand-name product,' he said.

Just two of the 63 children studied said they'd never eaten at McDonald's, and about one-third ate there at least weekly. Most recognized the McDonald's logo but it was mentioned to those who didn't.

The study included three McDonald's menu items -- hamburgers, chicken nuggets and french fries -- and store-bought milk or juice and carrots. Children got two identical samples of each food on a tray, one in McDonald's wrappers or cups and the other in plain, unmarked packaging. The kids were asked whether they tasted the same or whether one was better. (Some children didn't taste all the foods.)

McDonald's-labeled samples were the clear favorites. French fries were the biggest winner; almost 77 percent said the labeled fries tasted best while only 13 percent preferred the others.

Fifty-four percent preferred McDonald's-wrapped carrots versus 23 percent who liked the plain-wrapped sample.

The only results not statistically clear-cut involved the hamburgers, with 29 kids choosing McDonald's-wrapped burgers and 22 choosing the unmarked ones.

Fewer than one-fourth of the children said both samples of all foods tasted the same.

Pradeep Chintagunta, a University of Chicago marketing professor, said a fairer comparison might have gauged kids' preferences for the McDonald's label versus another familiar brand, such as Mickey Mouse.

'I don't think you can necessarily hold this against' McDonald's, he said, since the goal of marketing is to build familiarity and sell products.

He noted that parents play a strong role in controlling food choices for children so young.

But Robinson argued that because young children are unaware of the persuasive intent of marketing, 'it is an unfair playing field"

(Via CNN.)

Photo tool could fix bad images

BBC News reports:

Digital photographers could soon be able to erase unwanted elements in photos by using tools that scan for similar images in online libraries.
Research teams have developed an algorithm that uses sites like Flickr to help discover light sources, camera position and composition in a photo.

Using this data the tools then search for objects, such as landscapes or cars, that match the original.

The teams aim to create image libraries that anyone can use to edit snaps.

James Hays and Alexei Efros from Carnegie Mellon University have developed an algorithm to help people who want to remove bits of photographs.

The parts being removed could be unsightly lorries in the snaps of the rural idyll where they took a holiday or even an old boyfriend or girlfriend they want to rub out from a photograph.

(In the example above, the house in the first photo has been isolated and replaced with boats and the rest of the lake found in someone else's photo of the same scene, taken at a different spot)

To find suitable matching elements, the research duo's algorithm looks through a database of 2.3 million images culled from Flickr.

'We search for other scenes that share as closely as possible the same semantic scene data,' said Mr Hays, who has been showing off the project at the computer graphics conference Siggraph, in San Diego.

In this sense 'semantic' means composition. So a snap of a lake in the foreground, hills in a band in the middle and sunset above has, as far as the algorithm is concerned, very different 'semantics' to one of a city with a river running through it.

The broad-based analysis cuts out more than 99.9% of the images in the database, said Mr Hays. The algorithm then picks the closest 200 for further analysis.

Next the algorithm searches the 200 to see if they have elements, such as hillsides or even buildings, the right size and colours for the hole to be filled.

The useful parts of the 20 best scenes are then cropped, added to the image being edited so the best fit can be chosen.

Early tests of the algorithm show that only 30% of the images altered with it could be spotted, said Mr Hays.

The other approach aims to use net-based image libraries to create a clip-art of objects that, once inserted into a photograph, look convincing.


'We want to generate objects of high realism while keeping the ease of use of a clip art library,' said Jean-Francois Lalonde of Carnegie Mellon University who led the research.

To generate its clip art for photographs the team has drawn on the net's Label Me library of images which has many objects, such as people, trees and cars, cut out and tagged by its users.

The challenge, said Mr Lalonde, was working out which images in the Label Me database will be useful and convincing when inserted into photographs.

The algorithm developed by Mr Lalonde and his colleagues at Carnegie Mellon and Microsoft Research analyses scenes to find out the orientation of objects and the sources of light in a scene.

'We use the height of the people in the image to estimate the height of the camera used to take the picture,' he said.

The light sources in a scene are worked out by looking at the distribution of colour shades within three broad regions, ground, vertical planes and sky, in the image.

With knowledge about the position, pitch and height of the camera and light sources the algorithm then looks for images in the clip art database that were taken from similar positions and with similar pixel heights.

The group has created an interface for the database of photo clipart so people can pick which elements they want to add to a scene."

Digital art aids health checkups

Duncan of Jordanstone in the news. I saw some of these images earlier this year and they're a bit odd - they make serious illnesses look almost beautiful...

(Click here to watch a video)

"Doctors are turning to graphic artists to help patients better understand their illness and course of treatment.

The artists turn medical images from 3D anatomical scans into less formidable forms, suitable for patients.

Trials of the system have shown it can aid understanding and deepen dialogue between patients and their care givers.

The system is also being used as part of a project to raise awareness among diabetics of some of the most serious side-effects of their condition.

'Doctors talk shop, which can be difficult for patients to penetrate,' said John McGhee, a PhD student and 3D computer artist from the University of Dundee, who helped to direct the visualisation project.

The tools and methods used to pass on information about illnesses and cures were as various as the doctors themselves, Mr McGhee said.

'None are that great,' he said.

But, by producing simplified images from detailed MRI scans, for example, patients can get a far better grasp of what is happening inside them, how it came about, and what is being done about it, he said.



(image of cancer cells)

The effect of the images has been used in a study of 18 patients suffering from arteriosclerosis, an illness that causes hardening of the arteries which can, over time, lead to heart attacks and stroke.

Initially, Mr McGhee said, the trial was all about whether the patients - average age 71 - could understand what the images depicted.

But, he said, it proved its effectiveness in other ways too.

'It was about imparting information but more importantly about getting a dialogue going on to help to get the patient discussing what is going on,' he said.

Exposure to the images also helped in subsequent discussions, said Mr McGhee.

'When they talk to health professionals and go armed with better questions and knowledge of their anatomy,' he said.

In a related project, computer graphics derived from medical images are being used in a bid to prompt diabetics to keep an eye on their health.

Diabetes-induced blindness goes through several distinct stages

Run by PhD student Emma Fyfe, also from the University of Dundee, the project has produced a five minute film that explores the effect diabetes has on the retina.

In some cases diabetes can cause abnormalities in the blood vessels serving the retina and make sight deteriorate.

It was important for diabetics to have regular scans to catch the side effects of diabetes at the earliest opportunity, she said.

'If they catch it early they can stop it,' said Ms Fyfe. 'But they cannot go backwards; they cannot cure it.'

The film has been shown to the Scottish Diabetes Group and there are plans to show it to other groups around the UK.

The research was shown off at the Siggraph computer graphics convention being held in San Diego, US from 5-9 August."

Dundee 'best value' for students

The BBC is reporting that according to the Royal Bank of Scotland "Dundee is the most cost-effective place in Scotland to study, according to a survey of students' spending habits.

The city came top in a value-for-money comparison, ahead of Glasgow, St Andrews, Aberdeen and Edinburgh.

The research from the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) found Dundee had lower living costs and higher wages for part-time jobs.

The report said students in Dundee could be more than £1,100 a year better off than those in the Scottish capital.

The survey found that the average Dundee student would spend £134 on rent and bills, and earn £113 in one week."

So no complaints when we ask you to buy the occasional book...

Arabic typography website

A couple of years ago a Korean student of mine explained to me how the Korean writing system worked - it was very ordered and logical and made a lot of sense. I noticed she had a few tourist leaflets with her for Brighton and London, in Korean, and that the typefaces were quite different on each. It hadn't really occurred to me before that you could have serif, sans serif, modern and antique Korean typefaces before (because I'd never really thought about it) and I began to realise that I'd only ever seen 'foreign' type on documents intended for western audiences -hence Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic always looked 'traditional' (the way 'ye olde' English is always rendered in illegible Germanic type, I suppose.)

Anyway, the world of non-western typography is a rich one worth looking in to. Gill Sans for Chinese? Helvetica for Urdu?

The image above is from an interesting project, the Khatt Network for Arabic Typography:

The Typographic Matchmaking project was initiated by the Khatt Foundation (Amsterdam), in April 2005. The Khatt Foundation selected and invited five renown Dutch designers and matched each one of them with an established and upcoming Arab designer.

The aim was to facilitate a collaboration bewteen the Dutch and Arab designers in order to design Arabic typefaces that match and can become part of the font family of one of the Dutch designers’ existing font families. The main thrust of the project is to address the modernisation of Arabic text faces that can provide design solutions for legible Arabic fonts that answer the contemporary design needs in the Arab world (namely for publications and new digital media applications).

This project raises some interesting issues, in particular the one of how the symbolism of an 'exotic' or 'alien' language rendered in an 'exotic' or 'alien' way contributes to the alienation of the community that uses it. (The matter of 'modernisation' might also be another issue for some.)

Could rendering Arabic in western typefaces really be such a simple way of breaking down cultural barriers? It's an interesting idea.