Simple Design That Works

      

         I just was introduced to one of the latest Mac releases; the MacBook Air.

While the MacBook itself is a pretty cool piece of hardware I was especially blown away by the simplicity of the ad for the product. It is almost a white on white picture with just the usual Apple font. The word “Air” next to the MacBook text set in a different font type immediately lets one consider the lightness of the equipment. This accompanied by a flat envelope to further demonstrate the thin design and lightness of the product I felt made this a simple yet highly effective ad

Corporate consistencies in design

            As part of the communicating on-line class we touched on a lot of internet web pages and design layout.

I work for a major international bank and I thought it might be interesting to point out the emphasis we put into the web pages we design.

            We have in my corporation a whole team of individuals whose only focus is the customer when they first view our web sites. This group is called the CEG group (Customer Experience Group) and they are responsible for dictating website design to ensure that the images we display are consistent with our corporate branding.

        Besides a consistent logo they are responsible for ensuring that the buttons, check boxes, hyperlinks and other artifacts all adhere to the approved colors, format and font of the corporation.

            I first thought this was a waste of man power but soon realized that most major corporation have similar groups that maintain the integrity of their corporate branding.


Below logo's are different but the colors and font are similar. Even with a quick glance you know it’s the same company.

Creative Billboards

While reflecting on design during a drive into the office I could not help but notice on my trip into Manhattan the vast array of billboards I came across. Some were digital, some were simple text messages on white board, some had a 3 dimensional designs associated with them.

With that I decided to look on-line for what might be the most eye catching and well designed billboards that get their message across. I thought the following ones did a great job.  I am constantly amazed at the creativity and thought  that goes into the design of these billboards.

Design is, indeed, everywhere

Duracell bus ad in New Delhi, India

Transparent Billboards for Sony PSP

Coke Cola billboard

Steve Jobs vs Bill gates on Virtual Presentations

            As I reviewed the many virtual presentations done by the class I thought that while many were good, none of them really blew me away.

            For the most part they were dull and somewhat uninteresting. I know we are all novices at designing virtual presentation. This prompted me to look for some virtual presentations that were professionally produced and really delivered the message.

            I came across a blog by Garr Reynold’s that breaks down virtual presentation style between Computer giants Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.  I found Steve Jobs presentation to be much easier to follow then Gates. I think after one reviews theses presentations they will clearly see that Steve Jobs is a great virtual presenter and someone to emulate when doing presentations

http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2007/09/steve-bill-redu.html

       Again, I was really impressed with Steve Jobs and his almost natural ability to blend his presentation with the slide show. While Gates seems to be somewhat awkward in his presentations and not synchronized with the slides he had as part of his presentation.

            Even these two pictures from the presentation show Jobs looking more at ease and natural then Gates

            I wonder if others agree with me.

Corporate logos that say it all.

While reading about logos I became interested in the importance of them. I decided to test out a hypothesis I had on these logos. I have a grandson who has not yet mastered the skills needed to interpret words. With that I decided to bring up a number of corporate logos to see if he would be able to identify the company. Well he got them all. However, I felt that logos such as McDonalds were fairly easy because the McDonald signs are ubiquitous throughout New York and he has been to McDonalds and can easily associate the sign with the name McDonalds.

I made sure all these logos had words in the logo design.

However, the Walt Disney surprised me, I showed him the Logo for the Walt Disney Company which was simply text with a unique font type. He was able to interpret this logo as Disney World. I became immediately aware of the power of logos and their affect on us at the earliest age.

“Their respective simple yet powerful logos, for example, are identifiable everywhere in the world and serve as a kind of "crown jewel" and an instantly identifiable evocative symbol for each brand. Reference : http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2006/06/visual_design_a.html”

awareness of design.

Everyday I go to work in downtown Manhattan I pass what once was a dark

And dreary street a short distance away from Wall Street and in the heart of the financial district.  This once dreary street is named Stone Street.

When I first started working in downtown Manhattan in mid 1970 Stone street  was a series of connected buildings all shuttered closed. There was no activity on Stone street then  accept for a few moving vans that would load boxes into the seemingly deserted buildings. “Following decades of neglect, a joint partnership between the Landmarks Commission and other city agencies, the Alliance for Downtown New York and Stone Street owners has transformed Stone Street from a derelict back alley into one of Downtown's liveliest scenes. Restored buildings, granite paving, bluestone sidewalks and period street lights set the stage for the half dozen restaurants and cafes, whose outdoor tables are very popular on warm summer nights.”

Stone street is now a hip meeting place for lunch or dinner where the young Wall Street wiz kids meet. When I pass this street and witness the bustling trade that goes on both inside and outside the restaurants that make up most of Stone Street I start to realize that there is no new life in a once forgotten area of the financial district. This new life image makes me realize that maybe the dreary days are behind.

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Street_(Manhattan)