After several months of effort and a lot of continent shuffling, we are pleased to announce the launch of the Web2.0Summit Points of Control Map!

This is really a first iteration of the map, with additional functionality to be added in upcoming releases. We hope you enjoy!

Here are a few behind-the-scenes notes:

The team at Blend included and Joe, Nate on the development side. Karla and I did the design and illustration. We worked primarily with John Battelle and Janetti Chon from the web2.0 team. Their vision and broad knowledge of the current state of the web is what really enabled this map to become what it is.

Deciding on the relative size and placement of the companies was a challenge. There are a lot of diverse players. So much so that an apples-to-apples comparison of any one data point seemed to miss the full picture. Instead we took a hybrid approach, considering things like revenue, number of active users, and relative influence. In the end it is all an estimate, but hopefully a reasonably defensible one.

Visually there were a number of influences. We were inspired by old explorers maps, with their vague details and exotic inset illustrations. To help underscore the game-like fun that we were going for, we looked to strategy board games like Risk or Age of Empires. The chiclet icons were obvious game pieces that nod to the web-centric nature of the map. In the end we blended a whimsical hand-drawn style with interactive elements in a way that encourages exploring the state of the web for fun.

Obviously, we are not the first ones to try and visualize the web in some way. Here are a few other interesting takes on things:

Web Trend Map – Both a cool interactive map of the latest trends and a subway map style poster.

2007 Online Communities – How things have changed!

2010 Social Networking Map – A recent “tribute” map in a similar style to the 2007 version above.

To state the obvious, people communicate in different ways. A writer is good at communicating with the written word. A programmer is good at communicating with computers. A graphic designer communicates with people through visuals.

On top of this, people try to communicate different things based on what they value. For example, salesman love to talk, but often they don’t deal with information well. As long as everyone is smiling at the end, all is good. They communicate with emotion. I have a theory some people don’t even know words carry meanings. Instead, they are simply noises that carry reactions. Make noises that sound like “over budget” and you get a bad reaction. Make the “no problem” noise and clients are happy… at least temporarily.

This brings us to another obvious point. If someone is really good at one type of communication, they may be lacking in another. Designers generally don’t make good programers, and visa versa. Writers may not be good speakers. It just isn’t their native tongue.

Now consider the web. What does it take for a web site to communicate effectively? Obviously, the site must be written in such a way that a browser can understand and present the site as intended. Next the content must be clearly organized and presented in a way that is easy for the end user to digest. Finally, there needs to be emotional engagement with the user. The idea is to elicit a response that is in harmony with the information being presented.

A site needs to communicate data between computers, communicate information to people, and generate an emotional reaction from those people. That is a lot to ask of some HTML and CSS. It takes a human touch. And as noted above, it probably takes a team of people with different sets of communication skills to pull it off at the highest level.

How to get all those disparate team members on the same page, however, is another trick all together.

I was wandering through the park near my house the other day, and stumbled upon an old baseball someone had left in the tall grass. Rather than wait to see if a baseball tree would sprout next spring, I decided to take it home and do this sketch. I was having fun reproducing the distressed texture of the leather, when I realized my fancy drawing was basically just a circle centered on the page. Fancy, huh? All the compositional complexity of the Japanese flag. Oh, well. I like it anyway.

I also found some time to experiment in photoshop. I thought this colored version had an interesting look… kind of like white paint on a textured board. Which version do you like better?

The  DrawnTown crew invaded the Block Party on Eastbank on Friday. Many unsuspecting people were subsequently “arted”. Jami Lynn and Josh Rieck were providing some excellent live music, so I took aim and knocked out this quick sketch of their performance from 100 yards. From that distance, I was going for more of a rough impression rather than a refined portrait. It definitely landed in the rough category, but it was a good time non-the-less!

I have been drawing a lot of maps lately, and have been reminded of the joys of isometric perspective. I suppose dizziness is the appropriate response for concepts like one, two, or three point perspective, but for some reason, I have always found it fascinating.

For the uninitiated, drawing objects in perspective means using a system to mimic the way things appear to diminish in size as they get farther away. One, two, and three point perspectives use different numbers of vanishing points to help determine an object’s relative size based on perceived distance from the viewer. All this is a visual trick to represent three dimensions on a two dimensional sheet of paper or computer screen. Piccaso is quoted saying, “Art is lies that tell the truth.” Perspective is one of those lies.

Isometric perspective is different only in that it trades one lie for another. There are no vanishing points. Objects don’t diminish in size as they get further away in the scene, instead everything is locked on a parallel grid. This doesn’t match reality as we experience it, but it can prove useful in architectural renderings, or other applications where dimensions are critical. It turns out this false perspective is also useful in video games, and turns up everywhere on the web. Everything from casual games like Farmville, to the soon-to-be-released Starcraft II are built on these rules of projection.

It is easy to see the underlying grid in these screen caps:

One of the reasons isometric perspective proves so valuable in games is that graphic elements don’t have to change size to move around in their virtual world. This makes development far simpler, and with proper overlapping of layers, you can still maintain the illusion of three dimensional space.

That reminds me… A few years back a good friend of mine and I were working on a remake of the classic snake game. You know, the one where the snake grows longer as it eats more pixels, and you have to try and stay off the walls. I wonder how playable that ended up… I’ll have to see if I can dig up the code… Here is a screen shot:

Anyway, there is today’s lesson on the basics of drawing in perspective. Class dismissed.

…and some say I’ve lost perspective… sorry could resist.

I have never been much good at figure drawing, and this is further evidence. However, for the one year anniversary of Drawn Town, I decided to dive right in and sketch the guest of honor. The lighting was intense, and the shadows were moving fast during the event, so I’ll use that as my excuse for the lack of subtlety. Yeah, the sun was in my eyes, that was it.

For full disclosure, this was done with a plain old “2B” pencil, and then I gave it a slight sepia bump in Photoshop. Here is a link to see what other people came up with.

In my experience, you don’t really appreciate how good someone is until you try to do something similar yourself.

Take this comic for instance. I did the actual sketch on paper weeks ago, with the style of Kazu Kibuishi’s, Copper floating around in my head. How hard can it be, right? Coloring everything in on the computer, however, ended up taking a ridiculously long time. I’m not exactly sure why it took so long, but it wasn’t till the end that I began to get any kind of rhythm going. (I totally need a Wacom Tablet!) I’m not even sure I like the final product that much. It was, however, a fun experiment, and a great excuse to draw a cityscape!

Hot tip: Click on the comic to get a larger view that is easier to read.

I can explain. It all started with a swirly texture that I sketched out a few days ago. I had no choice but to scan it in and start playing with it in PhotoShop. Once I came up with a few interesting variations, I thought, “That would make one sweet background for a comic!” Of course I couldn’t stop there, having come so far, so I worked up this scene of Zeke exploring something. How it turned into a book cover is anybody’s guess.

Will there be an actual Detours book rolling off the presses?
I’m not currently at liberty to say… Although I can say this much; it definitely isn’t going to be printed before I actually draw the comic. Pretty sure on that part.

All I’ve got for you so far, are the fragments of my experimental comic.

I’m not so sure. I suspect it is a cultural thing, a state of mind that CAN be influenced far more than one might think. Stress is just a kind of lowest common denominator. Here are a few thoughts on how a business might begin to reign in a culture of panic and mediocrity.

What is normal?

Self-awareness
How much can I actually get done in a day, week, or month? No really. Line up actual progress with past estimates. How accurate are you? Don’t schedule more than you can do. You can’t do more than you can do.

Expect the Unexpected
Extenuating circumstances come around all the time. How much time, on average, do you need to spend on emergency situations? Go look through past projects to see. Set aside that much time in your schedule. That goes for your overall scheduling as well as for each project.

“They” Will Panic
You know how certain clients tend to run things on their end. You can’t control their madness. However, you can plan for it. Have a system in place for prioritizing and handling quick turn-around items. This will help their panic not become your panic.

Individual Buy-in
Culture comes down to the individual. If the leadership in a company maintains an intelligent and balanced culture, it will be easier for the team to adopt a similar stance. As an individual, if your manager is unable to manage themselves, you can still respond effectively. The larger success of a project may be out of your control, but you can do your piece as well as possible. Admittedly, that is harder to get excited about.

Where are we now?

Do What You Say
Set realistic and specific milestones. Make sure everyone involved knows them. Do what it takes to meet those milestones.

Communicate Failure
Things don’t go as planned. When something goes sideways, let everyone involved know as soon as possible. Reset and re-communicate those milestones.

Be Intentionally Responsive
People learn how to get things done. If you only respond to screaming threats, that’s what you’ll get. Give people the option you want to receive, and reward that type of interaction.

Where are we going?

Go Beyond Functional
Fixing problems only gets you up to zero in the client’s eyes. It is expected to work. Plan time for refining the user experience, actually test effectiveness of key elements, help refine content, suggest improvements, etc. A quiet client isn’t necessarily a happy client.

Prioritize Strategically
Make sure the most important projects get the time they need. This isn’t the noisiest ones. Communicate priorities with the whole team.

Walk Away
Have a system in place for deciding if a client is worth the effort. If not, respectfully hand them off and walk away.

What is the Company’s Larger Goal?
Are you striving for bigger projects? Higher profile work? Cooler clients? Higher quality work? Innovative products? Make more and more money? Just trying to pay the bills? What motivates each employee? If everyone knows the goal, then everyone can move in the same direction.

Some of this seems extremely obvious. None of it seems very easy to pull off when the rubber meets the road. I think there is a big difference between knowing you need to schedule or communicate well, and actually making a concerted effort to make it happen. And that effort might make all the difference in the end.

MASTER CARPENTER

Here are a few character sketches. The rough idea here was to weave some back-story into the “portraits”. I thought it would be cool if I could imply some history, or personality behind the characters being represented. Other than that, this is just good clean fun with a sketchbook.

HANG GLIDER SQUADRON LEADER

ORACLE OF AVEN