My friend over at The Game Critique alerted me to something called “BORT” otherwise know as “Blogs of the roundtable”. What an interesting name, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it was. Apparently it’s a group of game designers who get together and discuss game design, theory, and so forth. This got me to thinking how nice it would be for a sort of Designers of the Round Table sort of thing that would be published as a podcast for other designers to listen to on their iPods and mp3 devices on their way to and from work.


This is a call for any designers who have something to say about the state of design (any field) and the community. Anyone interested feel free to contact me via twitter @Megalongcat or drop me an email message – bottle.o.rum@gmail.com

No related posts.

The Design community is diverse and spread across the globe; suffice to say it’s hard enough to connect with other designers to grow more as a professional. Luckily there are groups of people who make it their duty and pleasure to provide the design community with resources, help, and most of all – networking. Today I’m bringing three up and coming design communities that you definitely don’t want to miss out on.

1. Designatr – “Designer Meets Band”

One of the more interesting things I’ve heard of lately. I’d have to say it’s one of the few interesting coming soon pages that actually got me interested in what it was. Apparently Designatr will be a place where bands can go to find designers to do things like cover art, poster design, CD design, and possibly even band branding. Of course, it is also a place where designers will be able to go to find work to add to their portfolios. Definitely a great resources as more and more people are coming together to create music at a time where almost everyone wants to be a designer of some sort. Definitely stay up to date with them.

2. Fuel Brand Network – Fuel Your Portfolio

Anyone familiar with Fuel Your Creativity knows that they produce quality stuff. Much like Envato, they’re a group trying to provide as many quality resources for designers as possible by gathering them into one place for the community. The particularly communities you don’t want to miss out on are their “Fuel your Portfolio” and “Fuel Your Career”. The details are still somewhat in the dark but my general assumption is that they will provide the design community with a place to submit and rate portfolios as well as look for related jobs.

3. FaveUp – Envato Network

Creattica has always provided a great daily digest of design inspiration and it’s great to see that they launched a place where designer can submit logos, illustrations, and portfolios and have them rated by the rest of the design community. The layout showcases the best of the day in terms of designers and it’s a great way to get yourself known in the community.

Related posts:

1. Need an icon? The 5 best places to find social media icons in 2010 Social media networking is huge and everyone knows it. People...

The only difference between the two screenshots is the color scheme, but that can have a major impact on whether or not prospective clients remain on portfolio or click over to someone else’s. Below is the feedback that I got from all of the people I sent it out to.

Samin Patel:

I like the first one – the orange looks nice. Although the second one isn’t bad either – but I’m biased since my new layout uses a black/grey/blue color scheme and I tend to prefer those schemes for things.

One thing that I’m not fond of is the bar in between the menu and the page, the gradation between black/white seems too smushed, it should be more subtle in my opinion.

Also the menu, try changing the font, maybe something a bit more vertically compact. When I was making my site I tried various fonts and just found smaller ones look better.

Also the hover (I assume hover) state – the drop shadow around – think about tweaking it to be more precise. Or maybe not making it so obvious.

I’m a fan of subtly sometimes when it comes to layout. And since yours is a clean/simple one I figure that more subtle accents/things will make it look better.

The bottom part with your contact info, you might consider making that a colored bar. That link to top 10 portfolio things from smashing magazine i gave you – many sites had those bottom bars with solid colors.

Hope this helped.
 

Ewan Grantham

I personally like the updated orange, but based on what I have heard in other places, I suspect you’ll get better results using the updated copy since “cooler” colors tend to encourage hanging around where brighter colors feel a bit more like someone is yelling at you.

Whole point of RSS buttons being orange is that your eye is drawn to see what it’s about.

That said, I would like to think that while the design will have some impact on the users, I suspect for a site where you’re looking for a lot of repeat traffic, the content will matter more.

As an extreme example, check out Jerry Pournelle’s page at:
www.jerrypournelle.com

Trust me, the content is the ONLY reason someone would go there day after day. Of course as he’s been steering more into politics and less into technology I’m finding it a little harder to visit myself.

Anyway, hope this all helps!

Mark Hauge

Yo Fred! It’s feedback time. I’ll try my best to go from top to bottom.

• I’m digging the layout. Will the “I offer creative solutions…” phrase change per section? How does it look directly under the “hi, i’m fred…” ? Are “create brands” “build loyalty” and “brow your business” links? Where do they link to?

• Is the jquery slideshow going to be on every page or just the homepage? If just the homepage, i think a slideshow that moves on it’s own without buttons is better for the viewer. Also, “previous” and “new” doesn’t really make sense to me, if the user clicks one, doesn’t that change the meaning of the buttons? “Previous” and “Next” is simple and logical, especially if the work is going to cycle back to the beginning.

• It might be because it matches the placeholder photo, but I feel like the orange color scheme is more solid than the blue, it just feels more grounded.

• “You can find me on” needs to be aligned with the 3rd column. (I’m sure you already know that) Just an idea, maybe those icons can be monochromatic, and then colored on hover. They also seem a bit large next to the other footer elements, and also competing with your icons in the section above.

Thats all… FOR NOW

I like giving feedback on work, being stuck in a room by myself designing, I do miss the conversation with other designers. You can hit me up anytime.

Peace,
Mark

Aaron Irizarry

Hey,
Sorry it took so long to get some feedback for ya.
I like the orange color scheme.. If you haven’t picked icons yet… you should talk to @kylesteed the kid has brutal icon skills (unless you were going to make them).
keep me posted… once it is done I will make sure to put it up in the onecss.com gallery

Aaron I

After taking note of their changes, suggestions, and comments, I began to fix the design aesthetic into a complete and solid piece. Below are small screenshots of the new Pixelcandy website. I’m not going to post entire screencaps because when it launches I want it to be a surprise to everyone.

No related posts.

First up is Tropicana.  When you think of Orange Juice you’re likely to find yourself thinking about Tropicana as one of the many brands you’re used to (especially if you’re from the east coast).  What is most bothersome about Tropicana’s redesign is not that it looks bad, but it doesn’t play true to Tropicana’s “homey” feeling that resonates with the heart of America.  The new logo is based on a distinct grid layout and keeps all of the information perfectly fit within it making it a great design piece, but it doesn’t help the brand in the slightest.  Tropicana also is known for its multiple types of orange juice, yet this new logo which should in theory make understanding information easier, fails miserably and helping us identify what kind of orange juice it is.  It took me a couple of minutes in the store to figure out which orange juice was the regular, and which was the one mixed with strawberries since there are no longer large pictures on the front of the boxes to clue you in.  Incidentally, I’m hyper-allergic to strawberries and had I been in a rush in the morning to get a drink, this rebranding would’ve been the death of me.  Literally.

This is a little late to be chiming into the hating of Pepsi’s new logo, but it’s perfect in terms of this post because it personifies the start of what I will refer to as the sans-serif movement.  Design has trends, everyone understands that, but for designers of the major corporation Pepsi to play into these trends with little thought of the aftermath is negligent of their responsibilities as a designer.  I won’t call the new logo ugly, but like the Tropicana logo it does a complete disservice to functional information design by using a thin sans-serif font as the textual identifier of the brand Pepsi because it is hard to notice to almost anyone.  Many people easily mistake it for another brand completely.  OF course the counter argument to this is that the logo image of the red, white, and blue ball is placed in the center of the bottle to let people know “Hey, We’re Pepsi.”  But this also fails due to the small, but visibly monumental difference of the original Pepsi logo image and the old one.  Yet again people could easily mistake Pepsi for another brand completely.

The new Kraft Food’s Logo is the least shocking in terms of a rebrand when compared to the other two, but it features an unnecessary rebranding of an already famous product.  We all know Kraft Foods, even moreso because of their cheese, and what was great about the old logo is that even though it is a poorly designed, and slightly obnoxious logo, it stands out against the other brands on food shelves.  The whole reason behind any food product with a bold label is that it’s supposed to be easily seen up close and from a distance so that people can immediately recognize the brand and put it into their shopping cart.  If a brand is not easily recognize, like in Kraft’s case, they run the risk of losing sales.  I appreciate the designer’s attempt to take the obnoxious and old Kraft logo and turn it into something trendy and modern, but it doesn’t seem like they took into consideration why that logo looked a certain way to begin with.  I’m very interested in seeing how the sales of each of these three products do at the end of 2009 when compared with their 2008 sales figures.  I will make sure to have an end of the year compilation and analysis of sales figures and numbers.

So what do you think about these corporate redesigns?  For better or for worse and why?

Related posts:

1. I’m just here to game: Video games I actually played in 2009 Despite the fact that video games, online communities, sound design,...

Shameless self promotion? I think not. A long time ago I had created an underground blast effect by just using the shatter plugin and the wiggle expression. I never thought that it was something that people wanted to see until I came across PSDTUTS and AETUTS where users could submit tutorials to people who needed them. I made sure that my idea was truly such before writing up a 22 step tutorial and submitting it to Envato. Much to my surprise (and happy surprise) it was accepted! Head on over there to see how to make your own Dramatic Underground Blast and check out the video above.

AETUTS – Simulate a Dramatic Underground Blast

No related posts.

Why  they are important:  Possibly one the the most influential designers of the century, Maeda’s personal and public works offer insight into not only what design is but what it should aspire to be.   

Biography: John Maeda is a world-renowned graphic designer, visual artist, and computer scientist at the MIT Media Lab, and is a founding voice for “simplicity” in the digital age. He was announced as the next President of the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) starting June 2, 2008.  (http://plw.media.mit.edu)

Works: The Laws of Simplicity, Creative Code, ‘Design By Numbers

Edward Tufte: Information Design & Architecture

Why  they are important: This man was one of the most provacative thinkers in regards to information design and architecture, his work became the best example of how to relate data of any kind to graphics without distorting the data because of the imagrey.

Biography:Edward Tufte teaches statistics, graphic design, and political economy at Yale University. His books include The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Political Control of the Economy, Data Analysis for Politics and Policy, and Size and Democracy (with Robert A. Dahl). He has prepared evidence for several jury trials, and has worked on information design and statistical matters for IBM, The New York Times, Newsweek, Hewlett-Packard, CBS, NBC, the Bureau of the Census, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, International Paper, and New Jersey Transit. He is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Center for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences. He founded Graphics Press in 1983. (http://www.usatt.org/rseguine/tufte/bio.html)

Works: Napolean March Diagram, “The Visual Display of Quantitative Information”

Eric Zimmerman: Game and Interactive Design

Why  they are important: A pioneer in game design practice and theory;  Zimmerman stands as a great example that great games have nothing to do with how good they look, but rather how much fun they are.

Biography: game designer and the co-founder and CEO of Gamelab, a computer game development company, which is known for the game Diner Dash. Each year Zimmerman hosts the Game Design Challenge at the Game Developers Conference. He is also the co-author of 4 books including Rules of Play with Katie Salen, which was published in November 2004. He has taught at universities including MIT, the University of Texas at Austin, Parsons School of Design, New York University, Rhode Island School of Design and School of Visual Arts.  Zimmerman is a director of the RE:PLAY series of events and activities on gaming that included an exhibition, conference and accompanying book. The first online game he helped create was a collaboration with Word.com called SiSSYFiGHT 2000.

Works: “The Rules of Play”, Diner Dash

Arjun Appadurai: Design Ethics

Why  they are important: Ethical design is something hard to come by.  With all of fields of design becoming more and more popular it is easy for designers to lose sight of what it means to design something properly.  Appadurai has written countless essays and books tackling the topic of what it truly means to design by ethical standards.  

Biography: Arjun Appadurai serves as Senior Advisor for Global Initiatives at The New School in New York City, where he also holds a Distinguished Professorship as the John Dewey Professor in the Social Sciences. Until recently, Arjun Appadurai was the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at The New School.  Appadurai is the founder and now the President of PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research), a non-profit organization based in and oriented to the city of Mumbai (India). (www.appadurai.com)

Works: “Fear of Small Numbers: An Essay on the Geography of Anger”, PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research), PUBLIC CULTURE

Andy Switky: Design for Asian Markets

Why  are they important: With the rise of Asian populations, commerce, and design; many designers across the globe have adjusted their products and designs to find a place in this new booming marketplace.  Andy Switky is an expert of creating and innovating products and spaces for this market and is a great place to look for inspiration when it comes to designing for other cultures.

Biography: Andy Switky is an associate partner and the former founding manager of IDEO’s Shanghai office. For nearly 10 years, he has led IDEO’s manufacturing discipline, a group of engineers and scientists who inspire clients and designers with new ways of thinking about materials, processes, and mass production. During his tenure at IDEO, Andy has worked on and managed many types of programs, from traditional product development of consumer, industrial, and medical products, to rethinking teaching and learning in pharmaceutical manufacturing. When not recovering from intercontinental jet lag, he enjoys playing the trumpet and piano as well as long-distance road cycling. (http://www.ideo.com)

Works: 

Bill Moggridge: User Interface Design

Why  are they important: User interface design is easily one of the hardest fields to grasp for any designer, you have to juggle the task of being both functional and engaging and all the time remain human in your design efforts and results.  Bill Moggridge manages to do all three and shows his UI skills with expertise in his work.

Biography: Bill Moggridge founded his design firm in London in 1969, adding a second office in 1979 in Palo Alto, in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley. He designed the first laptop computer, the GRiD Compass, and pioneered interaction design as a discipline. In 1991, he merged his company with those of David Kelley and Mike Nuttall to form IDEO. Bill has been active in design education throughout his career, notably as visiting professor in interaction design at the Royal College of Art in London, and consulting associate professor in the Design program at Stanford University. He is most interested in what people want, who they are, and how they interact with other people, things, and places. His book, Designing Interactions, is available from The MIT Press and was named one of the 10 Best Innovation and Design Books of 2006 by BusinessWeek.

Works:

Roshi Givechi: Branded Experiences

Why  are they important: The lovely Roshi Givechi finds pleasure in designing branded experiences.  Ever wonder why you feel nostalgic walking into a McDonalds?  She’s the reason why.

Biography: Roshi Givechi is a design director and associate partner at IDEO. She leads IDEO’s storytelling discipline, a cross-functional push for deeper engagement with clients and other stakeholders through all forms of storytelling. With roots in communication, interaction, and new media design, Roshi works to explore and define how people interact with objects, space, services, and each other. She has co-taught cross-disciplinary design at the California College of the Arts, has designed websites at Microsoft and MSNBC, frequently speaks at conferences, and often coaches IDEO workshop clients on ways to innovate. (http://www.ideo.com)

Works: “Impact: Inspiring Graphic Design through Human Behaviors” , “The Saving Grace” Innovation 2007

Dana Cho: Environments Design

Why  are they important:  Designing spaces and environments is another way of thinking about user interface design.  Only envrionment design focuses on how a person interacts within a space, rather than how a user interacts with an object or graphical creation.  Dana Cho excels designing experiences, urban planning, and social interactions.

Biography: Dana Cho is an Associate Partner and leads a group of designers who are passionate about Design of Community and Branded Experiences in Palo Alto. Dana helps designers and clients think about the emotional experience between brand and consumer – as an avid consumer who cries easily, this feels quite right. She has led large-scale programs for Mayo Clinic, Nike, The Ritz-Carlton and Gap Inc., bringing together multi-disciplinary teams in a human-centered approach to healthcare, hospitality and retail customer experiences. Dana began her career in architecture and urban planning, with an undergraduate degree from MIT and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University, where her thesis work was carried out under Rem Koolhaas. She has taught classes and lectured at California College of Arts. (http://www.ideo.com)

Works: “Going Off the Beaten Path for New Design Ideas”,  “From Plague to Paradigm: Designing Sustainable Retail Environments”

No related posts.

Name: Aaron Irizarry

Website: http://www.thisisaaronslife.com

What does he hate about other designers?:

Unwillingness to share their tips and knowledge, we are a community, we should be willing to help others just like someone has helped us along.

Name: Eric Swain

Website: http://www.thegamecritique.com

What does he hate about other designers?:

Hate is a strong word, but I dislike when designers experiment with changing with practices that have become standard without the basic understanding of why theose practices became standard. Experimentation for the sake of learning is one thing, but then they tout out finished products with these changes and call it innovative when its really just broken.

Name: Brian Hoff

Website: http://www.thedesigncubicle.com

What does he hate about other designers?:

There’s really nothing that I can say I hate about other designers, but what I do dislike is individuals that “own” a copy of Photoshop and all of a sudden they are designers. Design must be learned and understood. It’s about communicating a message and problem solving, not applying a few fancy effects in Photoshop and calling it a design.

Name: Meroko

Website: N/A

What does She hate about other designers?:

Hmm..maybe not hate, but I’m jealous that it seems like all the designers I know already know how to use the web/design websites effectively and I come from a print background, so I am way behind. I’m working on that for 2009 though. Watch out!

Name: JAC

Website: N/A

What does She hate about other designers?:

preconceptions, arrogance, and ignorance. 

1–most people are narrow-minded and are set to think that the way they perceive the world is right (the only way and reason). or, whatever they learned if they went to school for it, or learned from other people (art masters or not) is the first and foremost reason. granted, people go around living with the various accumulated knowledge that they acquired throughout their lives so far, but many are not open into seeing things in other ways or perspectives (tipping the balance of design they don’t understand as inferior works, if it doesn’t fall into their end of the scale [which would be the "superior"]).

2–going along with the first peev, arrogance is a folly. to truly appreciate and understand the concepts behind design or art for that matter, requires one to be completely accepting of any ideas that may come through. it has been a great debate to whether function is more important than form, but in the end, the style and technique of the final product are the essence of the result. i hate it when people say they could’ve done things better, especially when they have a completely different style. their ways of thinking of the concept may be the same, but the outcome will be visually different. none can be better than the other if they are in different genres. some people don’t get this… others that are worse, THINK they can do better when they don’t have the skills to, or don’t produce (so no one ever knows if they really could have done better or not. usually, these people under the arrogance umbrella are talkers, non-action-takers.

3–finally, “ignorance is bliss?” well, maybe sometimes in LIFE. but in design, one really doesn’t want to be. politics, worldly events, even weather all have their own narratives when they get tied into a piece. research is one of the foremost things that is required when a project is started. essays are like this too. the process must start out with a concept, followed and backed by actual facts, which could either be transformed or used to express the piece. satires (like the new yorker covers) are popular because although the art is in poor taste, they are always up-to-date, based on reality, but share a mocking fantasy that the masses can understand right away (if they weren’t ignorant).

many people are different. i’m just pointing out the people that fall under these categories, because they are marked permanently on my bad / avoid-or-else-will-be-pissy-for-the-rest-of-the-day list for the reasons described above. even the best designers can fall under these. i try not to judge, since i don’t know the history of people’s lives, but if it is blatant, well…AVOID. waste of time.

Name: Angie Bowen

Website: http://arbent.net

What does She hate about other designers?:

I really don’t hate anything about other designers. The design community has some of the friendliest and most helpful people I’ve ever met

Name: Marnie B

Website: http://www.marnieb.com

What does She hate about other designers?:

Egos, in some cases. But I think most of all I hate those that devalue the work we do. Ie. Charging $80 for a logo design that’s worth $600 or $200 for a website design

Name: Emily Veras

Website: http://hcggd.com

What does She hate about other designers?:

I really dont hate something in particular about any designer because designers are well in fact , people. I can say that as designers we are very competitive as well as judgmental as we should be in some cases and what pushes us to not only become better people but designers as well.

No related posts.