Posts filed under “Trends”

Eric Karjaluoto has a great post talking about companies slashing marketing budgets during this recession. (Which many are.)

What baffles me about all of this is how people are choosing to cut their spending. I can appreciate reducing office space or negotiating a lower lease rate. I similarly understand reducing staff members or entertaining job sharing options. What I can’t quite grasp, however, is this tendency to narrow the pipe for incoming sales. When you aren’t getting dates, you don’t go home and watch re-runs of Matlock; you get out of the house and meet people.

It seems that most companies are in fact doing the opposite of this though. I talk to numerous people in key roles who look a little like they’re a moment from crapping themselves. When I ask what they are doing in terms of marketing they typically respond in the same fashion, telling me something to the effect of, “We know it’s something we should be doing, but we have to cut right now.”

A nice office space doesn’t directly drive sales. Office perks may heighten morale but they don’t necessarily bring in new clients. In times like these, all of us have to look at what keeps the machine running. As such, there’s one simple truth that I want you to embrace: your company has to accelerate its marketing and sales efforts...

...So, let’s just say you’ve taken a few moments to skim this article, and you think that I’m perhaps making a small amount of sense here. Well this then is the spot where I need to sell you on the notion that this whole “marketing” thing could actually work for you. Let me take the next few moments to push you off that cliff.  ;-)

When you’re half-way through a grueling run, feeling like you want to “puke your lungs out”, you tend to forget that you’re not the only one. Everyone else around you is likely feeling just about the same way, and it’s the one who can suck it up and push harder who wins the race. Although there are a few lucky ones who have managed to escape the pinch, I feel I can safely say that your competitors are hurting badly. So while they are retreating and licking their wounds, I want you to press the gas pedal and haul some ass. They’re vulnerable; isn’t this the perfect time to strike?

In fact, they’re running so scared that there’s less “noise” out there. When times are good, everyone’s clamoring to have their voice heard. Today, however, your marketing dollar has more bang, largely because fewer people are advertising, selling, and getting the word out. It’s ripe for you to get out there, bang your drum, and perhaps even grab a couple of your competitors’ clients in the meanwhile.

Read the rest of it: Stop Acting Like a Sissy and Market Your Company.

From Graphjam:

Every single (even moderately successful) web browser's logo has been round... Why?

HIstory of Web Browser Logos

The  most obvious explanation is that Internet Explorer had a round logo and, considering it enjoyed a 95% market share in 2002, everyone else fell in line (Netscape switched to their round logo after IE had already made massive gains). Secondly, with the importance of putting forth a world wide web vibe it seems logical that you would end up with a bunch of globes.

But what about Internet Explorer itself? Why are the IE and NCSA Mosaic logos round? Was it on a designer's whim? Considering these products were mostly if not entirely the work of engineers; it's a bit more practical than that.

When NCSA Mosaic came out in the 90's it was the first graphical web browser. With an accessible UI design, and killer features like icons, bookmarks and pictures, it's what really kick-started the online information revolution. It had a status indicator which was the logo itself. This indicator had to display indefinite progress, so it was basically an elaborate spinner. (e.g. the current Mac OS X beach ball or Windows spinning hourglass.) Spinners are circular in concept and dynamics, otherwise, they would be a progress bar or something else non-cyclical used to indicate definite progress.

Netscape and Microsoft followed suit with their graphical browsers. They implemented logo-based spinners in the upper-right corner of their browser interfaces to indicate page loading progress while we were staring at blank screens hooked to dial-up connections. That way you knew something was happening. The logo-as-spinner element has taken a backseat since then, but it seems like the marketing vocabulary for the web browser was set.

It's interesting to note that Opera, with the widest departure from the globular design trend (the only one with no blue, as well) is also the least successful of all the browsers here, despite recent gains on current fringe platforms like Nintendo Wii and mobile devices. A similar observation can be made about Mozilla's browser: eking along in obscurity for years, until finally releasing it's rounded-logo browser version. With it's new globular look, it quickly became the only serious challenge to Microsoft's dominance of this space. (Obviously these are cases of correlation, not causation. However, looking at the list with a designer's eye, it's hard to miss.)

It will be interesting to see what the first major web browser without a globular logo design will be, bu if the current slew of upstart browsers are an indication, we're in for quite a wait...

new-browser-logos

Oh, and apparently blue is just as worldly as the globular shape. ALL the logos in this post, except for Opera, contain blue/green of some sort. In fact, it's by far the dominant color in nearly all of them. Is this more IE worship? Probably: subconscious or blatant, imitation is still the sincerest form of flattery.

After all, what company wouldn't like to replicate IE's 2002 95% market dominance of the browser-space?

Links to the Browsers listed in this article:

• NCSA Mosaic
  
• Netscape Navigator
• Internet Explorer
• Opera
• Safari
• Firefox
• Chrome
• Flock
• Konqueror
• xB Browser
• Maxthon
• Camino

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.

The next time you get the opportunity to design on an environmentally friendly project, consider Seeded Paper. It's plantable recycled paper with seeds embedded into it. The idea is that after the recipient is through reading your message, they can plant your seeded paper in some soil and watch it grow. It can be used exactly like normal paper so you can print just about anything on it. You can even make your own for fun!

My best friend recently told me about a new must-have accessory for the font obsessed Graphic Designer. We all know that Veer offers great stock photography, but she pointed out that they also have a pretty nifty merch section we never noticed before. She spotlighted this super cool scarf in particular.

Sports lovers wear letter jackets – type lovers wear letter scarves. Everyone’s favorite Swiss typeface has been transformed into this lacy and literate accessory. Soft strokes block cool breezes, while counters form geometric shapes that peekaboo your companion tee. Who says Helvetica can’t be functional and fetching? Uppercase only, the letters are laser cut into black or white microfiber suede, 62" x 4".

In his latest masterpiece, 808s and Heartbreak, Kanye West turns away from hip hop to make pop music “in an artistic way.” He calls it Pop Art.

"This is not hip-hop music. Taking a sample, looping it and doing all that ‘throw your hands up in the sky’ thing has become such a cliche. Hip-hop is over for me. I sing, not rap, on this album. I now want to be grouped among those musicians you see in those old black-and-white photos - the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles. And I’m not going to get there by doing just another rap album full of samples.

"I’ve had to create a whole new musical genre to describe what I’m doing now and I’m calling it ‘pop-art’ - which is not to be confused with the visual art movement."

Voltage Super Designer, Geoff P, noticed the subtle use of these trendy colors on the album cover art. It appears that each of the eleven tracks is represented by a stripe of color. If you're digging this style, stay tuned for Kanye's fresh new clothing line Pastelle. Loves it!

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