Category: design
October 18, 2006
October 12, 2006
Test 2
October 10, 2006
Swf Embed Test
testing tracking and embed.
June 28, 2005
Art Chantry Talks logos
No date on this article (something that bugs me), but I am a Chantry fan.
In the last 20 years especially, there has been a deconstruction of the purpose of logo design. I think that in many instances, logos have become unnecessary. Everyone thinks they need one, that a logo is the logical thing. But many companies have no head person at their lead anymore: Instead, a board of directors, running on fear and the desire to make money, are in charge. Maybe an abstract, mindless logo is the perfect answer to that, he says.The designer would like to see designers return to the tenets of the trademark—essentially, what a logo was called before branding cast its oppressive shadow over everything. A successful trademark could be abstract or illustrative or somewhere in between, but it represented its company A) by creating a dialogue with the viewer and B) without the necessity of a word descriptor nestled up close to it. A logo isn't working if it needs subtitles to explain it, he says.
June 27, 2005
Web Design Freelancer needed
Any good web designers out there looking for a few weeks of freelance work? Mainly web and filling gaps in an overly busy summer schedule? We are looking...
Let me know. Please hurry.
March 22, 2005
Small groups, with total control, no leader, complete trust, total transparency, and a clear achievable yet open ended goal
Getting projects done, and done well is a constant challenge. I and others I know are consistently part of teams attempting to complete projects, from logos to web designs to application UI’s to communities. Often a lack of certain elements leads to disaster, here is my incomplete collection of thoughts on what helps make projects run on a smoother track.
Small Groups
Find as few as possible people who want to do the job to complete your task. Do not be afraid to pick busy people, they often are the most efficient.
Total Control
Give up control. Once you have chosen your team, have confidence that you do not know what is best and that the team will return the best result, if not let them fix it after the proposed solution shows itself to not work. Failure is not a problem but an opportunity for everyone involved to learn what happened, and then apply that knowledge.
No Leader
Or maybe said everyone is a leader, if the group is small enough, tight enough and skilled enough I don’t think there is a need for a leader. Hold everyone accountable for the product, let no one slack.
Complete Trust
Let your team do what they know best, get out of the way and relinquish your control. You do not need to make decisions to show that you can add to the project, but answer question honestly when they are proposed by the team, then let them take or leave your feedback.
Total Transparency
As much as possible, everyone on the team or you should be able to know what is going on, and why decisions where made. This does mean you have to like the answer. Trust your team.
Clear Achievable Goal
Set a goal for the team that can be achieved. That does not mean that it can’t be something challenging, but if it seems completely out of bounds given the timeline, the project will start off under a cloud of discouragement.
Open Ended Goal
The job is never done. Do not set the expectation that at the competition date, the work is done. At completion the initial test is launched, feedback is gathered and the project is adjusted to keep what works and cut was does not.
February 22, 2005
Black and white logo first
From MarketingProfs.com:
Logos: What Makes Them Work (Part 1 of 2)
An idea I thought I was the last to hold on to:
1. Black and white firstGood logos are designed in black and white first. Color comes later. By the same token, logos should be judged in black and white first, then in color.
By evaluating the black and white version first, you get a much better idea of the shape, design and readability of the logo. Good design stands up well in black and white. Lousy design does not. Lazy designers know that bad design can be camouflaged by color. A logo shouldn't rely on color for its appeal, uniqueness or ability to be recognized.
If you're hiring logo designers, insist that the first presentation come to you in black and white. If they don't get it, fire them before they get started.
That pretty much says it all. It seems recently clients do not want to listen to this. With the immediacy of the web and the computer and all that has been desktop publishing, clients think they need to see color variation initially while looking at design options. It is always a crutch, always gets in the way and always makes the outcome worse and take longer.
January 01, 2005
The Watch
Ten Technologies That Refuse To Die
"Analog watches Compared to today's digital timepieces, old-fashioned, sweep-hand watches are pathetic one-trick ponies. Digital-watch wearers can check temperature, altitude, and the time in Tokyo, play tunes and games, and send messages. Can wristwatch videoconferencing, Web surfing, and tarot readings be far off? But what digital watches can't do, according to sweep-hand proponents, is display the time and context as elegantly and intuitively as an analog model. Children often start out with the digital bells and whistles, then graduate to a sweep hand; then finally, perhaps, they dispense with electronics altogether and acquire an all-mechanical, high-end trophy watch sales of which have grown dramatically in recent years. In the end, how a device performs its essential job matters more than its extra functions."
October 07, 2003
Useful Graphic design can save voting
I prefer Ballot A: Marcia Lausen, clear and simple
July 24, 2003
This is Broken (.com)
![raleigh.s[1].jpg](http://anthony.ianniciello.net/blog/archives/raleigh.s[1].jpg)
At a rest stop between Washington, DC and Raleigh, NC. These signs are on the interior of a bathroom stall door.
I love this stuff. The design world is full of stupid things that happen becuase of too little thought, too much thought and too much design by comity. Things like the above image are amazing no brainers, but you have to imagine there is some explination, probably involving some lazy ass who did not know how to remove rivits, or had a great sense of humor. Plus in light of the affront that is buymusic.com (which I very much intended to like and use until it launched) I like to see the screwy UI issues.
May 28, 2003
The issue of findability
That’s why I say this airport has findability problems. The difficultly I had finding my way dominated all other aspects of the experience. Like usability, findability applies broadly across all sorts of physical and virtual environments. And, perhaps most important, it’s only one word!
May 19, 2003
Is it really that bad out there?
A nice post worth reading by Damien about the current climate out there for design.
The only way to be able to continuously deliver new ideas is to take care of yourself. "Eat yer greens." No seriously, to be able to 'output' you have to 'input' and the balance between the two is incredibly vital. This is the simple reason for research before concepting in design. And in a broader scheme of things, it is the reason to get up from the desk and get outside and experience something even if it is a view of the freeway and some homeless people fighting over crack.
May 04, 2003
Honda Cog ad get's my nod.
Honda has a Rube Goldberg style ad running in abroad that is just about the best car ad I have seen in a looong time. I often think that auto advertising is all so similar with electonica music and happy college age kids getting into their vw/mitsubishi/toyota matrix/whatever, and I never really remember the car all that much. I yern sometimes for launch days of the Infiniti brand were they refused to show the car in any of the ads. This ad is interesting, relevent, well though out and I actually thing the car looks pretty cool, and look at me doing some free advertising for them.
AdAge article: (Win media)
HONDA'S TWO-MINUTE 'COG' SPOT IS AN INSTANT CLASSIC
Somebodys' random page:(flash)
So a note to all you Honda lawyers, I'm not taking credit for this. This ad is clearly your work. Don't shoot.
The actual Honda UK page for the ad/brand:
Honda Accord UK
April 16, 2003
Waffle: Interview with Jeremy Hedley of Antipixel
A good little interview (excerpt below) with the person behind antipixel. I agree with the distaste for the word blog, the comment on standards, though I have a long way to go on that myself and the little comment on websites being blogs now and in the near future. I tend to like the beautiful pictures he posts and I loved the sound of the oil delivery trucks in Japan, and his site was/is definitely one that inspired me.
The full interview ->waffle: under the iron - #1 Jeremy Hedley
q. Have you talked anyone you know into blogging, or found yourself asking people if they have a weblog?
a. Ha, good question. No, I don't think I've caused anyone to start a blog. I often find myself preaching to the choir, and most of my friends who use the computers just for e-mail and writing don’t seem ready to take the plunge.
As for asking people if they have sites, sure, all the time. It's getting to the point where you almost expect people to have URLs (well, maybe not quite, but how far away can we be?).
There was a Tokyo "bloggers" party recently organised by Michael Clark and Nadine Zukoski. Apart from the MT users" gathering organised when Ben and Mena Trott were in town, this was the first time I'd attended such an event. It was great, but a little weird to meet so many web sites in the flesh.
q. By asking people if they have a weblog, I mean "do you have a weblog?" and not "do you have a website?"
a. Ah, OK. Perhaps I'm starting to think that "web site" means "weblog" when dealing with individuals. I also tend to say "site" because "weblog" is such an ugly word.
q. Yeah, I find myself thinking “blog, what an ugly word”. I would be a lot more happier if we said “weblog” for the site and just “I logged that!” instead of “I blogged that!”. The former makes much more sense in my opinion, and it’s easily much more understandable.
a. Yep. “Blogosphere,” “to blog something,” “a blogger” — these are dreadful constructions. I try to make a point of avoiding them. Don’t mean to sound snooty or anything (inescapably, though, I will).
The full interview ->waffle: under the iron - #1 Jeremy Hedley
April 14, 2003
Tibor Kalman
1949 - 1999
Born: Budapest, Hungary
Worked: New York, NY, United States
Kalman once said, "My quandary was that designers have been taught to be liars. They have been taught to use their skills -- just like lawyers and accountants -- to distort information. I was not against anyone personally, I just had all these questions about what we were doing." Throughout his work, Kalman has successfully engaged his audience by exposing the formulae according to which sexual, violent, and multicultural images are used in design to sell products and promote social conformity.
Sometimes I damn my state school B.F.A for not teaching be about designers in history, such as in this case, and other times I am glad I don't know of them.
March 18, 2003
Designer’s Guide to Brand Strategy
T36 : The Designer's Guide to Brand Strategy.
"In writing this Guide, I've tried to outline the basic elements to the process of design and development of brand strategy in a way that would best support the people involved in actually designing brands."
This looks to be useful for helping actual in the trenches designers with brand strategy but I will have to give it more of a read.
March 13, 2003
Bad Design, Bad...
A scrapbook of illustrated examples of things that are hard to use because they do not follow human factors principles.
Link from Speak Up
March 07, 2003
Free Logos, from soviet russia.
March 04, 2003
Texas Smokehouse in the house
Tastey wesite coming soon, I need to find some good tips on food website design.
February 28, 2003
WTC part 2
libeskind New WTC buildings.
I finally found some decent images of the new stuff, interesting.
February 12, 2003
Branding
: : Speak Up : : has a great branding disucssion going and I wanted to grab this one here so I could have it.
Well, I'll take a shot at this.
The way I view a brand, as trained by Landor™, is that it is basically a promise, made by a company to its various audiences, of values and emotions that that company embodies. Through this promise, it attempts to emotionally bond a customer to the company, instilling a sense of need, loyalty and recurrent patronage. In other words, the company essentially tries to be like its customers, adopting attributes – i.e. cool, aggressive, smart, thoughtful, environmentally-concerned – that attempt to mirror them, somewhat like the sociological idea that similar people get along and hang out together. A company can deliver on this promise by selling products or services that fit within these attributes.
The term branding bloomed large during the dot-com boom, when every graphic design firm suddenly became a branding consultant and specialist. Unfortunately, most missed the true boat on this. Witness all the dynamic logo swooshes and ads with ridiculous premises in hopes of getting their name known. Getting the name known is a small part of the battle. Getting it respected, establishing need from its customers and being viewed as different and better than the competition – that's the true test. Example: Pets.com. Who didn't love the sock puppet? Great name recognition. Amusing. I bought stuff from 'em. But, do I really need to order cat food overnight when it costs less to walk across the street to a grocery? So they failed in making themselves a necessary part of pet owners' lives. So promise unfulfilled = dead brand.
When all parts of a company work together to support the brand promise, then you have success. As a graphic designer, this means designing annual reports and ads (yeah, don't go there...) and logos and packages that use a consistent visual vocabulary. Don't indulge in your own personal graphic whims if it is not called for. Beyond the visual realm, however, there are SO many aspects to a brand's success that we must support and push for those other areas to be tackled as well. I can design a beautiful annual report but if the writing is off-brand, then the piece is unsuccessful. So we must be vigilant in supporting 'ancillary' activities to ours.
Always remember, a brand must follow the audience, rarely the other way around. Think how Nike moves and evolves its language and visuals over the years. Think how Reebock held on to the 80's aerobic trend far too long. Think how Apple held the arrogant belief (and still holds to some degree) that they are better and everyone will eventually realize this. Think about their 5% market share. In the end, if the brand does not stay true to its audiences, and loses its relevance to them, it will fade.
Posted by Jon on 02.12.2003 at 11:32 AM
January 30, 2003
Team Null Rocks
Check out this badge I did recently for TEAM NULL.
UPDATE: 03/08/05 - Glen let Teamnull.com die and focused on the boards, but we have setup teamnull.ianniciello.net
January 28, 2003
Altria means getting high
2001 altria
Good review of this that has been commented on a lot over at speak up
3 steps to become a perfect italian webdesigner
one.point.zero looks promising and I have been reading alistapart for awhile but never checked out zeldman.com
Oh and this looks to be pretty old, and since I am always late to catch up these thinks, plus this is so perfect 3 steps to become a perfect italian webdesigner
January 27, 2003
some swf props
Diesel... Ok so after the flash sucks rant I think I need to call out flash peices that actually work and get a good feel accross and don;t make me wait too long, thogh this one does have load times, and does not need the music, since it just gets in the way of KEXP.
BTW, I have recently been ripping some of my older CD's and I am diggin' Del's No Need for Alarm from what? '93, good shit.
January 20, 2003
Art Chantry
I read a good interview with Art Chantry tonight, the things he says about graphic design and the computer are definatley true, but from an old school perspective, I mean it is also there to push designers to really add value in a new way and make money for the client, that is what the small time designer does not fully appreciate and what is not taught effectively in school.
