Creative Swell Blog » Blog

New Tees only $20

Andy Law — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 00:00:14 +0000

New tees are available now from my online store over at mysoti.com. I’ve added four new designs all inspired by movies and TV shows I know and love. Juno, Star Wars, Darjeeling Limited and Lost. These tees are printed one-off from either California or England depending where you are in the world. You have your choice of tee color and you can pick either a generic or an American Apparel (recommended) tee. Thank you for buying my shirts and wanting more! Visit my store by clicking here.

Amazing 3D Photography

Andy Law — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:26:14 +0000

These 3D photographs were produced with a NIMSLO 3D Camera. These photos actually move and render the objects in varying degrees of 3D, you have to see these picture. Check out the 3D photos after the jump.

Click here to see more photos.

August – My top iPhone 4 Apps

Andy Law — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:11:07 +0000

Living in Germany waiting for your visa does have it advantages; lounging around the flat, swimming in a beautiful lake and staying updated on my favorite iPhone 4 apps, just to name a few. This month I’ve started a new feature on my blog which if you have not already figured it out will be testing iPhone 4 applications. The following applications have been tested and proven to be productive, addictive and/or helpful. Let me know what you think of these apps in the comment section below.

SoundHound is a music identification application for the iPhone. It works just like Shazam only better. Simply hold your phone next to the device playing a song and click the”tap here” button. SoundHound will do the rest. You can also search by the title or artist of a song. The interface includes History, What’s Hot and Now Playing tabs which help you to navigate around your music world. SoundHound can be downloaded FREE (5 identifications are free every month) or you can purchase unlimited IDs for $4.99.	Rowmote is an application that allows your iPhone to take control over your mac. You can change applications, switch through your iTunes library or just increase your computers volume. The app sells for ($.99) cents and has an upgraded features option for just a few dollars more. The developer states that the application works just like apple hardware with over 30 different applications. This is a must have app for anyone that watches movies or video slideshows from their macs.
ShakeitPhoto gives your personal photography a vintage Polaroid effect. I’ve used this application for most of my German photography which can been seen in action on my last post (Life In Germany). I’d recommend this application for anyone that uses their iPhone camera regularly. The application sells for ($.99) cents and can be used to take photos automatically applying the effect or you can simple select a photo from your photo library and “shake it”. The application produces a Polaroid sound and “prints” your image out, all you need to to do develop the image is to shake your iPhone. This is a cool app for photogs.	Skype for the iPhone is one of the best application around. It allows you to stay in touch with your friends and family around the world for just a few pennies a minute ( or for Free if your on WiFi, Skype to Skype). You can also keep tract of chats, who’s online and your Skype credit all from within the application. The Skype application is FREE and allows me to stay in touch while I’m living abroad.
TextPLUS provides users with free app to app text messaging worldwide. I use this application to send my friends text messages even if they don’t have an iPhone. The application is FREE and allows you to keep track of your conversations, message multiple recipients at one time or join a TextPLUS community and chat with random strangers. The TextPLUS application is free but comes with general distracting advertisements, you can remove these ads for one year at a time ($2.99).	Hungry Sharks – Part 2 is a very addictive iPhone game that uses the tilt controls to navigate your hungry shark. Part 2 of the game ($.99) gives you access to two levels where your shark has even more to feast on. WARNING if you are prone to iPhone game addiction you better be careful of this one. The game takes you through an underwater land with plenty of prey to eat including; jet skiers, schools of fish, pelicans, license plates and even a gigantic king crab.

Snail Mail Marketing

Andy Law — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:02:15 +0000

Published in the Small Business section of the January 12th edition of the WSJ was an article on Snail Mail Marketing. Most of us with marketing degrees that graduated after 2001 would probably just pass this article up, “Snail Mail” is a very cliche (often dirty) word in today’s world of Digital Media Marketing. The term “Snail Mail” refers to the (sometimes costly) production of marketing materials sent via regular mail to thousands (or millions) of households.

The article focused on a few firms that migrated (mostly to cut marketing costs) from direct mailers and personal letters to less expensive email and digital marketing. While the cost savings were significant the reaction from long timer customers were disastrous – clients enjoyed (sometimes saved) the letters, monthly mailers and funny postcards. In some cases clients even complained when the mailers stopped. So, what can we learn from this WJS article? A few things. Client Expectations – If you have been producing fun, creative or informative marketing pieces that are sent out regularly to clients you have created an expectation. Stopping the production could spell disastrous for your firm. Modern Media Blunder – “Mature” (the safe way for me to say old people, North of 40) clients in certain industries (think: insurance, health care, real estate) are not as tech savvy as the rest of the world, marketing plans directed at these industries need to be geared towards them. Just because digital marketing cuts costs does not mean it is the best way to go every time. My mom can’t even open her email box daily but she checks the regular mail every day like clock work. Against the Grain – Sometimes its best not do what others are doing. Since companies have slashed their direct-mailing budgets consumers are receiving less and less snail “junk” mail. That means that your marketing piece now has less competition that it did just a few month back and you should continue to produce your direct mailers.

The bottom line – Snail mail is not dead (only wounded) and in the next few years we will see a resurgence of direct-mail marketing. Just a few points to think about with your clients.

My thanks to Dave LaMar (Campbell Graphics) for the article!

T-Shirt Wars!

Andy Law — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 21:56:16 +0000

Check out this creative T-Shirt Wars video from Rhett and Link. More than 220 individually designed t-shirts were created for this video. You can even purchase the very same shirts they wore in this video or design your own. Just click the jump link and check out the video!

What’s the iPad really worth?

Andy Law — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:23:06 +0000

Apple has plenty of buzz surrounding their new hybrid device – the iPad – which was unveiled last month. The tablet is expected to devastate Amazon Kindle sales (and hard copy book sales) with its own apps store, bookstore and gaming capabilities. So what is this coveted iPad really worth? The guys over at iSuppli tore down the device and priced it out based on materials and manufacturing costs. Apple is selling the new device for $499 but what does it cost Apple to manufacture? Check out the breakdown after the jump…you’ll be surprised.

The above chart shows that the $499 price tag on the new device costs Apple little more than $229.35 to manufacture, making it highly profitable. So what does that mean for you? Well, if you are an early adapter of the product you will be hit with the $499 price tag to get your hand on a new iPad, however, if you decided to wait out the storm for a few months Apple will probably lower the cost of the entry device…did somebody say $299? That is pure speculation but Apple has adjusted pricing just months after releasing other high end devices (remember the iPhone!).

Check out other articles on the subject:

Wired Magazine

Gizmodo

Image via flikr – frasperspeirs’

Hello my name is: CREATIVE SWELL

Andy Law — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:50:56 +0000

While I’m a fan of shameless self promotion, ALDB (Andy Law Design Blog) was to be a temporary name until I had time to re-brand the blog (6 months later). Without further ado welcome to CREATIVE SWELL! CS will be a place for design inspiration, creative community and tutorials. We are driven by our readers so please tell us what you want…more contests?! interviews?! articles?! Tell us after the jump by leaving a comment.

THANK YOU! We would like to thank our devoted readers, over the first 6 months you have inspired us and helped us form a better design community! Here is to all the new things 2010 will bring us!

and the winner is…

Andy Law — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:52:39 +0000

Thank you all for entering my first contest (Win an iPod Nano) and making it a success. Check back for more contests and updated content every week. The winner of this contest was selected at random (using a list randomizer) based off the email addresses submitted, the winner will be contacted via that address and their first name posted below. Did you win? Find out after the jump. And the winner is…

Kendall Y – San Diego, California

Congratulations Kendall instructions will be sent via email address. Thank you all for entering and good luck in future contests!

Inside South Africa

Andy Law — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:51:21 +0000

This is a great intro video that will be seen by millions and millions of people during this years FIFA World Cup in South Africa(beginning June 9th and lasting for 4 weeks). The motion graphics are amazing and this video uses some of the latest effects, rendered with simple fly out shapes and great audio. If you like African themed into videos (kind of a niche market), you will love this one! Concept and creation by BIZQUIT DESIGN, click more to see the video!

INSIDE SOUTH AFRICA (opener) from dirk rauscher on Vimeo.

“Kindle Prepare to Die” – iPad

Andy Law — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:51:15 +0000

Well after years of speculation, mystery, rumors, gossip, trademarks, false domain registry and consumer brouhaha the Apple i…i…iPad is here! What, the heck? The iPad?!?! Oh well I guess we will just have to get over that one. This little plastic, chrome and glass device is going to change the world one more time and its not going to take years like the iPod. I could talk about features and functionality until my fingers are bleeding and your eyes develop cataracts but lets save us all time and pain with the official Apple iPad video(HD of course!). See the video and more photos after the jump.