Bob Wertz Profile Photo

Bob Wertz

Type designer, researcher and Ph.D. student in Columbia, South Carolina

Long Posts

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    First impressions of the Adobe Firefly Beta

    The beta service gives some insight into how Adobe views AI’s role in the creative process.

    I recently got access to Adobe Firefly, a beta generative AI system. It’s not a surprise at all that Adobe is experimenting with generative creative tools. Adobe is clearly looking at ways AI can integrate with the tools that they already offer. Thankfully, unlike an earlier wave of visual AI tools, Adobe has trained their AI model on properly-licensed images. Generated images are restricted to non-commercial use and a label is added to exported images, but you shouldn’t see a Getty Images watermark anywhere.

    I’ve been following news about generative AI, but I haven’t really experimented with any of the other tools. It’s been more of an abstract curiosity. Now after playing with Adobe Firefly, I can see some of the practical implications of generative AI tools and started to think about how those features could fit into a design workflow. Also, as a Ph.D. student trying to settle on a dissertation topic, I see lots of research questions when I look at generative AI and Adobe Firefly.

    Right now, the service has two features: Text to Image and Text Effects. I’ve spent a little bit of time experimenting with Adobe Firefly and wanted to share some initial impressions.

    Text to image

    The text to image feature is straightforward. Type in a prompt and Firefly generates four images. On the right, there is a palette with options that lets you refine your request. You can choose the aspect ratio, content type, style, lighting and composition. Below is a screenshot of the interface and a few examples of what it can do:

    Screenshot 2023 03 26 at 9 47 54 AM

    Prompt: green metal fish-shaped spaceship on an alien planet
    Styles: art, concept art, dramatic light, flat colors

    Firefly green+metal fish shaped spaceship on an alien planet art concept art dramatic light flat colors 77148

    Prompt: green hot rod racing through the desert
    Styles: photo, muted, blurry background, backlighting, science fiction

    Firefly green+hot rod racing through the desert photo muted blurry background backlighting science fiction 50326

    Prompt: loose sketch of a white male with a green sweater and a stubble beard typing on a laptop in a coffee shop
    Styles: art

    Firefly loose+sketch of a white male with a green sweater and a stubble beard typing on a laptop in a coffee shop art 39460

    A couple of quick reflections on using Firefly’s Text to Image feature:

    • For the content type, I feel art worked best for the creations I generated.
    • The select similar button lets you refine easily
    • Realistic people and animals are a struggle. I accidentally generated a person with two noses. And sometimes, an arm connects in the wrong spot.
    • If you include too many prompts, Firefly often doesn’t know how to resolve them all and you get strange results.

    Text Effects

    Text Effects lets you specify and apply an AI-generated effect to some text. Firefly has a few sample effects that give you a good idea of what the feature can do. You can choose from 12 different fonts.

    Screenshot 2023 03 26 at 10 14 23 AM

    Prompt: Green fluffy clouds, tight fit, transparent background

    Green fluffy clouds, tight fit, transparent background

    Prompt: Circuit boards, tight fit, grey background

    Firefly circuit+boards 32694

    Prompt: Flowers and Rocks, loose fit, white background

    Firefly flowers+and rocks 34224

    A couple of notes:

    • If you have two of the same letter, they are identical. And while I understand that, it ruins the hand-created art look. Hopefully they’ll change this in future versions.
    • The transparent background works well when you use the loose fit because elements overflow the shape of the letters.
    • I could see this feature being built into Adobe apps eventually.

    What’s next?

    Adobe Firefly is definitely a work in progress – it is a beta – but there are more features in development. The Adobe Firefly site lists one feature as coming soon, Recolor Vectors. I’m not sure how that will differ from the Recolor Artwork feature in Adobe Illustrator, but I’m looking forward to trying it out. Several other features are teased as “In exploration” and some of them look interesting. No idea how close to release these are — for all I know, they are ideas on a white board — but “text to vector” and “extend background” could be fun to play with. I’ll likely write additional posts as new features are introduced.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

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    Easy Category Pages in Navigation on Micro.Blog

    Customize your navigation with filtered categories

    When I first moved my blogging over to Micro.Blog, I struggled with the perceived rigidity of the navigation. It took me a little time to refine it, but I eventually figured it out. I’ve had a couple of people ask about my solution, so I figured I’d share a quick summary of how I set it up my navigation.

    It shouldn’t matter what theme you are using, but for my site, I use the Pure plug in, which is a good foundation to build from. By default, the template presents a home page that includes all of your posts. Instead, I wanted to have different links in my navigation for my longer “blog” posts and my shorter “tweet-like” status posts.

    It’s actually pretty easy to do, but it takes a few steps.

    1. Create the categories you want. I created two categories: Quick Updates and Long Posts. You can create as many categories or group them differently, but this worked for me.

    2. Set up filters. Filters will automatically apply categories based on different parameters. Click the “Edit Filters” button beneath the list of categories. I set up two filters. One that sorted untitled posts into my “Quick Thoughts” category and a second that grouped together all of my long posts with titles. This way, my posts are automatically grouped into one of the two categories. In the screenshot below, I used the “Post Length” setting. Screenshot of the category filter.

    3. Determine the URL for each category. Each category in Micro.Blog has a URL, typically formatted as http://DOMAIN-NAME/categories/CATEGORY-NAME. Find the URLs for each of the categories you want in the navigation.

    4. Create a new page. Name the page and then paste the category URL into the content box. Make sure “Include this page in your blog navigation” is checked. Repeat for all of your categories. You’ll then have a navigation item for each of your categories.

    This technique works really well when paired with the Custom Home Page plug in. You can see the result in the navigation on my site. I know that I could do this by building a custom template. At some point, maybe I will. But right now, I’d like to keep it as simple as I can, and this works really well for me.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

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    Reflecting on my first two months of being healthier

    Solid progress

    One of my goals for this year is being healthier. Eating better. Moving more. The hope was that by breaking some bad habits I developed during COVID, I could lose some weight and feel better. I wanted to post occasional updates to keep myself accountable.

    Two months in, things are going great. I feel significantly better — that’s the “metric” I care about most — and I’ve dropped a significant amount of weight. I’m not doing any trendy diet or counting calories. I’ve adapted some principles from intuitive eating.1 I’m making smarter decisions about food and listening to my body. One example, I’ve pretty much stopped drinking beverages with calories. At Starbucks, I get a black coffee or hot tea. Unsweetened tea instead of sweet tea.2 I’m not drinking sodas. I’ve generally avoided alcoholic drinks, but had a glass of bourbon at our Valentine’s Dinner. My energy level feels more consistent through the day without the sugary sodas and extra caffeine. And I’m sleeping better. Wins all around.

    Exercise wise, I’m just focused on movement.3 I’m walking regularly. My wife and I have started taking long walks on the weekends, exploring the trails that are literally in our backyard. I’m trying to walk at lunch and walk to meetings around campus. I’m not running on a treadmill — or running at all. I might get to that point, but that’s down the road.

    I do want to address the tech side of this. I purchased a Withings Body+ scale, and it syncs my weight to my Apple Health account. I use Happy Scale to track weight because it does a nice job of showing averages instead of just focusing on the lowest weigh in. I’m tracking activity and workouts with Apple Watch. I tend to be a data person, and I like having all these metrics. I just need to make sure I’m not fixated on the metrics. Again, the main goal is feeling better and developing healthy habits.

    Two months in, I feel like I’m heading in the right direction. I’m making long-term lifestyle changes, and I know this is just a start. I plan to check back in here every month or so with an update.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. And he’s trying to be healthier.

    1. Clearly, I’ve not bought in to intuitive eating 100%. I’m still trying to lose weight and I still weigh myself regularly. If you want to learn more about intuitive eating, I recommend Rachael Hartley’s blog. ↩︎

    2. I’m in South Carolina, y’all. Around here, sweet tea is the default. ↩︎

    3. This is another intuitive eating thing. More here. ↩︎

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    My five favorite new Star Trek characters

    New Star Trek means new characters

    Star Trek is all about the characters and relationships on the ship. With all the new series on Paramount+, they’ve introduced a bunch of interesting characters that I’ve grown to love. With Season 3 of Star Trek: Picard starting next week, I figured I’d share five new characters1  who I’m glad are part of the Star Wars Universe.

    WARNING: A HANDFUL OF SPOILERS BELOW FOR DISCOVERY, STRANGE NEW WORLDS, PRODIGY AND LOWER DECKS.

    Ensign Sylvia Tilly

    Played by Mary Wiseman on Star Trek: Discovery. When Star Trek first relaunched with Discovery, Tilly was such a different type of crew member. For all of the great Star Trek characters over the years, very few were quirky and likable.2  Her relationships with Burnham, Stamets and Saru are wonderful. I wasn’t happy how they used her over the last season — eventually shipping her off to Starfleet Academy — but I hope next season includes a healthy dose of Tilly.

    Rok-Tahk

    Voiced by Rylee Alazraqui on Star Trek: Prodigy. If you haven’t seen Prodigy, you’re missing out. Rok-Tahk is my favorite character from the crew. At first, Rok appears to be a fierce creature, but once the universal translator kicks in, you figure out that despite her intimidating form, she’s actually just a young girl with an interest in science. Her relationship with the Janeway hologram was encouraging and nurturing and I loved every minute of it. I look forward to seeing how she interacts with Admiral Janeway next season.

    Christine Chapel

    Jes Bush on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. I know Nurse Chapel appears in the Original Series and a couple of movies, but Jes Bush’s interpretation of the character is so different and distinctive. Chapel is incredibly smart and capable. And yes, she has a crush on Spock, but their relationship is much more nuanced and complex. We know where this character is heading, but I look forward to seeing how this version of Chapel develops.

    Ensign Beckett Mariner

    Voiced by Tawny Newsome on Star Trek: Lower Decks. Lower Decks has so many great characters, but Mariner is my favorite. She’s a screw up, who also happens to be incredibly capable when she wants to be. Her relationship with her friends, her rivals and her mom are all complex and delightful. Depending on the episode, Beckett may create a massive problem — or she could be the one to save the day. The end of last season was heartbreaking when her mom and friends thought she’d sold out the Cerritos crew. Many of the relationships were patched up in the finale, but I wonder if there will be lasting repercussions.

    Captain Saru

    Doug Jones on Star Trek: Discovery. Look, I know Captain Michael Burham is the star of the show, but Saru is the captain I’d want to serve under. Intelligent, thoughtful and competent. His personal backstory is wonderful, and I’m really interested to see his relationship with the leader of Vulcan develop. I’m not sure how Doug Jones can express so much emotion through all of that makeup. It’s seriously impressive.

    Finally, while it’s not a character, I want to give a shoutout to Lower Deck’s California class ships, especially the U.S.S. Cerritos. The idea that there are some average ships in the fleet is great. Other Star Trek shows focus on the glamorous flagship, but not every ship is the U.S.S. Enterprise.

    1. Well… Five new and one reimagined.
    2. You could argue that Barclay was quirky, but he was intentionally annoying. Neelix was intended to be quirky, but he was really just creepy.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

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    Adding a "now" page

    I decided to add a now page to my site. My challenge was deciding what to include on the page. I already had a pretty complete about page. After looking at a collection of now pages, I realized that there isn’t a single formula or approach. So for my first attempt, here’s what I decided to add.

    • What I’m working on
    • Recently written
    • Recent media favorites
    • Active websites and profiles
    • Social media accounts

    I also moved the status of the fish in the header to this page. The fish changes from time to time based on my mood so that explanation makes more sense on my “now” page.

    I’m sure my approach will change over time. Everything needs to be manually updated and I’m thinking I’ll update every month or so.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

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    Medium length posts

    I feel like I always write things that are either “tweet” length or “long.” I don’t feel like I ever post anything in between. This tendency isn’t new… I’ve always written that way and I’m not sure why. Most of my favorite online writers routinely share posts of various lengths, but I’ve never changed my approach. As I try to get back in the rhythm of writing, I think I need to embrace the middle ground. Opting to post reflections more than complete essays. Questions instead of answers. Paragraphs instead of pages. We’ll see how it goes.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

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    Moving past commentary-driven media

    Maybe it’s time for something different.

    For years, I listened to local sports talk radio on my commute home. I live in the middle of SEC country, and — especially during football season — the talk shows were full of callers who were mostly annoying and overly opinionated.1  The host of the show was great and I really enjoyed his commentary, so I kept listening. One day, after a particularly obnoxious sequence of callers, I tweeted something like “I’d love a sports talk show without callers” and tagged him. He responded, thanked me for listening, but said that most people didn’t want to listen to him talk for a couple of hours. They tuned in for the callers. That was the format.

    Audience commentary is part of every type of media. With newspapers, we’ve long had editorial pages, op-eds and letters to the editor. Radio has a whole sub-genre of talk radio that features callers giving their opinions and arguing with hosts. Television never really developed a feedback format because of obvious technical limitations, but developed something similar. Panel discussion shows are basically talk radio with a standard roster of characters, arguing with each other and representing viewer opinions.

    The internet made commentary even easier. In the early days of the web, every news site and blog added comments to their stories to encourage feedback. The feedback quickly turned to meaningless noise, filled with extreme opinions and spam. Social media took it one step further. Facebook and Twitter are essentially just the comments section. Commentary became the media.

    Some people love to read the letters to the editor and listen to talk radio. Many people — judging by ratings — watch television shows with a panel of guests arguing with each other about news or sports. There are people want to read the comments on news sites, although I don’t understand why anyone would subject themselves to that. And there are people who truly enjoy social media. This is all commentary-driven media.

    I’ve realized that I don’t like any of those things.

    I like to read articles that provoke thought. I visit news sites and blogs that cover my (many) areas of interest. I use an RSS reader to track all of these sites. I follow photographers, videographers and creators who make original art. I listen to podcasts that add value and knowledge. I follow people on social media who are experts in their field, but I rarely respond or comment on their posts. Yes, I want to be entertained, but I also want to learn and be challenged. In contrast to the commentary-driven media, I suppose this is expert-driven media.

    The reality is that most people prefer the commentary-driven approach. They feel part of the conversation. They can contribute if they want. They want to hear the opinions of others and argue about topics. Our current social media landscape was designed for them. They want to feel that their opinion is a vital part of the conversation. That is the format.

    Cultivating an expert-driven media environment is tougher and it appeals to a smaller audience. But there is a significant audience. There are plenty of people who want to read posts and articles from people who know what they are talking about. An ample audience of people who want to listen to podcasts and watch informative videos. We just have to design a system that prioritizes meaningful content and encourages sharing well-thought out responses over quick, thoughtless knee-jerk commentary.

    With the implosion of Twitter, I feel like we have an opportunity to build something different. I’m happy with Micro.Blog right now and look forward to its continued development. I’m interested in the resurgence of RSS 2  and the momentum behind new indie-web protocols like ActivityPub. I’m encouraged that so many people are experimenting with different approaches to “social” media. I can’t wait to see what comes next.

    1. Every third caller wants their team to throw more to the tight end.

    2. Some of us never let RSS go.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

    ∞

    Reset: 2023

    Trying to find balance

    I’ll be honest, I’m not sure I ever found my footing after the pandemic shut everything down. I’ve been trucking along keeping everything going, but the last half of 2022 was especially challenging. This rhythm and pace is not sustainable and it’s time to reset the balance between family, work and school.

    Family is first, as always, but even more so now that my oldest is about to head off to college. I want to spend quality time with her before she moves out and heads to school. Work is going well, but is constantly busy. With graduate school, I’m taking the spring semester off to spend some time getting into a new routine.

    For 2023, I need to focus on four areas: health, writing, organization and creativity.

    Focus on physical and mental health

    I’ve got a list of things to work on — from getting enough sleep to finding time to walk at lunch. I feel like I know what I need to do, but making time for a healthy life has been challenging over the last year. I need to develop consistent, healthy habits.

    Write more

    I’ve been writing for school almost constantly for the last year. And that’s great, but it’s come at the expense of writing for myself. I’ll still be writing for grad school, and hopefully getting some journal articles published this year, but I want to expand the type of writing I’m doing and improve my skills. Writing on bobwertz.com (via Micro.Blog) is going to be my primary personal writing outlet for the year.

    Smartly organized

    In general, I’m organized, but there are some areas that are an absolute train wreck. I’m working on some using the tools I have — like Notion and Tot — more effectively. There’s a fine line here, though. Time spent on getting organized is time that I’m not working out, writing or designing.

    Rediscover creative endeavors

    I’m a designer, but I’m not designing much right now. I have a bunch of projects, from stickers to typefaces that I want to work on. These always end up on the back burner when family commitments and grad school deadlines take priority. I need to carve out some time for visually creative projects that I’ve been neglecting.

    I’m looking forward to hitting the reset button and restoring some balance to my slightly chaotic life. In past years, I’ve shared a check-in post at the midpoint of the year to evaluate how I’m doing on my theme and goals. This year, I’m going to try and post quarterly to keep myself accountable.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

    ∞

    Hitting the pause button

    Time to reset the balance

    “I don’t know how you do it?”

    I get this question a lot. I balance a full-time job, my family and grad school. I’ve been in grad school part time since I started my Master’s program in 2018 and I’ve become pretty good at carefully planning out and scheduling my time.

    In 2022, I never really had a chance to achieve a balance. At work, there was a lot of change. My boss resigned in January and I assumed some of his responsibilities. I took over managing photography and videography staff again. We rolled out a new logo, which was — and still is — a lot of work. All of these things were positive developments, but required increasingly more of my time and attention.

    At home, things were challenging. My wife tore her bicep in January and then had to have surgery in the summer, right as she was moving to a different school. My oldest started her senior year of high school and is trying to figure out where she wants to go to college, but then tore her ACL in a lacrosse tournament and also had to have surgery. My two youngest each started a new school, which changed our morning routine significantly. Everyone is doing great, but there is always a lot going on.

    And grad school has been fine. I’ve done well. I’ve written lots of papers that I am proud of and had research accepted to a conference. I’m trying to get my papers edited and submitted to journals. Classes have been good, but honestly, I haven’t enjoyed grad school for the last year. And that has been weighing on me.

    The balance is off.

    I’ve been in grad school part-time for 4.5 years straight at this point — 3 for the Master’s and 1.5 for the Ph.D. With all the changes in my job and life, I wasn’t getting the most out of my Ph.D. studies.1  So I’ve decided to take the spring semester off. It’s a tough decision — I’ve been steadily working on my degrees one or two classes at a time — but it’s the right decision. I need to pause and reset the balance between work, home and school. I’m not quitting, just taking a break. I know I’ll start back up in the summer or fall, fully recharged and ready to continue to the finish.

    1. One of my professors told me that by working on my Ph.D. part time, I had the “gift of time.” Most people have to sprint through their program so they can get a teaching job. By not rushing through my program, I could get the most out of it and enjoy it.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

    ∞

    Post Formatting

    Testing out how I want to format my longer posts.

    I haven’t had this Micro.Blog site for long, but I’ve written at my other site – Sketchbook B – for almost 15 years.1  Over time, my long form blog posts there developed a pattern. I had a basic structure with headers, footnotes, divider lines and a bio at the end. And I want to replicate some of that here and needed a post to experiment with. This is that post.2

    I’ve already been using an H2 as a subhead and I like the way that looks. Like many writers, I often want to add footnotes as I write. Over on Sketchbook B, I used asterisks, but since I’m writing in Markdown, that’s kind of a pain in the ass. So I figured I’d go with superscript numbers, which is more conventional anyway.3  I continue to use divider lines to separate the body of the post from the footnotes, and a second divider line between the footnotes and a bio.

    I’m not sure what I want to do with the bio. I found that most of my traffic came from Google, so the reader was dropping in on my site with no idea who I was. For now, I’ve decided to go with the shortest one sentence bio that I could and set it at the end in italics.

    One aspect that I haven’t yet decided on is images. On my Squarespace-hosted site, each post had a preview image and I’d include a post image. So far on bobwertz.com, I don’t need a preview image, but I do think I want to create some type of standard post image to include under the subhead. I’ll keep experimenting, but I feel good about my basic post format.

    1. I’m going to keep writing at Sketchbook B, but the content will be mostly Adobe Creative Cloud tips.
    2. I’m using a trial of MarsEdit right now. And I really love the preview engine that lets me see how this is going to look, even before I post it. Looks like I’ll be purchasing a license.
    3. I don’t love how the superscripts mess with the overall line spacing. It just feels wrong. I may try to come up with another approach.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina.

    ∞

    2022 Favorite 8 Photos

    My ❤️8️⃣ from 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣2️⃣

    This year was unexpected. Just about nothing went as planned — sometimes better, sometimes worse. Looking back over my photos, I took fewer “artsy” shots and mostly focused on my family. Here are my favorite shots from the past year, starting top left:

    Evening snowfall. We don’t get much snow in Columbia, South Carolina. When it snowed in the evening in January, every thing was peaceful and serene… and then it was fun and chaotic, when all neighborhood kids came outside to play in the snow.

    Norah’s prom. Our oldest headed to prom and had a great time with her friends.

    Jill’s birthday. There are nine candles on the cake. Not the correct number of candles, but the perfect amount of light.

    Soda City Market. We headed to our local market and took this picture as we were leaving. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on here — Jill hugs her kettle corn while Ryan proudly presents a giant carrot — but I love the shot.

    Ryan playing the viola. Ryan started playing the viola this year and seems to enjoy it.

    Sunrise at Hilton Head. Took a trip to Hilton Head with the family and woke up early enough to catch sunrise.

    Lizzy’s birthday selfie. Here’s the thing… Our selfies are typically terrible and we have to take a bunch to get anything usable, but I grabbed this shot at Liz’s birthday dinner and we both like it. So it has to be one of my favorites.

    Skee-Ball. I love skee-ball, and this beautiful skee-ball machine was at the arcade where we had Ryan’s birthday party.

    This is the fifth year I’ve done a Favorite 8. You can see my previous posts from 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 on my other site, Sketchbook B.

    ∞

    Favorite 8

    Picking out my favorite pictures from the last year.

    Back in 2018, Instagram users started posting their algorithmically-generated “Best Nine” — essentially the nine shots from the year that had the most likes. When I looked at mine, the images that everyone else liked weren’t necessarily my favorite pictures from the previous year. I enjoyed the process of digging through all the images from the previous year — many of which I had forgotten about. I curated and built my #Fav8 in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021. If you are interested in learning more about the thought process behind Favorite 8, the 2018 post has the most detail.

    This year, I’m not posting to Twitter, so I’m ditching the #Fav8 hashtag and just going with “Favorite 8.” Although on Micro.Blog, I’m thinking ❤️8️⃣ might be appropriate.

    In the past, several friends have done this too, so this is just a reminder that it’s time to start working on selecting your Favorite 8 shots from 2022. I’ll probably post mine next week.

    ∞

    Time for another AIGA vision quest

    “Re-envisioning AIGA Moving Forward Together”

    Today, AIGA sent an email out to all members announcing the departure of their executive director and the beginning of a new attempt to reimagine AIGA. (If you don’t know, AIGA is the professional organization for design, formerly known as the American Institute of Graphic Arts.)

    I’m been an AIGA member for much of my professional career. I was active at a chapter level for over a decade. Over that time, people repeatedly tried to reimagine the central organization, its chapter system and its funding mechanisms. No one was ever satisfied. They wanted to make it better, and then every designer would want to join and help change the world.

    And yet, the organization got smaller.

    AIGA has meant a lot to me and it definitely helped my career, but structurally, it’s been broken for a long time. It was built in a pre-Internet era. A time when the only way you got to see a legendary designer was to go to a conference or have them come to a local AIGA chapter. When networking was done primarily at the local bar. A time when being aligned with a large national organization gave you needed credibility and clout.

    But now, YouTube means you can see all of your favorite designers deliver inspirational talks from the comfort of your own home. You can network with anyone, anywhere, anytime. The world changed, but the structure remained, and that was before the pandemic hit.

    AIGA isn’t alone. Lots of member-based organizations are trying to figure out how to move forward. These organizations can bring value to their members, but they will need to embrace a different approach, building valuable online communities that may or may not be connected with local chapters.

    In the end, we’ll see how AIGA’s latest re-envisioning works out. I’m optimistic, but time will tell if they are able to make the hard choices.

    ∞

    7 subscriptions I happily pay for

    Worth every penny

    It seems like everything is going to subscription pricing. I subscribe to a whole host of streaming services, bundles, news sites, and software. Many of them don’t always seem worth the money, but as I look at what I subscribe to, I realize that I don’t mind supporting products and creators that I love. So here are a list of services that I really, really like and happily pay for:

    Micro.Blog $5/month

    I backed the Micro.Blog Kickstarter and I’ve had a paid subscription ever since — even when I wasn’t using it every day. I’m happy to support a product with a viewpoint that aligns with my values, and Micro.Blog is that type of service. Now that Twitter is unstable, I’m glad Micro.Blog is my home base.

    Upgrade+ $5/month

    I’ve listened to Myke Hurley and Jason Snell talk about Apple and the larger tech industry on Upgrade since 2014. I listen to a lot of podcasts, but this is the one I listen to every Monday. Paying for the “+” gets me ad-free episodes and an extra segment, but, I’m just happy to support a show I love.

    Six Colors $6/month

    Jason Snell and Dan Moren write Six Colors. I get additional articles and an extra podcast on Friday afternoons, but again, a way to support writers that I like. (Dan also writes a series of science fiction spy novels that I like a lot. Check them out, too.)

    Ulysses $29.99/year

    A distraction-free writing app that lets me write in Markdown. I’ve used Ulysses for a long time and almost everything I write starts here (including this post).

    Fontstruct 5€/month

    I don’t spend a ton of time over on Fontstruct, but I love it dearly. Fontstruct lets you build modular fonts and export them. Tons of fun and a great community. It’s free to use, but the 5 euros helps pay the bills.

    Notion $5/month

    Notion is… a lot of different things in one package. I use it for tracking tasks, managing grad school projects, jotting notes and planning for the future. Well worth the $5 a month.

    Zotero $20/year

    I’m a Ph.D. student. Zotero is a citation manager that lets me track all of the sources I need for my papers. It’s not the prettiest app, but it’s incredibly powerful. Free to use, but by $20/year gets me more cloud storage. In a couple of years, I’ll happily upgrade to the $60/year plan. Worth every penny.

    ∞

    Twitterless, Part III

    Preparing for a future without Twitter.

    I’ve been preparing for the demise of Twitter since long before Elon Musk made the offer to purchase it. In 2016, I wrote a post — Twitterless — about what would happen if Twitter “disappeared tomorrow.” I outlined a couple of key areas that would be problematic for me and possible solutions.

    A year and a half later, I wrote a follow up post — Twitterless, Part II — that noted my progress on replacing the role Twitter plays for me, and the challenges that still existed.

    Times are changing, though, and I honestly believe that we all need to be diversifying — and if possible, owning — our social media presence. Becoming less reliant on the big social media behemoths is the first step.

    I ended that post with a promise to follow up on my progress, but as Facebook became more and more evil, I focused on moving away from Facebook. Replacing Twitter was pushed to the back burner.

    Now that Twitter armageddon may or may not be here, it’s clearly time that I renew my quest to find an alternative. I figured I’d check back in on those questions that I asked back in 2016 and see how I’ve done:

    I’d lose a bunch of contacts. Yep. I’m going to lose a bunch of people who follow me on Twitter. I’ve tried to connect with people on other platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, but I can’t find everyone, and you know what, I’m okay with that.

    I’d change how I watch live events. This is still a problem as I noted yesterday. Live events are fun to follow with other people, and Twitter is great for that. No other service is quite like Twitter for those instant commentary events.

    I’d have to rethink how I find articles and stories. I use Feedbin as an RSS reader, but that’s not my only solution. I subscribe directly to The New York Times and The Washington Post. And — as shocking as it might seem — I also get a lot of value out of Apple News+, which I get with our Apple One bundle. My local paper, The State, is included in with Apple News+ and I catch a random assortment of articles from sources I don’t normally read. It’s a nice way to diversify the news I see every day.

    I’d have to rethink how I share content. When I wrote this, I felt like traffic to my blog was coming primarily from Twitter, but over time, that lessened and most come through search engines. I’ll still create and share, but I’ll just use whatever channels are available at the time.

    I’d change the way I use Facebook/Instagram. I once thought that Facebook and Instagram might provide a solution. I’ve mostly left Facebook, and Meta seems to only care about the Metaverse now anyway. I’m not that interested in Instagram now that it’s trying to be TikTok. I don’t feel any better about Facebook than I do about Twitter.

    I’d try to find a replacement. I backed the Micro.Blog Kickstarter back in 2017 and I’ve had a paid account ever since. I originally connected Micro.Blog to my Squarespace site, which worked well over the years. I believe in the idea of a feed-based, open social media platform, but because I was still using Twitter, I didn’t fully commit to using Micro.Blog.

    I’ve still got Sketchbook B and it’s still hosted on Squarespace, but I made the decision this summer that all of my future blog and short-form posting will be hosted on Micro.Blog, specifically, bobwertz.com. Why? I love the community, and the platform lets me easily post my content and crosspost to other services if I want to. It also lets me follow people who post on Mastodon, and they can follow me at @bobwertz@bobwertz.com. I like writing my blog posts in Ulysses in Markdown and the just post them directly to my site. I feel Micro.Blog gives me the best of all of the potential options and I’m happy with that choice.

    Looking back, I think I’ve prepared pretty well for the potential downfall of Twitter. I’m not leaving completely, but I’ve got one foot out the door and I feel good about the solutions I’ve worked out for me.

    If Twitter ceases to be enjoyable, I’ll leave. To be honest, I’ll miss it. I joined in 2008 and 14 years is a long time to use any service. It’s part of my daily routine. At the end of the day, though, if a service isn’t making my life better, I’m better off without it.

    ∞

    The Curious Case of the Missing Apple Logo

    This post was originally posted on April 22, 2021 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

    Apple has one of the most recognizable logos in the world. Which isn’t surprising because they are the largest company in the world. I’ve been watching a couple of trends over the last few months about how Apple uses their logos and this week, those trends have become even more apparent. For brand managers and designers, I think there is something interesting going on and it’s worth digging into the mystery.

    The logo is “missing.”

    Apple isn’t afraid to use their logos. All of their computers have prominent logos. They include logo stickers in all of their boxes. Apple’s logo is everywhere. But on their new iMac, which was released this week, Apple’s logo is on the back, but not on the front. The last few generations of iMac’s have featured a prominent logo on the back and a second logo on the “chin,” facing the user. The new iMac has no user facing logo.1

    Apple's New iMacs
    The new iMac doesn’t have a logo on the front, but still sports a prominent mark on the back.

    But the iMac isn’t the only recent Apple product with an interesting logo story. I first noticed Apple’s changing logo use with the introduction of the AirPod Max, which has no Apple logos at all on the product. There is plenty of room for a logo on the side of the headphones, but there is none to be found.

    Apple airpods-max color-blue white bkgd.
    A large space for a logo… but there isn’t one.

    I guessed the AirPods Max was the only Apple product without a logo, but I was wrong. For some reason I assumed that my AirPods case had the Apple logo on it, but guess what? It doesn’t. I checked Apple’s website and the AirPods Pro don’t have a logo either. (Although according to Apple’s website and an iFixit teardown, the chip inside the AirPods Pro has a tiny logo printed on it.) My Apple Watch has a tiny Apple logo on the bottom on it, but it’s not visible when it’s being worn. Apple doesn’t include logos on any of their wearable products.2

    Apple Fitness Plus trainers
    A promotional image from Apple of Apple Fitness+ trainers. I count five Nike logos.

    But that’s not all. I’ve been trying out Apple Fitness+ and there are tons of visible logos. Nike logos. All of the instructors seem to be wearing Nike gear. There are no Apple logos. No special Apple Fitness+ shirts. No little Apple “watermark” in the corner of the screen. An Apple logo isn’t hidden somewhere on the set.

    Airpod competitors.
    AirPod competitors, with prominent logos on the case or the earbud itself.

    I checked Apple’s competitors. Amazon, Samsung and Microsoft all include their logo on the charging case for their AirPod competitors. Sony and Google even managed to get their logo on the earbud itself. None of the competing smartwatches that I looked at had logos, although Samsung etched “Galaxy Watch” into the crown for some reason.

    In the fitness space, Peloton employees sport logo apparel while they lead classes. And the instructors on Nike’s fitness apps obviously sport Nike gear.

    So what’s going on? I’m not sure.

    My first reaction is it’s just an issue of taste. Placing logos all over a product is tacky — especially for wearables. And Apple is showing their superior taste by acknowledging that consumers don’t always want to be sporting company logos. Maybe? But lots of premium and luxury brands include logos on their products. And Apple isn’t exactly shy about using their logo.

    It’s not about the logo size. Even the Apple Pencil has a logo. And as I mentioned, the chips inside the AirPods have logos printed on them. (The chips… inside the case… that the consumer never sees…)

    The absence of a logo is even stranger when you realize the original intent of a trademarked logo: to clearly identify the manufacturer. With a company like Apple, whose designs are ripped off more than about any other tech company, their logo is the part of the design that absolutely can’t be legally copied.

    My best guess is that Apple thinks that their product designs are unique enough, that they don’t even need a logo. People will know AirPods are an Apple product when they see them. The Apple Fitness+ workouts feel like Apple even if their logo isn’t present. I don’t think any other company can make a desktop computer that looks like the new iMac. Apple’s presence is understood because of the overall production quality and design. A logo isn’t necessary.

    The logo is “incognito.”

    Typical corporate logo standards are incredibly strict. Apple doesn’t publish their internal brand guidelines, but it’s clear they do allow some more playful uses of their mark. For example, they often use illustrated versions of their logo to promote their media events, like they did for this week’s Spring Forward event. Allowing logo variations in large corporate identity systems isn’t uncommon, but those variations are typically used for structural identifications between organizational divisions or product lines.

    But Apple is using logo variants that align with their values.

    Earth day homepage graphic
    Apple’s environmental logo version, on Earth Day.

    In 2014, Apple started using a logo with a green leaf in their retail stores on Earth Day. This logo seems to be used mostly in Apple retail, but showed up this week on the Apple home page for Earth Day 2021 and their updated environmental statement.

    Apple privacy-day privacy-logo
    Apple’s Privacy logo version is probably the most used of their variations.

    And in this week’s presentation, they showed their privacy Apple variation, which is often animated and turns the leaf at the top of their logo into a lock. It’s used in ads, videos and sites when Apple is talking about their commitment to privacy. What’s smart about this approach is that Apple is using their logo to not just communicate their identity, but also their corporate values.

    (It’s worth noting that there are a couple of other logo variants as well: a gift that is used during the holidays and a version for their Marina Bay Sands retail store in Singapore. And I’m sure there are others as well.)

    What lessons can we take from Apple’s approach to logo management?

    Apple’s visual branding is clearly effective. Repetition and consistency are the foundation of contemporary brand management, but Apple has decided to not use their logo in some places and change it in others. This ongoing shift in logo usage isn’t accidental or ill-considered. A couple of lessons to think about:

    1. Everything doesn’t need a logo. In the 1990s, branding meant putting the logo on everything, but is it really necessary? (It isn’t.) Logos are important, but they aren’t the only way you communicate your identity. Apple’s using their logos smartly, and not over using their marks.

    2. Differentiation happens with the design around the logo. Apple’s products are identified by their look and feel. Yes, the logo is part of that, but Apple’s visual branding extends far beyond just their logo. Their brand is expressed as much through the surrounding elements — type, color, materials — as it is through their logo. Their visual differentiation extends far beyond just their logo and their identity is stronger for it.

    3. Think about how a visual identity can reflect a company’s values. Most of the time, visual identity reflects an organization’s structure, but connecting your visual brand to your corporate values is potentially more powerful. Apple uses logo variations that support their beliefs, not their hierarchy.

    We’ll never hear from their branding team and Apple doesn’t publicly share their logo and branding guidelines. We’ll just have to watch as they rollout ads, events and products. But it’s clear that Apple is diverging from the standard brand playbook here and I think we should pay attention to where they go next.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

    1. Unless you count the logo on the Magic Mouse. ↩︎

    2. With the exception of AirTags. I’m not sure if I count those as “wearables,” though. ↩︎

    ∞

    Podcasts are the new special interest magazines

    Detailed, up-to-date and authoritative

    Waveform on green background

    This post was originally posted on July 4, 2019 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

    I grew up loving magazines. Any time I’d be interested in something, I’d head to the magazine aisle in the bookstore or grocery store and look for magazines on the topic. Computers, cars, boats, science, model railroads, photography, sports, baseball cards, comics, design and more. It didn’t matter what I was interested in, there was at least one magazine on the topic.

    Growing up in the pre-internet days, these magazines provided the info I was looking for. Detailed, up-to-date, authoritative info about whatever geeky habits I was interested in. Even the ads were informative and useful. I subscribed to some of them. Others, I’d buy if the main topics that month interested me.

    The internet destroyed these publications. The first blow came from blogs. Authoritative people writing about the things they loved that people could read for free. The second blow was Google, which could route you to exactly what you were looking for. For various reasons — mostly related to monetization — the blog revolution failed to really take hold. Google’s search engine algorithm seemed to reward people with better SEO tactics over more authoritative sources. When I search Google for resources today, it’s hard to tell if what I’ve found is up-to-date or reputable. More often than not, I’m led to dated post of questionable origin that barely answers my question.1

    I was excited about the introduction of Apple News+. Access to hundreds of magazines for $10 a month. The service is nothing world-changing. I’ve absolutely gotten my money’s worth and will continue to subscribe. Surprisingly, though, I discovered I’d already filled the need for a detailed, up-to-date, authoritative source for my geeky habits: podcasting.

    I use podcasts the same way I used special interest magazines as a kid.

    If I’m interested in a topic, I find a podcast. Computers, design, photography, business, pens, science fiction, pop culture, sports, meditation and more. I subscribe to many of these podcasts in Overcast2, while others I only listen to a few episodes. Even the ads are informative and relevant. Podcasts are how I learn about and explore new topics.

    Some people think of podcasting as an evolution of talk radio. Others feel it’s more an audio form of blogging. I suppose I don’t have an issue with either of those opinions, but for me, podcasts serve a vital role as a replacement for the special interest magazine.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

    1. And let’s face it, these sites are covered with annoying ads that make reading the content difficult. ↩︎

    2. Overcast is my preferred podcast app. It’s significantly better than the default app and if you haven’t tried it, you really should. ↩︎

    ∞

    Captive Social vs. Open Social

    Language matters.

    This post was originally posted on January 13, 2019 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

    I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the language we use to talk about social media and content creation on the web. And as I’m writing about social media — especially microblogging and the indie web movement — I feel like we need a phrase to refer to platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and others that try to lock in users and leverage their private data to sell more ads, compared to the other newer services with revenue models that are less interested in ad sales or lock in.

    I know that we already use “indie” and “indie web” as a way to differentiate between the two approaches, but I’m not sure that meaning is clear to a broader audience.

    I’m going to go with “captive social” and “open social.”

    Captive Social. Social media networks and services that make money through advertising, leveraging their user’s private data. Captive social networks benefit from gathering as much data on their users as possible and using that data to sell more relevant ads to users. To be profitable, that also means that they benefit from having users spend as much time as possible engaged with their platform. Examples of captive social networks: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Linked In, Snapchat.

    I think my time in the insurance industry has partially inspired this terminology. Captive insurance agents are contractually obligated to only sell products from a single vendor. But I think the term is appropriate for the relationships we have with social media platforms. We are locked into each service silo with very little interoperability between competing platforms.

    Open Social. Newer social media networks that are aren’t interested in trapping your data. They benefit from interoperability and the sharing of data between services. Their profitability isn’t based on leveraging personal user data, but on the value you derive from the service.

    The inspiration for the terminology isn’t open source, it’s open web standards. I was a Mac user during the years of Internet Explorer dominance — when you sometimes couldn’t access a web site if you didn’t have the right browser. The open web standards push in the early 2000’s freed us from that nightmare and led to expanded browser choice. I hope that open social can have a similar effect on social media that open web standards had on the web.

    Open social does have a distinct meaning from indie web. Indie web aims to separate itself from the corporate web, but open social is not necessarily limited to only small companies and decentralized platforms. A large corporation could build an open social platform, as long as they weren’t profiting from trapping your data and locking you into their service.1 The difference isn’t the size of the provider, but instead, their goals, objectives and business models.

    So here are a couple of examples of captive social and open social in context:

    • I don’t know why you spend so much time on those captive social sites.

    • I’m going to focus on open social platforms like Micro.Blog and limit the time I spend on captive social sites like Facebook and Twitter.

    • Hopefully, open social platforms will have the same impact on the web that the open web standards movement did.

    It’s a subtle change — a language shift that I think will help when we are having discussions with people who are concerned about privacy and the power of social media, but who aren’t comfortable hosting their sites or maintaining a server.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

    1. I recognize that the concept of an open social network from a large corporation might seem absurd in today’s environment, but you never know. ↩︎

    ∞

    Design + Math

    Designers don’t want to admit it, but math is important to the profession.

    mathmatical symbols on a green background

    This post was originally posted on September 29, 2015 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

    My first class in graduate school was a quantitive research class and I really enjoyed the statistics side of things. As I’ve told my designer friends this, they typically respond with something along the lines of “Ugh. I became a designer so I wouldn’t have to do math.” I’m not surprised. I’ve heard the same from designers and students over the years, but I’m increasingly irritated by it for a few reasons:

    Designers use math every day. I’m not sure where the myth that designers don’t need to understand math comes from, but it’s not true. I use math pretty much every day in my work. Especially geometry and algebra. Understanding foundational mathematical concepts makes you a better designer.

    It steers talent away from the field. Let’s say you’ve got a talented high school kid, who also happens to be good at — or maybe even like — math. Tell them enough times that math isn’t important for designers and they’ll find a different career path. As an honors student, I was told repeatedly through school by well-meaning adults that I didn’t want to take art classes because they weren’t rigorous enough. As a result, I initially looked at options like architecture and engineering. It took me a while to circle around to design.

    It undermines the profession. The reality is that designers struggle to be taken seriously by big business. We’ve fought to get a “seat at the table” and prove our value beyond just crafting the look and feel of something. As much as we don’t like it, the “language” of business is often based in math. Ignoring the importance of math simply makes it harder to communicate with business decision makers.

    I think the challenge is separating our feelings about “math class” from our feelings about “math.” I didn’t enjoy most of my high school math classes. My algebra and geometry teachers weren’t my favorites. Because I scored a high enough score on my AP Calculus test, I was able to exempt all of my college math requirements, so I haven’t taken a math class in almost 25 years. What I’ve come to realize is that while I disliked the way I was taught math, math itself is pretty amazing. And useful.

    Don’t misunderstand me… I’m not expecting designers to line up and take refresher math classes. AIGA chapters aren’t going to start holding day-long math workshops. All I’m saying is that embracing the idea that math is an integral part of design only helps the profession as a whole.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

    ∞

    The parable of the third soap dispenser

    It never runs out of soap…

    Pink bubbles.

    This post was originally posted on August 9, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

    The bathroom at my office has four sinks and three soap dispensers. Each soap dispenser has a clear plastic front so the cleaning crew can see how much liquid pink soap is left and refill it if necessary.

    Sometimes, the first two soap dispensers are low on soap, but the last one, furthest from the door never seems to be low on soap.

    You could draw conclusions from this single data point that no one uses the dispenser. And you would be right.

    But why? Maybe people prefer the sinks closer to the door? Maybe it’s not in the most convenient location? Maybe there are too many soap dispensers?

    The soap dispenser is broken. It hasn’t worked in at least 8 months.

    But I imagine the cleaning crew has no idea. They are only looking at that one indicator: Is there soap in the dispenser?

    Just a reminder that often, our data tells us what’s happening, but not necessarily why.

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

    ∞

    I made a red velvet cake. And learned an important lesson about fear.

    This post was originally posted on January 7, 2018 on Sketchbook B. It’s reposted here as part of a project to move some of my favorite writing to my new site.

    I made a red velvet cake last week.

    From scratch. It was a recipe that my mom made when I was growing up, but it was originally my Grandmother Wertz’s recipe. My grandmother died when I was very young, so to me, red velvet always makes me think of my mom.

    My mom passed away almost 17 years ago. She taught me to cook many things, but this red velvet cake was not one of them. All I knew was that it was difficult, and that she messed up the icing the first time she tried to make it. I can make pretty much anything that she made, but I had never tried to make the red velvet cake. I’ll be honest – I was scared. Scared to fail. Afraid that if I messed it up, I wouldn’t have someone to call for advice. I was on my own. So I never attempted it.

    A few weeks ago, I started thinking about making her red velvet cake. I don’t know what triggered my urge to bake the unbakeable, but I couldn’t get the idea out of my head. I got the recipe from my sister and decided to bake the cake Christmas Eve. (Because obviously, we had nothing else to do that night…) I ran to the grocery store and got the ingredients. I found our fanciest cake stand. And I pulled out the Kitchen Aid mixer that my parents gave us as a wedding gift.

    The recipe wasn’t that hard, but like most older recipes, it was procedural. Lots of steps and precise measurements. The cake batter came together okay, but the icing was another story. This recipe doesn’t use a cream cheese icing like a lot of modern red velvet cakes do. It’s more like a butter cream. I ruined the first batch of icing and had to make a second batch. About 1:00 Christmas morning, I finished icing the cake. It looked exactly like I remembered.

    Christmas evening, after dinner, we cut into the red velvet cake – giant pie-sized wedges like my mom used to cut. It tasted like I remembered. Not too sweet, perfect texture. Even the kids loved it. I will freely admit that I teared up a little upon realizing that I had successfully pulled it off.

    As I think about the year ahead, I realize that many of the things I’ve been scared of… many of the things I’ve put off attempting… the fear is all in my head. In 2018, I’m going to put those fears aside, branch out and try new things.

    (And now that I can make the red velvet cake, I’m definitely going to bake it again.)

    Bob Wertz is a creative director, type designer, Ph.D. student and researcher living in Columbia, South Carolina. He’s been blogging since 2008.

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