I have no comment. I'm tired of being called elitist.

And I'm tired of having all my best designs ripped off!!!

I have no comment.

So now you're too good for us. Snobby bastard.

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Anyway, here's a much more slick online business card printer. ImageX started as a group of small 2-color print shops that cranked out business cards for giant corporations. Mostly medical and insurance companies like Aetna and Premera. Companies like these do serve a purpose in the market.

They're known out here on the West Coast. Just curious -- you guys ever heard of them?

Never heard of them, Tan, but I seem to have a vague recollection of their parent company, Kinko's...

In NYC, 4 Over 4 is the best 2-day postcard printer I've found. Full offset color on both sides, baby!

>So now you're too good for us. Snobby bastard.

Shut up Tan. Go do some business cards with it.

Never heard of ImageX, but that does have a place in the market... you know what? fuck it... the business card composer is a joke, just one more way to populate the world with Shitty — yes, Shitty with a capital S — design and is one more tool that devaluates our profession. Yeah, yeah, it fills a niche in the market... whatfuckingever. Sorry if I'm offending anybody here. I know I'm not losing any clients to this software thing, but it is one more reason for people to think that design is easy and that any monkey with a computer can do it (see Tan? I was able to work that story in somehow.) Would I not be complaining if the "templates" were better? Maybe. If you are going to put this tool into somebody's hands, at least have the decency to make sure that they are not going to inundate the rest of us with glows, bevels and shadows-galore. That's why I kind of dig Apple's Keynote, it's at least making an effort into "raising the bar" of design for mass consumption.

You don't see dentists putting out do-it-yourself kits so you can fix your own cavities, right?

aaaaaah... I feel much better now. So, you were saying Tan...

>You don't see dentists putting out do-it-yourself kits so you can fix your own cavities, right?

That ruled.

That totally ruled.

You don't see dentists putting out do-it-yourself kits so you can fix your own cavities, right?

No, but you can skip the dentist and just order yourself a set of sparkling new teeth.

>order yourself a set of sparkling new teeth.

That is absolutely the best thing that can come out of this discussion.

Look Tan, just what you need for your A-Master-A persona.

the business card composer is a joke

Obviously, Armin, you are way too elitist to sense the toungue-FIRMLY-in-cheekiness of my post.

No. Wait. That's completely my fault. I should have added the wink-wink smiley faces. ;o) ;o)

(Just giving you crap, Armin!) :D

crap well taken Darrel ;o)

Them teeth's phat dawgs!

Had no idea ImageX was bought by Kinko's. Figures.

You know, this type of business isn't design. Take a company like Carlson Travel based out of Mpls. They have a few hundred offices around the world, they have 60 or 70 different regional variations of their business cards, and on any given week, there are probably 100 Carlson employees that need business cards because they're new hires or they're out of cards. So the company just sends them online, and in 3 days a batch of shitty Carlson card arrives at their desk.

Does anyone really want to do this kind of shit work? I don't want it. You don't want it Armin. So let companies like ImageX have it, so we can find more time to rip off old WWII posters.

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the monkey article still cracks me up

>So let companies like ImageX have it, so we can find more time to rip off old WWII posters.

But ImageX doesn't do any designing right? Don't they just print out from templates provided by a company?

Ok, I found it. Go here.

It's one of the better (if there is such a thing) design template attempt I've seen. Download the app and try it out. Granted, it's spawned by evil forces -- but the way it works is interesting.

I know it's all style and no substantce, but I hate to admit it -- the n-Gen templates look better than lots of design shit out there.

About a year ago, Getty Images test-marketed a design template service in our area. Go on their site, type in a name, pick a style and image, and presto! -- it generated bcards, letterhead, and a brochure cover design.

When it came out, the local design community was outraged. Any of you remember/aware of this? Getty got hate mail, threats for boycotts, etc. The whole product offering came out of Getty's Toronto office.

I can't seem to find it anymore -- that department must've gotten axed since.

Anyway, try the n-Gen.

TBut ImageX doesn't do any designing right? Don't they just print out from templates provided by a company?

Yes, most of the cards are made from existing corporate templates. But they do offer design templates for startups that don't have their shit together.

I downloaded n_Gen when they released a preview a long time ago. Kinda neat. And then, like so many things like it, they never bothered finishing the project, which annoys me. There's all sorts of stuff you're locked out of.

>Download the app and try it out.

What's not to love about it?

Actually, it's a pretty nifty tool. But that's about it. Here is an ethical conundrum: what about all the typefaces that it generates? I saw some Emigre and T-26 fonts floating in there. I can already smell the licensing scandal.

I can already smell the licensing scandal.

Hell yeah -- the stock background images too. It's a Napster waiting to happen.

The only odd thing about it, is that it seems to appeal most to designers. I think the layouts are really too progressive to have mass appeal. There are constructivist cues, Bauhaus homages, and as you picked up, Carson-like fragmentation. So who do they think would use it? Certainly not most clients I know.

I have a theory -- it's actually intended for design students. Sort of like the ad offers on the back of Teen magazines selling term papers on all subjects.

And I love the bottom tagline: "It's the new tool graphic designers don't want you to know about!"

>What's not to love about it?

That ruled.

>Sort of like the ad offers on the back of Teen magazines selling term papers on all subjects.

Right!

I love this review from the n-gen site..

"You've also got no guarantee that all your text is actually going to make it into the final design. Just like working with real designers!"