new stuff

Here is a random assortment of things I have done. More recent things, really.

Filed under: Design

Work work work.

Basically what I’ve been working on over the weekend:

Also, web typography is TOUGH. I can’t believe people live with it. There should be an uprising. Ok, well, it isn’t that terrible, but I’m probably just complaining because I am inexperienced. But still.
I have to get on working on my web project some more, so I don’t get behind. Oh the fun of being a design student.

Filed under: Design

Site examples

Here are some examples I found of the sites we talked about in class earlier this week:

Experimental:

<http://unlimited.orange.co.uk/flash/go>

While there is information on this site, the vast majority (and by vast I mean vaaaaaaaaast) is a never ending website full of repeating cute monster thingies you can interact with. And yes, the scroll bar does move as you descend, but take it from me, even if you reach the end it keeps going. (oh how I wish I could have those ten minutes back)

So it does have information about how it is a phone company, but I consider it mostly to be interactive. Or does that make it a hybrid?

Reference:

<http://en.wikipedia.org>

What can I say, I’m a fan of Wikipedia. Probably the definition of a reference site, all it has is information… knowledge at your fingertips. Although you are most likely to be here just to quickly look something up. I have been known, however, to get lost in a stream of related articles, and realize I started out looking up something about sponges and land on a page about the video game Metroid. Thanks a lot Wikipedia.

Informational:

<http://www.att.com>

Or, most every corporation’s site. Like the others, it’s got information on it’s products, where to get them, how to get help in using them… I think it’s safe to say we’ve all seen these before.

Hybrid:

<http://www.icetruck.tv/news>

Hmmm…. I’m not sure is this one will count, but… I’ll try. It’s for a tv show on showtime called “Dexter” about a serial killer who works for the Miami Police Department. Basically, you can send a custom video including information about them, and make them think that this press conference is real. There was also one before that in which your friend (after filling out information about them) appears to be next on the hit list of a serial killer, shown in the style of a news report on a youtube like site. The first one I did, and was actually pretty funny and cool. I haven’t done this one yet, so I can’t really make any claims on it’s hyrbidness. The only reason I would say it wasn’t a hybrid site would be that when making the video, you know what/who it’s for. It’s not a mystery like Subservient Chicken.

I suppose that’s it for now. Projects await to be finished by me.

Filed under: Design, Dexter, THE INTERNET, wikipedia

Some more color links

I found a couple more interesting things regarding color.  The first, and probably most relevant has to do with whether girls really do prefer “girly” colors, and guys “manly” colors.  Also mentioned in there is the fact that because red is considered a lucky color in China, the preference rate in colors correlates closer between genders.  While sort of de-bunking the graphs that were provided from the cited article.  Oh well.

Bad Science – Pink, pink, pink, pink.  Pink moan.

And sort of unrelated to culture, but still interesting is Dr. Gachet’s thoughts on van Gogh’s use of color in his portraits:

Mind Hacks – Attending van Gogh and his asylum art

Filed under: Art, Design, color, van Gogh

Color site

Here’s a site that I stubbled upon recently (and having to do with color!).

Colour Lovers

They’ve got some pretty good pallets… you can search by color which is nice.  Also there’s patterns.  I haven’t really looked at the patterns yet, so I don’t know how good they are.  I’m sure they’re super.

Filed under: Design, color

Type Books

In type we’ve done two type books.  As in, books with just type.  Unless your me, and your definition of “just type” is broad at best.

Here are some pictures of the first one I did.  It was based around Carl Sagan quotes and contact with aliens.

Obviously, there’s some lost in translation onto the computer, but…

And the second one I did, I took the beginning text from James Joyce’s Ulysses.  It’s kinda grungy, like a zine.  The pictures I took were terrible (worst than the last ones!) so I just made computer layouts as if you were going through it page by page:

Filed under: Design, Carl Sagan, James Joyce, type book

CD cover rip offs?

I recently discovered that one of my favorite bands, The Chemical Brothers, had two album covers that might have been rips from other pieces of art.  Now, I haven’t seen this posted about really anywhere else on the Internet, so I’ll post it here.  Let’s start with the band’s fifth album, Push The Button.  The album looks like this:  

Now, maybe I was in the minority, I don’t know, but I really didn’t like the over that much when I first saw it.  Mostly because it had a dramatically different look than their previous two albums.

Pretty psychedelic, right?  Anyways, qualms aside, I stumbled upon this one artist called Carrie Moyer, and I thought something looked strangely familiar…

It was the hand/tower thing!  Well, surely the artist wasn’t stealing from Carrie Moyer, right?  Well, sort of.  It turns out there was a old French print that had that same motif…

[via Sleevage]

And it has some meaning in the French culture at the time, like revolution or something like that.  The text roughly translates to something like, “The press is toxic” so maybe the had doesn’t necessarily mean revolution, but… you know.

But later I stumbled upon some even more incriminating evidence of the “borrowing” that the artist did.  Here’s their most recent album, We Are The Night:

Pretty cool, huh?  That’s what I thought, until I found this on FFFFOUND:

LOOKS STRANGELY FAMILIAR.  Sadly, there wasn’t a website associated with the picture, so I couldn’t figure out its source.

Later, I was searching to find out what happened to Blue Source, the company that did the covers for Surrender and Come With Us, because their website didn’t exist.  In that search, someone posted that Virgin had been threatened legal action, because the album cover looked strikingly similar to a print done by artist Herbert Bayer.  Here’s the Bayer print:

Even more incriminating is the “in progress” version of the cover that was released before the final version came out.

Look very similar.  I wouldn’t be surprised if whoever is suing for Herbert will win.  It’s a pretty blatant rip off.  Oh well.  I suppose all bands can’t be perfect.

Filed under: Design, Carrie Moyer, CD, FFFFOUND, Herbert Bayer, music, rip-off, The Chemical Brothers

Link Dump!

So I’m sure you’re just dying to know what websites I visit.  Where does this crazy guy get all this inspiration from?  Well, at long last the wait is over.

One of the first sites I found when I discovered the internet was Customize.org.  Mainly it revolves around desktop customization, but there have been some real talents that have dropped by there.  I would suggest browsing through the Most Popular Wallpaper and Screenshots for some goods.  Although, I’ll have to admit, recently the quality has been a bit low.  Plus the server is butt slow.

Also good is FFFFOUND.  Basically, it’s just a bunch of pictures grabbed from the internet by a bunch of people.  The really popular ones reach the front page.  Usually they are design orientated, but there is a lot of photography, fashion, and architecture as well.

I also enjoy Béhance Network.  The gallery features work by design professionals from around the world.  If you want to see some quality stuff, this is one of the top places to go.  Updated pretty frequently as well.

The Book Design Review has some nice book covers posted there.  His opinion is usually informative as well.

Sleevage gets pretty into CD covers.  I believe it is a bit unknown, so spread the word!  The site talks about the album art, as well as all the singles that were released with the LP.  Check it out!

Christian mentioned Kottke in class today, so I’ll back him up on this one.  It’s more or less the exact opposite of FFFFOUND, as it is completely text based, and talks about the context of the links, instead of no explanation.  He covers a lot of ground, and it is all very interesting.

MoCo Loco has a frequently updated allotment of design and architecture, all pretty modern and sleek looking.  Not much graphic design, but it’s always nice to get inspiration from different things, right?

I guess that’s it for now.  Feel free to recommend anything to me if you think I’ll like it.

Filed under: Design, Behance, Customize, FFFFOUND, Kottke, links, Sleevage, wallpapers

Changes in Design

It was mentioned in class that there are numerous companies converging toward a sort of design by consensus. Instead of hiring designers, they introduce what they want to the public, and the public takes care of it not only quicker, but more people buy the product because the public votes on the winning design.  Examples of this would be Threadless and RYZ.

Of course, this isn’t just happening in the design world.  Wikipedia also utilizes this idea of consensus, but applied to knowledge.

This reminded me of George Orwell’s classic novel 1984.

Big Brother is watching you.

But instead of things being dictated to us, the opposite is becoming true.  Companies are starting to listen to the public instead of the designer more.

Are designers going to become obsolete in the future?  Probably not.  I think there is still that need for the professional.  Wikipedia has drawn constant criticism because it is open to the public, and not written by experts of the field, as in credible encyclopedias like Britannica.

So I suppose only time will tell.

Filed under: Design, 1984, consensus, ryz, threadless, wikipedia