Why we should listen to him - Philippe Starck

Philippe Starck designs deluxe objects and posh condos and hotels around the world. Always witty and engaged, he takes special delight in rethinking everyday objects.

Philippe Starck is a legend of modern design. He's known for his luxurious hotels and boites around the world -- notably the Peninsula Hotel restaurant in Hong Kong, the Teatron in Mexico, the Hotel Delano in Miami, the Mondrian in Los Angeles, the Asia de Cuba restaurant in New York -- designing the total environment from layout to furniture to linens.

But he has made perhaps his most permanent mark on design through his bold reworkings of everyday objects. In reimagining and rethinking the quotidian, he has produced some of the iconic shapes of the 20th century, including his leggy chrome juice squeezer , the reimagined Emeco aluminum chairs, and the witty Louis Ghost polycarbonate fauteuil.

When Starck turns his bold vision toward a chair, a shoe, a toothbrush, it's clear he thinks deeper than the glossy surface.

To see more his designs go to http://www.philippe-starck.com/

*Learning Log - Website Navigation Tips

Website navigation is the most important aspect to consider while designing a website. The primary aim for effective navigation is get your visitors to stay in your site and also for visitors to easily find what they are looking for easily and quickly. Designing effective navigation can also entice your visitors to try out the other things you offer on your site. In this article we will look at some of the basic guidelines you need to follow while designing the navigation of a website.

*Organized Links
Make sure your links are well organized according to the order of importance. Visitors should be easily able to find what they are looking for under different categories.

*Clear and Prominent
Once you have decided on your navigation links, you need to think of the best place to put them. Navigation should be clear and consistent. Try to design your navigation on the top or on the left as these are the first places our eyes go to. Also locate the primary links high enough on the page so that they are visible without scrolling. Navigation images should be seamlessly integrated into the site design. Avoid putting navigation links at the bottom of the page as visitors will need to scroll right down to see the links.

*Consistent
Navigation should be clear and consistent. The important links of your website should be on every page, in the same location, and in the same sequence. Don't confuse your visitors by putting your navigation links in different places in different pages.

*Easy to understand
Make your links easy to understand and to the point. Usually you won't have enough place to have long links so make use of the space wisely. Visitors need to know where they will go on clicking on a particular link, so make sure your links are understandable or nobody is going to click on your links, which will defeat the purpose of designing a good navigation system.

*DHTML Menus
If you have a large number of links under categories and sub-categories you could use navigation menus to organize your links.

It's Halloween time~

Hey~ I've just found a cool website - Halloween Design Studio.

www.halloweendesignstudio.com This site is very interesting, it's all about pumpkin carving. You'll find photos, resources, how-to's, and more. Here are some nice wallpapers for Halloween, decorate your site or space if you haven't~

Have a Haunting Halloween!

My Designs

My typography assignment on Hot, Cold, Dark, and Bright.
Only use fonts, and different type faces, no image at all...

I'm happy to share with you, leave your comments PLS~

21 Inspirational Typography Artworks from DeviantArt

What is featured here is a range of Typography artworks, or Digital art that has been created using Typography in its different forms as the main focus or structure. I came across these artworks whilst looking for some Typography inspiration in DeviantArt for a project I had was working on. I thought there was an incredible mix of talent here that needed to be shared with the wider community.

The inspirational collection here ranges from portraits made from just Typographic characters to abstract art design using 3D software and type elements. I have on occasion tried to replicate this type of artwork and I have found it to be very painstaking and time consuming. So I praise the artists who have managed to make these beautiful artworks and designs look so stunning and graceful.

The resources page:

http://www.designflavr.com/resources/21-Inspirational-Typography-Artworks--from-DeviantArt-i116/

Design Magazine

I picked some magazines that I am interested... like CRU, Design 360°, ...

These are some covers to share with everyone.

CRU is a digital magazine about arts and culture. Words, Photography, Illustration, Painting, Arquitecture, Music, Fashion, etc.

Design 360° -- Concept and Design Magazine Global View, Advanced Concept. Design influences the world and the future, making our life more colorful.Design 360° is an all-round design magazine dedicated to introducing international advanced design concepts, original works, outstanding designers and prestigious design institutes. It covers architecture, animation, industrial design, interior design, graphic design, digital design etc, being an informative source for students in art and design academies, professional designers and amateurs alike, who take great interest in international design trends. It has built up a bridge between the design circle in china and that of the rest of the world.

http://www.cru-a.com/
http://www.sandu360.com/

Helvetica Movie Review

I watched the Helvetica movie today in class. Helvetica is the feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface, which celebrated its 50th birthday in 2007, as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. Helvetica encompasses the worlds of design, advertising, psychology, and communication, and invites us to take a second look at the thousands of words we see every day.

Having come across this movie in following a thread, I think the Helvetica font is overrated. I think the one thing that kept this movie from being horrendous was the visuals--most all of the shots in this film (minus some interview shots) are all really beautifully done and make this a really choreographed and beautiful documentary. it's to be expected though, being a movie about visual communication. The music was great too.