NLNG Scholarship Awards 2016 for PG students is here again and I’ll show you what you need to know and how to apply here.
Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) invites applications from qualified candidates for the NLNG Postgraduate Scholarship Scheme for entry into Masters Programmes in the United Kingdom in September 2016.
How to Make Money in School Have you ever wanted to make a lot of money in one day but don't have the time? Are you a teenager or a child in school with no cash? You can be a young entrepreneur in your school. Just follow these steps.. Steps Market things that your schoolmates might want such as candy, snacks, pencils, etc. . Make a plan on how you will split your profit, and go to your school principal for permission. Offer to donate ten percent of your monthly earnings to the school. This way you can't get in trouble, and you're still making money. Buy popular stuff that other students at your school like. Some things that children might like include chewing gum, candy, drinks and all different kinds of things. Start stocking your commodities. Store them in your backpack, pockets, or locker. Let's say gum is what everybody in your school wants but they aren't able to buy it. All you need to do is go to the store and buy a pack of gum. Set your prices higher than what you paid at the store, if you can. You might not be able to, but you are selling convenience as well as your items. Charging a little bit of profit is acceptable. If it's higher, then people will just go to the store, rather than buying from you. Say it costs 75 cents. You will have to raise the price by 10-20 cents to achieve profit, or for an example if your school has vending machines buy people soda and have them pay you back plus give the returnable can back so you make a 10 cent profit and make them pay an additional ten cents for labor since you are taking garbage off their hands. Sell it fast. You should sell these to the rest and use the money obtained to repeat the previous step. If you have enough money, take higher risks, go to a wholesale store that sell things cheaper than normal stores and buy a whole box of gum instead, there may be 25 to 30 packs of gum in one box. Protect your earnings. Since you are well known as a young entrepreneur in your school now, you may be a target of those thieves, bullies, and other students in your school. You may want to hire a trustworthy "bodyguard" near you so that he/she will take care of your money while you will serve the customers. Be innovative. Now that you know the whole process, be innovative in what you sell. Make the strangest item that people would ever buy. Maybe marshmallows dipped in chocolate? A pen gun? Think of something creative. Nowadays, these are the kinds of ideas the market wants. Get some help. Find some kids that will work for free. Use them to sell the stuff. But you be the treasurer. Even though they may be good workers, you might not be able to trust them with your money. Have rare commodities in stock. People will want to buy from you and you only if you have items no one else has. For instance, If you were selling baseball cards, sell the good ones that people want. Also, never sell fakes. Or if you're selling candy/gum, sell some candy from a specialty shop, or some imported candy from Japan or something. Be business like. Never be pleased. Remember, you are making money . If someone pays you a lot of money, take it. Just make sure you are not ripping the person off really badly. Keep records. Make sure you are keeping track of your earnings in a notebook. Spend all your money appropriately. Make sure that you have fun making a little cash but not to brag about this, or else you will see a big decrease of buyers! Be Sure that your school allows things to be sold. If not, Do not take the risk!
We catch up with Form co-founder Paula Benson, SomeOne co-founder Simon Manchipp, and Taxi Studio co-founder Spencer Buck, to find out their thoughts and tips on how to avoid the internet’s wrath following your logo design.
We all love the internet – with its endless stash of information,
instant reach around the globe and plentiful supply of cats – but I
think we can all equally say that we absolutely detest the internet.
If you’re a logo designer, sometimes it can feel hard to make it out
of the web alive. From The Met to Gap, Uber to Airbnb, no one seems free
from the internet’s judgement when it comes to logo design.
Excitingly, this new age – where brands can’t hide from the consumer –
demands more accountability for logo designers. But the most common or
loudest opinion is not necessarily a good filter for design quality.
And unfortunately, the internet’s brand of thinking is usually
knee-jerk and impressionable. So, what the hell can you do as a logo
designer to survive this unforgiving digital era?
Preparing clients for the plunge
Simon warns that you should point out the curse of logo design to
clients: even the safest, best designs can be badly received. “We’re
super honest with them and tell them to prepare for complaint — but also
to lower the levels of hate by bedding the new work in actions that
benefit the audience.”
When Uber launched its new identity (below),
social media would just not shut up about it. Their mistake was that
there was “nothing in it for the audience,” says Simon. “It was imposed
upon them…So no wonder the masses weighed in. It was entirely
justified.”
Was that the result of a client-design studio communication problem?
Clients, of course, really, really care about their business - but
probably know nothing about design and might cheerlead a bad idea. It is
your job to teach them during the design process. And remember that if
someone’s hiring you just to draw one of their own rigid ideas, they’re
hiring someone who is too qualified anyway.
Image: new Uber app icon.
Spencer doesn’t feel much need to discuss social media with his
clients, believing that, if you’ve done your job right, there is no need
as they “create a bullet-proof brief, together” – and so both client
and designer are both responsible.
“As an agency we pride ourselves on delivering fearless creativity,
so a little feedback is always welcome, good or bad. The worst that can
happen is total apathy.”
Paula agrees: “A final logo is more often than not, not solely the
designer’s decision. It involves teamwork between client and design
agency, and sometimes it might involve compromise. Therefore a negative
reaction to a logo or identity launch does not lie purely at the
designers’ feet (and vice versa).”
In her studio’s 25 years of work, they’ve never received any major negative reactions.
“We take time to really understand our clients and their audience,
delving into the crux of the brand,” says Paula. “We often send out a
well-considered press release explaining our thinking behind the logo or
brand identity, being careful to explain the brief too.”
We at Digital Arts can confirm a well-written, informative
press release can transform what could otherwise be a short,
disinterested article (or no article at all). Note: that doesn’t mean
writing a press release bursting with bullshit.
“You simply can’t please all the people all of the time,” continues
Paula. “But some clients and designers receive negative criticism to an
identity launch where they have jumped into a project without really
taking time to address who they are and how they want to be
represented.”
Launching a logo well
“What often bugs me is that so much attention is still given in this
day and age to a stand-alone logo,” says Paula. “A logo is often part of
an overall identity or visual language that only makes sense when you
see the bigger picture.”
When New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art greeted 2016 with a bright red stack of striking capital letters spelling THE MET (below) –
you know, what everyone calls it - the fresh new logo garnered a rotten
response, with New York Magazine’s architecture critic John Davidson
accusing it of looking “like a red double-decker bus that has stopped short, shoving the passengers into each other’s backs.” Image: new The Met logo.
Paula is exasperated: the logo was initially released without the
accompanying graphic identity - a logo to a design identity is as
telling as a thumbnail is to a video clip.
“When they later went on to explain the wider story, critics saw that
as back-tracking or post-rationalizing, and that created a small storm
within the design community.
“Maybe it didn’t help that the designers Wolf Ollins
announced that the logo was the result of two and a half years work.
We’d be extremely lucky to get as long as two and a half months on most
of the logos and identities we have created!”
Of course, two and a half years weren’t spent solely sweating over
just the logo. This is The Met, after all – and there was a hell of a
lot to think about, including overhauling the museum’s entire, precious
and widely influential identity, with the aim of more consistent visuals
more suited to the digital world. Image: The Met identities over the years.
Spencer takes the importance of communication one step further: “to
launch a new logo well, you first need to 'sell it in' to the people
that will be dealing with it day-to-day. Ultimately, a logo is symbolic
of a company’s culture, its products and its people and they’re both
inward and outward facing.”
For Simon – who is not shy about his scepticism towards relying on logos alone - the safest way to launch a logo is to never launch it all. SomeOne recently gave a student property brand Hello Student a brand refresh – which you can find out more about in our piece on the change
- that “has no symbol or logo, but simply a very impactful set of
images and the words ‘Hello Student’. It’s launched effectively and
everyone’s delighted,” says Simon.
If you do decide to launch, “prepare for the hate. Everyone hates new
logos and always have done. And with so much hate, you have to ask
yourself whether you actually want to launch one. Do you need to?”
Simon “sincerely” doubts you do, unless a previously hated brand has
totally transformed its thinking– “then a new way of talking to the
customer is probably a very good idea."
So, Simon believes a logo launch must be justified. It must take the
business and design language with it to a better, prettier, more
efficient world. Otherwise it’s just a skin-deep logo, a cherry without
the cake.
What to do if the launch goes pear-shaped anyway
First off, you should actually expect some animosity. Logo design is,
after all, subjective. No films are universally liked - apart from,
perhaps, Toy Story – and logos are no different
“Whatever you do, people will often jump to conclusions and comments
are sometimes made on face value, without understanding the brief or the
long-term vision,” says Paula. “Some of it justified, some of it plain
ignorant, and some makes me rant.”
At least ignorance can usually be exposed. Paula notes, that the Uber
website “didn’t even feature the main logo symbol everyone was talking
about” - what’s more, as Digital Arts pointed out, the Uber symbol everyone was getting so outraged about wasn’t even a logo.
When Form redesigned Abbey Road Studios,
“there were a few mild pops, mainly because there is so much love for
the brand - people like to think it belongs to them and they know best,
but we’re tough and the overall response was great,” says Paula.
Mutters of dissent are one thing, but impossible-to-drown-out
worldwide internet and media outrage is another. You can either try to
ride the tidal wave of indignation until it’s (hopefully) over or abort
before too much damage is done. Time does sometimes heals wounds -
including controversial-logo-shaped ones.
Cue DesignStudio’s logo design
for Airbnb (header image), which appeared to miss the mark in 2014.
Rather than evoking the sense of belonging intended, it faced a social media backlash and prompted The Guardian to wonder if the design is of “balls, a vagina, or both?” - genitalia-related accusations now being on the verge of traditional when it comes to logo design. The outcry has now settled.
The London 2012 Olympics logo was - like seemingly everything else - also compared to sex (this time involving cartoon characters). Nine years and one successful Olympics later, we’re instead asking “was it really so bad after all?” No, probably not. Waiting worked.
“The recent noise surrounding The Met logo by Wolff Olins is a great
example of a relaunch that was undoubtedly well handled,” says Spencer,
“but still came under fire from the creative community after it was
deemed, in essence, a load of old bollocks.” The Met is holding tight
with its rebranding, though, and time will tell whether it will settle.
Taxi Studio posted a funny tweet on the whole ordeal (below). Image:
‘WTF’. Spencer Buck and Taxi Studio on The Met logo - “we were
commenting as much on the fuss surrounding the logo as the logo design
itself.”
“There are trolls, there are sensationalists and there are the deeply
concerned. All three parties can be easily handled if the management of
the organisation, product or service genuinely believes that this new
work is justified,” says Simon.
“We have some very simple rules: never take it personally or become
personal, be incredibly polite at all times, and tackle everything with a
sense of humour. Remind people that branding is iterative and
ever-evolving. It’s very rarely there forever.”
SomeOne recently launched a wrist band for World Cancer Day
to support Cancer Research UK - and it was a huge success: “give people
something to do, involve them and they generally like what you are
doing.” And, just like the wristbands, know that the design exists for a
reason and is not just change for change’s sake.
“Just as most creative work is given the ‘overnight’ test, “ says
Simon, “where an experienced eye is able to look at it again in the
morning and assess if the work is going to work - you need a 30 day
calming off period where the initial foam and splutter subsides and you
can look to see if any of it has stuck - or indeed should stick.”
A theme of honesty and transparency is developing; if you take the
time and effort to explain, then people - or, at least, most people -
should eventually either forget about the logo, get used to it or,
reluctantly or not, be swayed in favour of your design. That, is if the
logo is justified. Time doesn't heal all wounds, unfortunately - and you
certainly don’t want that bad reaction to scar.
Gap’s new logo (below) did not play the waiting game for very long.
In 2010, the clothing company unveiled a seemingly harmless new logo –
Helvetica combined with a small, blue, tinted square – to a storm of
public criticism, including a twitter account set up in protest, causing Gap to retreat to its iconic white-on-blue logo. The surrender came after only a week.
Most people might agree that the creation of the new Gap logo was odd
and possibly unnecessary. But – once they’d gone with that fated logo -
was the decision to axe it also unneeded? A week of waiting is not
long. In fact, it stinks to the kind of quick-thinking social media
itself is guilty of: rash, quick and ruthless. Image: scrapped Gap logo
If your logo is genuinely bad or inappropriate – and Gap might have
ended up believing their’s was - don’t “hide behind utter flim-flam and
nonsense,” says Simon. If it’s a bad logo, it’s a bad logo – and you
must respond correspondingly.
When Kenjiro Sano was drowned in a tidal wave of social media abuse after accusations of plagiarism for his Tokyo 2020 Olympic logo design, the logo was scrapped.
“You need to measure your response in line with the reaction,” says
Spencer. “You don’t want people fixated on the controversy surrounding
the logo vs the event it’s supposed to represent, regardless whether the
accusation is justified or not. In an ideal world you’d find this out
before a costly launch, not after.”
Branding is now a conversation, set in very, very erasable pencil and
not the stone of pre-digital days – and it is no longer just the
territory of designers. As the public role shifts, designers must adapt
(even if that means explaining to the internet why they’re wrong).
One thing is clear: the internet is not just a few shouty, sweary
people, but a consumer force that can change the minds of corporate
giants. And if that sometimes surprisingly eloquent, always fearlessly
loud-mouthed mass feels out of touch with your brand, they will let you
know.
Download the Photoshop and Lightroom plugins Analog
Efex Pro, Color Efex Pro, Silver Efex Pro, Viveza, HDR Efex Pro,
Sharpener Pro and Dfine for free.
Google has released the Nik Collection of Lightroom and Photoshop plugins for free.
Previously, the collection of six separate plugins for Photoshop and
Lightroom would cost $149 (£99). If you bought them this year, you'll
get your money back.
Google bought the developer of the plugins Nik Software in September
2012, essentially to get access to its filter technology to add it to
its consumer photo tools (then Picasa, now Google Photos). In March
2013, Google dropped the price from charging you US$100 (around £66) per
app, or $499 (£330) for the full bundle to $149 (£99). Analog Efex Pro replicates the loks of traditional filters,
lenses and cameras. Color Efex Pro has colour correction and retouching
tools. Silver Efex Pro (below) includes sophisticated black-and-white filters.
Viveza allows selective colour adjustments. HDR Efex Pro fakes
the look of HDR photography. Sharpener Pro offers sharpening tools and
Dfine is for noise reduction.
The Nik plugins for Photoshop and Lightroom work on both Mac OS X
(version 10.7.5 to 10.10) and Windows (Vista, 7 or 8 - though it also
appears to run fine on my Windows 10 workstation). They require
Photoshop CS4 or later or Lightroom 3 or later - including the latest CC
2015 versions of both Photoshop and Lightroom.
HP Premium laptops will have a premium, shiny, new logo. Well, kind of new. The design was actually submitted five years ago by Moving Brands – one that HP eventually decided against to the disappointment of many.
HP’s corporate logo has remained pretty much the same for 75 years
straight – blockish letters in a circle – though the current iteration
was created in 2010. But its Spectre laptop range is back again to shake
things up with Spectre 13, aka
the world's thinnest laptop, which is adorned with the much-loved,
previously rejected logo by Moving Brands. Non-standard logos are
actually almost standard when it comes to Spectre laptops, with last year's Spectre x360 having 'Hewlett-Packard' written out - but HP will extend this sleek new logo across its entire premium laptop range.
Spectre 13 also comes in a special edition (shown below), which the
press released describes as “one of a kind”. They’re not wrong: the
mind-blowingly ostentatious laptop is created with swanky 18k gold
throughout the entire thing (even in the inside…where you can’t see
it?), with rear, keyboard and top plates made of the same (yup, 18K
again) and – of course – a new diamond-encrusted HP logo shines from
its lid. Together, all this evokes what the press release feels is
“Hannah’s minimalistic design philosophy”. Er, ok.
Image: special edition of HP Spectre 13
But the logo itself looks good. The branding is clear despite the
minimalism of four slanty lines. For HP’s higher-paying premium
customers, the logo is a gentle reminder of the more
slap-you-round-the-face, main corporate logo.
To be fair, the outrageous bling is all for a good cause. The
creation - made by LA-based (I mean, really, where else?) jewellery
design Jess Hannah, with HP and Collectively Inc. - will be auctioned off to support the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
