Brand Reversions
Brand Reversions : Brand identities with split personalities, by Graham Smith. … Read the rest here
Posts Tagged rev
Pi
Pi : Another Twixtor -hacked video. And I like it. The color grading and text/line effects are fantastic, as well (especially at 02:11). Produced by Thomas Blanchard and shot with a Canon 550D (and parts with a longboard, if my limited French served me well while reading the comments). … Read the rest here
Where are the poster children for responsive design?
In my previous post I stated that while I didn’t think responsive design was the right approach for every mobile experience, it was appropriate for 90% of cases and should become the natural default option. Sadly the current default for most organisations is to build a suite of device specific mobile apps. While giving designers control over layout and companies the ability to make a bit of extra money through app store sales, this seems like an expensive, labour insensitive and somewhat wasteful approach. Especially when you consider the relatively small number of app consumers, compared to the number of people who access the web through mobile devices. For most online companies a mobile optimised website is going to be the smartest option in terms of reach and ROI. I think one of the big problems with responsive design is that it’s a relatively new and unproven concept. … Read the rest here
Responsive Web Design: The Book
Today! Ethan Marcotte ‘s brilliant book for A Book Apart is available for purchase . You need to go buy it. Responsive Web Design is not just an assembly of technologies, but rather a new way of approaching designing for the web. To say this book is important would be an understatement. I had the pleasure of doing the technical review of the book. Doing a technical review of anything Ethan writes is bit like trying to find an out-of-place note on Sgt… Read the rest here
Does (screen) size really matter?
There’s an interesting debate happening in the world of mobile design at the moment. In one camp we have the “nativists” who believe that the best mobile experiences are tailored to a particular device. These are the people focused on creating platform specific mobile apps and mobile websites. Then we have the “universalists” who believe in the “one web”, a place where all content and services can be delivered to multiple devices through the same URL. This division is causing me a bit of a quandary. … Read the rest here
How to Take and Export Screenshots on a BlackBerry PlayBook
I’ve had a BlackBerry PlayBook for about 24 hours now, and I’m fairly impressed. If history is any precedent, I’ll probably not make time for a full review, so my review in a tweet will have to suffice. The PlayBook was purchased to round out the devices I use for testing , specifically adaptive/responsive web design in this round of testing. Capturing screenshots is critical for sharing the results of my testing with the developers who assist me. Thankfully, taking screenshots on a PlayBook is a snap… Read the rest here
Font sizing with rem
Determining a unit of measurement to size our text can be a topic of heated debate, even in this day and age. Unfortunately, there are still various pros and cons that make the various techniques less desirable. It’s just a matter of which less-desirable is most desirable. There are two main techniques that are extolled: Size with px Size with em Let’s review these two approaches before I reveal the magical third. Sizing with px In the early days of the web, we used pixels to size our text. … Read the rest here
Are SEO practitioners the digital equivalent of bankers?
This morning I’m going to be standing in front of a room full of SEO people to let them know how I feel about their industry. Here’s a rough outline on what I’m planning to say… Capitalist society needs the banking institutions. It needs them to raise money, store money and move it around the world. Bankers provide the financial lubrication to grease the wheels of commerce and keep the market moving. However If I ask how many of you respect the banking institution or feel that it’s an honourable or worthy profession, I suspect few hands would be raised. The recent banking crisis has exposed what many of us knew all along. … Read the rest here
epic45 - ‘Weathering’
I only discovered epic45 a few months via the other Jon in our office, but they’ve already become one of my favourite bands. I’ve only just caught up with their back catalogue (‘May Your Heart be the Map’ in particular has been my soundtrack to cycling) and already there’s a new album, called ‘Weathering’ out! I’ve tried to find ways of describing the music, without using wanky terms like ‘dreamy pop soundscapes’, but it’s hard. Something about their sound instantly makes me think of childhood summer adventures in the countryside and suburbs. You see? Hard not to make it sound pretentious. … Read the rest here
Inconsistent Transitions
Here’s an interesting little test case for transitions . Obviously you’ll need to visit it in a browser that supports CSS transitions, and additionally also CSS 2D transforms. (I’m not aware of a browser that supports the latter without supporting the former, but your rendering may vary.) In Webkit and Gecko, hovering the first div causes the span to animate a 270 degree rotation over one second, but when you unhover the div the span immediately snaps back to its starting position. In Opera 11, the span is instantly transformed when you hover and instantly restored to its starting position when you unhover. … Read the rest here
Truly, it is made of unicorns
Is a Macbook Air up to the job of being a primary working machine? It has for me… Since 1995, I’ve always used a Mac laptop as my primary (and only) work machine. When at the office, I plug it into a large screen with keyboard and mouse, and then at home or travelling I’ve got absolutely everything I need with me. Having seen the new generation Macbook Air in the flesh/aluminium, and how small and light it is compared to my unibody MacBook Pro, I wondered if it could be the way forward. The fact that I now cycle to work gave me more impetus to get something that wouldn’t be so heavy on my back. … Read the rest here
Ceaser: CSS Animation Tool
Ceaser: CSS Animation Tool : Speaking of year 12, this is brilliant. Preview different easing defaults, adjust the bézier curve if you like, and then grab the CSS. /via CSS3 Watch … Read the rest here
Stop the press! Design costs money?
The most recent guardian technology podcast opened with these headlines… “On this week’s podcast, we’re looking closely at why a 32×32 pixel digital icon designed for the UK Government’s Information Commissioner’s Office cost £585 of public funds!” To discuss this topic of national importance, Margaret Manning, the Director of the design agency responsible was bought in and grilled as to why the creation of an icon could have cost so much. Margaret stated that the actual design and production work would have taken a couple of hours, and the bulk of the cost was actually administrative. At this point Margaret was interrupted by the interviewer, Charles Arthur, who exclaimed with incredulity, how he’d heard that icons could be done in a matter of minutes. Hearing this I was genuinely gobsmacked. I’ve long been a fan of both the Guardian newspaper and the tech podcast. However It was as if they had somehow been hijacked by the Daily Mail on a slow news week… Read the rest here
Book Review: The Elements of Content Strategy
The third book from A Book Apart, The Elements of Content Strategy , is a “brief guide [that] explores content strategy’s roots, and quickly and expertly demonstrates not only how it’s done, but how you can do it well.” That’s an accurate description, although this book, unlike the previous two, does not feel brief. This book focuses on content and is all content. There are few diagrams and no code samples filling up the pages; this books feels lengthier than it is, and I mean that in a good way. The writing within this book is also eloquent and well-written, as I suppose might be expected for a book on content strategy. While much of the content seemed targetted at larger organizations that could afford the cost of a dedicated content strategist, I felt the material would be good to know for freelancers and agencies, alike. When I worked in an agency, I worked with project managers who had many of the skills described within… Read the rest here
Shawn Blanc Membership Drive and Giveaway
Shawn Blanc Membership Drive and Giveaway : Shawn Blanc is making the leap into full-time blogging. I steal links from his link blog regularly, but Shawn does the long-read, entertaining article stuff too (see his software/hardware reviews ). Support Shawn by signing up for just $3/month and you’ll be entered to a number of nice prizes: Fusion Ads Burst , prints by Jorge Quinteros , signed copies of books, a copy of my Colosseo poster, and more. … Read the rest here
Free Icons
I’ve decided to slap a Creative Commons license on the entire darn Chalkwork Family and make them completely free for personal use, starting right now. I’ve been considering doing this for quite a while. These icons represent a lot of hard work for me between 2006 and 2009, so you can imagine I’ve thought through the implications of making them available for free download without a pay barrier: will people use them commercially and not pay? Will they abuse the license terms? … Read the rest here
The [Project] Food Guide Pyramid
The [Project] Food Guide Pyramid : Trent Walton, sharing his reasons for taking on a project, formatted like a food guide pyramid : Passion & belief in a cause is easily a sufficiently motivating factor, as are bills that need to be paid. The way I see it— if you’re into it, do it. Just be sure the next gig offsets the previous one’s deficiencies. Do 10 consecutive jobs solely for the paycheck, and you very well may find yourself out of whack…. When a job is done, we’re left with experience, new skills, and a sharpened perception. Do work that you enjoy so you can be good at what you love. … Read the rest here
Twelve South MagicWand
Twelve South MagicWand : Combines your Apple wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad into a sturdy, single unit. I think the big benefit here is not desktop use but lap use. I’m still not sold on the Magic Trackpad in general (see my review ), but I could see myself using the MagicWand in something like a home theater setup. … Read the rest here
Journey into the World of Vim
I used to make it a part of my day to learn a new tool or find a shortcut for something I already did. It’s a habit I got out of for awhile. I called it my laziness: I don’t want to spend time operating a tool; I want to spend time building what needs to get built. In my heyday, I’d have my machine customized to the nines. … Read the rest here
Book Review: “Living with Complexity” by Donald Norman
Book Review: “Living with Complexity” by Donald Norman : Review by Robert Blinn, who observes the following: Norman explains that all of our desire for ‘simplicity’ is a false hope because life is complex. Complexity, however, does not need to be confusing. Those designers who can manage to produce devices (and systems) that corral the complexity of the world into intuitively grouped and well-designed systems will garner success in our digital world. I love this. It’s the same point I try to make when speaking about visual hierarchy and managing complexity , rather than eliminating it… Read the rest here