Posts filed under “Design”

We are now reaching the end of the Stanley Cup finals. As the Redwings and Penguins battle it out, I thought this would be a perfect time to check out bushparty for a compilation of some of the worst logos to ever see a hockey game.

New Google Logo

Google's new logo mixes their serifs with their sans-serifs and pulls it off, in my opinion. Once again, Google minimizes minimalism with blue sans-serif lower case letters to brand all of their products

Check out the new logos already at the top of some of Google's web pages, including Google Labs, Google Moderator, and Google Code.

F is for Fail

An utter and complete failure in the customer experience design department from his local ISP (screwing up everything from web from usability/security to phone support) led Douglas Mezzar to take things into his own hands. After 3 months, wasted hours and dollars, he exploits a weakness in their web form to do something he should have been able to do from the start.

Although Douglas Mezzer’s housemate had moved out many months ago, there was one recurring reminder of his prior residence: the monthly DSL bill from iiNet. Though Douglas had been paying on time every month, Douglas thought it’d be best if the bills came addressed to him instead of his former housemate. He figured it’d be a simple change that could all be accomplished through the self-service account management website.

After logging in, however, he ran into a bit of an issue. While he could change the address, phone number, email address, date of birth, and several other fields, the Firstname and Surname were disabled.

Not a big deal, Douglas figured, they have the customer service number listed right there.

An hour and a half of customer service calls later, he finally got a hold of someone who could help with the name change. After verifying his date of birth, mother’s maiden name, and inside leg measurements, the rep cheerfully informed him that they could change the name on the account.

“Of course,” the rep added, “there’s a small fee of $59, but we’ll just bill that to your account.”

“Wait wait,” Douglas interrupted, “$59 for a name change!?”

“Well yes,” the rep explained, “it’s a standard fee. There’s a whole process, you understand.”

Douglas begrudgingly agreed. After all, he did just tell iiNet that his housemate moved out; saying “thanks but no thanks, he’s actually moving back in now” didn’t seem so believable.

A couple weeks later, the bill duly arrived with an additional $59 “name change” fee attached. Its addressee, however, was still Douglas’s former housemate. No big deal, he figured, I’m sure the next one will come to me.

The next month’s bill came and it was still not addressed to him. Okay, fine, he thought, they’ll waste my time. They’ll take my money. But apparently, making the ten-second change is too hard!? He had no choice but to call back; it was now a matter of principle.

When Douglas logged back on to the customer portal to find the appropriate service number, a thought popped into his mind. What if, he thought to himself, hmmm… what if they were incredibly lazy in putting this web app together? Could I just edit the fields myself?

He loaded up his trusty Firebug plugin and Inspected the Firstname field. He clicked “Edit HTML”, replaced Joe’s name with his own, and removed the “disabled” tag.

He followed suit with the Surname field and clicked Save Changes. Surely this won’t work, he told himself, they’re an ISP; they wouldn’t be that stupid, right?

To his surprise, there were no errors and the fields now read “Douglas” and “Mezzer”. Figuring it was some goofy persistence thing, he logged out and logged back in. The account still said “Douglas Mezzer”. Could it have actually worked?

Yes, apparently. The following month’s bill was addressed to “Douglas Mezzer” and there wasn’t a “name change” fee to be found. Though, he did consider them sending them a bill for doing their job.

Get the full story, including screenshots, here: Connect Betterer - The Daily WTF

It's all too-easy to get tunnel-vision during a design project and screw it up with some piece of minutia that falls through the cracks because it lays outside your field of expertise. The more trivial mistakes end up being the wost, because they're so glaringly obvious to some subset of the population that does not include you. A subset like... astronomers. (Or 3rd graders in science class.)

Moon Movie Poster - Sam Rockwell

Duncan Jones' upcoming "Moon" is definitely on my must-see list this summer. It looks like a great Sci-Fi thriller. And the production and collateral design is tightly integrated. This gives the website, the trailer and the poster real power when it comes to creating a brand/identity. But... they screwed up on the poster when it comes to checking their facts. Whoever designed this did a fantastic job nailing a unique style that looks modern and classic at the same time; they also clearly had no idea how far the Moon was from Earth.

The tag line says "950,000 miles from home, the hardest thing to face... is yourself." That sounds great, it's intriguing, it even has a twist right at the end, but the moon is 240,000 miles from Earth. According to Bad Astronomy, the only thing 950,000 miles out is a telescope or two and maybe some space dust. Yikes. Considering the movie's tag-line is such a key element to the design, it certainly would've been worth vetting before going to print. A quick Google could've avoided the problem.

Having said that, they've already gone and done the next best thing besides getting right in the first place; they quickly corrected the poster and changed the tag line to "250,000 miles from home, the hardest thing to face... is yourself." You can check it out here in all it's glory: Ain't It Cool News - Moon Movie Poster.

Bravo! Admitting a mistake and moving to fix it immediately is the most sensible reaction to situations like this.

Design Aviary feather

Over the last few weeks we've developed an in-house tool that we think is good enough to share with the design community. It's called Design Aviary and it allows anyone, Twitter account or not, to listen in on the most recent conversations happening on Twitter in a targeted manner. It covers a variety of topics from design inspiration to jobs & gigs to the pain of utter design fail... And it does so in a beautiful way.

If you have a Twitter account, Design Aviary is a great way to find people you want to follow. If you don't have an account it's a great way to tap into Twitter, one of the most vocal communities of first-adopters in the world, and listen to what's being said about design. It's a good resource to keep up with the cutting edge design ideas and trends that have been appearing on Twitter hours, if not days, before the bloggers start reporting on it. (Not to mention mainstream media.)

There is still some noise mixed in with the signal, but it's several orders of magnitude less than if you were just surfing Twitter looking for people talking design. Leave us some feedback in the comments. If this inspires anyone or helps someone find a job, let us know. (It'll make all the work that went into this worth it.) Enjoy!

Design Aviary

What do you get when you multiply psychedelic colors with contemporary shapes?

A one way ticket to a place called Awesome Town, that's what. See you there!

Embracing the spirit of experimentation, Classic Modernism is about adapting and discovering new ways of seeing your subject. It encourages fresh ideas regarding the function of design. The greatest thing about using Classic Modernism is the sense of confidence you feel after making your mark. It's safe and simple in the best possible way. With this style, form follows function. The focus lies on the essentials, with concept leading design. Simultaneously, it can appear organic and calculated. Shapes and colors are strong, lines are clean and contrasts run high. Negative space is used intelligently, and often times, room is left for interpretation.

The late Paul Rand mastered this art to become a design legend. His mind was behind many world renowned identities, including the logos for IBM, UPS and ABC. If you love design, do yourself a solid and watch this short video (posted above.) It stars Paul Rand, sharing insight regarding concept and design. Visually, it is nothing short of fantastic. It invokes creativity and is absolutely worth your time.

Arm yourself with a smart concept using this style, and you'll find yourself the proud designer of an infinite classic.

I once had the luxury of listening to a bright young speaker by the name of Christian Helms. He is a fantastic designer and President of The Decoder Ring Design Concern in Austin. With the energy of an Obama rally, his words inspired me to the core. This was the moment I fully realized that I was on the right path as far as my career choice was concerned. His main point was essentially this... Fear not, for in the beginning every designer feels like they suck. The struggles you endure early in your career, will fill you up with lessons learned, patience and more tools in your design tool box. Eventually, if you work your ass off, you will rock.

The following brief excerpt is just a taste of the same simple advice he offered then. I wanted to take these pearls of wisdom and "pay it forward" to all you starry eyed newbies out there. If you are hungry for more, go here and here.

First, work your ass off. I know that's a stock answer, but this is an amazing opportunity to grow and experiment, fail and get back up again. And don't be so concerned with execution— learn to think.

Second, take time away from "work" to relax and re-energize. That's a tough one for me, but I'm trying.

Third, surround yourself with people who inspire and challenge you. As for people who drain you or diminish your joi de vivre, walk in the other direction and don't look back. Life's too short to waste your time on those folks.

This post is dedicated to my dear friend and design mentor... the gorgeous, Huma Wadood.

Her parents came to the United States from Pakistan to pursue the American Dream. They worked hard to become successful, had three beautiful daughters and the rest is history. Because I'm obsessed with travel and exploring the world, I constantly ask Huma to tell me all about this far away place called Pakistan. One of the most striking things I've learned is that virtually every vehicle is completely covered with a kaleidoscope of color and design.

This decoration of vehicles is actually a common practice in a number of countries. Similar techniques are used in the Philippines, Indonesia, Central America, South America, India and Bangladesh. What makes Pakistan so unique, is the pervasiveness of this art. Colorful designs are heavily utilized on practically all private and commercial vehicles, from trucks and buses, to vans, taxis and even vendor's push carts. Discovering this gorgeous anomaly has totally inspired me to expirement with bright colors. I hope it stimulates creativity in you, too.