Hornall-Anderson is one of the most notable design firms in Seattle, and is largely responsible for “legitmizing” design as a powerful business in the city. For the past quarter century Hornall-Anderson have been responsible for branding and packaging for a vast majority of clients, including the Seattle Supersonics, Starbucks, T-mobile, Redhook brewery, and countless other clients.
More recently Hornall-Anderson have assembled a very impressive interactive team, but no one believed them. Their website was clunky and hard to navigate and smelled of “trying too hard.”
But all that has changed, the site is dynamic, engaging, and functional as all hell (just try typing the word packaging anywhere on the site).
For the past several weeks, we at D.O.E. have been working on the awards book for the annual Seattle Show. I won’t spoil too much about the insides of this book but one of the bells and whistles is the canvas cover. Some buddies over at Arscentia were able to laminate canvas to our press sheets to make one spiffy cover. After they were delivered, we went to town hand stenciling each and every one. 800 sheets for 1600 books. Our backs hurt, our fingers hurt, our knees hurt, but it was a pretty swell project. Photos ahoy!
The firm that coined the slogan “Just do it” just relaunched their website. It catalogs over 25 years of work and is built on one mean CMS. I was fortunate enough to meet with the fine gents at Instrument Marketing and had them sort of explain what went into this beast. Basically to update the site it’s even easier than updating this here blog. Not only that but each piece of work is linkable and the page doesn’t refresh when you go to each project.
This is a really sweet resource for you designers that make internets. You can view different type treatments in real time and compare three styles side by side. There’s even an option to export the CSS for each style!
A few weeks ago i posted about virb. A social networking site much like myspace, facebook, friendster, what have you. They just opened registration today to the public (it was beta before) and have added a ton of new features such as flickr and custom RSS integration. But one of my favorite parts about virb is how it was built to be customized, the editors are fantastic and the site itself was coded beautifully so you don’t have to hack the shit out of the CSS to get something that looks half decent.
Forum did something awesome recently. Not only did they produce an incredibly solid team video that’s oozing with style, they put that shit on itunes for 2 bucks. The full video for only 2 bucks! If you care at all about action sports video production I highly reccomend this video.
I know I’m not the only one here with an unwavering infatuation with Guitar Hero. And I’m sure everyone who’s played has thought “it would be so incredible to program my own songs.”
Well apparently some crafty nerds out there have cracked it and edited their own songs. If you have a modded PS2 you can download the iso and burn a DVD, etc. I don’t know the specifics of the editor or how they programmed out the notes.
This example is the single song EVERYONE wanted to see in the game. Through the Fire and the Flames, by over the top metal band Dragonforce.
Social networking is not new. It has been a staple of internet life since early 2003 and there have been many many MANY incarnates of, pretty much the same service. Friendster, Myspace and Facebook all pretty much do the same thing. It seems a new contender is entering the crowded ring of “OMG BE MY FRIEND!”
I like Virb. It’s easy to use and above all it looks nice. The editor gives you control of how your profile looks (more than facebook) but doesn’t let users create abominations to the eye that crash browsers left and right (**ahem** myspace).
Tyson invited me and I signed up. It would be neat if it was taken over by creatives and leave myspace to the sluts, the bros and the “webcam” offers.
I’m not even close to the first person to do this. But right now i’m posting from my macbook pro using my blackberry pearl as a modem through bluetooth. stuck at the denver airport i don’t have to pay to use that wacky AT&T nonsense that costs 10 bucks for one day (or however long you’re at the airport).
If you like me, have a new intel based mac and are disapointed with how photoshop has been running through rosetta, and how you have to wait until spring for a universal version, fret no longer! A beta version will be free to download TOMORROW if you have CS2 and a valid serial number.
Now i’ll be able to see how his mac pro really screams. Hot damn! Be sure to check Adobe tomorrow for details.
While i feel microsoft’s zune is completely inferior to the ipod they did make this sweet website with a bunch of awesome videos and pieces from the likes of tokyo plastic and jeremy fish etc.
Ladies and gentlemen, lend me your eyes, this is what it means to have a successful brand. Get out your pens, pencils, palm pilots, chisels, stone, whatever just make sure you take thorough notes. This is a paper company. The majority of the population will give two shits about paper. Hell The Office (uk version of course) is all about how boring the paper industry is. Well guess who doesn’t give a shit? French Papers, that’s who. Their promotional pieces are so smart, so cohesive that you can’t help but stop everything you’re doing and handle them.
Take a look around their website, look at their promotional materials and look how they have fun with what they do, how everything fits together, and how it’s all fantastic.
Business Week has a really fantastic article about Apple’s VP of Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive. Extremely awe inspiring, Ive was responsible for the iMac, iPod and almost all the other beautiful products Apple has been putting out for the past several years.
This is one of the best portfolios i’ve seen online in a long time. the presentation of projects is wonderful, the projects are wonderful. The nav seems sort of constricting, but the work is so good I don’t even care. I just keep clicking next and my jaw drops a little lower.
