Continuing on with our establishing strategy of digital data base driven multi-media art production we turned our attention back to print in the late 1990s. Producing an acclaimed series of custom limited editions through to the 2020s.
Most recently, coming out of Covid we, my master printer at KK Graphics in San Francisco and myself, decided to undertake to innovate an entirely new pre-press and on-press method of production. 2 years in and we achieved what we had foreseen as possible: producing printed pages that have the look and feel of gallery quality photographic enlargements. We're talking traditional just out-of-developer Ilford color enlargements.
Read More…
Most recently, coming out of Covid we, my master printer at KK Graphics in San Francisco and myself, decided to undertake to innovate an entirely new pre-press and on-press method of production. 2 years in and we achieved what we had foreseen as possible: producing printed pages that have the look and feel of gallery quality photographic enlargements. We're talking traditional just out-of-developer Ilford color enlargements.
Read More…
Redefining Print
2021 - 2023
2021 - 2023
For the most part, classic car broker ads are, yawn, pretty staid. Here we progressively evolved a story telling method for the exceptional cars on offer. The ads were designed to graphically address the provenance of these cars to a very specific group of private buyers. They were produced to visually compete in the graphically rich environment of the prominent automobile magazines, Cavallino, Motorsport and F1. Read more…
VELOCITY GROUP DESIGN
VELOCITY GROUP EST. 1992
ONLINE SINCE 1996
ONLINE SINCE 1996
THE PUZZLE WORKS
EST. 1986
CORPORATE IMAGE
EST. 1980
S. SCOTT CALLAN DESIGN
EST.1974
EST. 1986
CORPORATE IMAGE
EST. 1980
S. SCOTT CALLAN DESIGN
EST.1974
Here we step back in time to a lost art: the rapidograph and design marker comprehensive. This was the foundation of advertising communication between the art department, the client, the photographer, the type setter, the production artists and the printer. Read More…
REFLECTIONS;
THE LOST ART OF THE COMP
THE LOST ART OF THE COMP
In the spirit of corporate comedy, I hereby present the origins of every home food delivery service except here it was ad driven. 1983 - 1985
.Read More…
.Read More…
REFLECTIONS:
VIDEO GAMES EMERGE
VIDEO GAMES EMERGE
Anyone who drank a beer to the sound of those screen graphics can date this project.
1981 Read More...
1981 Read More...
Designing through the transition
adventures in media s. scott callan
A couple of our innovations were this earliest of e-books contained digital engineering animations to visually explain all twenty two of Alfa's pre-1940 engines. We also innovated taking 24 frames a second progressive image film of the 1920 and 1930s Grand Prix races direct to digital. All on Windows 3.1…it was 1993 to 1996 after all.
from the design marker to the digital
Here's the first CGI corporate ID.
It was an outgrowth of a major in-country socio-economic analysis of the industrial and commercial opportunities presented by Sadat's Open Door Policy. This involved moving to Cairo. While there I spearheaded a number of projects. One of which was a SCUBA diving excursion, Marina Resort project on the Red Sea at Hurghada.
This Corporate ID for UDI was a result of needing a major engineering site survey there at Hurghada, and they needed a complete restructure of their internal and external communications operation more adept to their seven country international engineering operations, with rapid turnaround of state of project materials. Oh and a new Corporate ID.
1984 - 1985
Read More.
This Corporate ID for UDI was a result of needing a major engineering site survey there at Hurghada, and they needed a complete restructure of their internal and external communications operation more adept to their seven country international engineering operations, with rapid turnaround of state of project materials. Oh and a new Corporate ID.
1984 - 1985
Read More.
REFLECTIONS:
REGIONAL AS NATIONAL
REGIONAL AS NATIONAL
This is the visual story of how a favor for a friend while on vacation in 1985 transformed his Southern Californian dealership into a national brand
and personally evolved into an M&A project in Italy. 1986 - 1991
Read More...
and personally evolved into an M&A project in Italy. 1986 - 1991
Read More...
REFLECTIONS:
The favor that became a sport toy
A logo that became
the product design
1990
The favor that became a sport toy
A logo that became
the product design
1990
REFLECTIONS:
ADVERTISING GOES DIGITAL
ADVERTISING GOES DIGITAL
In concert with our Corporate ID services was our focus on corporate strategy. This was the result of broad based experience that to have truly effective ad and marketing programs often required solving problems further up-stream. So we would perform a complete operational analysis. We were asked into this project to do a full analysis of traditional advertising production versus the then new digital service bureaus. It was 1990, before boutique design firms and ad agencies had gone fully digital in-house. The graphic is an AT&T acccounting department punch card. Read More…
European interlude:
Broadcast producer
Broadcast producer
Note 2023: I have had all the raw footage sitting in my archives on 3/4" broadcast tape
since 1991. In October of 2023, I decided to have the Bugatti tapes restored, they
needed it, and digitized, so I could play with them.
I wrote a script, edited it and did the Voice Over.
Just a couple of notes on what you'll see.
First let's put this in perspective. This is a bit of automotive archeology. I was going from
an hour and a half of news magazine B roll footage, that was originally edited into 7
minute TV magazine segments.
The basic premise of the EB110 piece is simply this, to take the viewer through the steps
of discovery that lead from drafting room through assembly of the engines to the
completed engines, moving on to the four Gandini test cars, clearly establishing that
stage, and on to the completed EB110. The final stage being to fully illustrate the car on
the move, and at the same time visually describe that amazing factory.
Placing all these much hoped for, and worked for, completed results in time, where
they no longer exist.
Also, I purposely recorded the voice-over in a laid back jazz kind of style so that it
sounded more like my personal thoughts and musings on the subject, rather than
pontificating pedantically about how much I know while driving the point home with
typical broadcast verbal overemphasis.
Here is a link to the area of the site where this through the looking glass story of the
other Italian supercar of the 1990s lives:
It's 43 minutes long.
Pioneering digital publishing
1993 - 1996
1993 - 1996
While in development with Time Warner in 1993 I looked over at my 4 year old son and thought, "He is going to get all of his information from digital media." .
I recently found the paper upon which I had written, "Combine the film, animation and audio of broadcast with the depth of a print book." All I had to do was learn what digital media was and innovate a new form of literature…no biggie…
To achieve this a partnership was formed with old mainframe programmer par excellence, Tom Ellis, who in spite of his best instincts, taught a TV producer how to program. Much had to be innovated from the ground up. The result was the first automotive digital publication released in 1996. It was the second digital publication, Microsoft had beat us to market by a month with a digi-book on architecture. It was the second 800 x 600 CD ROM, Disney beat us by two weeks with their Lion King CD…their promotional budget was a bit larger than ours. Read More…
I recently found the paper upon which I had written, "Combine the film, animation and audio of broadcast with the depth of a print book." All I had to do was learn what digital media was and innovate a new form of literature…no biggie…
To achieve this a partnership was formed with old mainframe programmer par excellence, Tom Ellis, who in spite of his best instincts, taught a TV producer how to program. Much had to be innovated from the ground up. The result was the first automotive digital publication released in 1996. It was the second digital publication, Microsoft had beat us to market by a month with a digi-book on architecture. It was the second 800 x 600 CD ROM, Disney beat us by two weeks with their Lion King CD…their promotional budget was a bit larger than ours. Read More…
Explaining wine beyond the label and price, on a touch screen amidst the wine racks. 1998 - 2000 Read More...
THE SETTON COLLECTION:
A PRINT PROJECT
1999 - 2002
A PRINT PROJECT
1999 - 2002
Altos was the first Oncology clinic specific software company. This was a soup to nuts operation where we were defining the ingredients of each course in a rapidly changing media landscape.
When they were bought a while back they were the largest medical industry purchase made by Google.Read more…
When they were bought a while back they were the largest medical industry purchase made by Google.Read more…
CORPORATE ID PROJECTS:
THE ALTOS SOLUTION
2007 - 2011
THE ALTOS SOLUTION
2007 - 2011
CD-ROMs in those days had some very bad habits. They could seriously screw with one's hard drive.
We took special care to design a sophisticated launch program to have no effect on the operating system or environment.
It analyzed the environment of your computer, taking a look at how much space there was, while also seeing if your computer had the font required to read the book. If not, it loaded the correct fonts with all its variations. It then temporarily loaded the 80 meg of racing film. This was removed when the CD was shut down. CDs in those days had a tendency to load stuff on the hard drive and just leave it there. Ours left no footprint to effect operation.
This load program was so successful, as was the programming of the CD, that it ran flawlessly all the way through Windows XP.
In the beginning we had to make a decision whether to select Windows 3.1 and the forthcoming 95, or Microsoft's corporate client NT as OS. We selected the consumer 95 series. It was only when Win 10 come out with its integration of NT, that ARCD became a legacy CD-ROM in 2014.
We took special care to design a sophisticated launch program to have no effect on the operating system or environment.
It analyzed the environment of your computer, taking a look at how much space there was, while also seeing if your computer had the font required to read the book. If not, it loaded the correct fonts with all its variations. It then temporarily loaded the 80 meg of racing film. This was removed when the CD was shut down. CDs in those days had a tendency to load stuff on the hard drive and just leave it there. Ours left no footprint to effect operation.
This load program was so successful, as was the programming of the CD, that it ran flawlessly all the way through Windows XP.
In the beginning we had to make a decision whether to select Windows 3.1 and the forthcoming 95, or Microsoft's corporate client NT as OS. We selected the consumer 95 series. It was only when Win 10 come out with its integration of NT, that ARCD became a legacy CD-ROM in 2014.
Once the first run of CDs was fully pressed and packaged with art and cellophane sealed we started the advertising program. This involved weekly print ads in Autoweek.
Below is an example of the pre-press artwork for the four color ads.
Below is an example of the pre-press artwork for the four color ads.
Humorously, well not so humorously at the time, all of our complex digital animation and programming worked fine on Microsoft's browser. Not so on the newly launched Google Chrome. Chrome was so lamely primitive the graphics as programmed fell apart. It would be years before Chrome was sophisticated enough for all but the most simple design programming.
But their search engine became so popular, burying Alta Vista, that we had to cross platform adapt.
But their search engine became so popular, burying Alta Vista, that we had to cross platform adapt.
As an outgrowth of the Setton Project with Jay I was asked to produce a provenance on the 1958 Ferrari 250 testa rossa #0718 of Lawrence Stroll.
There were three elements at play at this time that brought this project forward.
Behind the Alfa CD-ROM digital publication was the database driven media concept behind the UDI project of 1985. During and following the production of ARCD I was fully exploring the media production marriage between digital, broadcast and print.
Following the CD's release I began experimenting with advanced digital pre-press for limited edition books of a very high standard. Jay, having learned this, saw one of the tests I had done. One of the major elements for automotive publications was liberating four color reproduction from the central signature of the books to throughout the publication. This was a major step in pre-press and production cost.
The next step was analyzing the editorial structure of the automotive book itself. The provenance gave me a unique opportunity to experiment with the concept of making an automotive publication an entertainment, not merely a technical publication targeted only at individual Marque enthusiasts.
Another aspect at play here was that there was a group of specialist writers composing provenance for these once obsolete and worthless old racing Ferrari. Their major raison d'être was often to justify, through the car's racing history their research provided, the rapidly accelerating values of these cars. For example this TR was sold for $2500 in the mid-1970s. By the early 1980s it was sold for $1M USD. It was then valued at $8M USD.
There were three elements at play at this time that brought this project forward.
Behind the Alfa CD-ROM digital publication was the database driven media concept behind the UDI project of 1985. During and following the production of ARCD I was fully exploring the media production marriage between digital, broadcast and print.
Following the CD's release I began experimenting with advanced digital pre-press for limited edition books of a very high standard. Jay, having learned this, saw one of the tests I had done. One of the major elements for automotive publications was liberating four color reproduction from the central signature of the books to throughout the publication. This was a major step in pre-press and production cost.
The next step was analyzing the editorial structure of the automotive book itself. The provenance gave me a unique opportunity to experiment with the concept of making an automotive publication an entertainment, not merely a technical publication targeted only at individual Marque enthusiasts.
Another aspect at play here was that there was a group of specialist writers composing provenance for these once obsolete and worthless old racing Ferrari. Their major raison d'être was often to justify, through the car's racing history their research provided, the rapidly accelerating values of these cars. For example this TR was sold for $2500 in the mid-1970s. By the early 1980s it was sold for $1M USD. It was then valued at $8M USD.
Metal Memory: the Mystery of 0718
The first limited editon publication
The first limited editon publication
After my 18 month global investigation into this Ferrari 250 TR I sat down to write the book. In preparation for this I had recorded every phone call and in person conversation with every owner. All of whom were then still among us.
What I produced was a dialogue driven non-fiction mystery novel. As in any detective novel it was structured to bring the reader along on my journey of discovery.
Follow this link to see what the premier Ferrari publication thought of it.
What I produced was a dialogue driven non-fiction mystery novel. As in any detective novel it was structured to bring the reader along on my journey of discovery.
Follow this link to see what the premier Ferrari publication thought of it.
Current Limited Editons: Read More
Here we revisit ARCD for a complete design programming revision. This beta experiment is being formatted for the multi--device global access envisioned during development of the original 1990s project. Where we were then limited to a physical marketing product, the venerable CD-ROM, here we are evolving our original gateway key distribution system.
For a bit of design program testing we have created this fully animated and interactive 126 page beta.
As we said on the original website of 1996, get in and take a test drive...
For a bit of design program testing we have created this fully animated and interactive 126 page beta.
As we said on the original website of 1996, get in and take a test drive...
In the Background
ARCD2 the beta
2023 -
ARCD2 the beta
2023 -
Videos online or in the digital realm, for the most part, are formatted for the youtube style frame with controls. Our digital videos are of a completely different character and format. As they appear on the site they are promotional story telling devices produced to blend seamlessly into the fabric of the digital pages. We use the color palette of the page to bring forward these images. Choosing to create frameless multi-dimensional story telling imagery. Read More…
DIGITAL VIDEO;
INTO THE GRAPHIC FABRIC
INTO THE GRAPHIC FABRIC
A NATIONAL PROJECT
BECOMES INTERNATIONAL
BECOMES INTERNATIONAL
A good design origin story always starts with a pencil…
This presentation of work is but a fraction of the projects. Much of the early work was lost to time. This represents only that which survived the many moves of a young designer. Due mainly to the hardy construction of reproduction house boxes.
Lost to time were the technical botanical renderings for a professor of Botany at the U of Hawaii for his 1971 publication of Tropical Flora. The above sketch being but a sample.
There are the fully illustrated business cards of the late sixties and early seventies.
The apprenticeship in Chicago, starting on the line at a point of purchase plastics factory, which led through every department of the paternal ad agency, leading to art director in 1973. An education on how to run an ad agency without ad reps by direct creative director communication with the client, resulting in timely turn around and profit.
There was all the early post Chicago design work learning to develop the corporate ID operation for startups and restructures, which led to understanding that internal problems further upstream in a company can inhibit the roll out of even perfectly designed marketing plans, thus the early corporate strategy operation. Which became, as is seen here, the primary focus of the Corporate ID program in later years.
There were the first two skateboard companies of southern California, after the development of the alloy truck with roller bearings and the new poly wheels, bolted to a flexi deck in 1975, which I directed from surf shop toy to a national sporting goods and safety gear industry.
Then going on to develop the first skate park construction and commercial operations strategy in 1977.
Stop back by, perhaps we'll link these stories here.
Lost to time were the technical botanical renderings for a professor of Botany at the U of Hawaii for his 1971 publication of Tropical Flora. The above sketch being but a sample.
There are the fully illustrated business cards of the late sixties and early seventies.
The apprenticeship in Chicago, starting on the line at a point of purchase plastics factory, which led through every department of the paternal ad agency, leading to art director in 1973. An education on how to run an ad agency without ad reps by direct creative director communication with the client, resulting in timely turn around and profit.
There was all the early post Chicago design work learning to develop the corporate ID operation for startups and restructures, which led to understanding that internal problems further upstream in a company can inhibit the roll out of even perfectly designed marketing plans, thus the early corporate strategy operation. Which became, as is seen here, the primary focus of the Corporate ID program in later years.
There were the first two skateboard companies of southern California, after the development of the alloy truck with roller bearings and the new poly wheels, bolted to a flexi deck in 1975, which I directed from surf shop toy to a national sporting goods and safety gear industry.
Then going on to develop the first skate park construction and commercial operations strategy in 1977.
Stop back by, perhaps we'll link these stories here.
