It's been a busy few weeks. This morning I finally got around to reading some items I previously Instapaper'd. One of which was an article from designer/blogger Andy Rutledge titled Plato's Cave. Of all the design professionals I follow, Andy is the most philosophically inspirational. He often writes of maintaining standards and holding professionalism in high regard. These are virtues I admire and strive to apply to my career.

The article highlights why I enjoy working for a small company -- or for myself. I've spent enough time in corporate settings to know that someone else's lack of standards need not shape my perception of reality. Such an environment can be devastating professionally and personally.

That's not to say all corporate environments are driven by ignorance or lack standards. Don't get me wrong. Many are on the right path with leadership that sees beyond Plato's shadows. At Interval those are the clients we seek. I also don't mean to imply that small companies, or even freelancers, are immune to these pitfalls.

Give Plato's Cave a read and be sure to add Rutledge to your RSS reader.

Excerpt:

I understand where this sort of contemptuous attitude comes from, as I’m familiar with the Allegory of the Cave, from Plato’s The Republic. (I encourage you to follow the link and read before continuing.) I know well how those who have only ever experienced the distorted echoes and shadows of what is professionally possible might fiercely attack anything that challenges their ignorance. It is human nature to believe the limits of our perception to be the entirety of reality.

Too often, however, what passes for professionalism in the experience of designers, even company CEOs, is but a shadow of what is possible and what is right. When that ignorance is reinforced by what is deemed to be success, it forms an armor that is difficult or impossible to penetrate with any sort of challenge.

Your dilemma: Your contact sent you a 72dpi GIF of their logo -- and it's spinning. Fantastic. Unfortunately, you're working on a print piece and what you really need is a vector file. You ask for the EPS but they don't know what that is and claim one doesn't exist.

Mmhmm.

So, how do you obtain the logo file you need? There are various corporate logo databases online. Most suck. They are a collection of half-ass attempts at recreating icons and typefaces. Search them first if you like, but chances are you'll be unhappy with what you find -- if you find anything at all. Instead, turn to your client's website. No, don't drag a logo off the homepage. That's how you ended up with the atrocity in your inbox. Instead, search the site for some PDF files. See where this is going?

Find a PDF with the logo visible. Open it in your browser, Reader, or whatever PDF viewer you prefer. Zoom in and out on the logo itself. If it looks good at 25% and 1,000% it's most likely vector art. If it gets pixelated it was rasterized before the PDF was generated and won't serve your needs. Find a good one? Good. Let's get that logo out of the PDF.

You can typically open PDFs in Illustrator or other vector-editing applications. I'll assume you have Illustrator. If you don't, play around with whatever you do have -- but you're on your own. In Illustrator attempt to select the logo. If the entire contents of the page are selected start breaking things apart. No, not your physical surroundings, but the visual elements of the file. Use the "Release Clipping Path" and "Ungroup" option until you can select just the logo itself. As you break up the elements you may notice large selectable areas that appear to contain nothing. Just delete them so they're out of your way. But be careful not to delete portions of the logo in the process.

When you're able to select the logo alone, copy and paste it into a new file. Save it as an EPS. Done.

You may need to do some additional work to ensure the colors match PMS values defined in the organization's brand standards. But if your contact sent you a GIF to begin with they undoubtedly have little concern for color matching or quality. So, you're probably in the clear.

Note: You can also open PDFs in Photoshop and other photo-editing applications. If that's your only option and your application can open PDFs you won't get the EPS, but you can probably get something better than your GIF alternative.

Wordpress plugins I install immediately and use on almost every site I create:

All-In-One SEO Pack
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/all-in-one-seo-pack/

WP-DB-Backup
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-db-backup/

Askimet (Of course)
http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins/Akismet

XML Sitemap Generator
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-sitemap-generator/ 

And, after today's downtime I may need to add a caching mod to the list... we'll see...

This tutorial will show you how to setup a rotating homepage graphic in Wordpress using custom fields. A rotating image -- one that refreshes on each page load, or transitions using JavaScript -- is a great way to keep a website feeling fresh, and a great way to steer readers to important content. This technique can be used for more than images, and can be used on any template. Not just the homepage. 

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This is my plea to Apple to put some effort into their calendar application, iCal. The software has potential, but its limitations are annoying. My primary gripes:

1. I cannot accept appointments received through the iPhone mail software. I have to return to my desk to accept invites or even view the details -- even though iCal is on the phone.

2. I cannot move appointments from one calendar to another on the iPhone. I have to recreate them.

3. The biggest annoyance: I cannot specify a default email address for iCal's response emails. These are the messages sent back to the appointment originator, letting them know if I accepted or declined. As far as I can tell iCal simply uses whatever email account you have highlighted -- I've tested this and found it to be true. This is problematic as I use Mail to manage several accounts.

I am switching to Google Calendar. I already use Google for a number of other tasks. I might as well add Calendar to the mix. It's formatted beautifully for both my phone and desktop and none of the problems listed above are present. I will also be dropping Mail for my professional email accounts in favor of the gmail interface. We already funnel our domains through Google so there is no additional setup.

Considering how amazing many of Apple's applications are. It's mind blowing how lackluster their "daily-use" applications are.

Mail and iCal, I will not miss you. Not one bit.

In between work and family duties I've been revamping apmeyer.com -- though the new design/content is not yet active. It has served as a portfolio, but the work has grown dated. In addition to updating that work, I plan to use the site as a place to talk about my personal and professional interests and feature projects I'm working on. Posterous will be my soapbox until the new site is complete. Or maybe it will take its place...

Time will tell.