Caveat Designer

 

While you must always surround yourselves with examples of excellent design, there are times you also have to understand all the baaaaaad design out there-- so you know what to avoid and what mistakes not to make. To that end, I present you two websites. The first, Photoshop Disasters, shows us how in even the most professional of design applications, digital manipulation can go horribly wrong. The title of the second, Your Logo Makes Me Barf, says it all. (Unfortunately this one hasn't been updated for several months now, but there are plenty of examples in the site's long history.) Enjoy.

Photoshop Disasters: http://www.psdisasters.com/

Your Logo Makes Me Barf: http://yourlogomakesmebarf.com/

Designer(s) of the Week

 

Get to know these folks... we've already seen an Yves Behar talk from TED, and we've discussed Paul Rand, one of the giants of the modern design world, as well. (There's even a quote from him in our syllabus!)

Yves Behar: http://www.fuseproject.com/yves_behar.php

Paul Rand: http://www.paul-rand.com/

Excellent Link

http://www.coroflot.com/

You guys have to check this out. Many Kean students have posted their portfolios here, and countless other designers have found work via this site.

Must. See.

"Coroflot is the largest, most established, most diverse pool of professional creative portfolios in the world.

Since going live in 1998, Coroflot has grown to host over 1.4 million images of creative work, from the portfolios of over 150,000 creative professionals and students from nearly every country on earth. Coroflot users are industrial, graphic, fashion, interior, textile and interaction designers; 3D modeling and rendering specialists; architects, illustrators, art directors, design managers, and dozens of other disciplines.

Coroflot's job board is the largest and most active site on the internet specifically targeted at hiring designers and other creative professionals. We count Fuseproject, Frog Design, Microsoft, Nokia, Landor, RIM, Nike, Intel, Blu Dot, and Sony among our clients, and they've all returned to use Coroflot again, for one reason: it works.

Coroflot was started by designers, and is still run by designers; every one of our New York- and Portland-based staff has a design background, and many of us still have portfolios of our own on the site. We love, live and breathe this stuff, and are endlessly enthusiastic about bringing in as much new work as possible.

That's why Coroflot is an open system. There are no membership requirements, application processes, or invites. If you're a designer or someone who avidly follows creative work, we want you here. If your work is good, it will find its way to the surface; if you need inspiration or advice, the world's most active professional creative community can show you what's what. We are fiercely committed to providing the space and connectivity creative professionals and employers need to showcase their work, find talent, and build their network in ways never before possible.

Coroflot is the creative world at work."

The Great Orb of Architecture

Okay, so it's couched in a silly blog entry of "Buildings That Look Like the Death Star," but you get the idea. This comes out of our discussion of unusually shaped buildings (in this case, spherical). http://www.nowthatsnifty.com/2009/09/buildings-that-look-like-death-star.html

Thank you to Dom for the link!

More...
Want to see something else crazy in the architectural world? How about the idea of strapping giant "bibs" to New York buildings to guard them from floodwaters in the future? Take a look: http://www.evolo.us/architecture/architectural-membrane-for-new-york-when-sea-level-rises/

And a bit interesting that I'm paring this one with an article about the Death Star... if you look at the fifth image in the article, are those Imperial Stormtroopers in the right-hand background?

More Minimalism

Some ideas similar to the minimalist posters we saw in class last week...
http://minimalmovieposters.tumblr.com/

Thanks to Brian for the link!


...and some more:

http://www.thedesignwork.com/minimalist-movie-posters/

http://www.behance.net/gallery/Minimal-Poster-Design-Shark-Week/937600

Thanks to Ha for the links!

Let's Charrette

So what is a "charrette" exactly? Well, according to (gasp!) Wikipedia, "a charrette is a method of organizing thoughts from experts and the users into a structured medium that is unrestricted and conducive to the creativity and the development of myriad scenarios.

The word charrette may refer to any collaborative session in which a group of designers drafts a solution to a design problem. While the structure of a charrette varies, depending on the design problem and the individuals in the group, charrettes often take place in multiple sessions in which the group divides into sub-groups. Each sub-group then presents its work to the full group as material for future dialogue. Such charrettes serve as a way of quickly generating a design solution while integrating the aptitudes and interests of a diverse group of people."

Okay. That sounds pretty good. What's important is that you know the basic idea of a charrette. It's usually a furious period of design activity with the goal of solving a given design problem (often in a very short space of time). This happens in the pro world all the time. At the Thinking Creatively conference, the Gruskin Group, a multidisciplinary design firm in Springfield, has sponsored a competition in the form of a charrette for the last two years, and is doing so again this year. To get a look at what last year's entailed, take a look at these two videos:

The first is the setup video that all the participating students watched to prepare themselves for the project. It was shown right before the clock started ticking, so to speak. It was presented in a humorous way, but it was important for everyone to pay close attention to, as it contained all the information they needed in which to create their design solutions. It's a video version of what's called a creative brief.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHXXVV6daGc&feature=related

The second is a look at all the work going on during the actual charrette. There are interviews with students and the pros that served as team mentors, as well as faculty. I hope you can get from the vids the sense of excitement and the overall creative buzz that was all over the event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpgUClaGnig

Keep the idea of a charrette in mind...

Retronaut

Check out this amazing site, guys: http://www.retronaut.co/

It's an interactive timeline of design-- graphics, advertising, product design, fashion, and so on. This is a great example of exactly what our class is all about. I really want you to take a look through the site.

One of the things I noticed during our "movie logo quiz" was that there was a familiarity with things from the last 10 - 15 years or so, but earlier than that, it started to trail off. Like everything else, design today builds on what came before it. You have to know where we came from to understand why we're here. This, even if in just a small way, can help us do that.

Thank you to Roksana for the excellent link!

 

 

The Design Center at Kean University

Hey, guys... here's the link to the Design Center: http://kean.edu/~designct/ The Design Center was developed by Alan Robbins here at Kean. If you don't know Alan, get to know him! You can see his website at http://alanrobbins.com .

Check out the exhibitions and other features. Take a look at "The 100 Greatest Designs of the Last 1,000 Years" and see how it compares to what we discussed in class.

Read. Understand.

This is us in a nutshell: http://www.aiga.org/why-design/

Read.

Understand.

Great Links, Part Two

More!

Toxel

http://www.toxel.com/

Gabriel Oziel Photography
http://www.gabrieloziel.com/

David Airey
http://www.davidairey.com/

Veer

http://www.veer.com/

Nest Interior Design

http://nestdallasdesign.blogspot.com/

Design.org

http://design.org/

Behance Network

http://www.behance.net/

Behance Student Gallery

http://studentshow.com/

Desire to Inspire

http://www.desiretoinspire.net/

Typographica

http://typographica.org/

Design.Inc Studios

http://www.designincstudios.com/index.html

Adweek

http://www.adweek.com/

Web Heroines

http://webheroines.com/

Design Envy (from the AIGA)

http://designenvy.aiga.org/

Design in Europe

http://www.designineurope.eu/

Inspiredology
http://inspiredology.com/

NOTCOT
http://www.notcot.com/
http://www.notcot.org/

 

 

Great Links, Part One

 

You all did very well in finding some great sites out there from which to gain knowledge and inspiration. Now don't just let it go! These sites are there for your benefit. Remember: always surround yourself with excellent design in all its forms. Be aware of what's out there.

I'm listing many of the links you sent below. They come from all facets of design, and include professional design organizations, designers' personal sites, photo and fine art collections, and more. Presented here in no particular order, and without commentary:

Core77

http://www.core77.com/

I Love Typography

http://ilovetypography.com/

Design Sojourn

http://www.designsojourn.com/

Society6

http://society6.com/

Abduzeedo
http://abduzeedo.com/

Stephanie Dimi on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephanie_dimiskovski/

Smashing Magazine

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/

DesignBoom
http://www.designboom.com/eng/

Cool1962

http://blog.naver.com/cool1962

Swiss Miss
http://www.swiss-miss.com/

Brand New

http://www.swiss-miss.com/

55 HIs

http://55his.com/

Poucher Pastels

http://poucherpastels.blogspot.com/

Decor8

http://decor8blog.com/

Design Sponge

http://www.designsponge.com/