Brand New, New brands.

Well, This has to be my favorite branding-related website.

The Brand New section of the underconsideration website is my personal "informant" for all the major rebrand cases on a global scale. It also has a section where professionals of the industry reviews some rebrands in-depth. It has a database of cases that goes back to around 2006.


The website is also crawling with other people who shares the same interest of branding, although the comment section can get hectic with people comparing logos with similar design traits (even though the two companies may be from different continents, and different professional sectors) and people trolling with self-made memes and other shenanigans. Nonetheless there are many insightful comments regarding the case in question. Plus, the rest are pretty amusing to read anyway.


The rest of underconsideration is full of goodies as well.  Art of the Manu would be my runner-up favorite.

underconsideration.com/brandnew/

underconsideration.com

underconsideration.com/quipsologies/


But yeah, have a great rest of the semester!

Mobile First

Something that has been brought to my attention recently is the need for mobile websites. We are constantly connected to the world wide web through the use of our smart phones and tablets. This being true we need for our websites to be sized convenient and designed accordingly to the device they are being viewed on. Most websites do not have appropriately sized versions for mobile users. We can fix this by utilizing media queries. Media queries allow the browser and device to select the appropriate style sheet and/ or style elements that need be applied to the HTML based on the device.

The technicalities of this can become quite time consuming. As a designer it becomes our job to decide what is worth keeping and what is worth eliminating. Above you see images of the same website viewed in different browser widths, as you would see on a mobile device/ tablet. On the top far left you see how much more visually appealing it is to have one strong image vs. four images. Size and readability are the two key features that determine the design of each version of the site. I just felt that bringing this to attention would be good, considering that the future of web design will rely mostly on the design of mobile sites.

Source:
http://www.uie.com/articles/mobile_first_rwd/
http://www.html5rocks.com/en/mobile/responsivedesign/

Dolody: Weekly E-Mag for Designers

For all the graphic designers out there: 

If you ever wanted an internet-based magazine that would update you on the latest in web design, typography, grid systems, vector graphics, and more, Dolody is the place to go. This web-magazine is weekly, free of charge, and is CandyLand for UX and UI designers. 

The magazine is divided into eight different categories:

• Chime-In: An area where readers can suggest topics, answer weekly questions, and provide input or feedback on articles, tutorials, or Dolody attributes.

• Interviews: Interviews with professionals and graphic design / web design trendsetters from all over the country.

• Pro Tips: Actual quotes from graphic design professionals to use for inspiration and/or as advice.

• Tutorials: Great articles about interesting topics and trends currently seen on the web. Some examples are: Scaling Font Sizes & Icons (comes with free jQuery plug-in),  Five Hot CSS3 Skills of 2012, and Get Your Pinterest Site in 6 Simple Steps (actually has HTML you can copy & paste to make a website that functions like Pinterest!).

• Creativity: A design gallery with a hand-picked selection from the Dolody authors that you can look at for inspiration or browse to get more information on web design trends.

• Coding: From HTML to jQuery, this section has examples of many different interactive techniques to apply to your own website. 

• WordPress: Tips on how to use the site, manage your own blog, or even use WordPress for more extensive projects. 

• Miscellaneous: A shuffle-mode type of page where various blurbs about various topics can be found. It is usually restricted to the content that comes out for the assigned week.

Each provide various articles, tutorials, trend updates and galleries that are not only extremely informative, but spark the creative hot spot in our minds that can sometimes wear out while working on project after project. In addition to that, you can favorite each article, browse their extensive archives for other material, and link to the social media site of your choosing. Although only updated once a week, Dolody manages to have interesting and extremely useful articles that can further your knowledge of and experience with UX and UI design.