The Stairwell

Here's a very interesting article from Matthew Inmann in SEOmoz.com. He sums up well what experienced web agencies have known for some time (see our White Papers), but we like how he interprets it and we agree with his conclusions.

How to Ruin a Web Design

If a picture aspires to be worth a thousand words, then a pictogram wants only to replace about 4.

We've developed an array of icon libraries for clients over the years, so we enjoy the challenge of saying a lot with a little visual design. An icon or pictogram must be: descriptive, clear, distinguishable, memorable and simple. It must draw upon the universal visual cues encountered every day by every person on the planet to be effective. Even a library of 'smiley-faced' emoticons must explore and represent universally recognized facial expressions so the end-viewer is never confused about their meaning. This is far more challenging than it at first appears and designers who deal in this craft for public transportation, highway systems, street markers and public buildings (and, oh yeah, web applications!) deserve a lot of credit for minimizing the chaos of modern living.

PingMag.com, an expatriate community web site based in Tokyo published a little while back a great blog post about the nature and value of pictograms to foreigners (and other illiterati) navigating that foreign landscape. My favorite is the one at left here - not only does it warn of oncoming bicycle traffic, but it also appears to have inadvertently depicted a 'pickpocket' in the act. To view the entire blog, click here.

But you can't gift this one. It's still too early, as the idea is only in concept stage, but it demanded to be shown to Stairwell readers. Santa, can I have this?

http://abductionlamp.com/

In pursuit of color inspiration and validation for this season's interface designs I look to a few favorites like Pantone and Fashion Trendsetters. I think this information is useful to designers, photographers, artists and the people we rely on to make it all happen.

Pantone Previews:
Pantone Fashion Color Report, Spring 2008
Pantone Fashion Color Report, Fall 2007
Designer Paint Colors 2007

Fashion Trendsetter's Autumn/Winter 07-08 Color Cards

The Top 10 Pantone Colors Chosen by New York Designers, Spring 2008 (PDF)

Michael Kors, Fashion Week Spring 2008 - this isn't quite as pertinent to color specifically, but the fashion godzilla has another amazing line for spring.

At Billups Design we've singled out several dozen digital and print designers over the years to showcase, and, to learn from and apply to our own clients' projects. Joshua Davis is one of those designers. And this brief essay by him (previously printed in an interview for Apple Pro) on how he finds and uses color in his work is worth sharing with anyone interested in exceptional design.

I'm always trying to find colors that are a little different. I want a blue you can't buy in a store. When I was painting, I found this place in Amsterdam that actually made pigments - I'd buy from them and make my own paint. I remember buddies asking me, "Why do you do that?" And I said, "You know why? You're using the same blue, the same red, and the same green as every other schmuck that walks into that paint store. And I don't want to do that!"

I'm using the same principle to pick colors for my work now. I want colors that make people say, "Oh, look at this combination of orange and green and blue - I never would have thought to mix those." I want to have that effect on people.

I take a lot of digital photographs just to extract color. I go to an arboretum here on Long Island at different points in the year and take pictures of the orchid show or the Christmas poinsettias. Nature does a pretty good job of blending. You'll get a flower that starts with green, goes up to yellow, and blooms red. So already I've got a red, a yellow, and a green that all complement each other.

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Hello, parched travelers. This little speed shop in Bavaria, Germany has such an elegant logo (shown here as designed in 1967), and I love the functional aspect of the crank-case and foundry in the coat-of-arms.

Our latest launch of the markshale.com online store included some design and shopping cart upgrades that promise to enhance customer experience and improve the store's online sales.

When developing a strategy for the e-commerce site's upgrade, we consulted the latest publications on online shopping and customer expectations. The most important study that ultimately influenced the decisions we made came from a survey conducted by theCambridge, MA-based Allurent, Inc. and reprinted in Direct Magazine.

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Though it happens with less frequency, we are sometimes challenged by a prospect to explain exactly what they are getting when they pay good money for 'design'. "I need online sales," they say, "so I'm willing to pay for a sophisticated shopping cart, search engine optimization programs, even advertising. But I think I can get away with discount design."

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The new billupsdesign.com

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Paint like Jackson Pollock.

I looked up my 'birthday color' at Pantone to find it's "Baroque Rose" (PMS 18-1634). I was somewhat surprised because it is indeed a color I feel comfortable with (and wearing). The Pantone Colorstrology tool gets you right to your color, with nice supporting descriptions and..of course, it has an astrology write-up for your special day. Mine was right-on! Ha Ha. So, does that make me a superstitious follower of the intuitive arts?

This is an idea that is just fun enough to make it into The Stairwell for our readers - a camera made with Legos.

Click!

We came across two interesting articles about what makes web sites good (and bad) in the context of providing value over time - and what developers can do to keep existing sites up-to-date and long-lasting.

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A client of Billups Design recently reported an interesting statistic to us which we'd like to share with anyone currently using mass email campaigns.

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How do I know what colors to use?

Well, I like to think of color in a mostly scientific way, but there is also something instinctual about it too. I tend to approach it the same way I generate all ideas;

1. identify requirements and objectives
2. find and review resources vigorously
3. do something unrelated, preferrably somewhere inspirational, and wait for epiphanies :-)
4. begin drafts of solutions and document all ideas
5. eliminate until best solutions come forward

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It's my opinion that designers should keep their own unique style or approach in reserve when doing professional design work.

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Designing web sites for aging baby boomers is becoming increasingly sophisticated and web design firms need to get a handle on the various techniques they should incorporate for the best possible user experience for this audience.

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Society relies on the process of design to give everything purpose, clarity, and organization, so it's natural that we must have effective design. Everything from an installation manual to a web site require design that is correct, otherwise bad things can and often do happen.

Here's why all this matters, along with the answer to "What is Creative?"

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Favicons, those custom little icons that appear in a browser's url address window, have been around for a while. And they do serve a purpose. Then why are some of the biggest web site operations in the country doing them badly, or worse, not at all?

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I just felt like illustrating a lime. Fresh.

Below are questions we often hear from clients, prospects, colleagues and friends:

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Below are a few resources to help keep a designer strong, efficient and focused! One thing to note - I'm astonished at the lack of quality in books on the subject, so I'm only listing web references here:

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Good copy writing on the web is like a rainbow macaw in a flock of blackbirds: rare and exciting. Of all the aspects of web development and marketing, copy writing stands as perhaps the most integral element to success. Yet in my experience, 90% of the time, companies opt to recycle their print materials or, worse, give the assignment to an internal employee not versed in the craft.

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Most commercial web sites use photography extensively to highlight products, introduce employees and management, provide visuals of locations and buildings, and more. This requires that a good web designer take special care to manage and process all digital photography to assure the best possible presentation of a company's visual information on its web site.

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Designers looking to broaden their conceptual horizons or at least piggy-back on the ideas of others, there is the HOW Design Confernce June 11 at the Hyatt Hotel on E. Wacker.

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An intriguing place to see how the possible (likely?) presence of aliens on earth dates back thousands of years is at: UFOart.com. By looking for clues in the art of primitive cultures around the world, the author has put together an intriguing collection of 'alien' depictions.

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Thinking seriously about content very early in the site design process can lead to great interfaces and effective brand messaging. Not doing so can result in reverse engineering, political infighting, and lost leads. Truly, content (copywriting, visual and functional elements) should not be 'the last thing to hammer out' once the design interface and technology is approved.

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http://www.billupsdesign.com/pcgamma.html

It looks like the fashion industry is leading the way with bright colors this spring. Coral Reef, Delft, Begonia Pink, Sweet Lavender, Aurora, and Blue Turquoise to name a few. Pantone, the global authority on color and provider of professional color standards for the design industries, attributes the brighter colors to a movement away from wearing Black and the well established Modernist look. Bringing color into fashion is a way of making people feel better, either as a form of escapism or optimism.

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Sometimes, I find, the best inspiration for interface design comes from unlikely places. I’ve spent years trying to glean new ideas for interface and content design from other web designers here in the U.S. and in Europe, but there is something slightly incestuous about the exercise – and the results can be very similar - which has led me to seek original approaches in other places.

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You can get great color results when creating a PDF if you embed the correct color profile. If you are planning to use the PDF mainly for the screen you will get best results from sRGB.

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