September Third

Stunning Olympic Photo Gallery

Andrew — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:02:27 +0000

The New York Times delivers a brilliant Olympic photo experience, presenting multiple “perspectives” of the games’ unique vantage-points. Click “Full-Screen Version” for optimal viewing.

Olympic Logos

Andrew — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:49:10 +0000

Scott Hansen aka ISO50 has a diverse collection of Olympic logos (I assume this is all of them). The design gets cleaner and modern around 1952 (with a couple of exceptions) and then drops off into the “ugly” abyss around 1988, although the L.A. 1984 is borderline bad.

Photoshop and Save For Web Issues

Andrew — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 14:01:08 +0000

A co-worker and I got into a discussion about color management in Photoshop, a long-standing source of frustration for web designers. He took it upon himself to research it and just sent out an email to our team here at work. Hope this helps some of you who have been wading around in the dark for too long.

From Brian’s email:
I recently discovered a solution to a long standing issue I’ve had with on-screen colors in Photoshop not matching save for web colors, when Color Settings (shift-command-K) are set for North America Web/Internet or North America General Purpose (I believe the later is the default on install). They are generally darker (depending on the profile in the file), before saving for web, unless you do one of the following, but each method has issues:1) Use Color Setting of Monitor:- benefit: colors match what you see on the web while you’re working on your file- problem: when you go to save for web in Photoshop, the colors will go unnaturally lighter (even more so than if your color settings were for web or general purpose). NOTE: This doesn’t happen if you use Fireworks for optimization (the monitor/web color space is preserved).

2) Use color settings of North America Web/Internet or North America General Purpose, but “proof” the file for web colors using a Monitor RGB proof setup:- by selecting View/Proof Setup/Monitor RGB and then Proof Colors (command-Y) you will see your web comp shift to lighter colors - how it will actually look on the web on your monitor. If you want to view your file as you would see it on the web while you’re working on it, you have to remember to do this for every file you open that has an sRGB profile (web/internet) or general purpose. It is only a viewing preference on a per file basis (not saved). It has to be applied to all of the files you may have open one by one, to view them as they would appear on the web.

I found the following piece of information on the Adobe website i never really thought about:

“Photoshop is a color-managed application. The Web is not. Normally, when you view an image in Save for Web or ImageReady you are viewing it without color management and see it how it will appear when uploaded to the Web.”

However, there is a third ideal solution I have just found and that I now use. It uses solution number one (above), but removes the issue of the colors going even lighter then normal, when using Photshop’s save for web. A simple item unchecked in Save for Web (Convert to SRGB) keeps your viewing color consistent while working on the file using a Monitor viewing preference, all the way up to the save state. You only have to set this once.

Read the following simple instructions on this site.

Savvy Auntie

Andrew — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:43:19 +0000

Stumbled across this site in my Delicious links the other day and though the content and idea are interesting (a community around the women in a child’s life other than the mother), what drew me in were the visuals and UI. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen an execution so thorough. No detail is spared. From dropdown menus to playful Flash rollovers to an overall super-clean design, it works.

Their “unofficial” description of the site says it “is meant for all you ladies who are totally mad for your nieces or nephews, friends’ kids, whatever….and you just want a place online where you can talk about them (and yes totally show them off!) and feel safe to ask questions about kids, their health, nutrition, even what they’re into these days – without having to go to a mom and feeling unsavvy!”

Olympic Medal Map

Andrew — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:57:58 +0000

The New York Times delivers the goods yet again with this fluid implementation of the Olympic medal count-up. I love the transitions from year to year and the whole whimsical nature of the presentation. I can see the smoke coming out of Edward Tufte’s ears now, but who said information design has to be staid and methodical?

What if modern advertisers invented the stop sign?

Andrew — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:43:50 +0000

http://view.break.com/542649 - Watch more free videos

Objectified

Andrew — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 20:26:44 +0000

Gary Hustwit, the aspiring director who gave designers and typophiles reason to celebrate themselves in his 2007 film Helvetica is at it again, this time focusing on industrial design. The film is called “Objectified” and features spots with folks like Apple’s Jonathan Ive, Karim Rashid, Marc Newsom and IDEO. Looks to be another slam dunk for the design community. I know I’m hyped on checking it out.

Highline Update

Andrew — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:20:45 +0000

Much progress is being made on my favorite urban green project, New York’s park-in-the-sky, The Highline. Here’s a beautiful set of renders and progress photographs from the site’s slideshow. The blog keeps rolling along, offering related tidbits and news from the project’s ongoing activities.

Here’s a nicely crafted video detailing the design and route layout.

Damien Correll Update

Andrew — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:44:05 +0000

One of the top designers working today (in my book), Damien Correll has just refreshed his site with new work. In addition to an eye-pleasing swath of work to browse, he’s got a shop stocked up with premium t-shirts and a fine-art print (sure he’ll add more as he goes).

His style is truly his own, and it’s a style that works extremely well within the context of virtually any design discipline as evidenced by a wide array of goods displayed. Go pay him a visit!

Webdesigner’s Toolkit

Andrew — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:52:39 +0000

Sometimes, the simplest of things require effort than the designer doesn’t have time for in a crunch. Enter Webdesigner’s Toolkit, a compact, but highly useful site offering a basic set of handy tools for the designer including browser windows, form elements, buttons and copytext, all in Photoshop PSD format.

Came in handy today when I needed some form elements on the quick and didn’t have time to spare.