Balancing Skin Tone and Creating Skin Tone References

Apples are red, grass is green, and the sky is blue. But what colour is skin?
Skin gives us probably the most complex range of colours in photography, ranging from the lightest to the darkest of a varying combination of colours we might identify as red, yellow, orange, pink, brown, and black. All but the very fairest skin even contains a bit of cyan.

Reproducing skin tones in your final photographs and prints can be done by eye, but you will be leaving a great deal to chance. Even when working with a carefully colour managed workflow, our eyes are easily deceived. We see skin in the midst of the colours in the background of the image, the temperature of the lighting used to take the photograph, and the clothes the subject is wearing. To reproduce beautiful, accurate skin tones, we need to learn and use a more precise method of colour management.

Moreover, skin colour varies between people, and not just by ethnic origin but also by individual. To get a grasp of just how much skin colour varies from one person to another, have a look at Angélica Dass’s project, Humanæ. Dass is not creating a technical reference, but her project highlights the technical challenge of photographing and reproducing the staggeringly various colours and shades of human skin.

This tutorial will take you through a two-step process in Adobe Photoshop that will help. First we'll explore how to balance skin colour in photographs consistently and precisely. Second, you'll learn how to make and use references from colour-balanced skin.

Colour Theory and Skin Tones

A review of some basic colour theory will help with the technical process of balancing skin tones:

A Tale of Two Colour Systems

You may recall that there are two colour systems we use in photography. The first, RGB, is the colour system we use with our cameras and computers. Colours in this system are made by combining varying amounts of red, green, and blue. The second colour system, CMYK, is used in printing. Colours in this system are made by combining varying amounts of cyan, magenta, and yellow. Because cyan, magenta, and yellow when combined produce a dark brown and not black, the CMYK system adds a pure black (the “K” in CMYK) as a fourth colour.
Skin tones are usually evaluated using the CMYK system, even when we are working on digital images on our computers. Some people suggest that it’s easier to adjust skin tones using CMYK instead of RGB, but the reason for using CMYK is likely historical. The colour references we use for skin tones were initially developed by printing press operators who work in CMYK. The references have been refined over the years, but still within the CMYK system. There is so much information about skin tones established in that colour system now that it’s easier to use it instead of trying to convert the information to RGB.
But here is something important to know: the two colour systems are not completely different or independent. Rather, they are complements to one another. In fact, understanding how the colour systems complement each other will become important as we begin to adjust skin tone.
To see how the two colour systems work together, open the Colour Balance dialogue in Photoshop (Image > Adjustments > Colour Balance) or look at the Properties in a Colour Balance adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Colour Balance). Play with the colour adjustment sliders to see how the colour systems work together.

• The opposite of cyan is red. To get more cyan, you take away red, and to get more red, you take away cyan.
• The opposite of magenta is green. To get more magenta, you take away green, and to get more green, you take away magenta.
• And the opposite of yellow is blue. To get more yellow, you take away blue, and to get more blue, you take away yellow.

Colour Systems in Photoshop

It’s also important to know that Photoshop allows us to have information from both colour systems without switching between them. Even though we will be using the CMYK system to evaluate and balance skin tones, we will be working with our image in the usual RGB colour space. We will not be converting our digital files to CMYK.

Skin Tones in CMYK Values

You can find any number of suggested formulas for reproducing skin tones accurately. Image editors each have their favourites. The formulas are usually expressed as relative proportions of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black; for example:

• Find the cyan value; magenta should be double that of cyan, and yellow should be around one-fifth to one-third higher than magenta (20c 40m 50y). 

But as we’ve already established, skin tones vary widely between ethnicities and among individuals. Therefore, the best any formula can give you is a starting place. The following chart is my rough guide of CMYK values for different skin types.

Balancing Skin Tone

We are going to deal with skin tone in two parts. In this first part, we are going to balance skin tone in an image using Photoshop’s Info palette and a Curves adjustment layer. In the second part, we’ll make a skin tone reference from our image.

1. Prepare Your Image

Choose a properly exposed headshot of a person, ideally without a lot of background in the image. If possible, do a basic white-balance on your image before balancing skin tone. The technique we will be using to balance skin tone will correct overall colour balance in your image, but your work on skin tone will be easier if you are not also adjusting for a white balance skewed by basic lighting. If you are uncertain how to colour-balance your image or what it means, one of these Tuts+ tutorials will guide you: Quick Tips for a Perfect White Balance or Better White Balance with the Kelvin System.
You can do other portrait retouching before or after balancing skin tone. Sometimes, it’s easier to do retouching after skin tone has been balanced. In fact, sometimes balancing skin tone removes the need for some retouching. Other times, balancing skin tone helps to smooth out retouching that has already been done. Experiment to get a feel for what works best for you in different situations.

2. Select Your Sample

To begin balancing the skin tone, open the Info palette (Window > Info or F8) and select the Eyedropper tool (I). In the tools options bar, set the Sample Size to sample an area of 11 by 11 pixels (“11 by 11 Average”). If your image is low-resolution, you may want to lower your Sample Size to 5 by 5 pixels.

Select a medium-light area on the skin to sample. Avoid bright highlights; the colour saturation will be too low to provide a good sample. Also avoid the cheeks; women typically have makeup there and men often have ruddy cheeks. The chin, forehead or neck are often good points to sample on a woman’s face. For men, try sampling on the forehead or below the pupils at the very top of the cheekbones. Once you’ve chosen your sample area, Shift + Click on the spot with the Eyedropper tool to set your sample point.
In the Info palette, click on the eyedropper symbol next to the information for your sample point and from the drop-down menu, select CMYK. This will provide you with colour values in CMYK while leaving your image in the usual RGB mode.

3. Evaluate the Colour Information

Evaluate the CMYK numbers for your sample point. For example, in my photograph, the values at my sample point are:

• C - 18 
• M - 48 
• Y - 48 
• K - 1

My CMYK chart for skin tones suggests that for average Caucasian skin, I want about 25% more yellow than magenta. In my photograph, the yellow and magenta values are the same, so I will need to add a bit of yellow.
I also want less cyan than magenta. My chart suggests starting with cyan at about 25% of the magenta. In my photograph, the cyan is about one-third of the magenta, so the cyan may need to be adjusted down.
Caucasian skin typically does not have any black, so I will want to be sure that disappears as I adjust my image. Black (as it’s read in the Info palette) is the result of cyan, magenta, and yellow combined so making adjustments to those colours will change the level of black.

4. Use Curves to Make Adjustments

To make the colour adjustments, add a Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves or select Curves from the Adjustments palette). Select the On-Image Adjustment Tool (the pointing finger) in the Curves property box.
You will be working in the individual Red, Green, and Blue channels of the Curves adjustment, so remember:

• To add yellow, take away blue; or to reduce yellow, add blue.
• To add magenta, take away green; or to reduce magenta, add green.
• To add cyan, take away red; or to reduce cyan, add red.

Working one channel at a time, click and hold on the sample point you set on the skin and move the cursor up or down to adjust the curve, adding or reducing colour as you need. The numbers in the left column in the Info panel will be your starting point. The numbers on the right are your adjusted numbers.
In my photograph, I began by working in the Blue channel to add yellow, then switched to the Red channel to remove cyan. Adjusting one channel will affect another, so you may have to make small adjustments, switching back and forth between channels until you have the colours where you want them.

5. Adjust Saturation and Tweak

Adjusting colours will affect the colour saturation of your image. So, after you’ve made your colour adjustments with Curves, adjust the saturation by adding a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation or select Hue/Saturation from the Adjustments palette). Decrease the Saturation as needed.
Don’t be surprised if you find yourself going back and tweaking your Curves adjustment layer after you’ve reduced the saturation. You may also want to adjust the overall density of your image (how dark or light it is) by selecting the RGB channel in the Curves adjustment layer and nudging the overall curve (the white line in the graph) up or down.

Once you are satisfied with the skin tone in your image, save a copy before moving on to the next step.

Before

After

The Reference Index: Quantifying Skin Tone

Now that you have a skin tone you’re happy with, collect a patch of skin to create a skin tone reference index.
Remove any sample points you set in the first stage by clicking on the drop down menu at the top right of the Info palette. De-select “Colour Samplers.” Flatten the image you’ve been working on (Layer > Flatten Image or select Flatten Image from the Layers panel option menu).

1. Prepare Your Samples

Choose the round Elliptical Marquee tool (M) and select a small area of light skin (about 250 to 400 pixels in diameter). Copy the selection onto a new layer (CMD/CTRL + J). Select a similar sized area of mid- to dark skin and copy that selection onto a new layer.
Deselect (turn off) the Background layer. You will now have two new layers, each with one patch of skin. Select the two new layers and merge them together (CMD/CTRL + E or Merge Layers from the Layers panel option menu).
Next run a Gaussian Blur filter on the merged layer (Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur). Choose a setting that removes any sign of grain or skin texture.

2. Create a Gradient

Select the Gradient tool (G) and in the tools option bar, choose a Foreground to Background gradient, select Dither, and deselect Transparency.
Click on the Gradient picker in the tools option bar to bring up the custom options dialogue box. Click on the colour tag for one end of the gradient and below the tag, in the dropdown options for Colour, select User Colour. Your cursor will change to a pointer. Select one of the two skin tone samples on your layer. At the other end of the gradient, repeat the steps, choosing the other skin tone sample. Name your gradient and save it. Click OK.

Once you have your gradient options set, use the Gradient tool to draw your gradient from left to right, completely across the layer. You will now have a layer filled with a gradient of the skin tones from your image.

3. Save your Reference File

Delete the Background layer. (Double click the layer to unlock it, then delete it.) Resize your image to something manageable (Image > Image Size). An image 1000 to 1500 pixels wide will be lots. For the Resample option in the Image Size dialogue box, choose Bicubic (smooth gradients) from the dropdown menu.

You may wish to use the Text tool (T) and include information about the index directly in the file. For example, I added information about the skin tone and its CMYK values to my index.
Save the file as a Photoshop file (.psd) in a folder you’ve created for Skin Tone References. Name the file clearly for its reference. For example, I named my file “Male-Caucasian-Medium.”

Using Skin Tone References

Now you can refer to your skin tone reference files when colour correcting and doing advanced portrait retouching.

Open the reference file for the skin tone closest to the skin in the image you’re retouching. Use the Info palette and Eyedropper tool as you did in the first part of this exercise to select a sample point in your skin reference file. Make note of the CMYK colour values.
Use the CMYK colour values from your reference file as a starting place to balance the skin tone as we did in stage one of this tutorial.

There are also companies and artists who make their skin tone reference files available on the Internet. Those files that include and are marked with the CMYK values may be helpful, but avoid using .jpg files that come as colour swatches only. Image files saved to the web have been separated from their source colour profile, then compressed and transformed. The CMYK values that you would read off of those colour samples are likely to be considerably off-target.

Conclusion

Balancing skin tone in a photograph is a challenging task but essential for producing a quality portrait. You can balance skin tone by doing a basic white-balance and fine-tuning the colours by eye, but the outcome will be easier and finer if you take the time to assess the colour values in the skin and balance them with Curves. Saving colour samples from photographs with well-balanced skin will give you a reference when colour-balancing other portraits.

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How to Use the Text Tool in CorelDRAW

What You'll Be Creating

In this tutorial you'll get a proper introduction to the features of the Text Tool and Text Properties docker in CorelDRAW, through the creation of a label design for food products. Get to know how to alter horizontal type, type and edit on a curved path, and type within various shapes. I'll also give you an overview of the various options to further edit text. Fire up CorelDRAW and let's get baking!

1. The Text Tool

Step 1

This is the easiest function of the Text Tool (F8): typing on a horizontal line or within a rectangular box. Open a New Document and let's take it for a spin. Grab the Text Tool from the Toolbox, drag out a rectangle, and type out the word "Bakery". I opted for the script font Pacifico.
In the Text Properties (Control-T) docker, set the size of the font to something large, like 72 pt. You'll also see a lot of options for fills, outlines, highlights, and various style settings. For now, we're going with default settings.

Step 2

Select your text and either in the Property Bar or the Text Properties docker, set the paragraph alignment to Center. Repeat the previous step with a small sans-serif font to give your imaginary bakery a date of establishment. I chose the font Bebas for this step.

Step 3

While we're playing with tools in CorelDRAW, take the Basic Shapes Tool for a spin. You'll find it under the Polygon Tool in the Toolbox. I chose to draw a small heart in the center of my date of establishment. At this point you're free to select text objects and perfect shapes in the Object Manager and Convert to Curves (Control-Q).

2. Typing on a Path

Step 1

Group (Control-G) together the text you've drawn so far. Use the Ellipse Tool (F7) to draw a large circle around your text art. Draw a smaller circle within the first and Align the text group and two circles in the Align and Distribute docker to the Horizontal Center.
Set the Outline of the larger circle to 8 pt (or something with a similar thickness in appearance depending on the size of your image) and the smaller circle to 2 pt.

Step 2

Draw a third, even smaller circle in the center of your design. I set the Outline color to magenta so it's more easily seen. Keep the circle selected and use the Text Tool to select the circle's path.
Type out a phrase befitting a bakery, such as "Fresh Bread Baked Daily" or "Best Donuts in Town!" With the Pick Tool, you'll find that you can Rotate the text around the path, Scale the text to smaller and larger paths of the same shape, or Move the path in any direction.
Rotate the text along the path to the right so it's centered, and Scale it as needed so it fits into the negative space at the top of the label design.

Step 3

Change the font to Bebas once again (the same one we used for the date). Then Rotate and Move your text and make sure to Convert to Curves when you're satisfied with its placement and size. If you'd rather wait until the end of your design to Convert to Curves, feel free to do so.

3. Typing Within an Object

Step 1

Once again, draw a circle using the Ellipse Tool. In the Properties Bar, select Pie for the shape option. Set the Starting and End Angles to 0.0° and 180°. Rotate, Scale, and Move your half circle with the Pick Tool into the lower half of the label design.

Step 2

Grab the Text Tool once more and, with the half circle object selected, select within the object itself. Begin typing out whatever you want your bakery item's ingredients to be. In the Text Properties docker, set the paragraph option to Justify, make the word "Ingredients" bold, and make sure that word is several points larger than the rest of the list.
Quite happily, you'll find that your type conforms perfectly to the object's boundaries. So long as you haven't hit Convert to Curves, you can easily change the shape, position, and orientation of the half-circle text "box" to your liking.
Additionally, select your text and hit Caps > All Caps in the Text Properties docker (it's below the fill options), and never worry about using Caps Lock again (in this program, anyway).

Great Work, You're Done!

You've done an excellent job getting to know the Text Tool and some of its features. Change the colors of your design elements in the Object Properties docker, or, if you didn't Convert to Curves, you can alter your text in a variety of ways (applying various fills, outlines, highlights, and styles).
If you enjoyed this tutorial, want to brush up on your CorelDRAW knowledge, or are completely new to the program, check out some of these other tutorials aimed at breaking down the tools and their functions:

• How to Create an Easy Halloween Pattern in CorelDRAW
• CorelDRAW: Shape Building Basics
• CorelDRAW: Basic Drawing Tools

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Compose Great Photos of Your Craft With These 5 Tips

What You'll Be Creating

Struggling with composition? Stuck for ideas? Tried everything but nothing's working? If you're having trouble taking photographs of your craft, maybe it's time to go back to the basics of composition: orientation, framing, and perspective, along with detail and background selection. I've got these covered in today's tutorial. 

1. Consider Orientation 

How do you plan to use your photos? The final destination for your photos, such as your online shop or blog, should influence their composition. Orientation, (whether the photo is taken in portrait/vertical layout or landscape/horizontal layout) is an important element of composition.
For example, if you’re selling on Etsy, the orientation for the headline (or thumbnail) photo on the homepage is currently landscape/horizontal. So if the photo you use for the headline image is in portrait orientation, it will be cropped to a landscape image for the homepage thumbnail. This may result in some of your product being out of frame in the thumbnail version.
For Etsy sellers, adding and displaying your first/headline photo will be more straightforward if it was shot in landscape orientation. Changes to your photo in the thumbnail format will be most obvious if the photo was uploaded in portrait orientation. It is possible to turn an image from portrait to landscape orientation in post-production by using the crop tool, but you may find that there’s not enough room on the sides of the image to keep all of your craft in the frame.

Landscape Orientation

Portrait Orientation

2. Frame the Photo 

It’s important to treat the viewfinder or LCD screen on your camera as if it were a frame around your photo. When you look at the setting, adjust your position and/or the position of the lens until you’ve filled it with meaningful information. You may need to adjust the position of your craft and/or zoom in until unimportant and distracting information is removed and the focus is on your craft.

Composition Without Framing

Here’s an example of a photo that’s poorly framed. It's too wide, shows the sides of the box and the dark background, and will have to be cropped down to size in post-production.

Composition With Framing

In comparison, this photo is framed more tightly and neatly to remove the edges of the box and the dark background. This was achieved by moving the camera slightly closer to the earrings and zooming in the lens. It doesn’t require any cropping or re‑framing in post-production.

3. Experiment With Perspective

When thinking about perspective in composition, there are lots of options—you can try just about any angle you can think of.
My first tip is to keep the perspective of your viewer, who may be your customer. Think about how they would look at it if they were to see it in a shop.
My second tip is always to flatter your craft. Let's say your craft is handmade earrings and you're using a model; it would be unflattering (to both the model and your craft) to shoot from a perspective below the face and angle the lens up towards the chin, nose and ears. To get started, try straight on and side on.

Straight On

Composition from straight on shows the front of an object at the level of the object. If the object is flat, or if the detail is mainly found at the top, straight-on composition can also be achieved from directly above the object. The best place to start is by focusing the lens on the middle of the object.
Straight-on composition with central focus is also the way to accurately show the shape of large or symmetrical objects, such as quilts, frames and furniture. It’s also a great way to keep consistent focus with more than one object, as they’re both/all positioned at the same level.

Side On

Shooting from side on shows your craft in more depth and can convey more detail. Adjust the angle to show more or less of your craft.
Side-on composition is a great technique for larger objects like furniture, and for flat objects such as stationery and jewellery. When combined with soft lighting, side on is another way to show fine detail and features.
Side-on composition of more than one object will usually result in one object being in sharp focus and the other/s blurred. Learn a little more about depth of field and how to maintain focus in this Tuts+ tutorial.
In the example below, the lens was pointed towards the soft light source (shade); this is how to keep the object(s) at the back of the frame well-lit, even if they are deliberately blurred.

4. Get Up Close

The details of your craft, such as the weave or print of fabric, contrast stitching, or the softness of knitwear, are bound to be beautiful and most appealing to customers. Getting close to your craft to show fine detail not only attracts the customer but also offers them information on materials and quality, and can reassure them about an online purchase of an object "unseen".
To shoot up close to your craft, get as close to it as your camera will allow before losing focus. Try macro mode and the zoom feature, too, and if you need more stability, use the timer or a tripod. If you can’t get as close as you’d like with your camera—it’s vital to keep the shot in focus and sharp—just get as close as possible, and crop down the image later in post-production.

5. Try a New Background 

Background selection is important. It can convey mood and brand aesthetic, so what you choose needs to match the look and feel of your craft.
A soft, white, neutral background is popular because it is extremely versatile for display in online shops, blogs and press features. It doesn’t detract or distract from the object in any way, that is, by colour, texture or other detail. So, as usual, that is the best place to start.
If you’d like to try something new, there are plenty of backgrounds to choose from. Just be sure to pick one that suits your craft and brand. Aged wood is shown above, and fabric and chalkboard are shown below. You can see a host more in my tutorial 10 Great Backgrounds for Beautiful Craft Photography.

Fabric

Chalkboard

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Using Markup and Mail Drop in the New Apple Mail

There are some great new features in Yosemite’s update of Mail, and the real stars are Markup and Mail Drop, but the seamless integration of these new tools may make it hard to find them if you don’t know where to look.
This tutorial will demonstrate how to access and use both of these new features to edit images, complete and sign PDF forms, and send attachments too large for email.

Using Markup

The tools available in Markup are, more or less, the tools I examined earlier in the Introduction to Preview tutorial, so it may seem like there’s not been many changes in Yosemite.
What makes Markup in Mail so special, though, is that many of those tools are available right in Mail without resorting to another app, and all changes made to image and PDF file attachments in Mail are discrete to that attachment and won’t affect the original file.
There’s no need to create a copy of a file to edit and send so that the original is preserved, because Mail takes care of that.

Edit an Image Attachment in Mail

Click the Compose New Message icon in the Mail toolbar. Attach an image to the new message, either by clicking the Attach a Document icon or by dragging the image into the new message window. Edit an image you’ve received via email by clicking the Reply to Sender icon.
Tip: If the received image does not appear in the Reply message window, click the Include Attachments From Original Message icon in the message toolbar.

Edit image and PDF attachments in Reply emails.

Hover over the attached image in the message window, click the icon that will appear in the upper right corner, and select Markup.

Use Markup to edit the image.

The image will open in a new Markup window. From here you can edit the image nearly as much as you would in Preview. Add annotations, such as arrows or loupes to call out important elements or text to illuminate details.
Even draw directly on the image with the Sketch tool without leaving Mail or opening the image in Preview.

Edit the image right in Mail.

Remember to select Done to save changes to the image attachment. The edited image will appear in the message window.

The edited image has replaced the original attachment.

Complete and Sign a PDF Form in Mail

As before, attach the PDF to a new or reply message, hover over the attached PDF and select Markup from the menu in the upper right.
Use the Text tool to complete PDF fields and edit how the text appears, including font face, size, and color, with the Text Style tool.

Add text to a PDF in Mail.

Click the Sign tool to add a signature to your PDF. Select a previously saved signature or create a new one with Markup. There are two ways to create a new signature: via the Trackpad or the Camera.

Add a signature to a PDF in Mail.

To create a new signature with the Trackpad, choose the Trackpad tab in the Sign tool and select Click Here To Begin. Use the trackpad to sign your name with your finger. When done, press any key.

Sign your name on the trackpad using your finger.

If the new signature is acceptable, click Done. Otherwise, choose Clear to try again.
The second option is to create a new signature with the Camera, allowing more control over how the final signature appears.
Sign a blank sheet of white paper ahead of time and have it at the ready. Choose the Camera tab in the Sign tool. Hold the sheet of paper with the signature in front of the Camera for a few moments. The Sign tool will recognize the signature and flip it on the display.

Hold a signed sheet of paper in front of the camera.

Once satisfied with the signature, click Done, or choose Clear for another shot.
After saving a new signature or deciding on a previously saved signature, select it from the Sign tool. The signature will appear in the PDF. Drag the signature to move it into place and grab the corners of the signature to resize it.

Select a signature and place it in the PDF.

When the PDF is completed and the signature is in place, click Done to save the changes to the attachment.

Troubleshooting Markup

If the menu to access Markup doesn’t appear when hovering over an image or PDF in Mail, don’t worry; the menu didn’t work for me out of the box, either. Luckily, Apple has released a fix and it’s dead simple.
Open the Terminal app, found in the Utilities folder within Applications, and paste the following command into the Terminal window:

1	/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Versions/A/Support/lsregister -kill -seed

Press Return and wait for the prompt ending in $ to reappear. It will likely take several minutes and indeed took over half an hour on my older machine before I saw any activity.
Be patient.

Press Enter and wait for Terminal to do its job.

When Terminal displays the prompt ending in $, the operation has completed and you can close the Terminal application. If there’s no immediate change in Mail, relaunch the app.

It may take a while, but give the operation time to complete.

Using Mail Drop

Mail Drop is a new feature in Yosemite that allows the user to send file attachments that would normally have been too large for email. To do this, Mail uploads the attachment to iCloud and provides a unique URL to the file that is good for 30 days. Mail Drop can handle files up to 5 GB in size, so it should suffice for most attachments.

Sending Large Attachments With Mail Drop

Mail Drop is triggered automatically within Mail and doesn't require any additional effort. When attempting to send a large attachment, Mail will prompt the user to use Mail Drop, but the user may still attempt to send the large attachment via email if preferred.

Mail will prompt you to use Mail Drop for large file attachments.

The recipient will receive a download link via email, with a notice of the date the link will expire.

The recipient will receive an download link good for 30 days.

Click on the link provided in the email, and the download will begin automatically.

The download will start automatically.

Tip: Ensure you don’t exit Mail or shut down or restart the computer to allow the large file time to upload.

Conclusion

Apple has brought some great new features to the table with Mail in Yosemite, streamlining the process of sending attachments with the new Markup and Mail Drop features.
This tutorial demonstrated how to annotate images and complete and sign PDF forms using Markup, all without leaving Mail, and how to send files that would have previously been too large for conventional email. These new features look to make Mail a contender amongst popular third-party email applications.

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A Talky-Talk with JS Chen (陈佳生) From G’Day

I recently sat down for an interview with the Creative Lead at one of China’s new-wave design firms.

Design Matters

I have a friend from the Czech Republic who told me a great story about going shopping after the country won independence from the USSR. Through the entirety of her childhood, there had only ever been one brand of yogurt in the supermarket. Then the country opened up, and one day she went to the grocery store, and there were two choices. What was the difference? She spent ages reading every word on both yogurt labels looking for some way to tell which one was better, and she said that most of her friends and family were equally baffled. They’d stand in the store for hours checking the nutrition information, reading packaging, comparing product weight... I think of that story every time I see evidence of Chinese consumption habits changing.

I don’t mean to paint a picture of China as some post-Soviet curiosity: it’s not. Major Chinese cities are as modern as anywhere, and the Chinese consumer is well past standing in a store poking yogurt. But I do mean to call attention to the phases that consumer societies go through as they navigate the process of choice in a market that is first devoid of it, then full of it, then saturated with it. At some point in that process, design starts to really, really matter as a differentiating factor, and as it starts to matter, companies start to value it and be increasingly willing to pay for it. In China today, it feels like we’re cresting the apex of that phase, and design companies here are starting to get a very similar vibe to design firms in, say, Europe (retaining local design characteristics, naturally).

It’s an amazing evolution to watch, and G’Day is right on the forefront of that new horizon. G’Day is a design shop based in Shenzhen, a mainland port city right across the water from Hong Kong and one of China’s epicenters of trade and industry. Early last year (2013), G’Day was selected as one of Creative Bloq’s most inspiring Chinese design firms. I got in touch with JS Chen (陈佳生), G’Day’s Creative Principal and Design Team Lead, to chat about some of their past projects and get his take on the Shenzhen industry.

JS Chen (陈佳生)

Not only is Chen just a flat-out nice guy whose outlook on Shenzhen’s design industry will convince you that the rigors of the job are similar no matter where you are, but also what’s expressed here is emblematic of what is happening across every major city in China, as the country moves from a primarily industrial economy to a tertiary-sector economy.

Interview

So tell us a little bit G’day: how it got started and all that stuff.

I been into design since early on, and I’m super lucky that it’s now my full-time job. I’m intensely passionate about it, and that passion drives me to be better. We got kicked off in 2010, and we’ve got five people right now: three designers, one developer and a project manager. Our philosophy is that we design to identify problems. Once we do, we try to table new and creative thinking that gives rise to rational solutions to those problems, and ideally the final product results in an actual behavioral change.

The G’Day offices in Shenzhen

We’re super loving the “Star Kiwi” project you posted on Behance - gorgeous colors. That’s a dessert company, yeah?

Thanks for the thumbs-up! Yes, Xingqiyi (STAR KIWI) is a shop selling fruit-based desserts.

STAR KIWI was founded in 2005 and became famous for their fruit and cake. Originally, they were your standard brick-and-mortar store, but as the product line continued to expand and branch out, the old branding wasn’t adaptable to the direction of brand development. The new brand incorporates [as visual elements] the updated products themselves, combined with a “light dining” look-and-feel. We got this project through a personal recommendation from someone who also felt how deeply essential it was for this brand to have a more systematic approach and clearer brand definition.

STAR KIWI on Behance

Fruit and kitchens have a lovely relationship, really. You’ll find an amazing array of interesting tools in any kitchen where cakes are made, and fruit also comes in such a wonderful variety of fun shapes. When you array these things together, the consumer can experience the merriment and joy inherent in the process of creating these desserts, and at the same time they get an immediate blast of freshness, amusement and overall tastiness.

And how about the “Shenzhen” city work?

That was made for the CitID project, where designers from different cities all over the world were invited to create a unique city symbol based on their own experience living in that place. I was one of the designers invited to participate, and I took Shenzhen’s seaside themes, trees, boats, architecture, and put them in a simple collage of symbols that conveys our local atmosphere of diversity, youth and dynamism.

In my personal experience in Beijing, I’ve noticed that recently people have begun to place more value on good design than they did three or five years ago. What is your experience with the industry in Shenzhen? Do you find that more clients are willing to invest in design?

Shenzhen has always been both a forgiving city and a city that dares to innovate, but recently the value placed on design has really started escalating. Companies are becoming more aware that their development strategies and the quality of their brands are closely related. In the past, businesses only placed value on the product itself, but with the development of the internet and the ease with which consumers share products, the inherent qualities that may make a product competitive take less of a focus, and you can only really penetrate a consumer’s experience via design - that’s the pathway to more profits.

Are you selective about the clients that you take on, and if so, what is your selection process? Are there certain kinds of projects you won’t take?

I don’t like to choose based on the project, actually I enjoy coming in contact with a wider range of project types, and unusual projects give us a little taste of something challenging. Instead, we prefer to choose our clients based on whether or not we can work well with the people. We thirst for great cooperative relationships: the other party needs to respect and have some basic understanding for the design process, and we need to have some confidence in each other. We do really enjoy taking public service projects, which allow us to both help those in need and to get our name out there.

You’ve done work for both international and Chinese clients. What are the major differences you've found doing work for both Chinese and Western companies?

We typically find that we have a smoother process flow when we deal with international clients. Projects with local Chinese firms tend to require more patience.

What is your opinion on the current status of the web design industry in Shenzhen? Are there many talented designers or just a few, do you think?

Of course, web design is now a very hot topic and web design contributes to the development of web commerce, but I think that our familiarity with the ins and outs of web design over here isn’t quite up to snuff, and that limits our ability to express ourselves through that medium. A lot of time and effort is needed to really dig into, for example, responsive debugging, coming up with innovative design concepts, [approaching] product photography [online], understanding user experience, etc. But that said, there are a lot of talented web designers in Shenzhen, many whose work I love.

Sounds solid!

Thanks for taking the time to do this interview - every time I do these I feel like I finally have some time to understand myself a bit, hah.

More G’Day

• JS Chen on Behance
• www.g-day.net

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