So I’ve been trying to figure out how to remove the html code from a string of data that MS Word adds to their code when exporting an htm file.

Here’s what I found to be most successful although it may not be perfect in ALL instances.

function cleanHTML($html) {
/// <summary>
/// Removes all FONT and SPAN tags, and all Class and Style attributes.
/// Designed to get rid of non-standard Microsoft Word HTML tags.
/// </summary>
// start by completely removing all unwanted tags

$html = ereg_replace(“<(/)?(font|span|del|ins)[^>]*>”,””,$html);

// then run another pass over the html (twice), removing unwanted attributes

$html = ereg_replace(“<([^>]*)(class|lang|style|size|face)=(\”[^\"]*\”|’[^']*’|[^>]+)([^>]*)>”,”<\\1>”,$html);
$html = ereg_replace(“<([^>]*)(class|lang|style|size|face)=(\”[^\"]*\”|’[^']*’|[^>]+)([^>]*)>”,”<\\1>”,$html);

return $html;
}
$stringData = cleanHTML(“$stringData”);

Design oriented innovation never seems to fail at defining how I see the world through a structured lens. To entirely belittle the sense of normalcy in design brings new realms of perspective that are now coming into play. Here we find how innovators are bringing back a blast from the past into the homes of our living rooms. We’re beginning to break down the walls of innovation that seemed impossible ten years ago. I’m talking about 3D. Since, I’m sure we’ve all wore those stylish, devo-looking glasses to create a world outside our own, 3D isn’t anything new. From cartoons, to movies, to puppet-shows, the idea of bringing an inanimate object to life has been portrayed in many ways over the past sixty years. Although the technology and conceptualism of dimension changing has been used before, innovative minds are creating new perspectives derived from past initiatives.

3-Dimensional idealisms are the future of innovative marketing. All realms of marketing, design, and advertising will be entirely changed as the popularity and acceptance of 3D becomes a commonality. Sure, holograms are cool, but they require real-estate. Put a hologram of Tiger Woods in Times Square and tell me he isn’t going to be a blur of colors and lights as people walk through him. Now take a billboard of Tiger Woods and add a third dimension to mix. The real-estate is already accounted for and now Tiger can hit a golf ball into the streets of Manhattan without any crowd disturbance.

Print design is going to have its day within the next year. As LED paper and 3D marketing emerge from the depths of ages, we’ll soon find that pop-up books will be part of a normal reading experience. Imagine reading a magazine, lets say ESPN, and in the health and fitness section you find yourself engaged with an advertisement that brings you into a world that appears to dive miles inside and outside the page. You may find yourself laying on the beach in a Corona advertisement or helping the farmer pick oranges from a tree in a Tropicana advertisement.

The majority of films today are already being filmed in 3D to prepare for the saturation of 3D in the electronics market. This is a technology that is going to become part of the electronics culture. Like digital cable and TiVo, we’ll soon find that 3D options and functionality will become mainstreamed. Do you have a problem with that? I don’t. Having another function added to my arsenal of tv-watching capabilities only helps increase my consumerism. I’m confident that manufacturers are highly aware of the potential this optional component of technology has. This isn’t an entire change of format, like Cassette tapes to CDs, or VCR to DVD. This is a consumer-controlled function that will allow us to engage with the entertainment we already love so much.

Google-TV is just the start towards an entirely user-controlled media experience. We already pay for the internet, cable, dvds and Blu-ray, why wouldn’t we want our 3D experience interwoven? Too many platforms are becoming available for entertainment while not enough are becoming obsolete. Thankfully companies such as Apple and Google are innovative leads

As a marketer and designer, an entirely new world is being introduced to us. UI is going to do a backflip and give us a real challenge. Could you imagine doing a project for a client where they ask you to “develop a mock-up of an environment for a commercial that attracts customers towards wanting to travel to the Bahamas.” It’s no longer about aligning copy correctly or correlating copy with imagery. Soon you’ll be asking yourself “

­­I wrote this on: June 1st 2010

Another day passes as I finish my second week as a salaried employee after graduation. Working for a technology company has taken huge priority in my life. Considering all of my life I have been custom to new and innovative ways of thinking, There’s something I’ve come to understand working as a designer with a programmers mindset:  Attention to detail is the most critical learned technique in an industry of extreme resolution. The human eye has become much more apt to defining flaws and being attracted to error. Furthermore, the human mind is beginning to relate benefits to accessibility. In other words, if we see it, we think we can have it.

In many cases, especially today, we’re seeing an arrangement of advertising variations put in extremely new places. Take a trip through the Lincoln tunnel; you’ll probably notice Panasonic’s bright vibrant copy with an image that contains the very same color assortments. But there’s something more to these advertisements than their use of color. What I noticed most was media vehicle that is carrying it. With a background being the gray and blue skyline of Manhattan, a bright exciting advertisement becomes that much more effective. I even went as far to notice advertisements on the sides of buildings to the tops of taxi cabs. There is an entirely new realm of ad-placement than we’ve ever could have imagined years ago. With the placement of advertisements in new and exciting places comes the wonderment of how to target the prized audience and assure conversion. Here is where detail and logic becomes king.

Let’s take a look at how a taxi in New York City defines how deeply advertising pertains to detail. Today, the average time spent at a traffic light in New York City is approximately XXX seconds. With anywhere from two to ten taxis standing at any one street light, there’s only between XX and XX seconds to have an advertisement actually be noticed. In the mind of a designer, you should be thinking “how do I attract attention to a potential audience without distracting from the message?” As an advertiser you’re thinking “how can I portray my message to my target audience in the fewest number of words?” As a marketing person you’re thinking “how can I assure that the advertisements messaging will convert to a lead to the demographic I’m really seeking?” These questions are becoming more and more challenging to answer as competition increases and consumer’s demand becomes more specific.

Earlier, as I walked the streets of Manhattan, I noticed that advertisements on moving vehicles are extremely entertaining. I say this not because they are colorful or humorous, but the attention to detail is very well thought out. For example, as a city bus passed me by (at a reasonable speed) I noticed that the advertisement on the walls of the bus  was magically reading itself to me. The messaging was spread across the length of the vehicle in such a way that you could literally stare straight without moving your eyes and have the message read to you as the bus moves forward! What better way to have a message read than help your audience read it! To reinforce the strength of the advertisement, the same messaging was displayed in a call to action on the back of the bus as it finally passes. Here we see how the advertisement utllized exposure, message clarity, and reinforced the message with a call to action.

Something else to consider in these times of innovation is accessibility to technology. We’re constantly seeing an increase in the demand and usage of smart media devices such as the iPhone, iPad, and most portable electronics. It’s becoming more important than ever before to have advertising correlate directly with marketing. We’ve come to understand that messages placed outside of magazines and newspapers (for example) are generally designed to gain exposure. This isn’t nearly as true as it was as little as five years ago. Considering we are becoming a generation entirely reliant on our electronics, it’s vital that as new media innovators we develop campaigns to target this audience.

Just for fun, as I walked down West 40^th street to port authority, I counted nearly thirty-five people using a smart media device within three blocks. As the number of smart media users grows larger, our potential advertisement conversion rate grows exponentially. Each of these users has the accessibility (in-hand) to react to an advertising campaign. This could be as simple as visiting a webpage or dialing a phone number.

Marketing to an audience of potential immediate customers was incredibly hard ten years ago. Today the realm of marketing can translated and multiplied to an audience larger than the one it’s physically displayed to. I know, that sounded awkward, but think about it. Here’s an example of how powerful the attention to detail in advertising, design, and marketing can be:

A business man leaving his job walks past an advertisement being displayed on an electronic billboard which is marketing a new promotion for iPhone users to get a 10% discount on Subway sandwiches. Hungry, as most men are after working, the man visits the mobile site advertised to him while continuing his walk. The coupon is displayed on his screen to be displayed at the time of purchase with a specific code letting the subway restaurant know where he saw the advertisement. Furthermore, the mobile site asks if he’d like to share this coupon with his friends on facebook and twitter who have an iPhone. This user immediately became a customer, helped define a demographic, and also sent this advertisement into a viral array of new potential customers who all use iPhones. This same marketing campaign can then be applied to other applications to get a perfect understanding of well an advertisement can convert and how to spend advertising dollars more efficiently.

Looking into detail at this level is essential in today’s market. Correlating design, advertising, marketing, and even social media is just the very beginning. Our customers and audiences become our means for exposure, but igniting the spark is key. All-in-all, although cliché, you should never stop thinking outside the box. Remember that you yourself are a potential customer and that attention to detail can always be used in logical, new, and innovative way. Finally, remember that the end goal should always help us understand the most important part of our business, the customer.

Of course, with a new year comes many new resolutions. I do not see the ideals of “resolutions” as many others do. Instead of “eating better” or “being more reliable to my friends”, I believe a New Year should be a clean start. Rather than fixing your problems, start afresh. Rather than stopping something you don’t think is for your positive for well-being, simply remove the negativity from the fact. New Years is entirely about the psychological pleasure and determination to set goals and create self-satisfaction. With this I say, don’t dwell on the negative aspects of the past year. Look past everything you’ve accomplished and consider it a new standard.

As for me, I am considering this new year with a new way of living. I have created a new person, accomplished many things, and lost a lot as well. I created a new standard for myself during 2010. Now 2011 is a way to improve those standards and let the 2010 John shine. Sometimes it takes a good amount of self-confidence to be able to step out of your body and look at it from the point of view of others.

My idea of a good “resolution” would consider a recent diet/lifestyle change: I started the Atkins diet with my father. I think any diet regime would have worked fine but after a good talk with my pops I think this intrigued him most (considering how much we both dig protein based foods!). The diet is no way meant for me to lose a whole lot of weight because I don’t have that much to lose. It’s meant to satisfy and fill a void that I had never been able to in the past. This is being 100% confident about my health and self-determination. Being able to achieve the results I’m looking for is already helping my confidence as I begin entering the job market again since I’ve recently been unemployed.

Well, that’s it for me today. I know this was a scrambled post, but it served as a good way to jump start my blog.

Cheers and Happy New Years!

With the new trends of Eco arising, I took a shot at designing the home page or landing page of a fake company.
I found that the extremely strong, bright leaf-greens with subtle hues of yellow really help the content of the page pop!

I created the design as a portfolio builder and to potentially sell it. My outlook on site’s such as this is very simple. I believe that website’s that act as a small informational portal can also have attributes of a widget. Floating elements centered on airy background help attract attention to what’s truly important. Also notice the use of citrus colors. By implementing citrus buttons with a tool, user experience can be enhanced and help conversion rate. The idea of “clicking through” becomes far more evident to a user when prompted correctly. I’ve found that, especially in the world of e-commerce, landing pages benefit extraordinarily from a strong message (call to action) followed by an immediate click through.

So found a great little fix to photoshops script action called Export Layers To Files.

I am working on a project that requires I create tons of images and logos all at the same dimensions. But with over 100 images all on different layers, it would take forever and a day to export each image separately. I assumed the easiest way to create images out of the layers would be with PS Actions. I was wrong.

Here’s the way to export each layer of your PSD file as separate JPGs while retaining/keeping the layer name as the file name layername.JPG:

1. Open C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS4\Presets\Scripts and edit Export Layers To Files.JSX

2. Edit around line 707 and replace
” fileNameBody += “_” + layerName; “
with
” fileNameBody += “” + layerName; “

3. Also be sure to add a comment line “//” above the previous line. So: “// fileNameBody += “_” + zeroSuppress(i, 4); “

4. Re-Open Photoshop and go to File>Scripts>Export Layers To Files, chose your destination, no prefix, and you’re golden!