Dave Selden
Creative Director
Dave has been a web designer almost as long as there has been a consumer Internet, starting with his first web site in 1997. He earned a BA in Art and Journalism from the University of Iowa in 2000, and utilizes a design style where he solves problems through a complete understanding of our client’s business. Dave has played a pivotal role in working with most of our clients including, Leatherman, Xerox, DTNA and the Oregon Lottery. Outside of Pop Art, he is the Marketing Chair for the Portland Chapter of the AIGA and a board member for the Portland Advertising Federation. In his down time, he is an avid homebrewer, woodworker and artist.
Go big or go home.
Education
BA in Art and Journalism from the University of Iowa
Community Involvement
- AIGA Portland
- Portland Ad Federation
- Portland Area Darts Association
- American Homebrewer’s Association
Other Interests
- Beer
- Bacon
- Woodworking
- Red Sox
Current Magazine Subscriptions
- Wood Magazine
- Popular Woodworking
- Fine Woodworking
- Imbibe
- Zymurgy
Recommended Books
Networks
Posts by Dave Selden
Getting Schooled
I’m not going to make any weighty pronouncements or earth-shattering revelations in this post, but rather, return to my blogging roots and fill you in on what I’ve been up to the last 10 days. I haven’t been in the office, you see, a fact that both pleases me greatly (read on) and also makes [...]
Going Cable-less
I quit cable this month. I come from a long line of TV-aholics, so if you know me well, this might sound like a total 180 from my usual lifestyle, the kind of transformation that might otherwise signal some kind of mid-life crisis (which I’m too young for, really, despite other clues like my recent Jeep [...]
Rosey Entries Due Friday!
Just a reminder to the Portland creative community – if you’re planning on entering the Portland Advertising Federation’s Rosey Awards this year (and you should), your entries are due this Friday, October 1, 2010. This year, the format is changing quite a bit – gone are the hundreds of categories (“And the award for best B-to-B [...]
Creating Interactive iPad Wireframes
We’re working on a pretty awesome iPad app right now. I can’t tell you too much about it (if I’m ever able to), but I can share some techniques I used to develop semi-functional, non-linear wireframes that can be demonstrated on the iPad. Step 1: Build the Wireframes. We’ve done wireframes in Adobe Illustrator, Balsamiq, OmniGraffle, Keynote and [...]
The Demise of Stock Photography
Access to cheap images has improved dramatically with the rise of the web, and consequently, the web (and marketing in general) has become cluttered with low-quality images. How'd this happen?
Websites with Linger
Two years ago, my wife and I took an amazing trip to Northeast France and Belgium. We spent four days in Bruges, which is maybe Europe’s most picturesque town. Bruges is home to some of Belgium’s best beer destinations, including several amazing beer bars, beer-themed restaurants and a brewery museum that showcases Belgian brewing circa [...]
Nobody’s Perfect: Apple’s iTunes Terms of Use
“Easy. Intuitive. Effortless. Friendly.” These are all words often heard when describing Apple’s products. As a longtime Mac user, I’m constantly amazed at the trouble Windows users are willing to go through in installing software, cameras or printers. Apple builds great usability and attention to detail into every product they release, and this commitment has [...]
Dear Shippers: More Data, Please
I recently had a very frustrating experience with a national shipping company whose names rhymes with Ped Rex. Short version: I shipped a package with some very valuable contents ($1750) to Chicago for Monday delivery. I dropped the package off on Saturday morning, and I was already a little miffed when I had to pay [...]
Top 5 Office Pranks in Pop Art History
We work pretty hard at Pop Art. There are late nights, and there are late nights. Booze sometimes takes the edge off, but where to turn when sobriety is your only friend, and there’s stress you need to relieve? Laughter is the best medicine, and it’s best enjoyed at a co-worker’s expense. 5. Jello Stapler VP of Client [...]
To Microsite or Not To Microsite?
I’ve been part of several conversations in recent months about when to build a microsite, or when a certain type of content is better placed within the confines of the corporate web site. To that end, I developed a quick little graphic that illustrates my thoughts on the matter. In my opinion, your corporate web [...]
What I wish the Apple Tablet Was
Last night, I was secretly hoping this long-rumored Apple device was just a big hoax. Seriously, how funny would that have been if all the rumors were nothing but … rumors? But as Anton and I got to talking about it, we started imagining the purposes a keyboard-less, WiFi-enabled touchscreen might have in our daily [...]
I hate Fred Meyer’s Holiday Ad
Ahh, the holidays. The time of year when retailers turn the dials up to 11 to clear storerooms and shelves. The holiday ad has always been of particular annoyance to me, particularly those with catchy new lyrics set to old songs, tending to the punny. This year, however, a new low has been set. Northwest grocer [...]
On Design Portfolios
I was talking about design portfolios with our supremely talented intern Shawna a few months ago, and the subject of format came up. Her graduation was coming up in June 2009, and she was already thinking about the job hunt, yet another sign of how sharp she is. For those of you reading who aren’t [...]
Sticky Wall 2.0
This year, Pop Art participated in Colaboratory for the first time, Portland Ad Fed’s revolutionary new internship program. We had three different interns over six weeks, from both the design and writing disciplines. Each intern was here for just eight working days (Monday – Thursday), which was some of my initial hesitation in participating in the [...]
Making Amazon More Actionable
I’m an Amazon junkie. I’ve bought everything from books to power tools on Amazon. I’m a prime member, meaning I pay $70/year for the ability to get items shipped to me in 2 days or less, every time, rather than paying for express shipping every purchase. Suffice to say, I use the site a lot. [...]
The Passive-Aggressive Brand
A couple of days ago, my sister sent me a link to PassiveAggressiveNotes.com, a site I’d seen before, but one that still elicits a chuckle every time I check it out. There’s just no replacement for the snide little notes co-workers and roomates leave one another. My favorites are variations on a simple theme: “Your [...]
Free Advice for Adobe Acrobat Programmers
I often find myself making PDFs to send our design work over to clients. Acrobat is a great little program that nearly everyone has, and is rarely blocked by corporate firewalls. It’s generally very easy to use, too. Here’s how I make most PDFs for client presentations. Make comps. This takes some time. Drag files onto Acrobat icon [...]
Open Letter to PortlandOnline Refresh Committee
In May, one of the largest interactive firms in Portland announced it was closing its downtown Portland office, and that its staff would begin “working from home.” In the last 12 months, nearly every web development firm and design firm in the Portland area has laid off staff (thankfully, a situation Pop Art has avoided), [...]
Quick Shopping Cart UX Tip
Most web checkout forms collect credit card information in this order: Card type (e.g. Visa, Mastercard) Card number Security Code (three digits on the back) Expiration Date Name on Card (e.g. DAVID R SELDEN JR) If you go through this process, you’ll note that steps 1, 2, 4 and 5 require information from the front of your credit card. The information [...]
On Method Design and Efficiency
In acting, there is a school of training known as “Method Acting,” whose proponents begin preparing for a role by immersing themselves in the culture they are trying to portray. Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro are three well-known practitioners, often going to great lengths to remain in character, even after the [...]
Lingo Bingo 2: Creative Edition
Based on the popularity of my last post, I teamed up with Kevin Platt, one of Pop Art’s talented writers, to bring you Lingo Bingo 2: Creative Edition. Next time you meet with your internal creative team, ad agency, or marketing firm, print one of these out before the meeting. When the creative buzzwords start [...]
Lingo Bingo
So there I was sipping my coffee this morning, checking my RSS feeds and WHAM! Inspiration! I should say for the record that I love our project managers, and I love our account managers, and that they have been nothing but good to me and the rest of the creative team, cleaning up the digital messes [...]
America’s First Brand Touchpoint
A couple weekends ago, my wife and I took a trip northward to Canada (aka “America’s Hat”), specifically Vancouver, B.C. The trip was great – what an amazing, global-feeling city. I heard more languages spoken on the street in 10 minutes there than I have in the past 10 days in Portland. We had some [...]
The Truly Friendly Skies: Southwest Airlines
I love Southwest Airlines. In a time when nearly every other airline is bankrupting themselves, exacerbating their problems with underhanded pricing, starving their customers, and providing Soviet-era customer service, Southwest is expanding their offerings in their typical friendly, easygoing way. If you’ve never flown Southwest, try it sometime. It takes a bit of getting used to, [...]
Behind the Design: the Pop Art Logo
In July of 2006, Pop Art’s President, Steve Rosenbaum, commissioned the Pop Art design team to develop new marketing materials to coincide with our move to a new office space. During this process, Pop Art’s existing logo was called into question, and the design team set out to develop a new logo. The new logo reflects [...]
