With all of the excitement surrounding social media, Meetup is the perfect blend of behind-the-keyboard and face-to-face. I’ve been having fun exploring parts of the city I may never have known before and have met some really awesome people. It gets me out doing things I may normally not ever do. It’s easy come, easy go as far as picking and choosing how involved I want to be. Their tagline is “Do something; Learn Something; Share Something; Change Something” and I’ve found it to be absolutely true.

I’ve been having a ball on hiking expeditions, happy hour and trivia Meetups so far. Here are a few more groups I’m thinking about checking out in the future:

• The Atlanta Graphic Design Collective on Meetup
• Sky’s the Limit Adventures ATLANTA
• Atlanta Web Design Group
• Georgia Adventurers Group
• Dog hikers of Kennesaw Mountain
• Atlanta Wine & Dine Group
• Atlanta Chocolate Meetup

Just like an app, there really is something for everyone. I have found myself saying, “There’s a Meetup for that!” For example, here’s a few more ‘unique’ groups happening in the ATL area right now:

• The Atlanta Dungeons & Dragons Meetup Group
• Atlanta Firewalking
• Atlanta Jugglers Association
• The North Georgia Pet Chicken Meetup Group
• Cobb County UFO Experiencers
• Hundredth Monkey Sangha

…and the list goes on!

Don’t find what you’re into? You can always become a group organizer for your “OTP Underwater Basket Weavers”. Currently there are 7.2 million members with 46,000 Meetup topics in 45,000 cities registered with the site. A few quotes on their site sum it all up:

“Meetup allows people to find people who would never find each other in the regular world. It’s begun to change interpersonal communication.”

“For instance, if you’re into dressing your cat up like a Star Trek character, you’ll find someone else out there that does the same — it brings people together.”

Meetup’s been a great social networking experience for me so far! If you want to do something, learn something, share something or change something, check it out.

One night I happened to catch a news clip about our online identities and what happens after someone passed away. Not something you ever really think about, but you can imagine what families might have to endure if they were denied access to important personal accounts simply because they didn’t have the passwords. Such was the case with Jeremy Toeman, who wanted to get access to his grandmother’s accounts after she passed but couldn’t. He recognized that if something were to happen to him that his family would have the same problem.

This inspired Jeremy to build a program called Legacy Locker, a safe and convenient way to pass along logins to loved ones. On Legacy Locker you can not only store your digital assets but also copy documents such as deeds, stock certificates, contracts and even write a letter to a loved one or create a video document. The site also allows you to setup different beneficiaries for different assets and you can easily change them.

As our lives become more and more tied to digital data, services such as Legacy Locker will become increasingly necessary to manage that data.

What’s the difference between a vector and raster file?
A vector graphic is an image that is not made up of a specific number of dots, it can be scaled to a larger size and will not lose any image quality. If you blow up a raster graphic, it will look blocky, or “pixelated.” When you blow up a vector graphic, the edges of each object within the graphic stay smooth and clean. This makes vector graphics ideal for logos, which can be small enough to appear on a business card, but can also be scaled to fill a billboard. Common types of vector graphics include Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand and EPS files.

.ai – Adobe Illustrator Vector Drawing
Fully scalable, composed of paths or lines connected by points, instead of bitmap data.

.bmp – Bitmap
Raster image format used to store display images, suitable for photos. Made up of a rectangular grid of pixels, each pixel is a different color which together form an image.

.eps – Encapsulated PostScript
A platform independent format used for vector or raster information. Fully scalable when it is saved from Illustrator.

.gif – Graphics Interchange Format
Compressed image file used for screen presentation only. Used on the Internet for images with 256 colors or less. Can also make transparent gifs for web and animated gifs.

.jpeg or .jpg – Joint Photographic Experts Group
Compressed image file format. JPEG images are not limited to a certain amount of color, like GIF images are. They are used on the Internet, and for decreasing file size for larger images.

.pdf – Portable Document Format
Enables files to be viewed cross-platform and without the original program that created them. Acrobat Reader is required to view pdf file. Since PDFs contain color-accurate information, they should also print the same way they look on your screen. Many printers can print from high-resolution print-ready PDFs with crops and bleeds.

.pict or .pct – Picture File
Mainly for Mac applications, counterpart of the Windows Metafile (WMF) format. The PICT format has largely been replaced by PDF format.

.ps – Postscript
A page description language for both PC and Mac platforms, primarily used for printing documents on laser printers. The evolution of PostScript led to the development of Adobe Acrobat, which creates a PDF.

.psd – Photoshop Document
May include image layers, adjustment layers, layer masks, annotation notes, file information, keywords and other Photoshop-specific elements. Documents support RGB, CMYK, grayscale, monochrome, duotone, indexed color, Lab color, and multichannel color modes; the color mode can be changed within the Image.

.png – Portable Network Graphic
Image format that uses indexed colors. Also include an 8-bit transparency channel, which allows the colors in the image to fade from opaque to transparent. GIF images only support fully opaque or fully transparent pixels. PNG images are now supported by most Web browsers.

.tiff or .tif – Tag Image File
High-quality raster graphic format often used for storing images with many colors, such as digital photo, includes support for layers and multiple pages. Can be saved in a uncompressed format. Supported in almost all software.

I got it…this thing is amazing! There are so many uses for this incredible little machine: phone, email, web surfing, digital camera with video, iPod and endless apps that go along with it.

The apps have opened up a whole new world to me. I now can track my hikes with iMapMyHike and find out how far I am really going. I can find music on Pandora – internet radio which is great for working out. All I have to do is type in a genre or artist and it starts streaming music tailored just for me. I’m also addicted to the app Who Wants to be a Millionaire. It is just like the real show (minus Regis Philbin, the cameras and the big payout). I can phone-a-friend, ask the audience or ask the expert. The pressure feels real since you have to be quick; the countdown clock only gives you seconds to answer. If I’m ever picked for the show, I think I’ll have a great shot at the big bucks.

I must admit I was a little worried at first about somehow dropping or injuring my iPhone. After all, this was my new baby and I had already bonded with it. I thought it might be time to take some precautionary measures to protect things. After trying out a couple of different cases, I finally found one that protects against all the bumps, drops and scratches. The Otter Box does it all. One of the features I like is the swivel belt clip that easily converts to a display stand. The case may not be as cool looking as all the others out there but it will definitely protect my baby the best.

I have happily joined the masses and become an iPhone believer. I recommend taking it for a spin if you haven’t already!

More and more of our clients are requesting design that is sustainable. Sustainable design is environmentally conscious and eco-friendly—it’s the philosophy of designing physical objects or services that comply with the principles of economic, social and ecological sustainability. With the success of the “green” phenomenon, this idea is not surprising. Everybody is looking to sustain the earth in one way or another whether it is shopping organically or locally or recycling. I just started shopping at my local farmers market, and I already feel great about it. And that’s what’s so huge about sustainable design; it makes you feel good…and that’s all that matters.

As creative thinkers and graphic designers, you may wonder how we help our clients achieve their goal of staying eco-friendly. That’s why you shouldn’t be surprised that most of our requests have been for papers that are environmentally friendly. This includes business cards, brochures, postcards and other printed pieces. That’s a good start (and it’s simple) for lessoning an environmental footprint, however, some clients are interested in going the extra mile like using FSC Certified papers in support of well-managed forests. There are many other options for eco-materials specifically for printing needs, including inks and other printing processes. A great resource for green paper products is Neenah Paper. They have a great line of sustainable papers and an even better list of terms to help you decipher what’s what so you can decide which paper is right for you. Here’s what to look for:

• Made Carbon Neutral: Reduces emissions to help decrease the effects of global warming.
• 100% Post Consumer Fiber: Saves trees, water, energy and greenhouse gas emissions.
• Processed Chlorine Free: Manufactured without chlorine.
• Alternative Fiber Choices: Offers environmental benefits.
• Green Seal™ Certified: Ensures 30% minimum post consumer fiber.

Besides paper, there are many others ways we can help clients achieve their goals for sustainable design, including reducing the amount of materials required for production, printing with low-VOC inks and making sure the end-product is biodegradable. Considering how successful going green has become, many think that this is the new standard in design. HOW magazine is one of them: “Brands have to love the planet in order for us to stay here with any significant quality of life. It will no longer be OK for brands to be disposable; they must transition into something else, once their primary role is exhausted. They must be “zero-carb” in terms of carbon dioxide output, reusable, recyclable. It is no longer optional.”

What are you doing to stay eco-friendly?

Mopdog Creative + Strategy
William Musial, CEO/Creative Director
Industry: Marketing, Advertising, Creative Strategies
Number of Employees: 11

At Mopdog, merely doing “good work” is not enough. The 11-member team of marking and advertising pros and support staff is equally committed to the giving of time, talent and resources toward what they call “good works.” That’s why the community-minded advertising, marketing communications and creative strategy firm once again donated over $100,000 worth of “good works” to local organizations like the Center for Family Resources (for which they were awarded a Cobb Chamber Community Service award) and the YWCA, as well as their ever-growing list of pro-bono clients.

“Our goal is to seek out organizations that are in need of strategic and creative design services in order to make Cobb County a great place,” says Musial. After some strategic company reorganization in late 2008, Mopdog’s new and improved team of top marketing-minded professionals are more prepared than ever for the challenges of helping to make Cobb County an even greater place in 2009.

“In a small business,” says Musial, “office environment and performance are extremely important. Owning a business is not just about the bottom line-it is also very personal.” It’s Mopdog’s personal approach to business-both within the company and within its client and community partnerships, that continually distinguishes them from the rest of the pack.