Jonathan Moore
I am a designer who lives in code, entrepreneur, and an idea incubator driven to make our world a better place.
I am a designer who lives in code, entrepreneur, and an idea incubator driven to make our world a better place.
Nishant Kothary recounts the fascinating of story of the new Microsoft.com site lead by Paravel and the brave team at Microsoft. In an attempt to modernize the 30th most visited site on the internet, the team found a way to overcome mountains of data that can easily drive safe design to “design from the gut”.
Designing from the gut is a radical concept. It is generally met with a tremendous amount of friction in most software circles that tend to rely heavily on “logic and data” for all decisions. This is not to say that there isn’t a place for telemetry or usability studies in the act of designing software. It’s simply a question of when and where.
Additionally Paravel published a great case study on their site showing off some of the finer details of the redesign.
Inspired by Bob Dylan´s Subterranean Homesick Blues video, Leandro Senna hand lettered every word of the song. Over the course of a month 66 cards were created using only pencil, black tint pens and brushes—no computers or retouching.
See more of the process behind the lettering on Leandro’s blog.
Early this week Wolff Olins revealed a complete multi-platform rebranding and design of USA Today. The simplified and dynamic logo works well as you transition between the sections of the newspaper.
The new site that goes along with the refresh, beta.usatoday.com, feels both fresh and modern. They took some huge risks by trying out unique UX design approaches, but I imagine it will encourage people to spend more time ‘browsing’ through the news.
Follow Wolff Olins on Tumblr
Hop on the nostalgia train for a second. Think back to the 90s. To Nirvana, Linklater’s Slacker, and the flannel-clad rebels on the run from the 80s. To skateboards and graffiti and toe rings and VHS tapes. Things were messy then. And type design was messy, too. Words were splayed and chaotic, letters blurred. Textures were thick and heavy. Concert posters looked like someone had splattered paint on paper and then scratched out band names. You may have noticed it, you may not have, but at its peak, this typography style, called grunge, was ubiquitous.
It was everywhere—and then it wasn’t.
Perhaps it’s time for designers to explore the style again with a modern twist. The era of perfectly polished pixels, structures and form needs a challenger to shake things up.
A trilogy movie poster triptych created by Phantom City Creative.
“Art is a product and design is a process. Design is the foundation of all the arts.”
Paul Rand, via @JESS3
An exercise by Andrew Kim in industrial and interface design for Toyota’s next generation Prius navigation system. The entire exploration was well thought out and full of great UX ideas.
An animated but brief history of retro design and technology by Kadavre Exquis.
“We don’t do focus groups - that is the job of the designer. It’s unfair to ask people who don’t have a sense of the opportunities of tomorrow from the context of today to design.”
Jonathan Ive, March 2012
Almost four years ago, fate and a few mouse clicks brought Russ Maschmeyer and Jessica Hische together. They went from complete strangers to inseparable companions in work and love. This is how it all began.
When an interaction designer at Facebook and a popular illustrator and “avid internetter” get married, an awesome parallax scrolling website full of illustrations from friends is pretty much required.
Art direction and design for Hawthorn & Wren’s new identity, packaging, tags, embroidery and more by Kevin Cantrell Design.
It’s amazing how much more interesting these branding projects are with a bit of time spent on the presentation. The wood, arrangement, flowers and camera angles help the project come to live.
Experimental number typeface by Wete Cacahuete.
Visual and music installation by Squeaky Lobster and Romain Tardy.
“If you work really hard and are kind, amazing things will happen.”
—Conan O’Brien
It’s true.
Hand-pulled screenprints by Kyle & Courtney Harmon available on Etsy. Via swissmiss
“Artists are visionaries. We routinely practice a form of faith, seeing clearly and moving toward a creative goal that shimmers in the distance—often visible to us, but invisible to those around us.”
Julia Cameron
