New Digs & A New Project
Two weeks ago tomorrow, I flew to San Francisco with my mother, neither of us having ever stepped foot in the City by the Bay. We landed in the morning, looked at three apartments by sun down, and the following day I was signing a lease.
The Road to San Francisco
I studied film at the University of Michigan, and for a long time it was my plan to move to Los Angeles. No explanation needed. Having visited the city often, however, I decided that the sprawling urban metropolis that is L.A. wasn’t for me. The city where you need a car wasn’t going to accommodate my desire to sell my own.
I next turned my attention towards the Big Apple. I had visited dozens of times and knew that I loved it, plus I already had a few friends living there (always a bonus when moving somewhere new). Long story short, I thought I had secured an apartment, then BAM! It was a scam. I only lost $50, so I was more relieved than disappointed. However, it forced me to take a step back and reassess my direction.
Somewhere in between getting scammed and signing the lease for my new apartment on Nob Hill, I decided that San Francisco was where I belonged. Big city: check. Temperate climate: check. Public transportation: check. Can I sell my car? Check. Friendly people: check. Check, check, check.
It had everything I was looking for, including a thriving tech industry, whose ranks I have chosen to join. I truly loved my film studies, but the Web is why I wake up in the morning, and Web design is most definitely my passion. My Dad always says, “Do what you love and the money will come,” so I am doing just that.
Here are a couple shots of my new place, where I’ll be taking over the online world of men’s fashion with my new project. (More on that below.) I make the move on September 4th. Can’t wait to finish setting things up.
New Project: The Garmentor
Having redesigned my personal site with much success–Jeff Croft called it “gorgeous” and Shaun Inman, master of minimalism in design, acknowledged “the minimalism and attention to typographic detail throughout”–I decided that it was time to begin a new project.
With age comes a sense of who you are, not only as a person, but also as a designer, and with the latest redesign of this website I felt that I had begun to hone my signature aesthetic. The Garmentor is not only the latest fruit of my passion, but another chance for me to excercise and establish my personal style as a Web designer.
The Garmentor, which will be published at TheGarmentor.com, is my attempt to remedy the lackluster state of men’s fashion on the Web.
Let’s face it. When it comes to fashion, men get screwed left and right. Men’s departments are a fraction of the size of those for the ladies, and the selection often leaves much to be desired. In catalogs, the first 90 pages are reserved for women and the last 10 (including the back cover, if we’re lucky) are for men. And while you’d expect the Internet, with its innate democratic values, to be a haven for men’s fashion, this isn’t the case. To this day, I haven’t come across a blog or online publication about men’s fashion that gives me what I’m looking for: content that is visually interesting, easily digestable, fun, and useful.
Uncrate does an okay job; however, their focus is too wide to do men’s fashion any real justice. To give credit where it’s due, Men.Style.com has some great content, including their “Hotlists” in which users can rate lists of, say, denim or aviators. Still, the website is cluttered, difficult to use, and too often comes off as just a money-grubbing extension of GQ and Details.
With The Garmentor, I want to fix everything that’s wrong with both of these websites, and others like them. I want users to have a visually arresting experience. I want to tell stories. I want to collaborate with other artists. I want visitors to come back not just for the content, but for the design. So far, I am on track to accomplish all of this.
I am working feverishly, spending many nights at the computer ’til 4, 5, and 6 AM. However, there is still much to be done. (There is always more to be done.)
My grandfather always says, “If you’re going to do it, do it right,” and I’m living by that motto with this project. It will launch when it launches, and when it does I will be the first to let all of you know.
Four Seasons
I drew these back in January 2005 when I first got my Wacom Sapphire. Digital painting’s not my forte or anything, but I wanted to practice using the tablet. It’s always fun to find old stuff like this buried in a folder somewhere. As you can see, I went a little bird crazy. Amateur.
Haptic Feedback on iPhone
In his review of iPhone 3G for USA Today, Edward Baig mostly regurgitates information that Apple has already made known: 3G is faster than Edge, the headphone jack is now flush, the phone must be activated in the store, yada yada yada. The article’s bore factor can be forgiven because (1) Baig did not have access to the App Store and (2) reviews like his are for the masses — you know, that largish group of people who don’t take part in obsessing over the conspicuity of two screws.
Well, those two screws were rather interesting to me. Suffice to say, I found Baig’s review to be quite dull. However, one bit of information hadn’t occurred to me before. I was intrigued.
Unpublicized feature: Developers can take advantage of the iPhone 2.0 software to provide tactile forced feedback. This is known as “haptics.” When my vehicle crashed inside Cro-Mag, the iPhone 3G vibrated.
Haptic technology does not interest me so much when it comes to gameplay on iPhone. After all, I’ve been acquainted with haptic feedback in gaming since the Vibration Pack was introduced for the Nintendo 64 controller. (And probably even before then. Baby toys, anyone?) The convergence of haptic and touchscreen technology, however, is quite a bit newer.
I first experienced it on a friend’s LG Voyager, which vibrates slightly when you interact with buttons on its screen. To be sure, the Voyager is crap, but I was extremely fond of its use of haptics. The subtle quiver under my finger truly enhanced the touchscreen experience, giving me the sense that I was interacting not with a smooth piece of plastic but with actual objects.
It is exciting to hear that third-party developers are taking advantage of haptics. I hope that Apple eventually employs iPhone’s built-in vibration to give users tactile feedback and an improved user experience in OS X iPhone. I don’t see why they would be opposed to it: it is not a gimmick and it enhances UX. I have a feeling that soon enough our fingers, along with our eyes and ears, will share in the pleasure of iPhoning.
How the Digital Age is Changing UI Design
After reading Marc Prensky’s stimulating article “Listen to the Natives,” I truly have a desire to quote it in its entirety. Instead I am going to focus on one of the opening paragraphs in which he distinguishes between two types of digital peoples — digital immigrants and digital natives — and how they learn differently in the Digital Age. I strongly encourage you to read the entire article; Prensky discusses some very thought-provoking facets of learning in the Age of Information. For now, though, let me begin by sharing with you that excerpt:
I’ve coined the term digital native to refer to today’s students (2001). They are native speakers of technology, fluent in the digital language of computers, video games, and the Internet. I refer to those of us who were not born into the digital world as digital immigrants. We have adopted many aspects of the technology, but just like those who learn another language later in life, we retain an “accent” because we still have one foot in the past. We will read a manual, for example, to understand a program before we think to let the program teach itself.
The last part of this excerpt strikes me as extremely relevant to web application user interface design. I’m no expert on the topic of UI design, but my status as digital native and experience with such services as Facebook, Gmail, and Twitter have provided me with at least an opinion of what I, a Generation Y user, consider to be good and bad examples of UI. Particularly when it comes to understanding and finding my way around a new online web service, certain UI features an make all the difference in whether I become a dedicated user or turn away and never look back. Prensky hits on a key point when he distinguishes between reading a manual to learn a new program — where, as I’m using it, program can mean anything from computer software to web apps — and letting the program teach itself.
A great example of the latter is Geni.com, a website that lets you quickly and easily build gorgeous, online family trees that are interactive and shareable. When someone first visits the site, this page introduces Geni:
The message at the top explains exactly what Geni is and what Geni can do for you. A more detailed list of features is included at the bottom left; however, what follows immediately after the introduction sentence (note: a sentence, not a paragraph) is the Geni interface where a first-time visitor can immediately get started using the service. All that’s required is your name, email address, and gender. No username, no password, no registration process. Instead, an account is instantly created for you and Geni emails you a temporary password so that, if you wish, you can login in the future and continue using your account. This allows the user to immediately begin using Geni to create their family tree.
Will WALL-E Live Up to Expectations?
In one word: Yes. In two: Of course.
Pixar’s winning streak is no longer a streak. It’s a guarantee. Even Cars (2006), widely labeled their “worst” film, was a great film. I don’t hope that WALL-E is good. I don’t think that it will be good. I know that it will be fantastic. It’s like when Apple was getting ready to release the iPhone. People didn’t hope they liked it. They knew they would. It was simply a matter of sitting around and waiting until the moment it was released so they could run out, line up, and swipe their plastic as fast as humanly possible.
I didn’t line up for an iPhone, but I’ll be damned if I’m not in line to see WALL-E the second it hits theaters.
Still not convinced? Early reviews from Ain’t It Cool News are calling it a “masterpiece,” “gorgeous,” “a Buster Keaton silent film mixed with the wonder of the original STAR WARS and the morals of the best fables.” John Gholson has this to say:
Thanks to Pixar, I have no choice but to go into wild, unrestrained
hyperbole regarding their new film, the animated sci-fi adventure love
story titled Wall-E. Ready? Here we go.Visionary. Emotional. Fantastic. A Must-See. A Thrill Ride. Romantic.
Eye-Popping. Incredible. Instant Classic. The best Pixar film ever
made. Let that sink in for a minute.The best. THE. BEST.
WALL-E hits theaters this weekend. Who will be there with me?
Vintage Car Logos and Typography
A few months ago I was at the Barrett-Jackson car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona and was drawn to all of the fantastic vintage logos. The shiny chrome typography truly evokes an era when cruising was a pastime and global climate change wasn’t a concern. I pulled out my iPhone and snapped as many of the logos as I could.
It’s no secret that iPhone’s camera isn’t the greatest — and iPhone 3G doesn’t bring any improvements — so many of the photos were pretty shitty (oxymoron). I did my best in Lightroom to polish them up for your viewing pleasure. The retro typography is quite nice to look at, and might be a source of inspiration for you designers out there. Here’s a couple of my favorites:
Nine Point Oh, or Sangria
Holy crap, it’s finally up. I am very proud to introduce Version 9.0, a design that has been about two months in the making. At least 17 designs were scrapped in the process, including a few that made it all the way from scribble to Photoshop mock-up to fully-functional website. If you’d like, you can call her Sangria — the link colors remind me of oranges and red wine.
I wanted the site to be outfitted in a look that stays out of the way of the content, but is extremely designed at the same time. That’s what I feel I have achieved with Sangria. I realize that these days a lot of people remain within the confines of their feed reader, but I hope that the new design encourages them to pay the site a visit every so often.
A couple months ago, while brainstorming in my notebook, I jotted down phrases like “emphasis on beautiful typography,” “minimalism and lots of white space,” “let the content speak for itself.” After weeks of revising and perfecting the design, I feel that I have finally reached those goals. Taking advice from “Design is in the Details” over at A List Apart, I obsessed over every facet of the site, analyzing it at various times and in various settings, removing anything deemed unnecessary or superfluous. I am very happy with the results and can’t wait to start filling the site with fresh content.
I plan on writing a more detailed recap of the design process in the coming days, so keep an eye out. I learned so much over the last two months, and would love to share that knowledge with the rest of you.
If you guys come across any bugs or glitches, I’d greatly appreciate it if you left a note in the comments. On many occasions, I didn’t make it to bed until the sky had begun to brighten and my brain had started to fry, so I know there’s a mistake or two somewhere.
That’s all for now.
What is graphic design?
Here is my entry to Veerle’s What is Graphic Design Poster Competition. Needless to say, it’s best viewed at full size.
I was inspired by the idea, “graphic design speaks for itself.” What is graphic design? “I am graphic design,” speaks the design itself. I incorporated some very basic examples of graphic design, as well as references to measurement, placement, constraints, typography, and so forth.
For example, the “i” in the blue circle is a well-known product of graphic design, visually communicating the word information. The word graph in graphic was emphasized and altered to resemble a bar graph, which is another very basic example of graphic design. And, of course, there is the reference to a stop sign, with the red octagon surrounding the word sign in design. Sign, which has four letters and begins with an “s” just like the word stop, is not only a reference to a stop sign, but also an allusion to signs in general, for graphic design very often deals with the creation of signs and symbols that convey information or instructions.
Having used blue for the information sign and red for the stop sign, I chose green for the word graph. This completes the RGB color model, and helps convey the idea that graphic design is the combination of four essential elements — type, shapes, lines, and colors — to create complex and communicative art.
The design strictly adheres to a 50×50 pixel grid.
The competition ends on Friday, at which point Veerle will select twelve prize winners. So far, it has been great to see what other people have come up with. Best of luck to all!