The first time experience with an interface is crucial. The state in which nothing yet has occurred should not be a blank canvas, it should provide the user with direction and guidance to get up to speed.
Journal
Project 14: Rochen Hosting
Archiving another super old project that never really saw the light of day.
Project 13: Flagship Housing
Archiving another very old project.
Resource 05
A simple, tiled wallboard framework.
A basic one-page tiled wallboard framework, ideal for showcasing thumbnail images with underbar menu.
Pictures 94
Sunday sorting – found a few old design snaps.
Project 12: CPD Store
Archiving another very old project.
Project 11: Academia Cloud
Archiving another very old project.
Project 10: ChapterOne
An old branding and web project that I wanted to share before archiving forever.
Words 136
A great logo isn’t going to make a shitty product any less shitty, any more than a hard worker is going to make a bad boss a compelling leader.
Words 135
Minimalism is not a lack of something. It’s simply the perfect amount of something.
Pictures 93
Continuing my New year tidy up. Archive all old projects before the end of January – job done.
Project 09: karstenrowe.com logo wallboard
The brief was to create a scaleable, responsive platform to showcase recent branding projects. A bootstrapped solution can be found here: http://karstenrowe.com/projects/logo-wallboard/.
Words 134
Interesting things never happen to me. I happen to them.
Pictures 92
Working hard archiving old projects.
Words 133
To create a memorable design you need to start with a thought that’s worth remembering.
Pictures 91
Improving www.nutshell.com experience – a fixed header on a longer page makes sense.
Pictures 90
Pictures 89
Trying to get organised – found some very old work.
Pictures 88
It’s a little rough round the edges, but I’ve posted some new logo design work.
Pictures 87
Continuously striving for improvement – check out @Nutshell progress: www.dribbble.com/karstenrowe/projects/nutshell.
Pictures 86
Why we’re currently implementing a more responsive design at Nutshell.
Poor use of space on a large monitor:
The content is hidden on a small monitor
Tiny text size, zooming, panning on a mobile device:
Workflow 20
Three blogs that I regularly visit:
- Creative Review
Advertising, design and visual culture.
- Little Big Details
Your daily dose of design inspiration.
- Signal vs. Noise
A publication about the web by 37signals.
Workflow 19
New year, new stuff. Four books I intend to read this year.
Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World’s Most Wanted Hacker
Kevin Mitnick & Steve Wozniak
The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon
Brad Stone
Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World
Gary Vaynerchuk
The Year Without Pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work
Scott Berkun
Workflow 18
For design inspiration, I regularly turn to Dribbble – the slightly exclusive “show and tell” site for designers.
A short list of notable designers to follow on Dribbble:
Pictures 85
Words 132
“Good Morning!” said Bilbo, and he meant it. The sun was shining, and the grass was very green. But Gandalf looked at him from under long bushy eyebrows that stuck out further than the brim of his shady hat.
“What do you mean?” he said. “Do you wish me a good morning, or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel good this morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?”
“All of them at once,” said Bilbo. “And a very fine morning for a pipe of tobacco out of doors, into the bargain.
Be clever with words – J.R.R. Tolkien.
Words 131
I’m not inspired all the time but push yourself everyday and once in a while something will happen.
Words 130
Try to be inspired by something every day. Try to inspire at least one person every day.
Pictures 84
Color inspiration found.
Pictures 83
Pretty printed items for a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Words 129
The way you treat people, the way you treat yourself, the choices you make, your stress level, what you care about, how tolerant you are of others – these make you, uniquely you.
Words 128
Invest in knowledge not pensions.
Workflow 17
Do things that scare you.
I will be running The Brighton Marathon for Right To Play UK. Visit my fundraising page on JustGiving.
Workflow 16
Set goals, learn new things, measure results, repeat.
Happy New Year.
Pictures 82
Pictures 81
Fine-tuning the mobile layout for www.karstenrowe.com.
Pictures 80
Worth taking the stairs.
Pictures 79
Pictures 78
Buttons.
Pictures 77
A subtle update to a brilliant mark.
Workflow 15
To be fair, it’s only been a week but Jumpcut continues to come in handy, providing quick access to your clipboard’s history.
Workflow 14
Inspiration can come from anywhere.
Project 08: Scar Top Poultry
Words 127
A few smart words recorded at ‘Hello, My Name is Paul Smith’ exhibition at Design Museum London.
Words 126
You need to accept the lows to appreciate the highs.
Resource 04
A one-page web project framework.
A simple aim; create a one page web project template – an easily customisable, flexible platform to showcase your latest work.
- Bootstrapped
- LESS integrated stylesheets – commented, variables, mixins, retina ready, minified.
- jQuery & Google Web fonts ready.
- Mobile friendly design.
Please feel free to download and use in your own projects.
Words 125
Brand guidelines also play an important role in a designer’s efficiency. In the current climate, where everyone has their eye on time and money, a well-managed visual identity can equal greater creative output. All the hard work has already been done, so it’s just a case of implementation. Therefore, you spend less time worrying about the how it looks and can focus your efforts on generating great ideas.
Words 124
From a designer’s point of view, we like following rules. We can’t get enough of them. Grids, colour palettes, point sizes, ‘x’ heights, margins – we love them. What we hate is being restricted. It is important to give designers enough room for interpretation, that’s why brand guidelines should be just that – a guide, not a creative straight jacket.
Words 123
To grow and maintain a strong brand, consistency is by far the most important factor. This ensures that your brand is immediately and unconsciously recognisable, wherever and whichever medium it is found.
Pictures 76
It’s been a long time since I’ve spent any considerable time in Adobe InDesign. Enjoying the experience, a few features that I would love to see in Photoshop.