Design Jones

A quick catch up of some useful resources or articles from the last week or so.

‘Branding Starts With A Purpose…”
Great article over at Processed Identity HERE all about creating brands from the inside out and reflecting the heart of an organisation.

“11 Ways to Make Your Space Collaborative”
Having worked in a few different studios over the past few weeks, I’ve seen a few of the ideas in practice, this article is well worth a read if you need to shake up your creative spaces. Read it in full HERE.

“The Current State Of Web Design”
Smashing Magazine taking an in depth look at the latest in web design from 2010. Key things to look for; strong, rich typography and heavy influences from print design. Check it out HERE.

Web Designer Wall have a good roundup of user interface and experience trends and what to expect in 2010 as things moves forward. Their overall feel is that we’re moving towards much greater simplicity. Single page sites, larger areas of white space and the influence of iPhone apps and their sites to grow. Here’s a brief excerpt on what they mean by ‘Design Simplicity’ but you can read the article in full HERE.

“This means fewer pages, less clicks, less clutter and more whitespace. In 2010, clean is King… Now, more than ever, design needs to engage the user, provide succinct information and allow them to go on their merry way…

Now Design Simplicity does not mean removing functionality or access to information. This trend of simplicity is not as easy as reducing the elements and content in your user interface. To achieve the less is more effect, you have to develop a valuable user experience by utilizing a creative toolset.”

LogoLounge have just published their annual report taking a look and highlights and emerging trends from the past year of submissions to their site. Always a valuable tool and aid in forecasting what’s next in the world of branding. Some keys highlights include a dramatic increase in the use of text within an identity, also vibrant colours and the introduction of another challenge to designers, can they make their logo work at 15×15 pixels for favicons! You can read the full report HERE.

I’ve been doing a lot of research into the 16-25s target market and over the last few weeks focussing in on a lot of motion graphics work. I tell you, I could watch the showreels of talented 3d/motion designers all day long but a few really stood out to me in particular and seemed to be bang on with the trends I’d been spotting throughout my research.

Maxim Zhestkov is a consultant 3D artist for Universal Everything, his work is very monochromatic yet full of excitement and personality. Check it out HERE.

And HERE’s a bonus showreel from OneSize!

I’ve been seeing a lot of really good examples of work from French designers recently. They seem to have a very strong typography bias and feel very ’80’s techno’ but Tyrsa was one example of high quality, attention to detail work that caught my eye. Check it out HERE.

I have been doing a lot of trends research and studying the youth marketplace (16-25’s in this case) for a branding project currently in progress. One of the clear trends that seems to be everywhere online over the past year or so, is the use of light graffiti and dynamic light effects. Whether they are used to liven up the background of a dark website or fully interacting with the subject of photography they feel vibrant and engaging. Vandelay Design have just published a set of 40 tutorials HERE to help you create your own.

Pantone today announced PANTONE® 14-0848 Mimosa, a warm, engaging yellow, as the colour of the year for 2009.

“In a time of economic uncertainty and political change, optimism is paramount and no other colour expresses hope and reassurance more than yellow… The colour yellow exemplifies the warmth and nurturing quality of the sun, properties we as humans are naturally drawn to for reassurance,” explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Mimosa also speaks to enlightenment, as it is a hue that sparks imagination and innovation.”

(Via Hannah, thanks!)

In June of this year I featured the redesigned Coke can as part of my design trends report. Turner Duckworth’s design essentially stripped the can bare of all the drop shadows, glossy effects, patterns, gradients and highlights that have saturated design in recent years. It was a direct rebellion against the style of design that’s commonly associated with ‘Web 2.0′, for want of a better phrase. We are now seeing more and more work that is returning to a simplified, flat, ideas driven approach so it was only a matter of time before Pepsi followed suit. Last week they announced a re-design of their logo based around a series of ’smiles & smirks’, whilst reception was luke warm at best, perhaps now we can see them in context opinions may change. Personally, I feel that the typography really lets it down but we can’t all be gifted with an icon such as coca-cola.

I recently listened to Sean Bird, of IE, talk about the recent trend of ‘type as image and image as type’. Something that Stefan Sagmeister was at the forefront of in his recent book and exhibition ‘Things I’ve Learned In My Life So Far’. Over the weekend I found another really nice example of this trend, a font created by Daniel Adolph, a full character set can be found on his website here.