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I confess: I’m a proud owner of an iPhone 4s. Some of you might think now, that I’m old-fashioned or don’t move with the times, especially as the iPhone 4s is not even being sold any more (too "retro" maybe). You should always get the latest iPhone (which currently is the iPhone 6 or 6 plus) – at least when listening to all those Apple followers out there. Yes, Apple has become some kind of religion and also I am a loyal Apple customer as I’m very satisfied with every product I have ever bought from Apple. I’d like to see any other manufacturer do that. But the vast speed which new iPhones are launched at, sometimes wrinkles my brow. The "bad thing" is that you spend a lot of money for iProducts and two years later you have to pay big bucks again in order to get new iProducts that can match new iOS system requirements. At the end of the day, it is an ongoing spiral upwards, consisting of system requirements, new (useful?) features on new devices and their compatibility with iOS. Let me give you an example: The latest operating system iOS8 takes up 7 GB of your iPad. Seven gigabyte! The cheapest iPad (which is what most people might have) has a capacity of only 16 GB, what leaves 9 GB for data. Not very much. Hence: In the middle and long run, an update to iOS8 leads to buying a new iPad with higher capacity at a higher cost. (Apple, you are clever at making money!) But iOS8 had many inconvenient bugs in the beginning. Many people were complaining about what a bad operating system iOS8 is and how much it impairs other functions of a device. I was laughing in my sleeve when my partner got iOS8 on his phone and he could hardly use it any more - even simple telephone calls often failed! (By now, there are of course iOS8 updates that clear out most of those early, bad bugs.) What really aroused my interest in the iPhone 6 Plus though, is the display resolution of 401 ppi (approx. 300 dpi). For comparison: The "ordinary" iPhone 6 as well as the older models still being sold, have a resolution of 326 ppi (approx. 200 dpi). As a designer, I regularly work with data for print and digital purposes. Pictures for print need a resolution of 300 dpi, pictures for digital (Retina display) need a resolution of 200 dpi and pictures for all other digital media (without Retina display) need a resolution of only 72 dpi. You can imagine that picture files for 300 dpi are much bigger than files for 72 dpi. To put it plainly, when looking at a website on the iPhone 6 Plus, the pictures won’t appear crisp because nobody would use 300 dpi pictures on a website as this can drastically increase the website’s loading time. And since the latest Google report came out, we know that the loading speed is a very important figure as regards a website’s ranking on Google (SEO). If you want to optimize your digital products for the iPhone 6 Plus, you have to be prepared for Google punishing you by impairing your website’s ranking. Great. How does that affect iPhone apps? iPhone apps will end up having longer loading times. An iPhone app with let’s say 30 pictures at 72 dpi is easy to handle; but at 300 dpi, those 30 pictures might be a challenge for unpatient iPhone users. Solution for the designer: Use less photos and more vector graphics (vector graphics don’t have pixels)? Worth a thought. Realistic? Yes and no. I can imagine Apple taking the display resolution of 401 ppi onto iPads in future. As a designer I am horror-stricken by this thought. We will see how Apple proceeds with this philosophy. Apple’s touch ID technology. Well, the NSA will be cheered. #apple #iphone #iphone6 #iphone6plus

"Pictures say more than a thousand words." - or: "Advertisements that stay in our memory." #advertisement

You might not want to believe it, but there are still publications out there that have copy with horrible full justification. See this example: Weird letter spacing and big gaps between some words have a very negative influence on the reading flow. A short piece of text is still readable but a long piece of text will probably not be read. There are different kinds of justification: - symmetric justification (full justification) - asymmetric justification (left- or right aligned) - centred - text in shape (i.e. text in a circle) If you work with full justification, it is best to use hyphenation. Fully justified text without hyphenation kills the reading flow. In addition, you should always manually check the hyphenation at the end of every line (you will be surprised how some software programs hyphenate words!). Generally, centred copy should only be used for very special text parts, such as quotes standing out of the main text. Also, for invitation cards, centred copy looks very good. You can find out more about typography by clicking here . #typography #fonts #justification

I designed the latest issue ONE:16 of the interactive and multimedia app magazine "connecting comPETence" . You can download the app on your iPad or your Android tablet from the Google Play Store . #ipad #app #tablet #andoird #apple

Off to good old Bavaria! This year’s Oktoberfest takes place in Munich (Germany) from 20 September to 5 October. The website of the world’s biggest beer festival brings goose pimples to every designer. It more looks like a tourist booking website rather than a website for a great, international festival. They should definitely have a think about that. However, a nice design can be seen on this year’s official poster for 181st "Wiesn". The posters that won #2 and #3 in the contest are a bit disappointing from a designer’s perspective as they don’t really transport the spirit of the Oktoberfest. The winner poster does so though. http://www.oktoberfest.de The next blog post is the final part of my festival design series and it features the UK! #festival #posterdesign #oktoberfest

We all know about the trend of big size pictures – you see them in advertisements (online + offline), on websites or in editorial designs. This trend clearly focuses on transporting emotions because a good message alone („buy 3, pay 2“) does not really convince people to buy a product anymore. Emotions sell. This trend has not even reached its peak yet, I believe. Meanwhile, another new trend is getting bigger: The power of simplicity. You see that more and more often in editorial designs for example: A lot of blank space that gives the copy space to „breathe“. As an advertisement that does not look like an advertisement is more promising to companies, print advertisements become simpler too. (Facebook shows how to do it: Promoted posts in between your friends’ posts in your personal newsfeed don’t look like an advertisement at first sight.) A lot of blank space, a short text and a significant product picture or an outstanding graphic – this is all it takes for an advertisement that stands for simplicity at its best. Furthermore, a lot of blank space makes people curious. „What exactly is that? Hm, let’s see, I’ll download this app now.“ This is how simple advertisement works, nice and easy. #advertisement

This year’s IAA Commercial Vehicles in Hanover showed many exciting new vehicles and technologies. Many visitors and journalists from all over the world came to see what’s new in the business. Here are photos of my personal highlights: (Copyright photos: Helene Clara Gamper / HCG corporate designs) In the course of the IAA Commercial Vehicles, I designed issue no. 8/2014 of Austria’s largest commercial vehicle magazine "Blickpunkt LKW+BUS". See it here as print PDF, here as iPhone app or here as iPad app featuring many interactive functionalities. In addition to that, my film partner Ashley Wiggins produced an exclusive short film: Also want an editorial design for print or an app magazine? Or you want a professional video? Simply send me an email , I’m looking forward to hearing from you! #bus #truck #commercialvehicle #iaa

National Geographic is one of the top magazines worldwide. The issue "50 of the world’s last great places – destinations of a lifetime" features some fantastic editorial design elements that I would like to show you here. Double pages opening categories live from the pictures of course. The category names ("temperate", "arid" etc.) are placed into the picture in a matching colour with light transparency. The category intros I find very interesting too. The first word (or only a part of it!) catches the reader’s attention, the lead copy follows in a black, bold font with only a small line spacing. Transparency is also used for info boxes which makes them look elegant and does not affect the background picture’s dominance. The design team used only sans serif fonts in this magazine. That might have the following reasons: - The focus clearly lies on the pictures which is why the font has to be as simple and clear as possible. Serifs would give the text too much importance. - There is not too much text which is why the human eye does not need any help or support for the reading flow (what is normally achieved by serifs). The line spacing is quite big (apart from the intros), so the readability is improved in this aspect. - It is an American magazine. In the Anglo-American area, serifs are not as widely used as in continental Europe. This magazine truly is a masterpiece of photography and editorial design. You can order it here . #editorialdesign #photography

The Lewa Marathon 2011 in Kenya gained photographer Marietta D'Erlanger international recognition. She took this photo and won the Judges' Choice Prize in the course of the Association of Photographers Open Awards 2012. http://www.mariettaderlanger.com/ #kenya #photography

There are many different ways of how to make a normal photo look like a high class photo from a catalogue. Here, I want to show you one of those techniques using a truck example picture: 1st step: Repairing the left headlight select and copy the right headlight paste it in a new layer and mirror it horizontally place the mirrored headlight correctly tip 1: reduce the opacity to place it more easily tip 2: orientate yourself towards the street level when placing it Put a mask on the new headlight (layer) and erase unwanted marks around the headlight. 2nd step: Adding a glow effect Reduce all layers down to one layer for making your work easier. Then make the truck glow: copy and paste the layer 2 x lower layer: Gaussian blur – approx. 80-90% middle layer: select „overlay“ top layer: select „soft light“ You can reduce the opacity of the middle and top layers if wanted. 3rd step: Adding a lens flare effect To give the photo a final touch, you can add a lens flare effect where the two mountains in the background go together. insert a new layer from the menu – overlay – fill with neutral colour for mode „overlay“ then insert the lens flare effect (rendering filter – lens flare) – 105mm between 50% and 70% #photoretouching

We all know it: the symbol that marks the end of an article in a magazine. Mostly, this symbol is a rectangle or a circle. But depending on the layout of the magazine, there are also other symbols that can look really good. In this blog post I want to show you some great examples from my own work and work of other graphic designers. Architektur-Magazin (free project). Editorial design: HCG corporate designs Aussenwirtschaft Magazin. Editorial Design: buero8 Blickpunkt LKW+BUS. Editorial Design: HCG corporate designs Downdays. Editorial Design: Floyd E. Schulze FLGNTLT. Editorial Design: HCG corporate designs Modulor. Editorial Design: Moritz Ulrich Novum. Editorial Design: Oliver Klyne Vice. Editorial Design: inkubator.ca Wohnrevue. Editorial Design: Lianel Spengler #editorialdesign #magazine

When Jess Bachman, Creative Director of Visual.ly contacted me to say how impressed he is by my work, I of course felt very honoured. Visual.ly offers infographic services to some of the world’s biggest brands on an extraordinarily high quality level. So the question of working together with him and Visual.ly, I could only answer with "Yes!". I’m looking forward to many great infographic projects. Speaking of infographics, I want to give you some interesting tips: - A study proved that data shown in round shapes is remembered most. - Bar charts are probably the oldest data visualisation method ever. However, you should use bar charts only when you have to. An infoGRAPHIC should look like a graphic and not like a boring chart, no? - According to a study, data in an infographic having more than six colours is much easier to remember. However, this raises a bit of concern as regards the design and overall look as a higgledy-piggledy infographic can easily look unprofessional and cheap. - Speaking of colours, you should always thoroughly think about how to use colours in an infographic. The colour is the very first thing somebody sees of an infographic. So implement some sort of colour system. It can also make sense to create the infographic in black and white in the beginning and implement the colour scheme in the end. - Lately, I have stumbled upon a few infographics using photographs. Placing an illustration into a photo can be a nice thing when executed smartly. But placing a photo into an infographic? Sorry, that is just scary. The human eye always looks out for things we know that come closest to reality so you automatically focus on the photo. The infographic around the photo becomes less important. Mixing infographics with photos is very delicate! Do you want a great and unique infographic for your business? Simply send me an email ! #infographic