Vital Tips For Effective Logo Design
My Clippings August 27th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from My Clippings on NewsGator Online
   |
There have been numerous creative logo design showcases, logo design resources and logo design tutorials posted across the Web. While these help you to create a powerful toolbox for your logo designs, first you need to gain a solid understanding of what makes a logo design good and what you need to consider before starting using this toobox.
In this article, we’ll get down to the nitty gritty of what makes an effective logo design and we’ll also guide you through the principles and best practices of how to create an iconic brand identity.
You may be interested in the following related posts:
- 10 Common Mistakes In Logo Design
- Do You Want Fries With That Logo?
- 60 Logo Design Tutorials and Resources
- Drawing Inspiration From Creative Logos
What Is A Logo?
To understand what a logo is, we first must understand what the main purpose of logos is. The design process must aim to make the logo immediately recognizable, inspiring trust, admiration, loyalty and an implied superiority. The logo is one aspect of a company’s commercial brand or economic entity, and its shapes, colors, fonts, and images usually are strikingly different from other logo in the same market niche. Logos are used to identify.
Paul Rand, one of the world’s greatest designers states that “a logo is a flag, a signature, an escutcheon, a street sign. A logo does not sell (directly), it identifies. A logo is rarely a description of a business. A logo derives meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes, not the other way around. A logo is less important than the product it signifies; what it represents is more important than what it looks like. The subject matter of a logo can be almost anything.”
For more on Paul Rand, consider reading the book Design, Form & Chaos.
What Makes A Good Logo?
A good logo is distinctive, appropriate, practical, graphic and simple in form, and it conveys the owner’s intended message. A concept or “meaning” is usually behind an effective logo, and it communicates the intended message. A logo should be able to be printed at any size and, in most cases, be effective without color. A great logo essentially boils down to two things: great concept and great execution.
Tags: advertising, amazon, Apple, blockquote, Build, email, Food, Google, IO, ISO, Photo, php, Printing, script, way, XP
Sketch Book Makes Designing iPhone Apps Easier
My Clippings August 19th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from My Clippings on NewsGator Online
There’s a new tool available that’s designed to make life easier for iPhone developers, and its surprisingly low tech. It’s called the iPhone Application Sketch Book and it looks like just the thing to keep all those notes and inspirations about a new app idea all in one place.
The spiral-bound book is around 8 1/2″ x 11″ so it won’t get lost in the bottom of a laptop bag. There are 100 pages of design templates with lines at the top for jotting the name and other important details of the app. A real-size image of an iPhone is centered on graph-style paper with ample room to make drawings and notes about every aspect of the development process.
I caught up with the sketch book’s creator, Dean Kaplan, and was surprised to discover the impetus behind the book’s creation.
“I happened to be auditing the Stanford iPhone Programming course,” says Kaplan, “and one of the guest speakers discussed how he went about creating his user interface designs. Paper was one option he mentioned. Almost instantly the notebook idea light bulb went off. Other options of various computer programs were mentioned, but it always got back to paper and pencil. Subsequently, I did my own online survey that revealed designers prefer paper 95% of the time.”
Kaplan says once he got the idea to create the book, it only took about nine weeks until it hit the shelves. Depending on its success, he may create similar sketchbooks for the Palm Pre and Android.
The sketchbook is already a hit with some application developers. David J. Hinson, creator of popular iPhone apps like Cheap Gas (iTunes link) and Amigo (iTunes link), says he sees immediate value in a tool like this. “You can keep your notes and preliminary wireframes all in one handy little notebook. I was really intrigued and I think it’s a great concept because I’m constantly writing things on the whiteboard and losing track of my notes. It’s simple in execution, but spot on.”
Interested developers can pick up the iPhone Application Sketch Book for $14.99 at Amazon.
How to Build a Web Site from Scratch with No Experience [Feature]
My Clippings August 14th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from My Clippings on NewsGator Online
I took one (bad) computer science class in college, and I’m not a web developer. So in early 2008, when I decided I was finally going to build a web site I’d been fantasizing about for years, I was starting from scratch.
It’s Back to School week here at Lifehacker, and while we’ve been focusing much of our attention on the college-bound, we consider education a life-long endeavor. With that in mind, here’s a rundown of how I went from zero to a fully functioning, semi-successful web site in one year.
The site I had been dreaming of making ultimately became MixTape.me, a web-based music player where users can quickly create and share playlists with friends (see video above). This post isn’t about how great MixTape.me is (I love it, but it’s probably not the Next Big Thing), nor is it a snake oily, magic-pill-style guide to making your dreams come true. It’s more about how to make something you love in your spare time, even if that means you’re going to have to—*gasp*—work for it. It’s also just my experience. Your mileage and preferred path may vary. So let’s get started.
1. You Need a Goal and a Good Idea
Actually, rather than simply a good idea, what you really need is an idea you’re passionate about. (Presumably you won’t be passionate about a bad idea.) For my part, I wasn’t happy with any of the online solutions for making and sharing playlists online, and I had an image of one in my head that I was in love with. I was really excited about the idea, so spending time learning, researching, and working on it in my spare time was almost always a lot of fun—even when I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure out why something wasn’t working.
I had wanted to build MixTape.me years ago, and I even started a couple of times but ran out of steam. (It’s not always going to be easy balancing a full-time job with a side project, no matter how excited you are about it.) By January of 2008, starting and finishing the web site was my number one long term goal for the year. Not for the month. Not for the first six months. For the year. I knew this was going to take a lot of time, and I gave myself plenty of time. (Setting a goal a year in advance is serious business, but if it’s a goal that you consistently work toward through an entire year, reaching that goal by the end is seriously rewarding.)
Tags: AdSense, amazon, Apple, Build, flash, Google, IO, Javascript, Photo, script, video, way, XP
Look at unreleased Apple prototypes here….
My Clippings July 30th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from My Clippings on NewsGator Online
Apple execs often say they’re as proud of the products they don’t release as they are of those they do – and if you’d like to take a look at some of those unreleased prototypes, then good news for you in form of a new book from influential designer Harmut Esslinger of Frog Design.
The book offers images of numerous previously unseen Apple prototypes, (bigger image after the jump). That’s no surprise when you consider Frog Design was responsible for many early Apple designs, including that of the Apple IIc, and that Esslinger himself defined the ‘Snow White style used by Apple in the ‘80’s.
“We worked closely with Steve Jobs and Apple’s developers to innovate computer usability and appearance, resulting in iconic products with no historic precedent," writes Esslinger.
Of course, we know that it wasn’t a Frog but a Tangerine (Jonathan Ive’s old firm) which ended up leading Apple’s design innovation in the 21st Century – we do hope Apple one day loosens its kimono to show us a few of the things it managed to prototype and then not release in the last ten years, but we still think this title will make interesting reading to any earnest Apple-spotter.
The book: A Fine Line: How Design Strategies Are Shaping the Future of Business
Japan Wants Amazon to Pay $119 Million in Taxes
My Clippings July 6th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from My Clippings on NewsGator Online
Amazon is big in Japan–though that’s not always a good thing. Being big carries with it certain responsibilities, like paying a lot of taxes, which is something the online retailer forgot to do for a few years. This according to the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau, which is accusing Amazon.com International Sales of not reported income in the country between 2003 and 2005. Whoops.
The result of the action–or rather inaction–is a rather loft $119 million tax bill. Amazon has apparently been reporting the amounts in the US instead. TechCrunch explains it thusly,
The way Amazon operated so far is that every time Japanese customers buy something from Amazon’s Japanese website, they legally make contracts of purchase with Amazon offices in the US. The problem for the Japanese taxation bureau: These sales were booked and taxed in the US, even though Amazon operates two companies in Japan, Amazon Japan and Amazon Japan Logistics.
Amazon, naturally, is disputing the charges.
25 Open Source Mac Apps That Will Boost Your Productivity
My Clippings July 5th, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from My Clippings on NewsGator Online
   |
There are many applications that can help you work faster and efficiently. Though, not many applications come cheap. For this post we tried to digg deep to find the best selection of free and open source mac applications that will help you be a more efficient designer. We’re covering from application launchers, GTD (Got To Do) to design utilities that can help you focus on what’s important: create.
1. aLunch
aLunch is a very lightweight but powerful application that does what it’s supposed to do and nothing more: a handy launcher that runs from within the menu bar. The application was written back in 2007, and two years later it still proves to be a strong contender.
aLunch helps you get all your apps organized and get an uncluttered dock. You can customize a hot key combination so a launcher window shows and let’s you choose either a Launcher window or go to the Launcher Menu. You can use this application with a Mac running OSX 10.4 or higher. If you have an earlier OS X such as 10.3, you need to update to version 10.3.9 to use an earlier version of the application.
2. Adobe Kuler
Adobe’s Creative Suite 4 applications – Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, Fireworks and Flash – have an Extension panel that connects directly to Kuler, the web-hosted application for generating color themes. Not many designers take advantage of a powerful tool like this one. Logging into Kuler.com with your Adobe ID, you can create color swatches themes from a color, share, rate and search the community color schemes, and upload or use a Flickr image to extract color themes so you can download them as an Adobe Swatch Exchange file that’s compatible with Adobe applications.
But you can also access the Kuler site from it’s own standalone application to get more flexibility. Also there is a Dashboard widget to help you browse through your color schemes and the communities. To install Kuler Desktop you need to have Mac OS X 10.4.11 or Mac OS X 10.5.4 and up, with Adobe Air and Flash Player installed.
3. Name Changer
Name Changer is a very straightforward and simple tool that will help you rename batches of files without the hassle of Automator or Photoshop batch change – the latter can get a little too technical for some users.
Tags: amazon, Apple, email, Extract, flash, ISO, Leopard, Linux, Mac, OSX, Photo, video, wind, XP
Amazon Remembers Forgot
Shopping July 5th, 2009 by Shai Perednik
My nephews had a toy that we couldn’t figure out what it was. We tried googling the #s on the back. But no luck. So I remember Amazon’s Remebers service and tried it out. I uploaded this photo:
And got back the sassy crab toy:
Who on earth would be stupid enough to think a blue man toy looks like a rattle crab.
What a horrible experience. I hope no one got paid for this!
3 Noise Canceling Headphones Priced Low to High
My Clippings July 2nd, 2009 by System
Automatically pulled from My Clippings on NewsGator Online
Summer travel means you’ll probably be heading out in one of three ways: planes, trains, or automobiles! Of course, these methods of transportation will get you where you need to go pretty quickly, but boy, can they be noisy.
Sure your iPod and earbuds may do the trick when you need to zone out on the plane, but in my experience, they aren’t very good for drowning out the sounds of that baby screaming in the seat behind you. Therefore, before you pack, check out my top three picks for headphones (priced from low to high) that will cancel out the noise and keep you sane for that long trip when you read more.
First up is the most reasonably priced option from Sony, the MDR-XB300. I have used these cans myself at the office, and for the low, low price of $39 dollars, you can keep your tunes in, and other sounds out. Plus, they are super comfy on my ears and head and produce rich and deep sounds, which is more than I expected for the price.
Coming in at $85 are the Plane Quiet Platinum Headphones, which got great reviews from users and high rankings on field tests on PC Magazine. I like the mod look, and would definitely rock these on my next flight out of town. Best part is they fold flat so you shouldn’t have a problem fitting them in your carry-on.
These top of the line Quiet Comfort 3 Headphones from Bose come with a top of the line price tag: 350 bucks! Reviewers concur that these babies (that should be silver plated, let’s be honest) have amazing sound reduction, excellent sound quality, and are super comfy, even for long periods of time. And this should be the case since these cans are smart: they can electronically identify the surrounding noise level and then adjust accordingly. Plus, the Quiet Comfort 3s also fold flat for easy transport, but if you’re riding with these, you probably don’t have to worry about space . . . in first class.
You already know that if you want to lock down your Wi-Fi network, you should 
Unless you’re a computer security and networking ninja, chances are you don’t have all the tools on hand to get this job done. Here’s what you’ll need:
The year is flying by, and so are our readers’ picks for software, hardware, and other tools. Come on in to see the winners of our 
Photoshop has achieved such status in the design community and such widespread recognition by the general public that even non-designers recognize what someone is saying when they exclaim, “That’s photoshopped!” Many of the techniques and methods that are standard across 
The same qualities that make 
