Colors In Corporate Branding And Design

Color is a major consideration in any Web design. Whether for an individual, small company, or major corporation, color scheme is one of the most significant factors in the overall look and appearance of a website. In some cases, the designer may have the sole discretion in making color choices, but many times a color scheme has already been established and needs to be followed. In situations where a company already has a strong brand, color usage for the website can either build or take away from this.

aMap: Mapping Complex Arguments in a Visual Format

aMap [amap.org.uk] is a new venture designed to promote the art of arguing by mapping out complex arguments in a simple visual way across social media. aMaps come both in printed and internet formats.

The initial aMap project was set up to look at how "visualization techniques" could be used to help create simplified visualisations of complex arguments, with the overall aim to help the average man on the street be able to engage and participate in complex policy issues. The current goal is obviously to investigate different routes of how to best visualise arguments in a social, online medium context.

Lessons from the art of storyboarding

Storyboarding is a great way to begin to visualize the story of your content. (In animation) storyboards are used to develop the story.

Designer Philippe Starck Embraces his Feminine Side [exclusive video]

Philippe Starck, resplendent in black leather pants, came to New York’s Soho House this week to promote his latest project –- a set of sleek stereo speakers he designed for Parrot, a French wireless technology company whose CEO, Martin Seydoux, is one of the designer’s oldest friends.

iDock

Looking for a functional dock for your iPod/ iPhone?

Blob Architecture's Patron Dies

One of the most influential branches of architecture in the last 15 years is "blobitecture," which produces futuristic (often blob-like) forms using cutting edge technology, Jan Kaplický just passed.

Can Design Improve Fuel Efficiency?

Arguing for aerodynamics as key to saving fuel.

Fujitsu Siemens Computers Wins 2009 iF Product Design Award

Fujitsu Siemens Computers won the 2009 iF product design award for the ESPRIMO Mobile series professional notebooks as well as for the ESPRIMO MA, a tablet PC design specifically for the health care sector.

What Beautiful Future Gadgets Will Be Made Of

Gizmodo’s editorial director Brian Lam gives Kara Johnson the final word on tomorrow’s gadget materials. Kara explains that unpainted plastic is the future, and that we need to move beyond injection molding and look at sheet processes for 2D layers. For more on materials and the future of gadgets, click here.

Bright ideas for dark days

In tough times, it's the brightest ideas that get noticed. And for those who can adapt quickest, recession offers a chance to steal a march on the competition.

Skip Hop’s Wishbone Bike 3 in 1

Something simple for the kids.

Bell Mobility Launches a New UI

Earlier this week the Canadian communications company Bell Mobility released phones with new user interfaces (UIs) designed by frog.

Designers Are Capable Of Transforming Cities Beyond The Industrial Age

If you think business is competitive, think about cities. Every city is struggling to find innovative ways to heighten their creative energy and transform their cities to a post industrial age era.

Electronic Books–A Human Factors perspective

Richard Pak offers his thoughts on the design of the Amazon Kindle. There are some critical “book behaviors” that the device does not afford but are critical to him.

How NOT to design a logo

Logo design in today’s world is totally under rated.

People do not understand how important a good logo is and how valuable it is to their business.

Three Mobile User Experience Trends to Watch in 2009

2008 was truly a milestone year for mobile. In an industry that has long felt downtrodden by a multitude of technical and business constraints, wild and exciting inflection points burst like fireworks across the mobile landscape, bringing visibility to our industry and renewing our hopes.

John Maeda: My journey in design, from tofu to RISD

Designer John Maeda talks about his path from a Seattle tofu factory to the Rhode Island School of Design, where he became president in 2008. Maeda, a tireless experimenter and a witty observer, explores the crucial moment when design met computers.

Hitachi Reinvents TV Remote As A Trackball

I'm tired of having to deal with several TV/AV remotes with two hundred tiny buttons and a screen for Windows connectivity. Simplicity is what I love, which is why I find Hitachi's trackball-style reinvention superior.

Lenovo IdeaCentre 600: Thinnest (Hottest?) All-in-One PC on the Block

Lenovo's IdeaCentre 600 is a pretty splashy debut: Its first ever all-in-one is a simple curved slab that's supposedly the thinnest all-in-one in the industry.

Objectified

As he did for Helvetica's namesake typeface, Gary Hustwit gathered the world's top designers for his forthcoming documentary Objectified, telling the story of the magic behind the objects we use every day. Read the rest here.

The Solid State Revolution

The death of moving parts means you'll be seeing smaller,faster, stronger -- and quieter -- gadgets. Review the solid-state revolution.

Interactive Foil

The company ‘Visual Planet‘ has developed interactive foil that can be used as a touch screen. One major advantage is that it can be glued on every surface that is not metallic. Consider the possibilities. Now displays in public will get vandalized less easy as the display (read foil!) can be glued on the inside of windows / plastics. Read the article here.

Folding Electric Bike

Inspired by the mythological creature Unicorn, who controls the star Capella in Greek folklore, designer Truong Minh Nhat has come up with a unique electric bike that folds into a backpack. Named as ‘Capella,’ the foldable bike is so lightweight and compact that users can effortlessly carry it on their back, while cruising through crowded city roads. Running on a battery, the electric bike can move at a top speed of 30 kilometers per hour for 12 kilometers after charging it for two hours.

Now Pulling Luggage Is Easy

Climbing a skyscraper on foot, carrying heavy luggage is the last thing that you would ever wish for. However, the Climbing UP suitcase is a luggage with difference that helps the users to save more energy in pulling their suitcase upstairs.

Creative Thinking Is More Than Just Creativity

The British are known for pushing the boundaries of alternative art and music and fashion, art is very much of a part of the British culture.

Best of Yanko Design 2008

2008 has been an eventful and inspiring year, and it’s hard to put all the top news in one place; still, if there’s one Yanko Design article you want to bookmark this year, this should be it.

What Color is Hope?

When a loved one is in intensive care, it can be terrifying for all concerned. Industry leader Hamilton Medical and world-recognized industrial design consultancy RKS have combined efforts to create a new ventilator designed to create a better ICU experience for medical professionals, patients, and loved ones, and, in turn, improve patient recovery. Read the article here.

How to Create a Music Magazine Cover in InDesign

In this tutorial, you'll see how to create a magazine cover in InDesign. You'll learn how to set up a page layout and add text. This is an introduction to InDesign and no previous knowledge is required. This is a simple project put together to help get you started with InDesign.

Yahoo's Design Pattern Library

Welcome to the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library. Here, Yahoo shares patterns and code with the web design and development community.

The Bloomberg Makeover

View how IDEO and Ziba Design, took Bloombergs interface through a rigorous redesign.

Who's Connected How?

Technology connects us more and more each day. Who are the most and least connected people in the world? View here.

Various Ways to Visualize Consumer Spending

Depending on how you spin it, how consumers spend can be reflecting as positive or negative.
Here are a few methods to display that type of data.

Visual Complexity: Visual Design Methods

VisualComplexity intends to be a unified resource space for anyone interested in the visualization of complex networks. The project's main goal is to leverage a critical understanding of different visualization methods, across a series of disciplines, as diverse as Biology, Social Networks or the World Wide Web.

Vizzl: Visual Search and Shopping Engine

Vizzl [vizzl.com] is a new visual search / shopping engine that allows users to perform dynamic filtering, sorting and a number of view modes on all the search results retrieved from Amazon, eBay or YouTube.

As a new Adobe Flex based application, Vizzl features dynamic animations and transitions to deliver a more immersive search experience, in an aim to make searching information "fun and fast". For example, Amazon books can be sorted by relevance, best selling, price, alphabet, or release date, while views can be changed to reveal more or less detailed information.

The Vizzl application is also offered as a commercial application to the industry, such as "The Inspiration Room" [theinspirationroom.com], an online aggregator of the worlds best talents and work in the creative industry, as well as a Facebook spin-off called "Friendly Search", which offers a visual way of browsing your Facebook contacts.

The Information Architecture Institute

The Information Architecture Institute is a 501(6)c professional organization, operated by a dedicated, multi-national group of people. Volunteering their own resources, the aspire to build bridges to related disciplines and organizations. You're invited to join them in advancing the state of information architecture through research, education, advocacy and community service.

Dobpler Interactive Led Wall

The system is an interactive LED wall installed in an Oslo subway which interacts with the public, every movement creating a reaction, leaving a impression of an environment that 'keeps an eye' on the public, with no intrusive video surveillance involved.

The Zenvo ST-1

Danish boutique automaker Zenvo Automotive had exactly one goal in mind when it designed the ST1 hyper-exotic: build "a real supercar with excessive power."