budzer

Hmmm... Ada SMS Gempa

2006-07-21T07:09:00.000+07:00

Sempet syok juga dapet SMS dari temen yang isinya bikin deg-degan semalam jam 22.46. Begini isinya:

" Pak, di radio ada berita dr BMG yg menyatakan akan ada gempa 8 SR pd pkl 02.00, masyarakat jkt diminta siaga, semoga Allah selalu melindungi kita. Amien "

Wah... Serem juga yah, langsung terpikir nanti malam bakal full begadang nih, disamping juga aku harus membuat susu anakku. Disepanjang jalan dimobil aku sibuk cari2 berita di radio tapi gak ada. Jam 23.15 sampai di rumah, langsung cari berita di detik.com.

Gara-gara SMS Gempa, BMG Kebanjiran Telepon
Nala Edwin - detikcom

Diisukan Ada Gempa Pukul 02.00
Nala Edwin - detikcom

Hmmmm... Sedikit lega aku membacanya... Dari kejadian ini aku cuma bisa mengambil hikmahnya saja, bahwa kita memang harus mendekatkan diri dengan Yang Maha Kuasa, karena kita tak tahu kapan waktu kita harus menghadapNya dan dengan cara apa.

Penasaran dengan gempa, aku terus mencari informasi tentang gempa. Aku buka-buka situs BMG (Badan Meteorologi & Geofisika) di situ ada Daftar Gempa Terkini lalu situs Info Gempa disitus itu terdapat info2 penting mengenai gempa termasuk info darurat dan daftar gempa yang dirasakan.

BMG -- Peta Seismisitas
Peta Seismisitas interaktif dari BMG

Ada info yang menarik dan sangat berharga dari BMG mengenai Antisipasi Gempa, APA YANG HARUS ANDA KERJAKAN SEBELUM, SAAT DAN SESUDAH TERJADI GEMPABUMI

SEBELUM TERJADI GEMPABUMI

a. Kunci Utama adalah

Mengenali apa yang disebut gempabumi
Memastikan bahwa struktur dan letak rumah anda dapat terhindar dari bahaya yang disebabkan gempabumi (longsor, liquefaction dll)
Mengevaluasi dan merenovasi ulang struktur bangunan anda agar terhindar bahaya gempabumi

b. Kenali lingkungan tempat anda bekerja dan tinggal

Memperhatikan letak pintu, lift serta tangga darurat, apabila terjadi gempabumi, sudah mengetahui tempat paling aman untuk berlindung.
Belajar melakukan P3K
Belajar menggunakan Pemadam Kebakaran
Mencatat Nomor Telpon Penting yang dapat dihubungi pada saat terjadi gempabumi

c. Persiapan Rutin pada tempat anda bekerja dan tinggal

Perabotan (Lemari, Cabinet, dll) diatur menempel pada dinding (di paku/ di ikat dll) untuk menghindari jatuh, roboh, bergeser pada saat terjadi gempabumi
Menyimpan bahan yang mudah terbakar pada tempat yang tidak mudah pecah, agar terhindar dari kebakaran.
Selalu mematikan air, gas dan listrik apa bila sedang tidak digunakan

d. Penyebab celaka yang paling banyak pada saat gempa bumi adalah akibat kejatuhan material

Atur benda yang berat sedapat mungkin berada pada bagian bawah.
Cek kestabilan benda yang tergantung yang dapat jatuh pada saat gempabumi terjadi (mis: lampu dll)

e. Alat yang harus ada disetiap tempat

Kotak P3K
Senter/lampu Battery
Radio
Makanan Suplemen dan Air

SAAT TERJADI GEMPA BUMI

a. Jika anda berada dalam bangunan

Lindungi kepala dan badan anda dari reruntuhan bangunan (dengan bersembunyi dibawah meja dll).
Mencari tempat yang paling aman dari reruntuhan goncangan.
Berlari keluar apabila masih dapat dilakukan.

b. Jika berada diluar bangunan atau area terbuka

Menghindari dari bangunan yang ada di sekitar anda (seperti gedung, tiang listrik, pohon dll).
Perhatikan tempat anda berpijak hindari apabila terjadi rekahan tanah.

c. Jika anda sedang mengendarai mobil

Keluar, turun dan menjauh dari mobil hindari jika terjadi pergeseran atau kebakaran.
Lakukan poin 2.

d. Jika anda tinggal atau berada di pantai, jauhi pantai untuk menghindari terjadinya Tsunami.

e. Jika anda tinggal didaerah pegunungan, apabila terjadi gempabumi hindari daerah yang mungkin terjadi longsoran.

SESUDAH TERJADI GEMPABUMI

a. Jika anda berada dalam bangunan.

Keluar dari bangunan tesebut dengan tertib.
Jangan menggunakan tangga berjalan atau lift, gunakan tangga biasa.
Periksa apa ada yang terluka, lakukan P3K.
Telpon/minta pertolongan apabila terjadi luka parah pada anda atau sekitar anda.

b. Periksa lingkungan sekitar anda

Periksa apabila terjadi kebakan.
Periksa apabila terjadi kebocoran gas.
Periksa apabila terjadi arus pendek.
Periksa aliran dan pipa air.
Periksa segala hal yang dapat membahayakan (mematikan listrik, tidak menyalakan api dll)

c. Jangan masuk kebangunan yang sudah terjadi gempa, karena kemungkian masih terdapat reruntuhan.

d. Jangan berjalan disekitar daerah gempa, kemungkinan terjadi bahaya susulan masih ada.

e. Mendengarkan informasi mengenai gempa dari radio (apabila terjadi gempa susulan).

f. Mengisi angket yang diberikan oleh Instansi Terkait untuk mengetahui seberapa besar kerusakan yang terjadi.

Ada juga situs luar negeri yang membahas gempa-gempa di berbagai belahan dunia termasuk Indonesia baru2 ini:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/usqia3.php#details

Earthquake Details

Magnitude	6.1 (Strong)
Date-Time	Wednesday, July 19, 2006 at 10:57:36 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Wednesday, July 19, 2006 at 5:57:36 PM = local time at epicenter Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location	6.541°S, 105.366°E
Depth	45 km (28.0 miles) set by location program
Region	SUNDA STRAIT, INDONESIA
Distances	120 km (75 miles) S of T.-Telukbetung, Sumatra, Indonesia 160 km (100 miles) WSW of JAKARTA, Java, Indonesia 165 km (105 miles) WNW of Sukabumi, Java, Indonesia 245 km (155 miles) W of Bandung, Java, Indonesia
Location Uncertainty	horizontal +/- 6.5 km (4.0 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters	Nst=240, Nph=240, Dmin=>999 km, Rmss=0.96 sec, Gp= 47°, M-type=teleseismic moment magnitude (Mw), Version=Q
Source	USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID	usqia3

This event has been reviewed by a seismologist.

http://unosat.web.cern.ch/unosat/asp/prod_free.asp?id=21

101 Indonesia maps
TS-2006-000087-IDN
South Coast of Java, Indonesia: Population Distribution

Respond Humanitarian Global Mapping Services

Product ID: 753 - 18 Jul, 2006

GLIDE: TS-2006-000087-IDN

Product FOOTPRINT (LAT x LONG, WSG84 Geographic, decimal degrees)
TopLeft: -7 x 105.5
BottomRight: -8 x 111.5

Population distribution overview map of South Coast of Java, Indonesia.This map illustrates the southern coast of Java potentially-affected by the magnitude 7.2 earthquake and resulting tsunami on 17 July 2006. Note that the map does not cover the whole southern coast, but the region closest to the offshore earthquake epicentre. The map includes topography, villages, roads, railroads and rivers.

Projection: UTM 48 S (western map), UTM49 S (eastern map)
Datum: WGS84
Map production date: 18 July 2006, version 1.1

Source(s):
Elevation data: SRTM (90 m)
GIS data: Pusdata, NASA, NGA, CGIAR-CSI, USGS

Data processing and map production: UNOSAT

UNOSAT_java_tsunami_pop_lowres_v1-2.jpg (1.5MB),
UNOSAT_java_tsunami_pop_highres_v1-2.jpeg (2.9M

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/world.php?region=Indonesia
Indonesia Earthquake Information
Historic Information

Learning from Earthquakes: Indonesia

Institutions

Maps

Notable Earthquakes

Historic Earthquakes in Indonesia

Recent Earthquakes

Last Earthquake in Indonesia
from the NEIC Earthquake Bulletin
BMG Recent Earthquakes

Tectonic Information

http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/shake/ous/STORE/Xqia3_06/ciim_display.html

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Maps/10/110_-5.php

Historic Seismicity

Magnitude 6.1 SUNDA STRAIT, INDONESIA
Wednesday, July 19, 2006 at 10:57:36 UTC

http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_qia3_h.html

Recent Earthquake Map Animations

M6.1 - SUNDA STRAIT, INDONESIA - 2006 July 19 10:57:36 UTC) - Google Maps

Akhirnya.....

2006-07-18T17:39:00.000+07:00

Hmmm.. Lama tak blogging bukannya sok sibuk, akhirnya penantian panjang selama 9 bulan itu usai sudah. Aku dan Enika, Istriku. Boleh disebut pasangan yang paling bahagia, bagaimana tidak? Anugerah dan karunia terbesar dari Yang Maha Kuasa dilimpahkanNya kepada kami.

Pagi itu, Hari Selasa tgl 4 Juli 2006, jam 7.15, lahir putri kami dengan panjang 47cm dan berat 2,9kg dengan selamat, melalui operasi Cezar karena ari-arinya hanya sepanjang 30cm. Itu-pun diketahui oleh kami dan dokter setelah menjalani proses operasi.

Awalnya kami menginginkan proses kelahiran normal, cuma gara-gara dokter yang menangani sejak dari awal kehamilan, berencana mengikuti kongres kedokteran nasional di Menado. Akhirnya kami putuskan untuk menjalani proses kelahiran dengan operasi, karena sudah waktunya malaikat kecil kami lahir dan kami tak ingin ditangani oleh dokter lain. Wah... Puji Tuhan Syukur Alhamdullilah... Coba kalo memaksakan proses kelahiran normal, kasihan kan istri dan anakku... Sudah istriku .... capek2 ngeden... dan anakku didorong2 keluar, eh gak tahunya harus operasi juga. Terima kasih Tuhan.

Gak lama sih menunggu malaikat kecilku keluar, hanya butuh 15 menit tim dokter mengeluarkannya, cuma yang lama menunggu istriku keluar dari ruang bedah... Hampir 3 jam aku menunggu, deg-degan. Sayangnya proses kelahirannya tidak diperkenankan aku ikut untuk memotret dan merekam gambarnya dengan handycam dan kamera.

Ya sudahlah tak apa-apa, toh aku bisa memotret mereka setelahnya. Kini hari-hariku semakin indah dengan kehadiran putri kami, malam hari pun dihiasi oleh isak tangis yang merdu, kantukpun hilang begitu mendengar ia menangis... Minta susu, ganti popok, atau sekedar menina-bobokannya.
Kini genap 14 hari kehadirannya ditengah-tengah kami, ia bertambah panjang 4 cm menjadi 51 cm dan bertambah berat 1 gram menjadi 3 kg. Tangisnya semakin santar terdengar, tidurnya pun sudah mulai miring-miring... kadang tersenyum, kadang meringis, kadang menangis... Lucunya... Zara.

Zara Aurellia Andika, nama putri kami. Nama putri kami yang diambil dari Bahasa Hebrew (Zara = Princess = Putri) dan Bahasa Latin (Aurellia = Golden = Emas), dan Andika adalah kepanjangan (hidup Narsisme!) Anak Budi Enika.

Foto-foto lainnya silahkan lihat di : Zara Gallery

Minggu ke 36

2006-06-24T22:34:00.000+07:00

Sang bayi kerap berlatih bernafas, mengisap, dan menelan. Rambut-rambut halus di sekujur tubuhnya telah menghilang. Ususnya terisi mekonium (tinja pada bayi baru lahir) yang biasanya akan dikeluarkan dalam 2 hari setelah melahirkan. Kepalanya telah berada pada rongga panggul, siap untuk dilahirkan. Hal tersebut menunjukkan bahwa waktu persalinan sudah dekat. Kini, sang bayi seolah-olah "mempersiapkan diri" bagi kelahirannya ke dunia.Ia kerap berlatih bernafas, mengisap, dan menelan. Rambut-rambut halus di sekujur tubuhnya telah menghilang. Ususnya terisi mekonium (tinja pada bayi baru lahir) yang biasanya akan dikeluarkan dalam 2 hari setelah melahirkan. Kepalanya telah berada pada rongga panggul, siap untuk dilahirkan. Saat ini persalinan sudah amat dekat dan bisa terjadi kapan saja.
-----

Wah sikecil bentar lagi lahir... Senangnya... I love you dedek, I love you Honey.

Thanks GOD!

-----

Sebuah Renungan dari Om Buds

2006-05-07T11:49:00.000+07:00

Belakangan ini saya dapet beberapa email dari beberapa praktisi
periklanan muda. Mereka menanyakan berapa sih standar gaji AE, CW,
AD, pokoknya sesuai dengan jabatan merekalah. Mereka merasa kurang
mendapat apresiasi dari bossnya. Merasa gajinya kekecilan. Merasa
skillnya ga dihargai. Merasa diperah tenaganya dengan bayaran tak
sebanding. Benarkah demikian?

Sebagaimana layaknya orang jualan, harga kita sebenernya kita
sendiri yang menentukan. Kalau performance kita bagus, pastinya kita
layak dibayar tinggi. Jadi minta aja ke Boss. Bilang: saya kan bagus
kerjanya, jadi saya minta gaji saya ditambah segini! Kalo Boss
merasa kita memang diperlukan, pasti dikasih. Boss takut banget kita
ke luar kalo kita emang beneran jago. Susah banget cari SDM yang
bagus loh. Percaya deh. Susahnya minta ampun!

Seandainya ga dikasih juga, berarti emang bossnya beneran pelit.
Pasti padang tuh! Ga usah resah, belanja aja di luar. Ngelamar sana-
sini. Jangan ke luar dulu sebelum diterima di tempat lain. Bisa2
kita malah jadi pengangguran. Jika kemampuan kita emang lebih dari
rata2, gampanglah diterima dengan gaji yang sesuai kita inginkan.
Bahkan orang akan berebut begitu mereka tau kita sangat handal. Ga
ngelamar aja, orang akan berlomba-lomba membajak kita dengan iming2
yang menggoda iman.

Kalo udah belanja sana-sini ternyata ga ada satupun Boss yang mau
ngasih gaji lebih dari tempat yang lama? Nah di sini kita musti
mawas diri. Jangan2 emang kemampuan kita standar2 aja. Jangan-jangan
emang harga kita cuma segitu. Jangan2 emang kita ga punya passion
sehingga ga perform. Mungkin kita cuma kasak-kusuk sama orang dari
agency lain, ngorek2 gaji mereka lalu langsung gundah. Langsung
merasa ga dibayar sepantasnya.

Kalo boleh kasih nasihat! Coba jangan cengeng. Berhentilah mengeluh.
Bekerjalah maksimal. Buktikan bahwa kita memang bagus. Buktikan ke
Boss pelit bahwa mereka keliru ga menahan kita pas kita mau pindah.
Di kantor lama, saya punya temen yg selalu ngomel merasa digaji ga
semestinya. Selalu bilang bahwa dia mau ke luar. Tapi apa yg
terjadi? Sampai 10 tahun kemudian, dia masih kerja di tempat yg
sama. Kelakuannya masih sama: ngomel merasa under paid dan masih
selalu bilang ke semua orang kalo dia mau ke luar tapi ga keluar2.
Seperti itulah tipe pecundang. Jangan takut pada perubahan.
Perubahan yang lebih jelek sekalipun tetep namanya perubahan dan ada
hikmahnya.

Ivan HW pernah bilang saat workshop CCI di Satucitra, di Singapore
orang ngelamar kerja rela ga dibayar 3 bulan. Bagi mereka, walaupun
ga dibayar, kesempatan kerja 3 bulan itu penting untuk membuktikan
bahwa performance mereka bagus. Kalau mereka memang betul bagus,
tentunya bisa diangkat sebagai pegawai tetap. Passion seperti itulah
yang kita butuhkan! Kalo ngomel terus tapi ga pernah membuktikan
bahwa kita perform, mendingan bikin usaha sendiri aja.

Terakhir tapi kalah penting: Jadilah orang yang bersyukur.

BH

Gaji Buta

2006-05-04T10:16:00.000+07:00

Gak masalah memang, kalo orang semua orang melakukannya.... Makan Gaji Buta!
Semua jadi sah-sah aja tampaknya, apalagi kalo tempat kerjanya gak mau tahu ada masalah.
Akhirnya toh kita juga yang jadi masalahnya,
masalahnya kita mau berontak apa terima aja sudah dianiaya secara profesional?

Pikir aja lagi.... Gak ada salahnya lagi, makan gaji buta, toh kerjaan juga buta sama gaji kita!
Shit! Emang benar kenyataannya. Sekian tahun kerja, pontang-panting, bangga-banggain kantor, yang ternyata kantor gak bangga sama kita.

"Buktikan dulu baru meminta!" Shit! again.... Kenyataan sudah terbukti, namun apa yang diharapkan memang gak ada. Datang pagi pulang tengah malam, dapet award, klien happy.....
But??? Non Sense! Bull-shit!

Better stand still, doing side job! Makan aja gaji buta...

Sorry to say, ini cuma curahan hati gw......

My Angel Baby Girl

2006-04-09T08:20:00.000+07:00

Selamat Malam Malaikat Kecilku... Kita bertemu lagi. Ayah dan Ibu melihatmu sangat tegang tadi malam, saat Dokter Harry memeriksa Ibumu....

Sama seperti Ayah yang segan pergi ke dokter. Jangan takut malaikatku, dokter hanya ingin melihat kondisi kamu di dalam sana....

Ternyata kamu, sangat sehat! 7,7 Ons berat kamu di 25 Minggu. Kami sangat excited, gugup, dan senang....
Apapun kamu, perempuan atau laki-laki yang penting sehat. Dan ternyata menurut Dokter... Kamu seorang perempuan....

Thanks God, kamu sangat sehat.

Kamu Mailakat Kecil Kami.

"Birth Test"

2006-04-07T15:09:00.000+07:00


Your birth date describes who we are, what we are good at and
What our inborn abilities are. It also points to what we have to learn
And the challenges we are facing. To figure out your Birth Number, add
All the numbers in the Birth Date together, like in the example, until
There is only one digit.

A Birth Number does not prevent you from being
Anything you want to be, it will just colour your choice
Differently and give you a little insight.
     Example March 20, 1950 
    3 + 20 + 1950 = 1973
    1 + 9 + 7 + 3 = 20
    2 + 0 = 2
Keep going until you end up with a single digit number.  #2 is
The Birth Number to read for the birth date in the example.
    #1 THE ORIGINATOR
    #2 THE PEACEMAKER
    #3 THE LIFE OF THE PARTY
    #4 THE CONSERVATIVE
    #5 THE NONCONFORMIST
    #6 THE ROMANTIC
    #7 THE INTELLECTUAL
    #8 THE BIG SHOT
    #9 THE PERFORMER


# 1 - THE ORIGINATOR 1 's are originals.
Coming up with new ideas and executing them is natural. Having things
Their own way is another trait that gets them as being stubborn and
Arrogant. 1's are extremely honest and do well to learn some diplomacy
Skills.
    They like to take the initiative and are often leaders or
Bosses, as they like to be the best.
Being self-employed is definitely helpful for them. Lesson to
Learn. Others' ideas might be just as good or better and to stay open
Minded.

Famous 1's: Tom Hanks, Robert Redford, Hulk Hogan, Carol Burnett, Wynona
Judd, Nancy Reagan, Raquel Welch. 

#2 - THE PEACEMAKER 2's are the born diplomats. 
They are aware Of others' needs and moods and often think of others before
themselves. Naturally analytical and very intuitive they don't like to be alone.
Friendship and companionship is very important and can lead them to be
Successful in life, but on the other hand they'd rather be alone than in an
uncomfortable relationship. Being naturally shy they should learn to boost
their self-esteem and express themselves freely and seize the
Moment and not put things off.

Famous 2's President Bill Clinton, Madonna, Whoopee Goldberg,Thomas
Edison, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

# 3 - THE LIFE OF THE PARTY 3's are idealists.
They are very creative, social, charming, romantic, and easygoing. They
start many things, but don't always see them through. They like others to be
happy and go to great lengths to achieve it. They are very popular and
idealistic. They should learn to see the world from a more realistic point
of view.

Famous 3's: Alan Alda, Ann Landers, Bill Cosby, Melanie Griffith,
Salvador Dali, Jodi Foster

# 4 - THE CONSERVATIVE 4's are sensible and traditional.
They like order and routine. They only act when they fully understand what
They are expected to do. They like getting their hands dirty and working
hard. They are attracted to the outdoors and feel an affinity with nature.
They are prepared to wait and can be stubborn and persistent. They should
learn to be more flexible and to be nice to themselves.

Famous 4's Neil Diamond, Margaret Thatcher, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tina
Turner, Paul Hogan, Oprah Winfrey

# 5 - THE NONCONFORMIST 5's are the explorers.
Their natural curiosity, risk taking, and enthusiasm often land them in hot
water. They need diversity, and don't like to be stuck in a rut. The whole
world is their school and they see a learning possibility in every situation
The questions never stop. They are well advised to look before they take
action and make sure they have all the facts before jumping to conclusions.

Famous 5's Abraham Lincoln, Charlotte Bronte, Jessica Walter, Vincent
Van Gogh, Bette Midler, Helen Keller and Mark Hail.

# 6 - THE ROMANTIC 6's are idealistic and need to feel useful to be happy.
A strong family connection is important to them. Their actions
influence their decisions. They have a strong urge to take care of others
and to help. They are very loyal and make great teachers. They like art or
music. They make loyal friends who take the friendship
Seriously. 6's should learn to differentiate between what they can
Change and what they cannot.

Famous 6's: Albert Einstein, Jane Seymour, John Denver, Merly Steep,
Christopher Columbus, Goldie Hawn

#7 - THE INTELLECTUAL 7's are the searchers.
Always probing for hidden information, they find it difficult to accept
things at face value. Emotions don't sway their decisions. Questioning
everything in life, they don't like to be questioned themselves.
They're never off to a fast start, and their motto is slow and steady
Wins the race. They come across as philosophers and being very
Knowledgeable, and sometimes as loners.
    They are technically inclined and make great researchers
Uncovering information. They like secrets. They live in their own world and
should learn what is acceptable and what is not in the world at large.

Famous 7's: William Shakespeare, Lucille Ball, Michael Jackson, Joan 
Baez, Princess Diana

# 8 - THE BIG SHOT 8's are the problem solvers.
They are professional, blunt and to the point, have good judgment and are
decisive. They have grand plans and like to live the good life. They
take charge of people. They view people objectively. They let you know
in no uncertain terms that they are the boss. They should learn to exude
their decisions on their own needs rather than on what others want.

Famous 8's Edgar Cayce, Barbra Streisand, George
Harrison, Jane Fonda, Pablo Picasso, Aretha Franklin, and Nostrodamus

#9 - THE PERFORMER 9's are natural entertainers.
They are very caring and generous, giving away their last dollar to help.
With their charm, they have no problem making friends and nobody is a stranger to
them. They have so many different personalities that people around them have
a hard time understanding them. They are like chameleons, ever changing and
blending in. They have tremendous luck, but also can suffer from extremes in
fortune and mood.
To be successful, they need to build a loving foundation.

Famous 9's Albert Schweitzer, Shirley MacLaine, Harrison Ford, Jimmy
Carter, Elvis Presley

Peringkat Selingkuh Berdasarkan ZODIAK

2006-04-05T11:21:00.000+07:00

T A U R U S (21 April - 20 Mei)
Peringkat 1 : Kesetiaannya luar biasa dan paling dapat diandalkan. Bagi
beberapa zodiac tertentu, Taurus kadangkala dianggap pribadi yang agak
membosankan dalam hubungan interaksi karena cenderung berkutat dalam
hitungan "berhemat-hemat" atau paling tidak dianggap keras kepala.

C A N C E R (21 Juni - 22 Juli)
Peringkat 2 : Ratu Rumahan yang setia, selalu ingin merawat pasangannya.
Sensitivitas tinggi membuatnya sangat berhati-hati untuk tidak dilukai dan
melukai. Cancer terkesan menutup rapat diri yang membuat beberapa zodiac
tertentu menjadi tidak sabar karena makan waktu untuk berinteraksi
dengannya.

V I R G O (23 Agustus - 22 September)
Peringkat 3 : Sangat hati-hati memilih pasangan. Ketemu satu saja sudah
bikin "capek", jadi boro-boro mau "main-mata"lagi..Kerap lumayan rewel dan
kritis yangmenunjukkan betapa besar perhatiannya pada seseorang. Bagi
beberapa zodiac tertentu,Virgo adalah tipe yang kerewelan dan kritiknya
kadang bisa bikin orang lain tersinggung.

C A P R I C O R N (23 Desember - 20 Januari)
Peringkat 4 : Pemikiran akan rencana-rencananya sangat menyita waktunya.
Cenderung berkutat seputar pemikiran akan rencana-rencananya. Bagi
beberapa zodiac tertentu, Capricorn terkesan membatasi diri dalam hubungan
interaksi dengan lainnya. Selingkuh hanya intermezzo kala jenuh.

A Q U A R I U S (21 Januari - 19 Februari)
Peringkat 5 : Tidak suka selingkuh, tapi menghindari komitmen yang
membutuhkan keterlibatan emosional yang dalam. Aquarius cenderung berpikir
dan bertindak tegas. Bagi beberapa zodiac tertentu, ia terkesan sangat
radikal. Bila ia sampai selingkuh, berarti itu caranya yang "radikal"
untuk mengakhiri hubungan dengan pasangan yang tidak mampu mengikuti pola
pikirnya.

L I B R A ( 23 September - 22 Oktober)
Peringkat 6 : Paling sukar menentukan pilihan dan mengalami kesulitan
dalam mengungkapkan diri sendiri. Karena kerap berpikiran mendua mengenai
segala sesuatu, bagi beberapa zodiac tertentu, Libra kadang terkesan penuh
rahasia dan cenderung sulit dipahami.

G E M I N I (21 Mei - 20 Juni)
Peringkat 7 : Harus dimanja agar tidak selingkuh Selalu ingin dimanja dan
diperhatikan oleh pasangannya. Bagi beberapa zodiac tertentu, Gemini
adalah tipe yang gampang berubah-ubah.

S A G I T A R I U S (23 November - 22 Desember)
Peringkat 8 : Gampang tergoda untuk selingkuh. Karakter dasar yang
ekspansif maka ia gampang tergoda untuk hal-hal yang "baru", begitu pula
dalam hubungan. Bagi beberapa zodiac tertentu, Sagitarius adalah tipe
cemerlang yang penuh vitalitas hidup.

A R I E S ( 21 Maret - 20 April)
Peringkat 9 : Perlu dipantau agar gairah kehangatannya tidak berlebihan.
Antusiasme dalam diri membuat gairahnya selalu berkobar untuk ber
"petualang" dalam segala hal. Bagi beberapa zodiac tertentu, Aries adalah
tipe yang hangat dalam hubungan interaksi.

L E O ( 23 Juli - 22 Agustus)
Peringkat 10 : Kesetiaannya diliputi ego yang tinggi. Egonya yang tinggi
membuat kesetiaannya sangat berpamrih, yaitu rela mengalah dalam banyak
hal untuknya. Bagi beberapa zodiac tertentu, Leo adalah tipe yang
"menawan."

S C O R P I O (23 Oktober - 22 November)
Peringkat 11 : Tak akan membiarkan setiap godaan lewat begitu saja. Godaan
bisa berarti perhatian baginya dan jarang diabaikannya. Scorpio senang
menjadi populer sebagai si pecinta ulung. Bagi beberapa zodiac tertentu,
Scorpio adalah tipe pecinta yang ekspresif.

P I S C E S (20 Februari - 20 Maret)
Peringkat 12 : Si Peselingkuh yang mengaku setia. Demikian romantis dia...
perselingkuhan adalah nuansa indah dalam hidupnya.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jakarta_xchannel/message/62

Sebuah renungan "craftmanship" yang hilang.

2006-04-04T23:00:00.000+07:00

" Ketika sebuah eksekusi tentang seni menghadapi jalan buntu,
jangan jadikan keindahan sebuah unsur yang paling penting,
tapi cari jalan keluarnya, maka keindahan itu akan datang dengan sendirinya
ketika kita keluar dari kebuntuan tersebut. "

Sebuah renungan craftmanship yang hilang.

pagi semua

2006-04-04T08:42:00.000+07:00

hmmm... pagi yang indah
tersenyum dan bernyanyi
untukku melangkahi hari

nyanyi angin mendinginkan
suasana hati.

kamu (aku) harus kuat

2006-04-03T23:31:00.000+07:00

" Kalau kamu (aku) jatuh sebanyak tiga kali,
maka kamu (aku) harus bangun sebanyak empat kali.
Artinya kamu (aku) memang orang yang kuat menghadapi segalanya. "

sebuah motivasi untukmu (ku)

Getting into advertising

2006-04-02T17:42:00.000+07:00

Getting into advertising

Advertising work can be both demanding and rewarding in equal measure. The trick is to make yourself an indispensable link between brands and the buying public, connecting the value of one to the needs of the other...

In the battle for the hearts and minds of modern consumers, creativity has become the weapon of choice for self-conscious brands. And while this job becomes increasingly dif. cult as audiences grow ever more critical, new opportunities for advertising have arisen. As traditional mediums have fractured and new ones enter the fray, advertising strives even harder not to look like advertising. For the creative professional, there’s rarely been more potential.

But despite these changes, one thing that seems to remain constant is the seemingly stoic approach taken by the industry to newcomers. This is one field which will never knowingly tolerate anything less than the best from its talent. Unfortunately, knowing what constitutes the best isn’t always that easy and the aforementioned fracturing isn’t helping the situation either.

From TV, the web, print and illustration, we’ve consulted a selection of experienced individuals from advertising’s various media to see what knowledge can be gleaned from their hard work. The ad world, it seems, isn’t all that hard to understand.

Which would you like first?
The good news is that the advertising industry values its raw materials. As a working illustrator, Henry Obassi has direct experience: “In advertising there is a de. nite element of respect that I personally have experienced from the majority of agencies.” That’s comforting news and frequently at odds with experiences in other avenues, as Henry is happy to testify: “This is definitely not the case with other areas of the commercial market involving illustrative commissions, where blatant piss-taking has become commonplace.”

Paul Matthaeus is CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Seattle-based ad production firm Digital Kitchen, and he agrees that the creative still has leverage: “Advertising is still embraced as a valuable endeavour by the world’s major brands,” he says. “Spot advertising is a highly concentrated and mercurial art form – it demands a lot from the creative.” Put these two factors together and you have a lucrative but very closely scrutinised handshake between the creative and commercial worlds.

And, of course, the business is renowned for its professionalism, which can be both a blessing and a curse, as Henry Obassi explains: “When ad agencies are commissioning, they know exactly what they want visually, making illustrators’ lives relatively straightforward.” That’s a good thing if you’re fully on top of what you do, but the concept has a wider application. “Generally speaking, just be professional in all matters concerned with the job,” says Henry. He means all aspects: “Shit, like time keeping, being contactable, being prepared to change images with minimum fuss.” These sound like small beer next to the production of great visuals, but the ad game is much more about relationships.

Bill Cumming is Creative Director at graphic design firm The Nest. Having just joined forces with ad agency St Luke’s, Bill and his team have an interesting viewpoint. His opening remark keeps the theme going: “In advertising there are more retained relationships with clients. Most other types of design work are project based.” This means you need to be able to communicate. “This might take longer than working on a project-to-project basis,” he says, but it gives you the opportunity to develop an understanding and even produce some interesting work.

The right stuff
So what qualities does it take to break into the advertising game? “Many, which makes this field tough to penetrate,” says Paul Matthaeus. He gives a few examples that always go down well: “Classically trained designers that work fluidly in motion; animators that work with music; designers that are strong conceptualists.” It looks like you need to be able to bridge a lot of gaps.

A former Director of Photography, Peter Thwaites now works as a Commercial Director at premier ad production company Gorgeous. He fits the multi-skilled bill pretty neatly.

Unsurprisingly, he sees things similarly to Paul: “It’s different to other types of work – you’re the head of a creative process.” This position is compounded by the scale of the operation: “It’s smaller, so by definition more has to be generated from me than a team, as it would in a larger production.”

Bill Cumming comes at it from another angle: “I’d say the need for teamwork is important.” This isn’t the contradiction it seems because if you can’t do it yourself, you have to be able to pull together. “You need to be open to ideas wherever they come from,” he says. “You also need the ability to think fast and be critically objective.” Paul meets him there: “Naturally, some of our people are better at one than the other, but it’s our job to make those disciplines coalesce in a way that delivers a very precise intangible.”

And the greater part of teamwork is understanding what your fellow team-mates do. Henry illustrates the point: “When I work I am constantly aware of how my work is to be produced. Having that understanding makes life easier for the art director.” All of this helps you develop a good working relationship so that the technicalities become less of an obstacle to the production of top-class work.

The rigours of difference
But there’s more to it than that: advertising has an insatiable appetite for originality. Few insiders would disagree with Paul Matthaeus when he expresses his belief that: “It’s more demanding than casual spectators are inclined to believe. It’s very deceptive – so much needs to be taken into consideration: the brand aura, the competitive landscape, rewarding the consumer for their attention.”

None of this is straightforward, but what it means, according to Paul, is: “Getting this kind of work is based on a track record and that’s tough to develop given all the elements that go into it.” Henry will tell you the same thing: “Ad work can be harder to get, especially if your work is considered ‘niche’.” Somehow you have to offer the right blend of ‘the same but different’ so the agencies know what they’re getting and what they’re getting is ‘different’.

Web design company Unit9 is busy beautifying one of the newest and least understood outlets at the advertiser’s disposal. Yates Buckley, Technical Director, conveys the Unit9 proposition: “The difference is that our speciality is not in ‘producing’ but in ‘presenting’ online content.” If you didn’t get it first time, here it is again: “What makes Unit9 different is in the way we translate and communicate online content.” The point is that you have to understand your medium and offer a way to master, or at least tame it a little, on behalf of your client.

Yates also confirms what we’ve heard about the other media: “Advertising work is probably harder to get.” This is particularly true for independents: “A lot of advertising companies either have their own in-house interactive team or collaborate with a particular digital agency that produces most of their online content.” It’s relationships, you see. And what’s there at the beginning? “The first impression that’s left after visiting a site is like the first impression one gets by meeting someone in person,” says Yates. “It’s especially important if it serves as a selfpromotional tool.”

The brains behind it
“Rarely are we hired just as an executional arm without a brain attached,” says Paul Matthaeus. The usual experience at Digital Kitchen is that agencies are looking for something above and beyond, or as Paul himself puts it: “Usually our clients are asking us to plus their boards or scripts on some level.” And in spite of the generally conservative approach of most clients, advertising remains a field dedicated to breaking creativity: “Despite the corporate committees, ‘engineering consent’ to do interesting work is often less arduous in traditional advertising than with most entertainment studios,” says Paul. As in the US, so in the UK, “Believe it or not.”

The progress from client to production is pretty standard across the various media. Henry takes up the story: “The art director develops a campaign strategy to promote a particular brand. If it involves illustration as the main visual medium, he or she will shortlist image makers that fit with the concept.” This is when the artists in question will be called on to make their first contribution, to pitch for the work. Once the pitching stage is over, the artist will work in close collaboration with the art director till the fat lady sings.

Surprisingly, the artist is rarely pressurised to ‘sell sell sell’. “The agency comes up with the idea,” says Peter Thwaites. “My job is to find the best way to film it.” The art director meanwhile, acts as a kind of interface between artist and commerce: “Fundamentally my work isn’t about selling tomatoes,” Peter adds. “I’m there to interpret an idea. They are trying to sell tomatoes.” When you think about it, that makes sense – after all, if he were good at selling tomatoes, he’d be working on a market stall, not directing cameras.

It’s not all roses though, as Yates Buckley points out: “As we collaborate with the advertising industry, there’s not always the creative freedom that we might wish for.” But even here it’s a question of balance: “But simultaneously we’ve always felt able to contribute ideas and take part in the evolution of projects.” You have to be realistic, advertising is very highly scrutinised, measured and studied from all sides. There will inevitably be constraints.

Henry Obassi is totally down the line: “Advertising is always gonna be about the generation of money and that will never change.” This is neither good nor bad, says the artist: “I am not soap-boxing here.” Generally, creatives are involved because the agency believes they have what it takes to make a product attractive to the right people. “That for me is the most important thing to grasp,” says Henry. “Yes you want to create visually stunning work and have the general public empathise with your artistic catharsis, personal therapy or world messages for peace. But at the end of the day that is not why one was hired.”

(Don't fear) the filter

2006-04-02T17:35:00.000+07:00

(Don't fear) the filter

In recent years, Photoshop filters have developed a bit of an image problem. Now, thanks to the growing sophistication of the digital arts, the time may be ripe for their rehabilitation...

It wasn't always the case that the use of a Photoshop filter would earn you nothing but a knowing sneer from your audience. There was a time when the application of a Kai's Power Tool would actually cause onlookers' jaws to drop in honest amazement.

Nowadays, though, the majority of digital artists don't like to be caught hanging around anywhere near the Filter menu; it's become something of a guilty secret. But if they're pushed, most will admit to being regular filter users, usually starting with Gaussian Blur but often progressing to the harder stuff. The question that needs addressing is, can filters be used responsibly?

The problem

"When computers burst onto the scene, it was all about Photoshop filters and digital illustrations," says Henry Obasi, an illustrator who is proud of his practical skills, of his craft. Henry believes the early years of the digital revolution relied more heavily on the Filter menu: "It's like when artists discovered the Twirl filter years ago," he says, taking an example we're all familiar with. "Every illustration and its mother was twirled under the notion of 'Damn this shit looks cool. Look at what it does to the pictures!'."

"Lens Flare is classically overused. It has been since it came out really," says Antony Crossfield, Creative Director at London's top retouching studio Metro Imaging. "It's such an easy thing to do," he says, adding that the problem starts because, "People think it's a quick way to improve an image." This belief is subject to erosion over time, says Antony: "There's just not enough variation - the more you see it, the easier it is to notice." Eventually, every time you see that Lens Flare you downgrade your opinion of the image that contains it, just because you know how it was done.

John McFaul identifies the root cause of the problem. "Among the students I teach, 50 per cent of them just want instant results," he says. In essence, it's the perfectly natural desire for a quick solution that leads to an incautious rush to the Filter menu.

"You need to take a bit more time," says John, who's own approach to digital illustration draws on traditional techniques and intuitions. "Take the chance to open doors on new things. Maybe even get away from the computer for a bit..." he advises. The reaction and subsequent move away from using Photoshop filters is understandable as part of our growing digital sophistication. "It's about progress," says Henry.

Away from the computer

People were involved in disciplines such as photography, illustration and design long before the arrival of computers. In fact, the computer is still a relatively recent addition to the tools used for these disciplines. So much so that the digital world is just starting to make ground on the processes which analogue production invented.

John McFaul has a background in traditional media, and says: "Process is too important to me to readily accept a quick fix." His belief in the importance of process is echoed throughout the digital arts. "You've got to get your hands dirty," says Henry Obasi, going on to explain that you have to create images using inks, paints, oils or whatever you can find in order to truly appreciate the power that filters offer you as a graphic artist.

The right stuff

"In a broader sense, everything you do in Photoshop that changes an image is filtering," says Harald Heim of The Plugin Site. An obvious cheerleader for the Filter menu, Harald continues, "Taking that idea to its natural conclusion means purists would have to return to analog photography." Harald has a point, but what the 'purists' are advocating is a return to process, to craft.

"Illustration has been going from strength to strength in recent time," says John McFaul, who reckons the problem isn't just filters themselves but a general rise in illustration standards. He continues: "So if you're relying on filters then your work will look crude by comparison." The same is true in the world of high-end retouching. "Half the skill is to make it look like it wasn't used at all," says Antony Crossfield. "That's the guiding principle behind all the work we do."

This isn't a ban on filters, far from it: "They're a neat way to get things going quickly," says Antony. "But again, the main thing is to cover your tracks." The retouching business is clearly never going to endorse the heavy use of artistic filters but everything has its place: "There is potential in there - you just have to learn how to use them effectively."

Where and when

"The use of a filter is justified if it adds to the final image, but not when it's simply used with a 'because we can' attitude," so says Terry Steeley, designer, photographer and Photoshop maestro. John McFaul takes a similar position when he says, "The idea is first and foremost; the thing to avoid is looking like you have a filter with some artwork attached."

It's no good using the filters as a substitute for creativity, but as part of a solution they could be the perfect tool. "You have to treat it as something that needs exploring. Don't let it dictate," says John. Antony Crossfield agrees, adding: "You can use them to get somewhere but not as an end in themselves."

Terry Steeley says, "Good use is seldom the standard use of the filters without additional refinements." Heeding this advice, the central task is to rein in the power of these effects so that they don't dominate the work they're in. This power was what made them so immediately attractive; it's also what made them so quickly familiar. Now it's what makes them difficult to rehabilitate.

Plug-in potential

"There is potential in there - you just have to learn how to use them," says Antony Crossfield, highlighting the central issue. The filters themselves have done nothing wrong, it's their inexpert use which has caused the problem. Because of their obvious power and the extremity of their action on your pixels, you have to use them delicately.

Terry Steeley echoes Antony in believing filters will make a comeback: "I'm sure there's loads of potential, now that Photoshop has the new Filter Gallery enabling users to see how different combinations of filters and settings will appear." This development suggests that Adobe itself is aware of a need to finesse their filters.

Henry Obasi takes a similar line: "Interaction between the various filters can produce an infinite number of permutations and results, so of course there's potential there." The job of the artist is to find that potential: "Many may be bad, many may be good, but for the artist this can only be good in the long run."

Even Antony, the most dedicated retoucher, is willing to say a kind word: "Plastic Wrap is kind of tacky, but I like it. It looks a bit like being covered in dribble." We get the picture. The basic message seems to be that these are powerful items and if you want to avoid ending up like Mickey Mouse in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, you need to claw back the integrity of your image every time you use a filter.

Rediscovery

So what's inhibiting the re-uptake of the filter? Howard Wakefield of Saville Associates, one of the figures behind the development of Peter Saville's waste paintings, has an idea: "When do you have the time to play and experiment?" he asks.

By common consent, this is something you need plenty of time for, even if you only want a basic grasp of the possibilities. But, as Howard says, "There's always a deadline that needs priority, so taking the time to explore the possibilities of a filter is a luxury."

Those filters that work as shortcuts remain in use, but the exploration of their creative potential isn't something a jobbing illustrator has too much time for. "Over the last few weeks I've probably used most of them," says John McFaul, "but I know what's going to work."

But does this mean you can't touch the Filter menu till you've become old and wise? "You don't necessarily need years of experience. You just have to be willing to challenge yourself," says John. Henry Obasi puts it very neatly: "There are no rules, it's simply about whether they help you create a good piece of work.

Pitch Perfect

2006-04-02T17:30:00.000+07:00

Pitch Perfect

There’s much more to pitching than just turning up on a client’s doorstep with a good idea. Preparation is the key to success, says Mark Penfold

Here’s the thing: if you don’t sell your product then you don’t get paid. You can be as creative as you like, but if it doesn’t sell you might just find yourself hanging out with the Salvation Army crew, developing a taste for free soup.

The daunting concept of pitching is as old as the creative industries themselves, and it has been developed to a fine art by the best in the business. From film through to design and new media, there’s no escaping it.

The good news is that you only have to learn the basics once because, according to design marketing expert Shan Preddy: “The same principles apply whether you’re a freelancer working from your back bedroom for just one client, or a global player who has offices around the world.”

Who are you?
“Before you start marketing at all, you must have a very clear idea of where you want your business to be,” Preddy insists. As a respected consultant and the author of How to Market Design Consultancy Services: Finding, Winning, Keeping and Developing Clients, this is her area of specialisation. So pay attention.

“If you don’t have a clear vision for the business, your marketing is never going to be that effective,” says Preddy. So, there are some questions you need to ask beforehand: What exactly are you aiming for? What are you going to specialise in? And what do you want to be known for? Answer these thoroughly before you put yourself under the spotlight.

Though it didn’t have the benefit of Preddy’s guidance, that’s just what interactive agency Junction 18 did when considering incorporation. “Initially we were unsure of the market to go for,” admits the firm’s head of design, Mark Doyle. “The dot.com boom was over and web work was suddenly becoming hard to secure, so we decided to go down the interactive e-learning route.”

Which brings us neatly to Preddy’s second point: “Be very clear about what you or your company has to offer, what your strengths are, and what your weaknesses are compared with your competitors’.” In other words, try to find an angle that suits you and concentrate on it – you can always branch out in other directions later.

For Junction 18 it was simply a case of spotting the right opening, and Matt Button, co-founder of design consultants DS.Emotion, tells a similar story: “Back in the early days we focused on a particular industry – property marketing,” he explains.

DS.Emotion has now moved into the coveted “youth” market. “Today, if there’s a pitch in the offing, we like to think of ourselves as one of the top three in the country,” says Button. Consequently the pitch isn’t complete without the company. This is the situation you’re aiming for if a pitch is unavoidable. “I can’t endorse specialising enough,” he says.

Supply and demand
“You can only make a sale where your product meets a need that’s felt by someone else,” explains Preddy. “If that need isn’t there in the first place, no amount of selling skills will do you any good.” You must know what the market needs and make it perfectly obvious to everyone concerned that that’s exactly what you’ve got.

The amount of preparation that’s required even before you make that first call, send that first email or knock on that door, will determine your level of success. There’s an old army saying that Preddy is fond of: “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail”. In other words, you must know who you are, what you do, who wants it and what they’re like before you even think about contacting anyone.

“If you start with how they’ll find you without the prep you’re playing a dangerous game,” says Preddy. “It might work, but you’re not giving it the best shot. You’re not taking aim. So decide on the best way to reach them, find out what kind of language they use – really target your communication for a specific individual.”

When Paula Benson and Paul White set up London-based graphic design agency Form in 1991 they already had a good selection of contacts in the music industry, and they loved the work so it made sense for them to focus their efforts on that market. Still, it wasn’t an easy process, as Benson recalls: “It was a case of dragging our portfolio around London for several months and literally just seeing as many people as we could.”

That doesn’t mean you should take a scattergun approach, but visit a well-researched list of people, who are in a position, or may at some future time be in a position, to buy design work from you. “The only thing that works is to focus,” says Matt Button. “DS. Emotion has tried the wide-band approach and it just doesn’t work. By focusing you get to know more people in a specific business.”

After three years’ hard graft, that’s where Junction 18 has now found itself. “A lot of the work we get now is through word of mouth,” says Doyle. There may still be a pitch involved, but in marketing terms there is no substitute for a recommendation. That’s the guiding principle behind Button’s belief that, “our most powerful tool is our case studies.”

First contact
So you’ve decided who you are and what you do, and you also have snappy answers to those questions of Preddy’s. You’ve targeted your market and you know everything about them. The next stage is the fulcrum of the whole process. You must decide on your marketing strategy and approach.

However you first make contact, it must be as effective as possible. Once again, Preddy is ready with a battery of questions you need to ask yourself: “What do I want them to know? What do I want them to do next? How can I put this over so it will be relevant to them?” Follow up that first contact, too. “People don’t always make up their minds instantly,” she says, So be prepared to play the long game.

Button says you should use a steady, structured approach to your canvassing: “Even now we have a board in our office that reminds us of the letters that need sending out that week,” he admits. These letters are prompted by articles about new developments or a new brand that needs promoting. “You find out the name of the right person, do your research, then write to them,” says Button. The goal is to make them understand that by asking you in they are going to improve their business.

The next step
Assuming everything so far has gone according to plan, and there’s actually some work to be had, you will now find yourself in one of two situations. The most desirable is that you’ll just be asked to take on a project, no messing. But most likely you’ll be asked to pitch for the work in competition with other firms.

“We’re being asked to pitch a lot more now than we ever were,” says Benson. “Things have definitely changed. It’s just the marketplace at the moment. There isn’t so much work about; budgets are getting smaller and there are more designers than ever.” Clients therefore feel it’s acceptable to ask designers to pitch ideas without promise of payment. This, everyone is agreed, cannot be a good thing.

Pitches come in two distinct flavours; there’s the “credentials pitch”, a kind of professional introduction, that gives the prospective client a chance to find out how you work and for you to find out more about them. The second is the full-blown ideas pitch with a full brief where you will be expected to pull the creative rabbit out of the hat. This again has two flavours: paid and free.

“We’re asked all the time to come up with ideas,” says Benson, “but we decided a few years ago that we won’t do free pitches.” Form, along with a growing number of designers, has come to the conclusion that to work for free is to devalue your product. And, as Benson points out, if you don’t value yourself, why should anyone else?

Preparing for the big day
If you’re lucky enough to be paid for your pitch, or you’ve decided to go ahead and produce a pitch anyway, the next thing to consider is just how much work to put in. That, of course, depends on how much you want the job and how likely it is you’ll get it.

Doyle makes an interesting observation: “Sometimes you feel the whole thing is just a formality, that they’ve tendered the job out because they have to.” Under those circumstances you should of course cut back on the man-hours.

Button learned this lesson the hard way: “The longest pitch we’ve done took five people for three weeks to develop. This was for a big charity and, unfortunately, we didn’t win it.” The lesson here is a hard one. “You can go in having worked for weeks but your idea could be pipped by someone else who might have come up with theirs in an afternoon,” says Button.

According to Preddy, you should not see the time you invest as an invisible cost. Log the job as you would paid work, add up the costs and call that your marketing budget.

Before committing the money, consider whether it would be better to spend the money on a well-thought-out campaign rather than on marketing yourself to one person.

Face to face
“Our job is a bit like a psychologist’s,” says Benson. “Sussing out where the client is coming from, working out what’s going on in their heads.” On the big day there will be a complex set of unknowns sitting across the table from you, and it’s your job to convince them they need you to work for them.

You have to be professional and efficient, though. Right down to the way you actually present. Doyle says you should check your technical equipment repeatedly: “Make sure your laptop works, you know how their stuff works, and, importantly, be on time.” Identify who’s going to be there and what they’re going to ask. “It helps if there are two of you so you can back each other up, but you don’t want to outnumber them,” Doyle adds.

For all that, it’s impossible to stay fully in control. “Sometimes you get a shock when you walk in there,” laughs Doyle. “Once, we were expecting four people, and when the two of us arrived there were about 20 people there.” You can’t be fazed by it. Any one of those people could hold the keys to your next job. “You just have to give them what they want,” says Doyle.

The history of Photoshop

2006-04-02T17:26:00.000+07:00

The history of Photoshop

The next time you fire up your copy of Photoshop, spare a thought for the scores of developers and the reams of code that have gone into making it…

While you won’t find it printed on any calendar, 2005 marks a quiet anniversary for the program that you, and many other graphic designers, probably use the most. It was 15 years ago in February that Adobe shipped version 1.0 of Photoshop – still its most popular (and lucrative) application, and possibly the only bit of software to have spawned its own verb form.

But the true origins of Photoshop go back even further. The program whose splash screen now displays 41 names was originally the product of just two brothers, Thomas and John Knoll, as fascinated by technology as they were by art. It was a trait they’d inherited from their father, a photography buff with his own personal darkroom in the basement and a penchant for early home computers.

Thus Thomas dabbled with photography, learning about colour correction and contrast in the darkroom, while John happily tinkered with his dad’s Apple II computer. When their dad – clearly an early adopter – bought one of the first Macs on the market in 1984, both were bowled over by its capabilities. Yet ironically it was its frustrating inadequacies that would eventually lead to the multi-million dollar application sitting on nearly everyone’s hard drive today.

In the beginning
By 1987, John Knoll was working at Industrial Light and Magic – Lucasfilm’s nascent special effects division, founded for Star Wars – while Thomas was studying for his Ph.D. on image processing at the University of Michigan. Having just bought a brand-new Apple Mac Plus to help out with his thesis, he was dismayed to find it couldn’t display greyscale images on the monochrome monitor. So, in true hacker style, he set about writing his own code to do the job.

Unsurprisingly, John was also working on image processing at ILM, and during a holiday visit he became very impressed with Thomas’s progress. In the book CG 101: A Computer Graphics Industry Reference, John says: “As Tom showed me his work, it struck me how similar it was to the image-processing tools on the Pixar [a custom computer used at ILM].” Thus the pair began to collaborate on a larger, more cohesive application, which they dubbed – excitingly – Display.

It wasn’t long before John had bought a new colour Macintosh II and persuaded Thomas to rewrite Display to work in colour. Indeed, the more John saw of Display, the more features he began to ask for: gamma correction, loading and saving other file formats, and so on.

Although this work distracted Thomas from his thesis, he was quite happy to oblige. He also developed an innovative method of selecting and affecting only certain parts of the image, as well as a set of image-processing routines – which would later become plug-ins. A feature for adjusting tones (Levels) also emerged, along with controls for balance, hue and saturation. These were the defining features of Photoshop, but at the time, it was almost unthinkable to see them anywhere outside of specialist processing software in a lab – or at ILM.

By 1988, Display had become ImagePro and was sufficiently advanced that John thought they might have a chance at selling it as a commercial application. Thomas was reluctant: he still hadn’t finished his thesis, and creating a full-blown app would take a lot of work. But once John had checked out the competition, of which there was very little, they realised ImagePro was way ahead of anything currently available.

From ImagePro to Photoshop
Thus the search began for investors. It didn’t help that Thomas kept changing the name of the software, only to find a name was already in use elsewhere. No one is quite sure where the name ‘Photoshop’ originally came from, but legend has it that it was suggested by a potential publisher during a demo, and just stuck. Incidentally, splash screens from very early versions show the name as ‘PhotoShop’ – which seems far more in line with today’s craze for ExTraneous CapitaliSation.

Remarkably in retrospect, most software companies turned their corporate noses up at Photoshop, or were already developing similar applications of their own. Only Adobe was prepared to take it on, but a suitable deal wasn’t forthcoming. Eventually, though, a scanner manufacturer called Barneyscan decided to bundle it with its scanners, and a small number of copies went out under the name Barneyscan XP.

Fortunately for the future of digital imaging, this wasn’t a long-term deal, and John soon returned to Adobe to drum up more interest. There he met Russell Brown, then Art Director, who was highly impressed with the program and persuaded the company to take it on. Whether through naivety on Adobe’s part or canniness on the brothers’, Photoshop was not sold wholesale but only licensed and distributed, with royalties still going to the Knolls.

It wasn’t as if this deal meant the Knoll brothers could sit back and relax; if anything, they now had to work even harder on getting Photoshop ready for an official, 1.0 version release. Thomas continued developing all the main application code, while John contributed plug-ins separately, to the dismay of some of the Adobe staff who viewed these as little more than gimmicks.

Curiously, this attitude still remains among some purists, who claim that most Photoshop plug-ins are somehow ‘cheating’ and not be touched under any circumstances, while others swear by their flexibility and power when used properly.

As in the program’s formative days, there were always new features to be added, and somehow Thomas had to make time to code them. With the encouragement of John, Russell Brown – soon to become Photoshop’s biggest evangelist – and other creatives at Adobe, the application slowly took shape. It was finally launched in February 1990.

Digital imaging for everyone
This first release was certainly a success, despite the usual slew of bugs. Like the Apple of today, Adobe’s key marketing decision was to present Photoshop as a mass-market, fairly simple tool for anyone to use – rather than most graphics software of the time, which was aimed at specialists.

With Photoshop, you could be achieving the same things on your home desktop Mac that were previously only possible with thousands of dollars of advanced equipment… at least, that was the implicit promise. There was also the matter of pricing. Letraset’s ColorStudio, which had launched shortly before, cost $1,995; Photoshop was less than $1,000.

With development of version 2.0 now underway, Adobe began to expand the coding staff. Mark Hamburg was taken on to add Bézier paths, while other new features included the Pen tool, Duotones, import and rasterisation of Illustrator files, plus, crucially, support for CMYK colour. This was another canny move on Adobe’s part, as it opened up the Photoshop market to print professionals for the first time. The program’s first Product Manager, Steven Guttman, started giving code names to beta versions, a practice which survives to this day. ‘Fast Eddy’ – version 2 – was launched the following year.

Until now Photoshop was still a Mac-only application, but its success warranted a version for the burgeoning Windows graphics market. Porting it was not a trivial task: a whole new team, headed by Bryan Lamkin, was brought in for the PC. Oddly, although there were other significant new features such as 16-bit file support, this iteration was shipped as version 2.5.

Like that difficult third album which can make or break a band, version 3 had to really deliver if it was to corner the market. Fortunately, the team had a whopper of an ace up their sleeve: layers.

By general consensus, the addition of layers has been the single most important aspect of Photoshop development, and probably the feature which finally persuaded many artists to try it. Yet the concept of layers wasn’t unique to Photoshop. HSC – later to become MetaCreations – was concurrently developing Live Picture, an image-editing app including just such a facility. While an excellent program in its own right, Live Picture was vastly overpriced on its launch, leaving Photoshop 3.0 for both Mac and Windows to clean up.

Nothing in later versions quite matched the layers feature for its impact, but there have nonetheless been significant changes. Version 5 introduced colour management and the History palette, with its extra ‘nonlinear history’ behaviour, which certainly opened up whole new creative possibilities. A major update, version 5.5, bundled Adobe’s package ImageReady in an entirely new iteration, giving Photoshop excellent Web-specific features. Layer styles and improved text handling popped up in version 6, and the Healing brush in version 7.

Today and tomorrow
Surprisingly given the age and market leading position of the application, Adobe continues to come up with new features for Photoshop. With Photoshop now part of the rebranded and remarketed Creative Suite 2, Adobe appears to be currently emphasising interoperability through the likes of Bridge.

But the program can’t and won’t stand still. For one thing, it faces much greater competition from a host of rivals, many of which claim to offer Photoshop’s power without the price. Lower-cost apps aimed at the amateur or home enthusiast, such as Paint Shop Pro on Windows, have had many years to learn from Photoshop. Adobe’s solution was to join them, launching the budget priced and feature-reduced but still immensely powerful Photoshop Elements – which itself has now reached version 4.

And the future? Unsurprisingly, Adobe isn’t telling. Photoshop is the jewel in its crown and its development is closely guarded. But there have been hints. Bryan Lamkin, now Senior Vice President of Digital Imaging and Digital Video, speculated earlier this year on a true 64-bit version of the application, and perhaps support for Apple’s CoreImage technology, which would bring enormous speed improvements. Rumours that Illustrator will merge with Photoshop have also abounded for years.

Whatever happens, it’s likely that Thomas Knoll will be involved in some way. Although not directly concerned with Photoshop these days, he still keeps his hand in, recently developing the Adobe Camera Raw plug-in and posting occasionally to the Adobe forums.

His brother still works at ILM too: appropriately enough, he was Visual Effects Supervisor on all three of the new Star Wars films. Without the original Star Wars, there would have been no Photoshop; and with no Photoshop, your job, this magazine and the entire graphics design industry would be very different from how they are today.

50 insider tips for illustrators

2006-04-02T17:14:00.000+07:00

50 insider tips for illustrators

Work smarter, not harder, and keep your head above water with these tips and insights from some of the top names in the creative world…

Some of today’s hardest working illustrators take time out to share their own top 50 glistening, information-packed, gems of knowledge. Carefully mined from real-life experiences, these handpicked nuggets will add an insider edge to getting on in your career. Get the low-down on starting up your own studio, promoting your work, the pros and cons of agents, getting that portfolio working effectively, winning clients and new business, pricing jobs, inspiration and collaborations, and how to structure your working week to fit it all in…

Part 1: Getting started in illustration

1 An education in illustration
Many illustrators swear by the education they received as full-time art school students, while many others maintain ‘learning on the job’ is the best route. Steve Wilson, graduate of the University of Brighton Illustration BA course, notes, “I made loads of mistakes when starting out – there’s a lot that can’t be taught, you have to do it in practice…”

2 Putting education into practice
Picking your own way through the minefield that is contemporary illustration practice isn’t easy. McFaul, himself a graduate of Kingston University’s illustration undergraduate course declares, “Although the education I received was second to none, I’m still under the impression that those of us that left education at that time were dropped off in the middle of nowhere blindfolded!” Watch out for the pitfalls.

3 The highs and the lows
Life as an illustrator can be rewarding one day and frustrating the next. Although it’s demanding being your own boss, it’s also an attractive lifestyle. JAKe, illustrator, cartoonist and animator, explains: “I haven’t had a ‘real’ job for ten years – I’d find the structure too hard. One of the highs of life as an illustrator is that there’s nobody telling me what time to get out of bed!” Create a daily structure that works for you.

4 Working from home
Setting up a studio to work out of is a crucial first step. If resources are low, your first studio may well be where you live. Jody Barton, illustrator with Big Active, having left his urban London lifestyle for a rural one, describes his space: “Two wobbly desks, two computers and a telephone – situated in the middle of nowhere. From my window I can see a truck on the way to the slaughterhouse.”

5Your first studio
You’ll know when the time has come to set up your own studio away from where you live, because you’ll have problems: a partner demanding the spare bedroom back for visiting guests or the kitchen table heaving under the weight of a Mac, monitor, scanner, printer and other kit. You can’t set up your own studio until finances allow, but make sure you do it before it starts to affect everyone that you live with…

6 Turning a hobby into a job
Why work in illustration when it can appear such a haphazard career choice? Jon Burgerman, illustrator and king of doodles, admits, “It can feel isolating, but it turns your hobby into a job.” McFaul, however, goes a little harder on his advice for aspiring illustrators: “Think lifestyle, not job.” Get involved in illustration because you love doing it, not because it appears a smart career move. Jody Barton states: “Make work that is your own, not what you think will get you a big fizzy drinks ad campaign!”

7 Ask for advice
Seek advice from those who have already set up a studio, ask questions of internet service providers and telephone companies, and view a number of rental spaces before you make a final decision. “My working environment,” explains Michael Gillette, based in San Francisco, “is a small cramped room, although I am moving to a new larger studio. I’ve always worked in chaotic places, but it doesn’t seem to affect my work.”

8 Technology – keep learning
Understanding software and hardware issues is a necessity. Become friends with a technical whizz-kid or learn how to keep your kit performing in tip-top condition yourself. The pros outweigh the cons of the digital era, as far as Michael Gillette is concerned: “The flexibility of illustration in the digital age is a huge bonus,” he states. “It allowed me to move from the UK to the US, after all.”

9 The taxman and the accountant
Enlist the services of a good accountant, one that understands the creative industries. Ian Wright, the London-based innovator, admits that his accountant has “bailed me out many times – he could be the key to my survival!” JAKe also advocates being organised from the outset although he admits to being a little lax: “For me it’s receipts in a shoe box until I really have to look at it!”

10 The software police
Don’t get prosecuted. Be street legal and avoid the temptation of using anything other than legit software. Update regularly, although in most cases you can skip every other version to save funds, and keep abreast of new software developments by reading magazine reviews and trying 30-day demos.

Part 2: Finding work

1 Issues, ideas and strategies
Decide what self-promotion methods work for you but, whatever you choose, avoid annoying the people you’re marketing to. Some illustrators advocate simple procedures: Patrick Thomas of Studio laVista, based in Barcelona, suggests simply, “Do every job as well as you possibly can – that’s the best way to promote yourself.” Jon Burgerman agrees: “The best self-promotion is doing great work and getting it seen.”

2 Portfolio do’s and don’ts
Your portfolio is a valuable tool, so prepare it well, keep it organised and look after it. Anthony Burrill, designer/illustrator, offers useful advice: “Keep it simple, with a good mixture of self-initiated and actual commissions. Make it look professional – good quality print-outs on decent paper.” Steve Wilson suggests, “Put your hand in your pocket and invest in leather – your book, after all, will be going to big ad agencies competing against other illustrators’ portfolios for the same job.”

3 Online portfolios
Every illustrator needs a web-based portfolio, perhaps even more useful than a leather-bound one for reaching a wider audience. Richard May, co-founder of Pixelsurgeon and Black Convoy, reckons, “Better 20 large images than 60 tiny ones.” He adds, “Make sure that the presentation does your work justice – keep it simple and to the point.”

4 Attitude and commitment
Ian Wright advises hitting the streets and seeing lots of potential clients with your work: “Take notice of their reaction to your work, don’t be afraid to ask for advice – we were all new to the profession once.” Patrick Thomas offers clear-cut thinking: “Be prepared to work bloody hard if you’re going to get anywhere.” And Anthony Burrill quotes from one of his own letterpress selfpromotional posters: “WORK HARD AND BE NICE TO PEOPLE!”

5 Keeping contacts
Get a good database application or get used to using a digital address book and spend time keeping it up to date, because it’ll easily take up huge chunks of time later if you don’t. Miles Donovan of Peepshow explains his own procedures: “All my contacts are on my Mac and iPod and are regularly updated and backed up – all important!” Peepshow’s work-experience folk “phone around asking for names and emails of art directors, which is handy,” admits Miles.

6 Winning clients and business
There is no magic formula for getting the job, nor a wand to wave to ensure success. It can be down to luck, but more often it’s down to graft and persistence. Ensuring that your work is visible and is being seen by the right people at the right companies that are in a position to commission will help. Original work that is both brilliantly executed and communicates clearly will find admirers.

7 How to pitch
There are occasions when a phone call from an art director puts you in an interesting position. He/she explains that the agency is doing a pitch for a client and if it comes off, there will be stacks of work for you, all very well paid naturally. However, they need you to work frantically non-stop for 48 hours to win the pitch and can barely offer you £200. Think carefully about what to do.

8 Agents – pros and cons
There are so many factors for and against getting an agent, but the bottom line is that a great agent can get you work that you wouldn’t have time to chase or even know of its existence. “My agents in New York,” explains McFaul, “are worth their weight in gold, but I’m also very proactive myself.” Miles Donovan agrees: “They find work you wouldn’t normally get, command higher fees and offer support if things go wrong.”

9 Be aware of industry developments
Being aware of what’s happening in the design world is crucial, and keeping abreast of recent projects by other illustrators through news and reviews in magazines will help too. Checking sites such as Design Observer and Pixelsurgeon on a regular basis will ensure that you’re constantly up to date. These activities shouldn’t be a chore; they’re valuable research.

10 Successful meetings
Arrive early at a business meeting and make sure you’ve done your homework: know who you’re seeing and familiarise yourself with the client’s recent work. Large design and advertising agencies make this easy for you by having their press releases bound and in their reception areas. Be organised, take a notebook and pen to the meeting and ask questions if you’re unsure. Be well groomed too – appearance does count.

Part 3: Managing your projects

1 What makes a great idea?
Knowing how to recognise a strong idea takes time and experience, although being aware of when your creative thinking is not up to scratch is a good start. A great idea will communicate your message without the need to talk it through. Remember, you won’t be there to explain your illustration to everyone who views it! Richard May’s straight-talking advice about how to recognise a strong concept is: “You just know!”

2 How and when to get ideas
There’s no sure-fire, tried-and-tested method that will guarantee you’ll always get a great idea, but that uncertainty and buzz you’ll get from the pressure of having to come up with one is quite some drive. JAKe, from his studio in East London, reflects: “On a good day, it feels like they come out of nowhere – just sketchbook and pencil and start loosening up and see what happens...”

3 From beer mat to mood board
Illustrators’ visuals/roughs vary as much as there are styles and ways of working. There is no rule-of-thumb to help here. Experience will determine how much work you’ll need to undertake to get your idea across. Some art directors demand a high level of finish, others are happy to have a chat on the phone or via email and then let you go straight to artwork. Decide what’s best for your own way of working.

4 The importance of originality
To survive in illustration, you need to offer a unique take on the world around you – it’s your own visual language that will get the respect and the work from commissioning art directors. “There are far too many illustrators and designers churned out of colleges,” states Patrick Thomas. “You are competing in a very strange environment against a huge number of talented and determined people,” adds Jody Barton. “Make your own work!”

5 Making life a little easier
Having a game plan, understanding where you are right now and where you would like to be in 12 months’ time can help dramatically. Plan carefully, structuring your week and your month in detail. Decide when you’re going to make appointments to see potential clients, and when you’re going to spend time updating your website. Michael Gillette recalls advice given to him by another illustrator: “What have you done today to show the world that you exist?”

6 Getting the price right
When putting a price on your work it’s important not to panic. You can always take some time out to think about it. If you’re offered a fee over the phone, ask for five minutes to have a think about it and say that you’ll call back. Use your five minutes wisely: sum up against your previous experience, check against previous commissions to ensure that the fee seems fair. You can even make a phone call to another illustrator if you need a second opinion. If asked to name a price, you can always put the boot on the other foot and ask what the budget is – every job has a budget!

7 When to work for free
Nothing upsets illustrators more than discussion about free work. JAKe says: “You wouldn’t ask a plumber to fix a leaky tap for free… ‘It’ll look good in your portfolio, maate!’” Michael Gillette agrees: “Only do free work for charities – it devalues the whole industry if you do it for clients, so don’t do it.” Patrick Thomas, guided by his principles, states: “A job that has no production budget is simply not worth doing. I don’t regard making a piece of work against war, for example, as a ‘job’ – I consider it a moral obligation.”

8 How to command the best fees
Advice about commanding top dollar for your work varies from illustrator to illustrator. Jody Barton advises that it’s wise to keep in mind exactly what you do: “You are a professional, mostly with a qualification and sooner or later you’ll have bills to pay. Never ever charge less than £100 per day and, of course, much of the work you undertake will demand somewhat higher fees.”

9 Sticking to deadlines
Late nights working against the clock, working throughout the week and then straight through the weekend into the following week – illustration is rarely a nine-to-five existence, because some projects demand high levels of input to meet the deadline. Your professionalism is not only judged by your output, but also by your ability to deliver on time. “To miss a deadline for press is inconceivable,” stresses Patrick Thomas.

10 Delivering the goods
Whether it’s being available on the end of a phone or answering emails within a reasonable length of time, communicating regularly with your clients all helps ensure that you come across as a professional. If you want to work for a client a second time, make sure that their experience of working with you is a positive one. This isn’t rocket science, just common sense.

Part 4: Creative thinking

1 Research and development
Illustration isn’t an exact science: each illustrator has his or her own approaches to making images. However it works for you, it pays dividends to occasionally reflect upon your own working methods and processes. McFaul describes his creative process as follows: “Draw, paint, cut, scribble, splash, scan, photograph, coffee, phone calls, email, draw, paint, manipulate, stare out of window, laugh, fiddle, scan, manipulate, go out, come back, scan.”

2 Looking and learning
All work and no play makes an illustrator a dull boy or girl. Creative meanderings or visual wanderings off the beaten track can add untold pleasures to an illustrator’s archives and collections. Inspiration can come from anywhere: a colour combination spotted and photographed for later perusal, a torn discarded scrap of paper with part of a photographic image smudged but with a unique visual language. Be on a constant look-out for inspiration.

3 A life outside illustration
It isn’t healthy spending all of your time submerged in the discipline. It takes dedication and long working hours, but you need to emerge once in a while and live the rest of your life. Michael Gillette keeps his head out of illustration for references and inspiration: “I like old 19th century stuff at the moment – it’s better to be inspired by an esoteric reference than a contemporary one.”

4 Iconic inspiration
For most people, there are key illustrations that define moments in their lives. It might be an album or CD sleeve: The Beatles Revolver or Radiohead’s OK Computer, for example, or a Martin Sharpe psychedelic poster or book jackets for Penguin classics. Whatever they are, these are important images that mark moments in our lifetime. As illustrators, we dream of creating iconic works – enjoy the dream!

5 Addictive illustration
Never satisfied, illustrators are constantly on the prowl for the next fix. Getting a job is a great high, and doing the job is another head rush; but like a junkie constantly demanding another fix, illustrators constantly strive to get their work into new fields. Ambitious illustrators yearn for an array of canvasses – Austin at NEW (also a Black Convoy member) wants it all: “More collaborations, more live illustration, painting, exhibitions, publishing and chaos!”

6 Collaborative projects
Working with other creatives opens up new possibilities and connections. “Sometimes it’s all peaches and cream, sometime it’s chalk and cheese – but it’s all good…” explains Austin. McFaul, a Cofounder of Black Convoy, has his own take: “It’s an educational experience that can open up many avenues, you can benefit from the opinions of others.” Neasden Control Centre agrees: “It’s healthy and keeps you fresh.”

7 Risk as a learning process
Stepping into the unknown, creatively, can give you a boost. Ensuring that the repetitive process of commission, creation, delivery and invoice is injected with moments of madness is important in remaining open to new ideas. Jon Burgerman explains a recent project: “I’m working with a Danish artist, Sune Ehlers, on Hello Duudle books. I’ve never actually met or even spoken to Sune, but the process of bouncing JPEGs over email yields new ideas…”

8 Playing around with new ideas
As well as working with others, it’s important to retain aspects of the ‘art school’ experience to your working methods. Take time out of commissions to make new things and use this time to really explore new ways of working. Bring new processes to your working pattern – if you normally draw from photographs, draw only from life; if you always create colours purely in Photoshop, scan lush colours hand-painted on watercolour paper… Keep experimenting.

9 Managing your time
Everything you do takes longer than you think. Watching the clock and wondering when you can ‘clock off’ is not an option for an illustrator – you are more likely to spend time wishing the clock wasn’t rushing ahead so quickly. With deadlines to meet and clients phoning, emailing and general everyday workflow issues, it really is sensible to map out your working day, and even working week, to stay ahead of the game.

10 Get into a routine
Have a structure to your day. Organise your time well, answer emails and open post at the start of every day, then get down to being creative. Anthony Burrill, illustrator/ designer, explains why a structure helps his creative flow: “During the day I make and receive countless calls and emails. I am addicted to email but sometimes have to turn it off to get rid the distraction.” It pays to recognise good working practice.

Part 5: Career development

1 Don’t sell your soul
It’s important that you enjoy what you do. Anthony Burrill, when asked about the lows of working in illustration, states: “I can’t think of any.” Others are more reflective: McFaul doesn’t enjoy “the solitude” and Richard May warns that “cash-flow can be a huge problem if you’re not careful”, but Neasden reckons “there are no lows.” Only ‘do’ illustration if you feel a passion for the activity…

2 Job satisfaction
“Saying no and turning down work, and the money, can make you feel great, in charge,” states Ian Wright. Why would you say no when it can take forever to even be asked to undertake a commission? Michael Gillette explains why he says no: “When I get a sinking feeling when reading the brief and realise that doing the job will make me feel like a lesser artist.” Although he adds honestly, “This is sometimes negated by the need for cash.”

3 Giving something back
Away from the screen, the phone and the solitude, many illustrators enjoy a regular teaching slot working with students. “Teaching reminds me why I wanted to be an illustrator in the first place,” admits Ian Wright. Austin at NEW states: “I think it’s healthy. I like discussing ideas and meeting people who are excited at the prospect of doing something new, describing their world.” Jon Burgerman gives lectures: “They make me take stock of what I’ve actually done,” he says.

4 Getting a job in education
Interested in getting involved in some teaching? Start by getting a CV together and samples of work and send them to courses at foundation and undergraduate level. Explain in a covering letter why you’d like to get involved, offer to give a professional practice lecture to students about your own experiences, perhaps start by contacting the very course you studied on – after all, you’re a success story, aren’t you?

5 Building your profile
Some illustrators crave recognition by their peers. For many it isn’t enough to see their work in print regularly and they look to other methods and means of spreading their gospel. Speaking at conferences and live events, posting comments on discussion boards, writing to magazines and sending in press releases containing new work are all ways of getting your work in front of more people, but don’t overdo it – too much and it turns people off.

6 Maintaining your profile
Keeping clients aware of your latest work is a fundamental aspect of good marketing. A regular email newsletter with information about recent projects will keep people informed. Again, too much and it’ll have the opposite effect. “It kind of puts me off when I see people really hyping themselves,” states JAKe. McFaul has his own advice: “If your website doesn’t have a firm handshake then the commissioner will be shaking the hands of others…”

7 Extra-curricular activities
Careers in illustration are broader than ever. McFaul thinks that the edges more blurred: “Boundaries between illustrators, photographers, designers, animators and artists are long gone,” The list of potential outputs continues to increase too. “I now like to do more of my own work,” explains Miles Donovan of Peepshow, “and then find an outlet for it. I just spent a month doing my own thing and then sold the lot to a T-shirt company in Japan.”

8 Eat, drink, breathe illustration
Hard work and determination will pay off, but only if you have raw talent and a visual language that combines creativity, communication and, above all, originality to a high level. If you’re still at art school right now, use your time wisely: use the facilities and expertise to their breaking point, because you’ll never get another chance. If you’re out and working in illustration, ask yourself, “Am I giving it 100 per cent? Do I want this more than anything?”

9 Advice from those who know
It may be tough, but remember a few pearls of wisdom on dark days. “Try to keep a handle on what you enjoy about the process of image-making,” offers Jody Barton. “Don’t do anything half-heartedly,” adds Austin at NEW. Patrick Thomas at laVista believes, “Your own projects and sketchbooks will feed your commercial work and help keep you sane.” Finally, Miles Donovan warns: “Don’t let the computer dictate what you do!” Wise words indeed.

10 The last word
Illustration may be your entire world, but remember it isn’t for everyone. “Keep things in perspective,” Ian Wright argues. “Being paid to be creative isn’t essential to the world’s survival!”

INFO

This tutorial appeared in Computer Arts Projects
Issue 79
Christmas 2005

L

The Secret Life of Symbols

2006-04-02T11:58:00.000+07:00

The Secret Life of Symbols by Maggie Macnab

Humans have often been called the symbolizing animal. We use words, number, shape, and other deduced imagery to give context to the intangible. This is how we transport and anchor the imagination: Symbols can be both the exponential leap-point and the connection between the dots. They literally allow us to make sense with our senses—by enhancing visual communication with immediate archetypes that inform our cognitive process. How we sense tells us how to respond or, in the current flood of information, if indeed there is reason to respond at all.

I've explored and implemented what I call the philosophy of visual communication for almost 25 years, and have presented it to design students and at conferences for the last eight. In my work as an identity designer I've rediscovered the obvious: It has to land in the gut before it has any chance of making it to the head. If you want your logo to be remembered and recognized, you've got to provide a pay-off to the viewer. The more immediate story you can tell, the more likely you are to create a relationship with the viewer. And when I say story I don't mean fable. I mean the more appropriate visual content you use to represent your client's message, the much higher the likelihood you have of creating a direct line from invitation to connection. This is information value, as opposed to information junk, which is in abundance today.

Humans love myth and symbol, as we should. There's a lot of knowledge in this synaptic bit, distilled through the experiences of millions of predecessors. A symbol is certainly a collapsed piece of information, but symbols also expand to fit any human in any culture in any time by linking to universal principles. These cues in turn inform choice: Is it good? What is in it for me? Do I trust? Taking the wrong turn into the jaws of a famished predator is as relevant a concern today in the concrete jungle as it was in the Savannah millennia ago. A composite that immediately tells the story without excessive processing is invaluable. It enhances our edge of appropriate response by giving us access to response-ability.

To get an idea of how symbols unfold information in a logo, let's look at two major contenders in the computer technology market, IBM and Apple. IBM is oriented to left-brain, structural tidiness, while Apple is all about right-brain aesthetic. We intuitively recognize the appropriateness of symbolic representation because we are human. Symbols are just like breathing. We rarely consciously register them, but they are essential to our being. We are ignorant of the essence of our existence, a very human trait.

A Direct Line to Success.
IBM's logo is linear-extreme—a letterform that requires a secondary thought process to understand. It is a highly structured and edgy logo, originally designed by Paul Rand in 1956, based on a font called City. The Beat Generation was in full swing and headed toward a mutation known as the Love Generation. There was an undercurrent of dissent and irreverence beginning to touch the surface of culture, and advertising followed suit.

The current and historical versions of the IBM® logo can be viewed here and here.

During this time, Rand modified his design to incorporate lines, further enhancing the linear aspect of the identity, but also integrating white and black (positive/negative), which in essential terms represent the duality of the human experience. It originally existed in a 13- and 8-line version (the latter is the current version). Let's look at the significance of these numbers.

In 1202, an Italian nicknamed Fibonacci penned what has come to be known as the Fibonacci sequence. In this very simple sequence, each number is the sum of the preceding two: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, and so on. This is a pi relationship. In and of itself, it is not remarkable until you consider that this sequence recurs with regularity in everything from the lengths of the finger bones (which curl into a spiral exactly like a nautilus), to the correlation of the distance between planets and their moons (when they have more than one moon), to the proportionate division of human facial and bodily structure, to the spirals in the head of a sunflower. This sequence actually speaks to the reproductive process of most life forms: It produces patterns that are appealing in our eyes because it speaks to the continuity of our experience. It is precisely about the regeneration of us.

Back to IBM. As you can see, Rand used two numbers from this sequence–probably more intuitively than intentionally. I believe that to balance the weighty, machine-structured aspect of this design, Rand embedded nature information. The division of lines are proportionately appropriate and aesthetic, in exactly the same way we find an appropriately proportioned face attractive.

Time and again, when we see what we recognize as beauty, its proportion corresponds to this sequence. It has the quality of its own sort of linear beauty, appealing to both the left brain compartmentalizing-nature but also addressing right-brained expansive beauty-nature. This acknowledgment of the archetype—inclusive opposites unified—helped to establish the long life of this logotype and is a prerequisite to a true symbol.

The Apple of Our Eye.
Historical and current versions of the Apple™ logo can be viewed here.

Apple bridged the gap between man and machine. Steve Jobs’ choice to follow what attracted him emotionally led to the first aesthetic computer and opened up an entirely new world to designers. Today, the Apple logo is easily identified worldwide. Its symbol is based in myth and shape.

In the creation myth in the Book of Genesis, God instructs Adam and Eve not to eat from the apple tree in the garden. A serpent taunts Eve when she shies away from the fruit for fear of death. He says that the real reason God forbids the apple is because once she takes a bite of it, her eyes will be opened and she will be “…as the gods, knowing good and evil…”

From the roots of our civilization, the apple has been symbolic of knowledge. As we know, Adam and Eve eat the apple, are expelled from the garden, and life, as we know it, begins—a life of evolution through knowledge and the expanding consciousness. So the apple with the bite out of it symbolizes the acquisition of awareness.

The Christian story implies that knowledge is corruptive in itself. But there is another side to the story. If Eve didn’t eat the apple, life as we know it would not exist. There would be no evolution of humanity. It might be argued that with the advent of user-friendly computers, knowledge was brought to the masses. The Apple brand suggests it is nothing short of the beginning of creation itself.

In shape terms, the apple is essentially round. The circle is the symbol of unity in every culture throughout time. We are separated out from the wholeness of the universe, literally at the cellular level as we transform into humanness, and then during birth. We strive in love and life to recreate that unity. Marriage is an example of the return to unity: two opposites reunited to create the archetypal whole. The Apple logo also connects with the concept of this return with the active participation of eating the apple or ingesting knowledge by taking a bite out of the all-knowing. The reinforcement of myth with shape symbols creates a very powerful logo indeed. The story and the visual match the intent of transforming the world through the evolution of knowledge, encapsulated in a momentary glance.

Using Intuitive Connections in Logo Design
In our information-laden world, it is absolutely crucial that a designer employ critical thinking through understanding intuitive connection when making use of visual imagery. Access informs response: What we intuit lays the groundwork of our actions. If you don't make the connection, that relationship is lost. Conscious study of the symbolics of number, shape, and myth tells our minds what our intuition already knows. It completes the synaptic cycle by producing work that is at once effective, aesthetic and ethical. It is effective because an intuitive match leads to greater understanding through initial recognition of a larger concept and is the shortest route between two points; aesthetic because appropriateness leads to elegance; and ethical because when unnecessary or inappropriate content is eliminated, the truth is revealed and something in the larger scope is to be learned.

One of the greatest services we can provide as a designers is to employ these simple principles to further human response-ability. What if everyday advertising was a venue of education? How novel it would be to actually receive value from a company's advertising and identity message that benefits the overall quality of our lives, just through the simple action of making sense.

About the Author
Specializing in symbol and logo design for 25 years, Maggie Macnab is known for her corporate identity design and graphics. She has been in business since 1981, is an instructor of logo design and symbolism as visual literacy for designers at the University of New Mexico, and is past president of the Communication Artists of New Mexico.

Maggie writes articles on critical thinking in design and her work has been published in many magazines and books. She is currently developing a visual literacy resource with a focus on the origin, development and appropriate use of symbols in visual communication (www.eyeku.com) to enhance advertising by creating more value with effective graphics.

symbolmaker.com,
designs applied to products and a global community resource for sharing information and resources on symbolism.

URL:
macnabdesign.com

Email:
Maggie

Advertising R.I.P.

2006-04-02T11:44:00.000+07:00

http://adholes.com/

Bikin Sendiri Macro Light

2006-04-01T23:33:00.000+07:00

Hanya ingin membagi tips dan triks yang saya peroleh dari : http://saft7.com/index.php?p=158

Bisa jadi tips ini ditanggapi sebelah mata oleh para fotografer profesional, namun atas desakan kebutuhan untuk melakukan pemotretan Macro (Macro Photography) maka saya pikir ga ada salahnya untuk dishare, bagaimana membuat sendiri peralatan fotografi dengan biaya murah.

Saya sering menemukan kesulitan untuk melakukan foto terhadap suatu komponen/benda yang kecil untuk saya tampilkan besar dengan detail yang baik (foto macro). Kesulitan terutama untuk mendapatkan pencahayaan yang baik, karena kamera yang saya pakai umumnya pada saat mode:Macro tidak akan menyalakan flash/blitz. Sementara terkadang benda yang akan saya foto mungkin sedang berada dilokasi yang gelap dan perlu pencahayaan yang baik.

Sebenarnya dikalangan fotografer sudah banyak beredar produk pencahayaan untuk Macro Photography ini khususnya yang portable sehingga mudah dibawa-bawa, dan yang pasti adalah ringan, seperti produk di bawah.

Harga untuk produk di atas berkisar antara 800ribu hingga 2,5juta rupiah.
Untuk itu saya coba sharing untuk membuat sendiri dengan biaya tidak lebih dari 40ribu rupiah saja.

Apa yang perlu dipersiapkan?

Gambar di atas memperlihatkan komponen antara lain:
1. Selotip Pipa PVC
2. 8 buah LED Putih (Ultra Bright LED) @2rb rupiah
3. Kabel secukupnya
4. 1 buah Diode 1N4002
5. Saklar ON-OFF-ON
6. Tempat Baterai / Rechargeable Battery Pack 4.5-6volt
7. Socket/Terminal
8. Solder + Timah Solder

Selotip Pipa PVC hanya dipakai selongsongnya saja, isinya bisa dipindahkan ke tempat lain.

Langkah selanjutnya adalah mempersiapkan LED untuk dipendekkan kakinya dan melubangi selongsong selotip pipa PVC sebanyak 8 lubang.

Ukuran mata bor yang digunakan untuk LED ini adalah Diameter 4.5mm
Pengeboran dilakukan dengan speed medium dan dengan hati-hati agar tidak pecah.

Langkah selanjutnya adalah memasang LED ke lubang yang sudah dibuat, dengan memperhatikan arah Anoda dan Katoda-nya.

Sehingga akan tampak seperti ini.

Selanjutnya skema yang menjadi acuan penyolderan adalah sebagai berikut.

Mulailah dengan proses penyolderan.

Selesai sudah…
Mari kita lakukan Test..
Gambar di bawah memperlihatkan 2 mode yang dapat dipilih untuk menyalakan 4 lampu atau menyalakan 8 lampu.

Untuk mendapatkan efek lain dari pencahayaan pada saat pemotretan macro, terkadang diperlukan trik cahaya khusus.
Saya coba ambil cara murah yaitu dengan memanfaatkan Plastik Cover Jilid yang banyak dijual di tempat fotokopi.
Beli berbagai warna, kemudian dipotong-potong sesuai kebutuhan.
Berikut Test dengan Filter Warna tersebut.

Bagaimana hasil fotonya?
Gambar-gambar di bawah memperlihatkan hasil foto macro..
Klik pada foto untuk melihat foto ukuran asli (file size: 300KB-2MB)

Tanpa Macro Light

Dengan Macro Light di posisi agak jauh

Dengan Macro Light pada posisi dekat

Tanpa Macro Light

Dengan Macro Light

Tanpa Macro Light

Dengan Macro Light

Tanpa Macro Light

Dengan Macro Light

Nah dengan akhirnya memiliki Macro Light, ide-ide untuk melakukan Macro Photography menjadi semakin meletup-letup.. .. hmmm…

Semoga bermanfaat.

2005 Oktober 24 12:59:16

Design A Creativity Acronym

2006-04-01T23:24:00.000+07:00

I think that everyone should personalize their creative style. This chart helps you create your own creativity acronym. For example, the creativity acronym for my name BUDI would be: Browse, Unravel, Devise, and Improve.

	Foraging Gathering information	Reflecting Generating lots of ideas	Adopting Selecting an idea	Nurturing Improving your idea	Knuckling Down Never giving up
A	Adventure	Analyze	Adopt	Amending	Advocate
B	Browse	Brainstorm	Buy In	Better	Best
C	Collect	Contemplate	Concoct	Cultivate	Conquer
D	Diagnose	Debate	Devise	Develop	Doubt Not
E	Explore	Examine	Embrace	Edit	Endeavor
F	Forage	Freethink	Formulate	Fortify	Finagle
G	Gather	Generate	Germinate	Grow	Go for Gold
H	Hunt	Hypothesize	Hatch	Hone	Hold Firm
I	Investigate	Imagineer	Invent	Improve	Insist
J	Journey	Juxtapose	Join	Judge	Justify
K	Keep Looking	Kindle	Knit	K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple & Smile	Keep At It
L	Look & Listen	Lasso	Launch	Legitimize	Lobby
M	Mine	Meditate	Map Out	Modify	Make a Miracle
N	Notice	Network	Nucleate	Nurture	Never Give Up
O	Observe	Originate	Organize	Optimize	Overcome
P	Prospect	Picture	Plan	Perfect	Persevere
Q	Quest	Question	Quantify	Qualify	Quit Not
R	Research	Reflect	Regroup	Refine	Remain Resolute
S	Search	Speculate	Strategize	Simplify	Stay Steadfast
T	Trek	Test	Tackle	Tune	Toil Tenaciously
U	Unearth	Unravel	Unite	Utilize	Urge
V	Venture	Visualize	Verbalize	Verify	Vanquish
W	Wander	Wonder	Welcome	Water & Weed	Wait
X	X-plore	X-amine	X-tract	X-pand	X-pound
Y	Yearn	Yawn	Yoke	Yeast	Yield Not
Z	Zip	Zap	Zero In On	Zest	Zigzag
	Foraging Gathering information	Reflecting Generating lots of ideas	Adopting Selecting an idea	Nurturing Improving your idea	Knuckling Down Never giving up

A Fascination With Creativity

2006-04-01T23:18:00.000+07:00

A Fascination With Creativity

I've always had a fascination with creativity. I think I inherited a creative bent from my mother whose hobbies included drama and calligraphy. I'm a strong believer in the therapeutic value of creative pursuits in preventing professional burnout. I've discovered, however, in my reading and quote collecting that there are differing views about the creative process.

To some it is an ungovernable process:

You cannot govern the creative impulse; all you can do is to eliminate obstacles and smooth the way for it.

-Kimon Nicoliades

To others it is a matter of governing work habits:

If you want to develop your creativity, establish regular work habits. Allow time for the incubation of ideas, and adhere to your individual rhythm. Violations of this rhythm can retard your creative efficiency.

-Eugene Raudsepp

To Chagall it is a affair of the heart:

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head almost nothing.

-Marc Chagall

While to others creativity is a matter of the mind:

To be creative, relax and let your mind go to work, otherwise the result is either a copy of something you did before or reads like an army manual.

- Kenneth H. Gordon, Jr.

Creativity has also been described as a series of phases:

For most, it will be seen that the process of such high creativity consists of three phases:

1) the prelude ritual;

2) the altered state of consciousness or creative spell during which the creative idea is born, starting with vibrations, then mental images, then the flow of ideas which are finally clothed in form... and,

3) the postlude in which positive emotions about the experience suffuse the participant.

-John Curtis Gowan

Gail Sheehy in Pathfinders defined four phases of the creative process:

1) Preparation - gathering impressions and images

2) Incubation - letting go of certainties

3) Immersion & Illumination-creative intervention/risk

4) Revision - conscious structuring and editing of creative material

Roger von Oech in A Kick in the Seat of the Pants feels the creative process consists of adopting four roles:

The hallmark of creative people is their mental flexibility... Sometimes they are open and probing, at others they're playful and off-the-wall. At still other times, they're critical and faultfinding. And finally they're doggedly persistent in striving to reach their goals. From this I've concluded that the creative process consists of our adopting four main roles, each which embodies a different type of thinking... These roles are: Explorer, Artist, Judge and Warrior.

And finally some feel that creativity doesn't follow any system at all:

I don't follow any system. All the laws you can lay down are only so many props to be cast aside when the hour of creation arrives.

-Raoul Dufy

2005-05-15T16:31:00.000+07:00

Gerbang 13 [ ger13ang] Film Action Bergenre Brutal Pop Indonesia

foto: Gatra.com

Film Baru
Gerbang 13 Diputar 13 Mei 2005

Jakarta, 11 Mei 2005 11:34
Sutradara muda Nanda Jumbara menggarap film terbaru, Gerbang 13. Film bertema laga (action) produksi bersama Badan Narkotika Nasional (BNN) itu diluncurkan Selasa (10/5) di Jakarta. Rencananya tayang di bioskop mulai 13 Mei 2005.

Film yang dibintangi Donna Agnesia, Andi dan Jikun (keduanya dari kelompok musik /rif), Erwin Moron, serta Lia Candra itu mengisahkan tentang seorang pecandu narkoba, peredaran narkoba, serta pemberantasan peredaran obat-obat terlarang.

Aktris Henidar Amroe semula dipercaya memerankan seorang polisi berpangkat Ajun Komisaris yang menangani kasus perdagangan narkoba. Namun karena sakit, perannya digantikan Lia Candra, yang sebelumnya membintangi film horor Bangsal 13.

Menurut Nanda, awal ide dari pembuatan film ini dimulai saat ia bertemu dengan Kadispen Polri Brigjen Pol Saleh Saaf di Yogyakarta, tahun 2000, yang memintanya untuk membuat sebuah film laga yang mengisahkan masalah narkoba.

"Film ini bertujuan, bagaimana caranya agar bisa sampai ke masyarakat sebagai sebuah penyuluhan yang positif," ujar Nanda kepada para wartawan, termasuk Gatra.com, Selasa di Jakarta.

Menurut Nanda, syuting film ini dilakukan selama 39 hari, dan segera tayang di bioskop-bioskop mulai 13 Mei mendatang.

Nandan mengaku optimistis kalau film ini akan mendapat apresiasi masyarakat, khususnya kaum remaja dan pemuda, sehingga nanti pihaknya bisa membuat film-film sejenis.

Menurut kantor berita Antara, di Indonesia pengguna narkoba terus meningkat setiap tahun. Saat ini mencapai empat juta orang lebih, hampir separuhnya berada di Jakarta. [EL]

URL: http://www.gatra.com/2005-05-11/versi_cetak.php?id=84290

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ger13ang: Film Bergenre Brutal Pop
Kompas.com

Mengikuti jejak sang ayah, Danu Umbara--sutradara film Lima Cewek Jagoan, Nanda J. Umbara, meluncurkan sebuah film aksi. Ia menyebut filmnya yang diberi judul Ger13ang (dibaca: Gerbang 13) itu, dengan sebutan film bergenre Brutal Pop. Yap, sebuah suguhan yang berdarah-darah, penuh umpatan di awal hingga akhir cerita.

Afman (Erwin Moron, mantan vokalis Dr. PM), yang selalu tampil dengan setelan jasnya yang necis, bergaya bak koboi. Sedikit bicara, tapi garang dalam bekerja. Tak ada kompromi apalagi basa-basi. Senjata diacungkan dan dor...dor...dor. Sekelompok penjaga klub malam ditumpasnya hanya dalam hitungan detik.

Tak hanya berhenti di situ. Bersama beberapa rekannya ia merangsek masuk sebuah ruangan istimewa. Di dalam sana, sebuah transaksi tengah digelar. Kali ini, aksi Afman tak berjalan mulus. Ia mendapat perlawanan, meski berhasil dikuasai. Afman kian berang, apalagi ketika pesaingnya enggan menujukkan barang yang diincarnya.

Pria botak bandar narkoba kelas kakap itu, tetap bergeming, meski di bawah todongan senjata. Afman kian tak terkendali. Direnggutnya pacar pria itu, sembari menempelkan sebilah pisau di lehernya. Ia buka mulut. Sial, Afman justru menggoroknya. Darah muncrat dari leher si korban.

Adegan itulah yang menjadi pembuka film dengan menghadirkan wajah-wajah baru seperti Andi dan Jikun, keduanya personil kelompok rock /rif, Dona Agnesia, dan Lia Candra. Atau bahkan Togar Sianipar, pensiunan jenderal polisi berbintang tiga yang pernah menjabat kepala BNN (Badan Narkotika Nasional), yang tampil hanya sekelebat saja.

Apa yang disuguhkan Nanda lewat karyanya itu, bolehlah mendapat apresiasi. Seperti katanya, keinginannya menghasilkan film dengan langgam action, lebih kerena kebosanannya terhadap para sineas-sineas yang cenderung latah dengan menyajikan cerita-cerita yang seragam.

Pemberontakan itulah yang kemudian ia lakukan dengan menghasilkan karya semacam Ger13ang. Hanya saja, penggarapan yang dilakukan Nanda terkesan kurang mendapat polesan maksimal. Cerita yang disodorkan terasa kurang greget. Pencapaian pesan yang diharapkan terserap oleh penontonnya--terlebih dari kelangan generasi muda--agar menghindari penyalahgunaan narkoba nyaris tak mendapat ruang.

Nanda justru terlalu keasyikan dengan mengumbar aksi berdarah-darah dan ucapan-ucapan penuh umpatan tak jelas. Aroma Hollywood begitu kental mempengaruhi film ini. Jika Anda pernah menonton film Snatch arahan Guy Ritchie, ya seperti itulah gaya yang disuguhkan Nanda, dalam filmnya, yang lebih senang ia sebut sebagai film independen itu.

Dialog-dialog yang disodorkan pun seringkali hanya ditaburi umpatan-umpatan ala Hollywood yang tak karuan dan kurang pas. Maksud hati cas-cis-cus ala bule, apa daya logat lokal begitu kental terasa. Hasilnya? Ya, apalagi kalau bukan terdengar konyol.

Belum lagi, karakter-karakter yang terasa kurang pas. Tokoh sentral semacam AKP Bunga, yang dimainkan bintang sinetron Lia Candra, terkesan dipaksakan. Gaya bahasanya yang kemayu dan datar, justru tak memberikan sosok seorang perwira yang tegas dan berwibawa. Jika saja peran itu diberikan kepada Karina Suwandi, tentu akan lebih cocok.

Ger13ang, seperti kata Nanda, awalnya memang dibuat sebagai sebuah sinetron. Peran AKP Bunga, sempat diberikan kepada model jangkung Karina Suwandi. Saat itu, ia tampil bersama Bucek. Sayang, sinetron tersebut gagal ditayangkan, lantaran tak bisa tembus setelah berkali-kali ditawarkan ke sejumlah stasiun televisi.

Sayang, Karina tak bisa lagi tampil karena kesibukannya. Kemudian, tawaran pun diberikan kepada model Hanidar Amroe. Karena sesuatu hal, peran itupun akhirnya diberikan kepada Lia Candra, yang berperan sebagai hantu juru rawat dalam film Bangsal 13 arahan Ody C Harahap.

Ger13ang mengisahkan sepak terjang para pengedar narkoba di Tanah Air. Persaingan bisnis memperebutkan pelanggan dilakukan dengan cara apapun. Itulah yang dilakukan Anwar Sukhoi, penguasa jalur distribusi narkoba di Thailand, yang mencoba melebarkan sayapnya di kawasan Asia, termasuk Jakarta.

Di bawah komando AKP Bunga, sebuah tim pemburu jaringan narkoba berhasil dibentuk. Mereka di antaranya Varra (Dona Agnesia), hacker yang juga model dan pernah terjerumus menjadi pecandu narkoba. Ada pula, Reno, pengedar, pemakai yang punya kemampuan sixth sense. Untuk mengetahui keberadaan sang bandar kelas wahid, hanya lewat Elang lah, tim ini bisa masuk jaringan.

Sayang, Elang sulit dilacak. Ia tergolong licin. Ia dikenal pula sebagai hacker tangguh. Uang yang berlimpah dari hasil narkoba memang menggiurkan. Karena inilah ia terjerumus. Ironinya, banyak hal yang harus ditebus. Selain kehilangan teman, kematian selalu mengintainya setiap saat.

Inilah kiranya pesan yang hendak disampaikan Nanda dalam filmnya, ’Jangan pernah ada kata coba-coba untuk masuk dalam bisnis semacam ini, apalagi menjadi seorang pecandu: Dua-duanya mengandung risiko: Mati!’ (Eh)

Url : /gayahidup/news/0505/11/194314.htm

Kidung Cinta Untukmu

2005-04-17T18:58:00.000+07:00

KIDUNG CINTA UNTUKMU

Kau hidupkan kembali
lilin-lilin cintaku,
dengan api asmaramu.

Kau terangi kembali
kegelapan di jiwa
dengan kasihmu.

Kau bawa cinta
sejatimu untukku,
dan kutemukan
pengantin hatiku.

Indahnya cintamu untukku
bagaikan tarian dewi asmara,
menjadi penghibur
hatiku yang lara

-= Budi Purwito =-
[sebuah gita cinta untuk ENika]

budzer

Hmmm... Ada SMS Gempa

Earthquake Details

Institutions

Maps

Notable Earthquakes

Recent Earthquakes

Tectonic Information

Historic Seismicity

Magnitude 6.1 SUNDA STRAIT, INDONESIA Wednesday, July 19, 2006 at 10:57:36 UTC

Recent Earthquake Map Animations

Akhirnya.....

Minggu ke 36

Sebuah Renungan dari Om Buds

Gaji Buta

My Angel Baby Girl

"Birth Test"

Peringkat Selingkuh Berdasarkan ZODIAK

Sebuah renungan "craftmanship" yang hilang.

pagi semua

kamu (aku) harus kuat

Getting into advertising

Getting into advertising

(Don't fear) the filter

(Don't fear) the filter

Pitch Perfect

Pitch Perfect

The history of Photoshop

The history of Photoshop

50 insider tips for illustrators

50 insider tips for illustrators

Part 1: Getting started in illustration

Part 2: Finding work

Part 3: Managing your projects

Part 4: Creative thinking

Part 5: Career development

INFO

L

The Secret Life of Symbols

Advertising R.I.P.

Bikin Sendiri Macro Light

Design A Creativity Acronym

A Fascination With Creativity

Gerbang 13 [ ger13ang] Film Action Bergenre Brutal Pop Indonesia

Kidung Cinta Untukmu

Magnitude 6.1 SUNDA STRAIT, INDONESIA
Wednesday, July 19, 2006 at 10:57:36 UTC