Delicious Redesign

Posted on July 31, 2008 by C Lin
Design, Industry | 1 Comment

‘Change is good.’ So they say. Delicious, the number one most popular bookmarking site has a new design which launched today. Luckily, I got a chance to screen capture the old design so I could compare the two. Overall, I like the organization of the new site. You can find things more readily. The links that your friends send are no longer buried. Navigation is much better on the new site. I also like that the bookmark page lumps your links by the date you posted them. I do have a few complaints, however. First of all, why does the new Delicious have to look so Web 2.0? Don’t we have enough of that style of design already? Secondly, I don’t like that the Save a new bookmark link is on the upper right corner away from your bookmarks. After hitting save, you also have to go through a useless screen, that makes you hit ‘next’ in order to label your bookmark. Thirdly, I’m missing the more obvious color delineation from the links you’ve clicked and one’s you haven’t yet. In the new version, it’s so subtle you can’t tell the difference.

The Design of Science

Posted on July 30, 2008 by B Juergens
Design, Tech | Leave a Comment

Dickson Despommier, a professor at Columbia University, and 82 graduate students designed a vertical farm concept based on LA’s Capitol Records building. Like other designs of vertical farms, such as the one presented by the Center for Urban Agriculture in Seattle and another concept by Atelier SOA Architects in Paris; the high-concept design would ensure protection for a cities’ food supply against floods, droughts, and pathogens. Each vertical farm would be sustained through renewable energy sources i.e. solar panels, wind turbines, and salvaged rainwater. The overall idea is not solely for high-rise downtown city farms, in fact, ‘they’ are hoping you put a small-scale version in your backyard. Welcome to the future of sustainable living.

Feeds: Friend or Foe?

Posted on July 1, 2008 by C Lin
Culture, Design | Leave a Comment

For those of you who are living under a rock, an RSS or Atom feed is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content from for example a blog, news site etc. in a standardized format. You have seen the little orange icon on blogs or the blue icon in the new Firefox window. Let’s say you have a favorite blog that you read everyday. You can subscribe to its feeds by clicking on the icon and then selecting a type of reader that you want all of your content to appear on. This gives people quick and at a glance access to updated content.

The Future of Skateboarding is Elemental

Posted on June 23, 2008 by P Tade
Culture, Design | 1 Comment

Element just “pushed” the evolution of the skate deck with the introduction of their “Push Construction Positive Negative Series;” which is a really long name for a series of skate decks…but seemingly worth every last syllable. The deck is a very intricate and scientific combination of carbon fiber and helium, weighs next to nothing and is more durable than any deck in production.

So, why is someone who hasn’t done an ollie in about 20 years, let alone ever attempted a shove-it, so fascinated with the announcement of a new deck? Well, there are two main reasons and this new deck takes both of those thoughts into consideration.

7-Point System for CS3

Posted on June 17, 2008 by S Running
Design, Tech | Leave a Comment

Judging from the title, I was expecting it to be a beginners-only book. As it turns out, the book assumes you already have a comfort level with the finer workings of Photoshop. The underlying concept of the book is that all other Photoshop books simply dissect the various components of the application and tell you how to use them. Do you have a dark image? Use levels to lighten it. Have a blurry image? Use Unsharp mask. Want to get rid of a blemish? Use the rubber stamp tool. The issue that Kelby addresses is that many digital artists don’t know how to assess a photo and determine what needs to be done to it overall and in what order. In simpler terms, the question becomes how to make a good photo a great photo. As a master Photoshop user, Kelby audited his own process as he worked on hundreds of images. He realized that the majority of photos required a combination of the same seven steps. In the book, Kelby breaks down each of those seven steps and applies them to real photos using detailed tutorials.

Music is My Boyfriend

Posted on May 29, 2008 by C Lin
Design | Leave a Comment

I was reading a blog post about the relationship designers have with music on Design Observer. Adrian Shaughnessy writes: “I’ve never worked in a design studio where music wasn’t being played pretty much constantly… What is it with graphic designers and music?” Adrian has a good point. The image of a room full of designers with headphones on while staring at the computer screen is almost becoming cliché.

Go Green with Red Bottles

Posted on May 28, 2008 by S Running
Culture, Design | Leave a Comment

When new employees join our company, they are presented with the expected array of health benefits, 401(k) plan, vacation, and so forth. However, one special benefit we give everyone is their very own red water bottle from Camelbak. We realized that we were going through as many as 30 cases of bottled water per month (we drink a lot), so we decided to install a water bubbler to replace all the individual bottles. Instead of creating a trash can full of disposable plastic cups, we outfitted the whole team with stylish, personal bottles. Everyone decorates their bottle so they can tell it apart (silver sharpie is a popular inscription tool). We figure this saves as much as 10,000 bottles worth of plastic per year. If only there was a way to get Snickers without the packaging…

The Best Photoshop Resource Yet

Posted on March 28, 2008 by B Juergens
Design | Leave a Comment

Photoshop can be, at times, cumbersome with each new edition, although this is not to say completely futile. What commences as a brief look into creating conceptual art, culminates into an exceptional discovery. PSDTUTS.com is anything and everything Photoshop related. Lessons range from applying realistic tattoos, retouching facial imperfections, creating conceptual art, building seamless collages, fine tuning techniques of illustration, to making rad text effects. PSDTUTS is not only a prime resource for Photoshop tutorials, but it is also an online community where readers have the opportunity to suggest topics and even write in for paid publishing on the site. Definitely a hot resource right now.

Kinematic Typography

Posted on March 27, 2008 by B Juergens
Design | 1 Comment

Found: the most compelling art form for both typographers and laymen alike. People of various significance in the art world have taken famous cinematic scenes and re-created them using motley typefaces along with audio to showcase the enigmatic effect on our psyche.

Grunge Design in 2008

Posted on March 24, 2008 by Tuesday Creative
Culture, Design | Leave a Comment

Grunge Design is a chaotic and abstract design style from the 1990’s arguably coined by David Carson, dubbed the ‘godfather of grunge.’ Ok, fast forward to 2008. Smashing Magazine.com posted an article last week which states: “Shiny and glossy design elements are now officially outdated. Just like retro is becoming trendy again, the grungy look appears to rapidly gain on [sic] popularity.”Is 90’s grunge design coming back? And how do designers feel about it?