NoFilmSchool » design

How to Add an Announcement Bar to Your Website (to Call Attention to Something Important)

Ryan Koo — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 14:15:32 +0000

Since launching my effort to make my first feature film, I started running a thin horizontal banner at the top of the site to let visitors know that my campaign is ongoing. A lot of filmmakers have blogs these days (present company included, obviously), and so I thought I might post about how to add an announcement bar to your own website. Typically you’ll want to run an announcement bar when something special is happening for a limited time: you might be doing a fundraising campaign of your own, you might have a newly released DVD, or you might be running a discount on a product you’re selling. If you’re curious about how to add a similar bar to your own blog, website, or portfolio, here are a couple of good ways of doing so. (more…)

Full Resolution Screenshots of Final Cut Pro X and the Importance of Overcoming Lock-In

Ryan Koo — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:00:00 +0000

Some have pointed out that many of Final Cut Pro X’s much-lauded new features are not really that “new.” This backlash seems to happen with every Apple product, perhaps out of response to the rapturous reception with which Apple fanboys greet the superlative-laced presentations. In the case of FCP X, the criticism is that FCP X’s list of new features (seen on video) have been around for a while in other editing applications (notably Premiere and Vegas). But a list of features does not an editing program make. It’s not what features you include in a piece of software, it’s how you design them. Read on for some thoughts on intuitive design and a few full resolution screenshots of the new Final Cut Pro X. (more…)

A Slight Design Refresh and a Bit on NoFilmSchool's (Social Media) Traffic

Ryan Koo — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 20:02:51 +0000

You may notice things look a little different around here today (if everything looks the same, you might have to hold Shift and click your “refresh” button). Note there are no major aesthetic changes — I switched the titling and typography (I was always more of a sans-serif kind of guy, whatever that means), and there are now Twitter, Facebook, and StumbleUpon badges on single posts. I’ve also created a NoFilmSchool Facebook Page, which now has a home in the sidebar. Many of these changes have been driven by a look inside the analytics of this site, so let’s look at NoFilmSchool’s recent stats: (more…)

How I lied my way into MTV

Ryan Koo — Fri, 07 May 2010 21:12:31 +0000

Up until now I’ve never really told the truth about my career as a graphic designer — namely, that it was a complete sham. Sure, I’d dabbled in Photoshop once or twice in college and a few times as a corporate video producer after graduating. But everyone dabbles in Photoshop — I’d certainly never had a job as any kind of designer. In 2005 my main goal was to start a film career in New York — by any means necessary. It’s a long story, but thanks to starting this blog I ended up going from unemployed in NC, living with my parents, to having my own place in Manhattan and working as a graphic designer at MTV. How? MTV was hiring graphic designers, so that’s what I said I did. Now that I don’t work there anymore, I can confess it was a total lie! I created a fake portfolio for the interview, and after I was hired I did Photoshop training on my laptop on the train every day to and from work using Lynda.com. I figured as long as they didn’t give me anything hard in the first two weeks, they’d never know. A year later when I was designing a bunch of high-end web applications as a Senior Designer, no one was the wiser. Suckers!

Just wanted to share how I got myself to New York. Back to your regularly-scheduled content!

Helpful resource: iPad & iPhone PSDs

Ryan Koo — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 16:00:14 +0000

For creatives who get their hands on an iPad, the first thought is often, “what kind of app can I develop for this?” I toyed with an iPad at Apple’s 5th Avenue store yesterday and, watching people eagerly touching the screen one after the other, had a different idea.¹ However, for those of you who have a concept for a mobile app, the easiest way to mock-up an application is to grab the free iPad PSD; all of the buttons, text, and other elements are separated out into Photoshop layers for you. There’s also a freely available iPhone PSD, which I used for a quick design job for Diversion Media last week. One note of caution: if you’re designing for clients or publicly presenting your app concept, change the time. As you can see, the designer who put together these helpful photoshop files had a little fun with the clock by setting it to the universal stoner time of 4:20. It’s much more subtle in the iPhone version, and I didn’t notice it until the client brought it up on the conference call; oops.

Finally, if you want to create an icon for your theoretical app, here’s the icon PSD; Apple’s design elements are also available as a vector kit.

Obviously, I didn’t actually do it or I’d be in jail. My first thought was actually to make a joke about anthrax, but wasn’t entirely sure of the current status of habeas corpus.

Sitelight: Smashing Magazine

Ryan Koo — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:00:42 +0000

One of the most important things I learned on the job as a Senior Designer at MTV was: you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. As a graphic designer, assembling a toolkit of brushes, textures, templates, and other elements is a crucial step to maximizing your design capabilities and efficiency. The other thing I learned was: you don’t really have to know what you’re doing! Thanks to thousands of readily available tutorials on the ‘net, if you’re not sure how to achieve a particular look or effect, all you have to do is google it. My favorite resource at the moment for tutorials and resources (including helpful posts like 50 Free UI and Web Design Wireframing Kits, Adobe Illustrator Tutorials – Best Of, and 40+ Excellent Freefonts For Professional Design) is Smashing Magazine. If you’re a graphic designer you probably already know about Smashing, but if you’re a filmmaker who also does some design — and a lot of us do, these days — check out the site (they also have a book).

Link: Smashing Magazine.

The Bush Effect

Ryan Koo — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 05:34:28 +0000

One of the main arguments for going to film school is to give you time and separation to focus on the medium during your formative years, as opposed to spending much of your youthful energy on a possibly-unrelated day job. And while my job successfully moved me from North Carolina to New York (a necessary step in this site’s “starts a film career in New York” storyline), it didn’t do so for free: although it paid me monetarily, there’s a cost associated with working a job as opposed to going to school… and that cost is time. (more…)