Category Archives: Uncategorized

~ CDC Incorporates Animated GIF of Diarrhea in Tweet To Caution About Swimming Pool Hygiene

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CDC Incorporates Animated GIF of Diarrhea in Tweet To Caution About Swimming Pool Hygiene

Another instance where I feel really sorry for the graphic designer.

Could you imagine being the designer, and you’re sitting at your desk one day, you’re approached by your boss, or you’re asked in a staff meeting, to illustrate a little kid having a bout of diarrhea? And, cherry on top, it has to be animated!

Well, someone out there, some poor design soul, had to design and animate this very concept. Cringe.

(I’ve embedded the CDC’s tweet containing the animated GIF at the very bottom of this post.)

The CDC Made Waves With Some Truly Iconic ‘Sh*tposting’ About Diarrhea In The Pool

Don’t swim with diarrhea this summer, CDC announces

The CDC reminds swimmers to not enter a pool while experiencing diarrhea.

The CDC’s New GIFs About Not Swimming With Diarrhea Don’t Explain All the Dangers—Here’s What to Know

CDC warns not to swim with diarrhea, but all Twitter can focus on is the gif the agency used

cdc_pool July 3, 2021
by Rachel Trent

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning against swimming with diarrhea this summer, and the visual it’s using to give that warning is making quite a splash.

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~ Fleet Laxative Commercial – Pity This Graphic Designer

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There was a commercial on earlier today for a product – I believe laxative – by a company called Fleet.

I’ve not been able to find a copy of this commercial on You Tube.

Anyway, there’s a part of the commercial that utilizes an animation that was probably made in something such as Adobe After Effects (video editing, video production, and animation are not my forte’).

In this Fleet commercial, there is an animated sequence showing fecal matter in someone’s intestines – the fecal matter appears to be represented by round, boulder shaped looking things of various sizes.

Next, after the person takes the Fleet, the stool is shown exiting the animated person’s intestines.

It was not graphic, but even so, it was gross. I really don’t want to see an animation or any sort of video of crap leaving a person’s body.

I feel sorry for the graphic designer or multimedia guy whose boss told him, “Guess what you get to animate today? It’s literally a shitty project!”

Perhaps this commercial can be found on Fleet’s site (where you can learn more about adult constipation!).

See Also:

CDC Incorporates Animated GIF of Diarrhea in Tweet To Caution About Swimming Pool Hygiene

Next Major Emoji Update Could Include a Pregnant Man

~ Employers: Interior Design or Gallery Design is Not Graphic Design

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I was on a site which advertised a graphic design job. I was interested, so I clicked on it, which led me to a page which was actually asking for a “gallery designer” which seems to be pretty similar to interior design.

A note to companies out there: when posting available jobs, please do not confuse graphic design with interior design – or web design or computer programming. Unfortunately, I’ve seen too many companies confuse the field of graphic design with other careers.

You will notice that other than asking for someone who has Adobe Creative Suite experience (i.e., Photoshop, Illustrator, etc), this job position I am copying in part below has nada, nothing to do with Graphic Design.

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~ The Employer Who Insults Graphic Designers Before They Even Submit a Resume’ or an Application, Refuses to Provide On the Job Training for Specific Equipment – And The Cheap Skates Want the Graphic Designer to Fill Several Non-Graphics Related Roles, Too

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There aren’t too many graphic design positions available where I live, so I can’t afford to be too choosy. This time, I was because these people sound as though they’d be a nightmare to work for, and they aren’t offering enough pay to put up with the nightmare to make it worthwhile.

I saw the most obnoxious graphic designer job wanted ad I have ever seen in my life.

The employer, who I will refer to as “Acme Inc.” (which is not their actual name), was seeking a full time graphic designer with at least an Associate’s Degree, for ten dollars an hour.

This employer ended their job wanted ad (which was on a job hunting site) by saying they had a laid back, casual work environment, a claim which was completely contradicted by the preceding obnoxious, condescending tone of the ad.

Like a lot of employers, Acme Inc. is pretty unfair and unrealistic: they want one employee, one applicant, to fulfill the job roles of several different people. This particular company wants a graphic designer who will wear several different hats – not just a “graphic design” hat.

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~ The Christian Employer Who Asked on Their Online Job Form If I’m a Drinker, Smoker, if I’m Saved – and Other Things

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My quest for finding employment continues!

My job hunting has not been going very well, though I have been on a few job interviews, some for graphic design related jobs, some not.

I’ve been applying for part time, minimum wage jobs (sales clerk type jobs) in addition to looking for full time graphics positions (and there aren’t very many of those where I live, and I cannot relocate). My thinking is that if I land a part time, minimum wage job, I can job hunt for full time jobs in my spare time.

Over the internet, I applied for a full time graphics position at a Christian-based University about two months ago.

The online job application for this Christian University was such that I was not permitted to skip over any of the questions on the form.

I tried to leave some of the questions empty or blank, but when I would click on the “go on to next page” link to proceed filling out the job application and complete it, the University’s web page would produce a dialog box with red exclamation points informing me that all the fields and questions on the page must be filled in to proceed.

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~ Hey, Employers – Graphic Designers Are Not Coders, Programmers, or Scripters or Videographers – Graphic Designers Should Not Be Required to Know How to Code or Script or Shoot or Edit Video

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Graphic designers are not coders or scripters, nor should we be expected to be.

This is an old pet peeve of mine. On my former full time graphic design position, after about the first year, one of my bosses expected me to learn Flash, that animation software.

This was back when Flash was made and sold by Macromedia. I think ActionScript was at level 1.0 at that time.

Initially, my boss just wanted me to make basic animations with Flash, which isn’t too bad, though I still found it slightly annoying, because in my view, graphic designers are distinct from multi-media guys.

And we had a multimedia guy on staff at that job already, so I was unsure why the boss didn’t fob all the Flash animation work on to “Mr. MultiMedia.”

The last job I had also had a computer programmer. That’s all the guy did, was programming. I don’t know why the boss didn’t have that guy pick up Flash scripting.

Anyhow. I used my own money to buy a handful of Flash books at that time. You have to remember I was a graphic designer who had worked in nothing but “static” computer media up to that point, in software such as Photoshop and Illustrator.

I was not accustomed to working in animation software. It took some getting used to.

I especially hated – and would panic – every time my art seemed to disappear from the stage.

It took me weeks or months to remember that any time my art seemed to magically “disappear” from the screen, that it was actually still there somewhere, but it was on frame 1, while I had maybe accidentally clicked the play head to move to frame 20.

The whole timeline thing was foreign to me, and still kind of is. Layers I am used to, but a time line? Nope.

As I worked at that job, every few months or so, Adobe (which had bought the software from Macromedia) kept making changes and complicating it (darn you to heck for that Adobe!)

Not only did Adobe keep adding bells and whistles to Flash, but they updated Action Script from version 1, to 2, and later, to 3.

The boss, at the same pace, or about, expected my Flash work to get more and more complex with every new version of the software.

Not only was I expected to go beyond simple animations or interactivity, but I was expected to learn more and more complicated interactivity that required the use of freaking Action Script.

I never took programming or scripting courses in college.

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~ Zoo Graphic Designer Position – Job Not Wanted (Part 1)

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As someone who loves animals, when I first glanced this “Graphic Designer wanted at Zoo” post, I was excited. I thought about applying.

But then my heart sank, and I became annoyed, as I read through the qualifications and stuff this employer was asking for.

First of all, they wanted someone who knows Photoshop, and I think InDesign. Which is fine. That is standard graphic design stuff.

But they also requested a graphic designer who knows “how to use power tools.” And I do mean they meant actual power tools.

“Power Tools” is not some kind of new graphic design software. They truly meant they want a graphic designer who knows how to use a nail gun and chain saw. I am not joking.

Here is an excerpt (all I have left from the original ad):

Layout Technician [at X] Zoo has an opening for an artist to produce graphics and also participate in departmental tasks such as the directed construction and installation of exhibit elements, props, and signage. Must be willing and able to use power tools and engage in lifting, climbing, and bending…

Hunh. Yeah. No, no I don’t think so.

In the ad, the position was called “Layout Technician” but this job wanted ad was classified on some job sites and in the local printed Sunday paper under “Graphic Design.”

This sounds like one of those “mixed ads” where they claim they want to hire a “Z” but toss in so many “Y” qualities that they negate the whole “Z” aspect of it.

In other words, their ad sounded to me less like a graphic designer wanted ad and more like, “We really need and want a professional construction worker to build fences and signs at our zoo, but it would be awesome if you also know a bit of Photoshop on the side, like if you have dabbled in Photoshop over the years.”

For frack’s sake. If you people need a person who has both skill sets – fence building AND photoshop, then hire two people, hire a 1. construction worker and also hire a 2. graphic designer.

Do not conflate the two skill sets (which are totally freaking unrelated) and send out an ad under the heading “Graphic Designer Needed,” but then toss out a whole bunch of “Bob the Builder” requirements under it, such as, “must be proficient at power tools and lumber cutting.” Which is exactly what they did.

At no point in my visual arts college education did I ever have to take a construction class, or a “how to use a drill, hammer, wrench, or chainsaw” course. Graphic design is about making graphics, employers, not about building fences or signs!

So ends Part 1. Please See Part 2,

Zoo Graphic Designer Position – Job Not Wanted Ad – That’s What A Portfolio Is For – And References, DUH