Tag : design

For a while I’ve been troubled by the effect that language can have on the group design process. When we began to come up with ideas and solutions for ITV’s online news proposition, we used terminology to share our individual understanding and to communicate different solutions between us - we would use the words “feed” and “stream” interchangeably, as were phrases like “topic landing page” and “dynamically generated index page”. You could say that this is a natural symptom of having multiple humans from different backgrounds with different mindsets working together on the same shared problem. We want very different people working together, this is good. But what we want less of is the misunderstandings, confusion and antagonistic recollections. We want more group flow, enthusiasm, cohesion and personal investment so that we can use less energy for more benefit.

After a week of BBQs, speeches, panels, margaritas, putting names to faces and more BBQs I’ve landed back at Made by Many HQ and I want to share some of the Picle love.

I’m counting down the hours until thirteen of the many (including myself) head out to Austin for SXSW. Just as the tradition of us sending a swarm over to Texas is well established, so is the idea of South By ‘taking over’ our homepage for the duration. So, here’s a sneak peek at this year’s page (and a reminder of what’s come before).

UPDATE: This position has now been filled.

We’re looking for a mid-weight designer, a creative geek type obsessed with the coming web and fiendish about making new things. This could be your second job or you could have a bit more experience behind you – either way, your attitude is more important than your work history.

We want someone brave, bold, talented and ready to roll with the punches. We’re *not* interested in people who want to design banner ads and out-of-the-box microsites. If you want to punch the clock and fade into the background, this job isn’t for you.

This is the grid I use to help me draw sketch wireframes. It may be tatty and covered in splotches, but it helps me draw straight lines quickly.

The grid also helps me sketch pages around advertising. For the last five years the two constants of virtually every project I’ve worked on have been the width of the page and the size of ad banners. Got to fit an MPU above the fold. Can’t go above 980 pixels wide. Better make that column the same width as a skyscraper, just in case…

In March we launched Holler Gram, an app that turns your iPad into a glowing sign and simultaneously tweets into a predefined hashtag. It was perfect for conferences and we only did it as a bit of fun - which is why we are amazed that it's now been downloaded 45,000 times.

It's still being used by people all over the world and of the many fascinating uses people have found for it, the most humbling is from Australia where a group of teachers got in contact with us to say they'd been using the app to teach deaf children.

Wow, I've never experienced this feeling before. 

Facebook have done something cool. The new Timeline profile page is phenomenally well designed - almost magical compared to what was there before. 

This week, I came across some useful and neat-looking slides on design, (the latter of which is a good thing given the theme!).

First, from grammar to models and perception, Simon Collison, a freelance designer, writes about a dialect for design. The presentation has really clean graphics; don't forget to look at his website.   

Over the weekend I finally went along to the Design Museum in Shad Thames to have a look around the retrospective exhibition for Dutch typographer and graphic design icon Wim Crouwel.

Spanning a career over 60 years, the exhibition highlights Crouwel’s functional and rigorously modernist principles towards design across posters, corporate identities, typeface and exhibition design.

Staying with the design theme, here are some videos on design for when you have a few minutes to spare:

August De Los Reyes, Design Director at the Artefact Group in Washington D.C, outlines his vision for 21st Century design in a talk at MIX 11, Microsoft's conference for designers & developers last month. The video simultaneously shows his slides running through as he talks - very useful and something which most recorded talks don't offer.