Exercise in Conceptualising

For me, school was a time when I was encouraged to expand my mind. All all class activities and assignments were exercises in thinking without the constraints of 'real world problems' such as budgetary concerns and business acumen. It was a time to really challenge my ability to think creatively and hone my design skills. As a working adult, however, I have to balance all my design work and the constraints I face. Every decision made was influenced by available resources, manpower, money, time, trends, business direction, marketing stability etc. Nevertheless, in some sense, it has forced me to think creatively, albeit in different ways: how to achieve the same results (or at least a semblance of what I envisioned) with the resources and time I have at my disposal. Anyway, I came across this advertisement created by students of VCU Adcenter which reminded me some rather fond memories of school:


It is a wonderfully fun advertisement (and one that truly makes use of whatever available resources available to a - most likely - poor student).

Tea: + Milk Guide

Do you wake up every morning half asleep, prepare yourself a cup of tea (or coffee), only to realise that you put way too much milk? If so, here is a solution for you:


Created by Suck UK, MyCuppa mugs "help you mix your favourite brew to just-how-you-like-it by matching the colour guide on the inside". It is a wonderfully simple idea, but one that definitely attempts to meet user needs.

Ad Memorability

Again, I think simple ads are key to memorability. Here is a wonderfully creative advertisement for a hair salon in Italy (via Eternally Cool), created by 1861 United:


The tagline, translated, reads "Vanity Never Stops".

Urinal Design

Have you ever counted how many times a day you flush the toilet? There are many kinds of toilets, ranging from 3 or 6 litres of water per flush (modern designs) to 13 litres of water per flush (older designs). That is a lot of water in addition to water used for bathing or showering, cooking, gardening amongst others. Because of this, I know of a few people who live by the old adage: If it's yellow - let it mellow; if it's brown - flush it down. Regardless of whether you live by this rule, there are various new toilet designs coming up seemingly every few months that attempt to solve many of the design issues (which, for me anyway, include splashback and smell). Here is one, albeit for men only:


Designed by Nicholas Paterson for Kohler, the "Steward Waterless [urinal provides] significant value to the customer by reducing water, sewage and maintenance costs. Waterless urinals can save 40,000 gallons of water per fixture per year, based upon a typical commercial installation. Further, this product has redefined the paradigm for urinal design and functionality by offering a virtually splash-free surface along with odorless, easy-to-maintain performance."

From Yanko Design, "the Steward is cartridge-free and utilizes a sealing liquid in the trapway that allows urine to pass through. Once the liquid waste has passed through, the less dense sealing liquid maintains its position at the top of the trapway, thus providing an impermeable barrier that blocks odors... Additionally, the touch-free operation improves hygiene for all users and is more vandal-resistant due to the absence of a flush valve."

Search Result Design

With Google becoming ubiquitous in the world of searching the Internet, there seems to be hardly any reason to switch to another search engine. This is, from my own point of view anyway, the big road block for Microsoft Live Search, which is itself a great tool (at least UI design-wise). However, recently, Microsoft has dabbled into a bit of experimenting in this area, resulting in a project called Tafiti, as the following screenshot shows:


Tafiti, in Swahili, means 'do research'. According to the website, Tafti "is an experimental search front-end from Microsoft, designed to help people use the Web for research projects that span multiple search queries and sessions by helping visualize, store, and share research results. Tafiti uses both Microsoft Silverlight and Live Search to explore the intersection of richer experiences on the Web and the increasing specialization of search".


According to Rafe Needleman at c|net, "it's worth checking out, because beneath its glitzy user interface are some cool experiments that could easily be implemented on a more plain-Jane search site... [The] "shelf" [feature allows you to drag search results that you want to save or look at later; the stack of search queries that Tafiti collects as you use the site... record[s] your search histories... [Other] features include a secondary "filter" field that lets you easily winnow down search results and different display formatting for results from the Web, books, news sites, and RSS feeds. There are also "blog this" and "e-mail this" options for results you save on your shelf. There's also a highly experimental--borderline silly--"tree view" of search results."


While it is clear that Tafiti, in this current version, will not rival Google, it certainly provides us a glimpse as to what search results, and indeed all web-based applications, can look like - feature-rich and beautiful. Microsoft just needs to focus on getting the speed and ease-of-use right, reducing some visual clutter while adding a wider range of services and functionality.

Design for Life

Do you know how to perform CPR? Apparently, only 1 victim in 3 will receive bystander CPR because of rescuer fear and hesitation. Many people, even if they are not afraid of intimate contact with the victim, are not adequately trained in the life-saving technique. An unconscious victim will die or suffer severe brain damage within a mere 4 minutes because losing consciousness causes the tongue can fall to the back of their throat due to muscle tone loss, effectively blocking their airway. Because of these reasons, four young designers from Imperial College and the Royal College of Art in London - Philip Greer, Graeme Davies, Chris Huntley and Lisa Stroux - devised the Tongue Sucker, seen pictured below:


From Guardian, "the small plastic [one-size-fits-all] chamber with an air reservoir the shape of a bulb is used to open the airway of an unconscious person. When the reservoir is pressed, it sucks the tongue into a vacuum, thus preventing it from blocking the trachea and decreasing the chances of death by suffocation. Once in place, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can be performed."

This object won the INDEX: Design for Life award. "The 11-strong INDEX: jury is convinced the tongue sucker will have huge impact on saving lives in the years to come," it said. "It has the most functional form and the most communicative application. The clear chamber reveals whether the tongue is secured, and the brightly coloured bulb signals to arriving paramedics which casualties have been treated."



From INDEX:, "[this] unassuming device pushed the elemental requirements of form, function, usability and resource. The solution required a form that was instantly descriptive of application, the functionality to perform a complex procedure effectively and a level of usability that allowed all this to be completed by untrained users in a high pressure situation. Failure to address any of these fundamental elements would have fatal consequences. By adopting a design approach we were able to constantly adjust the form of the device to best serve its required function and monitor how this impacted on usability. All this was evaluated in the context of the limited resource and knowledge available to the unskilled bystander first on the scene of an accident. This process allowed us to create a final solution that carefully balanced and addressed all the design elements in a simple iconic product."


Great product design, and a great cause for design. It is currently to go under clinical trials. But I really do think it is something that every emergency kit should have.

Earth Love Moment Ad

I am continually amazed at how the brain interprets images. A simple collage of graphical elements can be grouped in such a manner that causes the brain to see something else. It is very much the classic game of "can you spot a face in the fire". Case in point - this Earth Love Moment ad created by Alexander Stauss and Eleonora Berenyi:



A simple idea that makes use of our 'buggy' brains to its advantage. Together with the straightforward tagline, the brain makes meaning of this ad in probably no more than 2 seconds - precisely what ads should do.

Designing Temporary Shelters

The home is a haven, safe from harm. Being uprooted from your sanctuary not only costs you financially, it also taxes your emotional being heavily. With almost every natural disaster that happens, those who are fortunate enough to survive are often not fortunate enough to retain their homes. Where do they live?


Designed by Daniel Ferrara and Mia Ferrara Pelosi, Global Village Shelters is based in Connecticut. They spent almost four years designing an inexpensive alternative to the standard tents and tarps relief groups usually distribute to refugees. From Boston Globe, "the goal of the design was to create a product that could cross cultures... The result is a strikingly simple house structure... [similar] to Monopoly game house-shaped pieces. The directions are written graphically rather than in words... Unfolding like origami, the house's simple biodegradable materials create an efficient system for builders and the manufacturing company, Weyerhaeuser, a paper company. The level of privacy the shelter provides can help create a feeling of home for someone who may have lost everything... The shelter is durable enough to house a family for at least 18 months."


"We tried to make the look of it as simple as possible. The design needed to be culturally accepted throughout the world. We created a neutral, straightforward house that can be easily adapted to any culture. There are no bells and whistles; keep it clean."

These 'transitional houses' have been deployed to health clinics in Grenada, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the United States following natural disasters. The act of 'designing' is often seen as 'building something' (at least this aspect of design is covered much more), yet I find it much more meaningful to see another side of design - to 'rebuild'.

Advertisement Memorability

Advertisements aim to capture your attention, pique your interest enough to read about what it has to say, and most importantly, remain in your memory for some time. While it is common to see advertisements either with very few words or with a lot of text, I cannot say I have come across too many ones with no text at all. Here is one that I found on the web that is not only able to execute its idea without relying on text at all, but also do it in a most memorable way. Tell me this does not make you smile...


I could not find any credit information at all, so if you have any idea who created this, please do not hesitate to let me know.

A Functional Carryall

I used to carry a fairly small bag - enough for my wallet, cellphone, car keys, office keys, house keys and a pen. However, over the years, I felt I simply needed more space for magazines, newpapers, hand sanitiser, sudoku and kakuro books, my laptop, my Swiss Army knife, cellophane tape, granola bars and various other knick knacks. I got myself a carryall. But then I realised that I never could find the smaller items in my bag and that I would probably give myself a hernia.

This is a very well-known problem with large bags, and there are bags that employ compartmentalising to solve this problem, but I find I often end up with not enough space for my big items and I can never remember where I leave certain items. Because I feel I badly need a new bag - one that is more ergonomic and offers better protection for the more fragile items - I began paying more attention to other people's bags. Here is one of the ones that I have seen several times, mostly on the backs on cyclists:


The creation of Swedish product designer Jonas Blanking, the Boblbee Megalopolis Aero Spirit was made to meet his needs as a outdoorsman and urban dweller. From svenskform, "Blanking found the model for his backpack shell in the boxes used by the air freight industry. They met his demands for low weight and durability. He studied [the] materials and connecting joints. The... shell is... manufactured in injection-molded, toughened ABS plastic and is joined to the soft textile harness by aluminum strips and screws."


From Canadian Motorcycle Guide, the bag is "[e]quipped with various internal pockets and compartments for things like laptop computers, CD’s, and mobile phones, it can also accommodate items strapped to the outside, like roller blades or even a basketball." Additionally, "the Aero harness that is made of a new lycra mesh laminate to reduce heat build-up against the wearer’s back, Aero Top that provides maximum water protection and airflow behind the rider’s helmet, and Aero Ratchet Lock for secure locking of the lid." (from Boblbee)

So what is it like to carry one?

According to Ronn Moffatt, "[a]lthough the ABS plastic does add a little weight to the pack, the comfortable ergonomic design compensates well. I have worn my pack containing an SLR camera and other sundries for daylong rides, without feeling as though my arms were about to drop off at the shoulders when arriving at my destination. Using the waist belt relieves much of the downward pull, and the closure—that connects the shoulder harnesses across the chest—relieves the rearward pulling forces on the wearer’s shoulders. These two items together would work well on any backpack, but on the Boblbee it all seems to work better."

Honda Advertisement

Copious amounts of text usually frustrate many graphic designers because it severely limits creative use of space. This is especially true of advertisements. Less copy, but effective and memorable nonetheless, is usually thought of the way to go. However, text, even a lot of it, can be incorporated to create a wonderfully eye-catching design. Here are several examples created by Wieden + Kennedy London for Honda that shows just that.


Reminiscent of El Lissitzky and Jan Tschichold, these advertisements are not only beautifully composed, they also show how text and image can work together to create something truly fresh using a classic style.

Bjork Video Competition

Bjork held a video competition for her new single titled Innocence a few months ago. This was very interesting to me because it created a role reversal between consumer and artist. A highly individual and creative person like Bjork could easily have come up with another intriguing concept for her music video to add to her collection, yet she decided to let her fans think what best represents the emotional content and character of the said song. I feel that, in our world where many designers design only for themselves and not for the audience, that this act forces the designer (or artist, in this case) to lose control. The best design, at least to me, is the product of BOTH the designer's and the audience's ideas.

Here is the video, created by Fred&Annabelle of France:

Björk - Innocence - Competition Winner

Add to My Profile | More Videos

If anyone has any information regarding Fred&Annabelle, please let me know.

If you are interested in seeing the 11 finalists, click here.

Computer Woes

I seem to be having some serious computer woes, so I think my posts will be less regular until I purchase a new computer in October when (hopefully) Leopard is out. I will still try to update though.

Tracking Language Usage

Have you ever wondered what words you use most in any given day besides the obvious like 'the', 'a', 'me', 'I' and so on? With WordCount, you can:


This tool, with its excellent use of interactive media, is created by Jonathan Harris. It documents the "88,000 most frequently used English words, ranked and scaled in order of commonness and displayed side by side as one very long sentence". From a Voice of America interview, Harris' says "The experience I was trying to create for the user was like an archeologist sort of sifting through sand. [You] never really get a look at the whole language at any one time. You really have to zero in one specific part and explore there."


"[The] data is essentially random... a given word is next to another word is only based on how often those words appear in normal English usage. But when you have 88,000 words placed back to back, chances are pretty good that a few of those sequences are going to form some pretty conspiratorial meanings."


"Some of my favorites are words 992 to 995 are 'American ensure oil opportunity.' Then 4304 to 4307 is 'Microsoft acquire salary tremendous'." There are many more of those here.

Sound Branding

I take the skytrain to work every single day. Whenever the train reached a station, an announcement will air through the broadcast system: (three chimes) "The next station is (slight pause) Broadway". Over time, I have grown so accustomed to it that if, for whatever reason, the distinctive three chimes to do not come on, I would actually feel a rather uncanny aural void. Recently, due to a change of our office address, I needed to take the bus as well during my daily commute. Again, when it reached designated stops, the three chimes always came on. Then, it dawned on me - all this time I had failed to realise just how important sounds play a part in brand association too. I was well aware of all the subtle advertising went on about me, but (I thought) I always only noticed to the visual ones.

It got me thinking - what other sounds do I remember? I remember that heavy thud that my kitchen door makes when it closes, which always reminds me of nice warm home-cooked meals; I certainly remember the (default) ringtone that my mobile phone makes... There are many, and trying to pinpoint these sounds sparked a small experiment that I tried on myself after dinner:

Turn on the television and wait till the commercials come on. Close your eyes and just listen to the beginning part of each commercial (the part typically without any voices to distract from pure sounds). Do you recognise any?

I did. Most of them. And I do not even watch that much television.

I then went online to find out more about this form of brand recognition. It seems Derrick M. Kuzak - Ford Motor's global chief for product development - was troubled by the "insipid gong chimes that greeted a potential buyer when the door of a Ford was opened as well as the rickety sound produced when it was shut" (from BusinessWeek).

From the same article, "Ford is upgrading the sound its cars' doors make when they close, the chimes, and the engine noise. AARP is working on a 'sound logo', to debut next year, so that when TV or Web advertisers want to feature the AARP logo to show endorsement, it will have a short musical signature the same way Intel's logo prompts a five-note sound when it appears in computer ads... When the Ford Flex crossover SUV debuts in late 2008, it will be the first Ford to carry the new symphonic door and safety-belt warning chime that is considerably more mellifluous than the shallow gong in today's Fords... In later years, Ford thinks it may offer a menu of sounds, as on cell phones. One it has tested is the sound of a golf ball dropping into the cup."

What sounds do you remember?

News Broadcast Design

While in school, I spent some time working at a clothing chain with a flagship store in the heart of downtown Vancouver. While it did not prove to be the 'fun working environment' that was promised during the interview, I was nevertheless very interested in certain aspects of retail. One such aspect is store design and presentation and how they affect buying behaviour. Yes, those umpteen lights you see in any shop are installed for a reason, as are the slimming mirrors in every corner of the store, the eye-catching windows design and marketing materials, and the strategic placement of neatly folded stacks of clothes color-blocked and grouped to suit your lifestyle needs. Along with the dizzying music and a strict guideline on staff attire and behaviour, they all factor into one key element of running a business - the experience of shopping.

Experience is a very powerful thing. In many ways, it can dictate whether your business floats of sinks. I knew that from my experience (pun intended) working in the retail industry. What I did not know, however, was that your regular news broadcast centre is also designed to enhance your experience. This is where Clickspring Design works their magic, as the following images and excerpts from their website shows:


"The design for the new CNN Communications center transforms the typology of the broadcast studio. A fully immersive environment of compound breaking news imagery underscores CNN’s global authority for communication of world events. The newest media technology is maximized to place anchors and viewers into the geography of the story."


"[CNN International] has become the international symbol synonymous with global news coverage and transnational communication. A minimalist architectural environment — a neutral palette — allows for a compelling media vernacular of immersive moving imagery, underscoring the franchises on-the-ground coverage."

Clickspring Design Principal Erik Ulfers says of his work, dubbed as 'experiential design', "In the theater, you have a captive audience and extended, sustained time, [but] today’s brands don’t have that luxury. Which means the greatest potential is to extend the time of engagement... This business will ultimately become an economy of time. The differentiator will be how to contain it and extend it. At the end of the day, we want to help our clients own the clock... Every second you can spend with your audience has a value... What I’ve come to realize is that if you can capture the interest and emotions of an audience within the confines of an experience, the value proposition for the client is that increased time exponentially increases the opportunity to create a relationship - and more relationships extend to the bottom line."

I will never look at Anderson Cooper 360° the same way again.

Design for Dyslexia

I remember learning Mandarin was a very difficult process for me. Except for my father, my family did not speak the language at home. Listening and speaking was manageable, but writing was quite a challenge. Granted, you need to know approximately 3000 characters for general usage, it is nevertheless a continuous learning experience, even to this day. And I am not dyslexic.

Dyslexia is a reading disability that is "commonly characterized by difficulties with learning how to decode at the word level, to spell, and to read accurately and fluently." (from Wikipedia). In my opinion, the foundations of any language presents the most steep of the learning curve. If teaching children without any learning disabilities a language is a daunting task, surely teaching children with learning disabilities is a herculean one. Therefore, thinking about ways to make learning a little easier is very much a noble effort. Here is one person that does just that:


This project, called Woodblocks in a Box, is created by Gertrude Wong. From Design21, "the concept of this project is to develop a prototype multisensory play set for children, especially dyslexic individuals. The set integrates both learning and playing into one, it allows each individual to absorb information at their own pace, making their learning experience pleasurable and impactful... The overall package is designed like a mini-briefcase, giving children a sense of professionalism and the pleasure of being a ‘Big kid’... The chosen typefaces were Bebas, and Clan Narrow Bold; sans serif typefaces were particularly chosen based on its simplicity and accessibility to dyslexic individuals."


"The alphabets are broken down into a number of shapes, and colour. Children can explore the structure of each letter by following the template guide provided together with the set."


"When the child has mastered the basic formation of these letters, he/she can then explore other combinations of blocks to form their alphabets."

Design and its Environment

There is no doubt that our lives are affected by design - from that coffee mug you hold religiously every morning to the familiar sight of that cup holder of your car, to the endless asphalt sprawl and to the chair you sit on 8 hours a day. Because of the repetitive nature of your daily routine, you might simply not realize how much it can affect your life. Then I saw this on TV:


This image, taken from Stillwater Gazette, is of the Interstate 35W bridge collapse. Around 50 vehicles plummeted into the Mississippi River when the 40-year old bridge gave way shortly after 6 p.m. on Wednesday. 79 people are injured to date, 4 deaths and 20 to 30 people still unaccounted for. Watching footage of it was a surreal experience - it simply did not feel real; it really seemed like a scene from an action movie. Yet, in the back of my head, I cannot help but hear the voices of terror, the fervent instinctive attempts to grasp at every shred of their life.

This disaster has reminded me how our lives are influenced by design (even the most banal of objects we come across), and, in turn, how design is influenced by the environment it inhabits.

So what exactly happened? From Evening Echo, "engineers pointed out that the interstate bridge in Minneapolis had 'low levels of redundancy'... The bridge had three spans, the centre one crossing the wide expanse of the river without supporting piers to avoid obstructing shipping. Beneath the “deck” of the bridge carrying the road were two lattice-like trusses made from criss-crossed steel girders. It was these that effectively held the bridge up... Local overstressing of a compression member in the arch truss could lead to buckling and a sudden redistribution of the forces in the remaining structure. If those adjacent members cannot support the additional loads, then collapse can occur."

However, "Major [bridge] failures are often due to a combination of factors, rather than a single cause. Fatigue cracks; corrosion; ship impact; bearing failure; scour or damage to the supports – all these could contribute. And if the bridge had been undergoing repair work or maintenance at the time of failure, then that would be another important line of inquiry."

Are CS3 Icons Working?

When Adobe released icons for Creative Suite 3, many people were very doubtful of their rather unconventional choice of iconography. The following is an excerpt from Veerle's interview with Ryan Hicks - Senior Experience Designer at Adobe:

"The debate that has risen up around iconography and the merits of what we've done taken in a broader context is impressive. The new direction is a bigger change than I think anyone in the public would have expected from us, change on that scale is going to be hard and of course there are those who will rise up and scream heresy. Honestly, we have been living with the icon system internally on our own machines for so long now that it's a bit hard to remember what the big deal is." Then, from John Nack on Adobe, Hicks adds that, "Taken in isolation, the individual icons are in no way spectacular - that was never their role... Their elegance comes from how the entire desktop brand system works as a whole. The more Adobe apps you have, the better the system works. Adobe's icons stand out instantly in the visually-dense world of user desktops because of their simplicity; complexity ≠ information."

This is very much evident in their choice of the periodic table concept and colour associations.

"With a specific emphasis on clarity and legibility, this system expresses a singular focus of better enabling our customers and their work... Our approach is pragmatic and utilitarian, literally "less is more". We have created a concise and coherent unified language in a deceivingly simple and highly distinctive visual system – from the branded desktop work through to interface and product design. Top-level point products (authoring environments eg. Photoshop, Illustrator, etc) follow a two-letter mnemonic 'nickname' system as their primary identifier... A product's icons are paired with a specific color, usually based on historical color association (Flash is red, Dreamweaver is green) and familied within a particular vertical. This color association is carried throughout the product's desktop brand in lieu of 'primary imagery', from install screens through app icons and reinforced through details on document and supporting icons." (John Nack on Adobe)


It has been several months since the release of CS3. I am not sure how many users have switched to CS3, but for those of you who have already done so, how are the icons working for you? How are they compared to CS2 ones (as shown in the example above taken from macenstein)?

Lo-Fi Animated Short

My nephew spends a lot of time watching cartoons. He particularly adores Backyardigans. After watching quite enough cartoons with him, I realize this fact: the cartoons I used to watch did not look quite like that. Cartoons from my time were distinctly 2D, essentially moving comics. Technology has allowed film producers (and game designers) to create realistic characters and objects that move fluidly. I can certainly appreciate Transformers coming to life with today's technology. Yet, there is a special place in my heart for lo-fi animation. Here is one that, coupled with a simple story, shows just how endearing lo-fi animation can be (at least to us old geezers...):


Created by Stephen Neary, this animated short is titled "Bigfoot Eulogy". From Audience Withoutabox, "Bigfoot’s Eulogy poses questions about friendship and love in a ways at once funnny, sad, and disarmingly charming. It also asks, 'What would it be like to live with Bigfoot?' Beautifully animated, Bigfoot’s Eulogy is a heartwarming fable of friendship exploring the results of an absurd love triangle. To create the film’s distinct textural feel, hundreds of textures where scanned--paper, cardboard, cats, dogs, and the old fur coats of Stephen Neary’s grandmother completed the look."


You can watch the entire 8-minute short at Animation Block or catch a few glimpses of Neary's work and process in his blog.