Entries from May 2008

From Air to Chair

May 30th, 2008 · Ash · No Comments

Swedish furniture design company Front have developed a technique for producing unique pieces of furniture from sketches drawn in air. The technology they have developed translates freehand sketches drawn in a space into 3D furniture using laser setting technology.

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No CommentsTags: Design · Science & Technology

D.A.N.C.E and Disco

May 28th, 2008 · Adam · No Comments

D.A.N.C.E video and OK video

I have recently seen a very wonderful music video from the band Justice. Directed, illustrated and animated by French designer So Me. The video follows two people walking through halls with animated t-shirts. The second video was a viewing recommendation from fellow Betley blogger Ash. The band is Sh*tdisco with their song Ok. The majority of the video is done using a pop-up book containing pictures of the band playing and singing, it is a great video. It uses a idea which I’m sure every young designer has been tempted to use for a project, but they execute it really well.

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No CommentsTags: Design · Illustration · Music

The Biggest Drawing in the World

May 27th, 2008 · Ric · 1 Comment

“With the help of a GPS device and DHL, I have drawn a self portrait on our planet. My pen was a briefcase containing the GPS device, being sent around the world. The paths the briefcase took around the globe became the strokes of the drawing.“
Eric Nordenankar — Biggest drawing in the World

1 CommentTags: Advertising · Art · Illustration · Science & Technology

Spectra Visual News Reader

May 21st, 2008 · Ric · No Comments

Online news portal MSNBC recently launched Spectra Visual News Reader; an interesting and fun way to explore the latest news headlines. The simple interface lets you choose the news categories you’re interested in and then displays them in three dimensions.

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No CommentsTags: Design · Typography · Web

The Image Labeler

May 16th, 2008 · Adam · No Comments

Everyone loves labeling things. As a designer I like things in the right place and I like to be able to get to those things quickly. To achieve this order a label seems to work, especially when I’m organising my video collection, Jam Jars, Facebook galleries and desktop folders.

Other label systems are not so efficient. If I was just searching the Internet to find a photograph of a elephant with some peanuts it will come up with a lot of unrelated images. When using image libraries such as Getty, iStockPhoto and Veer the such results are often very good. Internet search engines on the other hand aren’t organised by a photographer/company, they are searching under the users image file names.

This is all hopefully changing, I am talking about the Google Image Labeler. The perfect mix of competition and labeling. If you own a Dymo Label machine, a Badge-It or a collection of pens and over sized black markers then this is for you. Read more

No CommentsTags: Science & Technology · Web

New Director at Betley Whitehorne

May 14th, 2008 · Piet · 3 Comments

Betley Whitehorne are pleased to announce the appointment of Paul Smith as a
new director of the company. Paul joined Betley Whitehorne in March 2006 following 12 years London agency experience, and is delighted to have been appointed a director of the successful Guernsey based advertising and design company.

Paul says “It’s a great opportunity for me, and an exciting time for the company.
Before moving to Guernsey I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to find work which offered the same level of creativity and high profile client base. Soon after being introduced to Betley Whitehorne I realised I was wrong, and I haven’t looked back since.”

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3 CommentsTags: News

Typographical Doener Kebab!

May 13th, 2008 · Ric · No Comments

An interesting, if slightly bizarre concept, the Literary Doener Kebab lets you explore German book publisher Reclam’s catalogue in an easily digestible manner.

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No CommentsTags: Design · Typography · Web

Google Logo Redesign

May 2nd, 2008 · Paul · 7 Comments

Isn’t it about time that something was done about the Google logo? My apologies to Ruth Kedar, but I think it’s a shocking piece of design. Ruth may have won several design awards and worked as a consultant art professor but that doesn’t mean that everything she produces is a work of art.

Google is one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world and yet the logo looks like it was created by a 10 year old. It’s not just the primary colour palette which offends me, however it is slightly improved when reversed out, such as in iGoogle. But for me it will take more than well designed backgrounds (or poorly as the case may be) to make the Google logo worthy of any awards.

Of course it’s recognisable around the world but I doubt very much that Google’s success has anything to do with the design of it’s logo. I know many of us are subjected to looking at this logo everyday, so please Google, consider a re-design, rather than erasing us from your search engine for writing this article!

7 CommentsTags: Branding · Design · Typography · Web

May First Reboot

May 1st, 2008 · Ric · No Comments

It’s that time of year again — today is May 1st Reboot when a host of websites around the world are relaunched (rebooted). The 2008 Reboot site comes in a rather scary shade of pink that I’m not too sure about. However you can be sure there’ll be a whole host of exciting and innovative websites on display. The winners are announced on June 1st so be sure to check back then. Once again I’ve managed to totally miss rebooting my site, maybe next year…

Visit the May 1st Reboot.

No CommentsTags: Design · Web