January 2012
1 post
May 2011
1 post
March 2011
2 posts
Microsoft: Time to Say Goodbye to IE6
Alright now. Like most web designers and developers, I have to spend a lot of time hacking code and compromising design so that my work displays acceptably in Internet Explorer 6—an awful web browsers that does a terrible job rendering properly coded HTML, but that people still use. Microsoft has put an an “Internet Explorer 6 Countdown” site:
http://www.ie6countdown.com/
The site...
January 2011
1 post
2 tags
November 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Sneaker Spermatazoa
I saw an ad in a magazine for a brand of running shoes named “Gravity Defyer”. They appear to have actual springs in the heels.
But what really caught my eye is the mark placed predominantly on the side of the shoe. It bears a striking resemblance to, well, human male reproductive cells.
Sophomorically, I thought that this must be some sort of joke. But apparently Gravity...
The MacBook Air. Light but not fast enough (for...
If the new MacBook Air “the next generation of MacBooks”, does that mean Apple won’t update the MacBook Pro? I hope not.
Chart via Engadget.
September 2010
2 posts
3 tags
I love you Ikea, but are you really emailing me about the swedish meatballs in your in-store restaurant? With type rendered in graphics using Verdana. Did you lose your license for Futura or something? Brand erosion hurts.
Microsoft Deceives Even When They Mean Well.
I make it no secret that I generally dislike Microsoft. I believe as a corporation, Microsoft’s M.O. is simply to dominate—not to make good products, or to help people work better or enjoy life more. And like most web designers, I despise the Internet Explorer browser. Despite Microsoft’s membership in standards-creating organizations, Microsoft rarely follows accepted and agreed-upon...
August 2010
3 posts
Hey Kids, This is Advertising!
A small promotional flyer that came with a cheap fast-food-joint toy is riddled with the phrase “hey kids, this is advertising!”. I would love to have been a fly on the wall in the boardroom meeting where this was approved. “We have to call out that it’s advertising.” “Yeah, but kids hate advertising.” “Well, we have to print it … hey, let’s...
1 tag
Forza, New Typeface from Hoefler & Frere-Jones
Excellent modern sans serif in a variety of weights. http://drp.ly/1u54dp
1 tag
“Don’t be about brand promise, but brand philosophy. It doesn’t have...”
– Eric Ryan, Method co-founder and chief brand architect, at Ad Age’s 2010 Small Agency Conference
July 2010
3 posts
“Better Off Ted” Canceled? Nice job, ABC .
I’m a little late to the party here, but I just heard that Better Off Ted, which was an awesomely hilarious show, was cancelled by ABC. The show was produced by Victor Fresco, who also brought us “Andy Richter Controls the Universe” (another hilarious show that didn’t get a fair shake) in the early 2000’s. Victor, I look forward to seeing what you come up with next.
User Interface Design Must Balance Innovation and...
John McRee of EffectiveUI wrote back in May [2010]: “we have to be thoughtful about where we innovate versus what is familiar”. This so directly and simply stated an idea that UI designers grapple with on a daily basis. An idea that (IMHO) most professionals around us aren’t in tune with. Making a useful interface often involves incorporating tried and tested conventions—placing section...
June 2010
3 posts
April 2010
2 posts
2 tags
March 2010
4 posts
1 tag
2 tags
How to Run a Meeting Like Google
Interesting article at BusinessWeek.com:
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/sep2006/sb20060927_259688.htm
Meetings should only be called if absolutely necessary. But for when they are, this article has some tips from Google VP Marissa Mayer on how to make sure they’re effective:
How to Run a Meeting Like Google
Set a firm agenda.
Assign a note-taker.
Carve out...
1 tag
November 2009
1 post
4 tags
10 User Interface Design Fundamentals via...
Read this complete but concise list of User Interface Fundamentals on ThinkVitamin. To break the list down even further:
Know your user
Pay attention to patterns
Stay consistent
Use visual hierarchy
Provide feedback
Be forgiving
Empower your user
Speak their language
Keep it simple
Keep moving forward
May 2009
2 posts
6 tags
1 tag
“I am not a fine artist. I am a course artist.”
July 2008
1 post
2 tags
What Makes Your Brand “The Only”?
Stealing another idea from Neutron LLC, here’s a simple staement that will help guide you to an effective strategic brand positioning.
Read the full article “Brand Positioning” written by Josh Levine on Neturon’s site. It’s very brief, insightful, useful; I’d expect no less from Neutron. Neutron also offers this statement as a useful PDF for your next stategy session.
February 2008
1 post
2 tags
Invisible Branding via Neutron LLC
Following their advice to Steal This Idea, I’d like to introduce you to “Invisible Branding” as described by Neutron LLC, the well-known brand consultants behind The Brand Gap and Zag. While graphic design and other visual expressions can be important elements to brand perception, they are certainly do not define a brand alone, and Invisible Branding, as Josh Levine of Neutron explains, reveals...
September 2007
1 post
2 tags
Milton Glaser by Hillman Curtis
Designer Hillman Curtis produced this short film on one of graphic design’s living legends, Milton Glaser. It’s titled “Art is Work”, and offers a peek at Glaser’s thoughts on why designers do what they do, and why he teaches design. “… the life of a designer is a life that is very much between two sensibilities, that of the businessman and that of the artist” “ art performs this pacifying...
August 2007
1 post
4 tags
37signals Continues to Innovate the Ajax Web...
37signals recently launched a new version of Backpack, their web-based service that allows non-technical users to easily make web pages with to-do lists, notes, files, and images. It’s no surprise that the guys at 37signals continue to innovate with “Ajax” functions. What has always impressed me about their web-based tools is the ease of use - I originally started using Basecamp simply because it...
June 2007
3 posts
3 tags
Blue Flavor on Putting Out Fires
I have read and re-read an article on Blue Flavor’s great blog entitled “Putting Out Fires” several times now. Brian Fling explains that “unforeseen projects or tasks that tend to come from nowhere,” or “fires” “are an inevitable part of the modern workplace.” Like me, I’m sure many of you know exactly what Brian means. As of this writing, I lead a small group in a company of about 60 people, in a...
2 tags
Measuring Brand Value
In an excerpt from his book Zag, brand mastermind Marty Neumeier of Neutron lists five ways to measure brand value. While this is certainly interesting, I’d love to hear Marty’s thoughts on not just how to evaluate existing brands, but on putting a dollar amount on the opportunity of developing a great brand, or on the risk of not doing so, or making too small an investment in branding. I’m a bit...
1 tag
Experience is the Product
Read this great article on Core 77 titled “Experience is the Product…and the only thing users care about” by Peter Merholz of Adaptive Path. Here’s an excerpt:
When you start with the idea of making a thing, you’re artificially limiting what you can deliver. The reason that many of these exemplar’s forward-thinking product design succeed is explicitly because they don’t...
May 2007
1 post
2 tags
Kerning Problems in Time Magazine
When I was a kid, my parents always had Time Magazine around the house. I’ve always liked Time, and I feel that its clear and accessible presentation of information (including big, bold headlines, smartly written subtitles, and information graphics by Nigel Holmes) influenced me to become a graphic designer. Time (the printed magazine, as opposed to their web presence) recently went under...
April 2007
4 posts
3 tags
Web Designers, Take ALA's Web Design Survey
Participate in A List Apart’s first annual survey to increase knowledge of web design and boost respect for the profession. I did.
2 tags
Video: Dana Arnett on Design and Business
Aquent has a great series of short videos in a “thought leadership” section of their site. My favorite is a video titled “Beyond Design” featuring Dana Arnett of VSA Partners. I attended an AIGA event a few years ago featuring Dana - he talked about his work at VSA with Harley-Davidson and other clients. Hearing Dana Arnett talk about his work was inspiring enough to...
2 tags
Inspiration from filmmaker Robert Rodriguez
I tore a one-page article from Men’s Health magazine over a year ago, and it’s been floating around my desk ever since. While I’ve almost tossed it many times just to eliminate clutter, I found myself hanging on to this one page. This brief article is an interview with filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, in which he gives some basic “how to live your life” kind of advice. I...
3 tags
To Behance or Not to Behance?
Update: Consider me no longer suspicious. Thanks to the Behance team for clarifying a key difference between the Action Method and GTD - the fact that it’s based on components of projects rather than contexts. I must agree, that there’s untapped potential here for creative professionals. I look forward to more good things for the creative community from Behance.
For the last several...
March 2007
2 posts
1 tag
Graphic to the Core
If you’re a graphic designer, take a look at this interesting post written by Mark Busse at Industrial Brand Creative. Here’s an excerpt:
It seems to me and the dozens of colleagues that I’ve polled in the last year that the word “graphic” no longer accurately describes the design solutions that we create.
Mark has gathered a good cross section of information on the subject. This is a...
2 tags
Firewalled Time
Merlin Mann’s recent interview of Jeffrey Veen struck a chord with me. While it’s a pleasure to eavesdrop on a conversation between these two web design and productivity minded gents, I find it of particular interest that Jeff places such value on his commute time, when he’s relatively closed off to distractions and can really concentrate on processing and organizing (in the GTD...