Posts filed under “Tools and Tips”

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

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.

Is your brain about to explode due to your indecisiveness? You're in luck! I've found the perfect website to provide the help you need. Icantdeci.de is a free, anonymous, emergent decision resolution assistant tool. Simply enter your quandary and hit submit. Users all over the world will quickly vote on your option A or B. While they are deciding your fate, you get to vote on their dilemmas. You will be asked five questions before getting your result. If you just want to help with other user’s predicaments, click the "start answering" button.

I am a huge fan of Designer Michael Beirut and a faithful reader of his blog posts on Design Observer. This archived excerpt, in particular, made me smile.

For over twenty years, I've been writing proposals for projects. And almost every one of them has a passage somewhere that begins something like this: "This project will be divided in four phases: Orientation and Analysis, Conceptual Design, Design Development, and Implementation." All clients want this. Sometimes there are five phases, sometimes six. Sometimes they have different names. But it's always an attempt to answer a potential client's unavoidable question: can you describe the process you use to create a design solution that's right for us?

The other day I was looking at a proposal for a project I finished a few months ago. The result, by my measure and by the client's, was successful. But guess what? The process I so reassuringly put forward at the outset had almost nothing to do with the way the project actually went. What would happen, I wonder, if I actually told the truth about what happens in a design process?

It might go something like this:

When I do a design project, I begin by listening carefully to you as you talk about your problem and read whatever background material I can find that relates to the issues you face. If you're lucky, I have also accidentally acquired some firsthand experience with your situation. Somewhere along the way an idea for the design pops into my head from out of the blue. I can't really explain that part; it's like magic. Sometimes it even happens before you have a chance to tell me that much about your problem! Now, if it's a good idea, I try to figure out some strategic justification for the solution so I can explain it to you without relying on good taste you may or may not have. Along the way, I may add some other ideas, either because you made me agree to do so at the outset, or because I'm not sure of the first idea. At any rate, in the earlier phases hopefully I will have gained your trust so that by this point you're inclined to take my advice. I don't have any clue how you'd go about proving that my advice is any good except that other people — at least the ones I've told you about — have taken my advice in the past and prospered. In other words, could you just sort of, you know...trust me?

Most processes leave out the stuff no one wants to talk about: magic, intuition and leaps of faith. Like a lot of designers, I've considered my real process my little secret.

Here is your Graphic Design "history lesson" for the day...

Up until the early 90s, before digital design software exploded amongst creatives, artists used to cut up these prints in various shapes, layers. They then layered, glued and rubbed on type and logos to create mock-ups and compositions for various print pieces.

That was then, this is now, here's a bit of history to collect. With the digital design software of today, these posters have become a thing of the past. Today, these out-of-print PANTONE by Letraset posters can now be purchased! Frame them to showcase not only the beauty of their pure colors but to preserve the graphic design history they carry from the old cut-and-paste days.

Find a color that speaks to you, and custom frame it in your creative space or take yourself back in time for a fun print workshop using any kind of art media you desire. Don't forget to check the helpful grid guide on the back of each print!

We should totally get Pantone 166C for the office! That's our signature Voltage Orange, for those of you who are wondering.

Function

When you decide you don't like us anymore and need to surf elsewhere. (Noooooo...) There's no need to single, double or triple click in the url bar before you start typing in the web address of your next destination. Just hit "F6" on your keyboard and it's auto-highlighted for you. Go ahead, do it. Do it right now. And then leave. (I knew you would eventually.)

I find this color trend forecast very stimulating. Industry insiders spotted these sweet hues at Première Vision on creations being unveiled for the Fall 2009 / Winter 2010 season. To stay ahead of the curve, I'm beginning to play and experiment with them now. I really dig the broad selection. Check out the "Spirit of the Season" from Fashion Trendsetter:

Color Trends for 2009

--Seizing on color as a power source to jolt colorful tensions.
--Maintaining equal pressure on liveliness and neutrality and encouraging luminosity.
--Heightening intensity, and circulating energy in a positive, rippling or alternating current.

Spirit of the Season

observing/taking/upsetting
attracting/joking
saturating/rebounding/interpreting to revive a combative confidence and creative boldness
fearlessly experimenting
flaunting fantasy without guilt
being moved by reckless handles
provoking unusual behaviors
running away with heaviness
abandoning consensus
eluding codes/ intersecting references
shuffling aesthetic boundaries
linking technology and an environmental conscience
setting differences ablaze
drawing on fabric and color as generators of energy
strengthening the positive tensions within the fashion whirlwind
thrusting ourselves into the future and radiating with optimism

H is for HYPE.

Everyone is waiting for Facebook or MySpace to start turning out ad revenue like Google. It is not going happen.

Around this time last year, Microsoft (in)famously valued Facebook at $15 Billion, or $323 per user. This was at a time when their annual revenue was $0.73 cents per user, placing Facebook's presumed retention rate at 100% and their average user life span right around 400 years. (Oops)

Expectations have cooled a bit since then, but not by much. And that's bad news for social media hopefuls. Search-engine-like ad revenues are not on the horizon for the social networks for one reason: Search engine marketing ROI cannot be beat by a social network.

Yes, these web 2.0 giants have had exponential growth. Yes they have millions of eyeballs and lots of mindshare online. But you can't assess the value of mindshare without thinking about what state all those minds are actually in.

People visiting Facebook or MySpace are there to connect with other people. A social networking website is itself an end. It's not a means. People on these sites have reached their destination. They've no momentum going that will push them to leave by clicking on an ad. This leaves the momentum problem up to the advertiser to solve. No matter how you slice it, generating momentum is HARD. (It's fundamental physics, and in this case the metaphor keeps on delivering.)

That's what makes search engine marketing so powerful. People visiting a search engine have come there specifically to leave and find something else. They have momentum. They just need a shove and they're off. Add in the fact that their search terms or keywords provide marketers a context for exactly what kind of shove is needed, and you end up with a marketing environment that may be impossible to beat when it comes to value for advertisers. The money will go to search engine marketing, because in the long run it's a matter of ROI for advertisers.