The little imperfections that makes them perfect

At TILT, we are truly touched by this commercial by Ministry of Community, Youth Development and Sports (MCYS). The sentence, “In the end, it is these small things which you remember. The little imperfections that makes them perfect!” This sentence means the world to us and we hope, you may one day understand this sentence as well.

This is truly a touching television commercial directed by award winning director Yasmin from Malaysia.

Titled “Funeral”, this is an ad in Singapore promoting family, and what makes a family – the imperfections.

We hope you like this advertisement.

3 is a crowd

For the 3rd year in the row, TILT will be the Official Photographers for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM)! With a record breaking of 50,000 participants running the SCSM 2008, we are sure we will be able to witness even more runners taking part in this international event held annually on the first Sunday of December in the city of Singapore.

Come 6 December 2009, we will be ready with our shutters as early as 5.30am and capture the runners who will go through the central business district, turning into the Marina South Park before heading back to the beautiful city landscape. The route continues to the cool morning breeze at East Coast area before returning to the scenic central business district.

For the past few years, the winners had always been from Kenya. Will we see more runners from Tanzania, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, China and other European and Asian countries? Will there be some of you who will come dressed in fancy costumes?

What we are sure is that there will be people who will always be urging you on in your journey to the finishing line. The euphoric feeling experienced when you complete the race is an experience of your lifetime.

And we will be there, snapping these photos away which will unfold the story of the greatest race of earth.

Capture the Moment PhotoMarathon 2009

Geylang Serai CC Youth Executive Committee (YEC) in partnership with Young SISEU (Youth Wing of Singapore Industrial & Services Employees Union) will be organising “Capture the Moment” photo marathon contest on 5 July 09 in conjunction with the YEC’s Biennial General Meeting (BGM).

Wait no more and bring your digital camera (any type!) for a fun filled day of “shooting” and submit your best photos to stand a chance to win attractive prizes!

The Guest-of-Honour Dr Fatimah Lateef, MP for Marine Parade GRC and Adviser to Marine Parade GRC GROs. Listen to the Natas Singapore Women’s Everest Team share on their expedition success in reaching the summit of Mount Everest!

Details of the event as follows:
Guest of Honour: Dr Fatimah Lateef
Special Guest: Singapore Women’s Everest Team
Venue: NTUC Centre @ One Marina Boulevard, Level 7 Room 701
Date: 5 July 09 (Sunday)
Time: 900am to 300pm
Age Group: 15 to 35 years
Registration: $6/pax (PA members) / $10/pax (Non PA members)
Activity code no is : A14020771

For more information, visit Capture The Moment Official Website

Design Matters: So what do you think?

To be able to create a good website design, very often, you have to put yourself into the position of that of an end user. You will need to curb your organisation’s requests or your own liking and ask yourself, so what do the users think?

In TILT, this is the way which we function. A good website needs to be usable. Usability and the utility, and not how the website look, determines the success or failure of a website. If you have a good usable website, chances are, the website is good. If the design highlights the usability features, it will make the website great!

Always remember, the visitor of the page is the only person who clicks the mouse and decides where to go. Our job is to advise the client how best to create a user-centric design.

As mentioned earlier, to create a good website, first be in the shoes of the end-user. First and foremost, user habits are not different from that of a retail customer habits in a store. They will enter the website / shop, they will scan through the stuff (for website, it will be text) and take action on the first thing which catches their interest (for website, it will be link). If it doesn’t meet their expectation, they will leave the shop (for website, it will be clicking on the back button or go to another website).

If you wish to create a website in the future, perhaps the starting point can be business processes. What do you think?

Design Matters: Version Control

In the last few years, we have seen how Adobe Creative Suite had been upgraded from CS to CS 2. It took a while for the CS 3 version to come out but within weeks of its launch, CS 4 surfaced on earth.

There are some people who had been on the relentless pursuit of upgrade. Each version offers some newer options which are very valuable that the older version will not be able to achieve. In TILT, we have been on a slow and constant upgrade. In fact, we have Adobe CS 2 on 1 computer, Adobe CS 4 also on 1 computer and the rest of our computers are on Adobe CS 3.

So when this happens, how can our workflow be such that it can still be seamless and be inter-changeable such that everyone in TILT can work hand-in-hand to complete a massive project?

Below are 2 examples using Adobe Indesign as the software (since that is the software which TILT uses for almost all our work):
Work was done in the lower version of CS
Voila! Your worries are solved as Adobe CS, like many other software, is backward compatible. This means that work which was done in Adobe CS 2 can definitely be opened in Adobe CS 3 or 4 and all of you can still work together (provided the first piece of work is done in the lowest version).

Work was done in the latest version of CS
There had been many instances of this situation happening, not only at TILT but in other companies as well (as far as we know). This is a quick tip such that work can still be completed across all the different platforms.
1. Go to File > Export.
2. Set the format to InDesign Interchange. (This will make a .inx file.)
3. Older versions of InDesign can open that .inx file.
4. Open the .inx file in the older version of Adobe CS.

And with this, you can continue working as 1 company!

EXCITE!

Life’s a roller coaster.
Ups and downs, twists and turns.
Surprises and excitement, the spice of life.

What’s your passion? What excites you?
In the humdrum of life, what’s keeping you perky?
If passion is the fuel, excitement is the engine.

Life is exciting, and so is photography. “EXCITE” is the theme for Montage 2009, a photography competition organised by The Photography Society of NUS (NUSPS). TILT had submitted our magical moments of excitement with the sports photographs that were taken and we are glad that our entry had been shortlisted for the exhibition.

It had always been one of our goals to share, to inspire and to delight followers of our blog on the updates of design matters and we are thrilled to know that our entry was handpicked from over 1400 entries and will now be exhibited at Suntec Singapore.

Below are the details of the exhibition.
Suntec Singapore (Level 2)
Date: 6 – 20 June 2009
Admission is free

If you are free, why not drop by the exhibition and have a look at all the pictures that had help spread the cheer in this gloomy climate.