Sharon Snow interviews Catherine Barrett and Lisa Gushue from the Health Care Foundation during the launch of the Virtual Tree of Memories on the Foundation's new website. Watch for Applecore's Trent Skanes giving a demonstration on how to donate to the fundraiser online.
We were thrilled to be included! Our offices were in full holiday regalia for the event--and it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! Thanks to NTV and the Health Care Foundation for the opportunity.
Any Creative will tell you-- sometimes the only thing that will get your juices flowing is to take a break and dig for inspiration in other places. And what better place to do that than online, where the only limit is your imagination? There are tons of resources out there for even the most discriminating designer.
We asked our art department for a few of their favorites.
Smashing Magazine If you haven't heard of this website, that won't be for long. One of the staples of the online design community, Smashing Magazine produces unbeatable and comprehensive posts on all things design, from web design to blog trends to Photoshop tips. Bookmark this and you'll find yourself constantly revisiting.
From type-seller and merch giant Veer comes two blogs: The Skinny and the Fat. The Skinny displays inspirations and updates from the company at large, while the Fat is an online community made up of Veer members. Both blogs are amazing resources to inspire and keep you in the know with offbeat, unconventional design around the globe.
Maybe not strictly a design resource, but a great way to refresh your mind. Creator David McCandless wanted to create a site that conveyed a wealth of stats, ideas and issues in a beautifully designed package; thus, InformationIsBeautiful.net was born. If you need to see design in a fresh light, click over to this site to get a new perspective.
Part of the Fuel network, this site is dedicated to focusing your creative mind into productivity and discipline. With simple solutions to common problems that plague creatives, Fuel Your Creativity is a handy resource indeed.
On the surface, a simple collection of beautiful product design from around the world--most of which, chances are, you've never heard of. But look closer, and observe the use of color, the streamlined finished product, the clean, minimalist web design...what's that? It may be inspiration calling.
Innovative, way outside the box logo design and branding. Covers not only actual examples of logos, but interviews with important names and branders the world over.
Branding has always been one of our passions, so we keep on top of industry-wide trends. Our art department gives us the scoop on what they’ve noticed has become the new hot trends for logo and branding in 2009.
The Circle of Life
Circular patterns have become the new staple in logo design. There’s a reason why these are so popular: they’re simple, effective, and transfer well to other mediums, like business cards, billboards or even television.
Don't Delay the Overlay
Mixing 60s flair with modern technology, these logos pop in a sea of minimalist monochrome.
A One Line Drawing
Intricate and bold, these logos create a dynamic image for a brand that implies constant motion and never-ending connection.
The Linking Letters
Modern and sleek, interlocking the letters create a bold pattern from a key part of a company: the name.
Fun With Shapes and Space
These logos use negative space as part of the letter, forming a deeper meaning with the imagery. These are clever in execution, but also offer a multi-layered brand experience.
Off-Set Color
Retro and chic, these logos hint at a sophisticated, intentional sloppiness that can add charm and urban style.
Illustrate Your Point
Traditional and fun, using an illustration places your brand as part of an established, timeless aesthetic.
2 : the style, arrangement, or appearance of typeset matter
One of the things that's become standard for a designer to dote on is typography--whether web-based or traditional. In fact, you could ask most of the people in Applecore's office, design or otherwise, about what things bother them most in bad design -- 'font choice' will almost always be one of them. Bad typography sticks out like a sore thumb, making it hard to read and often just frustrating to look at. This, of course, means that the design has failed in its primary goal: to communicate.
Good typography, on the other hand, is virtually invisible. You can observe it, especially if you know what you're looking for. But the best typography is something you never have to think about--it reads effortlessly, doesn't set off any inner design alarm bells and most times, never gets the attention it deserves.
Until now! Here are Applecore's favorite examples of typography, whether it's print, web or graphic design.
Beginning in the 1960s, when Volkswagen first applied the minimalist principles popular in German design to their American print campaign, heads definitely turned. The simplistic, no nonsense ads made generous use of white space and straightforward copy (usually 30 words or less). In the process, the success of Volkswagen's approach is largely considered to be the father of the postmodern age of advertising--not to mention convincing America that a small car was also a great buy.
Hands down, the site for typography fans. Informative, constantly updated, and always inspiring, this blog serves up not only fonts but also the designs they inhabit.
When Transport for London set out to design the face of its underground subway system, they turned to Edward Johnston. He then designed the distinctive sans-serif typeface in 1916. It's still the font you see today, albeit modified; it was substantially retooled in 1979 by Eiichi Kono and renamed "New Johnston."
A great tool when you have a general idea of what you want--say, an elegant script typeface for a romantic logo, or a bold sans-serif for an eye-catching header.
Founder Allen Lane had a simple goal when Penguin Books began in 1936: to remove the stigma from cheap paperback novels and make reading readily available for anyone. Design took on an essential role in what would become the "Penguin" brand. The basic design was simple: three horizontal bands in colors assigned by genre (orange and white for fiction, green and white for crime fiction, etc)-- with none of the gaudy, lurid photography that gave paperbacks a bad reputation in the first place. In the 1940s, under Swiss typographer Jan Tschichold, a set of rules and design principles was compiled as the Penguin Composition Rules, a four page booklet of typographic instructions for editors and compositors. Maybe that's why the brand is still easily recognizable, even today, and retains a classic, clean look that most designers envy.
More favourite typography links:
Beautiful Blackletter and Script (via retinart) From modernist magazine spreads to book art from the 1920s and 1930s, this blog can always be counted on to provide beautiful examples of typography that are motivated by passion but chosen by skill.
From the conventional to the truly unusual, this list of new fonts in the past year or so show that the art of the typeface is in no danger of slowing down.
And just for fun:
JOKE! Comic Sans walks into a bar. The bartender eyes him suspiously, and when the font tries to order a drink, the bartender points to the door and says, "We don't serve your type in here."
ALSO! Check out College Humor's video on what happens when the fonts get together for their annual convention....
Technology grows too fast and to keep ourselves synchronized with the modern trends, we must take into account every progress whether that may be of past or of the future.
Compiled below is a list of the most futuristic concept laptop designs, some of which have won achievement awards while the rest are just too cool to know about.
Take a look and let us know which one of these do you think will most likely embrace reality in coming times.
Imagine spending millions of dollars to come up with an amazing product, then cloaking it for invisibility. Perhaps the U.S. military can find good reason to do that, but for any company hoping to capture major market share, invisibility is tantamount to business suicide.
So why is it then that so many bleeding-edge, ultra-cool websites -- products in and of themselves -- are designed to be invisible to search engines and ultimately potential customers? Why is it that companies spend oodles of money to end up with a site that can only be found by employees, friends and family?
I'm a believer that "findability" is a usability issue. If your site can't be found by a motivated user in search of your product or service, it is a WOI (Waste of Investment), the opposite of ROI (you should know what that stands for). If a potential customer can't find it, it's useless to him or her. And if it's useless to a customer, well, you get the picture.
So why are many sites cloaked? The only reasons I can think of is a lack of knowledge about best practices for search or negligence on the part of creatives who believe designing for visibility somehow restricts doing great work. I know the latter is exactly opposite of the truth. Designing for visibility doesn't restrict creative excellence, it enhances it.
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