Webdesigninformer.com

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

Does our definition of what a book is need to change? Barbara deWilde has been seeking to answer just that as part of her project “What the Book” in my SVA IxD class that also doubles as an installation at the AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers exhibition going up later this week at the AIGA headquarters in NYC. This on the heels of the near cancellation of the competition last year which drew the ire of many designers. Part of the project is a short survey online that asks you to agree or disagree with such statements as “I would never give an ebook as a gift” and “Decorating with books is perverse”. Those same questions are asked at the exhibit too as an installation that allows viewers to physically shelve books as votes (as seen in the photo above). … Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

There is nothing worse than pulling up to an unknown cafe while out on a ride to find they offer poor coffee and stale cake Patisserie Cyclisme , is THE source of cycling café reviews and they have a rather spiffingly hypnotic new logo! Comment on this … Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

Wow, Little Printer from BERG is such a stellar little example of making something simple and fun. Little Printer lives in your front room and scours the Web on your behalf, assembling the content you care about into designed deliveries a couple of times a day. You configure Little Printer from your phone, and there’s some great content to choose from — it’s what Little Printer delivers that makes it really special. We have an incredible group of launch partners, and in the run-up to shipping we’re working with them all on custom publications. It makes mini personal newspapers! Count me in. Just watch the video and tell me you couldn’t see using one of these things… Read the rest here

Snook Go to the source

Meet Jack the Lumberjack. He’s the new mascot for Scalable and Modular Architecture for CSS . When working on the e-book, I wanted to have something that could provide an identity for the book and for the project. The idea of it being a lumberjack quickly came to mind. I liked the idea of a lumberjack for a number of reasons. For those that aren’t aware, I live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada… Read the rest here

Adactio Go to the source

I’m in Belfast right now for this year’s Build conference , so I am. I spent yesterday leading a workshop on responsive enhancement —the marriage of responsive design with progressive enhancement; a content-first approach to web design. I spent a chunk of time in the afternoon going over the thorny challenges of responsive images. Jason has been doing a great job of rounding up all the options available to you when it comes to implementing responsive images: Responsive IMGs, Part 1 , Responsive IMGs, Part 2 —an in-depth look at techniques, Responsive IMGs, Part 3 —the future of the img element. Personally, I have two golden rules in mind when it comes to choosing a responsive image technique for a particular project: The small image should be default. Don’t load images twice (in other words, don’t load the small images and the larger images)… Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

I’ve written my first book! Its taken even more time and energy than I ever dreamed it would, but yesterday marked the very last chapter passing it’s final stages of being buffed and tweaked into a manuscript that people would actually want to read. I started planning this book 5 years ago, and only the combination of Five Simple Steps , Chris Mills (A.K.A “Mills of Steel”), Owen Gregory and my technical editor, Gedeon Maheux of The Iconfactory has made it actually happen. All the icon artists I contacted (bar one – but I shan’t name any names!) were enthusiastic and responsive, which made it a joy to organise. Many responses came with fantastic icon material that hasn’t been seen before – early ideas and process snapshots, as well some yet to be released. … Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

Another great gallery from Christian Annyas: Speedometers are those kind of items you look at thousands of times during your live, without ever really noticing. You notice the speed, not the meter. And if you do notice the meter chances are you don’t realize someone actually designed it. The company probably even did some research beforehand. Research regarding the readability of typefaces, the right size of the numbers and the space between them. … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

It’s amazing how good industrial design can turn something mundane into a highly desirable product. I wonder what other dull, household objects would benefit from similar treatment? … Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

Just in case you were under the impression that type design or typography are easy, I suggest you try out Kern Type and Shape Type , two fun game from Mark MacKay for Method of Action . Each game tasks you with correcting default and malformed spacing, and then ranks you against the correct solution. It’s instructive and humbling! Hug your designer today. … Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

We’re very excited to release not one, but two, new A Book Apart titles today. We’re finishing up our publishing year with a big splash; first with Designing for Emotion by Aarron Walter , and next with Mobile First by Luke Wroblewski . These guys are both personal UX/design heroes of mine and their books really hit home. Here’s an appetizer from the back cover of Aarron’s book: Make your users fall in love with your site via the precepts packed into this brief, charming book by MailChimp user experience design lead Aarron Walter. From classic psychology to case studies, highbrow concepts to common sense, Designing for Emotion demonstrates accessible strategies and memorable methods to help you make a human connection through design… Read the rest here

SimpleBits Go to the source

I had the honor of creating the new Instapaper icon thanks to Jason Santa Maria and his art direction. The new app is superb, and it’s out today! Read all about it from creator Marco Arment and Jason . … Read the rest here

Andy Budd Go to the source

I first came across the concept of the Lean Start-up® three years ago while speaking at the Web 2.0 Summit in New York. I’d finished my duties and there was little else of interest on the schedule so I dropped into a panel discussion about start-ups. One of the panellists—a chap called Eric Reis—explained how he’d been involved in two start-ups. One had been a catastrophic failure while the other a moderate success. As Eric began to recount his story I found myself nodding along with recognition and agreement. His previous start-up had taken too long to build and by the time it was ready they’d almost run out of money. … Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

by Mike Monteiro It’s January of 1979 and we’re sitting inside the Plymouth Fury outside an AM/PM Mini Market in North Philadelphia. My father’s loyalty to Chrysler automobiles may be the defining commitment of his life. The blue Fury had replaced the black Valiant, which was even bigger. In three years it will be replaced by a Volaré station wagon, perhaps a nod to the suburban family life he continually promised my mother. … Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

Gavin Rothery’s site is my new favorite blog. He’s the visual effects supervisor from the excellent 2009 film Moon , and he posts behind-the-scenes tales from his favorite sci-fi films and rundowns of other special effects designers, and all his posts include cast photos and conceptual artwork. So much to love here. Here are some recent favorites on Star Wars , Alien ( x2 ), and Blade Runner , but there is a wealth of good stuff in the archives. … Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

We’re having a truly Indian Summer here in the UK, and it looks set to continue over the weekend. It gets dark by 7pm at this time of year, so I had to get out early tonight to enjoy the warm rays while they lasted. This image sums it up for me – riding through pretty countryside, with long shadows and village names that make giggle like a schoolboy. Tagged: cotswolds , cycling … Read the rest here

Jason Santa Maria Go to the source

Nicole Meyer has embarked on a fun project : Lake logos have a tendency to be, well, fairly ugly. This project was created to rethink what they could be. One Minnesota Lake. One Logo. Every day. Should only take a little over 27 years to hit ‘em all. … Read the rest here

Snook Go to the source

I don’t think I’m the first person to come up with this idea but figured I’d document it. If you’re unfamiliar with the Yellow Fade Technique, make your way over to the 37signals article that ushered in the design effect that was all the rage for awhile. This is the same thing but using CSS animations. /** * Quick fade on target to attract user attention */ :target { -webkit-animation: target-fade 3s 1; -moz-animation: target-fade 3s 1; } @-webkit-keyframes target-fade { 0% { background-color: rgba(0,0,0,.1); } 100% { background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0); } } @-moz-keyframes target-fade { 0% { background-color: rgba(0,0,0,.1); } 100% { background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0); } } Just a short and sweet blog post. You can go back to work now. … Read the rest here

Hicksdesign Go to the source

As the Apple TV doesn’t let you connect a drive directly with your content (it requires a ‘middle man’ of iTunes) getting your content to show up can be a little trying at times. Some of the reasons why it goes wrong are: The Mac serving the content isn’t on The Mac serving the content has dropped off the wifi network (happening a lot in Lion) The Mac serving the content doesn’t have iTunes open The Mac serving the content has iTunes open, but Home Sharing isn’t turned on (or using the same login as the one specified on Apple TV) The drive where all the content is stored has become unmounted, so iTunes can’t access it You’ve remounted the drive, but there’s a bug where if iTunes has tried to play content stored on the network drive, it corrupts the file path data, replacing it with some other obscure file (in my case, it seems to be a photo folder bizarrely) In short, there’s too much to go wrong, and Apple TV is on the naughty step until these steps can be bypassed without hacks. Rant over. Tagged: appletv , mediacentre … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

You’ve Already Seen This : Unless your entire social circle was under a rock yesterday, you’ve already seen Facebook Timeline. But what’s most interesting to me is seeing the influence of two notable designers, Tom Watson and Nicholas Felton, craft and shape this refined concept. Many designers likely had a hand in this, I recognize that. But consider Tom Watson’s Level & Tap , a site with a focus on impressive — and impressively large — images. … Read the rest here

Cameron Moll Go to the source

Recently I pulled this form letter out of storage. It’s one of my favorite mementos of Grandpa Moll. An independent contractor later in life, he probably sent this to companies in the surrounding area, most likely larger cities such as Reno, Nevada, as his quaint home town of Markleeville, California had only about 150 residents at the time. Back when I did client work as a freelancer, I would often describe myself as a pinch-hitter . In baseball, a pinch-hitter substitutes for another player when the coach feels the substitute player may perform a specific duty, such as bunting or base running, better than the player he replaces. Not that the pinch-hitter is better overall than the other player, just that he might have a better shot at succeeding in a specific scenario or critical play in a close game… Read the rest here