Mobile OS Design

In 2007, Apple took the world by surprise with something totally revolutionary - a mobile phone controlled entirely by a touchscreen. This seems so mundane to us now - there are a plethora of smartphones now that run touchscreen interfaces, and the iPhone remains near the top.

Over time, the phone's hardware has changed a great deal, but that is not really so with the software. iOS gains new features with every new release, but the changes are minor and the aesthetics are almost the exact same.

In fact, design conventions in iOS have not changed at all. Six years later, iOS devices still feature glossy, dimensional graphics, rounded corners, drop shadows, and various imitation textures such as leather, fabric, and wallpaper. Many feel that iOS now feels stale. These design conventions match web design trends in 2007, but are now dated. Even worse, many app developers are keeping up with design trends, creating a break between iOS and the apps it runs.

This is perhaps one of the various reasons that Android has a small leverage over iOS in the mobile landscape. Although it is up to individual device manufacturers to customize Android as they see fit, many are adopting a more "flat" approach to design, which has gained traction since iOS was created. Much design in Android feels new and fresh, unlike iOS.

However, things are looking up for iOS 7. Apple's recent executive shakeup saw Scott Forstall, the Senior Vice President of iOS since the iPhone's original release, ousted. Jony Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, has since taken his spot. Perhaps future iterations of iOS will match iOS with the iPhone's hardware, evolving it into sleek, clean, and minimalistic. It is time for Apple to lose the glossy, realistic, 2007 design approach and to change and evolve.

Creative Bloq

A few weeks ago I discovered creativebloq.com and instantly bookmarked it. It's full of great articles on design tips, inspiration, and industry news. The website is well designed and easy to navigate, and all the posts are well-written, relevant, and interesting.

Besides the blog, the website also hosts a job finder section that allows anyone to post a job listing, apply for  a position, or sign up for email alerts to be notified of newly posted jobs.

So far I've definitely found the how-to articles the most helpful. Topics range from logo design tips and javascript tutorials to stress management and video effects. Whatever you're into, you'll find great advice here. I definitely recommend checking Creative Bloq out.

Interesting Web Design

I was searching for inspiration for designing website a with a more interesting layout. I stumbled upon this portfolio website and found myself spending some time reorganizing the icons into various layouts.

 The site also seems relevant to the idea of "branding" that we talked about in class. The haphazard approach he takes to organizing the images is consistant and highly representative of the style that he demonstrates in his other work like this. I was also really impressed with everything he had in his portfolio, very creative approaches.

Really small 3D printer

I found this while cruising around on the internet. A company called Nano scribe is now the leading provider for three dimensional nano or micro fabrication, with this technology they can create a mini space ship no longer than the width of a human hair. It's importance to design is debatable, however those who say no right of the bat have clearly never had the chance to mess around with a 3D printer. With a little knowledge about engineering and CAD you can create some awesome things with a 3D printer! The possibilities with fabrication technology this precise are endless.

"In fact, the technique was able to produce a spaceship (from the Wing Commander line of video games) from a CAD file that measures 125µm x 81µm x 26.8µm (on the order of the width of a human hair) in less than 50 seconds."

Audio Design

This week, I decided to talk about a neat tool I've been using to design audio clips for different projects. Unlike most professional audio editors, this tool, Bfxr, is a free alternative to creating fun 8-bit sounds. The current interface is debatably the ugliest panel I've ever seen, but it has a very functional layout:

(This is a screenshot of the browser-based tool)

Go ahead and give it a try here (Warning! it's stupidly loud): http://www.bfxr.net/

The best part about this tool is definitely the history box in the bottom left corner. If you click 'Randomize', an audio clip will be generated according to a preset. The history box will remember each randomized selection and you can come back and save any previous audio sample.

I made an Android game last semester and ended up using this tool for a few sounds such as JUMP or even EXPLOSION effects. It was a ton of fun being able to quickly create sounds for my game without needing too much experience. You can check out and download the game on the market if you're interested: Boxel

(This game used a few audio samples from Bfxr)

Design goes beyond the visual perspective all the time. If you haven't played around with music or audio, I highly recommend investigating it for fun.

Does

     I believe I have posted this artist before from the Ironlak blog. "Does" is a graffiti artist who inspires my work continually not only from a street art view but also and mainly for his clean work and ability to work, and also technique and incredible color scheming.
     This series of work that he has started not to long ago are four panels set up on walls each panel is assembled by two seperate pieces so there is eight total but four total surfaces. Does allows his pieces to go off the panels and much wider than it has to be as you can see from the picture. The painting is done in one day and when complete he just takes the panels off and takes them. After he takes those panels off he paints the rest of the wall to the original color as when he started, so as if to create a one day work and has no problem erasing it as if it were never there. I like to think of it as the wall being blessed with talent for a couple of hours and taking four pieces to collect being portable for anything special in the future. Not so many artists can do that.
     Does mastered his craft as a graffiti artist and is an iconic figure to many other graffiti artists and any kind of artist who is as disciplined as he is. I will always enjoy looking at his art and follow his blog.

Patakk: Gifs for the Artsy People

I could spend hours looking at gifs that relate to my life. Excitement, peril, happiness, etc.

Granted, my favorite gifs are disney-related... BUT sometimes you just want one that's pretty, and nice to look at. Lucky for us, someone else feels the same way. I give you Pattakk, the Tumblr account dedicated to soothing, artsy gifs.

I'm so attracted to them because they're simplistic design that is in motion. Static design is beautiful, but these  seem to come alive in a way that is impossible for other types of design.

So the next time you want to take a homework break, cleanse your mind with these little guys.

See now? Don't you just feel better about life?