5 ms·

Don't want to sound rude, but the lens ("I made this") has pretty bad type work. Kerning is off, the curve is not right (http://i.imgur.com/tpDqv.png http://i.i

by dchest 16y ago

Don't want to sound rude, but the lens ("I made this") has pretty bad type work. Kerning is off, the curve is not right (http://i.imgur.com/tpDqv.png http://i.imgur.com/tpDqv.png). The drop shadow is also strange. Overall, there's not enough attention to detail.

ianhawes 16y ago
I would never want to work with someone as negative as you.
- dchest 16y ago
  I'm not sure I understand: are employers supposed to be positive and not critical when hiring people? It's a designer showing her work to a potential employer. I made a comment that her work is not yet good enough, there are certainly areas which she can improve. As for your ad hominem: I'm not actually a negative person.
- apl 16y ago
  Some people don't enjoy working in pseudo-positive and falsely encouraging environments that give second-rate work an undeserved pass. There's something motivating about standards and demands.
  - phillmv 16y ago
    The problem is too many people, much like about half the people commenting here, confuse that with being an insufferable prick.
- zecho 16y ago
  The critique might have been harsh, but it was also constructive. It's not like he came out and called her work crap. He gave useful feedback on the design.
- dusing 16y ago
  He's not being negative he is critiquing a designer's work on the merit of that work. These are facts.
- kmfrk 16y ago
  He prefaces it by saying that there is no offence intended. Even if it may come across as negative, it's clearly in the best interest based on the preface.
kenjackson 16y ago
Curious, can you point me to your sites design?
- dchest 16y ago
  Why do you want to look at my site? Will this somehow make my points invalid? :-) Oh, this guy can't design, so no, kerning is right. I'm not a designer, and although I design everything for my products myself, I don't pretend that my design work is good; hell, I know that I lack attention to detail, and I'll be the first person to criticize my work. If you insist, here you go: http://www.codingrobots.com/ http://www.codingrobots.com/ (the most recent thing I drew was this, I think: http://www.codingrobots.com/images/cathodique_128.png http://www.codingrobots.com/images/cathodique_128.png [this reminded me that this product is dead, and I need to release this icon into the public domain], and I can point out why it's not good, and why it's the best I can do at this moment). BTW, I'm not looking for a job. Edit: while the spotlight is on my, I'd like to say that design is a very fricking hard work. Every time I try to draw an icon or position elements on a web page, it's like going to hell -- it takes forever and causes pains. Programming is easier ;-)
  - swix 16y ago
    I don't really think the critique of the lens was valid. I don't see the point, "lack of detail?" Maybe it wasn't meant to have detail in the first place? It's like if I would say that "You only used bewels in PS" for your little "drawing", I mean it's sort of pointless.
  - kenjackson 16y ago
    Why do you want to look at my site? Will this somehow make my points invalid? :-) Oh, this guy can't design, so no, kerning is right. No, it doesn't make it any more invalid. BUT I looked a the lens and didn't see a problem with it, and overall thought the design seemed pretty good. With your critique I was hoping to see what someone with a very sharp eye for design would actually put in production.
    - dchest 16y ago
Splines 16y ago
I was also confused by it. I was wondering if she worked for Leica at some point (i.e., she designed a camera lens?). Only by reading your critique can I guess that she drew it. It looks pretty good, although the kerning problems with the text is a little distracting.
geekfactor 16y ago
I didn't notice this at first glance but I definitely see it and agree now that you mention it. Not only is the type off but when I look very carefully at the lens the overall construction feels off-balance to me. It feels like the lens is being looked at slightly off center, e.g. the individual lens elements (circles) are off center. All that said, I still think this is a totally awesome site and I hope she gets the job!
Samuel_Michon 16y ago
I’m disappointed by her use of straight apostrophes (') in contractions and straight quotes ("") around quotations. Using typographic apostrophes, typographic quotation marks, and em dashes in the right places makes all the difference, especially in headlines. Nowadays, web designers have so many typographic tools to work with, like @font-face and lettering.js, but basic punctuation and formatting don’t get enough love. It’s an oldie, but I think everyone working with web type should read Robin Williams’ The Mac is not a typewriter [0]. It’s just as relevant to modern web type as it was to early desktop publishing. [0] http://www.amazon.com/Mac-not-typewriter-Robin-Williams/dp/0201782634 http://www.amazon.com/Mac-not-typewriter-Robin-Williams/dp/0...
- joebadmo 16y ago
  As a technically lay person who does care about this, what are some tools that I can use to write web copy with typographically correct apostrophes and quotes (or convert it afterwards)? Am I supposed to use the html code or special key combination every time?
  - dchest 16y ago
    If you're on the Mac: “ = Alt-[ ” = Alt-Shift-[ « = Alt-\ » = Alt-Shift-\ ‘ = Alt-] ’ = Alt-Shift-] — = Alt-- For other operating systems there are typographic layouts, such as http://ilyabirman.ru/english/typography-layout/ http://ilyabirman.ru/english/typography-layout/ There are libraries that can do the conversion, such as SmartyPants: http://daringfireball.net/projects/smartypants/ http://daringfireball.net/projects/smartypants/ In HTML, it's pretty easy to remember a few typographic characters that you'll need, see http://www.degraeve.com/reference/specialcharacters.php http://www.degraeve.com/reference/specialcharacters.php
    - joebadmo 16y ago
      Thanks for those suggestions. So, then, do you (or others) actually use those key combinations instead of ' and " while writing/typing? That seems like a fairly heavy re-working of a very low level muscle-memory process that would take me a long time to habit-change. I don't use any of the software that Smartypants supports, but I just started playing with Pandoc http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/ http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/ yesterday, and it has a --smart flag, so that's probably what I'll go with. As I also recently started trying to learn vim (it's hard), I might try this: http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2005/10/smart_quotes_and_more_in_vim_a.html http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2005/10/smart_quotes_and_... too. In case anyone else is in a similar position.
Confusion 16y ago
Now you've made me curious: what's wrong with the curve? And couldn't the font accurately represent Leica's actual font?
- Samuel_Michon 16y ago
  Here’s an image of the actual lens, from the same angle: http://a.img-dpreview.com/news/0602/panasonic/leica14-50mm-03.jpg http://a.img-dpreview.com/news/0602/panasonic/leica14-50mm-0... If you look at the copy, the label text is set around a much wider circle than it should be. Also, the characters are relatively larger, a lot wider, with smaller letter spacing, than the original.
- dchest 16y ago
  Here's the approximate path of text: http://i.imgur.com/Usrgf.png http://i.imgur.com/Usrgf.png compare: http://i.imgur.com/uD9nT.png http://i.imgur.com/uD9nT.png (thanks, Samuel_Michon) The font is okay, but kerning is not good -- you can clearly see it in "VARIO" (IO), and E72 (7).
garry 16y ago
I think you are missing the point and holding her to a standard you cannot meet yourself.
- dchest 16y ago
  Of course, I can't, but I'm not a designer, unlike her.

by dchest 16y ago

ianhawes 16y ago

I would never want to work with someone as negative as you.

dchest 16y ago
I'm not sure I understand: are employers supposed to be positive and not critical when hiring people? It's a designer showing her work to a potential employer. I made a comment that her work is not yet good enough, there are certainly areas which she can improve. As for your ad hominem: I'm not actually a negative person.
apl 16y ago
Some people don't enjoy working in pseudo-positive and falsely encouraging environments that give second-rate work an undeserved pass. There's something motivating about standards and demands.
- phillmv 16y ago
  The problem is too many people, much like about half the people commenting here, confuse that with being an insufferable prick.
zecho 16y ago
The critique might have been harsh, but it was also constructive. It's not like he came out and called her work crap. He gave useful feedback on the design.
dusing 16y ago
He's not being negative he is critiquing a designer's work on the merit of that work. These are facts.
kmfrk 16y ago
He prefaces it by saying that there is no offence intended. Even if it may come across as negative, it's clearly in the best interest based on the preface.

kenjackson 16y ago

Curious, can you point me to your sites design?

dchest 16y ago
Why do you want to look at my site? Will this somehow make my points invalid? :-) Oh, this guy can't design, so no, kerning is right. I'm not a designer, and although I design everything for my products myself, I don't pretend that my design work is good; hell, I know that I lack attention to detail, and I'll be the first person to criticize my work. If you insist, here you go: http://www.codingrobots.com/ http://www.codingrobots.com/ (the most recent thing I drew was this, I think: http://www.codingrobots.com/images/cathodique_128.png http://www.codingrobots.com/images/cathodique_128.png [this reminded me that this product is dead, and I need to release this icon into the public domain], and I can point out why it's not good, and why it's the best I can do at this moment). BTW, I'm not looking for a job. Edit: while the spotlight is on my, I'd like to say that design is a very fricking hard work. Every time I try to draw an icon or position elements on a web page, it's like going to hell -- it takes forever and causes pains. Programming is easier ;-)
- swix 16y ago
  I don't really think the critique of the lens was valid. I don't see the point, "lack of detail?" Maybe it wasn't meant to have detail in the first place? It's like if I would say that "You only used bewels in PS" for your little "drawing", I mean it's sort of pointless.
- kenjackson 16y ago
  Why do you want to look at my site? Will this somehow make my points invalid? :-) Oh, this guy can't design, so no, kerning is right. No, it doesn't make it any more invalid. BUT I looked a the lens and didn't see a problem with it, and overall thought the design seemed pretty good. With your critique I was hoping to see what someone with a very sharp eye for design would actually put in production.
  - dchest 16y ago

Splines 16y ago

I was also confused by it. I was wondering if she worked for Leica at some point (i.e., she designed a camera lens?). Only by reading your critique can I guess that she drew it. It looks pretty good, although the kerning problems with the text is a little distracting.

geekfactor 16y ago

I didn't notice this at first glance but I definitely see it and agree now that you mention it. Not only is the type off but when I look very carefully at the lens the overall construction feels off-balance to me. It feels like the lens is being looked at slightly off center, e.g. the individual lens elements (circles) are off center. All that said, I still think this is a totally awesome site and I hope she gets the job!

Samuel_Michon 16y ago

I’m disappointed by her use of straight apostrophes (') in contractions and straight quotes ("") around quotations. Using typographic apostrophes, typographic quotation marks, and em dashes in the right places makes all the difference, especially in headlines. Nowadays, web designers have so many typographic tools to work with, like @font-face and lettering.js, but basic punctuation and formatting don’t get enough love. It’s an oldie, but I think everyone working with web type should read Robin Williams’ The Mac is not a typewriter [0]. It’s just as relevant to modern web type as it was to early desktop publishing. [0] http://www.amazon.com/Mac-not-typewriter-Robin-Williams/dp/0201782634 http://www.amazon.com/Mac-not-typewriter-Robin-Williams/dp/0...

joebadmo 16y ago
As a technically lay person who does care about this, what are some tools that I can use to write web copy with typographically correct apostrophes and quotes (or convert it afterwards)? Am I supposed to use the html code or special key combination every time?
- dchest 16y ago
  If you're on the Mac: “ = Alt-[ ” = Alt-Shift-[ « = Alt-\ » = Alt-Shift-\ ‘ = Alt-] ’ = Alt-Shift-] — = Alt-- For other operating systems there are typographic layouts, such as http://ilyabirman.ru/english/typography-layout/ http://ilyabirman.ru/english/typography-layout/ There are libraries that can do the conversion, such as SmartyPants: http://daringfireball.net/projects/smartypants/ http://daringfireball.net/projects/smartypants/ In HTML, it's pretty easy to remember a few typographic characters that you'll need, see http://www.degraeve.com/reference/specialcharacters.php http://www.degraeve.com/reference/specialcharacters.php
  - joebadmo 16y ago
    Thanks for those suggestions. So, then, do you (or others) actually use those key combinations instead of ' and " while writing/typing? That seems like a fairly heavy re-working of a very low level muscle-memory process that would take me a long time to habit-change. I don't use any of the software that Smartypants supports, but I just started playing with Pandoc http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/ http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/ yesterday, and it has a --smart flag, so that's probably what I'll go with. As I also recently started trying to learn vim (it's hard), I might try this: http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2005/10/smart_quotes_and_more_in_vim_a.html http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2005/10/smart_quotes_and_... too. In case anyone else is in a similar position.

Confusion 16y ago

Now you've made me curious: what's wrong with the curve? And couldn't the font accurately represent Leica's actual font?

Samuel_Michon 16y ago
Here’s an image of the actual lens, from the same angle: http://a.img-dpreview.com/news/0602/panasonic/leica14-50mm-03.jpg http://a.img-dpreview.com/news/0602/panasonic/leica14-50mm-0... If you look at the copy, the label text is set around a much wider circle than it should be. Also, the characters are relatively larger, a lot wider, with smaller letter spacing, than the original.
dchest 16y ago
Here's the approximate path of text: http://i.imgur.com/Usrgf.png http://i.imgur.com/Usrgf.png compare: http://i.imgur.com/uD9nT.png http://i.imgur.com/uD9nT.png (thanks, Samuel_Michon) The font is okay, but kerning is not good -- you can clearly see it in "VARIO" (IO), and E72 (7).

garry 16y ago

I think you are missing the point and holding her to a standard you cannot meet yourself.

dchest 16y ago
Of course, I can't, but I'm not a designer, unlike her.