Every week, our team comes together for a run-down of all the creative projects we currently have in motion to make sure we’re giving each one the attention it deserves. During these weekly creative meetings, we also share any inspiration that we find along the way for the rest of the team to catch the creative vibes.
Here are some of our favorite inspirational pieces from the last few weeks – maybe you’ll catch some vibes, too.
Productivity is already hard, but mental health disorders compound that challenge immensely. Our creative team encounters a range of mental health hurdles and found this article super helpful. Read More Here >>
As we dig our heels into the second month of 2021, I often find it tough to keep the energy and momentum that I had coming right out of a restful holiday season. One thing that always helps keep me focused until warmer days arrive is diving into a book that focuses on a particular aspect of productivity or organization.
A few members of our creative team decided to test this out together. We agreed we would followup with each other and share what we read in order to help keep that information in our brains and put it to good . And thus, the Posture Book Club was born.
Check out our selections below – additional recommendations are welcome!
Joey’s pick:
“Steal Like an Artist” by Austin Kleon
Creativity is something that’s really hard to turn on and off and is often impossible to force. While the title of this book is attention-grabbing, it was the subtitle that made me want to read more: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative.
Joey
Kat’s pick:
“How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
I love that design can be used as a tool to influence people and inform the greater good – what better way to brush up on your communication skills than reading one of the biggest 20th-century handbooks on influential communication?
Kat
Mat’s pick:
“Manage Your Day-to-Day” by 99u + Jocelyn L. Glei
I’ve read this book before years ago…so much has changed since then so quickly. I wanted to read it again to see where I can sharpen up and improve how I run my days.
Mat
Tony’s pick:
“Hyperfocus” by Chris Bailey
Everyone knows I wrote the book on how to focus, but I figured I’d give this one a try. What were we talking about?
However you are feeling this holiday season, we felt like we could do a little something to bring some joy and cheer into your world. Enjoy our home-brewed holiday greeting to you featuring our very own animated Posture Peeps below!
A behind-the-screen look at how a logo transforms into a motion graphic to embody your brand and captivate viewers.
Logos are everywhere. They’re in your face, all the time. They’re on the devices you use, on the clothes you wear, on the buildings you pass outside, and sprinkled heavily throughout all the content you consume. Logos and branding have become so embedded in the fabric of our culture that we often don’t even notice the small insignia on the bottom of our socks, the teeny-tiny text under the title of a click-bait listicle that says “Content Sponsored By BRAND XYZ,” or the semi-transparent watermark in the corner of an ad during the morning news.
Photo: Christian Vierig/Getty Images
Or – we make sure people notice our logos. We wear Gucci belts with the iconic interlocking G’s on the buckle. Apple stickers proudly displayed on our bumpers and laptop cases to proclaim “yes, I do in fact own several Apple devices that all sync to iCloud and I live-tweeted the last Keynote presentation.” Even Starbucks’ annual holiday coffee cups are gripped by coeds in plaid scarves throughout the college campus. This sort of instant recognition and passionate identification with a brand is often the goal, and a main reason why logos saturate our lives. They strive to become so ubiquitous (but also still cool enough) that people want to brand themselves as a way of saying “Nike is cool and I’m cool too because I like Nike.”
Over the years, the way I look at logos has changed. To me, they’re not background noise, nor are they a status symbol. Notice where these logos are placed and think about the intention behind that placement. Look at the curves and the shapes created by the wordmark, and the way the letters fit together. Pay attention to the use of color and think about what that brand is trying to make you feel without having to say it overtly. Is this shade of green supposed to convey that they’re environmentally-friendly or that they offer some sort of financial service? I look at the symbol or icon, if there is one, and I start to imagine ways that I might make it move.
I pay attention to the use of color and think about what that brand is trying to make me feel without having to say it overtly.
In our ever-increasingly digital world, movement as a part of brand identity should be a main consideration from the beginning. Granted, some logos lend themselves to motion better than others, but every logo has the potential to move in a way that enhances the viewer’s impression of the brand and sticks in their memory.
This timelapse shows an example of my process of taking a logo from flat to fully animated.
I start by breaking the logo into pieces – words, symbols, more words.
If there are multiple words, should they come in together or separately? Does the text write on? Does it fly in from somewhere unseen?
Is there a symbol or an icon? What kind of movement can that symbol do? Does it have a personality? What does the symbol represent and how can I convey that in the way I make it move?
If there is a tagline, how should that move in relation to the rest?
Is the movement more mechanical or organic?
Are there any extra effects that make would add to the viewer’s experience?
Motion requires more attention than adding a few PowerPoint transitions. With a well-crafted animated version of your logo, you’ll see results and recognition across the numerous video-centric channels available today.
Since entering the professional world out of college in 2018, I have consistently found myself mildly overwhelmed by, well, pretty much everything. It has been a rollercoaster of new people, new challenges, and new skills to learn. And as someone with an anxiety disorder it has meant a whole host of new and exciting things to worry about. And, in addition to more conventional means of treating my anxiety, I’ve had to come up with some creative ways to adapt to specific situations, and for those, I tend to draw from what I know best.
And one thing that I’ve known very well for my entire life, is how to play video games.
Once I noticed myself subconsciously adapting my knowledge of video games to find solutions for problems at work, my first thought was, ‘Wow, I’m weird.” My second thought was, “okay, I have to flesh this out. My job is a video game now. What does that look like?’ and I started unfolding this comparison in my head, taking broad concepts of game design and applying them to my everyday routine at Posture.
So what type of video game is my job? I found the most applicable concepts came from Role-Playing Games (RPGs). RPGs, such asFallout, Final Fantasy, orThe Witcher, are designed to give players a sense of freedom and are usually full of characters to meet and items to collect. And most RPGs share a few key design staples, some of which I’ve found to be useful for keeping up with a fast-paced, collaborative work environment.
Your Quests
The most important aspect of any RPG is the quest, usually the main objective of the game. For me, quests are high-priority items: large-scale projects or tasks with tight deadlines. Other work, such as writing or answering emails, or making small revisions to a pre-existing project, fall under side-quests: lower-priority, but still important! I’ve also jokingly referred to my coworkers as quest-givers when they assign work to me.
Besides making even the simplest task sound way cooler, mentally sorting my work into quests and side-quests is a helpful way of keeping myself organized: what needs to be done, by when, and for who?
Your Inventory
As a videographer, an ever-present part of my work is sorting through massive amounts of raw video files, most of which come out of the camera looking like this:
When dealing with a frustrating situation like this, I draw on another skill I learned from playing RPGs: inventory management.
Many RPGs include massive inventory systems: allowing the player to carry a wide variety of items while they determine what suits their style of play. However, inventory spaces are usually limited, which means that the player must manage their inventory by clearing or selling unwanted items to make room for new ones. Subsequently, this involves spending a lot of time in menus that look like this:
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Basically, playing RPGs has made me feel right at home navigating a labyrinth of menus and sorting through bins of random items, and this has been very helpful when keeping track of a video project that is potentially linked to hundreds of individual files.
Your Controls
Video games have always been my means of escapism: they offer a sense of agency that cannot be matched by any other medium of entertainment. RPGs in particular, have always given me a profound sense of agency: they offer the player multiple ways to approach scenarios, and offer more choice and input than most types of video games. This control is obviously limited; the player cannot control the content of the game, but they can control how they play it.
As a single human I have limited control over the nature of the work that makes it to my desk, which can be an intimidating feeling. However, I do have control over the effort that I put into said work. So, in a roundabout way, playing video games has helped me acknowledge my sense of agency in the workplace, which has helped me cope with work anxiety and impostor syndrome.
What If I Know Nothing About Video Games?
That’s completely fine! I’m not saying that thinking about your work through the lens of gaming will definitely improve your workflow. If you’re not someone who frequently plays video games, it would probably just be confusing. However, don’t be afraid to think outside of the box and pull from areas you’re familiar with when it comes to overcoming challenges. If you are adjusting to a new job or even just a new situation that you feel intimidated by, use any and every piece of knowledge you have at your disposal, and you might find some fun, creative ways to tackle those challenges and make your work a little bit more fun in the process.
Stay Home. Practice Social Distancing. We’re all in it together. We stay home so they can save lives.
By now, you’re pretty familiar with the new messaging surrounding the current global situation. And like many others, you probably hadn’t factored a global pandemic into your 2020 business plan. Yeah, neither did we.
We did, however, have plans to meet with new businesses and generate new branding ideas. We had plans to:
Travel to new places and go to weddings with friends and family.
Keep our current websites in tip-top shape with new code updates.
Have a Posture group game night, as we tend to do every few months.
Go on video shoots and capture our partners at the moment.
We also had plans to launch a fake dog version of our site for an April Fool’s joke. Obviously, we had to put some of those plans on hold. Other ideas, however, we were able to carry out with a new spin.
In the spirit of being an interactive group full of creative problem solvers, we’ve pushed ourselves harder than ever before to find ways to carry out plans. We kick off new websites and projects via video conference. We have digital competitive challenges daily capped off with a video conference “Happy Hour” every Friday.
We coach our clients through shooting their own video and sending the footage our way to work our Posture Magic™ on it. We find ways to continuously connect with others while uncovering the silver lining one day at a time.
We have been so inspired by those around us that we are continually finding new ways to get their message out and bring in business without physically interacting with people.
This ability to change course when things don’t go as planned has been an integral part of our business over the years. It is what led us to our recent rendition of “Pawsture Interwagtive.” We had planned for this launch since January, gathering assets and footage and carefully curating a social campaign to launch as an April Fool’s joke.
Honestly, we couldn’t see that original plan going over well at this point in time, and we couldn’t be tone-deaf to what was happening around us. So we got to work re-tooling a lot of our messaging for the original social media schedule and pushed up our launch schedule to fill the remainder of March instead of hitting one day in April. We realized that now, more than ever, the world needed to see the smiling puppy faces of Pawsture Interwagtive. We hope you enjoyed them as much as we do every day!
Think about those plans you had before you found out about “shelter in place.” What spin can you put on them now to find a new way to connect with others? We have been so inspired by those around us that we are continually finding new ways to get their message out and bring in business without physically interacting with people. This is what interactive design looks like on a global scale – making a digital connection with those around you to present a clear message. This is one of the things we love most about the work we do.
The world is continuously changing, but all we can do is take it one day at a time. If you need advice on how to do that, we’re here for you. From all of us (and our pups) at Posture, we wish you much love as we all continue to navigate this new normal.
So you’ve heard the term user experience (UX) here and there, maybe while streaming the most recent Apple product release presentation. Maybe you’ve heard about the slick new “UX” on the latest Android device. But what do people really mean when they talk about UX and how does it impact you as a human living your life in the year 2020?
Let’s start with the user: YOU.
Whether you’re experiencing a music app, your online banking website, a set of IKEA directions, or the TSA line at Philly International Airport (I’m so sorry if that’s the case) – your daily activities are packed with a variety of different user experiences.
According to usability.gov, an excellent authority on user-centered design standards, “User experience (UX) focuses on having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations.” This means that in order to create a successful experience, I need to design with the end user in mind at every step of the website process. From research and design, to development and testing, I am always thinking of how the person on the other end of that “Learn More” button is going to interact with it (and then I’m testing the s*** out of it).
The interesting phenomenon with UX that many designers have found to be true is that we tend to notice UX the most when we’re having a negative user experience. Much like that one guy on Yelp who had the “worst pizza of his life” in your beloved local pizzeria, you declare that this is “the worst website/app/platform I’ve ever used” and vow never to return again. Likely, many other users have felt the same way.
How does this happen?
Our pals at usability.gov helped shed some light on this with the key areas of successful UX:
Intuitive design: a nearly effortless understanding of the architecture and navigation of the site
Ease of learning: a user who has never seen the user interface before can easily accomplish basic tasks
Efficiency of use: an experienced user can accomplish tasks quickly
Memorability: after using the system, a user can remember enough to use it effectively in future visits
Error frequency and severity: if users make errors while using the system, how serious are the errors and how easily do they recover from the errors
Subjective satisfaction: If the user simply enjoys using the system
Essentially, when we have a successful positive user experience, we don’t immediately notice because the design of the experience is unobtrusive and becomes second nature. Think about the last time you went to the grocery store. Did you know where to find a cart? Of course, it’s always near the front with the big bunches of apples and bananas front and center. Were you able to use the self-checkout seamlessly? It yelled at you 5 times to put your item back in the bag? Ok, we’re still working on that one…
Bad user experiences happen when we don’t focus on the human user that will be engaging with the end product on a daily basis. Designers and developers combat this by:
Creating “user personas” in the initial research phase that represented the intended audience and help build that element of human empathy in the early stages of design and feature development
Designing and developing with usability standards in mind like those set forth by usability.gov
Testing (and testing and testing) on ourselves and other real humans to analyze these interactions with the product so we can find and address any areas of confusion or frustration
By using these combined methods, ideally we will avoid any negative user experiences and have a clean, user-centered design as our final product (website or otherwise). If we’re not successful with a website’s UX, we’ll know – Google Analytics metrics don’t lie. High bounce rate on a certain page is usually a pretty good indicator that something is wrong with your UX.
So next time you scroll through a website and get stuck on a certain spot, or the next time you have a bad experience with a checkout – maybe let someone know. The designer on the other end might need a reminder that you’re human after all. 😉
Looking for some extra credit?
Check out this map of the user-centered design process:
And this article on 5 big human-centered design trends of the past year:
It was the mid-1990’s when I first caught the web development bug. Home computers were just becoming affordable, dial-up was about as good as it got and Geocities was all the rage. (For the uninitiated, Geocities was akin to the great-great-great-great-grandfather of Wix.) The very first website I built was a fan page dedicated to the old TV show “The Wonder Years”, and it had it all! We’re talking about colorful backgrounds, marquee headlines, a view counter and most importantly for any website of the time, a working Guestbook in which viewers could leave feedback.
In those days, the technology stack was fairly simple, relying on mainly just HTML (HyperText Markup Language) with inline styles and built-in tags. Given the lack of options, the table-based layout was king if you needed anything spanning more than one column on the page. Think of an excel spreadsheet; it’s the same concepts where you have rows and columns and can span elements across multiple or single rows to achieve different layouts.
In 1994 everything changed for web developers.
The first iterations of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and PHP were first introduced, with JavaScript following shortly after in 1995. CSS gave developers a way to separate the markup (AKA HTML) from the styles (CSS) so you could have cleaner files by applying styles to multiple elements on the page using classes and IDs. Similarly, PHP allowed the user to create reusable templates and cut down significantly on copying and pasting the same code over and over. It also gave us a convenient way to interact with the web server, allowing us to create forms to pass data from the web browser to the server and back again (think of a basic contact form).
Arguably one of the most important changes to the web happened in 1996, with the advent of Javascript.
As a front-end language, it allowed developers to take advantage of some functionality previously only afforded by a backend language. Meaning, we could now leverage the power of the browser to capture and change elements on the page without reloading the page. How exciting!
Since then, the web has changed quite significantly. We’ve seen the rise and fall of Flash which offered a great solution for not only animations but also allowed for video on the web. We’ve watched Google go from a little-known web search engine that helped you find your favorite websites, to a global conglomerate and behind every technological solutions is a team of web developers.
Instead of trying to learn ALL of the things, focus on a particular framework that meets your needs, has a good community following (this one’s huge on the path to success)…
Modern web developers now rely on a wide-range of tools beyond just the basics.
We still have the basics: HTML, CSS, Javascript, PHP etc. but now we have sub-choices to make. Deciding WHAT backend and frontend frameworks you want to use is just as important as a designer choosing a color scheme… and what a number of choices we have! There’s a running joke in the web development community that a new Javascript framework is written every day and the names become more and more ridiculous with each iteration. Take for instance handlebars.js which is an extension of the moustache.js templating system. (No. I’m not joking. Look it up. I’ll wait.)
As the name suggests, it was named mustache because the parentheses look like a Mustache. E.g. {{placeholder}}
With so many choices, how does one decide?
The answer is actually quite simple. Instead of trying to learn ALL of the things, focus on a particular framework that meets your needs, has a good community following (this one’s huge on the path to success) and never stop learning! The reality is that what used to be a single person’s job, now requires a team to be successful. That’s not saying that a lone developer can’t be successful, but behind a single developer is a network of colleagues that help redefine the web landscape through open-source contributions and are available to share expertise on matters that require a unique perspective. As an example, a typical day on the job for me involves the following technologies: HTML, CSS/SASS, Foundation/Bootstrap, Javascript, NPM, PHP, NodeJS, ReactJS, Webpack, SASS, MySQL, WordPress, Adobe XD/Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator, I could go on but you get the picture!
Whether you’re a Front-end, Back-end, or Full-stack developer, there are so many jobs to be done in order to ensure a successful website. It’s not only about possessing the knowledge and experience of HOW to build a website, BUT also having a good support system from designers, marketers, project managers, and colleagues.
Overall, the community of developers have accomplished so much in just 15 short years, and personally I’m excited to see how far we can push the limits of technology together.
Hello and welcome to Posture’s VideoQ&A: Heir to The Sleigh Edition! Today we’re chatting with Sal and Charles about our interactive holiday video, Heir to the Sleigh. Join us for an inside look at the creative process and technical organization that is required for a successful interactive video project.
What was your initial reaction to the idea of an interactive video?
Sal: I knew this was a cool idea from the start! It’s not like any traditional narratives we had done in the past. When you start to make it interactive (similar to the movie Bandersnatch) and add branching paths into the mix, the project starts to get more exciting.
How did you organize such a content-heavy project?
Sal: Once the script came together we immediately started taking all that information and putting it into a visual flowchart (as shown). The chart was very handy on production day!
What were some of the challenges you faced and how did you overcome them?
Charles: A challenge we faced was developing the right solution for the user experience without sacrificing our vision for the video. We found a few services that did what we were trying to accomplish, but they were for much larger projects. Luckily, our awesome development team was able to save the day with a semi-custom solution.
Sal: Another challenge was our limited time window to shoot all the video content for the project in just one day. So, we decided to keep the execution of the shoot as simple as possible!
Tell us about the editing process and how user decisions influenced the story.
Charles: It was very segmented and organized. Every path had to be siloed to keep our organization and each scene was given its own sequence. An important thing we had to keep in mind with any large video project is quality control. For example, if we do a color correction to one iteration of a clip we have to be sure we’re keeping that color consistent throughout any scenes whenever that shot is used.
Was there anything you would have done differently?
Charles: I try to not look at a project like this as ever completely ‘done’, there’s always improvements that can be made, and keeping it open in my mind can set you up for success.
Sal: The obvious answer is “more time for pre-production”. In a perfect world, every project would have exactly the amount of time needed to plan everything out but that isn’t always the case.
Charles: I agree, but it was still exciting for us to push the limit on something like this!
What would you tell someone interested in video production?
Start yesterday! Your first video won’t be perfect; mine definitely wasn’t. But use whatever tools you’ve got at your disposal, even if it’s just your phone, and get creative! Start assembling a crew of collaborators, friends, supporters, and people who bring out the best in you, mentally and creatively. A lot of cool stuff can come from a group of inspired creators!
Sal Bulzoni
To anyone who has an interest in video production learn from everyone, everywhere! There are so many differing opinions on everything, so listen to people’s production stories, they can teach you a lot.
Happy Halloween everyone and welcome to Posture’s Logo Graveyard! Where we keep the logos that are no longer with us...
This year at Posture we’re bringing in a new spooky and haunting tradition. Take a scroll, if you dare, to see the unchosen logos of the past. Read their headstones to see how they made it to the graveyard and don’t forget to check out their lively websites.
Client: Madame Jennys
Why we like it: Inspired by the dial on the vault door that is currently at the entrance to the speakeasy, this logo is as sexy as it is silver. Also a nod to the feminine mystique of Jenny Duffy with her eye always watching over Scranton and her business – we weren’t going to get away with putting any smooth moves on this logo.
Why it went to the logo graveyard: The Madame was looking for something bolder and more representative of Jenny herself. Don’t you just love seeing her lovely silhouette behind the bar now?
Why we like it: This treatment just gives off that “cool kid” vibe. We want to hang out with this logo after school behind the bleachers and listen to Blink 182 while we talk about how much our parents just don’t understand.
Why it went to the logo graveyard: We went just a little too “grunge band meets Japanese steakhouse.” This concept didn’t fully convey the freshness of the amazing healthy food that FitAF provides.
Why we like it: Just like a fine wine, you notice the subtle notes of architecture in this logo as you spend more time drinking it in. The anchor points, the doorways, the possibilities!
Why it went to the logo graveyard: A little fancy, but definitely not much Parsley (and we definitely need to get more greens in our diet). Didn’t quite give off the vibrant and creative personality of the people behind the alluring brand name.
Bonus: We REALLY loved animating the final logo design on this website 😍
