Contrasting the finishing process in the manufacture of playing cards as done in China and the U.S.Please press the play arrow to view the videos. Note that they may stop for a moment while the video buffers in the background.

For Dalton Ghetti, pencils are as precious as marble was to Michelangelo, Bernini and Rodin. Pencil lead is, in fact, his sculptural material out of which he carves incredible miniatures, everything from teeny weeny busts of Elvis to itsy bitsy hammers and saws. Ghetti recently told the London Telegraph:
“At school I would carve a friend’s name into the wood of a pencil and then give it to them as a present. Later, when I got into sculpture, I would make these huge pieces from things like wood, but decided I wanted to challenge myself by trying to make things as small as possible. I experimented sculpting with different materials, such as chalk, but one day I had an eureka moment.”

The warmest Summer on record deserves a shot. And while we’re at it, a toast to some great Summer commercials.

I don’t drink Jack Daniels but I’m I’ve gotten drunk on the amazing spots, produced directed, art directed, coordinated and assisted by the very impressive group below. See the most recent (above and below) titled “Proud” here and “Label Story” here and “His Way” here. And don’t forget, over this long weekend if you drink and drive, you don’t know Jack.

The New Jersey towns of Summit and New Providence are among the most upscale in the state. Household incomes are high, home prices remain strong, and local amenities are first-class. Nevertheless, some residents of these affluent communities are going hungry—an inequity that the area’s AlphaGraphics franchise is working to eliminate.
Mike Tan, president of AlphaGraphics Summit / New Providence, has dedicated the month of September to a food drive that will help SAGE Eldercare stock its Meals on Wheels program and support other anti-hunger initiatives. Tan has produced food collection boxes and signage that he is asking local businesses to install, and he has designated his own shop as a drop-off point as well.
Tan says he is encouraging his business customers to display the boxes on their premises until September 30. As the boxes become filled with the non-perishable…

The hallowed office of the President of the United States of America: Commander-in-Chief, Leader of the Free World, host to and guest of international men (and women) of mystery – and, of course, immortalized forever in caricature form. Here are eight of my favorites.
George W. Bush Caricature by Tonio

These were easy to find and difficult to choose, but my favorite was this sketch by Tonio on ToonPool.com.
Ulysses S Grant Caricature by Ron Coddington

A true American hero with an oversized head and ears that could have given him an aerial view of Gettysburg.
John F. Kennedy Caricature by Duncan MacPherson

It was said that JFK was difficult to caricature because he was handsome, unlike so many other presidents, and therefore had little in the way of facial flaws to exaggerate. I think MacPherson pulled it off quite…

Gary Sierzchulski, VP, Arandell Marketing Solutions
Think about that statement and question…
First off this is the hottest summer in quite some time and I don’t have a pool. I have friends who do but they suddenly are not answering their phone. Anyway, back to the point…. 
How long do you look at an email headline in your mailbox (those that don’t get caught in spam filters)?
Of those, how many do you open?
Of those, how many do you take a closer look at?
We’re talking literally seconds for your message to be “blinked” at. Notice the word read was not in that sentence. Is that the way you want to do business? Add to that the hundreds of messages you receive each day – that’s tough competition. So surfing through your emails becomes routine and numbing. Emails are…

We all need the right tools for the job. The problem, in a digital world, is that there are too many tools to choose from. Free is preferred. The “Tools” section in the menu is where I will be sharing tools that I live by — use. Please share and bookmark often. Found a better [...]

Photo via Flickr user Aunt Owwee.
Happy September everyone! It’s still pretty warm outside, but soon it will be time to dig out the old wool sweaters, hats and coats again.
In honor of the changing seasons, here are some useful online tools to help you pick autumn- and winter-inspired color palettes.
I will also show a few of my favorites from each website.
Kuler.adobe.com
Use Adobe’s Kuler tool to search for color palettes based on keywords or to customize exiting palettes. You can click through to view the color values for print or web in HSV, RGB, CMYK, LAB and HEX. If you have Adobe’s Creative Suite Software, then you can access Kuler right inside the Adobe programs.
I really liked this autumnal palette below called Madrid Guillo. With the lime green it feels very upbeat and very now.…

Illustrator and wanderer Henrik Drescher takes his harmonica to Mongolia, where seldom his heard a discouraging word. After the jump, take a look at his Home on the Mongolian Range music video. You never know where Henrik will pop up next. Stay tuned for more “Where’s Henrik.”

Got some of these lying around?Well, they can be put to good use – if you have a camera that features “Night Shot” mode. That’s the ability to take those greenish black and white photos in near darkness. Unlike ordinary photo film, silicon-based CCDs and CMOS sensors are quite sensitive to the near infrared (NIR) in the  700-1200 nm (0.7-1.2µ) range — so much so, that some of the incoming NIR has to be filtered out in order to reduce IR contamination artifacts. The usual solution is to fit digital camera sensors with special internal IR cut filters. In Night Shot mode the filter is moved away allowing the sensor to use its infrared recording capability. Some consumer-grade digital cameras even let enough NIR through to allow some IR photography without Night Shot mode. The key is to block visible…

While I know the ins-and-outs of Keynote fairly well, I’m not a designer. Fortunately, I work with some great designers and from time-to-time get asked to provide some technical tips while one of them is working on a project that involves presentations.
During a recent project related to some presentations a client’s sales group will be using with iPads, a designer and I became aware of some finicky needs the iPad “app version” of Keynote requires to easily accept a presentation developed on the desktop version of Keynote. (I assume these principles apply to presentations created in Power Point, as well, but someone else will have to run such tests.)
While I feel one can, if in a bind, create a presentation on an iPad, it’s never going to be my preference. I’m far too comfortable in a work flow…

When I was in the first years of school, I was very particular about my crayons. They had to be the right consistency, size and sharpness. I wanted them to be a very waxy with a dull tip, perfect for blending colors. And yes, my mom had a lot to handle with a child like this.
But while researching for this blog, I discovered that I’m not alone. Another great artist, Christian Faur, is very particular about his crayons, too. In fact, he loves them so much that his unique crayon creations draw enormous attention and are just plain fun to look at!
“The things that inspire me to create, I find, are buried deep within the structures and systems that form the underpinning of our natural world,” Faur says.
I think crayons fit this description: You decide for yourself…

Grab a coffee, get cozy, and head over to the Newsworthy section of M-bossed where the thoughts are always flowing. Newsworthy is a collection of my favorite thinkers, movers and shakers, and news, from around the Web. You will find a healthy dose of information for the printing industry mixed with a healthy dose of [...]

Well you always manage to stumble across something that’s pretty interesting out there on the web and whilst browsing away I stumbled upon this lovely little presentation on Slideshare. What I found interesting was the volume of information that was backed up by a credible source, although some of the figures seem pretty unbelievable you have to [...]

Ever wondered what is being said to your existing clients? Are your customer service representatives fully aware of your company’s capabilities? Have you joined the dots between your business units? Does your business development team understand the end-to-end processes? Do your staff development plans tie in with your business strategy? Does your branding really communicate what [...]