Because I’m a huge Star Wars fan I have to post about this. It’s been great that my kids are now getting into it. Mostly my six year old girl but also my 3 year old boys. Give them a couple of more years and I’m sure they will know more about it than me. My girl already brings things to my attention that I never knew.
These images are of Ralph McQuarrie concept paintings posted on flickr by Michael Heilemann. View all images.
We are half way through the year and there are already design trends that emerging for 2008. According to Web Designer Wall, there are some strong themes that have emerged such as Vintage / Retro Styles, watercolor effects, collage art, script fonts, grungy and splatter ink backgrounds. To see some really great designs, go to Web Designer Wall and see some of the screenshots they have of these styles in action.
He brought up an interesting point about Obama’s website and branding. It is very clean and patriotic. The design is not overdone and everything on the pages work together. The banners, buttons, icons all fit within the theme. There is also room within the design to breath. You can look at it and still be relaxed.
Now take a look at McCains website. I wouldn’t say that the site is horrible, but it is not as easy to look at. It looks like they have to have everything right there in your face. There is no room to rest your eyes. It is information overload.
So, the question arises, can we compare Obama and McCain to Mac and Microsoft
As the whole drama from the Democratic nomination comes to an end now we can look back on what demographics supported what candidate. And what better way to do that then with an interactive graph that even Edward Tufte would be proud of. With the click of a button you can see what states voted for either candidate under different categories. With technology getting better and the average person getting more familiar with online interactions, this is a great way to engage your visitor. Well done Interactive designers at NY Times. Take a look.
Because of time restraints, I don’t usually get to do a lot of pro-bono work. But when there is family involved, of course I take on the cause. Grandmalizzieshouse.com is one of those projects.
Grandma Lizzie’s House is a website devoted to nurturing the relationship between grandparents and grandchildren. Each month there are different ideas and free downloads for activities that grandparents can do with their grandchildren. It is a great resource, plus, there are book recommendations and activity kits that can be purchased.
The website design was designed to be simple and to the point. The main content is the monthly newsletter and the website was set up to archive that information. It also needed to accommodate a very simple shopping cart which was handled through a Wordpress plugin. The website is always undergoing some sort of revisions and the visitors increase and more content gets added. Being that it is built on Wordpress, that is very simple to do.