This blog post will be updated throughout the weekend. New post coming Monday
TAKEAWAY: As if the iPad was not already wonderful to carry out a number of enjoyable tasks, I have discovered that it is a handy sketch pad as well. PLUS: Mario’s Master Class online, May 26 at 4 pm. Find out more.
It would be the first of many journeys abroad, that one fascinating trip to Argentina, to complete my first project outside of the United States: La Nueva Provincia, of Bahia Blanca, Argentina. I remember it well. That is what the 7th installment of 40Years/40Lessons, my sort of career memoir, is all about. Coming soon.
No markers, no ink on your fingers…
If you are like me, you like to keep a pad and marker handy when you are discussing design with your team, so I have discovered that the iPad is a marvelous tool for that too. No, I have not abandoned my preciousMoleskine notebook, a constant companion, and I have no plan to abandon it. We have walked millions of miles globally together for years, and I am loyal. Moleskine notebooks are my teddy bears, with elephant memory, to remind me of things long forgotten, but which the pages of the Moleskine guard carefully and keep there waiting for me to tap them,as when I am writing segments of 40 Years/40 Lessons (segment #7 coming soon).
Now, with the iPad and this marvelous application, Adobe Ideas, I have another handy pad to explain a concept, doodle a sketch, or even show a proposed organizational chart for a newsroom. And, yes, you can go from iPad screen to projector in a matter of minutes. All you need is an idea, and let your finger do the rest.
With this handy sketching app, you can draw thin lines, or thicker ones, in green, or black or blue (or in between, as color palette adjusts). Then you can email your idea to someone on the other side of the world (try our Buenos Aires team) and get immediate feedback.
I find it most useful when I actually have the iPad in front of me, in a small meeting setting, and I can use it to make my point quickly. However, it is also useful, as sketch notebooks always have been, when I am flying, or sitting in a train or the Paris Metro, and an idea occurs. I pull out my iPad and sketch. It is saved automatically.
Give it a try.
The virtual classroom
I am honored to be invited to give an online Master Class, May 26, duration one hour.
The class, sponsored by Print Magazine, will allow me to present my views about designing for what I call “printnets”, readers/users who travel well from print to digital,and who use a series of platforms to receive information.
I am excited to be able to participate in what has already been a successful series of master classes by various designers. As someone who has been in front of a class for most of my 40 years in the business, it will be exhilarating to face a class online. And, yes, participants will be able to interact and ask questions, as I am told.
Details of the class
Highlights of what I will cover in my class:
• Strategies for storytelling and designing in the times of the iPad and beyond
• What to be aware of in terms of type, architecture, and multimedia
• The difference in reading patterns between the page and screen
• To identify examples of work that succeeds, and work that doesn’t, on tablet devices
• The process behind some of the best work being done today. I plan to highlight examples from a variety of sources.
If you are interested
Those interested in participating in this class should apply here at My Design Shop:
http://www.mydesignshop.com/product/masterclass-mario-garcia/DesignCasts/
By the way, My Design Shop is the online shop that Print magazine created last year to sell the magazines and books published by its parent company F+W Media. It’s where you register for the Master Class. That site also sells items there that have been published in the magazine. For example, wthe site is currently promoting its Carry Hope project, which is 13 designers who made tote bags for their favorite charity, and all the proceeds go the charity that they have chosen.