I have to say I'm really impressed with Acronis. I've used their products for a couple of years, ever since I started using their backup/disk upgrade software product called "EZ Gig II" version 6 to upgrade and backup a laptop. This was after suffering a painful recovery process using traditional backup methods.
As you have probably heard on the news, Dell is recalling batteries for laptops built between April 1, 2004 and July 18, 2006 as well as for any spare batteries from the same timeframe. Only the batteries are being recalled, not the laptops.
If you or your organization own one of these computers, Dell will replace your battery at no charge.
I replaced my old script generated, template-based site with a drupal 4.7 driven site with a mysql backend. In the next few weeks I'll be converting missing content from the old format, so any old articles will be available then. As of August 14, all content is back on-line.
Why won't drupal SSL form sessions (running under Apache2 and PHP5) work, if the user takes more than 15 seconds to fill out a form????? Well, the answer only took me 4 full workdays to figure the answer out.
First, I couldn't get SSL forms to get processed at all. I figured out it was an apache directive that was overriding correct behavior for MS IE browsers. That at least got the form processed, but testing showed a new issue. If a user went to a form protected by SSL, they had only 15 seconds to fill it out before any input would be ignored and an empty (or at least previous values) form would be displayed. The results page (what shows when a user successfully updates a page) wouldn't show.
I had to replace a client's mail server that crashed. The mainboard was shot. That meant I had all the data and config files, so recovery was easy. However, I had trouble finding a way to recover unchecked mail sitting in the unix mail file format.
It turned out to be pretty simple, once I remembered the old formail command.
Mail was stored in a unix mail file format where all the mail is in one file. It is placed there by the MTA (happened to be postfix) and delivered by the pop3 daemon (happened to be dovecot).
I had a test system set up for Ubuntu Breezy Badger and wanted to upgrade to Dapper Drake. It was a much simpler process than you might be used to.
Error on Backup Software: "Directory not found. Cannot backup directory ?<MAILBOX_NAME> and its subdirectories."
An annoying messages can come up on your backup software, like Veritas, when you delete a user (and their associated mailbox).
The problem occurs because Exchange does not remove the user's mailbox right away after you delete the user. The backup software cannot backup the mailbox without the user. The amount of time (could be 30 days!) is set in MS Exchange System Manager (ESM).
You can adjust this time by changing properties in \servers\server\first storage group\mailbox store. Usually though, this still won't purge in time to avoid an error and "failed backup" message on the backup software.
When an Outlook user is setup to prompt for credentials (user/password), particularly when using RPC over HTTP for remote Outlook 2003 users, there is a prompt called "Microsoft Office Outlook Credentials" (in the task manager program list) with a prompt that says, "Connecting to" followed by the server's name. The user can enter domain\user and their password and then the basic authentification information is sent over an encrypted connection via RPC to the Exchange server and the user gets authenticated. However, I was having trouble finding out how to maintain the list of users that show when you pull down the user list. It was always blank or had something else listed. If a user clears the name, then they have to type it in again.
The secret is to use the old NET USE hack to access a shared printer from an unused printer port. Then install the printer as a local printer to the looped up printer port. I used to have to do something like this when running old DOS programs in Windows when they needed to print to a network printer.
Make sure the shared printer is shared and working and you can can print to it from the computer that will be running RDP (terminal services client).
Can't Get Exchange User "Send As" to Work!
I have a client that wanted to have multiple Exchange 2003 mailboxes appear in the exchange folders list in Outlook 2003 and have email sent by that user from any account appear to have come from that account. In other words, the FROM email address should always be from the mailbox, not from the user and not saying "sent on behalf of".
I found two helpful kb articles from MS 327174 and 291626. 327174 was the most helpful because it told me what I needed. However, I couldn't pick up on why the change didn't seem to matter until I figured it out on my own, then later read the fine print: "To make the setting take effect immediately, stop and then restart the mailbox store."


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Cynhyrchiadau
EdFringe 2019
Yr Adeiliad
Young Volcano
Posted on: Thursday, April 16, 2015 by Fern Smith
In the early days of Volcano, I went for a bar job at The Oystercatcher in Mumbles. I was looking quite tidy: freshly bleached skinhead hair-cut, calf-length black dress and pink fluorescent lipstick. I got the job but they said I'd have to dress differently when I worked with the customers – they thought I was a transvestite.
The merging of on- and off-stage personae is greater when you can't change your hair. I was playing Margaret Thatcher in Volcano's Macbeth at the time. If I'd been an actress in a West End show I'd have worn a silver wig. The hair is often one of the strongest signifiers of male or female and when it blurs, we don't know where we are. Before the skinhead it was a pillar-box red Mohican for V, and after it were black plastic hair weaves. I still had the Mohican shorn-to-the-scalp sides but (in addition) a topknot which could be worn as a menacing looking spider or a jaunty pineapple, depending on if I was playing Medea before or after being betrayed by Jason. The next hair transformation was more audacious. To play the dark lady of the Sonnets for L.O.V.E. I had to make the leap from androgyne to female, from punk hair to lady hair. This meant growing everything and going au naturel. This is when I really felt like a cross-dresser. High-heels, fake fur coat, Playtex underwear, vamp jewelry and make-up.
There has always been an element in Volcano's work – especially the more stylized productions – which allowed or even encouraged one to experiment with gender. Probably the thing that has most shocked our audiences is not playing the knife-wielding siren of L.O.V.E., being karate kicked full-on in the belly in Medea:Sexwar, or doing push-ups whilst hanging off a ladder in After the Orgy, but simply the act of raising my arms to reveal under-arm hair. It was shocking then, 25 years ago when we started, and I fear (even though contemporary audiences are sometimes described as unshockable) even more so now. This was one of those accidental moments of enlightenment from our touring years which actually shocked me (so that's what the real world is like?).
Although I/we have played with gender, I/we've been deadly serious at the same time. Volcano's work was always fuelled by extremity and possibility. Why stop at portraying one gender when you could play two or even three? It was more the sexual politics of re-presentation that these early shows were concerned with than sex itself, though audiences and critics sometimes just honed in on the latter.
In theatre you can exist within the realm of the archetypal and that's what we were doing – often representing or replaying conflicts between masculine/feminine, words/flesh, emotional/rational, spiritual/material. No wonder the first piece we really identified with as a touring company was Tony Harrison's V ('Class versus class, as bitter as before, the un-ending violence of us and them'). In order to play the conflict realistically you have to commit absolutely to both sides. We believed our work was both beautiful and brutal, but many could see only the brutal, the shocking, the provocative, and were blind to the beauty. Ionesco wrote opposing political manifestos which he would publish alongside one another. Being a committed absurdist makes some uneasy. What exactly is it you are committing yourself to? Perhaps all conflicts return to male v female, but with a more expanded definition of those concepts –Apollonian v Dionysian, colonial v colonized, yin v yang, capitalist v ecological…
Volcano was always, and is still, fascinated by invention and creation. Perhaps running your own theatre company is the closest thing you can get to running your own planet. You choose the language, behavior, conventions and much more besides. Perhaps going on tour is like visiting other planets. That's why it is often grindingly hard when the natives of those planets don't 'get' you or are hostile. You've sent out your visiting delegation with good intent and are sometimes received with anger, frustration, dismissiveness or just boredom. On occasions you are even banned from visiting other planets ever again (Worthing). But just sometimes, inhabitants of those planets want to join yours, and even do for a while before going off and starting their own. You have no other choice though, as it's the only planet you can breathe the air on. It goes beyond taste and convention. It comes down to survival.
Planet Volcano is for me, beyond playing male or female, beyond good or evil. It has never been an either/or, all or nothing, but a both/and kind of planet. At its best it is a feast of the intellect and senses, at worst it can be confusing and chaotic.
Our early work was always an attempt to communicate and agitate (or activate). I always believed that theatre could change the world. We would do it by saying 'look at this, is it right, wake, up, do something, make change'. We always believed we were a political company. The first step towards change is awareness. I sometimes felt like we would see ourselves as a big arrow drawing people's attention to what needed changing. Twenty-five years on, even if things haven't changed your strategy must. Possible options: give up and try something else; keep doing it for longer but do it better; be content with what is and enjoy the play; or perhaps maybe all or none of the above…
Fern Smith
From Inflammable Material, a retrospective for Volcano's 25th Birthday Party, 2013
Published 16th April 2015 to celebrate women sharing their stories over three years of the Everyday Sexism Project
Volcano at the Edinburgh Fringe
Claudine Conway
Victoria Boobyer
Volcano Theatre 27-29 High Street Swansea SA1 1LG United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1792 464790Charity Number: 1161081
Have you ever stood naked in the rain? Do you wish you had? Is it too late for that kind of behaviour or do you think it is still a possibility for you? Padgett Powell, The Interrogative Mood
About Volcano
News: Hamletmachine - Call for Volunteers Thu 26 Sep 2019
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The mind imagines, the hands make. This is a collection of soul-stirring works found nowhere else in the world. Each piece is exclusively sourced from estate collections, retired studios and ateliers. The jewelry is created by inspired makers, with works in the collections of national and worldwide museum destinations.


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Scholarships offered through the Clarinda Foundation vary on amounts and eligibility criteria. For details on a specific scholarship please click on the link and read the description carefully. The Clarinda Foundation has the right to verify all information given in any scholarship application. The Clarinda Foundation has awarded $501,267.90 in scholarships since 1991, the first year the Foundation awarded scholarships.
The following is a list of current and prior scholarships held by the Clarinda Foundation.


Whether you are nearby or in a remote area, you are not too far away! We have both colonial and ranch style houses to choose from that can be trucked, fully constructed or built onsite to your requirements. Contact Statewide Transit Homes today about a home that is right for you.
The Abbey V2 can be built on site and transported. It is a spacious open plan two bathroom, 3 bedroom home. The ensuite features both a shower and spa bath. There is a generous walk in robe and lots of cupboard space. The kitchen is complete with electric oven, ceramic cook top, dishwasher, slide rangehood and planty of drawers. All fittings, carpeting, plank vinyls and light shades are included. This house has an A category inclusion list.
The Barbara can be both built onsite and transported. This house is designed for those who are just starting out or those who would like to downscale to a smaller home. It is a two bedroom, one bathroom home with lots of storage and all the necessities. The kitchen is complete with electric cooktop and oven and includes carpeting, plank vinyl flooring and light fittings. This is a B category inclusion list home.
The Brendeen can both be transported and built onsite. This house is a smaller version of the Abbey, it is set out to provide large living areas while catering to the smaller budget. It is a two bedroom, one bathroom home that has been designed to cater easily to an extension further into the future. The kitchen is complete with an electric oven, cooktop and rangehood. Included is carpeting, plank vinyl flooring and light fittings. This is an A category inclusion list home.
The Catherine is quite large and cannot be transported. It is a home designed for entertaining. It boasts a huge outside deck that is accessible from both the living/dining room and lounge/bar. The kitchen and dining /living room are incorporated and there is also a private lounge and bar. This is a four bedroom home with a walk in robe and ensuite in the main room, a huge bathroom, kids room and study. The kitchen is complete with a dishwasher, electric oven, ceramic cooktop and rangehood. Carpeting, plank vinyl flooring, light shades and fittings are all included. Please note that the Catherine is over 20m long and may not suit some blocks. This is an A category inclusion list home.
The Cheryl can be transported or built onsite. This house has been designed to fit on a narrow block, while still providing four large bedrooms and two bathrooms. The open plan living areas are at the front of the house and the bedrooms at the back. The verandah is incorporated into the roof structure to give approximately 2.4m of ceiling height. The kitchen is complete with an electric oven, ceramic cooktop, dishwasher and rangehood plus plenty of drawers. The Cheryl comes complete with carpets, plank vinyl flooring, light shades and fittings. This is an A category inclusion list home.
The Jasmine can be transported or built onsite. It is a two bedroom home plus office with all the essentials including a fair sized lounge, dining and kitchen. It accomodates a surprising amount of furniture for a small home and the kitchen comes complete with an electric oven, ceramic cooktop and sliding rangehood. This home comes complete with carpets, vinyls, light shades and fittings. This is a B category inclusion list home.
The Judy can be transported or built onsite. We sell the Judy regularly as a relatives apartment/granny flat, small enough to fit under most planning schemes while providing a homely feeling. The verandah makes it easy to connect to an existing dwelling. The kitchen comes complete with an under-over electric stove, a cooktop and slide rangehood. The Judy comes complete with carpets, vinyl, light shades and fittings. This is a B category inclusion list home.


Armattan Marmotte 5″ frame is een van de meest geavanceerde design frames van dit moment. Armattan Marmotte 5″ frame is de culminatie van een jarenlang design proces van flagships frames van Armattan. Armattan Marmotte 5″ frame lijkt hetzelfde maar is zo veel beter.
De Armattan Marmotte 5″ leveren wij ook in een custom build versie. Dit is een PNP of RTF versie afhankelijk van de gekozen opties.
When you examine the front-end of the Armattan Marmotte, you can immediately see the time and care that went into designing this masterpiece. For starters, the cage maintains an entirely Titanium build to protect your camera. A mini-camera, this time, because who uses a full HS1177-sized camera anymore? Within that are a pair of 1mm aluminum fpv-camera savers. On the off chance that a branch snakes in and wants to crack your lens or case, these are meant to bend first. And if they do get pushed out of place they'll be easier to bend back than your camera is.


Funeral services for Mrs. Sadie Harrison were held Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Parent Chapel where a large group of friends and relatives gathered to pay their final respects.
Mrs. Dwight Ellison, a close friend and a former member of the local society, now of Chicago, read the Christian Science services. She read a poem from the Christian Science Hymnal, "O, Life That Maketh All Things New," by Samuel Longfellow, and read selections from the Bible and Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, and the Lord's prayer.
Mrs. William Staack, a friend and former member of the church in Tampico, now of De Kalb, sang "Shepherd Show Me How to Go" and "Mother's Evening Prayer," both written by the revered leader, Mary Baker Eddy, accompanied by Mrs. R. F. Woods at the organ. Mrs. Holger Pederson and Mrs. Mildred Corlett were in charge of the many beautiful tokens.
Burial was in the Tampico Memorial Cemetery, with Glenn, Gordon, Kenneth and Harold Glassburn, Ernie Clapper and Tom Marshall of Freeport, serving as pallbearers.
Friends from out of town were Mr. and Mrs. William Staack of De Kalb, Mr. and Mrs. Dwight Ellison of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. E. J. Crossell, Mr. and Mrs. John Woods of Sterling, Mrs. Anna Murray and Mrs. Anna Simkins of Walnut, Miss Kate Person of Dixon, Miss Janice Munson of Normal.
Cousins from out of town were Mr. and Mrs. T. J. Marshall of Freeport, Mr. and Mrs. George Hyde of De Kalb, Mr. and Mrs. Earl Welch, Rachel Jacobs of Malta, and Miss Ruby Denison of Aberdeen, S.D.
in the Tampico schools and summer school at DeKalb and did her studying while herding cattle on the prairies. Started to teach school at the age of 16 and taught the primary department in Tampico school for six years. She was married to William H. Harrison on Christmas day, Dec. 25, 1883, in Tampico, at the home of her parents.
She and her husband conducted the largest dry goods, ready to wear and grocery store in this locality for years, in which they were successful. They sold their business to A. E. Bennett Jan. 27, 1915. Mr. Harrison passed away April 27, 1916. Her only sister, Miss Mary Glassburn, who made her home with Mrs. Harrison after the passing of their parents, passed away in October 1940.
Mrs. Harrison was of a pioneer family. Her parents came here in 1856 from Gallipolis, Ohio, residing in the early home built by her uncle, John W Glassburn, the "father" of Tampico. She was a charter member of the Christian Science Society of Tampico, and of the The Mother Church in Boston, Mass. She served as a member of the board of directors for a period of years and as first reader for the three-year term.
She was best known throughout this part of the country as a successful business woman. Her mind was keen and alert and she continued to ably manage her business affairs, even on the day of her passing. She cared for and accumulated a large fortune, consisting to a great extent of real estate. She always supported activities for the betterment of the town. In addition to here own affairs she found time to give her interest and financial support to community activities. She served as a trustee and vice president of the Tampico Memorial Cemetery Association for many years. During her earlier years, she was a member of the Royal Neighbor Lodge, Tampico Woman's Club and other local organizations.
A philanthropist in the biggest sense of the word, she gave quietly to many in need. Donations were made to charitable institutions in all parts of the country, such as orphanages and old people's homes, even supporting and educating European children.


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Q: How to convert and sum durations? I have a dataframe with different durations in it. I am trying to sum the durations by their "Owning Group" and am having some issues. The first issue I am having is converting my Duration column to timedelta format. I keep getting the below error:
    ValueError: Invalid type for timedelta scalar: <class 'datetime.time'>

Using code:
    incidents['Duration'] = pd.to_timedelta(incidents['Duration'])

Once they are converted to timedelta, am I able to just sum them or is there a specific way it needs done? I just want it to be formatted as total hours:minutes:seconds...it will be well over 24 hours.
Some snapshots of the data:
          Month  Day  Year             Duration Business Impact Owning Group
    0    January    1  2020             09:02:00        00:00:00       AppDev
    2    January   11  2020             03:29:00        03:29:00       AppDev
    7    January   31  2020             01:56:00        01:56:00       AppDev
    8   February    3  2020                  NaN        00:00:00       AppDev
    9   February    8  2020             01:13:00        01:13:00       AppDev
    10  February    8  2020             03:44:00        03:44:00       AppDev
    11  February   10  2020  1900-01-01 23:16:00        02:43:00          EWS
    15  February   19  2020             05:59:00        05:59:00       AppDev
    16  February   18  2020             04:00:00        04:00:00          EWS
    17  February   17  2020             05:02:00        05:02:00       AppDev
    19  February   25  2020             03:19:00        03:19:00          EWS

Line 11 should be 47:16:00 and I know the datetime.time format won't allow over 24 hours.
Example of what I would like summed given the info above:
    Owning Group  Total Duration
       EWS           54:35:00

Eventually I would do the same thing for the business impact.
Thanks for the help!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
<Record>
<Term>Dextrose 5% and electrolyte no.48</Term>
<SemanticType>Pharmacologic Substance</SemanticType>
<SemanticType>Organic Chemical</SemanticType>
<PrimarySemanticType>Pharmacologic Substance</PrimarySemanticType>
<Synonym>Dextrose 5% and electrolyte no.48 in plastic container</Synonym>
<Synonym>Dextrose-magnesium chloride-potassium chloride-potassium phosphate, monobasic-sodium chloride-sodium lactate</Synonym>
<Synonym>Dextrose;magnesium chloride;potassium chloride;potassium phosphate, monobasic;sodium chloride;sodium lactate</Synonym>
<Source>FDA Registry</Source>
</Record>

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Workplace Legal Experts Urge Caution On Lifting Mask Mandates
This puts employers and business owners in the position of asking employees and customers if they are fully vaccinated. This is sure to generate controversy - and legal action. JL
Lisa Nagele-Piazza reports in The Society for Human Resource Management:
The U.S. CDC said that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks in many indoor and outdoor settings. But employees and customers will still need to follow the COVID-19 safety rules set by individual businesses—including mask mandates. The new CDC guidance applies only to employees who are fully vaccinated and only if applicable state and local guidance and orders allow it. Plus, the guidance does not apply in every industry. Employers also need to grapple with asking employees if they've been vaccinated.
After more than a year of mask mandates and recommendations from public health authorities, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks in many indoor and outdoor settings. But employees and customers will still need to follow the COVID-19 safety rules set by individual businesses—including mask mandates.
"You can resume activities without wearing a mask or staying six feet apart, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal or territorial laws, rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance," the CDC said.
So what does the news mean for employers? "Don't throw those mask policies out just yet," said Adam Pankratz, an attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Seattle. The new CDC guidance applies only to employees who are fully vaccinated and only if applicable state and local guidance and orders allow it. Plus, the guidance does not apply in every industry. Employers also need to grapple with asking employees if they've been vaccinated.
"For now, though, it sure feels one big step closer to normal," he said.
Kevin Troutman, an attorney with Fisher Phillips in Houston, said, "Employers will be anxious to implement this latest CDC guidance, but we are still not entirely sure how OSHA [the Occupational Safety and Health Administration] will apply it in the context of its workplace guidance."
He's hoping that OSHA will soon update its guidance to provide clarity that is consistent with the CDC's new guidance. "Unless and until they do, employers should be aware that OSHA's workplace safety guidance still applies," he said.
We've rounded up articles and resources from SHRM Online and other trusted media outlets on the news.
'Downward Trajectory of Cases'
"We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy," said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky during a White House briefing on May 13. "Based on the continuing downward trajectory of cases, the scientific data on the performance of our vaccines and our understanding of how the virus spreads," she said, "that moment has come for those who are fully vaccinated."
(Yahoo! News)
Mask Use Still Advised in Some Situations
Fully vaccinated people should note that the CDC is still recommending that people wear masks in certain places. They still must cover their faces and practice physical distancing when they go to a doctor, hospital or long-term-care facility; when they travel by bus, plane, train or another mode of public transportation; while they are in transportation hubs, such as airports and bus stations; and when they are at a prison, jail or homeless shelter.
(The New York Times)
What Does 'Fully Vaccinated' Mean?
Guidelines cover people who have received a vaccine authorized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), including the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) vaccines. For the new guidelines to apply, travelers must be "fully vaccinated," which means that two weeks have passed since they received a single-shot vaccine or the second dose of a two-shot vaccine.
(U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Stricter State and Local Laws May Apply
Although the CDC is no longer recommending that fully vaccinated people wear masks in many situations, some state and local governments have stricter standards that businesses must follow. For instance, California still has a statewide mask mandate. Gov. Gavin Newsom, however, recently said some restrictions, particularly outdoor mask requirements, may be lifted on June 15 when California is expected to reopen its economy. "But for indoor activities, we will still have, likely, some mask guidelines and mandates. But we hope, sooner than later, that those will be lifted as well," he said during a press conference.
(Los Angeles Times)
Retail Employers Respond to Guidance
The new guidelines create challenges for retailers that must comply with local laws and may not know whether their employees and customers are fully vaccinated. CVS, Walgreens and Macy's representatives said they are reviewing their mask policies in light of the guidance. Some retailers, such as Home Depot and Starbucks, said they plan to keep their mask mandates. Union and trade association leaders in the grocery and retail industries also recommended that stores continue to require masks. Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers' union, called the CDC guidance "confusing" and said it "fails to consider how it will impact essential workers who face frequent exposure to individuals who are not vaccinated and refuse to wear masks." Lisa LaBruno, senior executive vice president at the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said the guidance "creates ambiguity" for retailers because "it fails to fully align with state and local orders" that mandate masks.
(CNN)
Updated Travel Guidance
Last month, the CDC also issued updated travel guidance for fully vaccinated people. For domestic travel, people who are fully vaccinated do not need to get tested for the coronavirus before or after a trip or isolate upon their return. For international trips, vaccinated travelers do not need to obtain a pre-travel test before departing the U.S. (unless their destination requires it) and do not need to self-quarantine after arriving in the U.S., according to the CDC. However, international travelers still must provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken no more than three days before boarding a flight to the U.S., and the CDC recommends getting tested again three to five days after entering the country. The agency said unvaccinated people should continue to follow prior guidelines.
(SHRM Online)
Coronavirus and COVID-19 Resources
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we work and manage employees. Here is some key information to help employers and HR professionals work their way through the pandemic.


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Straight to the Point
Why we deserve $500M
ABC Watch
Home Tags Supply and demand
Tag: supply and demand
The supply and demand of wage growth
Adam Piggott - May 23, 2019
A comment on last week's hawt chicks & links from a reader with an unpronounceable name: "In a world where we continue to experience labor...
Shooting Abbott only makes him stronger
Adam Piggott - February 28, 2018
On Tuesday night former prime minister Tony Abbott made a fairly innocuous speech to the Australia Institute on the subject of immigration. The gist...
The First Law of Economics
Mattys ModernLife - May 18, 2017
Editor: Mattys Modern Life has produced a video which explains Say's Law - supply creates its own demand; rightly disparages John Maynard Keynes -...
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PASADENA, Calif: With the launch of a new children's eyewear line of blue light glasses, parents can start their kid's eye protection from blue light young to ensure the health of their child's eyes later on.
Our customers have been asking us from day one for a kids version they can buy for their kids, a representative from Pixel Eyewear stated. We're very excited to expand our blue light glasses, a product that our adult customers absolutely love, and make them available for all the kids out there in adorable styles that both parents and children will love!
Protecting children's eyes from the sun is a no-brainer, but in this day and age, parents have more to worry about when it comes to their kids' vision. With schools now integrating technology into more students' lives and kids watching tablets at younger ages, it's more important than ever to shield their eyes from more than UV rays.
According to the CDC, screen time rises to six hours per day for kids ages 8 to 10 and nine hours per day for kids 11 to 14 years old. Eye care professionals worry that the amount of screen time children spend can lead to greater risk for myopia as well as symptoms of computer vision syndrome, which includes eye strain, blurry vision, and headaches.
Children's eyes are not designed to be exposed to blue light emitted by computer screens, phones, and television constantly.
These stylish frames come in colors Sky Blue Crystal, Cotton Candy Pink, Indigo Blue Crystal, and neutral colors such as Chestnut Tortoise, Black, and Champagne Crystal.
For more information, visit https//www.pixeleyewear.com/collections/kids-computer-glasses.


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1198cc ONLY 9,000 MILES WITH FSH!!!
2016 | 16
Deposit £1100.00
Balance £9895.00
Fees £298.00
Total Payable £14261.50
Term 60 mths
Representative APR 11.8%
1st Pmt £363.39
Monthly Pmt £207.59 p/m*. x 58 mths
Final Pmt £363.39
Other Ducati bikes in Sittingbourne
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For more than 20 years, SwartAd has leveraged strategic design and messaging to brand and advertise on behalf of our client partners.
We invite people to experience brands with tactical combinations of words and visuals. And SwartAd shows respect for emotional intelligence with concepts that speak to hearts as well as minds.
Key Art Design
Eighties Elegance: Movie Posters From a Gilded Decade
"[They] wanna bring the Eighties back. That's okay with me, that's where they made me at." —Jay Z (Blue Magic)
1980s fashions channeled the 1940s
The 1980s was a nostalgic decade. Fashion was a fun house mirror reflection of the 1940s. The Norma Kamali-inspired wide-padded shoulder, cinch-waisted ensembles (modeled by Diane Keaton in Baby Boom, 1987) were dead ringers for World War II fashions—only more extreme. Men's suits designed by Giorgio Armani (worn by Richard Gere in American Gigolo, 1980) were cut loose, also with broad shoulders, low-gorge lapels, and a low-slung button stance that referenced "The Bold Look" of the immediate post-war period. A well-tailored Forties movie actor, Ronald Reagan, led the free world. The era's Post-Modern towers reinterpreted architectural forms of the past. And within those buildings there were fortunes to be made. "Greed is… good!" proclaimed Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas) in Wall Street, 1987.
The Internet was but a little-known novelty used by universities in the Eighties. Cross-platform marketing was still an analog affair; feature films were advertised with theatrical trailers, TV spots, outdoor media and through newspaper and magazine ads. Designer/provocateur David Carson wouldn't proclaim "The End of Print" until the next decade. And measuring 27" x 40", movie posters (the subject of this article) were at the top of the print advertising pantheon.
Best Picture Oscar® poster designed by author
I recently took another look at at the 80 Years of Oscar poster I designed for the Motion Picture Academy. Comprised of key art (the image that provides the foundation on which a movie's marketing campaign is based) representing all the movies that won the Academy Award for Best Picture up to that time, it's essentially a poster about posters. Focusing on the section commemorating the Eighties, it's clear that all of the key art representing those Best Picture winners aren't necessarily the best posters—although some are outstanding. I wondered if those old one-sheets had anything to teach us—apart from providing a visual record of our pre-digital recent past. If you're interested in movies, marketing, design, or just missing the pleasures and pursuits lost to the pandemic, read on for a guided tour of American advertising ephemera which promoted that gilded decade's award-winning films, with an occasional detour for artistic merit. I've attempted to credit the creatives involved and apologize for any errors or omissions.
Template design—big heads in the sky
STARS, STORIES, AND CONCEPTS
A studio marketing executive once said to me, "A lot of the movies are crap. At least we can make a good poster!" The good and not so-good movie posters of the Eighties mostly fit into one of three compositional schemes dating back to the silent film era: (1) the story sell illustrated as a montage or scene from the movie, (2) the concept sell consisting of juxtapositions that form a new idea, and (3) the star sell characterized by big heads in the sky, often with a small cityscape, landscape, or seascape placed in the lower quarter of the poster. Some designers sardonically called the latter format "The Warner Bros. Template" regardless of the studio or setting; whether depicting Manhattan (Bonfire of the Vanities, 1990, and the aforementioned Wall Street, 1987) or Manhattan Beach, California (Tequila Sunrise, 1988). It was a durable visual trope. The most organic use of the head in the sky convention—Darth Vader's head in outer space, to be specific—was designed by Seiniger Advertising for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, 1980. More on that boutique agency later.
Pictures within posters symbolizing families falling apart
TASTE AND RESTRAINT
On the poster for the decade's first Best Picture winner, Ordinary People, 1980, photos divided by hinged picture frames represent a family separated by grief. It's a more nuanced execution than the snapshot of a family about to separate for the previous year's Best Picture winner, the divorce drama Kramer vs. Kramer.
Key art for Best Picture winners based on real-life events.
The Chariots of Fire one-sheet, 1981 Oscar winner, is striking for its vast amount of negative space which underscores a long telephoto shot of the British 1924 Olympic track and field hopefuls running across the top of the composition. This image of athletes in training suggests the long odds they would face in competition. The one-sheet for the 1982 Best Picture winner, Gandhi, created by Kaiser Creative, conveys even greater scope. A diminutive Ben Kingsley portrays the movie's namesake in what appears to be a frame taken from the movie. He is surrounded by a cropped-off crowd which implies—as spelled out by the body copy—that a "nation of 350 million people" continues just beyond the frame.
Key art in (mostly) black and white
The 1983 poster for Terms of Endearment, 1983 Best Picture winner, uses a grayscale snapshot of a mother (Shirley MacLaine) and her adult daughter (Debra Winger). The casual image is formally framed by somber black to foreshadow family tragedy. A more striking black and white poster that same year promoted the remake of the gangster film Scarface. Its strong vertical configuration is still a brain worm for designers.
Best (illustrated) Pictures of 1984 and 1985
MID-DECADE REFRESH
Illustration was often used to attract Eighties audiences to promote comedy and action/ adventure films, and occasionally for prestige pictures. Painted with a horror genre palette of red and black, a masked specter of (presumably) Salieri looms over the Amadeus one-sheet, 1984, whom the Best Picture-winning movie implicates as the cause of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's untimely death. As a silent visual, the key art can only hint at the sonic brilliance of the film's Mozartian score.
In 1985, illustration was also deployed for the Best Picture winner Platoon. The hi-con, agitprop graphic of an upside down helmet is adorned with a peace symbol and a soldier's dog tags which cleverly form letters within the title treatment. Like a passage from the film's elegiac score (Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings), Mike Kaiser's copy achieves an appropriately somber tone for this anti-war film, "The first casualty of war is innocence."
PRINCES OF PRINT
Movie studio marketing departments had long since moved from New York to Los Angeles by the mid-Eighties and were outsourcing print creative to a number of boutique advertising agencies specializing in entertainment, also located in the City of Angels. For big-budget films, they included Bacon O'Brien, B.D. Fox & Friends, Frankfurt/Gips/Balkind, and Spiros. The agencies that arguably dominated Eighties key art were led by Anthony Goldschmidt and Tony Seiniger, two advertising designers (Seiniger's preferred term) with vastly different temperaments and artistic styles. Founded by the tall, urbane Yale-educated Goldschmidt, Intralink Film & Graphic Design, located on La Peer Drive in Beverly Hills, was distinguished by its understated gray and white Georgian façade. The firm was known for restrained designs such as the aforementioned Chariots of Fire poster.
Seiniger Advertising was helmed by its hard-driving namesake whose idea of weekend relaxation was racing vintage Formula 1 cars [full disclosure: I worked there]. The always busy shop (ad-speak for agency) was located in Los Angeles at the intersection of Third Street and La Jolla Avenue, equidistant to the major movie studios. The diagonally wood-sided complex (since demolished) had narrow stairways leading to aeries that served as improvised ateliers, an octagonal production room, a serene courtyard, and a subterranean-feeling trailer department was, depending on where one sat, an eagles' nest or rabbit warren of creativity (both Seiniger and Goldschmidt fielded successful trailer departments).
Most Eighties one-sheets for mainstream movies weren't overtly designed. One reason may be that studio marketers often employed focus groups to test comps (facsimiles of posters); the lowest common denominator biases of these groups may have obliviated creative risk-taking. Another explanation is that a lack of a distinctive style make Eighties key art seem less contrived, and thus a more convincing vehicle of mass communication. It sure didn't discourage the sale of movie tickets.
The polished conservative look of the Eighties, consisting of serif typography (Garamond, anyone?) and representational imagery, matched the political climate in the United States. Ronald Reagan (POTUS, 1980-1988), whose avuncular persona was first established in Warner Bros. movies and later polished on television's GE Theater, is credited with revitalizing conservatism; moreover, the successive Republican administration of George H.W. Bush (1988-1992) was called the preppie Presidency due to the president's Ivy League style.
Indie key art for Island Pictures' releases
INDIE SPIRIT
Independent films required a different mentality to reach audiences; big heads in sky wouldn't cut it with "art" film aficionados. But the lack of big-name stars left space for high-concept graphic design and edgier style. Key art for indie pictures were created by boutique agencies that included Rod Dyer & Associates and Mark Matsuno. For the Oscar-nominated Kiss of the Spider Woman, 1985, Matsuno's use of Art Deco typography (Newport Land) with a silhouetted image of a woman in a tropical setting hinted at the suppressed glamour of the film's mysterious protagonist. The agency that consistently expressed the indie spirit was Concept Arts, led by Lucinda Cowell and Ron Michaelson. For example, an unlikely Mondrian color scheme and distressed surface texture skins their poster for River's Edge, 1986, a deftly cropped image of a young woman asleep in a field. On closer inspection, the viewer realizes the woman is dead.
Seiniger's sentimental side
NOSTALGIA IS GOLDEN
The enhanced photo-assembly for the 1986 Best Picture-winner Out of Africa was more in-sync with the Eighties penchant for nostalgia. A serifed typeface replete with a swash spells out the title. In this bucolic Seiniger poster, two lovers played by Meryl Streep and Robert Redford are bathed in a golden light. However, on second glance all is not as it appears. While Streep gazes at Redford, his body is turned away from her, indicating that their relationship is ill-fated.
The power of symmetry
Symmetry conveys power—think of the aesthetics of authoritarian regimes throughout history. For a while, I avoided symmetrical design because I thought it was inherently fascist. Seiniger wasn't constrained by such naive notions. His imperial red and amber-hued one-sheet for the Best Picture winner The Last Emperor, 1987, conveys the existential absurdity of China's last royal sovereign—a child—whose pouty face is commandingly centered in front of the Forbidden City. That same year Seiniger's team—led by Senior Art Director Olga Kaljakin, whose elegant aesthetic shaped much of the firm's work in the mid-Eighties—also utilized symmetry for The Untouchables key art. The poster for this crime film is dominated by a looming Robert De Niro as Al Capone presiding over his city. The visual message is reinforced by the copy, "He ruled Chicago with absolute power."
The invisible design of Intralink
The following year's Best Picture key art for Rain Man, created at Intralink, consisted of an understated photographic image of the film's stars, Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, sauntering through an allée. The diagonal perspective of the background indicates the ambling stars may have been stripped into the composition. An effortless look that took practiced effort to achieve, all before Photoshop.
Almost 3 decades separate these cinematic road trips through the Jim Crow-era South
For the decade's last Best Picture-winner Driving Miss Daisy, 1989, Dave Christiansen (an impressive talent with an equally impressive handlebar mustache) working in-house at Seiniger had channeled Norman Rockwell to paint a rearview mirror reflection of Morgan Freeman chauffeuring Jessica Tandy. Its impact is intensified by a liberal use of negative space. Christiansen's illustration represented the story of a cross-racial friendship and journey through the Jim Crow-era South—the composition would have worked equally well for the 2018 winner, Green Book.
Poster and a frame from trailer for Glory
Advertising for another Best Picture contender from 1989, Glory, handled racial themes differently. TriStar's poster for the Civil War epic was a hybrid of photography and illustration. It inexplicably obscured the identity of a group of Union soldiers within a grainy silhouette hand-tinted with patriotic hues; thereby sidestepping the central point of the movie—that Black men also fought to end slavery. Conversely, Seiniger's Glory trailer intersperses close-ups of its Black stars Denzel Washington and Morgan Freeman with shots of combat and superimposed words, "they fought for freedom" cut to the glorious sounds of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana.
BACK TO TO OUR FUTURE
Fast-forward to now. For the amateur designer, apps can select appropriate fonts and achieve rudimentary montage effects. Yet despite digital advances and the terminal condition of print, the voracious appetite of streaming platforms for content still provide opportunities for creative professionals. Back to the earlier question—does Eighties key art have anything to teach us? The small insets of those once-large movie posters reprinted on my Oscar compilation make it easier to look beyond the surface design elements and other fashionable enthusiasms of the Eighties and focus on the overall compositions. How little has changed—the star sells, story sells, and concept sells used to promote movies back in the day are still utilized. They've just been simplified for a Netflix queue. On any platform, when these selling conventions are communicated through superlative execution and, better yet, contrasted with creative inventions, they attract the attention of audiences.
©2020 Alex Swart • All rights reserved
When Style and Design Agreed
Working from home during the Pandemic allows more time to reflect. And my mind has drifted back to early childhood experiences that inadvertently led to a life-long interest in design. This includes a fascination with automobiles which began as a small boy walking through the New Hampshire woods with my father, where we came across the rusting hulk of a Model A Ford—a relic of a more romantic time. Indoors, my mother and I watched old black and white movies; I was influenced by those images of film sets, clothing and cars and would draw them. Now, working as an advertising designer and creative director, I often look beyond my field—to cinema, the built environment, and fine art—for inspiration when sketching ideas for campaigns.
Zeitgeist sums up the spirit of an era, including the applied arts. I think that more than once there was a time when architecture, industrial design, fashion, and related fields intersected to express an identifiable ethos—a year when the synchronicity evident in cinema occurred across discrete design disciplines. While acknowledging that there were other countervailing directions in design, to this idiosyncratic observer it all came together in 1961 with a style we can call Classical Modernism. A clean, unadorned look inspired by antiquity; the following American designs highlight that aesthetic consensus:
1. The Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico, designed by Edward Durrell Stone (1961).
2. Ford Motor Company's 1961 Lincoln Continental luxury car, designed by Elwood Engel.
3. The gown worn by Jacqueline Kennedy at the 1961 Presidential Inaugural Gala, designed by her personal couturier Oleg Cassini.
CLASSIC AND MODERN
Edward Durrell Stone designed several distinguished peripteral buildings (surrounded on four sides by colonnades), seemingly pared-down versions of Greek temples. Flat roofs reference modernist International Style structures, but also the Parthenon in its ruined, roofless state. And the marble aggregate cladding of Stone's buildings recalls their ancient forbearers. This connection to classical design is evident in the architect's colonnaded Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico, dedicated in 1961. Yet the triangular undulations of its walls and hexagonal skylights also distinguish it as a modern temple for the arts.
Stuart Building, Pasadena.
As lead-times from concept to completion are longer in architecture than other design fields, some of Stone's earlier and later buildings may be considered episodes in a 1961-ish series. In June 1959, he was selected as the architect of what was eventually named the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, though the building officially opened eleven years later. Between 1958 and 1971, Stone realized classical allusions expressing a slender lightness, a style he called New Formalism: the rectilinear Stuart Building in Pasadena (c. 1958), the related American Embassy in New Delhi (c. 1959), and the Kennedy Center all feature golden pencil-like columns sharpened at both ends. New Formalism is a variation on a theme, an architectural impulse representative of a broader cultural movement—Classical Modernism. There is a sense of optimism in this architecture compared with the fortress-like American Embassy in Baghdad (completed in 2009). The airy mid-Century embassy in New Delhi was commissioned by a confident country still flush from its victory over fascism. It is a metaphor for transparent democracy and social justice—an ideal the nation has never fully realized at home. The reckoning over civil rights denied to BIPOC would come later.
SCULPTURED STEEL
The headline in a print ad proclaimed the "classic beauty" of the new 1961 Lincoln Continental; the body copy described the vehicle as "a new concept in sculptured steel." Designed by Elwood Engel, the slab sides of this long, low luxury car recall the rectilinear horizontality of Stone's museum in Puerto Rico. From a frontal view the car's planar surfaces become delicate blades, akin to Stone's slender columns. The mesh-pattern of its wide grille is reminiscent of the screen block expanses set back behind colonnades at Stone's New Delhi and Pasadena projects.
Indeed, its white convertible iteration owned by Jacqueline Kennedy is a stunning departure from the curvaceous, ostentatious tail-finned Cadillacs of the preceding decade. Its midnight blue fraternal twin provides an even starker contrast—the infamous open-topped limousine that carried President Kennedy to a tragic end in Dallas.
FASHION FORWARD FROCK
On a happier occasion thirty-four months earlier, the First Lady personified a look both classical and modern. Her personal couturier, Oleg Cassini, created the satin silk gown she wore to the 1961 Inaugural Gala. It was named by London's Design Museum among "50 Dresses That Changed The World." So different from the curve-enhancing frocks of the 1950s, the wardrobe Cassini designed for Mrs. Kennedy has been described as "architecturally clean." The champagne colored silk of the inaugural gown is akin to Stone's beige travertine expanses. The straight lines of the gown, gently flared at the hip, is analogous to the Lincoln Continental's rectilinearity. The car is similarly interrupted by a slight rise in its beltline just ahead of the rear wheel cutout. Cassini's clothing manifests a formal elegance filtered through mid-Century modern allure, a through-line connecting fashion, cars, and buildings.
CONSENSUS AND CROSS-POLLINATION
Whether conscious or unconscious, it appears that Stone, Cassini, and Elwood were responding to the spirit of their time. Did they influence each other? Research didn't yield evidence to support that notion, other than a kind of six degrees of separation. But all three designers were within the Kennedy nexus. Stone had been recommended to President Kennedy by his staunch political ally, Senator J. William Fulbright (a childhood chum of the architect). Cassini, known as the Secretary of Style, and Mrs. Kennedy, the First Lady of Fashion, were close collaborators. And Engel had presented his Lincoln Continental ideas to Robert McNamara, President of Ford Motor Company, who left his post in Detroit to become Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy Administration.
As a young immigrant family, we were inspired by the new president and his young family. Perhaps the Kennedys brought diverse design disciplines together through the sheer power of their taste and personalities. It helped that Mrs. Kennedy had an avid interest in design. She spearheaded the interior refurbishment of the White House and had also asked famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy to redesign the livery of Air Force One. Loewy's response was a modern, linear blue and gold color scheme with classical Caslon typography spelling out UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. President Trump intends to replace the iconic design and its "Jackie Kennedy color".
President and Mrs. Kennedy exit Air Force One, November 22, 1963
Apparently optimistic leadership inspired a cultural consensus, which was also expressed through popular entertainment in 1961. On the television series The Dick Van Dyke Show, chic protagonists Rob and Laura Petrie (Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore) served as comedic doppelgängers for the President and Mrs. Kennedy—Moore wearing trim Capri pants and Van Dyke attired in a sleek Botany 500 suit and taking pratfalls over an ottoman. And much has been written about the classically modern wardrobe Hubert de Givenchy designed for Audrey Hepburn's character, Holly Golightly, in the dramatic film Breakfast at Tiffany's.
En route to Emerald City.
STYLE ON THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD
But that kind of interdisciplinary agreement is rare, even within specific fields. Exceptions have been schools with a unified aesthetic such as the Bauhaus, or art and design movements like De Stijl. As theorist Witold Rybczynski explains in The Look of Architecture, inconsistency is more common than alignment. Other than the short-lived Kennedy era, stylistic agreement also coalesced across design disciplines during other years—when the applied arts really became, well, the allied arts. In 1939, for example, Streamline Moderne—a style that evolved from Art Deco—permeated design culture. Streamlined aircraft—like the Lockheed P-38 fighter designed by Kelly Johnson—was already a functional given, as were the sleek trains designed by Raymond Loewy.
On roads, the fencing-mask prow of the 1937-1941 Lincoln-Zephyr automobiles (designed by Eugene Gregorie and John Tjaarda) rolled with this streamlined look. In fact, all the new American cars for 1939 presented a wind-cheating face, if only stylistically. Wind tunnels were not part of automotive development then; streamlining just expressed a stylistic idea—one that still makes an appearance here and there. Recently, I saw it in the aerodynamic profile of a determined motorist who passed me on the 405—the oblique angle of his nose and forehead, trimmed mustache and slicked-back hair was as streamlined as the powerful '41 Cadillac fastback he drove. After all, some people resemble their pets—why not vintage cars?
Greta Garbo wearing silly hat. Ninotchka, 1939.
Architecture was also streamlined; styled with curved corners and minimal surface decoration that imbued stationary buildings with an aerodynamic aspect. You can still see it on screen in the sparkling towers of Emerald City beyond the Yellow Brick Road in The Wizard of Oz (designed by Bill Horning). Even the silly hat worn by Greta Garbo (designed by Adrian) in the 1939 film Ninotchka was streamlined. In real life, the Thirties live on in the curved, golden-tiled corner entrance of the former May Company building, still standing on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles, (designed by Albert C. Martin, 1939)—soon to open as the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
This futuristic style consensus was ratified by the exhibits and attractions of the 1939 New York World's Fair and distilled in the event's signature structures, Trylon and Perisphere (designed by Wallace Harrison and J. André Fouilhoux). But why Streamline Moderne? Perhaps after almost a decade of the Great Depression, people were more than ready for what the Fair billed as "The World of Tomorrow."
Trylon and Perisphere, 1939 New York World's Fair.
The Thirties notwithstanding, Rybczynski points out that architects are usually wary of any linkage to fashion because, "suspicion of style is a heritage of the modern movement, which preached against the arbitrary dictates of style and fashion, while maintaining an unspoken but rigid stylistic consistency." They prefer the rigor of systems. But Rybczynski warns that a building must be sympathetic to how people dress, or it looks irrelevant, and concludes, "Like it or not, architecture cannot escape fashion." And one might also add, other design fields aren't immune to the influence of architecture either. To paraphrase the motto of the design-centric proponents of De Stijl, "the object of humankind is style"—at least in reference to the applied arts.
HARMONIC CONVERGENCE
So why did designers across discrete fields come to an apparent de facto stylistic agreement in 1939 and 1961? Was there something in the air, or were the similarities coincidental? In those pre-Pinterest times, it's unlikely that an automotive designer in Detroit would have been influenced by Paris, or even New York, fashion. I think it's because creative people tire of what's happening sooner than everybody else, and sometimes they come independently to similar conclusions. Their resulting designs embody a kind of harmonic convergence. Maybe that's why the thick curves of the Thirties were eventually replaced by the slender rectilinearity of the Sixties.
A lack of diversity in American applied arts probably contributed to the singular looks of the pre and post-war eras. California-based Paul Williams, for example, was the most prominent Black architect whose prolific career spanned both time periods. But his work transcends any specific style and does not easily fit within the parameters covered herein. Noted women designers, such as Dorothy Draper and Sister Parish, were consigned primarily to interior design. Even fashion at the highest level was largely led by white men. As for LBGTQIA+ contributions, it's hard to know. Other than former movie star turned interior designer William Haines, people were understandably more circumspect about sexual orientation and gender identity in 1939 and 1961.
Hadid/Pharrell design for Adidas trainer
LOOKING BACK, OUT, AND FORWARD
Technology can also engender consensus. Computer modeling is one reason Frank Gehry's undulating steel-skinned buildings, such as the Guggenheim Bilbao, have a commonality with the angular concave shapes of Chris Bangle's flame-surfaced BMWs. And sometimes aesthetic agreement is intentional, such as when music and fashion icon Pharrell Williams and architect Zaha Hadid collaborated on the design of prefab houses and Adidas trainers.
To mix metaphors, staying in your lane may be necessary—for a while—to achieve proficiency in a design discipline; conversely, staying isolated in a professional silo limits your vision—silos lack windows. As Pharrell Williams says, "I have never believed in boundaries."
This stroll through the past has touched on the superficial appearance of things, which may seem, well, superficial. Yet the look of buildings, vehicles, and apparel can serve as symbolic markers of an era. Streamline Moderne presented a vision of an imagined future in 1939. The Classical Modernism of 1961 reinterpreted the past in a fresh way. Both movements transcended parochial design boundaries to define the style of their respective eras.
I believe in looking out and looking back, as well as forward. Although perspective makes it easier to recognize patterns and through-lines when looking at the past, the style of the future may defy prediction. It's rare when the various design disciplines express universal affinities. It's more likely that urgent social, environmental, and economic concerns will be a catalyst for diversity in design with a multiplicity of expression. As in previous eras, style will help these new ideas and forms resonate.
The View From Our Dining Room
In the summer of 1996 before #WFH was a thing, our one-year-old twin girls were crawling underneath my legs, their four-year-old brother was running laps around the dinner table, and Ellen Considine and I were busily launching an ad agency from our dining room armoire. Ellen would handle the account side and I was to concentrate on creative. This was not entirely ludicrous to us; artists, designers, and writers often start with a blank page and imagine something that only feels inevitable once it's completed. That can also apply to business.
By design, the Swart Advertising logo (based on a commemorative postage stamp) implied that our nascent firm had been around for years — the mark portrayed a 17th Century Dutch ship entering New Amsterdam Harbor, with the great metropolis the settlement would become looming in the background. This image resonated because I was born in Holland and New York International Airport was the point of entry to my adopted country. Our journey, symbolized by the old sailing ship, had just begun.
With a shared background in entertainment advertising, our goal was to imbue tune-in ads with movie poster production value; initially for shows like Xena: Warrior Princess and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. We called it "key art for television."
Instead of bosses, we now had clients who depended on us. And thankfully, more work followed. We moved the business out of our home and into a building designed by Eric Lloyd Wright — yes, that architectural family! This unique pyramidal building inspired the creativity of the many talented art directors, designers and writers with whom we've worked.
Sophomore Success
At the start of the Millennium we rebranded as SwartAd with a simplified logo better suited to online. Our campaigns were often recognized for contributing to the success of brands and properties. By balancing evocative copy with elegant visuals, we won an unprecedented two Promax World Class Awards — for Universal Horror and The Alfred Hitchcock Centennial film collections — in the same competition. And I designed four more Oscar® posters and outdoor for the Academy. It was a heady time.
We said farewell to Xena on the cover of Variety and said hello to Jack Bauer with an award-winning campaign for 24. We also created advertising for other genres including the Western with a campaign for the TNT film Monte Walsh (starring Tom Selleck), which set a record for cable viewership.
Besides fiction, we designed key art for the feature documentary Steal a Pencil For Me, a true story of the Holocaust. Working with the filmmakers, we developed motifs from the poster to create the film's main title sequence.
Seemingly unscathed by the dot-com bust earlier in the decade, I had been quoted in the Los Angeles Times, "LA is a great town for a creative person." But a successful entrepreneur had gently warned me when we started the business that there would be good and bad times — I didn't hear him. Then came the Great Recession.
Just Don't Go Away
In the challenging economic climate of the early 2010s, many entertainment advertising agencies closed their doors. Our unofficial slogan became "Just don't go away." Ellen expanded our digital capabilities. Leveraging experience telling stories through deft pairings of words and images, we designed websites across a range of industries, as well as weekly online ads for CBS — the brevity of our OOH messaging proved to be a good model.
Building on previous experience with CNN, SwartAd continued working in the news and information space with campaigns for the Southern California News Group. Informed by a hyper-local strategy, these print, outdoor, and radio ads expressed our belief in a vital, independent press — some earned Addy Awards.
Branding became more important to us, starting by freshening our own mark with an orange/gray color scheme and tagging it with a new mantra, "Creative. Thinking." We created logos for national TV shows and a variety of businesses.
A side-hustle continues to be writing and teaching classes including "Entertainment Advertising Design" and "Design Thinking" at California State University, Northridge.
The classes are configured to help designers become better thinkers, and help non-designers effectively leverage design and conceptual communication in their professions.
Ellen (a former teacher) and I passionately believe in public education, so we enthusiastically developed a multi-platform campaign that positioned Los Angeles City College as "The City's College." LACC president Dr. Mary Gallagher kindly said, "SwartAd made us visible across the city." Our LACC campaign is documented in a short film, Words & Pictures.
Just as the pandemic was coming into focus, we were surprised to receive an Educational Advertising Award for last summer's "My LACC" campaign, which spanned an entire city block. But the gold statuette already seemed like a souvenir of a distant time — the students depicted in our ads can't be on campus now.
Ellen and I miss in-person contact with the talented people we work with. We miss being with clients and our adult children (who have all worked in our design studio at various times). Now the demarcations between personal and professional lives — always blurry for entrepreneurs — have been erased. Like so many across the planet, we're rethinking our business model.
Navigating this uncharted territory requires a new approach. And also a renewed spirit, or rather, an old one. At SwartAd, that's the start up spirit that launched the agency from our dining room in the first place. And while we're not rebranding, we're now thinking of the company as Swart Up. It's been said that history doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme. I thought that by looking back I might discover a path forward. I'll let you know where it leads.
ellen@swartad.com
All work showcased herein was created by SwârtAd (unless otherwise indicated) and remains the property of its respective copyright holders.
©2021 Swârt Advertising. All rights reserved.


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Liquid Metropolis
The Vanishing Neighbourhood
The Reflecting Man
Classic Hong Kong Photographs
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From the founding of modern Hong Kong in 1842 Queen's Road West has always been a traditional Chinese neighbourhood. This road full of memories and history is undergoing radical change, its spirit ever more rapidly being striped away as the eye of property developers has fallen on it with the arrival of MTR stations at Sai Ying Pun and HKU. In an effort to capture the street and its inhabitants for posterity I shot a booked commissioned by and in aid of the Sovereign Art Foundation, "Queen's Road West, the vanishing neighbourhood." These are some of the images. For the full story find the book in the Shop section of this site.
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© 2021 William Furniss Photography.


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Police Use of Strip Searches Skyrockets in NSW
22/05/2019 by Paul Gregoire
At the 11 May Midnight Mafia festival at Sydney Olympic Park, NSW police officers searched 272 punters following an indication from a sniffer dog. Of these, 32 were charged with possession and eight were issued with new on-the-spot fines.
This means that police and their canine helpers got it wrong 85 percent of the time.
Now, this might seem like some sort of anomaly, but it's not. Data obtained by the NSW Greens' Sniff Off campaign going back as far as 2009, reveals that police have been consistently getting it wrong with drug dogs for around two-thirds to three-quarters of the time.
So, the large number of sniffer dog searches turning up no drugs is nothing new. But, what is a recent development is the increasing numbers of people attending festivals – or even getting off the train on their way home – that are being told to remove all of their clothes in front of strangers.
Authorities have repeatedly denied that any change in policy has occurred. However, NSW Greens MLC David Shoebridge revealed that while drug dog search numbers have dropped off recently, over the last eight years, the accompanying use of strip searches has risen by almost 267 percent.
Flawed and invasive
"The number of strip searches has increased year after year after year," Mr Shoebridge said. In 2011, "the number of drug dog indications that escalated into a strip search was some 3 percent". But, in 2018, "11 percent of all initial searches ended up with a strip search".
"It's a fairly dramatic change," he added. "And it's having a dramatic impact, especially on young people."
The warrantless use of sniffer dogs in public places began prior to the 2000 Olympics. And as early as 2006, a NSW Ombudsman report slammed the program as ineffective, because it only resulted in drugs being found 26 percent of the time, and in most cases it was small amounts of cannabis.
"People are being subjected to literally thousands of searches in fairly flagrant breaches of their basic civil liberties on a program that has such a high failure rate," Mr Shoebridge made clear, adding that it "shows just how aggressive and wrong-headed the government is on drug law enforcement."
"Don't be home too late."
These days police can be found loitering with dogs around the front of music festivals. And taxpayers' teenage daughters and sons are being taken into small tents alone and being asked to strip off, squat down and cough in front of armed and uniformed adult officers.
On most occasions, when the state perpetrates this act of indecency upon these kids, it has nothing to do with any illegal activity. Instead, the dirty logic is it's somehow keeping the community safe.
"We know it's traumatising young people. And we know that it's seriously damaging the relationship between young people and the NSW police," Mr Shoebridge told Sydney Criminal Lawyers. "This seems to be something that the police are quite comfortable with."
"We're currently going through the police standard operating procedures and training to see if there's any recognition of the traumatic impact," Shoebridge continued. "Our initial review suggests that police are not advised as to how traumatic strip searches can be, especially on young women."
After a rough day at work
Over the last three months, NSW police have on three occasions set up screens on platforms at Central Station, so they can strip search commuters on their way home at the whim of a dog that by no fault of its own makes wrong indications the overwhelming majority of the time.
Citizens who don't drive to their place of employment are being penalised by police who are subjecting them to an initial search by smell regardless of what they've been up to. And if they're unlucky, they have to take off their clothes at the station all in the name of keeping the city safe.
Many officers aren't even aware of the correct procedures for strip searches. At Midnight Mafia, a young man was strip searched because of the way he was chewing gum, while, in March, a 19-year-old woman was searched with a tent door half open at the Hidden festival.
Don't consent to a search
The Redfern Legal Centre's Safe and Sound campaign has the aim of not only lowering search numbers, but also changing the police strip search protocol wording in the Law Enforcement (Powers and Responsibilities Act) 2002 (the LEPRA), as at the moment, it's too "vague and legalistic".
Section 33 of the LEPRA outlines that a strip search must be carried out in an enclosed area, body cavities should never be checked, the search shouldn't involve the removal of any clothing unnecessarily and an officer should never touch an individual.
If you are subjected to a search, it's best to politely comply with an officer's instructions, but make sure you tell them that you don't consent to the search, as later down the track, if it's found the search was carried out illegally, consent actually overrides that finding and makes the search legal.
All's not lost
According to Shoebridge, the Berejiklian government – with its new police minister David Elliott – hasn't wavered in its support of the measures NSW police are currently employing. This is hardly surprising considering the reigning premier's consistent tough on crime and drugs rhetoric.
Despite figures revealing that crime rates in NSW are at some of their lowest in the last 20 years, the Liberal Nationals government revealed last November that it's investing in the largest increase in NSW police numbers in 30 years. This involves the employment of an extra 1,500 officers.
Although, Mr Shoebridge believes that when it comes the ever-increasing use of strip searches, the tide is turning. The Greens justice spokesperson explained that public attitudes are shifting, while the mainstream media is providing much more critical analysis of police operations.
"It's going to require constant scrutiny in parliament, continuing to get the data and stories out into the public domain, and it's going to require continued pressure on the NSW Police Force," Mr Shoebridge concluded.
"This is an illegitimate form of policing. We need to highlight that and then change it."
Paul Gregoire
Paul Gregoire is a Sydney-based journalist and writer. He has a focus on human rights issues, encroachments on civil liberties, drug law reform, gender diversity and First Nations rights. Prior to Sydney Criminal Lawyers®, he wrote for VICE and was the news editor at Sydney's City Hub.
Paul's
Challenging Abuse of Police Powers: An Interview With Greens MLC David Shoebridge
Sniffer Dogs: False Positives and Limits to Police Powers
NSW Police Force Doubles Strip Searches
NSW Police Treat Strip-Searches As Routine Procedure
The High Cost of NSW Sniffer Dog Operations
Police Strip-Search 19-Year Old, Find Nothing but Kick Her Out of Festival Anyway
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