A designer’s guide to color and psychology

The digital devices and printing equipment of today are becoming masterful at presenting the world in full color. Retina displays make the colors pop. HD is being replaced with Super-HD (which will be replaced by Mega-HD, which will be replaced by Ultra-HD, which will…) and the magnificent presentations possible in the world of design have never been better.

Even before the rise of graphic perfection, colors have played a major role in determining the way that designs are interpreted. In web design, for example, colors can transmit in a split second the mood and intention of a website before a single word is read. In advertising, colors are used to establish a baseline expectation, to set the mind in the place the advertiser wants them to be emotionally, and to highlight the most important components. In short, color is the “body language” of design.

This extended infographic by RIPT Apparel gives us a visually stunning presentation of how colors affect the design world.

A Guide to Color Selection for Designers, an Infographic by RIPT Apparel Custom Tees

Graphic design is good for business

Every business needs graphic design. Why? Because almost everything requires it. You want to have a eye catching website for your company? Then you need a good graphic designer. You want to create eye catching advertisements? Then you need a graphic designer. I could keep on going but you get the point. Whether you have a graphic designer working for directly or indirectly for your company they are very important and good for business.

This infographic presented by Invision looks a little bit deeper into the world of graphic design and how it can be great for business, especially small startups.

For startups, one of the hardest parts can be creating a good website. Some web design tips for startups: Make sure to have a responsive web design, bring on a design co-founder, make sure to stand out, and collaborate and listen.

Check out the infographic below to learn more about why graphic design is good for business.

Courtesy of: InVisionApp

Graphics so good, they’ll fool your Facebook friends

I did a bad thing the other day. My son showed me a video (below) of an enhanced variation of Skyrim, the popular video game that has kids and adults alike addicted to a strange fantasy world. It isn’t just the nearly-unlimited potential that the game offers to players. It’s also the amazing graphics, and the ones enhanced in the video below fooled even my Facebook friends.

We took a screenshot and posted it on Facebook and Google+. I wanted to see if anyone would notice that the image (the one above) was computer generated rather than a real photograph. If anyone noticed, they didn’t call me out. In fact, if had nearly 50 Facebook likes (Facebook login required) and 21 Google +1s. It was wrong to use my friends for this little experiment, but gaming graphics have come so far just in the last couple of years to the point that reality and CGI are hard to distinguish.

Here’s the video:

Branding nostalgia: how your brand logo SHOULD work

Take a ride down any major road in America and you’re bound to find at least one of the following; a post office, a pizza place, or even a McDonald’s. Any successful business has gotten to where they are because of three major factors, product, business structure, and a solid corporate identity – in this case, a strong, easily recognizable logo.

Corporate identity can make or break a business almost as easily as its product or business structure. When I’m stuck at work and want to order a pizza, I immediately think Dominos. It’s just that simple. Simple is a key term to remember here, because the more complex the logo becomes, the more likely you are to lose clientele. In addition to simplicity, it’s important for a logo to be up to date and relevant to the target audience while trying to attract new consumers as well. Apple’s first logo was of Sir Isaac Newton sitting under an apple tree. While visually attractive, it’s hardly the face of a company that has changed the world of computing over the past few decades.

Would McDonald’s be where it is today without those golden arches? If Sega decided to go back to their original name of Service Games of America, would they have ever been as popular? Would Nintendo be what they are today if all they made were playing cards?

Being up to date not only doesn’t get any simpler, it can also get much more expensive. As times are changing, so are costs, and they are constantly on the rise. According to Aziz Ali of PSFK, Stock Logos, the largest corporate identity design community, created a list of well-known logos, the people or companies who designed them, and what it cost to design them. The numbers were all over the place. Some companies such as Pepsi paid the Arnell Group $1,000,000 to design the logo, completely rebranding their product. According to the Seattle Times, Microsoft asked its employees to redesign their logo, saving an estimated $250,000-$500,000.

Anything worth doing is worth doing right. If one intends to take one’s business to the level of a McDonald’s or an online marketing company, then that company needs to brand itself with an image to match its product that is easily recognizable and memorable.

After 25 years, Microsoft finally changes up their look

They have had the same familiar look and feel for the majority of their products and services for a quarter of a century. Now Microsoft has changed things up ahead of their Windows 8 release. The bottom line to the new looks for their product logos: simple.

They have take a page our of both Apple and Google’s playbook and simplified their logos, making them cleaner and singular in form and focus. This short video breaks down the changes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzkZWvAJUr0

The “Risk” of social media (the board game, that is)

Modifying board games has been a “thing” for a couple of decades now but in the last couple of years it has become somewhat of an internet sensation when people change board games to match various internet properties. It’s a fun distraction and relatively common, but this one stood out as exceptionally creative.

The folks over at uFunk put it together. You can download a full-size version here.

In the meantime, check out this “Social Media Monopoly” if Risk isn’t your game.

The really quick evolution of Apple product designs

For the last three of decades, Apple has separated itself from the various competitors through company culture, innovative technologies, and stellar marketing efforts. They have built a passionate community around their products based upon a lifestyle-promise – owning an Apple makes the savvy buyer “special” in some way.

This is true with their design concepts as well. Even during the clunky technology days of the 80s, their devices held a certain elegance that gave them appeal over the competition. The tradition of clean, understated simplicity continues today with each new product or upgrade. In the video below, we get to take a look at nearly every Apple design over the years in about as short of a time as possible to be able to fit it all in.

Toyota Fun-Vii concept car is like a “smartphone on 4 wheels”

It’s been a long time since a concept car has really sparked the imagination of tech geeks and car enthusiasts alike. When Toyota unveiled their latest concept car, the Fun-Vii, at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show this week, everyone from Automobile Magazine to Mashable jumped in to discuss its proposed paradigm-shifting features.

It’s clear what the “Fun” part of the name means just by watching the second video below. The “Vii” stands for Vehicle, Interactive, Internet. Inside and out, most aspects of the car can interact with the internet and be controlled by a smartphone. Most surfaces on and within the vehicle are giant touchscreens that can be adjusted to the whims of the driver, including color changes, graphics, and interactive surfaces.

Did we mention that the car will be able to drive itself? Through wireless connections that interact with other vehicles as well as the infrastructure of its surroundings, the vehicle can go “hands free” from point to point (in theory, at least). While in “Auto Drive” mode, the augmented reality interface includes a virtual concierge. Note in the second video how the helpful female concierge is “upgraded” to a less-clothed variation (stay classy, Toyota!).

At 13-feet long, the small 3-seater won’t be a family-hauler.

Toyota has no plans to produce the vehicle anytime soon, but the concepts and technology that it represents will likely find its way into production vehicles in the coming years.

Here are two videos, first of the unveiling of the vehicle than the promotional visualization of what the vehicle would represent in a Utopian society. More images of the vehicle are below the videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4k0i0c2LWw

(H/T: Maryland Toyota)

Facebook gets nervous, looks to new design

The world’s largest social network, Facebook, is planning a number of acquisitions that will improve site design and advance mobile features. The company is moving quickly to increase the amount of time users spend on its site, but the company is also eager to launch improvements in response to growing competition, specifically Google+.

Facebook is also hoping to make the site run smoother and more reliably. Since its userbase has grown to more than 750 million, Facebook needs to support its growth without adding to the site’s complexity. In total, the company has made 13 acquisitions so far this year and is expected to acquire as many as seven more by year’s end.

“Two years ago we didn’t have a track record in acquisitions,” said Vaughan Smith, Facebook’s director of corporate development. “While we expected them to work well, it was still a crapshoot how they’d turn out. We’ve built a culture that supports entrepreneurs, and it’s working incredibly well.”

As a closely held company, Facebook’s financials are a bit of a mystery. But according to Bloomberg, the social network has generated about $2 billion in earnings this year through advertising and commissions from the sale of virtual goods. Another $2 billion was raised from investors.

Although Facebook has plenty of cash, it’s nothing next Google. The search giant has $39.1 billion in cash, which could easily help fuel its new social networking service, Google+. According to ComScore, the service has already had attracted 29 million people by the end of July. Nevertheless, Facebook is eager to improve its service and acquire new talent in any way it can.

“Facebook is just trying to get the smartest people possible in any way it can,” said Debra Aho Williamson, an EMarketer Inc. analyst. “The idea of bringing in new talent, smart talent, people who have created interesting products that Facebook can capitalize on, is going to be important to them.”

With new acquisitions and fresh talent on board, expect tweaks to Facebook’s user-interface in the near future, as well as the launch of its long-awaited iPad app.

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