Since I can remember, I’ve been more attracted to how things get made, rather than the finished product. I loved watching Jerry Rice play as a kid (except for when he beat the Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII in ’89), but love even more how he trained in the offseason, running more miles than most distance runners. Or how a Ferrari is meticulously crafted in Maranello, hand-stitched, etc…not just what the car looks like finished. That’s boring. The making of the Thriller video blew my mind as a kid. B-Sides. Movie deleted scenes. Behind the scenes at Pixar. How a novel was written. The making of the perfect sandwich.
I love the process. That’s why I love design. So when I stumbled upon a gorgeous stop-animation video by Tether (Seattle) which chronicles the Evolution of the Gatorade G Series over 16 months of Research, Concepts and Designs…well see for yourself. I love how other creative minds tackle problems…how they approach even the most mundane or minuscule tasks and turn them into something much larger.
Great work, Tether. (also came across it via Creative Bits)
For all of us who’ve said at one time or another, “I want an app that does ___________,” there’s a new app for you. Social Memories is an app (beta) from Facebook that takes your social data and conveniently aggregates it into slick infographics to page through/look at digitally in a simple way. Or as Facebook puts it: Your social activity on Facebook, analyzed and commemorated in twenty eight elegant pages.
A spread from Felton's 2007 Annual Report
I think it’s a fantastic idea. But I’ve got a slight problem with it. The aesthetic style way-too-closely mimics the look set forth years ago by Nicholas Felton…the same Nicholas Felton that has a cult following for his amazingly designed (personal) annual reports, which you can see on his blog/studio site Feltron.com and his blog. Felton’s work is something that has inspired me for years. We’ve even created an installation in the past inspired by his work. However, taking a look and using it as inspiration is one thing…ripping it off and feeding it to the masses is another. Facebook, I love the idea and the execution. It’s brilliant. The visual data design is just too close for comfort.
Came across this while looking for some inspiration on Coolhunter. Eat your heart out, Luigi.
MUSIC: Ellie Goulding – Lights (Bassnectar Remix)
Download the Full Track Here: bit.ly/gf3lzI
Directed by Victor Showtime Lopez
Edit by Paul Diddy Darnell
DP / Color by Chad Bonanno ( chadbonanno.com)
Bringing sports data to life visually is not easy to do…or at least do well. I’ve come across quite a few sports infographics lately and since baseball is just starting again, (and I’m not a fan of the NBA) here’s a few sports infographics to pass the time as the Reds warm up in sunny Arizona, including this amazing iPad app by recent Parsons New School of Design graduate Steve Varga. Check it out here, here, and here.
Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us last Friday night at the YES Gallery.
The event was the brainchild of AIGA Cincinnati’s programming board (LeAnne Wagner, Emily Wolf and yours truly). We wanted to host a special event to celebrate Valentine’s Day and bring together Cincy’s design community. So we did! For those of you who missed it, the event featured a do-it-yourself print making station where attendees could print their own posters, tote bags and t-shirts. There was a Valentine making station for everyone to show their love for their favorite local jaunts (which were then lovingly hand delivered). Mixologist Molly Wellman was making some delicious craft cocktails and dj’s Marty Spitfly and I provided the mood music.
Be on the look out for the next “special edition” Liquid Courage. Until then, check out the regular event schedule at www.aigacincinnati.org
Ok, it may have started in Europe, but there are now Parkour clubs in Cincinnati. Facebook groups, even. I’ll let ‘em go. Hell, we used to mess around with “Freestyle Running” during cross country & track practice in high school years ago, before it was given the name Parkour. But there’a a new craze pushing athleticism into the mundane. It’s Hockern. No longer is sitting on your ass just a way to pass the time. A couple of enterprising young entrepreneurs in Germany want to make sure you never forget the thrill of setting your behind down after a long jaunt. (more…)
I don’t want to admit anything here, but I do have a passing familiarity with the art formerly known as Cliff’s Notes.
To be honest, I am an avid reader and have been since I was quite small, including my school years, but sometimes you just don’t have time for the whole enchilada. It doesn’t mean I value the work of the author any less (Tolstoy), it just means that there are only so many hours in a day.
This is why I did not fault my husband for purchasing The 100 Best Business Books of All Time, which is pretty much corporate America’s Cliff Notes. After all, I want him to have time to hang out with me AND be brilliant and well read
It wasn’t until recently that I discovered my industry’s own new Cliff’s Notes homage, Sketchnotes 2009-2010 by Eva-Lotta Lamm. I am pretty much in lust with the idea of getting the sketchified notes of an intelligent attendee of UX and design events of the past year or so. I am anxiously awaiting its delivery any day now.
Who knows, maybe it will even inspire me to whip out my own sketch book and contribute to the growing sketchnote cause. Well, no promises on that one, but stranger things have happened.
Recently myself and fellow Quaker Chris Hendrixson were given the opportunity to present at a Cincinnati IxDA event. The Cincinnati IxDA group is just getting its feet on the ground and we are excited to be part of the building efforts. If you’re not familiar, IxDA stands for Interactive Design Association and is global network of professionals interested in all things interactive design related. Chris and I were especially interested because the topic of the event was the iPad as a Productivity and Design Tool, something we’re both pretty geeked out about (like the rest of the world…)
We presented on Skeuomorphic design and how it’s being implemented on the iPad, both good and bad. I have to admit that I wasn’t familiar with the term when Chris first suggested it as a topic so I did the first thing any self respecting web surfer does, went to Wikipedia. Wikipedia defines it as “a derivative object which retains ornamental design cues to a structure that was necessary in the original (object). Skeuomorphs may be deliberately employed to make the new look comfortably old and familiar…” I think the visuals below help explain it better.
The axels on the wagon wheel are essential to it's function. The axels on the hubcap of the tire are skeuomorphic design elements. They have no functional purpose and only act as decoration.
The camera on an iPhone takes multiple skeuomorphic design cues from the traditional SLR camera. The animation of the aperture closing and the "click" sound heard when a picture is taken are both good examples.
This week we got our first glimpse at The Daily, the first ever iPad-only news app and venture by News Corp. & Apple, along with the help of many others. The app is free for the first 2 weeks, then will sell for 99¢/week or $40/year. We all have opinions, and the keynote wasn’t without some intriguing questions from folks at Gizmodo, Techcrunch, Engadget, the New York Times, etc. This is not simply a news aggregator. It’s a new publisher with a distinct voice, and a new look and feel for news. (more…)
This piece is a great combo of tech and design created by Chen Alexander using HTML5/Javascript. The minimalistic design is inspired by Massimo Vignelli’s 1972 subway diagram and though beautiful to watch is actually doing a lot behind the scenes. The piece taps into the MTA public API to map the NYC subway system in real time by drawing lines to represent the movements of the trains. Each line is then turned into a string that can be plucked, like a guitar string. The sound from each string is different depending on its length and where it is plucked, much like a real string instrument.
I really admire the restraint Alexander used when visualizing the complex system. I imagine it was tempting to put more labels and behind-the-scenes data in the interface, but the clean white field let’s the animation and audio be the star. It’s almost hypnotizing to watch in anticipation as the little lines scroll across the screen, plucking notes as they intersect. I also appreciate the subtle skeuomorphic design elements that he has utilized to illustrate the path lines as strings. Plus you’ve gotta love the clever duality of the name “Conductor”.
