New website

This blog has not been very active, think blogging all the time is not really cut out for me. However I do have a new website that will be updated a bit more frequently, so you’re welcome to have a look at: http://www.markus-design.no

Design works!

It is really strange how effective design can be, and the last 48 hours it has become very evident to me how powerful design really is.

On behalf of a client that has several web-sites that are community or entertainment/news-related, I was asked to do a re-design of two sites. The content had been there for quite a while, but the members just didn’t come.

On site nr. 1, which is a online java game site, we launched the new design on wednesday – and simultaneously put a small ad on the frontpage of a large community site (which is also run by the same company). The community site at hand has about 630 000 users; and the ad we put up was only on the first page. Still, through this ad and the new design, we got almost 20 000 clicks in the first 48 hours! (that’s as far as I know a higher clickrate than ANY other ad on this site).

The second one was for a Swedish community site.

On monday we did some small changes to the colour scheme, and on wednesday the graphics was changed completely. Here there was no other advertising than word of mouth, and the results speaks for themselves. The statistics show peak number of people online simultaneously.

So the next time you wonder “Should I really spend all this money on a good designer?” you can look at the stats, and see if you think it just might be worth it

Introducing new word: Mooding

If you look up mooding in a dictionary, you will come up empty. If you Google it, you will find a bunch of German sites with technical specs. The reason is basically because mooding is not a word. Not yet at least.

Today when working on a design for this blog, I was wondering what to write as a generic text. Suddenly the word mooding dropped into my mind. The word moods has been used by several designers, and especially known up north from the designers of Moods of Norway.

Now, the word Mood – as described in Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary – is a conscious state of mind or predominant emotion : feeling; also : the expression of mood especially in art or literature.

Now how does this apply to design (yes you probably already get it, but I brought my teaspoon)?

When working on a design, you are trying to create a feeling. The recipient of a design should respond in some way. What the response should be is entirely dependent on what you are designing, but an emotion must be triggered on some level for a design to be successful.

So what is mooding?
I would not say designing something is mooding, however, when you are working on conceptual design, you are mooding. If you have a customer that has no idea what he wants, no idea what content he should have, and basically doesn’t see why he should have it, you design a couple of sketches. You send over some amazingly attractive design, and he instantly gets into the mood of working with you. When you create a picture in Photoshop just to work on your skills, and post it to your blog for no other reason than to inspire others, you are mooding. When you create a sketchbook of pictures and/or designs to show friends, prospects and clients what your focus and skills are, you are mooding.

So there you have it, mooding is now a new word in my dictionary, and if Merriam Websters ever pick it up, it would state something like: creating a visual experience without context or profound artistic meaning, to set a mood; inspire;

Mooding, you heard it first from me, and if it catches on I want my name in the dictionaries. Try using it a bit, and see if it rolls of the tongue as it should. Then let me know how it works out!

In the spirit of mooding, I worked up a mood today inspired by the works of Abduzeedo and Shinybinary.

Hope it moods you!

Resources:

iStockPhoto.com

PhotoshopBrushes.com

Free Fonts For All

No lengthy post for me this time, just a quick link as Computer Arts in their last issue featured a link to PopDog Fonts.

Now the site is supposed to have free fonts, where all you have to do is send a screenie of the work you used it for.

After being terribly disappointed in this amateur Tripod site, I decided to link up my good old trusty.

1001 Fonts is an incredible site for alternative freeware fonts. It really is the only good free font site out there that I know about.

1001 Fonts is popup-free and the advertising is very small so you won’t mistake links for advertising. Also the database features a vast variety of fonts, so enjoy!

Colourful dilemmas

When a designer sets out on the daunting task of creating a profile, one always stumbles across the dilemma of colours.

Colours are difficult to do “by eye” because of the vast diversity of standards when it comes to display settings, print-quality and what not. Thus, creating a solid colour palette requires a mathematical approach.

When creating a colour palette, you usually choose a primary colour, and then choose 2-5 supporting colours. This can be done “by eye” or it can be done properly.

The colour circle provides the possibility of retrieving contrast colours through several different theories. The basic common choices are Complementary colours, Analogous colours, Monochromatic colours, Shades and Triad contrasts.

Now these are in theory quite simple, but how do you calculate these values?

In Adobe Illustrator CS3, finally us designers have been given this tool!

By selecting a primary colour, you can switch to the “Colour guide” tab, and voila, a breadth of colour selections beyond par! Just pick the palette most suitable for your profile.

Colourful community

If you are not working in CS3 yet, Adobe Labs has created an alternative web-site for your colour theory workouts. This site is called Kuler and is a wonderful site for those who appreciate the importance of colour selection in design.

This site contains a Create-tool, where you can based on any colour (CMYK, RGB, LAB or HEX), create a 5-colour palette based on the aforementioned mathematical selections.

The mathematical selections of colour can be limited, as they seldom pick matching greys and other modern colour expressions; thus, Kuler also has a Community section where you can design and publish your own custom palettes. This section of the page is a great feature, as you can browse several palettes for inspiration, rate the palettes, and basically just absorb all colourful inspiration you need for your next project!

NOTE: None of these tools help you select proper Pantone colours, so this is still a manual process as the Pantone system isn’t really applicable to a normal colour circle.

Golden opportunities in Photoshop

I was reading up on Abduzeedo.com the other day, and he had posted a blog-post about creating realistic gold-font in Photoshop.

This is something I know many have tried, and many have failed. However, his post merely showed a picture and a comment stating: “I’m writing a tutorial showing how to do that”, which of course means it’s not finished yet.

Seeing the picture of Gold Style in Photoshop I decided I had to find out about this for myself.

Amazingly, working entirely with the Layer Style of a font, I was able to create the gold effect you see on attached pictures.

Also after creating the gold font, I got inspired to create an entire fictive ad that worked with the font, and the pictures below show the end result.

Resources:

iStockPhoto.com

Working on a blend path

I recently started reading Abduzeedo’s blog, and must say it has been inspiring. A good combination of tutorials and inspirational posts has made it a good read.

One of the things I realize is that even after 10 years of Photoshop, my knowledge is still limited. Mainly because the programme is such a vast world of opportunity, all you need is time to figure it out — or in this case — read up on Abduzeedo’s blog.

An amazing new tool I discovered was the blend-tool, which I read about in Abduzeedo’s Displace Filter with Vector Effects post.

This opened up a new decorative opportunity for me, and I sat down mucking about on this wee picture.

It is the first picture I’ve made using the blend options, but I love the simplicity of creating diverse abstract shapes.

(The Blend effect are the wavey lines in the background of the picture).

Resources:

iStockPhoto.com

Flower brushes // CreateSk8.com

Philosophy

Designers are philosophers. They are, kinda.

One of the most known lifestyle-philosophies is the question: “Is the glass half-full or half-empty?”

It is an early monday morning I realize that this has nothing to do with the frame of mind a person is in, but more a practical approach is needed to determine this fact.

If the glass used to be full, but 50% of the liquid it contained has been consumed, the glass is half-empty.

If the glass used to be empty, but a liquid has been poured into the glass to fill 50% of its volume, the glass is half-full.

It’s just that simple… I guess that’s also the philosophy of design; if you go at it from an analytic angle, it’s just that simple.

(And if I just made some lifestyle-coaches realize their routine is a pure fad, I’ve accomplished something today too).

- Markus