Design

Last week, I listened to Michael Bierut present “My Life as a Font” at a UMBC/AIGA Baltimore event. He worked his way through the alphabet, showcasing a project for each letter and discussing the typeface used. But what I really enjoyed hearing were all the lessons he seemed to pick up along the way.

Some of these sites are clean and some seem crowded. Some are highly interactive, and some are static. But every one of them is colorful and eye catching!  Enjoy some Tuesday morning inspiration:

http://www.webdesigndev.com/inspiration/30-extremely-colourful-website-d...

I recently got a new iPod and realized there are some good and fun apps out there for design, so I thought I would share some that I came across in my search.

iBlueSky: $9.99
Use this app to map your brainstorming. Create a collection of ideas, thoughts, and suggestions and email them as a PDF or PNG.

Having grown up with the Wizard of Oz (and having watched at least 10 minutes of it nearly nightly from age 3 to age 6), I found this site, posting 25 styles of the Wizard of Oz characters, particularly interesting.  How wonderful that characters can become so iconic as to be recognizable in any style!

Dorothy, Toto, Scarecrow, Lion, and the Tin Man

It is often said that graphic designers are problem solvers. The client has a problem and graphic designers are to find the solution, but is that really the best description for designers? The term problem solver could really apply to many occupations. When you have a leaky roof, you call a roofer to fix the leak. When you feel sick, a doctor will make you well again. When you need a package to travel across the country and arrive tomorrow, a delivery service will solve your problem. The term “problem solver” for graphic designers seems too general.

The alphabet only has 26 forms, yet each shape can be interpreted in so many ways. Here are several examples of the letter A in serif and san-serif faces.

They all vary in x-height, weight, contrast of line and aperture size. Some possess a delicate sense, while others are heavy and solid. But still with all these variations, we can recognize the letterform. The Latin alphabet was developed by the Romans, but typographers today still find new ways to represent it.

As a group dedicated to problem solving in creative ways, I was pleased to see an article recently on "layout solutions." This article from Smashing Magazine was passed along to me by Nate, one of our developers. In his words, "This post has some fantastic suggestions on improving web design!" I felt it deserved to be passed along. :)

Everyday, I come home excited to check my email, searching for the one titled "Today" in the subject line. I am welcomed with inspirational images from Eric Baker of Eric Baker Design Associates and Design Observer. Eric's "Today" series is a collection of images he has found on the web which he then emails to a large group of artists or posts to the Design Observer website. Sometimes there is an obvious theme, but most of the time they are random.

Alissa's post on print and web design got me thinking about all the details that go into design work. Design is one of the few areas that can function as both content and form. It conveys an idea to an audience, and also controls how that idea is portrayed. There's a reason "a picture's worth a thousand words," and I think this website does and excellent job of showcasing that reason.

Enjoy!

This past Wednesday at the Windup Space, Guy Arceneaux and I gave presentations for Aquent's first roundtable discussion event. The evening was focused on a dilemma I think many print designers are finding. The print market is over saturated with designers, and the web market is in need for more designers. Based in print design, I have been transitioning more into web because of a need for my job and my own personal curiosity.