Blog (page 46)

It’s a UI thing

If you were to stakeout my desk you will hear me shout out expletives 4 or 5 times a day. And if something has really thrown me, I’ll tweet about it. I am (of course) refering to bad user interface design. I’m an avid subscriber to the blog Adobe UI Gripes because it makes me feel slighty […]

Playing around with Typekit

Typekit is an innovative subscription service that gives web designers access to a large collection of embeddable fonts. I was lucky enough to be invited to try out Typekit which is pretty cool because it’s still “invitation only”. A subscription to Typekit gives you access to their growing font library for use on your websites. Fonts […]

Verdana is so hot right now

Two of the “core fonts for the web” are to be updated! What impact will this have on website design? After the earthshattering announcement last month that IKEA will use Verdana both on the web and in print (I spat coffee out reading that), today we hear that Verdana and Georgia are getting a face lift. Announced […]

Bad Design Wins Awards

On accountability in design, and have you ever wondered why you’ve never seen half of those adverts that win the design and advertising awards? That’s because agencies create them specifically to win awards. They get run once in obscure  magazines or TV channels at 5am and they qualify as “real” advertisements. Some of them aren’t even […]

Creative Packaging

Creative Review unleashes some experimental packaging for their latest magazine. More exciting than a brown envelope. “CR subscribers will notice something unusual about their CR package this month when it arrives on their doormats” I certainly did, it arrived in several pieces on my doormat. Apparently this is Creative Review’s attempt to provide a filing system for their […]

Designing with Placeholder Text

Lorem Ipsum has been traditionally used as placeholder text in graphic design. It’s a series of random words similar to Latin. Is it better to design websites with this, or relevant English? The Big Advantage I’ve been designing with Lorem Ipsum for most of my graphics career but lately I’ve been wondering if I’m doing the right […]

Redesign or Realign?

Over the past few years I’ve been continually developing my own “brand” - a consistent look and feel for my portfolio, CV, letterhead (never sent one), business cards (499 gathering dust), websites, mugs, t-shirts… Update 30th August 09 - New blog design online! From the beginning I’ve gone for the whole minimalist green/silver style. I think it […]