I’ve been on vacation for a few days and seem to have missed the announcement that Google is releasing their own web browser. Its called Google Chrome and they’d like you to think its going to tip the browser world on its head.
Google hired the fantabulous comic book artist Scott McCloud to illustrate an online booklet describing the new browser. In typical the McCloud fashion the artwork is clean and simple, but with wonderful subtle elements. The booklet gets pretty technical, but is a great way to let people learn about this new product.
Kudos to Google, such a huge company, for using great design and illustration to promote themselves.
Today Apt Design is launching its newest venture - www.myPassionProject.com !
my Passion Project is a community-written blog that allows visitors to share with the world what they love to do - quickly, easily and for free!
A Passion Project is what you spend your extra time, money and effort on. Something you love to do. It may be a hobby, a collection, or a creation, but whatever it is you absolutely love doing it. Sharing it with the world on myPassionProject.com can be rewarding, empowering and fun.
I have been working on my Passion Project for the past few months, incubating it from concept to fully-formed idea to an actual website. I have had a blast designing it, developing it, and dreaming of its future possibilities. It has certainly become my Passion Project and I’m happy to finally let everyone see it.
There are already some amazing posts over on the site, so go check it out and be sure to leave some comments or submit something yourself!
Brand New is a website that reviews and critiques new and redesigned logos and identities. Always a good read, they are not always praising designs just because they are new or designed by a famous design firm. Recently they wrote about a logo tournament that ends with just one logo standing.
The tournament was judged by some of the biggest names in the design world. Though the reasons these logos made it into the tournament is a little unclear, the ensuing battle is spectacular. And while we wouldn’t necessarily agree with all of the decisions (we think Apple should have made it further - but we’re a little biased), the overall winner makes sense. Not only is Target’s logo brilliantly simple, their in-house design team has been winning awards (for things like this) across all media in the past few years.
Not everyone agrees with the results of the showdown; check out the comments on that post to get some other opinions. And don’t forget to tell us what you think about the fight to the death here.
At Apt, we are always interested in websites that employ horizontal scrolling. Why? Horizontal scrolling is basically a huge no-no when it comes to web design. It is taught against in schools and railed against online. And for good reason, for the most part scrolling sideways is highly counterintuitive. At least online, where user experience is king and most people are accustomed to going down a page for information.
That makes it all the more beautiful when a website is created in a horizontal fashion and done well at the same time. Such is the case for a new website we found called How To Cook A Wolf. The site is for an (apparently) upscale restuarant in the Seattle area. Georgeous photographs, sparse type, and great layout make this site work. What makes it stand out is the navigation. Visitors have the old option of scrolling across with their scrollbar, but LookAtLao Studio has added JavaScript buttons that slide nicely to the sections of the site.
Makes us wish we would have thought of that.
we’ve been really digging a new video/website called story of stuff lately. it is a short, down and dirty, possibly skewed movie all about how our culture is currently stuck in a linear consumption model.
annie leonard, the host and narrator of this live-action / animated story presents us with the many problems involved in our current materials economy. it is an interesting and perhaps eye-opening look that may make you think about the consumer-centered lives we lead.
after the movie there are a few suggested ways you can help to make things better. we think the list may be a little short and not make much of an impact. but, since we’re not even doing everything on the list yet we’ll start there.
this week’s link is truly amazing. ted.com is the website for the annual ted conferences held in california. the theme for each year is a little different (this year they are tackling easy stuff like “what is art?”) and the speaker’s topics can range widely, but the greatness of the ideas presented is consistent.
theconference {readmore}is always sold out far in advance, and the tickets are a pricey $6,000 anyways, but thankfully ted’s website allows you to watch videos of the presentations and have your mind boggled in the comfort of your own home (or office).
and mind-boggling is exactly how we would describe each and every presentation we have watched so far. but don’t take our word for it - go check out some ted videos for yourself. while you’re there, admire the beautiful presentation of videos on their frontpage.
don’t know what to watch first? we recommend janine benyus’s fascination discussion of biomimicry as well as Blaise Aguera y Arcas’s Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo.
veer is a stock photography and illustration source for designers to find high-quality images for their work. and to keep designers and creatives happy and coming back they are always releasing fun and inspirational tools and resources. their activity books cause a serious halt in workflow when they arrive.
their online environment - type city - is a beautiful romp through an imaginative environment displaying one of designs most important aspects, type. go check it out.
as if there weren’t enough already , here are two more (surely not insignificant) reasons to get a mac.
1. a clean keyboard
this video shows how you can put a mac keyboard (slightly older style) in the dishwasher, run it, and still have a working (and much cleaner) keyboard afterwords.
2. a screen cleaner
you’ve gotta keep that beautiful bright display clean, so apple provides you with a great little cloth just for that purpose. of course, it doesn’t look exactly like a velvety mousepad, so don’t use it for that reason (we didn’t of course).
so - buying a mac helps you stay clean.
speaking of clean and shiny - here’s a little icon i created to replace some of the default icons on my desktop.
think that’s nice but don’t know how to make one yourself? be the first to comment on this blog post and we’ll design one for you, free of charge.
this is a great video introducing web 2.0. some people don’t believe in the idea of web 2.0, but we do and maybe you should to. but what is web 2.0? well, you can always wiki it , but this video is a fast (dizzingly fast) introduction to the idea. great graphics and music make it fun to watch.
(via cre8d design )
We’ll admit it - graphic designers can be a fussy bunch. We’re often very opinionated, quiet perfectionists. So, if you are having a problem with a graphic designer and need to absolutely destroy him or her, what can you do?
Well, we recently received this great article entitled “8 Ways to Drive a Graphic Designer Mad “. It gives a step-by-step process on how to utterly dismantle a graphic designer and make him/her cry; though it had me crying with laughter. Why? Because in actuality we have had all of these things happen to me personally. So please read this, laugh, and then don’t do these things to your poor designer. Please. Have pity.
