Posts filed under "design-nation"
Alfa Romeo Giulietta - I’m in love with Giulietta. I saw it this morning. Compare this car to the equivalent VW Golf, there is no comparison.
Sometime in February, my cousin asked me to sort out the logo for his jewellery business. I was obviously happy to oblige, and actually had some spare capacity to sort it out for him. The thing is, I sqaundarded most of that time, so he rings me on a Saturday to ask me how the logo was going….uh oh spagettio. Rushed to the only coffee place worth a shit in Saida and started sketching furiously. Pretty quickly I had my idea. In fact, the crazy thing is that by the end of the night I had created his logo and sent it out to him.
I played around with the colours (although his only request was to have the colour scheme be burgundy and grey). I thought it couldn’t hurt for them to see what it would look like in different colours.
So after a couple of colour tweaks he asked for I sent it through. The reason he was anxious for the logo to be sorted out quickly was because he had an exhibition in Kuwait and had a stand. A few weeks later he was in Lebanon and he showed me pictures of the stand.
iTunes Visual Redesign - I soo wish that Apple would sort out the UI elements of iTunes, because it really is a complete joke. Here’s soemthing Brandon did for free. Use it damn you.
Facebook Facelift - Have you noticed how Facebook always seems to be changing it’s look every 6 months? This would have been one of those welcome changes. Having said that, being away from my friends during this sabbatical, I’m actually very thankful for Facebook.
Reindy Allendra - Industrial Design portfolio of this Indonesian native. The KLM blimp being a highlight.
Creative Review incredible dissolving bag - This is from 6 months ago but it still remains as one of those great ideas, that I hope others adapt in the near future.
http://www.brokenkode.com/creative-review-incredible-dissolving-bag
The Best Part - Love this print of an alphabet made of brand logos.
Alphaposter - While I’m talking about love the detail in these posters as well (obviously not as elaborate as the Colosseo poster, but lovely nonetheless).
Colosseo Letterpress Poster - Love the attention to detail of course. It’s objects like this that make design something special.
http://www.brokenkode.com/colosseo-letterpress-poster-reimagining-the-roman-coliseum-with-type
Mark Coleran Visual Designer - Remember all those awesome futuristic designs in movies? Ever wonder who designs them? Mark Coleran, that’s who.
How are Red Bull’s helmets painted? - Love this breakdown, especially coming of the new Vettel helmet that looks like a Red Bull can. Brilliant.
http://www.brokenkode.com/how-are-red-bull-s-helmets-painted
LOST Posters - Awesome minimalist posters. It’s definitely en vogue nowadays to do these, but I still like them.
Overcoming Creative Block - Some excellent ideas in there. One of my favourites (which I’ve not tried yet, but was actually thinking about that today) was the idea of going to a local university art library and just snapping or photocopying things from old journals to get inspiration and creating a physical drawer or scrapbook with ideas in there. I know I’ll be requiring a lot of inspiration in the coming months.
Radius 10 - If I was in the UK now, this would have been mine. One of the nicest calendars I’ve ever seen.
Panic Blog - Just wanted to say that the Panic Blog (like most things related to Panic) is pure genius. Simple, but extremely clever with loads of thought put into it. I’m surprised this hasn’t been featured on design websites…probably because most of them are attracted to shiney things rather than subtle.
The History of the Ampersand - Even thought the whole Ampersand thing is pretty ‘tired’ it’s still always interesting to see the origin of things we now take for granted….god that sounded old.
The first logo design of 2010 is for my oldest friend Yanni’s DJ Collective ‘Viasound’ (playing a range of House and Electronica music) which operate out of Athens, Greece. The guys have been doing this for several years but they’ve not been gaining much traction unfortunately, which is a shame because they truly have a passion for this type of music.
When we were discussing what they were doing wrong, I just kinda had the image of the logo in my head. Of course, it’s not that I think the logo is what is holding them back, but rather my own attempt to make the world slightly prettier. I think that’s ultimately what designers tend to want to do - prettify the world.
The idea just came through, and it just wouldn’t let go. We were out for some Italian and I quickly started scribbling these things down onto a napkin while talking to him. From that napkin, I just kept doodling until I got the angles that I felt worked the best.
The technique of using your brain to fill in the rest of the logo is something that is widely used in comics, but I think it works effectively in this design as well.
Seems I’ll be designing a logo a month (at least that’s the route I’m on at the moment). I’ve got another 2-3 more logos to create for various friends and family. I like doing it because it flexes a specific muscle that I don’t generally tend to use much anymore as I concentrate on my graphic novel.
Last.fm Visualisations - Oh my god, I might actually start using last.fm just so that i can get myself some meaningful posters and put them up. Also Felton’s annual report is up for pre-ordering. If wasn’t in Lebanon, I think I’d get myself a copy this year.
Plastic Beach- The new Gorillaz album appears to be imminent. Awesomeness.
N.Design Studio - Nick La’s new website. Seriously I don’t even know where to start. The attention to detail is mind boggling. It’s the sort of shit I wish I could have pulled off like 4 years ago. The write up is also just as impressive.
Banksy film to debut at Sundance - Soo, totally watching this when it comes out. What can I say, I’m one of those poor fools that actually enjoys what the man does. (via @stevemassart)
Büro Destruct III - Thought I’d point out that the latest book from this excellent Swiss design firm is out. I’ve got Buro Destruct II and is one of my favourite design books.
Those crazy Swiss and their matching jumpers.
Interview with Michael Chabon - On a complete sidenote, I’ve always loved the design of his book covers, which I believe are done by Will Staehle.
So Owen’s responded to a few things that I’d written. I knew it was coming, and I knew it would be a big one, so true to form the man’s gotten back to me.
To be clear, although I didn’t voice it at the time, one of the reasons why I actually decided to move over to WordPress a while back was in fact when it transpired that Owen might leave the project (I don’t know the exact details, but it seems a community member was maybe hurting more than helping). In any case, Habari without Owen is a much poorer place. Not to take anything away from others who tirelessly contributed to the code, but he’s amassed probably three times as much commits as the next guy (roughly speaking) and generally leads the way - so I listen when he’s got something to say because I respect him enough because he spends the time to explain himself properly. Forget the fact that we don’t agree on everything, I think it’s clear we both want the software to move in the right direction.
The Problem
He raises some decent points which i’d like to consider a bit in analysing how to move forward.
I would love to replace the logo with something better. But something decidedly, unarguably better.
That’s the biggest problem. Who’s deciding which is unarguably better. I can argue that the question mark is brilliant and the non-descript H is rubbish till the cows come in, as I’m sure others can argue the direct opposite. The point is, it’s your opinion against someone elses. The frame work is not there for moving it forward either. We’re not going to strike lightning in a bottle, nor do I think that I can make something that is universally liked by everyone. Fuck me, that’s pretty much impossible to do. For everyone that thinks the Nike swoosh is an icon, you’ve got others proclaiming that it’s completely pointless.
The point is taking where we currently are and moving forward. Otherwise we end up hurting things more and ultimately not achieving anything.
The way forward
My suggestion? Elect a sub-group of people to huddle somewhere, create a plan, build something usable in a staging place, and then report back to the community for review. They take comments, re-huddle, and iterate until either everyone loves it, or there’s no budging by one side or another. And at that point, the community defaults and uses what they’ve built.
I’ve created my logo. So if anything, I’m happy if I was the one making the decisions. My thought process is clear to me. The logo is out there for anyone to pick at as they please. I had an idea, I put it forward. It didn’t take me too long, hell writing up the previous 5 Habari posts probably took me longer to be honest. Like I said, if anything, I’ve got a nice t-shirt design.
I’m not adverse to exploring the issue further with a task force, hell I think it’s a great idea but ultimately I want to know that our work will be accepted, or voted upon. I want to know the structure, because the exercise will take more time out of me and honestly I don’t want to waste my time - which I’m sure you can appreciate.
The taskforce
Obviously everyone is welcome to contribute to the taskforce. If you have a thought or an idea, draw it and throw into the pot. We’ll discuss it find reasons for and against. Some might come up with one idea, that another person will run with which will be then built upon by another. Another might be inspired to go in a different direction. The ultimate idea is that at the end, hopefully there will be something tangible that this taskforce has produced.
The next question that should be raised is, does that then get used instantly? According to Owen, that shouldn’t be the case. It should be reviewed by the rest of the community, lather rinse repeat. This can work, after a fashion. I propose that this is done in a finite number of stages. When we design a building (I’m a building services engineer), the design process is broken down into 4 distinct stages (at least from an engineering POV). Concept, Scheme, Tender, Construction. In a similar fashion, we can also break it down into a few stages.
Concept - Ideas about what it could be are thrown on the table. The question mark, the capital H, the doorbell etc. At this stage it is important NOT to rubbish any ideas. This is to create as many ideas as is possible. No idea is off limits.
Scheme - The ideas with more legs are weeded out. This is going to be time consuming, because ultimately it is important to come up with one or two ideas options which can be further pursued. The point here is reduce the number of options to a manageable few that can be detailed further.
Tender - The few options that are thought to be in contention are whittled down to one. Maybe the execution isn’t perfect but ultimately it’s an idea that everyone is behind. The general thought process is there.
Construction - We build the logo based on the finally selected option. The detail is put in here, and the various elements are presented to be used. In the software, on the website, as badges etc. Used in ‘press’ releases. Whatever.
We report back at every stage. Any thoughts are processed then and then we move on. The other thing that is important is to have a proper timeline for all of this. Otherwise it’ll meander endlessly. Therefore I propose 1 month for each stage. Gives people enough time to consider, think about things, review, reflect, write emails/responses/posts if they have an issues concerns ideas.
We don’t jump back several stages. The rest of the community had the opportunity to review and present their ideas in the given timeframe. Inaction is not allowing progress which as I’ve explained has a negative affect on the software base itself.
If anything it’ll be an interesting exercise to see if design by commitee works on the internet and in an open source project. Afterall, how do you think all those buildings that you live and work in were designed? By the choices of one person? Don’t be silly.
I get the feeling that when you’re done tearing the thing down, assuming you have any energy left afterwards, you might actually do something. Am I right?
I hope so. Like I said, it’s not because I think this will raise my profile, or because I want to have the Habari logo as a notch in my design portfolio (I don’t even have one, although I keep meaning to create one). This is all being done to ensure the progression and future of the software (selfishly because I enjoy using it). I’m not going to let a few with myopic vision hinder PROGRESS dammit :).