Phylotaxis

Avatars are icons used to represent yourself on the Internet. I have never really felt the need to use one at all because I did not feel any affinity for a specific image. More importantly, even if there was one, I do not think it can accurately represent me - this human, sanguine self that I am. I never realised why this was the case until I chanced upon an article on Metropolis titled "Dreaming in Code". The article talks about artist Jonathan Harris' work, as the following quotes indicate:

""We realized there was all this amazing humanity hiding on the Web, but most people considered it to be a cold, inhuman space," Harris explains, speaking for himself and his frequent collaborator, Sepandar Kamvar, whose day job is technical lead of personalization at Google. "So we asked, 'How can we systematically quantify feelings using the Web?'""

This was exactly what I was missing - a touch of human-ness.

""The goal for me is really to hold up a mirror to the world, and then open that mirror up to the larg­est number of people possible," [Harris] says."

While what he has done does not address my issue of an apt avatar for myself, his work "involves the study and understanding of humans through the artifacts we leave behind on the Web" (from here). One example is Phylotaxis, as shown below:


Created for Seed, Phylotaxis is "an exploration of the space where science meets culture... Without the randomness of culture, science becomes dry and predictable, imprisoned in a strict square grid. Without the rational thinking of science, culture quickly teeters towards chaos. Only when science and culture act as peers can harmony be achieved, expressed through the astonishing Phylotaxis shape." (from here)


Harris has many fascinating ideas, evident in his work. Do check them out.

To read the entire article from Metropolis, click here.

For more information on Phylotaxis, click here.

Vimeo Redesign

Google bought YouTube some time ago. They still have no idea what they want to do with it. But I say, with Google's extensive resources in their User Experience department, they should really improve the look of YouTube. Here is a screenshot of YouTube:


Mygripe with YouTube does not really concern usability, but rather the overall design of the site. Most of the redesigns I have noticed so far is about usability (like fixing how comments and video descriptions work), which, do not mistake me, contributes greatly to good user experience. However, I also think that graphic design can improve the usability even more. And here is what a good graphic designer can improve user experience in a similar site - Vimeo:


Jakob Lodwick, Viemo's partner, says "YouTube is oscillating between the chaos of automatic, popularity-based rankings and the stability of old-school, owner-controlled editorial. Both are lame and you can see the miserable effects of either in every media outlet that exists today. I would bet everything I own on a third alternative: user-controlled editorial." (via YouMakeMedia)

This is obvious in Vimeo's lack of a popularity contest in the site. It also certainly does away with all the clutter currently on YouTube's front page. Above all, and this is perhaps due to the difference in concepts between YouTube and Vimeo, the former lacks some sort of visual personality that its community can identify with. Personally, I think that, this being a social site, attitude and expression are key to a building a loyal community. And personality Vimeo definitely has, as the following screenshot of the login page shows:

Philip Johnson

Philip Johnson was a highly influential architect known for his use of glass. His masterpiece - the glass house - that he designed to be his own residence in Connecticut amid 47 acres of lush green landscapes is still one of the most inspiring mid-century modern works around. The glass house, unsurprisingly, has its entire four walls wrought of glass, supported by 8 steel piers. This leaves the walls to frame the surrounding landscape as an organic, every-evolving, wallpaper. The building itself is minimalist and highly geometric, as the following image from Herald Tribune shows:


The following are some interesting bits pulled from the same article as the picture:

"Hopelessly impractical though a transparent home would be for a family - or for anyone who wasn't lucky enough to be able to afford quite so much land - it was perfect for the fastidious Johnson and his lovers... He [described the house] as 'The only house in the world where you can watch the sun set and the moon rise at the same time. And the snow. It's amazing when you're surrounded at night with the falling snow. It's lighted, which makes it look as though you're rising on a celestial elevator.'"

You do not have to imagine that now because the house is open to the public (as of June 23). But you still have to wait till next year though as the tickets are all sold out for the rest of 2006. You can get tickets online through the official website by clicking here.

Assume the Position

I have always disliked history. I simply did not find learning about the past any helpful at all - knowing my origins did not empower me and committing seemingly random dates to memory was a chore. Most importantly, though, it was BORING. My history teacher tried narrating stories to us in good faith, but his humour was all but lost. In fact, I remember laughing with my fellow classmates about how funny he actually was when he tried so hard to be funny.

With Assume the Position, I have to take my words back. According to HBO, "Emmy-winner Robert Wuhl delivers [an] imaginative, irreverent comedic history lesson that playfully examines some of the facts, myths, and myths-that-became-facts that have permeated American history. Mixing pop culture with historical events and lighthearted observations from pundits, Robert Wuhl is the history teacher you never had (but wished you did)".

Now how do you go about creating a teaser for something like that? Here are a few screenshots (taken from Misprinted Typ e):


Three words: Quirky, kooky, FUN!

To watch the entire teaser, click here.

To find out more about Eduardo Recife, the illustrator behind the teaser, click here.

For a more complete overview of the programme, click here.

Methodologie

From their website, Federal Home Loan Bank Seattle aims to "[provide] liquidity, funding and services to enhance [their] members' success and the availability of affordable homes and economic development in their communities." With a mission like this, Methodologie, chosen to create their 2005 annual report, decided that the best way to summarise the year was to "capture the intimate experiences of 18 individuals who flourished with the aid of the FHLBS Affordable Housing and Community Investment Program." (Step Inside Design) For the 18 individuals, Minh Nguyen and Young Lee (designer and photographer respectively) traveled to small communities. The result (taken from their website):


As the second image shows, each of these 18 profile pages contain a portrait shot and some keywords that narrate their stories. Nguyen says of meeting these people, "It’s rather easy to be personal with these people because I think they’re very eager to share their stories - stories that they are proud of... They invited us into their homes and workplaces; some made cookies for us, cider, tea, and we just sat and talked... The most enjoyable part was meeting [these] people." (Step Inside Design)

I find this to be rather touching and inspirational. It shows that these people could very well be you or someone you know, and not simply Member #34 or Member #459. Because of this context, the message (data and whatnot) contained in the annual report suddenly becomes so much more meaningful.

Sounds of Silence

Apart from spending my days researhing user behaviour and designing user interfaces, I do also spend a significant amount of time coming up with icons and text to illustrate any given idea. Sometimes, the idea is abstract; other times, it is spatial. Either ways, it requries a great deal of thought and understanding of semiotics. Specifically, Saussure's sign, signifier and signified. So you can see, I have a great a deal of respect for designers who are able to interpret abstract ideas in a way that is perfectly comprehensible. Take, for example, the idea of 'sounds of silence'.

This is exactly what desres had to do, and the following is what they came up with:


In addition to creating a beautiful book, they have managed the capture a sense of void in the typography, which I think makes the whole project so compelling, especially since the work is by no means minimalistic.

Highway Design

Have you ever driven on an unfamiliar highway, frantically trying to read all the signs so you will not miss your exit? This may be in part due to my non-existent sense of direction, but I have - on many occasions. For the most part though, I blame road designers.

Last year I visited Montreal for a week or so. I stayed at this hotel by Route transcanadienne. Well, actually, the hotel was on the Eastbound side of a smaller highway directly adjacent to the Trans-Canada highway, running parallel. This one-way highway does merge into the Eastbound side of Trans-Canada highway eventually. So, I went out and did my thing for the day, only to come back completely lost. The reason was because the Westbound side of the smaller highway is beside the Westbound side of Trans-Canada highway, therefore the smaller highway is actually seperated in the middle by a large highway. How in the world was I going to get to the other side to get to my hotel? I spent a good half an hour trying to figure that out.

It really seems that the civil engineers who design highways and roads pay little attention to user experience, which is odd enough since these are core elements that make up a city. I do suppose they were never required to take Urban Planning or City Planning in school?

Here is a picture via DailyCognition that demonstrates my point perfectly:


This is a satellite image of Tom Moreland Interchange, intersection of Interstate 85 and Interstate 285, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

I do understand that road planning is very much influenced by the landscape around it, but certainly cities can invest a little more money into researching and coming up with the least confusing way to navigate the endless web of asphalt?

For more information on Spaghetti Intersections, or Malfunction Junctions, click here.

Barlock

Too often people get very carried away with 'cool' technology. This was, and still is, very much the case of Flash, and more recently AJAX. This unfortunately rings particularly true with a lot of design firms. I shall not name any sites, but I have across too many design-y websites that aim to impress, but more often frustrate me. I have not an iota of doubt that many other users would have found themselves in the same predicament. While I do agree that plain HTML an be a little boring sometimes, a Flash-y website that no one seems to understand means you lose potential clients. If I was shopping around for an agency to create a website for me, and I have no idea how to even get to your Portfolio and Contact pages within a mere 2 seconds, you will have lost my business.

Striking that delicate balance between form and function is thus an art - one that requires great judgement and restraint in conception and execution. There are very few design agencies that manage to walk across the tight rope without stumbling, and one of them is Barlock, as the following few screenshots of their website demonstrate:


Flash is integrated minimally in places that make sense. The site gains its memorability with wonderful typography, great sense of humour, and most importantly - personality. Now this is a site I would invest more time in researching their design philosphy and viewing their work. The only gripe I have is shown in the second screenshot - the list of clients. Because of the layout, immediate feedback upon clicking on the categories is needed. This is an area that could benefit from Flash to improve its responsiveness. Nevertheless, it is a fine piece of work!

Doryssa Stationery

Remember that time when you spent your vacation lounging by the seaside - the cool sea breeze against the glorious sunshine, the salty scent of sea water permeating from the soft scintillating waves dancing on its otherwise pristine bed. The very essence of what it means to be relaxing seems to seep through every single pore on your skin as you dig your toes into the fine white sand and it caresses and cradles your body in return with its gentle warmth.

What better way to create stationery for a seaside resort than to appeal to your memories and titillate your senses with a sense of seductive placidity?


This set of stationery for Doryssa Seaside Resort is created by MNP and shows just that (and remember to click on the pictures to see the detail).

2012 Olympics Logo

The Internet is RIFE with backlashes regarding the London 2012 Summer Olympics logo designed by Wolff Olin for an exorbitant price of £400,000, shown below, taken from the official website:


Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said "we want a logo which is adaptable and can be used in a variety of different [contexts]." A survey of 11 to 20 year-olds was also conducted by Q magazine and showed that 70 per cent of respondents disliked it. Of that, "68 per cent of those polled said they 'hate' the design, with more than half of them explaining it was because it did not say anything about London." (quotes from Gamesbid)


Besides the criticism, the logo is also suffering a myriad of other usability issues, as the following paragraph sourced from mad.co.uk shows:

"Sufficient contrast between fore and background is vital for colour deficient or low vision users. Having analysed each of the new brand's four colour schemes, we soon discovered that none of the colour schemes (as the above 4 versions show) passed the colour contrast test. This failure makes it difficult for users to differentiate the logo from a white background and more importantly - to read the white 'London' brand on the logo itself. Scalability of the logo is also a concern. The individual elements of the logo become increasingly difficult to read as the size is reduced. The 'London' brand becomes almost impossible to make out because of its already limited size within the logo. While the complex shapes which make up the '2012' date become more and more difficult to distinguish as the size decreases. Even regardless of colour contrast and scalability issues the logo is still difficult to interpret. Its complex, 'graffiti' style means many of us pause and have to think for a few seconds before we can actually understand what is going on. Usability is about making things easy. A good brand should communicate its message instantly. London 2012 does not do that."

What do you think?

Poetry

Founded in 1912 by Harriet Monroe, Poetry is the English-speaking world's oldest monthly publication devoted to the art form. Unfortunately, albeit unsurprisingly, Poetry magazine "had become marginalized as a literary journal: gray, dark and uninviting." (from Step Inside Design) To revive its lustre, editor Christian Wiman decided to "make the magazine as lively and contemporary in its look as it is in its content." (from a Poetry news release) Winterhouse was to deliver a brand new vision for the magazine in confunction with the Poetry Foundation's new identity:


Winterhouse principal William Drenttel said, "our goal was simply to help energize Poetry to be a dynamic magazine on the newsstand. Why couldn’t a poetry publication use adventuresome illustration?" (image above and quote from Step Inside Design, image below from Poetry)


Perhaps I developing a special interest in illustrations, but these are wonderful collectibles!

Exercise

While I do know the ins and outs of graphic design and typography, my chosen career has not required me to study the art of applying those skills to marketing and advertising needs. Also, like most fresh young designers, I have a chockful of big ideas (good, the not-so-good, and the truly awful ones I pretend not to have mentioned to another soul before) but do not particularly enjoy putting all those ideas onto paper. Perhaps it is the side effect of school life; the luxury of choosing subjects and themes that only complement our design sensibilities is all but lost in the real world.

Equipped with Illustrator and Photoshop, I thus set off on my journey to acquire the afore-mentioned skills myself. My first exercise, I decided, was to create a brochure. Of course, I cannot just pick my own subject/company lest I risk defeating the very purpose of my exercise. Asking around for suggestions led me to Leadership Management Ireland, listed on Sitepoint. It is a two-page brochure, but since I have not figured out the second page yet, here is the first page:


I mulled around for quite some time trying to figure out how to put some life into something as pointed as a brochure for an educational institution. The brochure was for working professionals who want to perk up and increase personal productivity. Then it occured to me that "productivity" was the key. There should NOT be any embellishment to help sell the idea. Unlike high school graduates, the people who will be picking these brochures up already KNOW what they are looking for. This brochure thus aims only to educate potential students on the benefits and importance of increasing personal productivity, and to provide an overview of the course LMI offers. Therefore, I tailored the stylistic qualities of the brochure to appeal to corporate types. Since text was not editable, I willingly sacrificed graphical elements in favour of a streamlined look (one: picture and headline; two: description; three: contact information and quote) - to echo the productivity idea.

I will continue working on the second page, but meanwhile, please do critique this page. I need ot hear the good and bad to learn.

Sfatul Medicului

I admit that I have the makings of a hypochondriac in addition to mild Obsessive Compulsive Disorder tendencies. Though merely self-diagnosed, I have been told by numerous people that I worry excessively over my health and that my desire to live within the confines of an impenetrable bubble is illogical, not to mention rather inconvenient. Nevertheless, in between spikes, I am able to laugh my condition off when I come across an article about cyberchondra.

Generally, like all the other areas of journalism, I think sensationalism plays a huge part in the industry of health care reporting. For me, cancer is a huge fear of mine. Coming across articles about cancer rates or a rare disease puts me in great distress. I will be mulling over every single ache I feel (to the point where I can no longer tell if it is imaginary or not) and monitoring every 'glitch' in normal body functions The public service announcements on the television certainly do not help either (such as women with double mastectomy shown in breast cancer advertisements to emblazon the importance of routine checkup into your head).

While I cannot argue that, perhaps health knowledge and awareness warrants such radical tactics to leave a lasting impression (better safe than sorry, afterall), I do think a more light-hearted approach works just at well. Take, for instance, the two advertisements below for Sfatul Medicului, created by Leo Burnett & Target in Romania (images from Ads of the World):


I particularly like the idea of comic-style illustration for the (otherwise rather heavy) subject matter. It lends an air of lightness to the advertisement, and, in my case, cause me to not immediately think of skin cancer. Copy-wise, I do think that it does not make much sense. However, I am willing to give the advertisement the benefit of the doubt because I think the text was lost in translation. What do you think?

Robin Hood

I acompanied my mother and jostled my way into and around the supermarket yesterday. Minding the rather awkwardly-sized buggy, I decided to wait in one of the aisles. With nothing much else to do but read the nutritional information on every can I can find, I grew rather bored. But, in the corner of my eye, I caught sight of some newly stocked sacks of flour. Of them was the brand Robin Hood. Perhaps it was due to the neatly stacked shelves, but the packaging for this brand of flour stood out amongst the sea of brown and beige packaging, particularly the icon, as the following shows (from the Robin Hood website):


According to the company's timeline, "it all started in 1909 [when Francis Atherton Bean, President of International Milling in Minneapolis, bought a mill in Moose Jaw, Sasketchewan]. From its modest beginnings, Robin Hood has established itself as a household name through hard work, foresight and innovation. Its green-and-red archer emblem has become a familiar and highly regarded symbol of quality and good value from coast to coast."

Unfortunately, I have yet to find out why Bean decided on 'Robin Hood', but it certainly makes for an easily identifiable logo for the product, as evident in its packaging created by Toronto firm Dinnick & Howells:


I'd be mighty pleased if someone can enlighten me.

Meanwhile, Robin Hood's commercial is also very notable. It centres around siblings Elizabeth and Andrew who love "baking up memories with Mom" (sourced from their introduction, as is the image below):


From Applied Arts, "Elizabeth and Andrew were created to remind parents that not only do kids have fun and learn things when baking, but they also spend wholesome quality time with their parents. We used animated children since real ones were too busy watching TV and playing video games."

I do think it is a smart way to tap into both parents and children. I did, and still do, enjoy all those times with my mother sifting flour and eating batter. I particularly liked the smell of vanilla. I should get my mother to bake more often...

Istvan Banyai

Istvan Banyai is an illustrator. He created Zoom in 1995, an award-winning children's book (International Reading Association (IRA) Children's Choices Award amongst others). I have not seen this book yet but I have been on the prowl for an interesting and unique children's book for my nephew. Zoom is one that I am looking at. But Banyai does have another book called The Other Side.

From School Library Journal, "There's nothing mundane or predictable about Banyai's wordless picture book... [T]he illustrator takes his audience on a visual journey that begins with a nearly blank page that, when turned, reveals instructions for folding a paper airplane. On the next page, a girl in her high-rise apartment practices her cello and a paper airplane can be seen outside her window. Readers flip the page to see the girl's building from the outside looking in. Paper airplanes are everywhere, thanks to a young neighbor one floor up who has been practicing his folding skills. Each pair of pages, front and back, presents inside and outside views, and although the scenes are not obviously linked to a larger plotline, they are connected through reoccurring images, colors, and themes... It's a book that begs to be talked about, and teachers will find it a useful tool for discussions about point-of-view and perspective."

I especially like the idea of perspective. This notion is reflected in the cover, taken from Chronicle Books:


Regarding the ideo of perspectives, Banyai has this to say: "We are locked into one location at one place in time in the world physically. [If] you want to see more, you have to move — or just turn the page." (from Step Insdie Design)

To learn more about Istvan Banyai, click here.

To see a full description of The Other Side, and a few of the illustrations inside it, click here.

Sticky Windows

Until as late as 2004, I relied on Internet Explorer for all of my Internet browsing. However, the hype surrounding Firefox at the time soon got me to download and try Firefox out. I loved it. Specifically, I loved the tabs. I think tabs are an excellent way to manage multiple windows (IE did not support tabs at the time), just like the Start bar in Windows. However, I have always felt that this particular bar, as great as it was, was also a nuisance because it was always there (I hate auto-hide). I have yet to switch to a Mac (am currently waiting for Leopard), so I do not feel I can give a fair critique regarding this very same issue. I will, however, say that the use of tabs can certainly be extended to the desktop environment. In a liquid, fully customisable form, this feature can really improve usability.

Here, Donelleschi has done just that with Sticky Windows. The following are a few screenshots from their demo:


From their website, "Sticky Windows shrinks your windows into tabs when you drag a window towards the edge of your screen, providing you with a completely clutter-free workspace. By clicking on the tab the user can show and hide the window. [Dragging] a window to any edge of the screen... [will create a tab]... To remove a tab, [you merely have to] drag it away from the screen edge. If the window is not currently visible when the tab is dismissed, the original window is re-displayed on the screen."

I think I might just try this out when I get my new Mac!

For more information on Sticky Windows, click here.

Simon Norfolk

I have no experience in photography, but I do know composition quite intimately. I also realise the conception of photographs influence how viewers think about the subject matter. Prowling around the umpteen photoblogs led me to an interview with a photographer about his ideas. The photographer is Simon Norfolk:


The above photograph is by Simon Norfolk - "The Church of St Mary in Georgetown"

The interview is informative and highly interesting so it is definitely worth a read. However, here is an excerpt that completely changed my (shallow) understanding of photography, especially in war photography:

"...some of the very earliest photojournalists... were ruin photographers: Matthew Brady's pictures of battlefields at Gettysburg, or Roger Fenton's pictures from the Crimea. And there are no dead bodies... [T]hose photographers were... drawing upon ideas from 17th century and 18th century French landscape painting – European landscape painting. Claude Lorraine. Nicolas Poussin. Ruins have a very particular meaning in those pictures. They're about the folly of human existence; they're about the foolishness of empire." (from BLDGBLOG)


The above photograph is by Simon Norfolk - "Rashid Street in Central Baghdad"

The lack of lifeforms lends a very surreal yet frightening feeling to his work.

To read the much recommended interview in its entirety, click here.

To see all of Simon Norfolk's beautiful photographs and his thoughts on each of them, click here.

Cirque du Soleil

Cirque du Soleil is an entertainment troupe based in Montreal, Quebec. According to Wikipedia, it was "an answer to a call by Commissariat général aux célébrations 1534–1984 of the Québec Government for the 450th anniversary celebration of the arrival of French explorer Jacques Cartier (1491–1557) to Canada." Commonly described as "Cirque Nouveau", Cirque du Soleil performances always centre around a storyline, narrated by a host (albeit in an indecipherable language) and interspersed with routines ranging from contortionists to trapeze artists. Complete with colourful costumes and elaborate sets, their circus productions are phantasmagoric affairs.

Despite having had Cirque du Soleil stop by Vancouver for the past few years, I had never seen any advertising from them. The only clue, apart from radio announcements and the occasional TV spot, was the iconic blue and yellow tents pitched a few blocks from my workplace. So, I was pleasantly surprised when I came across a newsletter, created by Montreal firm Paprika. The following images are from the Paprika website:


I do not know the nature of the newsletter (and my French vocabulary consists of 'bonjour' and 'merci beaucoup', and nothing else), but from what I can see, Paprika has brought the concept of a circus right into the 21st century while still maintaining its roots. This is, I think, a very accurate portrayal of Cirque du Soleil indeed. There is a sense of eccentricity - from the subject in the photograph and the wild experimentation of fonts - that I think really brings the newsletter to life - not just life in a circus troupe, but life in a well-orchestrated performance brimming with creativity.

I only wish I can pore over the actual newsletter page by page to examine it in detail.

To learn more about Paprika and their inspiring work, click here.

To learn more about Cirque du Soleil, click here.

iPhone Release

It's official - iPhone will be available on June 29th. Three new TV spots were created for this announcement (both screenshots from the Apple website):


Created by TBWA\Chiat\Day, these ads are, like the Hello teaser that aired during the Oscars, concise and effective. Apple did not attempt to create a storyline - they jumped right to the point by highlighting the iPhone's outstanding usability and innovative user interface. These are, afterall, the much touted features, apart from the beautifully sleek design, that sets it apart from other phones in the same playing field. Therefore, I really do think these ads serve both to reinforce the knowledge about the product (for those who know about it), and to pique interest (for those who do not know about it yet).

To learn more about the iPhone and to view all the commercials, click here.

To learn more about TBWA\Chiat\Day, click here.

To learn more about Jonathan Ive (SVP of Industrial Design at Apple), click here.

Wine Pairing 101

I have never been one who adores wine, or any alcoholic drinks for that matter. As such, I never bothered to learn which wine paired best with what food. Not knowing the difference between 'tartness', 'fruitiness' and 'earthiness', if I were to hold a dinner party, I would be in a serious fix. Besides having to find out how to roast a chicken, I would have to track down someone, nay anyone, who can remotely call him/herself a sommelier to figure out which wine accentuates a (probably) badly burnt bird.

With Wine That Loves, I can at least strike out the latter off my to-do list. From their website:

"To ensure we offer the very best... for every type of popular food, our Wine Director [Ralph Hersom, a renowned wine expert and professional wine taster... profiled in wine and food magazines as a master of the wine-and-food pairing art], scours the world for top-quality wines that meet our strict criteria. The wines are designed to pair with the foods Americans enjoy most often and to reflect American tastes. They are tailored to food lovers, but their world-class quality, distinctive character and winning style also will delight wine aficionados."

Their philosophy already sounds much more appealing to me than the plethora of others that I know of (I lied - I only know 2). They even further extend their brand to their packaging:


Smart, isn't it?

To learn more about Wine That Loves, go to their website.