Posts tagged ‘advertising’

Using Inkscape to make a text based portrait

Hi, all. I got an email recently from an attendee of my GIMP and Inkscape workshop (which I’ve had the pleasure to give on behalf of a few of New Jersey’s finest Library Consortiums). This attendee  asked how I had performed a particular effect in Inkscape during the workshop in which I use a bit of text as a brush in order to render a portrait. An example follows:

text based portrait

Text based portrait

Instead of writing out the answer in text (I myself am a visio-audio/experiential learner, and tend towards those kinds of solutions), I decided to use the question as a starting point for an entry in a daily project I’ve been working on at http://365sketches.wordpress.com, in which I’m trying to make a quick sketch a day in 2010 using free software to demonstrate the power of those tools.

You may want to check it out from time to time (or subscribe to the feed, if you’re into that kind of thing) to get ideas for how you can use free software like Inkscape to create interesting designs for your library’s fliers, posters, and other advertising materials and platforms.

If you’ve seen me talk on the topic of Best Practices in Design, you also know that I feel strongly that design, and tools like Inkscape, can change your life, your attitude, and your view of the world.

At any rate, I made the following screencast to demonstrate how I make images like the one above. Enjoy, and if you have questions, I’m happy to answer them in the comments!

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February 4, 2010 at 10:15 am 4 comments

Obama looks towards gamers for votes

It seems that one of the presidential candidates is taking note of just how large and active the gaming community can be during the electoral season.
Barack Obama has recently purchased ads within Burnout Paradise (XBox Live version) to have his face and campaign message appear on billboards as players race by. These billboards have been purchased for display in the 10 battle ground states.

The big question I have is whether the decision to purchase such a unique advertising space was influenced by the recent PEW report, “Teens, video games, and civics” which seems to show that avid gamers and Internet users tend to have an increased interest in civics. While the report itself is directed to the 12-17 year old demographic, I imagine there is a certain correlation with older gamers and Internet users as well.
As odd as this sounds, this news made my day in so many ways. It legitimizes video games as an important media that can be used for more than entertainment.
The real question is what happens from this point on for game developers? Are gaming companies going to be viewed as liberal or conservative (think in terms of an anti-abortion ad in a video game and which companies may or may not put it in their game). Not to mention, will they have to conform to TV advertising standards (no alcohol commercials until a certain time or rating).
Certainly, there is a potential can of worms being opened for game development and hosting companies but, at the moment, I’ll let it be. I’m just thrilled that gaming (aka the third media) has been recognized by a candidate as a medium for messages.

October 15, 2008 at 9:48 am

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