Happy Halloween from Asterisk Creative

In the spirit of Halloween I thought that I would blog about a subject dear to my heart, Tim Burton. You have probably heard of him or seen one of his many movies like Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride or the new Alice and Wonderland, just to name a few.

Tim Burton has reached a degree of greatness that every aspiring animator around the world would love to achieve. He has created a world where his creations can come to life.

With Halloween right around the corner any Tim Burton fan will tell you that The Nightmare Before Christmas is on their mind. This animated film was produced in 1993 and tells the story of a skeleton figure named Jack who is from Halloween Town. He unlocks a portal to Christmas Town in which he knows nothing about. The plot thickens when Jack becomes intrigued with Christmas Town and devises a plan to take over Christmas.

This movie is not just your average cinema flick. Tim Burton started his idea for the story with a poem he wrote in the 80's while working at Disney. After Disney thought the idea was too scary for kids, Tim turned to Touchstone Pictures to produce the film. He needed a lot of financial backing. To create this visual spectacle, Tim and his crew of magicians had to be innovative. After sketching what every character and scene would look like, they create everything by hand. The film was comprised of over 200 puppets. The main character Jack alone had over 400 heads for different expressions!

Tim recently had his work featured in MOMA (The Museum of Modern Art in NYC) which drew an enormous crowd that became the museums most visited exhibit to date. The collection consists of over 700 original pieces by Tim along with studio and collaborative work. The exhibit is now in Australia and will be going to the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) in late May 2011 until October 31, 2011. If you haven't seen Tim Burton's website you should treat yourself for Halloween this year. Click Here

We at Asterisk Creative can appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into a project of this volume. To create a seamless story whether in video, web design, logo design or in a marketing plan it takes plenty of organization, sketching and thought. We carefully plan every move, like Tim, in order to make superior marketing and design decisions that tell a creative, compelling story.

Happy Halloween from all of us at Asterisk Creative!

Swiss Grid Inspiration

Graphic Design has evolved through the years like fashion has. Every historic moment in time has effected how people communicate their style. After the Art Deco period ended in the late 30's early 40's a new kind of graphic design emerged out of Switzerland. This movement began in the 1950's and adapted the name The International Typographic aka "The Swiss Style."

The graphic artists in this movement focused on clean lines, readability and the grid system. The use of empty space combined with text, images or both created the minimalist look. Josef Müller-Brockmann was one of these Swiss designers who has left an impact on designers around the world. He was born in Rapperswil, Switzerland in May 9, 1914 and has written many books on the grid system for Graphic Designers. Check out some of his poster designs that showcase the minimalist aesthetic with interesting ways of using the grid system to create clean lines.

How to make your Facebook content “Top News”

This is an article we wanted to share:

One of the main aims of companies using Facebook for business is generating awareness, as Jay Baer pointed out in his Facebook Success Summit session on Tuesday afternoon. The top way to do this, Baer says, is to win the News Feed. It seems simple: If you get someone to “like” your company’s Facebook page, then they receive the content you send out, right?
Not exactly, Baer said.
Your news feed is divided into two sections, “Top News” and “Most Recent News,” and people are automatically directed to their “Top News” feed when they log in. Facebook has even acknowledged that 95% of users only read their “Top News” version of the feed. Thus, to stay on your customer’s radar, your content must fall into the “Top News” category.
As Baer explained in his presentation, “Top News” is determined by the Edge Rank, an algorithm that reflects three components:

• Affinity Score: The amount you have historically engaged with content by a person/page increases your affinity to the content creator.
• Timing: The more recent the post, the higher it ranks.
• Weight: As posts are commented on, liked and shared by other Facebook users and their networks, their overall weight increases.

So, what should you do to continue to appear in the “Top News” section of the News Feed?

• Post content frequently. This increases your chances via the timing angle.
• Consider your post timing. Only 35% of Facebook users log in during the workday, research shows. That means “off hours” might work best for posting your content.
• Use calls to action in your posts. Encourage your fans to like, comment, or share your content to increase the weight.

How often are you posting content on Facebook? Did you understand direct the connection between frequency, weight, affinity and becoming “Top News”? 

By Emily Molitor
www.smartblogs.com
*This article was written by Emily Molitor for SmartBlogs