Posts filed under "design-nation"
Inside ISO50 - Great set of photos to show the attention to detail.
So now that we’ve got ourselves a kick ass logo, now would be a good time to make some badges so that everyone can put them on their websites and you know, spread the word.
In this set you’ll also find a few with Habari written in them.
See how that logo gets integrated? The font used is Gill Sans, which is one of my favourite fonts - you can see it in use on this site. The reason I think it works here is because it’s rounded so it retains an element associated with the logo (the playful nature of the logo), and yet bold and modern (like the software). The package contains:
Logo
PNG - Light grey on white background
PNG - Dark grey on light grey background
PNG - White on dark grey background
EPS - Vector for you to customise as you wish
Logo with Habari
These come in two sizes, 460px and 180px widths.
PNG - Dark grey on light grey background
PNG - Light grey on dark grey background
PNG - White on dark grey background
PNG - White on light grey background
These will also find a permenant home at www.brokenkode.com/habari .
For those who know me from my professional life (I’m a Chartered Engineer), know what a complete filing freak I am. All graduates that have helped me out, or that I’ve had anything to do with their training have gone through an induction with regards to how to file things properly. It’s a MASSIVE bug bear with me.
When I had that moment of madness and I moved over to WordPress, what struck me was that Habari’s elegance doesn’t extend to just the admin panel. In Habari it extends to the filing structure, which I really want to shine a bit of a spotlight on, only because I think it’s not generally discussed and I think that the developers deserve mad props for building this elegance in.
When you download a copy of Habari and you open your folder, you’re presented with the following files and folders:
Let’s compare some of the other people:
WordPress
Textpattern
Chyrp
There are a couple of things to take from the above. The first is the number of files without folders. In Habari, this is a total of 3, in WordPress it’s 23, in Textpattern it’s 4, while in Chyrp it’s 5.
The second thing to pay close attention to is the names chosen for these folders. I know which I feel is the clearest filing structure of those above.
Lets turn our attention to the main menu in Habari. As I mentioned before there has to be a better way than the current method. The reasoning for the current menu is simple, once you start adding all the menu items (including those provided by the various plugin) the list becoming very long indeed. Without any plugin menus this is what is currently there (including one of the expanded menu version):
And here’s that menu with one of the side menus popping out:
From my personal use, I only need 8 menu items in total:
New Entry
New Page
Manage
Comments
Dashboard
Plugins
Options
Logout
For me everything else is completely superflous, or at least it’s bloody rare for me to even go there, like once a year if that (I don’t think I’ve ever gone to the logs and groups menu for example). As I said that’s only because of the way I choose to use Habari. Other users might feel like they want something a bit different, and this type of functionality would allow
Proposal
The Menu plugin would allow you (in the options page) to hide all the menu items, spare the Dashboard, Options and Logout menu items (for obvious reasons). From then on, it’s open season for you to configure your drop down menu as you wish. This would reduce the need for side menus to pop out. It would also empower the user to customise the menu which would in turn hopefully streamline the workflow, your route from A to B.
The other aspect of this Menu plugin that would also hopefully enhance the experience, would be bringing the shortcut numbers back. In the options menu we would also provide an option to assign the menu option with a keyboard shortcut to a menu item. This way we’d get back to a more streamlined workflow, which is slightly hindered by an additional keyboard stroke (at least in my eyes it is).
Future Details
While talking with Michael on #irc about the above, one of the things that he brought forward is maybe having an option to expand all the menu items by double clicking ‘Q’ or something like that, which I think is an excellent idea. Also in the options menu apart from just a quick tickbox to see whether or not you want the menu item to be shown or not we might also be able to provide the option to rearrange the menu itself, thus providing further customisation, enhancing elegance.
Minimal Design - And here I thought the new ‘Kode was minimal. This site seriously takes it to the next level in certain ways. Might even use his minimal gallery solution.
Iconic TV Posters - by Albert Exergian. Also be sure to check out his site.
Air Multiplier by Dyson - To see how it was done.
http://www.brokenkode.com/dezeen-blog-archive-air-multiplier-by-dyson
Interview with James Dyson - It’s all about the fan. At $300 for the cheap version it’s pretty expensive, but still it’s an amazing invention.
Extreme Makeover Craigslist - From the latest issue of Wired (USA version), Craiglist remade. The standout as you can imagine is KhoI Vinh’s version.
http://www.brokenkode.com/extreme-makeover-craigslist-edition
Tour the Bugatti factory, Molsheim - It’s but a glimpse, but a glimpse I’ve never seen before, for the single most expensive supercar manufacturer in the world.
Moby Talks About Cartooning and Small Press Comics - Didn’t realise that he actually drew the cover to his latest album, which features that cute little character from some previous singles he’s released.
http://www.brokenkode.com/moby-talks-about-cartooning-and-small-press-comics-comicsalliancecom
Design Observer redesigns - This has always been an inspiration in terms of the sheer amount of links offered and the very simple but effective design.
Gummisig - One of the best looking blog/websites I’ve seen in a good long time. It’s the combination of the colours, gridlines, and big bad bold type that does it for me.
The Beatles Rockband Absolutely stunning combination of animation and music. Fell of my chair when I saw this (ps the site is pretty awesome as well).
LG Chocolate 4th Generation - This is what I had to say when the first generation of the Chocolate phone came out (which reminds me I really need to sort out the formatting in the normal post pages). It’s taken them 3 iterations in total before it became what I originally envisaged the ‘next’ generation of mobile phones to be. Unfortunately for LG they didn’t continue the same design aesthetics that made the first generation phone so successful. This new version looks like it could be a winner. The actual hardware looks absolutely fabulous. My only problem is the software. This may be it’s Achilles heel, as it doesn’t seem as polished as the iphone or even Android.
Definitely worth checking out in the future though, when it eventually lands.
Update: Video has been taken down, probably going to come back in like a month, when LG officially release everything.
Cannes Design Lions - Awesome collection of great work from the design world. Definitely needs a more detailed look at the entries and the winners.
Leandro Castelao - And another one for the inspirational folder. Great design work, with a lot of attention to detail and colour.
Busiek.com - Beautiful website. Probably one of the best looking comic book creator websites I’ve seen in a really long time. Loads of attention to little details that will make you want to work on your own website.
Google Service Logos - Nice list of the befores and the afters. What’s interesting to me is the sheer number of services that Google actually provides. I’ve probably only heard of like a hand full of these and only ever used 5 of them (but I use them on a daily basis).
Thru eyes frank olinsky - Small Q&A with graphic designer Frank Olinsky, the man responsible for the art direction for the golden era of the Smashing Pumpkins album designs. Yes, of course I have that box set.
Joshua Middleton Website Revamped - Have always loved the man’s minimalist style. If I had a comment, it would be that the blog was actually properly integrated into the site, rather than bringing it in via a frame (or whatever is being used). The gallery section is the place to head first to though, with the ‘Sky Between Branches’ section as the top area to look at (damn that’s been in the making for close to a century).
8 Min Gambit - Jim Lee draws Gambit in 8 minutes. Seriously, if he’s this fucking fast, why did it take him like 7 years to publish a comic back in the day? I doubt he’s gotten faster with age.
The Hunt For Gollum - Fan movie which was released for the Sci Fi festival in London. Seems to be extremely well made, and it’s there for free to watch.
Vertigo Number 1s - A pretty large collection of some of the best comics have to offer, numbers for you to download as pdfs.
Here & There - A horizonless projection in Manhattan. I would really be interested in something like this for London as it really does provide a unique perspective of a city.