iPhone Tufte Interface

Posted on December 11, 2011 by jgerber

I’ve always liked Tufte, although he is a bit odd. The design team at Red Hat was really into him and based many of their design and overall brand decisions off of Tufte’s simplistic style and design aesthetic.

His overview of the iPhone was interesting. I’m so biased, but I really do believe the iPhone is the best designed phone on the market. I’ve never once opened an instruction manual on how to do something on the phone. Everything is organized and in folders (if you want). The application chicklets are all in a uniform rounded-edge square and I like that you can customize the phone, but not too much.

Android, on the other hand, is very confusing to me. It’s like Apple has made the iPhone SO simplistic that it’s completely dumbed me down to any other technology. What do you mean I have to complete 5 steps to find a certain application?

I’m curious if Tufte and Steve Jobs ever met, or if Jobs admired Tufte’s design-aesthetic. I guess, unfortunately, we will never know!

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30 Conversations

Posted on December 11, 2011 by jjenkins14

Jessica Helfand:

Jessica provided a great commentary on what inspires her the most with respect to design.  Her answer was that everything is always changing in design so nothing that is here today has the assurance to be prominent in a year.  She, therefore, says that her students are her greatest inspirations because they keep up with the changing and they provide the doorway to the new and evolving elements of design.  She learns from them about what’s important and is a better designer because of it.

Kwaku Alston:

Kwaku’s video is fun because it looks at something so nostalgic, the VW van.  The van, according to Alston, is something so unique to American people.  Its owners take pride in every bump and scratch, every bumper sticker.  He says that no two VW vans end up looking the same, even though they have a very simple and basic design.

Monica Nassif:

I loved Monica’s use of the spoon symbol as being representative of the design industry.  She says that the kitchen and the spoon allows for creation, moving, sharing of all that is good and all that is available.  It makes a lot of sense that design, much like a spoon when cooking, asks us to create something and share something based off of what is available to us.

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Thirty Conversations on Design

Posted on December 11, 2011 by jgerber

I found Augustin Garza to be especially interesting and his focus on life, renewal and death. How do we add an element of design to this? I did a bit more research on Garza and his website has the following interesting quote on his design philosophy:

The subject of death, decay and resurrection has haunted me since I can remember. As a young artist, I began to explore religious symbolism and ritual as a way to reflect on these questions. My work later focused on how these subjects play out in institutional contexts such as church, state and corporation. The artworks created during this period were a combination of varied media and drew from early Christian iconography and commercial symbols. My fascination now, as it was then, is on the emotional, spiritual and intellectual correlations that exist in the transformative processes of life and form, from biochemical decomposition, or industrial corrosion, to the transubstantiation of the holy host.

Below are some of Garza’s “debris” work, which I still can’t wrap my head around how began to ‘design’ this. Regardless, I really enjoy his work and his view on organic design. It definitely puts me out of my comfort zone from the traditional views of design.

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79 short essays on design

Posted on December 11, 2011 by cholloway2

“There is no guarantee that being famous counts for anything,” says Michael Bierut a “famous” graphic designer whom I’ve never heard of. But I’m assuming in the world of graphic artist, who is someone that a lot of people know. Although I’ve never hearing of him, I thought he raised some interesting points about graphic design and how to get your name out there or becoming “famous.”  Personally, I don’t desire to become a graphic artist, but I think some of the points he talks about in his essay can be applied to any area of art and design, or areas that are totally unrelated to design.  For example, he mentions how speeches and presentations should follow the pattern of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, tension followed by release.  Designers should mention the problems they encountered and had to solve first and then follow with the product.  This keeps the audience interested and anticipating what is to come which can be used in any intriguing presentation.

He also mentioned having something “cool” to fall back on when you can’t think of any solutions as a designer.  That something “cool” could easily be a black horizontal stripes or circles (one of my favorites). These types of elements could easily become known as your signature or design aesthetic.  I’ve noticed that this year through my matriculation, I can now look at certain creations from my classmates and although being different projects, can pinpoint the designer based on the aesthetic.  For example, one of my classmates always uses bold, heavy font such as Gill Sans in all her projects and another only uses Helvetica Neue Ultra Light in his projects which adds a very clean and modern taste to all his work.  I haven’t particularly pinned my design aesthetic yet but I’m sure it’s coming.  At the end, Bierut recites one of my favorite sayings “It’s nice to be important, but it’s important to be nice.”

Another essay I read paid homage to Vladamir Nabokov’d book Pale Fire which can be considered the prototype for hypertext.  When I saw the word hypertext, I immediately though about Stich Bitch, the one article I still don’t quite understand.  But what I do know is hypertext is one of the coolest concepts ever, but if you’re not careful, it can swallow up a lot of your time.  It happens to me often. I go online to read a story or watch a video, and because of hypertext, I always follow the breadcrumbs and end up watching or reading more than several articles or videos related to the subject.  Then when I realize the time, I’m angry with myself for not paying attention.  10 minutes quickly become one hour. But I guess that’s the beauty of hypertext, taking your mind from one place to the next on an information journey.  Design can be this way too, taking the audience on a multipath journey, allowing their minds to stop traveling whenever they want.  Design is visual hypertext.  So I know now to thank Nobokov for planting this crafty idea in the minds of designers in a book with sans-serif font.

Posted in 79 Short Essays on Design | 1 Comment

Rick Morris and inspiration for motion graphics

Posted on December 11, 2011 by rstuart3

Rick Morris, motion graphics designer.  What struck me the most about his take on design was that his entire life was saturated by things that inspired him.  His home was carefully crafted with decor and he pointed out that the house was specially designed for a family by an architect, and that fact made the home more special.  Him saying that made it clear that each part of his life had elements of design in it, and he thought deeply about it.

When he talked about process that struck me because I related to that a lot.  As the semester progressed I realized the importance of sketching out my ideas.  He also talked about taking pictures on his phone, and I totally related to that as well because my iPhone is overflowing with pictures of things that I found to be pleasing, and I would not have thought professionals turned  to iPhone photos for tools and inspiration.

Hearing the experiences of people in the field is always beneficial for me.  I think that listening to what Rick Morris had to say gives perspective on how the industry will be when we graduate.  Which is coming a lot quicker than I for one anticipated so being able to see what that is actually going to be like makes it seem a lot less intimidating.  He goes through a process the same way we do, and he is learning new things as he goes along just as we have been doing throughout the semester.  The main thing I took from Rick Morris was that he was saturated in his work at every turn, not in a negative way, but in a way that he enjoyed, and his immersion was obviously a positive thing.

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Is Troika hiring?

Posted on December 11, 2011 by bschroyer2

Troika sounds like a place I’d enjoy working. Too bad I don’t really see myself living in California. Maybe I’ll focus instead of doing freelance for them.

I really liked their demo reel. It became a title graphic full of title graphics. It was also timed to the music well, especially at the end. In order to successfully edit and intertwine all of those elements together demonstrates just how creative and skilled their employees are. Anyone could have mashed together a couple of the titles together, back-to-back. Watching the reel was entertaining in itself. I also liked how it started and stopped with the orange K.

All of their work was smooth and flawless. Seeing final products such as their’s illustrates the importance of keeping your focus at the end while you’re finalizing those minor details that separates a project from being good from being great. This is definitely an area I need to work on. I’m hoping this is an element that will be easier in the workplace. Granted, I will have spent way more hours on projects for a boss or client than I have for class, but I know that settling in that component could result in losing a client (or job), whereas the difference between an H- and an P- is not as significant. Not following through won’t just affect you in that regard, so therefore not doing so is not an option.

PS: The one guy looked like Dwight from The Office. I’m sorry, but I just couldn’t take what he was saying seriously.

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Rick Morris

Posted on December 11, 2011 by jjenkins14

Rick Morris is dope!  His house is dope.  His Billy Idol-esque style is dope.  His work is dope.  His furniture is dope.  His reel is dope.  He is dope.

Rick’s reel is seriously impressive. His work spans so many feels and vibes of motion graphics.  Always moving, his designs are exciting, bold and sleek.  There is a sense of humor in his work, sometimes more obvious and sometimes very subtle.  Unfortunately, many clips of his reel is from CMT — eek!  Not a fan.  Haha.

It’s funny to see Lynda on screen.  She conducts a really insightful interview with Rick that talks about his transition from being just an illustrator to being both an illustrator and being a motion graphic artist.  Hearing him talking about getting into the business and his embracing of a field he had never been quite sure if he would go into really helps when thinking about myself and my peers going into fields that we may not feel comfortable in.  Hearing him speak about ‘trial by fire’ learning is really interesting as we mostly think that people such as him are born with that talent and never have to learn it.

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“To clarify, add details…”

Posted on December 11, 2011 by cholloway2

… is one thing I remember from watching a short analysis by Edward Tufte.  Although  his tone was very dry and boring, the information he presented was very interesting. He spoke on the interface design of the iPhone which I believe is one of the most revolutionary products on today’s market. All though not owning an iPhone (but really wanting one) I happen to own an iPod touch which has a very similar interface.  As mentioned by Tufte, the iPhone (and iPod Touch) solved the interface problem of small screens very elegantly.  The iPhone changed the game of the design of phones because it uses high resolution to provide high quality images on a very small screen.  The interface is not challenge with what he calls “administrative debris.”

One of the ideas I took from this video is the interface and information is the interface, not computer administrative debris. For example, Tufte shows how the web interface on the iPhone eliminates the aspects of features of the phone itself, and only shows the information presented on the web page itself.  This way, the user sees more content which is important on a small screen. However, Tufte did add that the button bar present at the bottom of the iPhone when viewing web pages is too broad, and instead should be invisible.  This would provide even more space for the user to view content. I agree with this point. Maybe Apple could add one small button in the bottom left or right hand corner which could be pressed when the user wants to access the button bar.

Another point Tufte mentioned was “clutter and overload are not an attribute of information, they are failures of design.”  This was an interesting point which states that when something looks too cluttered, that doesn’t meat there is too much information, but rather poor design.  This made me think of projects I’ve done in class in which I deleted and information because it looked too cluttered. I should have focused on how to include the information in a better design. In my last project, the design of an iPhone app, I had some problems including all the information I wanted to on one of my screens. I spent hours of trying to design it better, but eventually just decided to make is shorter and more streamlined. However, after watching this video, I know there could have been a better way to design the information and keep it only on the screen. Tufte said “If the information is in chaos, don’t start throwing out information instead fix the design,” and this is definitely a significant point I will remember when designed in the future.

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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Posted on December 11, 2011 by jjenkins14

The title sequence to “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” proves to be quite visually stirring and equally creepy without ever having to introduce a character into the frames.  The sequences follows the creation, and inner workings, of a meat pie…from the churning wheels that allow machines to work, to the burning fire that burns ablaze and cooks the pies in the large oven.  The narrator for most of this title sequence is not a person but streams of blood that move about as as the camera follows.

The title sequence gives a strong foreshadow into the plot without being overly obvious.  In addition, the title sequence looks ambiguous in design.  It is difficult to figure out what is animated and what looks human-like.  The text is minimal, not to take away from the grand scale action going on behind it.  It’s strong in its conveying of a message while still leaving the unfamiliar viewer without too much insight into the film they will be watching, which I believe makes for a perfect title sequence.

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30 Conversations on Design

Posted on December 11, 2011 by cholloway2

Print, web and interactive…these are the three categories that come to mind when I think about design, maybe because I’ve been studying these are in graduate school.  However, since watching the short interviews in Thirty Conversations on Design, I’ve started paying more attention to the design of objects, like the stuff I use every day. Pondering these things makes me think of all the work, time, and creativity it took to design some of the things I own.  A lot of work and thought went into the look and design of some of my favorite luxury gadgets such as my Wii and Toshiba laptop.  There was thought behind the sleek design and the single round button at the bottom of my iPod Touch.  Thirty Conversations on Design taught me that it’s not only about functionality of some of the things that accompany us through life, but it’s about the design too.

The first interview I watched asked the question “What problem should design solve next?” One area was the problem of transportation.  The interview went on to talk about the design of transportation systems such as subways, trains, and airplanes.  Georgia Christensen, who spoke on the design of trains, mentioned how lighting, interior, exterior, and energy efficiency should be thought of when designing modern day transportation systems.  Another interviewee Kit Hinrichs spoke on the mundane design and process of going through security at the airport, from the bins people put there items into, to the conveyor belt the items scroll on.  Listening to them speak on these things unlocked the lock holding my creative design imagination in bondage.  There are so many things in the world that need to be designed, not just web and interactive design, but for some reason I just never thought about other avenues.  I could be the next great designer of a sleek subway or bus system. The possibilities are unlimited.

 

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