Where I’ve Been Today (or Yesterday) – Number 2

Here’s my next installment in places on the web I discovered (yesterday, by the time I got this written up and scheduled to publish).

• The making of the CONNECTED Poster – this is a great, detailed explanation (including several videos) of the design, illustration and production of a poster for a short film. The poster was designed and illustrated by Anders Baden Nielsen and Joaquim Marquès Nielsen of Barq, a design studio out of Denmark.
• 6 Twitter Types by Guy Kawasaki – I stumbled on this interesting article by Guy Kawasaki (of AllTop.com and formerly Apple) where he distills Twitter users into 6 different categories: the Newbie, the Brand, the Smore, the Bitch, the Maven, the Mensch. His system might be a little over-simplified but I think I fall somewhere in “the (personal) Brand” plus “the Maven” camp with a little sprinkling of “the Mensch” here and there. If you follow me on Twitter, what’s your take? Where do you fall in the 6 types?
• 2009 Online Annual Report Report (“free” PDF download) – a report on the state of design of online annual reports by Eisenman & Assoc. Graphic and Web Design. It’s not exactly free—you have to give them your email address—but may be worth it if you need to do some annual report designs (as I do very soon).
• Brilliant advertisement copy for coffin manufacturer – (this link comes courtesy of my friend—and great designer—Melissa Balkon, who posted the link earlier today via Twitter) The ad is proof positive that most times the copy speaks volumes more than your design. I’m not thrilled with the variety of fonts used in this ad concept but the copy more than makes up for it. Just plain brilliant copy. I’m sold…and I’m not exactly actively planning my burial any time soon. Maybe I should.
• The State of Charity Giving in the US via Mint.com – A thorough, visually-engaging, and eye-opening series of facts, stats and charts on charity giving in the United States. Here’s some highlights I found interesting:
• Americans give $300 billion a year to charities
• Public charities in the U.S. require over $1.3 trillion dollars per year to operate
• “7 of the 10 largest donations were given to the donators own charities”
• Religion (however that’s defined) gets 35% of all charitable donations in the US
• Conservatives are more likely to give and give more than liberals, even in blood donations.
• Religious people give more to secular causes than do secular people.
• Event spending is one of the least effective ways to raise money for charities. Some even spend $50 for every $1 they raise through fund-raising events.

If you want to keep an up-to-the-minute update of the links I find and enjoy around the web be sure to follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/jerrythepunkrat