May 30
May 2008
First, let me preface what I am about to say (gush) by telling you I don't know anyone at this company and I get no compensation for recommending them—but I am compelled to say that Media Temple is THE most intelligently designed, high-powered, and user friendly internet service provider (ISP) service I have seen or used. If you or one of your clients is in the market for a place to lay your/their head, this is it. The interface is a pleasure to use, the selection of tools is deep and wide, and the technical support (the five or ten times I have called) is smart and friendly. Even at 2AM.
I urge you to take a look around the site and to study the interface design, it is the best I have seen anywhere and they are constantly honing it.
Take the tour...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Art Parts Clip Art...
May 28
May 2008
Click play on this TED presentation, hover your mouse pointer over the bottom of the screen, and a bar appears that divides the presentation into subject sections—a very nice way to make the content accessible. (This is Malcolm Gladwell's talk on the distinctions between universality and variability including the source of the quotation, “To a worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish.”)
Click play and hover your mouse pointer over the bottom of the player...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Moleskine Notebooks...
May 26
May 2008
Grant Barrett's Double-Tongued Dictionary is a wonderfully rich source of slang, jargon, and new words. His purpose is to “log words which show at least some sort of acceptance before their status as 'new' words is recognized.” I particularly like the sense of story so many of these terms and expressions conjure.
Grant Barrett's The Double-Tongued Dictionary...
Barrett also co-hosts A Way with Words with Martha Barnette...
In the Ideabook Design Store: FontHead Typefaces...
May 23
May 2008
Greg Story is credited as the designer of the Today page on msnbc.com so I will attribute this technique to him. What I am pointing to is how he uses a transparent border to surround and transition between the menu and main content areas and the background. Revealing what is behind an image adds a sense of depth and an air of delicacy.
Yes, I'm pointing to the obvious. I do so because I believe to truly understand a particular design structure, you need to identify and examine the details. Looking back, many of the most useful lessons I have learned were communicated by someone showing or describing something others considered too obvious to mention.
Greg Story's transparent borders...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Getting It Printed...
May 21
May 2008
Many of the studies conducted by the Media Management Center are designed to distinguish the aspects of the readership experience that “motivate” from those that “inhibit.” The report I have linked to refers to the online experience but there are also studies regarding newspapers, magazines, and television.
The report is interesting in the sense that it characterizes the reader experience using phrases such as the subject “Entertains and absorbs me,” “Looks out for people like me,” “Regular part of my day,” and so on.
The Media Management Center's Online User Engagement Study (120KB PDF)...
More studies...
New in the Ideabook Design Store: Creative Advertising...
May 19
May 2008
Here is an presentation that really hits its mark. It is the age-old battle between harsh and soothing. Ikea flies us through a rapid fire sequence of harsh realities and lands us in slow-motion on a cushion of jazz. Click CHANGE BEDROOM and you're on to the next sequence and room.
Ikea's “You need a quiet place”...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Getting It Printed...
May 16
May 2008
In January of this year the U.S. Census Bureau announced the publication of the Census Atlas of the United States—the first comprehensive atlas of population and housing produced by the Census Bureau since the 1920s. It is 300 pages long and contains almost 800 maps.
There are two reasons to take a look at this PDF version of the atlas. First, it contains an amazing amount of fascinating information. And second, it is a fine example of clear, insightful information design.
Census Atlas of the United States...
Another extensive government resource: The National Atlas of the United States...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Becoming a Graphic Designer: A Guide to Careers in Design, 3rd Edition...
May 14
May 2008
Pictures are powerful stuff. This little book looked interesting enough that I ordered a copy (even though I have no plans to visit China anytime soon). It provides images that represent various ideas you would commonly need to communicate to someone who does not speak the same language—a picture of a credit card, a toilet, food items, and so on.
It is not be a new idea but a nice execution of it. More than anything it is a good reminder of how far a pertinent illustration can advance communication—even when you speak the same language.
Me No Speak...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Before & After: Page Design...
May 12
May 2008
Watch how this menu matches photographers to their areas of expertise. When you rollover the names of photographers in the left-hand column, their areas of expertise are highlighted in the right-hand column. Rollover the area of expertise and photographers with that expertise are highlighted.
(While your there, don't miss the portfolios, Marge Casey is a representative for many very talented photographers.)
Marge Casey menus...
In the Ideabook Design Store: The Desktop Publisher's Idea Book...
May 9
May 2008
You need real guts to take on a job like this. Amsterdam studio Bolt Graphics designed this handsome set of posters for Adidas and translated them into 24 languages—not just translated words but word illustrations.
Bolt Graphics posters...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Templates for InDesign, QuarkXpress, or PageMaker...
May 7
May 2008
Every designer should be a student of copyright and trademark laws. These laws not only protect your work and mine, they protect the work of others—everyone from artists and designers to corporations and public institutions. Part of our job is to be certain that the illustrations and photographs we incorporate into our work do not infringe on existing copyrights or trademarks. Or, if they do, that they are properly recognized and documented.
It is not as simple as it looks. Here, for example, is a technical wiki for the royalty-free illustration and photography site istockphoto.com. It is designed to help the those who submit work for sale to understand what can and cannot be distributed under royalty-free guidelines. You might be surprised at the scope of the imagery that cannot be used without the permission of its owners.
The istockphoto wiki on copyright and trademark issues ...
Copyright basics...
Trademark basics...
In the Ideabook Design Store: Design-It-Yourself: Graphic Workshopa...
May 5
May 2008
Thanks to Chris Miller for pointing us to this interesting navigational approach by EffectiveUI. I like the idea that everything carries near-equal weight. Kind of like a book table of contents—it displays the linear layout but it also gives you a simple, in depth way to pick and choose.
The EffectiveUI interface...
NEW in the Ideabook Design Store: Tintbook CMYK Process Color Selector...
May 2
May 2008
Here is a nice example of how to use a silhouette as a transition from one section of a web page to the next.
The example is at the bottom of the page...
In the Ideabook Design Store: The Copywriter's Handbook...