Posts
trying to visualise what is in my head when i consider the solar century brief.
30.1.08
super happy sun time
trying to visualise what is in my head when i consider the solar century brief.
24.1.08
thinking things through
thinking about what i want to put on my site and where i want to put it, will hopefully make designing it that little bit easier.
22.1.08
restoring my faith in the internet
as it were.
i've found i've been getting a bit bored recently with digital-ness, as i seem to be seeing the same thing over and over again. it takes a lot to make me go "OOOOOOOH!!" now, which is a bit annoying. so in an attempt to get over this and find something new i went into that weird place called the library.
most of the books were a bit crap but i managed to find a couple of good ones. one was interplay interactive design by lauren parker from the V&A. it had web addresses in it. i tried some out. some were dead. some were crap. some were interesting but looked nothing like the screenshots in the books. that the one thing about books that suck, they don't come with a refresh button.
anyway... here are my findings.
the first address i typed in was delaware.gr.jp, which turned out to be a strange music / visual group from japan. who like bitmaps. and scrolling sideways. and mobile phones. it's all artoon.
they also like remixing youtube, which is quite interesting.
i also had a look at praystation by Joshua Davis, who's a big coding monkey. he's currently remaking his site with a wordpress template, but there are some pretty amazing images on there. he also runs once upon a forest, which is a very nice simple flash gallery of his work. he's cleverly hidden the description of his work in the source.
i've found i've been getting a bit bored recently with digital-ness, as i seem to be seeing the same thing over and over again. it takes a lot to make me go "OOOOOOOH!!" now, which is a bit annoying. so in an attempt to get over this and find something new i went into that weird place called the library.
most of the books were a bit crap but i managed to find a couple of good ones. one was interplay interactive design by lauren parker from the V&A. it had web addresses in it. i tried some out. some were dead. some were crap. some were interesting but looked nothing like the screenshots in the books. that the one thing about books that suck, they don't come with a refresh button.
anyway... here are my findings.
the first address i typed in was delaware.gr.jp, which turned out to be a strange music / visual group from japan. who like bitmaps. and scrolling sideways. and mobile phones. it's all artoon.
they also like remixing youtube, which is quite interesting.
i also had a look at praystation by Joshua Davis, who's a big coding monkey. he's currently remaking his site with a wordpress template, but there are some pretty amazing images on there. he also runs once upon a forest, which is a very nice simple flash gallery of his work. he's cleverly hidden the description of his work in the source.
yum yum yum infographics
since we need to inform and educate and that through our little "web experience" for solar century, i thought it might be worth looking at some yummy infographics.
the first thing that came into mind was the lovely plinky plonky moving image piece by stylewar called terrain. (taken from motion blur by onedotzero) infographics for and imaginary company, specialising in creating specialised, technologicaly advanced land and homes.
i think all the animation was done in aftereffects, which makes it look nice. it flows really well, and it feels nice and clean.
after some wondering around i found this very nice blog, information aesthetics, which is all about inforgraphics and features some links to some very nice examples. including these by Corpora in Si(gh)te, a "media architecture installation".
some of the images are quite complex, which doesn't suit the brief as we need to make it as simple as possible to understand, but i really like the idea of using an real life environment to showcase the information.
the images show the information taken from sensors from the enviroment shown in the images.
the first thing that came into mind was the lovely plinky plonky moving image piece by stylewar called terrain. (taken from motion blur by onedotzero) infographics for and imaginary company, specialising in creating specialised, technologicaly advanced land and homes.
i think all the animation was done in aftereffects, which makes it look nice. it flows really well, and it feels nice and clean.
after some wondering around i found this very nice blog, information aesthetics, which is all about inforgraphics and features some links to some very nice examples. including these by Corpora in Si(gh)te, a "media architecture installation".
some of the images are quite complex, which doesn't suit the brief as we need to make it as simple as possible to understand, but i really like the idea of using an real life environment to showcase the information.
the images show the information taken from sensors from the enviroment shown in the images.
20.1.08
i don't like...
innovation and enterprise studies or business studies or whatever you want to call it.
it doesn't make sense to me.
i'm not a marketing director and nor do i ever intend to be.
i'll just make stuff and if people like it that'll be great. if they don't, oh well.
it doesn't make sense to me.
i'm not a marketing director and nor do i ever intend to be.
i'll just make stuff and if people like it that'll be great. if they don't, oh well.
18.1.08
better get a move on
with all these briefs, shouldn't i?
the first one i will natter on about is the all important solar century D&AD brief.
which is important.
here's the home page for the current solar century site, which is very nicely laid out with nice yellows and greens which give the feeling of being eco-friendly without being too garish. And although this page alone contains quite a bit of information, it all fits on the screen without needing to scroll (i am on my imac but i think it would be fine on my ye olde pc too) thanks to the clever layout witch utilizes the space even with that massive image in the middle. there's drop down boxes which usually annoy the crap out of me but here they're well designed and work well, and up in the corner along with the language options (international company maybe?) there's a little news feed, which seems quite unbiased, at the moment i can see the headline "Sun setting on solar power?", there's also news links about the governments current nuclear energy plans.
the news links then link you to a page inside the site, with the article or a link to it. these pages are quite different to the rest of the site, there's a lot of text based information and links, and while the serif grey text is nice as it feels nice and soft, it can be quite hard to read on the light grey background (speaking as a person with wonky eyes.) (see below)
the rest of the site is more like the homepage, using sans-serif on a whiter background which is much easier to read, although there are some graphics that look like they've been made in microsoft word. (that was a bit harsh of me but you can see what i mean below)
the first one i will natter on about is the all important solar century D&AD brief.
which is important.
here's the home page for the current solar century site, which is very nicely laid out with nice yellows and greens which give the feeling of being eco-friendly without being too garish. And although this page alone contains quite a bit of information, it all fits on the screen without needing to scroll (i am on my imac but i think it would be fine on my ye olde pc too) thanks to the clever layout witch utilizes the space even with that massive image in the middle. there's drop down boxes which usually annoy the crap out of me but here they're well designed and work well, and up in the corner along with the language options (international company maybe?) there's a little news feed, which seems quite unbiased, at the moment i can see the headline "Sun setting on solar power?", there's also news links about the governments current nuclear energy plans.
the news links then link you to a page inside the site, with the article or a link to it. these pages are quite different to the rest of the site, there's a lot of text based information and links, and while the serif grey text is nice as it feels nice and soft, it can be quite hard to read on the light grey background (speaking as a person with wonky eyes.) (see below)
the rest of the site is more like the homepage, using sans-serif on a whiter background which is much easier to read, although there are some graphics that look like they've been made in microsoft word. (that was a bit harsh of me but you can see what i mean below)
12.1.08
made me giggle
10.1.08
9.1.08
4.1.08
ok i remembered something.
John Maeda.
he's cool, right?
i particularly like his obsession with flowers, shown in this javascript greeting card generator; cyberorchid, and this little javascript game called oikake zakura where you try to catch the falling pieces of sakura in time.
i really like how this little calendar, which Maeda openly admits is meant to make you waste time rather than save it, reacts to the users movements, and with a click goes inbetween fall (or autumn to us brits) and summer. - umiaki calendar
"I am often asked what my term "post digital" signifies. It is a term that I created as a way to acknowledge a distinction between those that are passed their fascination with computers, and are now driven by the ideas instead of the technology. It is not an expression of Luddite-ism nor is it a loaded term like that icky "post modernism" business. If we are to consider the book by Nicholas Negroponte Being Digital as an affirmation that the computer has arrived, then the "post digital" generation refers to the growing few that have already been digital, and are now more interested in Being Human. Buying a good computer is easy. Being a good person is something that cannot be merely bought ... even on the great god of eBay." - John Maeda
he's cool, right?
i particularly like his obsession with flowers, shown in this javascript greeting card generator; cyberorchid, and this little javascript game called oikake zakura where you try to catch the falling pieces of sakura in time.
i really like how this little calendar, which Maeda openly admits is meant to make you waste time rather than save it, reacts to the users movements, and with a click goes inbetween fall (or autumn to us brits) and summer. - umiaki calendar
"I am often asked what my term "post digital" signifies. It is a term that I created as a way to acknowledge a distinction between those that are passed their fascination with computers, and are now driven by the ideas instead of the technology. It is not an expression of Luddite-ism nor is it a loaded term like that icky "post modernism" business. If we are to consider the book by Nicholas Negroponte Being Digital as an affirmation that the computer has arrived, then the "post digital" generation refers to the growing few that have already been digital, and are now more interested in Being Human. Buying a good computer is easy. Being a good person is something that cannot be merely bought ... even on the great god of eBay." - John Maeda
the problem with this brief...
i'm sitting here, somewhere in derbyshire, at my mummy's shitty computer wanting to do some blog posts on things that i think are awesome, but my mind is a blank.
the problem is i no longer remember the things that i think are cool, i just bookmark them.
my bookmarks are in leeds.
part of my mind is on my mac and it's in a different city to me.
freaky.
the problem is i no longer remember the things that i think are cool, i just bookmark them.
my bookmarks are in leeds.
part of my mind is on my mac and it's in a different city to me.
freaky.
2.1.08
zefrank
possibly the best website in the world.
fact.
the site is filled with links to all the little things zefrank has made over the years, from highly educational videos such as my cat annie and how to dance properly, to toys the visitors of his site help to create such as the letter project, which i really like. it's a typeface made up from the photos visitors have sent in of them holding a drawing of the first letter of their name.
there's also toys to create a kaleidoscope, amongst other things, and advice with how to deal with telemarketers.
another part of the site that i love is my hood, where ze has taken David Hockney style photos of his local area, giving you a peep into his life.
there's also the show with zefrank, a year long project where he posted a podcast every week day for a year, attempting to get into the league of awesomeness. some of it is quite awesome.
fact.
the site is filled with links to all the little things zefrank has made over the years, from highly educational videos such as my cat annie and how to dance properly, to toys the visitors of his site help to create such as the letter project, which i really like. it's a typeface made up from the photos visitors have sent in of them holding a drawing of the first letter of their name.
there's also toys to create a kaleidoscope, amongst other things, and advice with how to deal with telemarketers.
another part of the site that i love is my hood, where ze has taken David Hockney style photos of his local area, giving you a peep into his life.
there's also the show with zefrank, a year long project where he posted a podcast every week day for a year, attempting to get into the league of awesomeness. some of it is quite awesome.
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