Thursday, January 31, 2008

told you i couldn't wait. links: week 1 cont'd

Garrett Morin
as we already know, I lean towards a simple design. Sometimes, however, simple can just leave me uninspired.

Saturday
to back that up, here's an example of simple being beautiful.

Wood Wood
here’s one for some serious discussion. Black/white is classy, there’s a lot of motion. Perhaps too much. To be honest, I was expecting the scrolling information to react to the position of my cursor. I do like the infusion of color on rollover of the upper nav bar. It was unexpected.





Francis Gingras
who needs to know English when we can critique en francais? Hah! In any case, here’s a personal portfolio site I find interesting. I was surprised and disappointed when the work overlaid the entire page, I was expecting it to appear in all the negative space to the left.


Okay, I actually do have a lot of work to do, so I’ll stop for now.

do dogs count?

Sleeveface defines their project as "one or more persons obscuring or augmenting any part of their body or bodies with record sleeve(s) causing an illusion." in other words, people with too much time on their hands. totally worth perusing.


Wednesday, January 30, 2008

the new pin-up

my rad friend renee works for the print shop that produces Jeanna Carley's Ferret Calendars. ridiculous and awesome.

global nothing

i've been holding on to this bookmark for almost two years now. Universal Everything is an awesome studio that i love to check in on every now and then—they're super talented and a great inspiration.

And so it begins: Links, week 1

week one, bring it.

as part of my directed study with Lotus, we'll be discussing websites that we come across as research for my own. what about the designs and functionality do i like/hate? if it's a portfolio site, is it impressive? etc. the thing is, i love doing this anyway. it's always great to see what other people are creating—i almost feel like our "5 a week" is a pittance. then again, maybe that's just because it's week one.

so for a first installment i've found a rather ecclectic mix of sites. i'll most likely find more (i have a great idea for next week's installment already!) and not be able to wait a week before posting. but that's just the geek in me.



Leo Burnett
interesting navogation, yes, but not as easy as I’d like it to be for my own site. pretty and flashy, I’ll give them.


Door 22
simple and clean. i like the nav.


Lovely As A Tree
hello textured background! surprisingly, I actually really like the different color treatments on the nav bar. It’s not often that you see a single nav. system with different treatments for the links. Not that I want to do this, but I like it within the context of this site. I don’t however, really like the design of the pages. (almost a lack of design, really)





Carl de Keyzer
I love the simplicity of the design, however, I feel like the user experience could be simplified a bit. It’s flashy, but perhaps a little too much so. Everything’s a link, and I’m not sure where I should go next. Love the use of simple arrow icons next to main nav links.


Koen de Muynck
again, interesting navigation. Lotus, I’d like you’re opinion on this one, for sure. The overall design is clean, which I tend to lean towards.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

not always, but sometimes

Advertising doesn't always have to be evil and sold souls. Osocio is a blog dedicated to "social advertising and non-profit campaigns from around the globe." Sometimes it's nice to remember that design and concept can go towards a greater good.

Monday, January 28, 2008

when 40 oz make a great lineman

it's that time of year again: super bowl, baby. to me, this really just means it's my awesome friend kira's birthday. but i wouldn't be able to keep up with the office chatter about the latest GoDaddy commercial if i didn't watch, so i do. ok, maybe i like whaling on the spots a little.

this year Budweiser is getting in on the real time user interaction, letting watchers vote on their favorite Bud/Bud Light spots as they run via text message. so don't get left out, get your BudBowl on.


they're just so damn cute







here's an artist a friend of mine showed me: Kent Rogowski. his stuff is pretty great—one part whimsy, one part absurd, a dash of sadness. I really like his latest "bears" collection, in which he literally turned these childhood icons inside out. The depressing snow globes and romance novel paintings are also worth a look.

some press:
"I think these photographs might mean happiness. They are made by softness and cotton."
-Nicholas, 3th grade student, PS84 NY

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Learn, with my snot on your face.

Science World is a fun, interactive center where you get to play as you learn. In the same spirit, their latest bus shelter ad interacts with you. By sneezing on you. Gross. And cool.

If you don't deserve an award, who does?

This promotion for the OneShow is a nice throwback to the days before Rockband and Wii. Can you beat the confused planner or the scared client? Find out on Hack Man.







in the end, we're all a bunch of hacks.

And I Like Procrastination

bored? why not Etch-A-Scetch?

Friday, January 25, 2008

and afterwards i'll give you a treat

The other day i met a friend's pet rat. he's pretty cute, even though he scratched me. what does this have to do with design? nothing. but when i saw this rat-gnawed wallpaper by droog design i figured it was meant to be.






















read about it, and other animal callaborations, here.

Lampodina

i really like these lamps from Flos. i usually have an issue with finding the right lampshade (you know, since i'm always in the market for them. ?) and this great little sandblasted lightbulb makes them obsolete. you can buy them here.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

copy, paste

ok, since my project was "put on hold" i have some extra time on my hands before the next one rolls around. thus, more internet browsing -> more cool stuff to post.

here's a guy on flickr that created a set dedicated to Understanding Art for Geeks. Thank you, paulthewineguy, for your artful wit.

R.I.P.

For the past two months i've been working on a re-launch campaign for one of our clients. I'm talking the works: banners, emails, t-shirts, tchotckies, tagline, events, etc. Many late nights and weekends. Nothing groundbreaking, mind you, mainly just a lot of time spent. Yesterday, eod, i found out everything has been "put on hold for now" (read: canceled). Insert swift kick in the shins.

This morning a coworker of mine (who was originally working on the project with me, way back in the day) brought me the "it could be worse" factor. He told me that another guy we used to work with hasn't had anything go live in over a year because of focus groups, office politics and who knows what else. And I thought my little project had a sad outcome. I can't imagine having every single project you work on never see the light of day. Ah, advertising.

Just Make Me President

Having gone to Macworld last week, it was just the right time to discover Joel Watson's self-described "geek comic," Hijinks Ensue. It's updated twice weekly and is always on top of the current news in geektown. His blog posts are also pretty funny and worth the read.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Left Right Left

Alfredo Häberli is an interesting designer i've seen before, but thanks to Sub-Studio I got a little reminder. check out these shoes he designed in the '90s: interchangeable fronts/backs. i'm not sure how i feel about these; perhaps a style update might turn my head a little more. An interesting thought, however. Everyone likes a little UGC now and then.

Praise the Lourdes

my first official post is going to have only slightly more content than my actual first post. whoopee. aren't you excited to read on?

the gist: my umpteenth semester at the Academy is beginning Monday. I'll be taking an After Effects class in the New Media school (thank you melinda and lourdes for letting me play by a few of my own rules). Looking forward to this, as i have no IDEA how to use said software. Yesterday i came to find that there's only one copy of it at my office, making my life a little more difficult. Alas, at least i won't have to buy right away (perhaps after one week I'll be sick of travelling to other machines, but for now i'm not spending the big $$).

I will also be taking a one-on-one directed study with the illustrious Lotus. We'll be focusing on my website—every last detail of its design, content, and user experience. pardon the pun.

should be a good (and of course busy) semester. yee-haw.

the Oddball

i've discovered that i'm an odd blogger. so this time around i'm going to take a different approach to my blog and see what happens.

i'd like to keep this blog public. less a journal and more a random mix of work, findings, and thoughts having to do with art direction/design/whatever.

we'll see.